Family Reunion - Seeley Lake, Montana

Kenneth in the power chair that Roger brought for grandpa to use during the reunion. I posted the pictures before writing anything because I was not sure I could even get it done. There were lots of other pictures but I just put up a few of them. We enjoyed the trip a lot and our thanks go out to Kenneth for going with us. I could not have done it alone I know. We spent the first night at Dean & Laura's at Harpster. We enjoyed a wonderful visit and had some real good chicken enchiladas. We left the next morning after more visiting and got to Seeley Lake just before supper time. When we came home we drove it all at once because Kenneth had to be back for work on Monday morning. It took us a few days to recover, but we have more time than money so that's okay.

Grandpa and Darlene saying goodbye at the motel

Grandpa, Kenneth, Darlene & Roger - at the motel just before leaving for home.

The three of us - getting ready to leave

Darlene and Tim - We were glad he could bring her.

Dad, Darlene & Roger

The serving table loaded with food. It looked this way most of the time.

More of the guys.

The woman behind Roger is his wife, Kaye.

Dad's family - they had a great time.

The preacher, Thomas Dean Hendrickson and his wife, Phyllis. She is a sweetheart - he takes some gettine used to

Grandpa and Darlene

Grandpa's cousin, Joanne and his cousin Ross

Dad and Roger

Kenneth on the way to the reuion. It was a beautiful drive. One almost got tired of all the beautiful trees and scenery - almost but not quite.

Ross's wife Lacene. She was responsible for everything and is such a great gal and good organizer, etc. We enjoy her a lot.

At least it's getting warmer

I haven't posted anything for a long time because I didn't want to just have bad news all the time. So I waited and right now the only good news is that I brought Grandpa home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. He has had ups and downs but Friday I thought I had better take him in. They kept him 2 days which is not bad. He is feeling better - seems to be his old friend - a combination of heart failure and pneumonia.

We really did enjoy all of the visits we had from family the last couple of months. It was wonderful to have so many family members around the day Aaron's little girls were baptised. We enjoyed the baptism and all of the visiting and the eating. We love the quilt with all of the family blocks. I have not taken a picture to post but I decided I had to post something anyway.

Today I did the dental cleaning thing - glad it's over - and then I took grandpa to the doctor, left jackets at the cleaners, went to Winco and then had to put all the food away when we got home. I got a jury summons so have filled out their questionnaire and submitted it. Then I find that I could have asked to be excused because of my age. I don't mind serving, but I may ask to be excused anyway because I never know how daddy is going to be. Last night grandpa and I went to the High Priest meeting where we saw a nice film with Sheri Dew giving a talk about Joseph Smith and then we had pie and ice cream. I do read your blogs, just don't get comments submitted very often - always in a hurry.

It is nice to have warmer weather. Now if the wind would just die down it would be wonderful. I was able to get the lawn mower started and having been doing the mowing and watering. Jim came to start the riding mower and found that the battery was down and one of the cables had been eaten completely through, so he is fixing that. Kenneth got my weed eater started and used it until he ran out of string. So we are stopped for now, but Kenneth promised to try and till up my garden spot and in spite of myself I am itching to get some plants in the ground.

Finally!

Grandpa is doing well and I expect to bring him home on Friday, or Monday at the latest. He is indeed getting stronger. If he comes home Friday or Monday he will be getting outpatient therapy at a facility here in Kuna. We miss him here and are looking forward to his being home.

laughter is the best medicine!

