We Did It-The Big Move

It all started with a lunch date with my little brother the week of Christmas.

We talked about goals and retirement. We talked about life and money. After we left that lunch date, my darlin and I talked and thought, and prayed and went to the Temple. After all of that, we decided to put our home up for sale, and down size to a smaller home.

After 4 weeks, we had an offer on our home and within a month of that, we moved to our new home!

It was amazing!

I have felt like it was the right thing to do, because things just fell into place. The home we sold is twice as big as the one we just moved in to, and the payment is less. We are in a much better position to retire (hopefully) someday, and do good things with our time then.

If you wonder about the kids. Our First born, and his wife Janet are new home owners! And our second son is a homeowner, too!

Life has a way of surprising you! I feel so grateful to Father in Heaven for His guidance in our lives, and or all blessings!

Here is a picture of our home as we drove away for the last time!

photo (24)

Grant is Great!!

 

This is my little brother Grant, and his sweet wife, Kammy.

Grant had a birthday a few days ago.

I was thinking about what a cute little brother he was. When he was a little guy, maybe 1 1/2 to 2 years old, he tried to run away from home. We lived in the little white house that I call my second home.

I really don’t think he was running away, I don’t know where he was going, neither did he. He must have had places to discover.

One night in the middle of the night he climbed out of his crib, and walked out the door. It was winter time. We lived in the country with very few homes nearby. He started walking down the road in his little footed pajamas. He had walked about a quarter mile down the road when one of the neighbor girls drove up the street coming home from a date. At about that same time little Grant was tottling down the street, it started to snow. So in the middle of the night my parents get a call from the neighbors saying they found a little boy wandering down the road, and wondered if they were missing a child.

They checked Grant’s crib and sure enough, he was missing. Our family had been blessed with a miracle. Our little brother and my parents baby had been rescued from certain death. If our neighbor had not come up the street at that moment, Grant would have continued to walk on with no idea where home was. If he walked and the snow kept falling his little footprints would have disappeared in the night and we might not be have been able to find him, when we discovered him missing.

I am sure that my mom and dad held him close when they got him home, and said a prayer of thanksgiving.

I am so glad my cute little brother Grant is a great son, brother, husband and daddy to his four wonderful kids. Grant is really great! I love him.

My Second Home!

When I was five our family moved from my first home. My mom and dad wanted to build a home in a neighboring town. Because it would take some time to build the home, we lived in a little house that had actually been abandoned, or at least it wasn’t lived in at the time we moved in.

It was empty and a bit run down.

The yard was overgrown, and the paint on the house was peeling and worn out.

 It had one bedroom, a family room, a kitchen, one bathroom, and a little room behind the kitchen where my mom’s washer and dryer were.

My dad got to work. He mowed the yard, it sort of worked for grass. He painted the wood.

The house looked like a cute little home by the time he was done, and we moved in, all 7 of us. We were very cozy to say the least. In the one bedroom, my three older brothers slept in a big bed. I slept on an old army cot, or at least that’s what my dad referred to it as. And my baby brother slept in his crib. My mom and dad slept in the family room on a hide-a-bed couch.

My dad spent most of his time working full time, working on his Phd, and building the new home. He built it mostly by himself. My mom was a wonderful homemaker. We lived there for a year or so and then we moved to the new home. It is amazing to me how I have so many memories of that house and living there, and I was only there for such a short time.

It was a good home. I loved living there.

Organ Donation!

This happy dude is my “miracle” brother, Keith!

He is alive today because of organ donation. A wonderful person said “yes” he would donate, and my brother is here, because of him.

We are so grateful!

Today was the Dash for Donation event in our city. People were running or walking a 5K or 2K to raise money for organ donation. Keith was asked to say a few words about his experience. He did a great job. I love you, brother.

You can read more about organ donation here!

Childhood Fears!

I recently went to the BYU Women’s Conference. It takes place on the beautiful Brigham Young University Campus in Provo, Utah. It is an annual event. Thousands of women gather on campus to attend classes taught by various amazing people. What a fun time we had. I always enjoy myself, and usually leave with lots of ideas about how I’m going to be amazing too, just like all the presenters.

One person whose talk I really enjoyed was Ruth Todd. She is my age, and very accomplished. She was a news anchor for years and has many other titles to her credit. If you did a “google” search, I’m sure there would be a plethora of information. Anyway, she gave such a great talk. She spoke about how as a child she was a worrier. She dreaded her parents leaving home, and when they did she worried they would not come home. I couldn’t believe she struggled with this. I was the same way when I was young.

Once when I was in junior high my parents were gone on a trip. I always worried when they were gone, but this time was worse than usual. My parents had said they would call on a certain night, I waited and waited. They never called, and I thought for sure they were dead. I had never heard the saying, “No news, is good news.” I just knew that they hadn’t called and I was scared.

So back to Ruth Todd, she said that when she felt this fear she would pray. A feeling of peace always came, and she learned that Heavenly Father answers prayers. What a great lesson to learn at a young age.

When my parents never called that night, I never thought to pray. Can you believe it? It would be the first thing I would do now, but I went through that night alone in my fear. It was a very difficult time. I found out later, that my parents had called, but my older brother talked to them, and never bothered to tell anyone else.

Ok, you will think this is dramatic, but I was scared for years from this experience. I would make my parents call me every night when they left town, and they had to talk to me. I was still scared, but if they were going to go, this is what I needed. I am much better now.

