Happy Mother's Day!

 I thought I'd celebrate Mother's Day by sharing some of my favorite photos of my mom.  You'll see that hardly any of my favorites are formal shots.  We're not a very formal family.  But most of the shots are when we were having lots of fun together with family.

I think one of the grandkids put this sticker on her.  May not seem too funny now.  Guess you had to be there.  We all thought it was hilarious!

 Not sure how old she was here.  She always told us how her mother tortured her by curling her extremely straight hair!

 Jordy must have gotten some of her musical talent from Granma.

 On one of their visits to Clayton.

 My mom LOVED her grandkids!!!

 She was here for my & Jordy's birthday when we got Rock Band.  I don't remember if we ever talked her into playing or not.

 This was the time we went up for Christmas right before she died.  We had been discussing the "correct" way to make chicken and dumplings so she showed us how.  Nobody makes 'em like Momma.

 The annual family photo.  Everyone but Will was there.  So the kids drew a picture of him on a piece of paper and Andy held it up so he wouldn't be left out.

The Most Creative Birthday Party.... EVER!

My Facebook statuses seems to have been causing confusion this week.  We really did start the week with Thanksgiving.  Now that we have a Canadian son-in-law my daughter decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the Texas part of the family on Monday.  We wished them all a happy Thanksgiving.  Then we moved on to Jordy's birthday party.  She came up with the theme herself -- to celebrate every holiday in one night!  First was Halloween.  Everyone came in costume.  Kristen made a deviled egg to bring to the party.  :-)

 I came  dressed as a Saints fan and Glenn was a Giants fan.  We took the kids to the Clayton Pumpkin Farm.  Don't worry, Jordy didn't really drive:

What's coming out of the pumpkin's nose?  It's an elf!

Then we came back to the house & the kids hunted the Easter eggs that Glenn hid earlier.  That didn't take them long so they made Valentines while I finished up Thanksgiving dinner.  Sorry, I didn't get pictures of the Easter egg hunt or Thanksgiving dinner -- I was a little busy.  :-)

Then we gathered around the Christmas Birthday tree and opened gifts.  Jo said, "It's just like Christmas, but all the presents are for me."

Jordy made her own birthday cupcakes.  They were a little confused -- Halloween & Independence Day combined.

Here's a few more photos of the kids...

 Had to take this one for SE.  She was with us when we bought these shirts & I don't think she believed anyone would really wear them.  They wrote a song for Jordy's birthday too, but my video won't upload.

Happy Birthday, Jordy!!!

Texas - Day Seven, WARNING: Cuteness

My last day in Texas we went to the cemetery to replace the flowers on my mom's grave.  We replaced the blue flowers from Mother's Day with a fall bouquet.  My sister's much better than I am with arranging flowers so I played with the kids while she did the flowers.  Here's some cuteness:  E wearing a headband made for her by Aunt Sissy (me!).

Is this cute, too?  Uncle Bubba is glowing like an angel:

This is cute... 2 cute little girls, at least we got a smile out of one.  Nephew didn't want his picture taken.

Texas - Day Five, an Evening Walk With Grandpa

Just a few of my favorite shots from around the farm.

This was the old pond... not much water in it now.

This is the new pond:

These flowers were everywhere.  Anyone know what they are?

Texas - Day Four and a Country Baby Playpen

Yes, I skipped a few days.  I didn't take any photos of days 2 & 3.  I cleaned out my mom's desk, watched Lauren feed her chickens, and tried to stay away from spiders.  But look... there's even one on the sunflower in my sister's garden!  I tell you, there were spiders EVERYWHERE!!!  Here's my cute little niece in her country baby play pen:

She entertains herself with the cat, watching the guineas, & banging things on the wire while my sister is working in the garden.  This keeps her entertained but out of trouble.  Fluff came to join her:

My nephew kept busy digging a hole.  Boys -- either shooting things or digging holes, right?  lol...