It has been interesting to say the least. Grandpa at first was not very happy about not coming home so finding things to laugh about always helps. His first day he had to be "inspected" by the nurses. Quite literally they checked over his whole body for injuries, scars, sores, etc. and made a note of them. This is of course so that they will not be held liable for anything that happened to Grandpa before he got there. When he told us about this I just started laughing. He was so indignant about it. No allowances for modesty - women already know all about that do we not? Then the other day the nurse who came in to take him to breakfast said "after breakfast I will give you a shower." Grandpa assumed that she would show him how she wanted him to shower and then leave him alone. Wrong! She literally gave him a shower - washed him all over except for one spot. We were already laughing when he started telling us about it because we knew the outcome. Grandpa got checked out on his own walker and is allowed to use it instead of the kind they use, and on Sunday he gets to attend an LDS sacrament meeting held there in the facility. He has settled down into a routine now and is getting some productive therapy each day. I go there each day to see him and today I am taking Muffin in. They not only allow but encourage people to bring their dogs in. I am looking forward to Karen & Bill coming on Thursday night.

Update

I started this blog in the first place so that I could keep you all updated on what is going on with us. We have had another week of being in the hospital - grandpa, not me. He had some congestive heart failure, underlying pneumonia and a mild heart attack. However, they have tuned him up and released him to a rehab facility in Meridian where they will try to help him regain some of his strength. I say "try" because grandpa is not always cooperative and he doesn't like to be told what to do. The blessing in all of this is that we are surrounded by good people. Jim always comes as soon as he is called. One of our home teachers came to help with giving a blessing and has checked on grandpa every day. Our family has been here to visit and help me. Four daughters taking turns coming - 3 sons here in the valley that also help and give moral support. Allen would if he could, but he is still working in Alaska. So life is good, interesting and challenging. We love all of you and pray that when it is your turn to be elderly and in need of help, your children will be as loving and supportive as ours are.

I Didn't Do It

I couldn't resist posting this picture. Grandpa took a fall last Sunday - not from lack of balance, but because he tripped on my exerciser. He was in the process of vacuuming a spot for me that I was going to do as soon as I took the puppies outside. When I got back in, he was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, bleeding. I said he needed stitches. He said he only needed a bandaid. Jim came over and settled it for us and we went for stitches. He is doing well.

Sold two of the puppies and there are times I would give the other two away for nothing. I guess this too shall pass.

Annette & Grandpa juicing apples after I had my cataract surgery.

Muffin and puppies home from the hospital - about 8 hours old

Just so you can see about how big the puppies are - weighed about 7 ounces at birth

Kathy has been helping me get some pictures up again. I had a lot of little problems and couldn't figure out just how to do this, so now I hope I can keep it up.

Muffin had her puppies on Tuesday, November 25th. She was in labor all day Monday, just pacing and stopping and panting and then starting over again. I felt real empathy with her. I stayed in the family room with her all that night so she wouldn't try and deliver while we were in bed asleep. Grandpa came out about 4:00 a.m. and spelled me off. She started pushing just before 5:00 a.m. and had a puppy started, and then she just quit pushing. So at 6:00 a.m. we took her to the pet hospital emergency room. I told Grandpa I thought we would probably lose the one that was partially born, but we didn't. The vet gave her oxitossin shots to keep her contractions going and she finally had 2 more. Then they had to xray her to see how many more there were because if there was any more than one more they would have to do a c-section because it was too much for her. She only had one more in there, so they gave her another shot and delivered it. So she has 3 females and 1 male.

At first Muffin didn't want to even look at the puppies, but with some urging and help laying down and nursing, she finally got the hang of it, and how she is taking very good care of them.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Jim's house with all of his children and grandchildren, Dave & Kathy & kids, Bill & Karen, Allen & Sioux and Sioux's daughter, Ashley and some assorted people who had been invited also. When we got home we could not put all of the leftovers away, so we did what we could and fixed two bunches of leftovers and took to two of our neighbors who are experiencing very bad times. They were all thrilled and we not only felt great but could now put everything away. We ate pie and turkey sandwiches for breakfast-saved lots of work.

Hope all of you had a great day and lots of good things to be grateful for.

Stuff

I haven't posted anything for awhile and am not sure I can remember what all has happened. I see it has been almost a month since I put anything here.

