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| Rachel in her happy place |
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| Julia was so very helpful in unpicking the mistakes and wrong seams |
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| Finished quilt top! |
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| Rachel laying out her material, measuring and cutting it for her quilt |
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| The different fabrics and different sizes for her quilt |
This afternoon we put tape on the floor of the size of Rachel's proposed quilt. She then cut out fabric rectangles and squares to fill in the "quilt". Switching fabric pieces and figuring what looks good together and what it should look like. Some pieces are developing as she goes... Then she put a little tape on the connecting pieces so she can pick them up and they will stray in order of the proposed quilt.
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| Warming her hands in the oven |
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| Decorating the cookie scraps and crumbles |
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| light rigging |
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| Pile of taped together pieces of a 'row'. |
On Saturday, Rachel wasn't feeling very good and asked me, "how much were those Nutcracker tickets?" I felt bad that she felt ill. I told Jeffrey how she was feeling and he asked who would like the tickets. My immediate thought was that Lisa Lambert would love tickets to a musical. So Jeffrey jumped in the car and brought the tickets down to Kylie Lambert. She and Chelly jumped on BART a few hours later and said they enjoyed the show very much. Today after church Kylie said the last time she went to the Nutcracker was with her mom. so now she has a new memory with her stepmother!
The Sacramento Adams did not make it down to Concord. I don't know if it was because they knew Rachel was ill or if they are saving their trip efforts and money to go to Utah for Grandmama's funeral next Saturday.
Mike and the girls came over for lunch and the afternoon. Rachel said she hadn't been to a lemonade tea party, so of course we had to have one. Rachel and I had quickly made up the curry soup we were going to have when the Sacramento Adams came. The girls said they would rather have chicken nuggets, but their dad loved the curry soup. Here it is if you want it. Sorry I don't know where it came from, but the Sacramento crew love it. So did Michael, Jeffrey, Rachel and I.
Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken
TOTAL TIME: Prep: 20 min. Cook: 6 hours on low
Ingredients
Directions
Jeffrey and Rachel arrived at the BART station, coming from San Francisco, where I picked them up. Mike and Julia came over with the girls to see her last night. Fun, fun! I love having family over. I found the stockings Julia made last year and the girls had fun fitting the feet into the stockings.
Sharing all the news and feelings of Beverly and memories of her with family was good too.
Well, Jeffrey and Rachel will go to San Francisco to see the Nutcracker, Matthew and Debbie's family may or may not be coming later today and life is good.
Inviting my friends in the ward for lunch was fun. It is good to meet up once in awhile with friends I don't see very often.
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| Kristi and Cheri Hansen |
We have been receiving goodies from neighbors and ward members this week which has also been fun and exciting. Rob and Tove Baldwin left a plate of candy, a card, and some of his honey from his own yard. I put the honey aside as we will use that, and read the card. The plate sat with the other treats.
So I decided to re-gift the plate of candy to my friends Kristi and Cheri Hansen. When we met in the parking lot for lunch, I handed Kristi the jump ropes the young men had made for her first grade class, and Cheri the plate of candy. I did tell them I was re-gifting it because I was staying away from sugar this season.
Cheri immediately asked if I wanted the plate back. "Probably not," I said, "as usually people get plates from the dollar store to use as a holder." "But, this was from good friends....so maybe yes." Turning the plate over, we looked at the manufactures mark and Cheri said, "That is in Danish." "How do you know?" I asked. She said she served a mission in Denmark. Oh wow, Tove is from Denmark. Uhm, maybe I do want the plate.
When they walked into the restaurant, Cheri had the plate in her hand (they dumped the candy into the plastic wrap as a bag) and said, "I think you are going to want this!" It was a picture of the Salt Lake City Temple in the famous blue of Denmark pottery.
We shared the joy of being friends and having good friends! Of all the people I could have re-gifted this to, these are the perfect people. They understood the significance of a previous gift and felt no hesitation in giving it back to me.
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| Now I understand Rob's question from a few weeks ago. "Where did you get married?" |
Janice Adams Dec 20 --
"I toggle between sadness and joy.
Sad, that the world will be losing the spark, that was Beverly Adams.
Happy, knowing that she has wished for this for a long time. Guessing that your father has eagerly waited for this for so long.
If I believe in the Plan of Salvation, I have to celebrate this step in Beverly’s eternal progression, somehow."
Jeffrey Dec 21 --
"Hi everyone,
Mom just passed away at 5:57 Mountain Standard time. She went VERY peacefully, just as those of us here said our "aufwiedersehen." A warm spirit presided here as we who are here (with Kim via zoom) have shared this day with her. She is doing the two-step with dad as I write this.
