Labor Day Weekend, last day

Monday was nice too. I worked some on the chairs I have been refinishing. I was hoping to get them done before Curly's farewell on Sunday.

Baby Doll's car, the old green Mazda Protégé finally died. Thankfully, our mechanic and long-time friend had another little car he was trying to sell. I was happy to give him what he asked for this cute Toyota. It's a 2006, so that's quite an improvement to the 1994 Mazda.

I also finished the quilt Curly and I made for his girlfriend. She absolutely loved it!

I made a new recipe, a Mississippi Pot roast. It was delicious! I also prepared this Tupperware for the Welby Elementary silent auction.

And of course, we played Monopoly...

It was the perfect Labor Day weekend.

Labor Day Weekend, part 2

Sunday was nice and rather quiet.  After church, we watched The Newsies.

I didn't have to cook because we had pulled out a bag of sweet pork from the freezer. That gave me plenty of time to play a rousing game of Monopoly with the kids.

I also finished binding the quilt with the blocks the kids made at the family campout. I think it turned out really cute. Dog Walker wanted you to show you the back as well.

Happy Sabbath!!

Labor Day Weekend, part 1

Last year's Labor Day weekend was pretty rough, but with Curly getting ready to leave on his mission, I wanted to make this one memorable. On Friday night, Curly, Baby Doll, and I did baptisms at the Jordan River Temple. It was the first time Curly was able to baptize and confirm us.

On Saturday morning, we got up early and Curly drove 6 of us to Ephraim for the new temple open house. It was me, Baby Doll, Scout and her best friend, K, Curly, and his girlfriend. H.

We got there just after 11 and the lines were already long.

We stood in the sun for about 2 hours before we got in. 

The temple was so beautiful; inside and out. 

After that, I let Baby Doll drive us all to Mt.Pleasant. It is the first time she drove a two-lane highway, and she handled it like a champ, even though some people were a little nervous to have her behind the wheel.

I promised the kids we would eat lunch at the Dairy Freeze,  but it also had long lines and it was about an hour before we finally got food.

I love supporting family, but our stop almost made us late for the birthday party Crafty and Craftsman held for their cute little dogs.  I didn’t get any pics except this one H took.

But I love this fun pic Crafty took of her pups a few days ago.

We had grilled chicken and shrimp, brownies, watermelon and mac n cheese. After dinner, the kids played a game while I stitched up several holes in Crafty's new used couch. 

We had stopped at the house and Sport did the driving to Bountiful and back. When we got home, I put my first 2 pints of beans in the canner before I worked on the binding of a quilt while Dog Walker read to me. 

It was a full and fun day...except for the sunburn and sore feet.

Remembering

Last year, this exact day, was the last full day of my sweetie's life.

He was really sick by then, mostly sleeping and in a lot of pain. He could no longer swallow pills, so I would slip the Dilaudid inside his lower lip and within minutes, he would settle into sleep again.

We knew his time was short and I reminded the kids to say goodnight and goodbye before they went to sleep. I wasn't expecting him to make it through the night. It had been exactly 10 days since we brought him home from Huntsman and pretty much what the doctor had predicted.

We were not surprised although I spent the first week listening to him say things like, "I don't feel like I'm really dying." It was hard not to fall into the false hope that maybe, just maybe, his life would be preserved.

We had both known from that moment in the ER that he would not live through this trial and that the time would be short. Not 7 weeks short, but that was all we got.

After the kids were all in bed, I still sat beside his hospital-style bed. I just wanted to feel his warmth, watch his chest rise and fall. His breathing was labored and I knew it wouldn't be long. He woke for a moment, begging for pain meds which I quickly gave. He mumbled something about not leaving me, but I told him it was time to go.

I sensed that he would not pass until I left the room, so I kissed him softly, said goodbye, and slipped his cpap on to help him sleep. Then I walked the 20 feet into our shared office, carefully leaving the door open. It was just past midnight.

You might think I was upset or shattered, but I wasn't. Not then. It was peaceful, imminent, right.

I couldn't concentrate, so I sat there, listening to him struggle to breathe.  I turned on my computer, but I just stared at our picture on the homescreen.

It wasn’t long before his breathing pattern changed; almost like he was snoring, but it wasn't natural. I knew it was just the machine breathing for him and as soon as I turned it off, his warmth would slip away.

Those steps back into the livingroom might have been the longest 20 feet I have ever walked. I hit the switch to stop the noise and gently removed the cpap from his face. That amazing, beautiful face that had been my constant for almost half a century. I pressed my cheek to his as the tears ran down and pooled between us. His hand still held a bit of warmth, but it was slowly slipping away. In my brain, I knew I should call the kids, but selfishly, I kept these precious moments just for me.

