Happy Mother's Day.....

....to my mom. On this day I will visit her and tell her in person what it has meant to me that she is my mom and thank her for teaching me well. There are some things I fall short in like housekeeping, charity, service etc.....but these are the things I admire in her but I am grateful that she gave me the opportunity to take piano lessons. I think of her each time I play the piano in Relief Society or Primary and I'm so grateful to her that I got to have that music in my life. My piano teachers were dreadful but they got the job done. I'm sure they were fine ladies but I only knew them as stern teachers that "made" me learn and I'm grateful for Piano Teacher mothers that know how to drill it in. I'm also grateful to my mom for allowing me to spend my summer of 7th grade walking up to the Woodward Annex to take typing lessons from Mrs. Empey. As I sit here typing, I'm filled with gratitude that I have this skill and when I fall short on other skills, it always brings satisfaction to my mind that I can type 100 words a minute....so thanks to my mom and these teacher moms. There's lots more I could mention....she taught me to wear lipstick every day and a nightgown to bed and to always be well groomed (not sure why she didn't want me to shave my legs) but I try to be like her and look nice (at least out in public).  She is a wonderful example to a lot of people and she was shown that in the recent birthday party we had where over 100 people showed up at her house to tell them that they love her. There are a lot of self-help books on mothering but the best lessons come from our own moms. Because she loved me and gave me her all, I wanted to do the same for my own. I remember wanting to share every minute of their cute little lives with her and I called her a lot for advice but mostly, all we want from our moms is validation. She always gave me that and I always felt she loved my children as much as I did. She helped me through the toughest of times when Scott was sick and she was there for me in some happy times when we traveled to Europe as he wanted to get some of that whilst he was young so she tended my kids a lot or I should say, loved my kids a lot while I was gone.  She always felt my joy and pain in love and lost love, crying with me for days when we Scott and I broke up and rejoicing when we married and she still hurts for me because he is gone but is also happy with me that I've found love again. We mothers kinda live our lives through our children by default. She always welcomed my friends, most of them. If there were some that weren't good for me, somehow I knew it. She still prays for me today, well actually for all of us even the greats and the grands. She's a woman of faith, endurance and a heart of gold and has given us her all for a whole lot of years. Love you mom......thanks for teaching me how to "mom" these kids.....

They are awesome kids....none of them are half-baked. Not sure why I said that but they are well done and well rounded and are wonderful parents themselves. They all have perfect spouses....well no not perfect but perfect for each one of them and that's so important to a mom. All I ever wanted was happy children and right now, I think they all are. I'm sure they have tough times, but they work through that because they have each other.  They all know I'm willing to do anything I can to help them just like my mom did for me.

My "in-town kids" took me to lunch for Mother's Day.....and I loved it. It's all a mom wants is a little of their time....They all have such busy schedules and I was very honored to have lunch at Benja's on them. They all have more money than I do so I was totally willing to oblige their generous offer. It was good to get caught up as there still are some things I don't hear about. I get a lot from Instagram and Facebook but not everything, It's good to hear it from their own mouths. Thanks to my kids and Annie for a lovely Mother's Day lunch. Yearly tradition, I hope.
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I pay tribute this day to my daughters and daughters-in-law for the wonderful moms they are to my.......

....... ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL grandchildren. Nothing brings me more joy. I could fill my blog with all the joy they bring to me.

One that is coming and I'm enjoying the anticipation of this day,is when they will all wear their shirts and stand in a line on July 24 and be counted as my choicest blessings...all 20 from #1 Laynee who will walk through the DH at high school graduation to little #20 Annie who is just learning to walk. Love them all with all my heart. The thing I love most about all of my grand kids is that they all have good hearts. I love spending time with them and as they grow I can see how well they have been taught in their families. Especially this day, as I write this I have tears in my eyes to think of my two beautiful daughters and the mothers that they have become. I think of all of their life experiences that prepared them for this and the joy they brought me when they were born and as we were raising them...to the joy they bring me now with their visits, talks, phone calls, laughter and tears, high points and low and I pay tribute and honor to them for how they have handled life's ups and downs. They are raising their children in honesty and integrity. Their children will be ready to enter the jungle out there.

I'm grateful to the mothers that raised the men in my life, Ada Workman Sullivan, Hannah Hegsted Wells Rose and Josephine Jones Reber. I'm grateful for the association I had with them before they died and saw firsthand why they raised such wonderful sons. I learned many lessons by each of their examples. And last, but certainly not least in this post......I honor my therapist, my best friend, my counselor, my partner in a life of mischief.....my sis.

No other person knows me like her....since we have been together since forever.  Don't know what I'd do without her and as she faces some health trials, I want to do all I can to help her. Happy Mother's Day to my best friend sister, Joyce.
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To generation after generation of women we give honor this day....some who have no children of their own but influence a world of children. I'm proud of my mother's hands and I can see 90 years of love and service in every knot, wrinkle, and age spot.  Hands that held my forehead as I leaned over the toilet to throw up. Hands that crushed up pills because I couldn't swallow them. Hands that rubbed Vick's on my chest and sometimes a mustard plaster, ew... Hands that baked bread, and made butter and a gazillion pies cakes for a life of Sunday afternoons. Hands that not only fed us but most of St. George. But mostly, these hands held my children and helped me love them into the people they are today.

THANKS MOM.....FOR BEING MY MOTHER. I THINK YOU DID AN AWESOME JOB AND I'M SO VERY PROUD TO CALL YOU "MY MOM". HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY. I SURE DO LOVE YOU.

Another month...

