A Dusting of the Cobwebs....

welcome to my blog!
...allow me a brief introduction...

In a reacent conversation with my daughter, her questions were why I, and her Dad were so quiet about our lifes? Meaning writing or telling about our own personal historys.

I didn't think there was anything important to write about. As I was just a normal person, getting up in the morning and getting the day started, getting kids off to school, or meeting schedules of the whole family, cleaning house, and landry. Keeping little ones busy, and changing diapers, comming home fixing dinner, helping with homework, putting kids to bed, watch some news, go to bed. And then do it all over again the next day. Then some days was teaching lessons in Primary, RS, MIA, Sundayschool, cub scouts, or helping at schools, ect. Family home evening, Visiting teaching, and even some Home teaching and being the family schaefer. most of the time we had one car, 6 kids, one working husband. Oh yes, the multi years of music lessons, and baseball teams, coaching, and even one major jumproap champion, for one daughter.

We had trials too. some were very hard, just thinking about a single memory of losing our son, brings tears. But we are told that this life is to meet trials, and how we handle them will be for our own eternal growth.

A very wise Stake President, President Alred, once said "We are here to be schooled in the principles of eternity. We will work by the sweat of our brow, to work our way through this life... But remember we are here to be schooled in the principles of eternity."

So, I welcome you to my blog. Please feel free to stay and go as you please, and wander where you wish. And, as always, feel comfortable in sharing those stories that you may feel are just "an every day" thing as well...



Sep 24, 2008

The Doe...



Doe is a nickname given to my youngest daughter by her nieces, Her name is Jodie, they started calling her Jo, and ended up with Doe, which stuck.

Several years ago when Jodie was about 16-17, I was waiting to drive her to school.
For some reason I grabbed a pen and wrote a list of what I saw about her, for she was a very colorful person, and full of surprises.

As I was sorting through papers today I ran across this list, it brought back memories. Try it sometime, and put the list away, or write it in your Journal. Its fun to remember how things were.

The Doe, a school day

. Yellow, blue ring
. sucking on a candy pacifier
. 3 earrings, one a loop
. a clear blue pager
. black knee high boots
. white long skirt with slit up to butt in back.
. black shirt, square neckline
. yellow vest
. black purse with sholderstrap
. blue bangs, and ponytail
. glitter eyeshadow
. beautiful smile
. blue bead neckless
. Chinese symbol charm neckless

Left Hand
. blue toothbrush
. white bead bracelet
. 2 rings, ctr and 1914 dime ring

Right Hand
. watch, clear plastic
. beaded bracelet blue and white
. 2 sparkle thin rubber bracelets.

This was only a minor day.
Jodie became very stylish, both in clothing and hair.
She was great with makeup, and always had an idea how to fix things.
She is warm, and people want to look like her. She loves to serve others.
She is always creative, and can not sit still....and still does....

If you happen to be driving down the street and a Paramedic Rig flys past you, with its lights flashing and siren going, and you think you might have recognised a face.... It could be Jodie on the job...

Sep 20, 2008

Frustrating...



Have you ever been in a position where a decision had to be made, and it rested upon your shoulders??? you try to make the correct one.....and find out afterwards it was wrong...

Well it has happened to me a few times. But this one really gets my goat....
Its not that it was really important to anybody elts.

I have been trying to acquire some things for my husband and I, that we would use for a year. I have been keeping a list of things we normally use and trying to figure out what amount we would use for a year.

One of the items I have been working on is Landry soap. A few months ago I had tried a different brand that was new. I seemed to like it. Being it was a powder I knew it would have a good shelf life. After a couple of months I could not find it in the stores any more, but to my surprise I ran across it in a "dollar" store, at a lower cost than I had been paying for it. I happily started buying the boxes until I had enough.

I noticed this last week that our clothing was starting to look a little faded. Your right it was the soap I was using. And now I have a year supply of fading soap for my cloths....

It wouldn't be so bad, but I have spent time to collect the boxes, money (in short supply), planning about the amount needed. Not to mention the cost of clothing, etc, to have everything fade out... AND...what do I do with a year supply of fading soap, that does not live up to my standards..........AND.. then doing it all over again, or half way at least.

I feel so Frustrated, and wonder how many more mistakes I will make before I reach my goals, or if I ever will....

Sep 18, 2008

Train, train, train, train...



Yesterday I saw a train, traveling down the track,
made up of 12 engines, and no cars....

Sep 7, 2008

Playhouse...


I was watching a commercial on the BYU channel, where a dad was spending his time building a playhouse for his children. It brought back memories from my childhood. A neighbor 3 houses away from me had a beautiful wooden playhouse. It was one room, and had one electric lightblub. I was in aw, and dreamed of what mine would look like if I ever had one.

We lived on Main St, in the south end of Orem, in a new building area. I remember we had dirt streets for a long time, and the only house that had a cement driveway was next to ours, the whole neighborhood of kids roller skated,(skates that clamped on shoes), or rode their trikes, or bikes on that driveway.

Out in back where houses had not been built yet, was flat land, of high weeds. We would often stomp out rooms for play houses there. One could sit down on the ground and not be seen. Tall round top weeds made nice umbrellas to play with.

Some of the area was flat enough that the neighborhood kids would play baseball.
I was never very good at this, I think because I was so young, Kindergarten and first grade. But they kept asking me to play, and giving me a chance to bat. I don't remember ever hitting the ball.
Or we would play King of the Hill, on top of high mounds of dirt that the builders had plowed out for building houses.

