How to tell Grands have been here

 

I've been told this is a store and a house. I'm thinking the cookie cutters must be the store, so that makes the sheet draped chair and couch a house in between.

Jeffrey love

 I don't often talk about the things that matter the very most to me, it is so much easier to talk about the fluff. Jeffrey is the best blessing God has given me. We like different things and have a different views and different talents that blend together and support each other very well. He is often thinking about the big picture and what will happen in the future where I think about the daily goals and needs. 

I will listen for hours to one of the children who just need a listening ear, Jeffrey will think about what that child will need in the future and how to get there. Jeffrey is all about taxes, mortgages, while I think about the laundry and what's for dinner. He appreciates having clean clothes and food in the fridge and I''m so thankful I don't need to slug through the tax booklets and pay the bills. I do feel a need to organize the paperwork and straighten out the desk, but I'm glad he takes care of the monetary details of living. 

I enjoy sharing my life with Jeffrey and living a covenant of marriage with him. I enjoy the physical, spiritual, humor, and laughter while we plan, make goals, and enjoy life. I am thankful that we end up stronger and more untied with we disagree and find a way to make a resolution. There is a great half-life that complies each year of joy and happiness like interest in an investment. Life gets better every year I live with Jeffrey Lon Adams.

Holding hands in church

Why can't it stay?

 Janelle Meine does an excellent job on my hair. She keeps me blonde and cuts it exactly what I want to look like. Then she styles it every time. It would be hard for her to have me (probably every client) walk out without a style. So when I don't have anywhere to go or someone to see it is sad that style doesn't stay and I certainly can't duplicate it! 

Last Thursday I should have made out-to-dinner plans, but we don't go out to dinner very often. I came out with lots of curls and good color and no where to show it off. So I took a picture - too bad it was after blowing the front around with car windows and losing some of the curl. I just want to show off the curls to somebody!

Kick back and relax

 Amber has started a new thing while eating. Since I let her pick up everything on her own, she eats sans clothes. She has started to put her foot up on the table while eating. Babies can put their toes in their mouth and their legs by their heads, amazing dexterity. 

The other thing she does is play the piano, laugh, and run away. I am wondering if she picked up some game from her cousins. Waving hello and goodbye is another cute trick that keeps us entertained. Of course if the person is looking at her, no wave, but the minute they stop looking at her, or walk away she is all into waving to people. 

Goodbye Opa

Life is good.

Life is sweet and salty

 This has been a simple week, nothing complex or challenging. It looks a lot like normal but I don't want to rock the boat and have the fates come screaming in with something else. I like normal.

Jeffrey and I went to the temple and enjoyed that one morning, and I have been experimenting making dolls for the granddaughters. So far one set of dolls had short legs and one set had long legs and hardly any body -- but that is the joy and frustration of creating.

The sweet and salty part of taking care of Amber is that the time is so short. In early September she will be gone with her mom and dad on their journey to the other side of the country. She has been so fun to play with and enjoy. One month is just not long enough.  It will be nice for the two weeks that the whole family will live with us. I can see her every day.

But the sadness isn't for me alone. Andrew and Briona have been so generous! While I was on my mission, I had some people I wanted to support. Andrew and Briona set aside a fund for me to use in giving people money. They did this for both missions. There are two families I still send funds to in the Philippines and now I have more in Africa.  Andrew and Briona decided to give me $500 a month taking care of Amber. They knew I used it for two grands and for my families in the Philippines and Africa (after tithing of course). Now that is coming to an end. I am going to miss them and my friends are too. I'll have to start saving points on airlines again.

Small and simple

 On reflection of the happenings of yesterday evening, I had to think about the very small and simple things that show the hand of God. There is a verse in Ether of the Book of Mormon that comes to mind.

Ether 3:5. "Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this. We know that thou are able to show forth great power, which looks small unto the understanding of men."

I had a day and evening where all the little details went right. Small insignificant details by themselves but when put together made a smooth running day and night.  

___________________

I had a nudge to ask Andrew to bring Amber over early so I could take care for her in earlier business hours and let her have a nap at home so I could shift and care for the other girls because of Julia's doctor appointment. This resulted in individual care for each family. Nice because Amber was more clingy than usual. I also asked him to bring me to Costco around 4 pm to buy pizzas for the Young Men Young Women attending the temple. 

When Julia came at 2 pm, she was anxious about her lab work results and felt she wouldn't be back by 4 pm. Jeffrey and I had discussed it earlier and he said he would take over. The early thought to talk it over with him made life smoother later.

When the girls arrived and asked to watch a movie, I felt they needed to play using their imagination - I told them it was their father's idea. So after two hours of playing nicely inside and outside it was okay to leave them watching a movie with their Opa till their mother came home -- instead of parked in front of the TV all day. Little nudges.

Andrew went with me (he drove) to the church to see how many youth were going to the temple. On the way back home to pick up tables, plates, few fixings for chicken sandwiches, etc. Andrew noticed that I needed to get gas. I may have made it -- but maybe not -- if traffic was at a standstill anywhere. We dropped by his house to pick up his Costco card, then got gas.

As we pulled into the Costco parking lot, Andrew said he was going to the temple with me and had already talked to Briona. Nice! Now who is getting the nudges from heaven?

I picked up some chicken pre-cooked and deboned, oranges, one cup water bottles and croissants as Costco didn't have their regular dinner rolls. I had forgotten trash bags, so why not pick them up too? Andrew picked up the pizzas from the food court, and off we went.