I had cataract surgery on the 29th of October. Annette came over from Idaho Falls to be my driver. We enjoyed having her here so much. She brought lots of apples for us to juice. While she was here we went to breakfast once and dinner twice. That tells you something about what we enjoy doing! Actually we had planned on Joe's Crab Shack because we had a gift card for there and we knew Annette wanted to go, so that was planned. Because I had to fast before the surgery, none of us ate breakfast so when we got done, we went to JB's for their breakfast bar. Then that evening we were deep into juicing apples so we just cleaned up a bit and went to the Mexican place in town. Then on Thursday night we hit Joe's Crab Shack. Annette and I also managed two trips to the mall and a visit to Sees Candy. We were busy the whole time. Grandpa got right in and helped with the apple juicing. I will try to post a picture of him and Annette working at that.

Our leaves have been steadily falling - four large trees along a very small front yard. It is a recipe for "work". We are very fortunate to have friends and ward members who stop to help us rake. One day I got 4 bags done and quit because my back hurt. The next day when I got home from the doctor's the rest of the yard had been done. Then a week or so ago we looked out our window and there were 4 people raking in the yard. Yesterday I decided I had better make a dent in the leaves and after I had been there 4 bags worth, two young sisters came from around the corner with their rakes and worked with us. Then the Elders stopped and helped also. Looking at the leaves on the trees, I figure we have at least one more yard full to do before we are finished for the year - maybe a little more.

Yesterday one of the sisters I go visiting teaching to called me about her appointment. She had the flu and didn't want us to catch it from her. I asked her if she would like a meal and she was very grateful at the thought. So I took her homemade potato soup (already in the freezer) hot biscuits, fresh homemade choc. chip cookies (cookie dough already in the refrigerator) and a container of home canned peaches. It only took me the time to stick the biscuits and cookies in the oven and thaw the soup.

Then - we went to a baby shower at Chuck E Cheese!! That's right - a baby shower held there. This was for Ashley who is Sioux's daughter. I didn't know if grandpa would go (it was for families) but when I pointed out that we would probably see Carissa and NiTasha there as well as Sioux he went. We enjoyed visiting with all of them. Ashley's baby is due on Jan. 29th. They have a little boy about 3. We ate some pizza - pepperoni which I do not like - and I got some salad which I did like.

My eye is healing well, grandpa is doing well, and Muffin is pregnant. She should have her puppies at Thanksgiving time - not great planning on our part but we don't have a say about when she comes in heat. She is moaning and groaning and having a hard time jumping onto my chair to sit on my lap. I can't think of any more news. I don't always post a comment on your blogs, but I do read and enjoy them. I will try to be better about commenting.

clarification

Sorry about that. I forgot that some of you may not know Carissa. Carissa is Allen's youngest daughter. She used to come to church with us when she was a little girl, as did her sisters. We don't see a lot of her and welcome times when we can get together.

Wedding but no Pics

Well, we went to Carissa's wedding last Saturday and I remembered my camera, but after one picture my batteries were gone. I bought some new batteries at Paul's (lithium like the camera said) and they were the wrong size - got some at WalMart today and now I have a camera again.

We knew Carissa was getting married but didn't know the man's name or much about him. So we were pleasantly surprised when we found he was a member of the church, active, a member one of the Spanish branches in Nampa. The Branch President performed the ceremony. So we have some hopes that perhaps Carissa can remember some of her early days attending church with us and enjoy going with Carlos (Juan Carlos Silva). His mother and sister seemed very nice, the mother didn't speak English but the sister does.

Our weather is very nice now, after a few cold days, and we are enjoying it. I took grandpa to the heart doctor yesterday and to the urologist today. Then we had lunch out which is always a treat. Came home and took a walk - our days are all pretty much the same. I did finish my visiting teaching and am prepared to go to the Super Saturday R.S. is having - I'm taking a dessert - cherry cheesecake.