Dad/Jeff"
It is good to have friends. Laura texted last night asking if I wanted to the gym. No, not really. But we all made a goal to go, so I set my alarm. I did not want to get up today either, but it was nice stretching my legs out on the elliptical. I obviously have not used my leg muscles even if my arm muscles are a little stronger from holding Emma last week.
It was so nice to have the girls come over in the early afternoon. Makynlee asked if they could dip pretzels in chocolate. Yes! I bought melty(ies) yesterday! They played outside and they came in and made their chocolates.
I sent a text to Jeffrey blowing him a kiss and telling him I was thinking about him. This was his reply:
"Thank you.
Rebekah, Rachel, Mike (and Carol and their children other than Chris), Greg and Janice and Gabe all here in mom’s room where the nurse took mom off of oxygen about 25 minutes ago. Extra medication. Mom has been “asleep” for at least 50 or so hours without cognitive responsiveness. The nurse predicted that mom would pass sometime today.
I am fine.
Love you,
Jeff"
So I guess it is just a waiting game now. I really wonder how Greg and Janice feel. They have had the brunt of all Beverly's care for many years. Actually Janice lived in their home when she was first married so Greg could help his mom with his dad's care. Living close by, the two of them are in the details of all the care and help first with Duke and now with Beverly. How are they feeling now?
Life is good.
So many things happen in one 24 hour period and I thought it was Friday, but it is only Thursday today. On Tuesday we were in angst about Beverly and getting Jeffrey packed up, to the airport and gone to Provo. I think Mike, Julia and the girls came over to visit that night, but I'm not sure what happened what day.
The Pleasant Hill Adams are planning to go to the Beach for Christmas. They will stay at a motel and enjoy the beach and whatever is going on for two days. They should have lots of fun.
Wednesday I didn't want to get up. Luckily in the evening, I had scooched the old dryer out to the end of the driveway for pick-up early morning. Since everyone in our neighborhoods had similar notes to pick up old junk, I wondered where I should put the money as everyone would know you have to leave money for it to get picked up. My solution was the lint trap.
I texted the driver a picture and told him where the form and money was. Laying in bed that morning, I heard a truck and the screech of the dryer moving and knew he had found what he needed.
Really, I just wanted to stay in bed for the day. Instead I had a delightful time shopping with Laura. We went on our regular weekly shopping to Sam's and Wilco. Only the Sacramento Adams are coming Friday night, Rachel and Jeffrey will be home Friday afternoon. So full house until Sunday afternoon when the Sacramento Adams go back to spend Christmas Eve with their family and Nana.
During the day we would get periodic updates from Jeffrey on Beverly's condition. She is in decline. Every time the nurses would give her medication or check her vitals she would be a little less. Jeffrey said she is sleeping and not responding much when given care. He stayed with her for the day. The nurses said they would take off her oxygen today. So.....
Getting back from shopping, I was very tired and took a small nap. My volunteer work for hospice calls all got made and I thought about the manhunt at the mall and didn't want to go. But the Covid test turned out negative - and I said I would go if the test was negative - so with a little prayer I went.
Fun, fun! Quite a few of the leaders went in disguise and hid out in different parts of the mall. The women had the best disguises. One was a construction worker, one put a long blonde wig, a black beanie hat, and wore black lipstick and eye emphasis, one had a scarf and looked like she had a hijab. I walked into the whole group (without any disguise) when I first walked into the mall. Busted. Since no one took a picture I went and hid out getting a foot massage. Only one 4 person group of boys "found" me. One of the men wore a long blonde wig, most of the men wore a beanie, or something tame. I was glad I went.
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| Look on the right at the lady in the black beanie - excellent disguise. The guy in the Santa hat was easy. |
Jeffrey took care of his friends and then came to pick me up on Monday. It took him a long time to get to Sacramento because of the driving rain. He said the freeway slowed to 40 miles an hour quite a bit of the time.
I was glad he came and offered to drive again. He said he was okay and off we went. He talked about his visit to Rick and we watched the rain come down. Jeffrey said the rain wasn't as bad. I wondered if it was because of the direction we were headed. Did that cause the rain to feel and look more fierce if heading the opposite way? The cars on the other side of the freeway looked like they were slower and more packed together. Who knows?
All my joints and hinges ached. I was so tired, mentally and physically. It wasn't that I had done anything hard at all. I just wanted to be home with nothing to get accomplished.
While sitting on the couch after a nice long hot shower, eating Chinese food Jeffrey had picked up, he got a call. The call was from his brother Greg who said Beverly had been unresponsive much of the day. Jeffrey said he would get a flight to Utah.
It is tricky making gingerbread houses, cookies, and icing without dairy products or eggs - but we did it!
