The calm before, during and after the storm

This week was a nice slow moving week.  My dad visited on Monday and Tuesday.  I enjoyed talking with him on a wide range of subjects.  The kids enjoyed his presence as well since it generally means an increase of desserts.  After that, the rain came and we just spent the week doing normal every day type of activities.  It was a very peaceful week giving me an opportunity to reflect on the many blessings in my life.
I am so grateful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.  It is the focal point of my life.  I am grateful for the peace that it brings to my soul.  I am grateful for the comfort of knowing that our lives have a purpose and that there is more to come after we depart this earth.  I am grateful for the opportunity to repent and attempt to improve my life and the lives of others around me.  I may have moments when I want to pull my hair out, but I can truly say that I am happy.  I know that my Father in Heaven loves me, and really wants me to succeed.  He doesn't always give me what I think I want, but he gives me what I need to help me learn and grow.  I can't imagine what my life would be like without the gospel, nor do I want to.  It provides me with an anchor so that I can weather the storm and feel calm during all parts of it.  I am grateful for all that I have been given.

Our Hotel New Years Eve

We were in Tooele for New Year's Eve this year.  Jeff's mom was working at the hotel that night, so instead of spending the evening at home, we went to the hotel.  The hotel was empty, but Carolyn had received permission for her family to come and celebrate the New Year.  Jeff was very excited to be in an empty hotel, and devised several exciting games to play with this unique opportunity.  We settled on sardines, and spent the next hour running all over the hotel trying to find each other.  The best was when Allie hid in the elevator and Jeff spent 15 minutes trying to find all of us.  We finally went to find him!!

Carolyn had planned a few games for us to play and we spent the evening whacking, smacking, rolling and laughing with one another.  At midnight, we threw the confetti and rang in the New Year, for once, encouraging the kids to be noisy in the hotel!!

A White Christmas

This Christmas, we traveled to Denver to be with my family.  My entire family was there for Christmas and the few days before.  We had a great time playing pool, opening presents and being together.  My children were a little more laid back about Christmas.  Our family had decided to all meet in the basement on Christmas morning.  Unfortunately, we didn't think it through too well.  The only ones that weren't sleeping in the basement were the teenagers.  They just slept in until Allie and Gabe just couldn't stand it anymore!  We all headed upstairs to open presents around 8:00.  Christmas morning was very exciting with my 3 year old nephew.  He is just beginning to understand the concept of Christmas, there are presents and candy!  He was very cute passing out all of the gifts to everyone in the room.

 But the very best present on Christmas was that we woke up to find 4 inches of snow on the ground.  Being from Southern California, all my kids could talk about before we left for Colorado was the expectation of snow.  Colorado was experiencing one of the driest winters on record and I was a little worried that we wouldn't even see snow the entire time we were there!  But Mother Nature did not disappoint us.  We woke up to a glistening white world outside. We made snow angels, through snow puffs (it was too powdery for snowballs) and went for walks in a glistening winter wonderland.  Did you know that snow really glistens and shines like glitter?  We didn't, and it was exciting to discover.

Anniversary Week

This week was very fun.  Jeff was able to attend a conference in Monterey, California.  Because it was so close, he was able to rent a car and drive to the conference rather than fly.  This worked out great because cars can take passengers.  So I hopped in the car and joined him on this little adventure.  We decided that it was a slightly late anniversary trip.  It was worth the wait for the price!  We drove up to Monterey.  I spent a rainy Wednesday just relaxing in the hotel room while Jeff attended meetings. 
On Thursday, I was able to rent a bike.  I was very grateful for small blessings, the bike shop was closed, but when I went there, the owner happened to be there for a meeting.  He was willing to lock the bike up outside for me to use, and have me lock it back up when I was done.  I was so grateful that it worked out.  So Thursday afternoon, I took a lovely ride downtown and followed the historical trail around the city.  There are so many historic houses downtown.  Some of them have been converted to offices, but a large portion of them have been donated to the historical society.  Unfortunately, none of them were open.  But I enjoyed the buildings and the beautiful gardens that surrounded nearly every one. 

Then on a beautiful sunny Friday, I rode along the coast to Fisherman's Wharf, and Cannery Row.  I saw beautiful scenery, a rich blue ocean that contrasted and clashed with the dark rocks of the coastline, lined by historic Victorian homes.  It was really very beautiful.  We went out to dinner every night and sampled the local cuisine. 

 On Saturday, Jeff was finished with his meetings, and we needed to return home.  We drove down 17 mile drive for more sweeping vistas of the rugged Northern California coastline.  Then we followed Highway 1 down the coast for about half of the drive home.  We watched the sun paint brilliant streaks of all colors across the sky as it set over the ocean.

5 pointed hand-Stars

We went down to Hollywood to see Mann's Chinese Theatre, home of the cement clad hand and foot prints of the stars for the past 80 years.  We had been there once before, but it was before Allie and Gabe were born.  So after a trip to the temple with some friends, we stopped by there as part of our "Tour LA" year.  It was fun to see many familiar names from past and present.  Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, and Julie Andrews alongside Harrison Ford, and Arnold Swarzenegger.  Some of our favorites were Harry Potter and Star Wars, featuring R2D2 and C3PO.

A Happy Thanksgiving

For this thanksgiving, we went to my sister's house.  Just our family nearly doubled the number of people at her house, but it made things all the more fun.  With my father also in attendance, we had quite an age range, we hit nearly every decade for the past 60 years.  We had a great dinner complete with a lot of mashed potatoes, played a fun family football game after and topped it off with yummy desserts.  It was a great day.

a passing

This morning, my grandmother,Alice passed away after a long and full life. She wiil be reunited with all of her siblings, her parents and her husband who passed away 19 years ago almost to the day. I am so happy for her. She was ready to leave this earth and continue her progression elsewhere. I am so grateful that I have lived near her and been able to visit her and become friends with her over the years. Here are some of my favorite places memories if her.

She always sent me a card for my birthday with 5 dollars. When she discovered that I liked bicentennial quarters, she would save all the quarters she came across during the year and send them to me for my birthday.

Some of her favorite phrases were "Oh grab" and "Well,..Mindy!"

She loved to watch the Dodgers play baseball.

She was always reading a book and we would talk about the book that she was reading.

She loved to play games.  Some of the favorites were dominoes and Sorry.

She loved the avocados from her tree in the backyard.  Sometimes she kept a count of how many were on the tree.

She often talked about her twin sister, Alta.  She talked about her so much that I didn't realize that Alta had only lived a few days until I was an adult.  I thought they had been little girls together.

Grandma wrote me letters every week during my freshman year of college.  Her handwriting was so bad, it killed a lot of time to read through them.

Goodbye Grandma, we will miss you.