Keeping The Ties That Bind

This morning as I walked on the treadmill, I was reading Rachel Simon's book, Building a Home With My Husband.  Some of you, especially those in my book group, may remember her other book Riding the Bus With My Sister, and since they made a TV movie out of it, with Rosie O'Donnell & my husband's favorite Andie MacDowell, others of you might, too.  Rachel's books are personal.  Her relationships with her family have in the past been strained.  Some of her thoughts, got me to thinking about our relationships with family and friends, even with perfect strangers (Rachel Simon, married a "perfect stranger", which is a great story!).

First... family. 

Both sides of my family (via my grandparents) thought that it was very important to remain as close as possible to each other, therefore both sets of my grandparents opened their homes to anyone and everyone that wanted to come and visit each and every Sunday evening.  My maternal grandparents always prepared a little dinner for their two children and spouses and their 9 grandchildren  in their tiny 2 bedroom duplex.  The size of their home never seemed to matter, it just seemed to keep us closer to each other.  Sometimes even neighbors would come by for a visit because they knew we would all be there each week.  It was cozy and warm and inviting.

My paternal grandparents, had 8 children and spouses and around 45 grandchildren (one of my cousins will have to let me know how many for sure, since I lost count).  Can you imagine doing dinner for all of them each week?  Neither could they, so they had cookies and juice or milk.  I remember the conversations as always being stimulating and insightful.  I especially enjoyed the gospel topics that would arise from Sunday School lessons that day.

I think it is wonderful that my aunts and uncles (those that are still living) continue to get together each month for lunch.  It used to be dinner and they would rotate homes, but as they have aged, it has become lunch so they don't have to drive at night, and they now meet at a restaurant so no one has to cook.  They are still a big part of each other's lives.

I love that many of my cousins have come to my children's wedding receptions and that my children can name all of my aunts and uncles (we have a rhyme about them, so that helps).  They have been and continue to be a huge part of my life.

Second, friends.

I have recently moved (it still seems recent, although it is getting longer), we moved from the block I grew up on.  Many of my neighbors there were my neighbors when I grew up.  Some were somewhat newer, as in they have only lived there the last 10 or 12 years.   I only moved 4 blocks away, but it feels like I moved across town.  No more talks over the back fence, no more seeing them walk the dog past my house everyday, no more seeing the new porch decorations, or taking the garbage cans out to the curb together.  These neighbors "open their hearts and lives to me", as Rachel Simon says in her book.  I miss them.

My new neighbors, although I am sure are nice people, if I could get to know them, choose to keep to themselves.  These new neighbors, as Rachel says, "...appear not to care that they live beside other people".  This bothers me.  This is why I am thinking about having a Christmas Open House for my neighbors.  It's a good year to host a neighbor party because I am not having to host a Christmas Open House for my husband's office.  Maybe we can begin to make this feel like our old neighborhood felt, just a little.  And maybe I'll invite a few of the old neighbors so I can keep the ties that bind us together.

Rescued!

This will probably only mean something to me and to my cousin, Jana.

When we were little girls, maybe 8 & 10 years old, we got to stay over night with our beloved grandmother... as we often did.  We loved to stay with her because she made everything enchanted.  She let us set up houses in her lilac bushes, allowing us to take her bathroom rugs out and our little wicker chairs and stools that she bought for each of us, but remained at her house for our use when we came to play.  She made us warm Tang in cute little china teapots and pitchers and we had cookies and drank Tang out of her real little antique tea cups at our little tea parties.  She took us on shopping excursions to Auerbachs and ZCMI.  We loved riding the escalators (we never took the elevators... she was claustrophobic you see).  We loved trying on clothes and twirling in the mirror for Grandma.  She even bought us beautiful nightgowns that twirled and we used them to dance all around her living room.  And we loved to eat lunch with grandpa and her at the Tiffin Room.  I always got grilled halibut... my favorite... grandma's, too!

Anyway, this time we went shopping with her, we found the most beautiful little baby doll.  She was probably 8 to 10 inches long.  Had a beautiful china head, white long dress like a blessing gown, and a lovely delicately crocheted bonnet.  We begged for her!  And as all good grandmothers do... she bought her for us.  Now, because there were 2 of us and only one of her, she was to remain at grandma's... although I think she may have been allowed a holiday to each of our homes once in awhile ;)

We wanted to give her a name... who knows, we may have even given her a blessing... we named her Zora Cumorah Matilda Isadora... or Z. C. M. I.  We loved her!