...and I had really hoped to blog more often but since I ended with our Highway 50 road trip back to Cali, I will start with that as after Randy spent a few days with me getting our place ready for summer, we once again took this trip....and I must say, it's always better together.

We didn't stop at all this time and just zoomed straight through in the usual 10 hours. This is a picture of coming into Tahoe. One place we always stop is a little pizza joint to get the best wings ever and a salad then on to home.  Some wonder why we don't fly....well we do sometimes but we've come to realize it goes pretty fast when you have a good book on tape to listen to and some good music. When I did fly, I left the condo at 6:00 a.m. for a 9:15 flight. An hour drive to the airport, an hour or more wait for flight (usually delayed), land in Vegas then another hour or more wait for the shuttle then a 2 hour drive to St. George. I got home about 6:00. So, I'm saying it's a little less sometimes driving it and not quite so expensive.....I'm just sayin'. We are getting used to this commute.  We've been married 5 years and have come to realize this is our life for now. I have reasons to be in St. George and he has reasons to be in California and that's just how it is but the more I'm with Randy the more I realize I love to be with him so the trips may become more frequent. He moved into a nice little apartment complex with nice amenities....

.....and closer to town and it's a bit more comfortable than the last one. We attended our new ward yesterday and it is really fun to meet new people. Most of them already know Randy and he has painted for 60% of them or served in other wards and stakes with them. Kieth Merrill is in that ward and we sat by one of his grandchildren at the "linger longer" and asked her what her favorite movies that her grandpa had produced. She seemed clueless but we went home and looked them up and we watched "Wind Walker" and "Harry's War".

His most famous ones are his documentaries especially the Zion one that plays in the Imax up there. Several of his children live in this area and in this ward.  BTW....Harry's War was filmed in St. George....mostly out at Schmutz's farm (now Stonecliff) and areas around there. Fun to see that again and a couple of his daughters are in it, one is in our ward. Just a point of interest that I want to record for later memories. Needless to say, we have been welcomed here with open arms. Speaking of church,...

....it's been a month since conference and I wanted to add a copy of my notes for posterity. I was trying my best to doodle like Scott and Jake do as I took notes. It will be interesting in years to come if I can even decipher what they say but it was fun. I do love General Conference and I especially loved it this year because Randy was here to enjoy it with me.

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I live two lives......and I love each one of them. When I'm here in Eldorado  Hills with Randy, I love the simplicity of everything from the tiny apartment we live in to the simple life of no expectations of myself each day. I'm free to do my knitting, reading, wandering and I love getting a good meal ready for him when he comes home from a hard day of work. He loves to be able to look forward to coming to Pine Valley after several weeks of hard work to what is his "simple" life....so I guess you could say that we have the best of both worlds and tho' we are not always together, we are working toward being together in Pine Valley some day and we will be patient. I'm headed back there tomorrow and I also love to be near my family, especially my mother. This time away helps me to realize how important she is in my life and I want to be there for her in these last years of her life. This is what I look forward to about going home.....Pine Valley home that is.

Spring is in full bloom there and it's time to plant my little garden. Top left: planted our little Christmas tree. I hope it's still alive. The plants in my window are thriving if they are still alive and top right: my claw gloves that will help me with my limited gardening skills I hope. I'm sure there have been a lot more blooms since I've been gone and the Columbine should be in full bloom soon. My grandchildren are growing so fast.....lots of changes taking place at this end of the school year comes. 

Laynee is graduating this month and has signed with Dixie State University to do CrossCountry and Track. She's a great kid.

George will be a senior next year and earned his Silver "D" and Gold "D" and I heard he got voted as a Studentbody Officer.  I'm waiting to get the details on that. Wreaks of goodness he does. I'm grateful for social media so I can keep track somewhat of what my kids do. I like to stay in the loop as much as I can. I miss a lot and something I missed this past week-end was IronMan.

His goal was to finish in under 6 hours. He did 5:59:48.....or something like that. He lives life large, trains hard and wears many, many hats these days. Way to go Spence. Sorry I missed this.

Once in a while I do get notice when the kids have accomplishments and I was able to go and see Emily's art display that was entered into this art show. The kids are busy and there's no way I could keep up on all of them if not for posts to Instagram and Facebook and texts that keep me informed.

Evan won the Science Fair at his school and was able to compete at District level. Thanks Kyle for the post. Evan and Seth are playing Little League Baseball and I like to go to those when I can. Traci's kids and Mason's are busy as well up north. I was able to go visit Traci and live in her world for a couple of days and enjoy the kids.

Missing Harry and Max in this collage but they were busy so we took a quick trip to the bakery. Scott is rippin' it on guitar, he and Jake do piano and they all are doing terrific with their wonderful homeschool teacher. Proud of all of them

I love having visitors in Pine Valley and Lauri and James come up quite a bit. They were here on a Monday night and it was a privilege to join in on their Family Home Evening. Mason's family came up for a week-end about a month ago and it was such fun.  I took pictures on my camera and haven't been able to get them off but my next post will be about "My Pine Valley Visitors" and pictures of that fun week-end and others will be included in that but let me just say, those three Wells kids are very busy....Maycee in dance and soccer, McKay so INTO baseball and Miller Moe......

....swimming. Here's a cute post from Mandy.....I do love Instagram. What a cutie.  Speaking of water, Randy and I were taking a ride last Sunday and happened upon this site......

...a hot tub grave yard. I just thought it was interesting so I will end this post here. Bye for now....I'll get my pictures off my camera asap and continue on my saga of daily living and recording it the best I can. "My life is perfect...except when it's not". 

"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of  splendid torch...I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations" by George Bernard Shaw.