Familial Research and Development

Another kid, asking another question. This kid didn't do a lot of the 'why' questions when little. Sure is making up for it now. Why do you hang your clothes on the line? Good question. I thought and kept taking the dry clothes down, folding them as I went along. Why do I? Hmmm... Do you do it to save energy? to save money? Hmmm... Do I do it to waste time? Do I do it to prove a point? Do I do it because I can? Outside, I get vitamin D in the sun. My clothes smell fresher. Dove used to love towels that had been dried in the sun. He would scratch his back after a shower with it. Someone at work asked why I don't just hire a neighborhood boy to mow the lawn. Good question, why? My response is that I have to keep active. When I start stopping, I'll stop starting. I'll lose more and more of my independence. When I die, I want to die because I wore myself out-doing good things, right things, good things in a right way. I don't want to just be there like the '...

We have an oak tree in the backyard. About five years ago the root hit ground water and it grew exponentially. It now prolifically produces acorns. The last couple of years I would pay my grandkids a penny for each acorn they picked up. I would shell out about $8-10 each season. It's good for them to learn how to earn money and it was good for me to not have a forest growing in my lawn (which the lawn mower will keep at a height of about three inches). Well, I haven't had any eager beavers this year who want to earn money by picking up my acorns. So, whaddaya do, eh? Pick them up yourself. However, those grandkids are a LOT shorter and therefore closer to the ground so the bending over isn't so hard for them. I could rake them into a pile and pick them up. Yeah-that's kind of like what we did to pick up the kids' Lego's when they were little. The acorns are about as pesky to walk on in the lawn as was the kids Lego's on the carpet. Now, wait a minute. Carpet...

One of my little girls, who was growing older and not so little anymore asked me why everyone calls her 'given name-ie'. I explained it was a way for people who met her and could see her loving and accepting personality to express their reciprocal love. Her name had become a term of endearment from them to her. Recently at a family gathering we were sitting, standing and visiting when the inevitable 'old' stories popped up. Some families when these stories pop up, family members are offended, hurt, and the stories drive them apart. Thank Heavens our family isn't like that. We laugh and cajole back and forth-never in a malicious manner. Here are some of the stories. Child number one, at age 1 year while I was cleaning out the refrigerator, reached for the bottle of Tabasco sauce. Yes, I kept it in the fridge. Anything I didn't know was safe to leave in a cupboard I kept in the fridge. He reached in, took it out and was determined to drink that very pretty red sau...

We plan, but we don't over plan. We intend and we follow through on our good intentions (mostly). We planned to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. We planned it for Friday the 25th. No one made reservations. After a few phone calls between sisters, sisters-in-law, friends, whatever... ...a text was sent out that we would attend the Jordan River Temple. Three of us left the park and ride as scheduled. We arrived at the Temple a little earlier than anticipated (the traffic flowed in our favor). We waited. And waited. And one stepped outside to make a call. Returned to us and we waited some more. Finally two arrived-stuck in traffic. Then the five of us changed our clothes. Three of us 'beat the rush' and waited in the chapel. And waited. And one stepped outside and downstairs and back to the locker room and found the other two waiting in line. She returned and we waited. The session was about to begin, the company left, and we waited. Finally just as we thought we would wait ...

I've read this e-mail before and yes, every time I do I get tears. The first few times I've read it my initial thoughts were of gratitude and shared blessings. This time I read it, I got a new layer of understanding. Someone taking the talents they were given, and because they were such a good steward and right with themselves, God and fellow man-knew what to do with the next blessing. Proving again a good steward. Another comment after the e-mail. The Sack Lunches I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought. Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me. 'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're ...

Wednesday I called IKEA to find out if the mirror doors were in-not yet, but due any day so call every day. Thursday I called IKEA. The mirror doors were in. I read Janele’s e-mail-Aaron was working in Salt Lake. I called Janele and between the two of us we kind of figured out the logistics to get the mirror doors from there to here. We just needed to get hold of David too. I called him. No answer. So he was on a bus that would take him to Payson and I wouldn’t be able to catch him before his stop in Springville. The plan Janele and I worked out, was I would pick him up in Springville and call Nel to let her know we were on our way and we’d meet her at IKEA. I called David and left a message. I called David and didn’t leave a message. I called David and didn’t leave a message. I called one last time as I was half-way to Springville and he ANSWERED! For a moment and all I could say was ‘Get off the bus in Springville!’ and then the connection was gone. Oh! Frustration! Gloom, despair an...