One of my little daycare kids told me today, she is afraid when her parents drop her off that they won’t come back. Wow. What is it that makes a child feel this way? And what can we do to help them feel safe, and confident that things will be ok?

Prayer is huge. If a child knows they are loved by Heavenly Father, that He is there, and that He loves them, and will give them peace, and comfort, that is the most important thing. Also, we need to talk about their fears with them. Somehow, when something is left unsaid, it seems bigger. In my daycare I have one little gal that only comes a few days a week. She has struggled with the separation from her Mama, even though she has a great time when she’s here. But the more she does it, the better she gets at it. Practice makes perfect. Also, I think kids need to know that they can do “hard things”. If they have confidence in themselves, they are more brave.

Once when Flexy was little I was telling him he needed to do better. He said the cutest thing, “Mom, I’m trying really hard at life.” In the end, that’s all any of us can do.

A Fond Memory

When I was growing up I loved watching the musical

“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”

It is such a cute show!!!

I think the reason I liked it so much is because I grew up with 5 brothers, and no sisters. I could relate to Milly trying to live with a bunch of men. She spent lots of time trying to teach these backwoodsmen how to be gentlemen. Of course it doesn’t work in the beginning, but it is so fun to see her sweet personality working with them.

Growing up with my 5 brothers was sometimes scary. They were so competitive. They used to scare me half to death when they would wrestle with each other. It would start out as a friendly wrestling match and then get serious, each trying to prove they were stronger than the other.

If you ever get the chance watch it! It is a classic!

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is one of my all time favorites and a very fond memory.

Sissy Poo!

As I’ve said in another post, I grew up in a family with 5 brothers and no sisters. There were six kids and our parents. When I was in junior high,

I came home with a little furry friend.

It was not uncommon for me to do this. I was always rescuing an animal.

I couldn’t help it.

But on this day the desire to bring home this animal was worse than ever. This little puppy was so tiny and cute. She was a mutt. They are actually my favorite kind of dog. They always have fun characteristics that don’t really match any other dog. This little pooper was part Chihuahua and part Terrier.

So. Cute.

When I got home, I honestly don’t remember my mom saying whether I could keep her or not. But when dad got home, he took that little ball of fur in his arms and said, “If we’re gonna keep her, we better name her Sissy Poo, cause she’s the only little sister you’re ever gonna have!”

And so is was, my little Sissy Poo became my little sister.

I was so attached. She slept with me every night.

She followed me around all day. She was the first to greet me when I arrived home.

I remember when I left on my mission, I was so afraid she would die, and there were a few times while I was gone that my family thought she was going to die too. I just couldn’t stand the thought of her not being there when I got home. Remember, I got her in 7th grade. I was now 21-22 years old.

She was almost ten years old when I got home. I was so excited to see her! And after a minute or two, she was so excited to see me, I had been gone for a year and a half. A year after I got home from my mission, she was still hanging in there. And another year later I had my first child, Riley. She was still there.

Then when Riley was six months old she fell asleep at the top of the stairs

and never woke up.

Personally, I believe she waited until I had other people to love, my darlin, and my son, so that I wouldn’t be so lonesome when she was gone.

We buried her in the back yard and had a nice little funeral. We all cried and cried. She is still so important to me and that was 25 years ago. She was such a big part of my life. She was my sweet little Sissy. I am so glad I brought her home. I love you Sissy Poo.

Our First Home

Brian, Brad, Joy, and Keith

When I was born, my parents lived in a cute little starter home. We lived in a cul de sac with 5 other families. We had the best yard in the neighborhood. You know, the one that all the neighborhood kids like to hang out at. On any given day all of the kids in the neighborhood were at our house. The reason why our yard was so amazing, is that our dad was so creative. Our yard had:

1-A teeter totter made by putting two wagon wheels together, on an axel. And on the axel, was the teeter totter. It could be rolled anywhere in the yard.

2-We had an old nozzle from a bomb, that my dad turned into a dog house. He just cut out a door way for the dog and turned it over. It kind of looked like an igloo. The funnest thing was to turn it over and sit inside it. We would take turns spinning each other around.

3-My dad built a castle out of cinder blocks. I don’t know for sure how big it was, I was only five. But I could walk in it. It even had turrets.

4-We had a sand box. I remember my big brother Keith eating sand, and my mom trying to get it our of his mouth. He’s only a year and a half older than me.

5-An amazing rock garden, that you could climb on, like a little mountain.

6-In the very back of the yard there was a fire pit. I remember roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

7-A wishing well. So cute.

8-My dad made a little play house for me. It was very simple and creative. He took plywood and made four walls with a door and windows, and painted it real cute. Hinges were on the corners so it could stand up and I vaguely remember a doorbell of some type.

9-We had an awesome garden. I remember eating pear tomatoes straight from the vine. Yummy!

We didn’t live there very long. My dad wanted to build a bigger home, and I think my mom was OK with moving from the house where all the neighbor kids played. She must have felt like a tender.

It was such a great yard.

When we lived in this home, I had my own room upstairs, across the hall from mom and dad’s. I remember feeling like the room was huge. Years later when I had the opportunity to visit my first home, a class mate had moved into my old home. It was amazing to me how small the house was, and especially my old room. Either that, or I got bigger. Hmm. I think I know which one happened.

We had a great first home. Thanks to mom and dad for making it such a wonderful place!