Short Update

I forgot to take my camera with us to Washington so have no pictures of our travels. We attended Madelyn's baptism and visited with Mark & LaNita. We drove up on Thursday, Sept. 3rd and back on Monday, Sept. 8th. We took Muffin with us - I had a friend willing to watch her, but grandpa wanted to take her. She is an adventure to travel with but it all turned out okay. Madelyn was baptised in the family swimming pool!! But water is water right? The font room was already being used at their stake center and Mark's father could not be there anytime except Friday night - hence the swimming pool. We had a wonderful meeting beforehand conducted by the Bishop. There were quite a few people there and LaNita had removed all living room furniture and put in folding chairs from the church.

When we got home we were the recipient of Jenette's willingness and sweetness. She and her girls bottled 42 quart of peaches for us. I had used my last jar and had started purchasing some cans. I can't tell you what that meant to have that done. She said the peaches would not keep until we got back from LaNita's place so we sent our bottles with her. Bless her and her girls!! Then last night the young women and their leaders came to do service. They washed the outside of every one of our windows, including the ones in the garage door. There are so many wonderful people out there and we are privileged to know lots of them.

Today I am making my mother's chili sauce recipe. It smells so good cooking. Earlier I was wondering why I was doing this, especially while I was grinding up onions. green peppers and celery. The tomatoes are all out of our garden. I also made some more granola last night so I feel like I have gotten quite a bit done the last couple of days. Hope the energy lasts.

Same old topic - Food

It seems like I always talk about the food we are eating. That's because in the summer the food is fantastic. Right now our meals consist of stuff out of the garden and my old Bunkerville favorite - homemade bread, milk and grapes. Grandpa doesn't comment on it anymore even.

We did have a doctor day today - those come quite often - almost as often as meals some weeks. I took Grandpa to the dentist - he is thinking about getting new dentures. Then I went for my cleaning appointment. Bad news was that I had a chip out of one of my fillings. Good news was that it was a fairly new filling so they will remove it and do a new one at no cost to me. More bad news was that I have several places in my teeth that are requiring a visit to a periodontist. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is the equivalent of pain & suffering. We have worked hard to avoid it, but diabetes takes its toll.

We enjoyed attending the Twin Falls Temple Dedication, last session on Sunday. Of course it came to us through the dish, but it was a wonderful meeting. It was so quiet in our chapel that we could have heard a pin drop. We had a good friend who saved us some seats up in the front section where grandpa could have his oxygen on the aisle without bothering anyone.

"Doctor Days" wear us out and we are looking forward to an early night.

FAIR FOOD & FUN

I got to go to the Western Idaho State fair on Saturday. Jim took me and we had a good time. I especially wanted to eat stuff I don't usually get to eat - like Pronto Pups, milk shakes & spiced pecans. I was sick to my stomach when I got through eating, but it was worth it. We walked through all the Expo Halls, watched a concert by an acapella group, had a massage, looked at the mules and couldn't find the draft horses, looked at the chicken and rabbits, watched the "Splash Dog" show where the dogs jump really high before they go into the water. Some of them were jumping 6' 8" to grab the "bone". The last thing we saw were the 4 wheelers. I had never watched that before and part of the time I couldn't even look - they were climbing rock walls and all kinds of stuff with their vehicles and they looked like they were going to fall over backwards. I think it has been several years since I had been to the fair and I was really glad that Jim offered to take me. We had a good weekend and today was doctor appointment day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon with shopping at WalMart in between. I did get a new vacuum cleaner and was amazed at all the dirt it picked up - don't know why though when the old vacuum hadn't been doing it. No pics of the fair - I forgot to take a camera.

BACK HOME & BACK TO WORK

It's good to be home again even though it meant work on the garden produce right away. This isn't the way this was supposed to look but I guess I should be glad I could get some pictures on at all. Jim & Aaron rode their Harleys to the reunion - I took lots of pictures but am just posting the bikers and one shot of the "older" generation. The eight of us are what is left of the siblings in my family and their spouses. Grandpa and I were fortunate enough to be included in being housed at Kelly's house, so we didn't have to be on a bunk in a cabin. We had lots of talent displayed there and lots of memories to talk about. Kenneth went with us and that was such a blessing - I had someone to help drive and he helped with grandpa's oxygen, etc. We stayed with Bill & Karen on Saturday night and went to church there. My beans were waiting to be canned and I didn't feel like I could put it off. With tomatoes we are at the point where we can have a sliced tomato each meal - yeah!