After Debbie came come from her meetings and errands, she helped the kids decorate their houses!
They did a great job on their houses and cookies. Life is fun. Christmas is fun. Christmas projects are fun. Grandchildren at Christmas time are a lot of fun.
The sun felt like it had not risen because of the cloud cover, so I was glad I had packed my bag the day before. I woke up and in one hour we were on the road up to Redding again. Though I offered to drive, Jeffrey did. I dozed off once in a while on our way up. Jeffrey and I had a really nice chat about God's blessings. It made a really nice Sunday drive.
Jeffrey also told me about Rick Taylor who nursing care as he waits for death to ease his suffering and pain. The talked about the resurrection and what it all means. Jeffrey said Rick was talking about where everyone would be and what it would be like.
We arrived about a half hour before their church started, so we went to their house and went with them back to church. I was able to pick up my sewing scissors [only another sewing lover would understand the significance and importance], and a couple of other things we left. We had a very nice meeting, and an interesting Sunday School lesson on Revelations. The joy came when Nate was ordained a High Priest by his dad and then was set apart as a High Counselor. He will be working with the young men. I don't think he has stopped working with the young men, or scouts, or something of that nature since he moved to Virginia and then back to California. Good man for the job.
We had hurried back on Friday night, one to sleep in our own -king size- bed together and two because I had a few commitments on Saturday. I threw a batch of laundry in and ran to the store for a few items to make a dessert for the ward party. Jeffrey got the ok from Nate that he was going to be set apart as a high counselor on Sunday. We needed to prepare to go back to Redding on Sunday. So I packed up a few items for Sunday and Monday as I had committed to go to Sacramento to make gingerbread houses with the Adams there. We decided to go to Redding together, Jeffrey would drop me off in Sacramento and then come home. He would come back to Sacramento on Monday afternoon to pick me back up. Lots of hours of driving....
Anyway Saturday was fun. I dropped my dessert off and apologized again to Laura for not helping her out at the ward dinner. Then I drove on to an Ariel display of Nutcracker music. Emily Fawcett did a great job in all her performance. I loved watching her fly around with a sword after the mice. I have to think that this type of art would develop very strong muscles in the arms, legs, and core. It was amazing what they could do climbing up silk fabric. Beautiful, graceful and very athletic.
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| Emily Fawcett |
This was the first time I had seen an Ariel display in person. It was great! The Penovich's were also there with Emily's parents. I don't seen enough of them anymore. In the 90's and 20's we did many things together. I miss talking with Debbie. So it was nice to see her a minute.
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| Debbie Penovich, Carolyn Fawcett, Regg Penovich in back, Emily in front and Mike Fawcett |
After Emily's performance, I went to the church for the ward Christmas celebration. Wow, just wow! There were mangers, stars, and the baby Jesus on every table with low lights. Lots of white and yellow lights lined the ceiling. Big murals of Bethlehem were on the walls, and Nativity scenes were grouped together. It was beautiful and centered around Christ's birth.
We went to the 'market' for the dinner. It was set up to serve on two sides with servers in the middle. I was surprised how quickly they could serve so many in such a great ambiance. The dinner was a Laura Nausin special with tri-tip, chicken, green beans, salad with poppy seed dressing, scalloped potatoes, and many dessert choices. Awesome. I didn't stay for the program as I had hit another wall. But it sure looked like it was going to be great. The men's costumes looked like someone had made them and not just put robes and towels together. I'll bet it was great too.
Good day, good week. Tired. Tired.
Friday had an interesting start. Lilly woke up with a big knot in her hair. When her hair had been wet after her bath the night before, she had twisted the hair around her finger and it had dried in a terrible knot.
Jeffrey helped out with school after the chores were finished while I folded clothes and talked with Emma. Jeffrey did a much better job than I as he helped Caleb as well as Lilly.
I worked and sprayed tangle free product on Lilly's hair and then asked Jeffrey if he could untangle it. It just was not unwinding. Eventually it broke under the strain of repeated brushing. OOPS
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| Very bad know in Lilly's hair |
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| Opa trying his best |
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| Lilly and Caleb are watching a movie so Lilly doesn't get bored by the process |
It was another actual school building day. I left Emma with Jeffrey and the three others went to school. Jayson seemed to be in the same class, but I noted Lilly went all the way down to the first room, and Caleb disappeared into another building. Interesting. On our way back from the kindergarten room, lots of people said hi to Lilly. I let the boys find the van.
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| Jayson and classmates watching catapult |
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| Pizza |
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| Adams kids |
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| Greetings and hugs |
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| Hello, hello |
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| Emma happy to be with mom |