In the summer we often slept outside on the lawn. I love it. A sleeping bag was a wonderful and new thing, I was quite impressed when I received my first one.

Our land area, had been farm land. We had nine fully grown peach trees. And two apricot trees that grew up in my sandbox. As I use to play with the apricot pits, when mom was canning in the fall time. Our land was watered by irrigation. So ditches were common then. As children we would create all kinds of boats to float on the water. And sometimes we would end up wading in the water. That came to a end when mothers were told that the Polio bug could be found in dirty water. I don't know if that is true or not, Polio was very scary then, I had school friends that came down with it. Families were frighten because there was no cure, and it was new, and no info on it. Children were dieing or being paralyzed from it.

Aug 28, 2008

Florescence fad...



I have enjoyed watching the different "Fads" that come in my kids life. One of the fads that comes and goes is the wearing of florescence color. This was extremely important to my youngest daughter Jodie. Even though Jodie had several pieces of clothing that were florescence in color, she was focused on a pair of florescence pink socks that her older sister Jennifer had. Jennifer was seven years older than Jodie, and had told her no to the wearing of her socks.

One day as Jodie was on her way to school (about first grade) I noticed that she had Jennifer's socks on.
"Jodie, do you have Jennifers' socks on? Yes and I am going to wash them and give them back to her." I wasn't sure if Jennifer had given her permission.

Jodie came home from school happy as a lark......Later the rest of the kids came home from school. About dinner time Jennifer discovered two very wet pink florescence socks in her clothing drawer.....Jodie had very carefully, in her own way, washed the stockings and replaced them, from where she had taken them.

Aug 5, 2008

Just Venting...



Have you ever had a terrible pain in your stomic and can't get any relief from it no matter what you do ???
Well I do... when I don't have connection with my kids. It seems silly I know.... but they are part of me, and I have to know they are happy, or safe, or busy doing something, no matter what is happening in their life. I guess you could call it "A Mother Thing".

For Thirty seven years I have given everything I had to help my kids, it wasn't easy for me then, stumbling blocks have always been part of my path. And yet they have all grown to be wonderful people. I guess I just need to know they are safe and happy more often.

I have 6 children, 5 that are living.

One I never hear from, unless she needs something, (it may be a long time,) her dad and I are now facing retirement.

I have one, when important things are happening in her life, good or bad, she goes Invisible....for a while... Sometimes its hard to get communication started again, and you just have to wait and wait and wait.....time goes by very slowly....

The other 3 check in fairly often, even if its "I am at work, just checking in, I'll call you later..." or "read my blog....I made a new entry"...... Its just so good to hear the sound of their voice, even if its "Hi..that's all"....

I often feel the movie of the "The Mailbox" fits my life.

8 weeks ago I had Major Surgery. I didn't realize what a big thing it was, until it was over.
I was surprised to see very few of my children cared what was happening to me, or how I felt.... I felt all alone.... If it hadn't been for my visiting teacher, and Lynn, the therapist, and my vampire (nurse) I would have had no one. I guess folks have no idea, unless they have been through it themselfs.

I hope I die before Lynn does, I don't think I can handle loneliness...I am too much of a social bug...

I don't mean to get morbid, as I was saying, I am just "Venting"....I guess I grew up during a time where family depended upon family. When there was a need, family came to help out. When my daughters needed help, I and some of my daughters went to help, even when it was out of state. I guess times are changing, and it's not the way things are done in todays world.

That is a really sad thought... For service really brings love and closeness of family, closer together.

Jul 10, 2008

David's World...



This is taken from my son's blog "Thoughts of a Small Dragon" I had a good laugh, David is over 6 feet tall. And I know the feeling of flying pillows.

............................


Satin Sheets

What do you think of Satin Sheets?

Well let me tell you a story about them, that happened to me.
I was talking to my mother about these sheets and she had a good laugh and said I needed to blog about them.

In my room, I have been sleeping on the same sheet and blanket for about 6 years, of course I have been washing them often, so they are faded. It does not help either that the bed is next to the window and for some reason the sun does help fade the colors. hahaha

I moved to a new place and the apartment already came with a bed frame. It does not have a foot board or a head board.

The bed that I had bought I needed to put in storage while I live where I am now until I move. That seems like a good idea because I wont wear out my bed frame.

I thought it would be good to have a change of color instead of having a black bed in color and try to find something that looks Asian.

I thought I found something good. It is cool in a way. I also thought that with summer almost here my room always gets really hot. So, I thought maybe I might buy new sheets for the bed.

I looked around for different colors to match the tan colored bed spread. I did find a nice color for about $20. They were made out of cotton.

Then I found these satin sheets. Wow, They are only $2 more. You know when moving on satin, from place to place it gets cold. That is just what I need to stay cool at night.

So I bought them.

I put my bed together. It really looked nice and feels good. The satin just lets you slide every where and cool.

Note: DO NOT LET IT FOOL YOU.

That night was sooooo uncomfortable.I kept sliding allover the place. My pillow kept shooting off the bed for the lack of head board. I got no sleep. It gives me a kinked neck.

After 3 nights of trying it, I yanked off the satin sheets as fast as I could, and put my faded sheets back on including the pillow case. After that, I have been getting a good nights sleep.

Satin Sheets are NOT for ME.

Thought of a Small Dragon.

love your kids