When I was older with little girls of my own, I found a doll that looked just like her.  I, of course, had to have her for my little girls!  And I, of course, had to name her Zora Cumorah Matilda Isadora II.   I used her to tell my daughters (and my old Activity Day Girls) about Zora Cumorah Matilda Isadora I.  She sits on my bed each day next to Eloise.  Why I have Eloise on my bed is another family story, which I will have to tell another day, because today is about Z.C.M.I.  Any who... she sits on my bed everyday.  While we were gone this week to Palm Springs for work (and play), my daughter and her husband stayed with the 2 kids that are still at home.  They were good sports to do it for us, especially since they are newly weds!  This morning I went to make my bed... I tucked the sheets... pulled up the quilt... put on the decorative pillows... put Eloise in her spot... where is Z.C.M.I.?  I looked... and looked... and looked.... under the bed... around the bed... under the covers... texted daughter (who was sure the silly dog had taken her) but alas, she was nowhere!   Then I thought about it... everything else had been by my chest of drawers and ... the garbage can... yikes!  Had the truck come yet?!  Was she about to head for the dump?!  I heard a truck coming... looked out... yard clippings truck... hurry, hurry, hurry.... throw clothes on... slip shoes on... run downstairs.... out to the street... garbage can was still there with the garbage in it... lucky for me the bag with garbage from our room was near the top, I recognized it because it had stuff from my dear husband's dry cleaning.  I reach it, pull a few things from the bag (and put them in the recycling container... oh, dear husband) and I hear something hit the edge of the can from the bag I'm still holding, could it be her china head?  It was!!  She is rescued!  My memories are saved!

I wish I knew how to post pictures here (one of my kids will have to show me how someday), because if I did know how, you would see Zora Cumorah Matilda Isadora II sitting next to Eloise on my bed...  no signs of stress... gently sleeping away...
I wonder if she knows that she almost went to the dump?  Like the Velveteen Rabbit... she is loved... so she is.. maybe... just a little... real.

I am not Super Woman

Life has been extremely busy of late.  I know, it's ALWAYS busy at our house, but it has been overwhelmingly busy the last couple of months.  Hannah got married, I was asked to join the Holiday Quilt Board for IHC Research and Medical Foundation (formerly known as the Desert Foundation), while continuing to try and be a wife of the Stake president, mother of the 2 children still at home, do my Visiting Teaching, and help with the Primary program.   I confess that I am not doing a very good job of any of these.  When the hives broke out that is when I learned Lesson #1... that I am not Super Woman... who knew? 

I actually like being busy, I always have, that is why I have always been involved with the PTA.  Ever since my oldest was in elementary school I have been a room mother, and just about every PTA/PTSA Board position there is, including President... twice... at the Jr. High.  Most of my friends have done the same.  I feel comfortable there, with my PTA friends.  I know how it all works.  I know every one's strengths and their weaknesses and.... sorry to say... they know mine.  I love them all and they have learned to love me.  And somehow we have all meshed into a great team.  Our talents have all complimented each other and compensated for each other.  And I have never worried much that the school activities wouldn't all work out great!  Which they have!  These are some really talented ladies I have worked with!

But, now... a new school.  My youngest son decided that he wanted to attend a different school than his siblings have all attended.  I have seen a few familiar faces from the Middle School, but I have felt a little uneasy because I don't recognize everyone and there are all new teachers (except 2 who transferred from the middle school and my old boy friend... yep... old boy friend teaches there, too, but I'm used to that... he transferred from the high school my other children attended).  Youngest son is not the best student.  He's smart, but forgetful about dates and turning things in on time, and I have struggled for years to try and get him organized.  My 2nd son was the same way and he didn't get it until half way through his Junior year.  I'm praying this one gets it before then.  But the problem is, there is no history with these new teachers.  They don't know my family... they don't know my other kids (my daughters, who always get things done in a timely manner and have been student body officers, and in choir and debate and my oldest son, who was captain of the golf team, and is also a good basketball player or even my 2nd son who is extremely talented at making movies and was on the high school TV show and did an internship at Spy Hop, and has won awards for some of his movies and has a web-cast with one of his friends , that gets viewed all over the world and is especially liked in Japan), and... they don't know me.  It's a little frightening being the new kid on the block (and I'm talking about me, not Youngest Son).

Throw in a wedding... of a daughter... a daughter who has had an opinion about every tiny detail of her wedding.  I never did with my own wedding.  Well, I might have had an opinion, but was too busy with school and work, so I was happy to let my mother take over that job, and it was all just lovely without my input.