The Fruit of Our Labors

Hey, I managed to get the photo on by myself - after many times trying. I picked our first tomato yesterday and couldn't resist showing it off. We went to the Empty Nesters FHE last night and I took a nice fresh cucumber to our host. I have more green beans to pick this morning. I wish I had enough to bottle some, but there are not, so maybe I will just freeze them.

I am preparing to go to the reunion in Heber City. I think Grandpa has decided not to go. He has not felt very well and the heart doctor didn't think it was a good idea because of the altitude. I don't want to go without him and I don't want him to go where there will be problems - how is that for being contradictory? Kenneth will be driving with me so I won't be alone.

We continue to have very hot weather but we have purchased a timer which operates the air conditioner in the food storage unit. I have always had to go out and turn it on by hand in the late afternoon and then off when it gets cool. Now it just comes on by itself at 4:00 in the afternoon and goes off at 7:00. I don't know why we didn't do this years ago.

I'll talk to you all when I get back from the reunion.

Computer illiterate grandma gets help w/pictures

I have been wanting to post some pictures and today Kathy helped me step by step. These are pictures of things growing in my garden. They are only worth photographing because when LaNita was here before the reunion, she and her children pulled all my weeds and tall grass. Now I can bear to look at the garden and enjoy it. The first picture are my green beans. I have picked twice - but you can't see green beans growing because they hang under the leaves.

This is one of my cantaloupe plants. I planted four of them and now I have two, but last year I only had one that survived so that is progress. The one beneath here is a lemon cucumber plant. Lots of blossoms but so far there are no lemon cucumbers on it. My regular cucumbers were supposed to be a bush but have proved to be a vine instead and I have picked several of them.

I had a picture of my green peppers with the (so far) one and only green pepper growing.

We enjoyed the reunion ever so much. Now we are getting ready to go to the Earl reunion at Heber City, Utah. For me this creates anxiety because of the altitude, but grandpa is very determined to go and even the doctor's acvice is not making him stay home.

I enjoyed going back to the Temple to work this week. We were off for four weeks and they have been making many changes in the parking lot and flowers, etc. I was so tired when I came home that even the thought of eating Mexican food did not move me and I ate a bowl of bread and milk here at home. However, today when we left the doctor's office it was after 3:00 p.m. and we had not had lunch, so I asked grandpa if he would like a lunch/supper somewhere. He hates it when he has to combine two meals - he always feels very cheated, but we enjoyed the Mexican food we didn't get last night.

I have been getting quite a few things done around the house that sorely needed to be done, like cleaning out underneath the sink, organizing my pantry, deep cleaning the bathrooms and awful stuff like that. It wouldn't be so bad if everything would stay and not fall into disarray again after while. I have been diligent about playing the piano each day again and getting back onto a schedule for reading my scriptures. Muffin always likes that because she lays on my lap when I read. I'll be more diligent about writing in the future.

Home Sweet Home

I have been on the road and am glad to be home again. There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed. Jim & I left Wedneday when I got home from the Temple and we drove straight down to Salt Lake City. We were trying to get there before my sister, Alice, passed away. The Lord did indeed bless us - we cancelled our proposed stop in Tremonton and went without stopping to the University Hospital. We got to Alice's room in short order and were there for 45 minutes before she died. Her sons had come and with her husband gave her a blessing of release. Shortly after that they turned off all life support. I felt very blessed to be able to be there and hold her hand. It was a profoundly beautiful spiritual experience and the feeling of peace and comfort was very strong - there were lots of tears of course, but the overwhelming feeling was relief for her release from suffering. I will miss her sorely. Tammy Earl, daughter of my brother Ken and his wife LuDeen, has also passed away. Her funeral was today in Moses Lake, WA. Tammy had lap-band surgery not long ago and she ended up with an infection that spread all through her body. She was only 58 and while that may seem old to all of you young marrieds, it really is quite young to be taken. Grandpa and I will be going Monday morning back to Utah for Alice's funeral. Cherish your loved ones while you have them.