Big sister showed me mom's gourds:

Look, this gourd has legs!

Texas, Day One

I've been back for a couple of days already but I'm still unpacking, sorting through photos, etc.  I'll try to share photos a day at a time from my trip.  Day One:  Why was the first thing on my agenda to go to the R&K cafe?  I split a chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and fried okra with Lauren.  Mmmmmmmmm.....  My dad had mentioned to me the week before that he told Lauren about the Mystery Grave in Grandview and wanted to take her.  I asked him to wait until I got there.  It had been a while since I'd seen it.  So, after lunch we went out to the cemetery.  Alan had been doing some research on some of his ancestors & wanted to find some graves so we visited some relatives, too.  My mother's parents:

My father's parents:

And that reminds me... we need to find out the correct way to reattach that vase.  The Mystery Grave:

I love the detail in the old ironwork & marble & took lots of pictures of the fences, gates, and tombstones.

The kids found some bugs so Mark had a little lesson on insects.  See, we studied local history and science at the same time!

This angel reminded me of my mom.  She sent me gift subscriptions to the Angels Magazine every year. Maybe we can find a statue like this for her.

Day Two & more coming later.

I'm Proud of My Family

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God...  If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.  I Timothy 5:4, 8 (NIV)

I know I’ve read these verses many times before, but when I read them this week the word “grandchildren” really stood out to me.  I guess I could even say that I don’t remember that grandchildren were mentioned when I have used this verse in the past.  But I thought about it this week when I thought about how my children have responded to their grandmother moving in with us.

Jordann has been very helpful.  This has impacted her more than Lauren so far.  She doesn’t have as much room anymore.  She’s not getting as much of our time & attention.  It’s harder to get her places because we have to consider how fast Margie can move.  (And thanks to everyone giving her rides lately!!!)  But she hasn’t complained at all.  It’s been so nice to come home and see her & Margie washing dishes together.

When I first found out that Margie was coming to live with us I wanted to call Lauren to let her know that she & Mark were still welcome to come stay with us this summer.  The first words out of her mouth were... “That’s great.  Now me & Mark can help take care of her.”  I just wanted both my girls to know that I feel blessed by them.

And I’m very thankful for my husband.  He takes good care of us and he takes good care of his mom.

And please note that after our conversation in Yogurt Shack on Friday night I have posted the copyright information for the Bible verses I use!  :-)  Scroll down to the bottom on the page.

The Next Chapter...

I haven't really felt much like blogging lately. In case you didn't know my mom found out she had cancer in January, she went into the hospital, was sent home with home health care, then hospice, then to a nursing home, and she passed away on February 11. Everything happened so fast. I feel like it didn't really sink in until I got back home and it still feels very unreal.
During all that we found out that Glenn's mom has vascular dementia and her doctor recommended that she not live by herself anymore. She lives back in Texas and we're in California. She had been forgetting to eat and take her meds.
We were hoping that she would be able to live at home with some home health care & family members coming over to help her but Glenn came home today with the news that she is going to have to go into the nursing home tomorrow. He can't be there but he's going to try to call while the RNs there and Margie's brother will be there to help her pack.
I'll blog about the cards later.

Molasses Cookie & Our Guests Are Here!

Mmmmmmmmm....... our house smells good right now. Jordann had a friend over & finished baking the cookie dough.


Grandma & Grandpa made it here this afternoon -- after a non-stop flight from Dallas to SF. They did a little site-seeing before getting to our house a little after Jo & I made it home. I think G'pa is eating one of the cookies here while sitting behind our little Halloween candy vignette.
I think my candy display is disturbing Jo...
Our door has also been decorated. Jo drew this frame a few weeks ago & it has held several famous paintings so far -- Mona Lisa, George Washington (sorry I didn't get pictures of these.) Jo wanted to make a picture for Halloween but Glenn said we should celebrate Reformation Day instead. So he drew a picture of Martin Luther. I wonder who came by & added the horns? Hmmmmmm......