January is OVER!

I am so relieved to be done with a long hard month. January is always tough. The store is still busy (thankfully) but I have to complete my quarterly and end of year books for the accountant. There are also quarterly and end of year forms to turn into the IRS. Which always makes me nervous. One of our employees got married at Val Vista Lakes, beautiful and so happy for him but it left us shorthanded for two weeks In the midst of it all we had three funerals to attend of people we loved. Mrs. Miller and Grandma I wrote about. Sister Keller was the other person we lost. I wasn't super close to her but I was to her children, especially Lucinda. Her kids were in the youth program in Central Ward when I served in the stake and ward Young Women's origination. Those kids were incredible and I wanted my kids to be just like them, musical, smart, kind and strong in the gospel. I watched their family closely as a young mother and many of my parenting decisions were based on those observations. My kids have them to thank for our lack of TV watching. (even though I am pretty sure they are not very grateful for that now, I hope they will be someday.)

The photo above was take after grandma's funeral. This is Ron's parents family. It was so good to see many of Ron's cousins who live out of town. Ron has 36 first cousins. When Tyler read the obituary he was so cute. There are 109 great-grandchildren. Tyler read that out loud and then said "Oh, I thought I was special!"
The funeral was so nice. Grandma had a pretty pink coffin. The stories they told of her in her life history showed off her spunky personality and her kind heart. They had on display a scrap book she had kept of all "her boys" while serving as a scout leader. They mentioned how much she loved those boys. She made them birthday cakes and kept in contact them as they grew up. Amazing for anyone but especially for a mother of six children and an Indian placement program child for seven years. It really inspired me to want to be better about letting the kids I work with know how much I love them by keeping track of them and the important things in their lives.
After the funeral and luncheon, we stopped by the Military Vehicle Club's show/fundraiser for military families at the Papago base. It is down the street from grandma's church. Ron belongs to the club and usually takes his Pinz down and volunteers. I thought this was quite a sight. Michael climbing the rock wall in his church clothes.
Amber and Tyler tried out and made Regional Choir. They found out last night, so that was a happy ending to a sad day.
Our family sang "Love at Home" in sacrament meeting today. So glad we did but more glad it is over! Ironic because during our practice Saturday afternoon Amber was upset that it was infringing on her social life. I think it sounded like we had only practiced it 3 times but that is all we dared because of the crankiness.

Hippie Chick

I don't know how people who live in cold places keep their kids in pants. I only have to pull it off for a few months before the kids are back in shorts. It feels like someone has grown out of something almost everyday. When Aubs got a hole in these pants she begged me to mend them. This seemed like a huge waste of time because they were too short. So I got the idea to add strips at the knees and add a few inches. But by the time I got it sewn up they were too tight. So I added strips along the side. But they were too short again. Aubrey was having a huge growth spurt. We just kept adding strips until the pants fit. I had planned on embellishing the pants when I was done but I like them as is. They remind me of some of the clothes the teenagers wore when I was a little girl in the 70's.

Continuous Bias Tape

I love bias tape but have never been brave enough to make my own, until NOW! My mom tried to teach me. Mrs. Hancock, my high school sewing teacher, tried to teach me. When I saw it all spelled (drawn) out at http://pir8.freeservers.com/quilting/CBT/. I felt brave enough to take the plunge. I had to ignore all of that math and concentrate on the pictures.
I think it is darling. What is cuter than polka dots! I will never go back to boring, one color, prepackaged bias tape again!

Dinner in Honor of Grandma

Grandma was a great cook and we thought we would have a few things with dinner tonight that she loved to bake and we loved to eat. Homemade bread of course and her oatmeal (bacon grease) cookies. I put in the left over breakfast oatmeal into my bread and forgot to cut back on the water. I had to keep adding flour. I thought it might go over the mixer before I was done. But it turned out excellent.
As a newly wed I found out grandma put bacon fat in her cookies. Yes they were good but I was so grossed out that I did not eat them for years. Several kids later it seems nothing can gross me out. They are the best oatmeal cookies ever! I quadruple grandma's original recipe and substitute half the bacon fat with butter. Hopefully that is a little more heart healthy. But I add an extra egg so maybe not.

One more grandma memory I would like to put down before I forget...