I finished!!

Saturday I walked in a 5K here in Kune sponsored for the American Diabetes Association. I signed up for it with a burst of optimism and then as the date neared I feared I would not be able to finish but decided to go and walk as far as I could. I finished with the support of two sweet sisters who walked with me when they could easily have gone faster. I really appreciated them. I even won a door prize - they drew for several of them. I may sign up for the one associated with Kuna Days or the one in Melba next month. Stephanie's hamburger buns were wonderful and Michelle's cupcakes were every bit as good as they looked. Made me want to get something to stuff some with good stuff when I get some made here.

Never Enough Time

We have been to Utah and back - way too quick and we wish we could have stayed longer. Grandpa and I rode down with Dean and Laura. We all wanted to visit Alice and see for ourselves how she was. We took Dean's car because it got much better gas mileage than ours, but in the end it would have been worth it to us to be able to stay and visit longer. We were happy to get to visit with Kathy and Karen. Our main purpose in going was to visit Alice and her family. The first afternoon there was very disappointing because Alice could barely open her eyes and did not speak. We felt she knew we were there - she cried when we told her who we were, but when we lef for the evening we all felt she would be lucky to survive for very long. When we went on Wednesday she was quite a bit better and we felt encouraged. Yesterday I called and she was able to talk on the phone and was sitting up in a chair and laughing at things. Now today she is right back where she was, sleeping all day, not talking barely moving around.
Keep her in your prayers, please.

Tomorrow we are going to Cody's birthday party. I got him a card but figured his birthday present wants were probably way beyond what we could do so his card will have a little money in it.

We enjoy having Muffin home and to us she seems MAYBE pregnant - but she is supposed to have these alleged puppies in about 7 days or 6, so we'll see what happens. It has turned hot so now we walk early in the morning. I bought tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloup and marigolds to plant - the marigolds, of course, go in with the tomatoes to keep tomato worms away. I also bought a chocolate mint plant - it smells wonderful - like chocolate and mint. Oh, I also bought some green pepper plants. More flowers will follow next week but must get all this planted first. My columbines are blooming and I have one poppy bud coming along. Maybe I will have some pictures to post next time.

Sorry some of you weren't here!

Well we had our empty nesters family home evening last night and it went very well. I worried because I didn't have lots of room for everyone, but they don't really care - they just have a good time eating and visiting and playing games. Our dinner turned out well. I didn't have time to make rolls so bought Mrs. Rhodes texas size whole wheat rolls. They were wonderful and I have some left for us. The pulled pork was great and we had good salads and 3 wonderful desserts. We don't pick and choose - we just all eat some of everything. I put Muffin out on the rope while we ate and when I remembered her I went out and she was not on her leash. I was afraid she had run away, but she was sitting right on the step waiting to be let in where all the fun was. She came in and entertained us for awhile and one of the guys suggested that next time we just all bring our little dogs and let them entertain us all.

My sister, Alice, is very ill and in the hospital in Provo. This is her second time in there in a very short while. Don't know what's wrong with her and they are still running tests and doing what they can. I know her family is very worried. Ruth has added me to her email list for regular updates. Kathy went to see her this morning and Aunt Alice didn't know who she was - and yet it is not alzheimers or dementia that she has.

I am continuing my daily walks with Muffin. Don't know yet if she is going to have puppies. She doesn't look very pregnant and yet sometimes she does, and her habits have changed. She gets in bed with us about 6:00 in the morning and gets up when I do or shortly after. Lately she has stayed there and slept after we are both up. This morning she didn't leave the bed until almost 8:30. Living the life of Riley!