Then, just a few weeks before the wedding, I was asked to be on the Quilt Board.  "Okay," I think, "Quilt Show and Auction are every-other-year, and the next show is in November, so I'm sure they are all ready for it and that I will just observe and learn so that I can help with the next show in 2013."  Wrong!  Would I help with the displays of the quilts?  I meet two wonderful ladies who I will be working with.  They have been working on this project for 2 years.  They know the names of all the quilts.  They have seen it all done before.  I don't know anything.  They ask me to be in charge of 5 quilts and then just for fun, would I be in charge of over-seeing the set up of the Christmas Section?  The Christmas Section!!  I don't even really like Christmas!  I know, everyone loves Christmas... except me.  I love Halloween!  And although I am in charge of the displays for 3 of the quilts in the Christmas Section, I don't really know what they have planned for the displays of the other 5 quilts, whose names I can never remember, even if they have told me before.

Ohhhh yes, and to make it even more chaotic, or maybe I should make that "caustic", let's throw in a Stake Social the day after the Quilt Show starts!  Yikes!

This is when the hives arrived!  And this is when I realized that I am not Super Woman, or Wonder Woman, or even Bat Girl!  And now I'm dealing with the hives, too.  Itch, itch, itch... antihistamine... relief... itch, itch... more antihistamine...

Today, I am breathing a little easier but I'm tired!

The wedding is over.  It went pretty well... except for the group of invitations that got lost in the mail... sorry, if you never got yours.  We tried, and you were not alone.  We just got one returned from California this last Friday... only 2 weeks after the wedding or is it 3?  I've lost track.

The Quilt Show got set up... with lots of help from the other board members and their sisters and mothers... and mine.  There were only a few hurt feelings... but I won't go into that here.

The Stake Social was Saturday.  It went off with only one little hitch... Subway sandwiches cut our 12" sandwiches in half, when they were supposed to cut them in thirds.  They did realize it before we went to pick them up, but we had to order more sandwiches to make up for it.

I realized I was tired... just today... while I was on the treadmill (which I haven't had time nor energy to do for a couple of weeks).  My mind wanted to go longer so I could read my book (yes, I read on the treadmill), but my body just couldn't do it.  I need to save what is left of my strength for tonight.  I'm hosting at the Quilt Show.  Please come see me and those really, really beautiful quilts!!  The cost is only $5 and it goes to a great cause... medical research, and medical devices, etc... which may save your life or the life of someone you love someday.  If I'm asleep and/or itching when you get there, just smile and give me a little nudge so I'll wake up.  If you can't come tonight, come another time.  It goes from 9:30am - 8:30pm from now through Thursday at The Little America on the Mezzanine Level (2nd floor).  Bring your friends, sister(s), mothers or even husband... you'll love it!!  You might even like my displays.

Appreciating What I've Got

I know I should be working on wedding things, since Hannah's wedding is Friday, after all, but I took a few minutes to do something I've been needing to do and a little breather for me.  I got out in the front yard to plant the flowers I bought 3 weeks ago.  I was digging and composting and enjoying one of the last days with a hint of the past summer ( I hear it may get cold & rainy this week).  A group of students from the school near us were also out enjoying one of the last warm days, as they headed up the street on a field trip.  As I was working, I heard one of the moms who was with the group say, "Wow, wouldn't you love to have a house like that?  I would."  I looked up to see what house she was talking about... yep, it was mine.  That was good for me to hear, since I don't appreciate it like I should.  I miss my old house, and my old neighbors, and even though I know what a  nice house this really is, I needed to hear it from someone else today.  I needed to be reminded of my blessings, which are abundant!  Way more than I deserve!  And to say a little "Thank you," to my generous Heavenly Father, "sorry I haven't been as appreciative as I should have been".

Reflecting

Today it has been 10 years since our country was attacked by terrorists.  It doesn't feel like it has been 10 years, I remember it like it was yesterday.

Lynn was in CA on business.  I was driving my then 14 year old son to the high school and listening to the radio... KSL... like I do every morning.  They had just gotten word that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  My husband had just been there a week or two before, staying at the Marriott Hotel right by there.  Later they had to tear down that Marriot because it was so badly damaged from the fall of the Twin Towers.

I remember thinking that it must have been a small plane, probably with engine troubles... simply an accident.  Then, the radio announcers said, there was more breaking news... a 2nd plane had just hit the other tower.  I knew right then... this was no accident!  I began to cry.  What did this mean for our country?  What did this mean for us?  Someone was attacking our dear country!