One spring day 5 to 6 years ago the kids and I planned a day to visit two of the grandma's. My mom had recently planted a Passion vine in her yard but she had no butterflies yet so the kids and I had gone out that morning and gently harvested lots of Gulf Fritillary (agraulis vanillae) caterpillars off my Passion Vine to take to her. On our way to Mesa we stopped by Great Grandma Johnson's home to do yard work. We spent the morning raking leaves, digging grass out of flower beds, picking up pecans and various other little tasks.
As we were leaving Grandma said to me "That plant you gave me is growing really well. But there are these little worms that keep eating it." I was very excited and replied " Oh grandma, those are caterpillars. They become beautiful butterflies!" Her response was "Well, whatever they are they are eating my plant so I go out every morning and I squash them!" All of us could not contain our horror. There was a collective gasp/shriek. My kids were kind of shell shocked. Eyes wide mouths open. We composed ourselves and got in the car. We spent most of the drive to Mesa laughing at the irony of our caterpillar relocation plan to one grandma while the other was murdering our little friends.
Gulf Fritillary visiting my home on Mother's Day 2009

Grandma Eva Johnson

This morning at 6:23 am Great Grandma Johnson passed away. She had a massive stroke Wednesday. She will be so missed. She was my grandma for over 20 years a few months shy of how long I had my maternal grandma. We are all taking comfort that we are a forever family and she led an amazing life for over 91 years. The last eight she spent wishing she was with grandpa.
I spent the first decade of our marriage hearing "you should be a pioneer woman like grandma" every time I asked Ron for help with something physically hard. I haven't heard that in a while so maybe I am getting close. But she has always been tougher than me.
Some of my favorite memories include...

Her visits to my home on 9th ave. On one visit I realized I had only ever seen her in a dress and pumps. I was a new mother and had given up on heels and lipstick. But there she was with her hair done, lipstick on, wearing a dress with matching pumps and handbag in her 70's.

Aubrey had a class assignment this year where she had to interview the oldest person she knew. Grandma won hands down. When asked what was the best invention in her lifetime she said electricity. Why? "It made all of the difference in the world!"

Touring the dairy, now bed and breakfast, where she grew up in Prescott. The owners were very gracious and it was nice to have grandma give us the grand tour. We got to hear and see where grandpa kissed her when he brought her home from dates.

Groom Creek...will always be synonymous with grandma. When Ron and I went to see her Friday she couldn't open her eyes or communicate that well but she managed to ask if there was snow at Groom Creek, pronounced Groom Crick.

The time she almost got in a fist fight at the parade. We were in Holbrook. Two women were being very rude and came and stood in front of our chairs. Grandma was so mad and was trying to get Aunt Maralynn and I to jump in the fray. Luckily Aunt M would have nothing to do with it so I hid behind her.
Doug and Eva Johnson with Amber and Tyler January 1994.

Spelling Bee Queen

It is hard to believe I contributed any genetic matter to a kid who could win a school spelling bee. I never made it out of the classroom for one of those things. The picture above was taken after winning her school spelling bee. The bottom picture is from the district spelling bee held on Jan 14th. Our district includes jr. high schools so she was bumped out pretty quick. Aubrey is one smart kid. I have warned the older children they will be working for her when she takes over the world.

What happened!

Look at what someone did to my baby boy!
The picture on the left was taken after he was blessed. The picture on the right is after he was ordained a priest in the Aaronic priesthood. I held it together the day he was ordained. I kind of forgot what that meant until the next Sunday when my baby sat up on the stand. I teared up through the whole sacrament. Then again in primary when the kids sang "I Know My Savior Loves Me" To top it off Jonas, our primary's very autistic kid jumped up from off the floor and started squealing and doing his happy dance when we started singing I am a Child of God. He was testifying in the only way he could and I felt it. It ended up being a very sniffily day for me. I talked to his teacher later, I was so surprised that he recognized a song. She confirmed that his reaction had nothing to do with what he was doing on the floor. Then I talked to his mom. She said they sing that song every night at bed time. There was no reaction this last week when we sang it again. So now it really feels like a special treat.

You only get to live in happy teary land so long before your kids check you back into the reality of motherhood. Amber leaned over this last week as the sacrament was beginning and in a mocking tone said, "Are you going to cry again?" I was sure I did not!