We set up tables - Andrew doing the heavy lifting, in the lower parking lot down from the temple. The ground slants.  I cut up the chicken and added it to my chicken curry sandwich mix and cut up the croissants - which by the way makes a flaky mess  --  all in the fresh air. Andrew and I assembled the sandwiches. Walking up by the temple we decided to  move the whole assembly up to the parking area next to the temple (not in front). The ground was even and my flaky croissant crumbs stayed in the lower parking lot.

My tired body and mind told me that if Andrew hadn't come, I would have barely made it in time making sandwiches and setting up water, pizza and oranges for the kids coming out of the temple. As it was we had a few minutes to sit down and continue talking.

Who knows how important it was or was not to have food at 7 pm when the youth all came out, but my tired mommy muscles and mind knew that God had been in all of the details and answered my need to have gas, my need to have Andrew's lifting and carrying muscles and good ideas, my need for companionship doing a job of love for the youth in my ward and taking care of my girls during the day in a good way.

My Heavenly Father answers my prayers and sometimes my thoughts too. 

Imagination creates wonderful things

 After two days of silence, the little ones came over today while their mother is doing lab work to make sure she is completely over her infection. The girls danced around like butterflies, had a great game of hide n seek with Opa, and played with their boxes. I could not tell all the places they went in their minds.   Life is good.

Isla came over and asked Opa if he would play hide and seek

Isla was the one seeking with Ola's help

Makynlee in her butterfly dance

Boxes look like boxes so I didn't take anymore pictures of the boxes. It is the laughs, giggles, and talking that is so precious.

Counting Blessings

 I walked up the stairs today....without holding and lifting myself up by the handrail.

I am so thankful to God for answering my prayers. The stiff leg I have been experiencing for the last few months is slowly dissipating and walking is becoming more and more regular. I even took a walk around the block today. Thank you, thank you to a listening Heavenly Father. 

Watching some of my friends, I do realize and am thankful for this blessing. I am returning to normal while some of my friends are slowly loosing their walking and mobility privileges. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

picture from Ricardo Gomez Angel off of google search

It Came!

 It is amazing what can come from an Amazon truck. A dryer! Gone are the days of walking around showrooms and organizing a delivery. Now you let your fingers do the walking. The old yellow pages in obsolete phone books used to say that. Let your fingers do the talking. 

Now if I can get it all hooked up.......

Highly Recommended

 Thirty five years ago, Norman Christensen told us we needed to go see Le Mïsérables. Babies and events got in the way, but now is the day!

Last night we traveled on BART with Andrew and Briona to join Matthew and Debbie at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. What a delight!! The music was stupendous, the staging, lighting, sound, and plot lines were amazing and wonderful. The voices, oh the voices! I do not know how they could project the sound through the entire theatre. It filled my soul.

It is different being with our children when there are no babies envolved

I love being invited by my kids to do something.

Matthew told me this was Debbie's brainchild. Thank you Debbie!

Anticipation!

Happiness is being with my family

Jeffrey paying Matthew back - yes, even the balcony seats are pricey.

Go to the live performance if you ever get the chance!! Put it on your bucket list.

The Places you can go......in a box!

 Two big boxes arrived with good things, but it was the box that I knew would be the hit!

Two girls, two big boxes and plenty of imagination equals hours of fun. When the girls showed up in the morning so Julia could go to an appointment, I first made waffles, and then pulled out the boxes. Giggles, laughter, silence, whispering, and animated story telling happened!

Big enough to hide two girls

Enclosed

Side by side dwellings?

I am picturing a beach scene. I wonder where Makynlee went in her mind?

Then I got out the clothes pins - wow, did you know that can be a toy also?

The Fun Never Stops

 On Monday after I washed all the sheets and hung them out to dry, cleaned up the rooms and put the pillows away, I took off for Redding!

Kelsi has some minor surgery on Tuesday, so I came up to take care of grands while she went to the doctor.  We are having a good time. I was able to do a little sewing for Kelsi - just little, hemming up some shorts. I love hanging out with the grands. 

It is basically a home vacation as the kids didn't have to do chores and could pick what they wanted to do. It has been a very lovely visit.

Cool glasses from Rachel

It is amazing how every kid can make Emma laugh

Taking care of babies

Caleb takes care of the baby too

Jayson takes care of his dog and his little sister

They all have been playing this elaborate game on the car carpet.

The surgery went well and Kelsi is resting, the children are happy and calm, playing together very nicely, using their imagination well. Emma had a long nap and it now after the older kids toys. Life is so good!

Taco Salad and Scones

 Opa had some grand time with the kids!

I have never quite understood the mechanics of this "game". I think it is a version of "Hop on Pop"

How many kids will fit on one leg?

Meanwhile, Nate and Kelsi made dinner

Nate hand made a few batches of scones

Kelsi put together the fix-ins for a great taco salad

Scones with apricot and strawberry, with orange zest and lemon glaze - delicious!

And then the party ended. Nate and Kelsi loaded up after dinner and took the kids back to Redding. Jeffrey and I were looking at each other in a completely silent house. It was a good weekend.

If you happen to be at the park......

 We told the Fawcett's that if they happen to be in the park after church on Sunday, we would be there. Then we had to tell them again because we changed parks. It was fun to watch the kids tearing around and coming occasionally to take a bit to eat. I don't think I ever saw Jocelyn Fawcett still. She was always in motion.

So nice to be with friends and family for a few hours!

Fawcett Family

Nate and Kelsi's family

Isla and Makynlee - parents were taking some time to themselves

Kelsi Adams

Emma Adams

Makynlee with the Fawcett's new puppy

Lilly Adams

Jayson Adams

Caleb Adams

Jocelyn Fawcett

Emily Fawcett

Andrew, Amber, and Briona Adams