I was shaken!  Should I send my children to school?  I wanted to gather all my loved ones around me.  I wanted to keep them all safe.  I went ahead and took my son to school and as I returned to our home, I was making a  plan on what I would do, if it looked like whoever was attacking, was attacking across the country.  I would retrieve my son.  I would not send the other kids to school, I would locate Lynn and make a plan to get him home to Utah.

When I reached home, I called my husband's cell phone... no answer.  Did he know we were under attack?  CA was an hour behind us in time, so it was only about 6:40am there where he was.  Was he still asleep not realizing that the world was falling apart that day?  I left a message to turn on the TV and to call me ASAP.  He didn't call for about an hour.  He had not gotten my message (no surprise there... he wasn't very good at checking messages).  He had gone to the local Ernst and Young office across the street for his scheduled meeting, but there was a sign on the door that the office was closed.  "That's weird," he thought, "that they would call us out here for a meeting and then close the office!"  Then a security guard told him what had happened, so he went back to the hotel and asked for his room back, and then he called me.  It had been about an hour since I had called him.  I told him to turn on the TV, updated him on all I knew from news reports, and told him that all planes were grounded and that he would not be flying home.  It was a good thing that he had gotten his room back, because all the hotels filled up quickly.  We decided that we would leave the kids in school until more information became available.

While I was waiting for Lynn to call me back, I had also called my parents (I woke them up) and my sister.  They were all in shock, like I was... like the whole country was... like the whole world was!

I felt like a zombie the rest of the day.  I was in the "zone".  I watched the TV all day and night.  I worried that I was traumatizing my little 4 year old, watching the horrific events all day... but I couldn't stop.  I watched as the second tower was hit, as the first tower fell, as the Pentagon was hit, as the 2nd tower fell, as Flight 93 crashed in PA... I cried... and I watched in horror.  I saw things falling out of the tower before it collapsed, never dreaming that they were people jumping.  Thank heavens it didn't compute... that would have sent me over the edge.  And I watched it over and over, and over again... I just couldn't stop... when would it end?  And then it hit me... the horror of it would never end.  We were living in a big piece of history.

The next day, as I was taking son #2 to the high school, I was stopped at the intersection at 6th Ave. & B Street, just as the neighborhood firetruck went up the street.  A large flag of the United States of America was blowing out behind it.  I got all emotional and tears fell... again.

Lynn ended up driving home from CA the next day with a friend he had run into and 2 others.  The friend had a rental car.  That was also a blessing, since all the rental cars were soon sold out, by people trying to get home to their families.  Lynn's car was still at our local airport in short term parking, and when he retrieved it they still charged him.  Even though the whole world had stopped for awhile, apparently airport parking still kept charging.  Oh the irony.

Three years later when we went to Europe to pick up Son #1 from his LDS mission, I had a great time, but I remember telling my husband I was going to kiss the ground when I got back in the USA.  There is no place like it!  It is a wonderful place to live!

Wedding Plans

As my #1 daughter (by age not fav) is nearing her wedding, I'm getting just a little anxious.  So much to do, so little time.  We were just about to finalize with the caterer, when we were invited by our reception facility to an Open House with a new caterer they are working with.  So do we wait until the end of next week to make a decission or just go with the other?  The Open House is having a tasting of their fare.  Could be better than what we're looking at, but I'd feel better if we had a decission under our belt and a contract with someone and not spending a fortune.  My husband would be happy, too, about not spending a fortune.

Dress fitting tonight!  Exciting!  She'll make a beautiful bride!  Hope the seamstress got it right.  I'm a little worried, since the first lady we worked with retired just after our first fitting.  This gal kind-of jumped in mid-stream.  She seemed nice, but nice doesn't always mean good at measuring.  Daughter #1 has a nice long body.  (Wish I did, too!)

Invitations...  ahhhhhh... pulling hair out!  Will look lovely, but need time to work on them.  Need to have them done by next week and ready to mail.  We may be a little late getting them out.  Scary!

But when all is said and done... the temple is the really important part.  The rest is just for fun.  The couple are in love.  They are both really cute with each other and I think it will be like the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program is every year... it will surprise us and all work out ok in the end... with lots of prayers!

Hooked on Decorating Blogs

Today I found a bunch of new (to me) decorating blogs.  I'm hooked!!  Got some great ideas from some fantastic ladies!  House of Turquise is one of my favorites!  Wish I had found some of these before I finished decorating my old house.  I need a new house to work on as soon as I get the current one I'm working on finished... and some money to do it.

My creativity sometimes needs to be rebooted and looking at decorating magazines, visitng the Parade of Homes, and these blogs lights a fire under me!  Todays blogs makes me want to visit the DI and buy some paint!