There was plenty of time for phone calls and mourning. Plenty more in the days, weeks, and months to come. I was tired, oh so tired, but there wouldn't be any sleep. Not then...not now.

Playing Volleyball

I want to share some pics from the last few volleyball games. Baby Doll is playing some awesome ball and she is now playing strictly JV. She is #33.

How about a short video?

Not her best video, but I never manage to film the great plays. I am too busy watching them!!

Scout's New Look

Scout finally agreed to visit the amazing woman who transforms my hair and Baby Doll's hair.

Look at how beautiful that worked out for her! And honestly, the pics don't even begin to do her new "do" justice.

 

Guest Blog: Wordless Wednesday: Happy Heavenly Birthday Dad by the Dog Walker.

 We still miss you, Dad! Happy Birthday up in heaven. You would've been 63 this year on Earth. I hope you're having a good time with your heavenly grandsons.

Missing SO Much - Alumni Banquet and Ballgame Fundraiser

I already told you that Baby Doll made Bingham's volleyball team the last week in July. They started practicing right away and they had a parent meeting that very first week. The second week was the annual fundraiser and banquet. They had a silent auction (I bought the Bees tickets there), a catered meal similar to Mo' Bettahs, and an Alumni volleyball game. Members who played in former years at Bingham signed up to play the current teams. Baby Doll was nervous, but excited to potentially see some of her friends from last year.

We showed up early to help set up and I ended up working the entire night at the apparel/merch table and the treats table. At some point, Scout and her friend, K, showed up and they were also convinced that they could help. It was so crazy! 

Really.

I did get a few minutes to watch Baby Doll play, but only from my vantage point at the apparel table. She did such a good job as usual. I love being her cheerleader. Although, I spent $28 for a team shirt and I wore it that night, but now Baby Doll has two team shirts, apparently...

By the time the evening was over, I was exhausted, but not nearly as tired as my friend, affectionately called Mama Jo by the girls. She was in charge of the whole ginormous party. I did donate and prepare a nice set of Tupperware bowls for the silent auction and they brought in $150 for the team, so I felt pretty good about that. 

All in all, we had a great (exhausting) time.

Bees Game

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a set of tickets to the Bees game through the auction set up by the volleyball team (something else I forgot to post about). These tickets were for the game on Aug 21st. I didn't realize at the time that both Curly and Sport would be in Denver watching the Broncos lose a pre-season game to the Packers. (They still had fun...)

So I convinced Scout and Baby Doll to come with me to the game as well as Curly's girlfriend, H.

We had so much fun!

They tossed half a dozen t-shirts into the crowd and Baby Doll caught one of them.

We left during the 8th inning, but by then the Bees had a solid win with the score at 11-1.

The new Bees stadium is small, but super nice although I was less than impressed with the cheeseburgers.

Our little girls night out was definitely worth the auction price.

Freezing Corn

As usual, our corn came on all at once. I'm so not complaining, I am excited to show you our first real canning activity of the year.

After Skittles football game, Dog Walker and I picked all the ripe corn. We didn't count, but I suspect we had about 50 ears. He helped me shuck it all before he had to go to work. Fortunately, Scout had offered to cut all the corn with the mandoline.

She always does awesome work, so after I blanched them for 3 minutes, she would cut them, and I would bag all that beautiful corn.

Then she was finished, I scraped each cob with a spoon to get all those tiny bits left by the cutter. These became 3 bags of creamed corn.

Besides that, we filled 13 qt-sized bags with cut corn.

It was a beautiful harvest.

Wordless Wednesday - Twinzees Love Babies

First Day of School

Just Baby Doll and a couple in college.

What will I ever do with all this free time?

Ordaining Curly

As you all know, Curly turned 18 last week. On Sunday, we sustained him in Stake Conference and then right before the family party, Dog Walker ordained him to the office of Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Then we had a delicious feast. Since my sweetie would have turned 63 the end of this month, I asked all the kids to bring foods that reminded them of their dad. It was so fun to see all of their thoughts. Grandpa even came over to enjoy the food.

After everyone ate, Curly and Sport arranged all the boxes and things they had been saving on the porch so the other kids could go through them and take home some things that reminded them of their dad.

When we finally had all the leftovers put away and everyone had headed to their homes, we sat at the kitchen table to play our nightly game of Monopoly.

Baby Doll worked all weekend making a special one just for Curly... Familyopoly!! Seriously, it is amazing!

Happy Ordination Day, Curly. So proud of you!