I had been married a good two full years and we were expecting our second child. I was going through the disillusionment period all young marrieds (I think they all do at least) go through. My hubby (as wonderful as he was and is) didn't seem to do and say and be what I thought he should be. I was really the only one ever dissatisfied-I know that's pretty bad. Ungrateful. Stupid. I don't care how you label it. It's been 36 years and I have a totally different perspective. At one point-after that two years it finally dawned on me that the day dreaming I'd been doing for the past year or so (what if I would have married John? Steve? Wayne? Keith? naw-forget Keith-he was Catholic and it NEVER would have worked. Jack? Naw-he was too much of a rake and a rambler); finally I realized that all I had to do was to imagine any one of those 'wonderful' men dealing with a messy diaper, me with my hair messed up when I first wake, morning breath, a meal not to their liki...

She would have just loved it. She would have delighted and reveled in it. This is what families are all about. She was probably here and probably smiling and full of gladness-the eternal joy that comes from families working on being eternal. She was born on September 23, 1926. She would have turned 83 years old this year. She loved to make friends and was more of a social butterfly at heart-just no way to make it happen in real life. She loved babies. The first time I saw her talking to my firstborn when he was only two months old I was aghast! Not at her-at me. She said more to him in 20 minutes about how darling he was and how handsome etc. etc. than I had said in two months. I didn't know you could talk to babies-they didn't appear to understand and seemed to be little more than animated dolls to me. Boy I learned a bucket load about her and babies in that twenty minutes! Swinging in the blue swing. Just enjoying the day, the weather, the people. So peaceful. You can't l...

While at IKEA we started with lunch, wandered longer than I wanted to, talked with the sales associate to get the order for the wardrobes for the office (he printed the sheet with the parts locations), from him found that the other cabinet I wanted was in kitchens, went to the display area of a kitchen and talked to an associate there, but that wasn’t the right place, was led to the right place, talked with the associate there, David spotted the cabinet I was wanting, the associate helped me pick out a door, and then we placed the order for the kitchen cabinet, which we will use in the office, bedroom and the craft room, he then printed out the sheet and we were able to pay the kitchen cabinet and door there. The stock was then being pulled and would be waiting for us when we finished getting the lighting for our new wardrobes and pulling our wardrobes from the self-serve stock area. Janele took Mathew out to the car to nurse him. Valerie and Solomon were playing in the children’s play...

I picked Mary & Valerie up to take them to see the Wizard of Oz. They had looked forward to the activity with great enthusiasm so needless to say we had a great time. Aaron had talked with Janele and said something about does your mom realize or how is she going to handle it when Mary wants to run up and down the aisles (like she does at movies). Janele said that her mom wouldn’t let her get away with that. It never became an issue. When we were at the play Mary didn’t have mom and dad with her who knew her games and what she likes and doesn’t like so she felt a little insecure. After all how often has she been so far away from mom and dad, not known how to get back to them and HAD to rely on someone else for her safety and security? Once we found our seats she climbed right up onto my lap and stayed there the whole time. I had offered to change her diaper before the play began but she didn’t want to. By the time intermission came around my leg was soaked. During intermission we da...

Babers and D played in the yard for a while, on the train (of course). Dove the grand grandpa, had installed a cowbell and rope and those boys were going to enjoy it to the fullest. Soon they were playing in the sandbox. Babers was getting as much sand out of the box as in it. D eventually took his sandals off and actually sat in the box and enjoyed the sand. He played out there for a full two hours. When he was finally full of it he folded up the doors to the sandbox and came indoors. He's 5 and he didn't have to be reminded. He just did it. Babers had played outside for about twenty minutes and he was full so he came inside to play with the train table. He set up some of the buildings and cars and then he said he needed trees and opened a drawer, started putting the trees up and said, “So much trees! So much trees!” It was so cute watching him put the trees up. His big and awkward nearly three-year old hands didn’t bump and knock them down as he was setting more up like they ...

I had a good twenty minutes before my next event so I sat and watched the kittens and Barbie. Barbie was fascinated with a very slowly moving one inch long black object on the floor of the garage. She went over to it to investigate. She watched for a second, determined it was a live insect and thinking it must taste no worse than grasshoppers she started to bite it. But all of a sudden she backed off and ran away heading outside shaking her head the whole way like she had a very bad taste in her mouth. She tried water, wasn’t good enough, a scrap of food, wasn’t good enough and went out to work through it all. Next Coco came wandering into the garage and amazingly he too saw that this slow moving inch long object was out of place and so had to investigate. He stuck his delicate and sensitive little nose down near it and quickly backed off, ran for the door, threw himself down on a rug and rubbed himself like he was trying to get rid of or pick up a strong scent. Okay-now my curiosity ...