A Week With My Daughter Ann

My Sweetheart and I just arrived home from a week with our daughter Ann. 

Ann is a school teacher, she teaches special students that are visual impaired.  She's a good teacher and loves her work.  I enjoy hearing about her different students and how they are doing.  This year she started a new job in a new school district.  She's teaching high school students, before she has had all ages, kindergartner to high school.  She loves the little ones and enjoys helping in their foundation, but now she is working with young adults with their preparation for the world beyond school.....

We usually go for a visit with Ann during her spring break, but this year she need us early.  They sold their large home and needed to move and as both her and her husband work long hours and with no time off she needed help in moving.

About four years ago, I was a caregiver to my mother.  Because of the situation with my mother, my husband and I decided to sell our home and move in with mother.  We felt it would be easier for all to live with mother and after the time that was needed there, we would build our new home, move and then sell mama's home.

When our home sold and we needed to move, it was very stressful for me.  I did the best I could with the packing but I wasn't home that much, I needed help and my sweet and wonderful daughters knew it and came without me asking.  They decided between themselves to do this and they tell me still today how much fun they had being together and how they talked, laughed and shared.  It makes this Mothers heart feel good knowing that sisters not only love each other, but enjoy being with each other... and too, that they love me..

My oldest daughter Marta was here for 2 weeks and Ann came for 1.  These sister's worked together side by side to finish packing their Mother's home.  What a blessing they were to me..  they have always been a blessing, but during this most stressful time in my life, they truly were a gift..  I don't know what I would have done without them.  When I think of that time and my girls dropping everything, traveling long distance, from different states to help their Mama, my heart skips a beat, my eyes swell up with tears and I get all choked up. How grateful I am for wonderful and special daughters, I hope they know how much their Mama loves them and what a great help they were to me, I could never have made it thought that period of my life if it hadn't been for them.,

Because of the stress that I went though at that time, I knew that my sweet Ann needed help and so we packed our bags and off to Arizona we went...

During the day while Ann and her husband were at work, my sweetheart and I packed her house, and that Saturday with help from ward members and others, we were able to move boxes and belongings to their new abode.

I was able to see and visit with grandchildren and great grandchildren too.  The little ones sang songs to me, gave me hugs and kisses and was a joy.  Tawni and her family traveled an hour and half just for a short visit with us and Dana and her boys brought us dinner along with their visit... It was good to see them and to tell them that this grandma, loves each of them very much.. I appreciated knowing that they wanted to see and visit with me.

I wished I could have stayed longer, but we needed to return home.  I enjoyed the time I was with my sweet Ann and the visit we had.  Working together is sharing time and bonding time....and a time that a mother likes to have more of.

Valentines day was the Monday before we left and we had a nice dinner with pie.  She gave us a valentine that she had a student braille Mom and Dad on...  and Kim her husband gave each of us a bouquet of flowers.  We were very tired but it was a nice way to bring to close a week of moving.....  I only hope now Ann can find the things she needs in the boxes her mother packed..   Good  Luck  !!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Yes today is my Birthday, I'm 75 years old.  When I began this blog adventure, I said to myself, I would never write personal or revealing things about myself, but here I am telling the world that I am 75 years old.

How do I feel this day?  Like today is my birthday.

My sister called me this morning and ask me what I was going to do that was fun for my birthday.  Now that is a question that no matter what day she would ask me, I would have to stop and think.  What can I do that would be fun???

Fun is something to some that would not be fun to others.  Fun to me is doing something that I would enjoy doing.  It might be soaking in my beautiful bath tub with bubbles swirling around me, or it might be watching a good movie or program on TV, or it might be just visiting with my husband or a special friend or spending time with any of my love ones, it might even be just working in my sewing room.  Fun to me is just doing what I chose to do, it might be something special or just something simple, it might be work or a chore, but what I chose to do and how I feel about it or my attitude about it, will tell me if it was FUN.

But what did I do today?? 

I received some phone calls, my sister did call and them my brother Butch called and sang Happy Birthday to me, then I talked to my sister-in-law Diana.  My friend Nancy called and then dropped by with a card and gift.  Talked to my children, which always makes me feel good.  Received some birthday cards in the mail and when I was in Arizona my grandchildren Dana & Derek and Tawni & Danny gave me a birthday card and a box of See's Candy...(my favorite kind) (Yummy,Yum) my sweetheart gave me a lovely card that brought tears to my eyes, a hug and a kiss and told me he loved me and this evening we went with Lee and Shirley (my Brother and Sister-in-law) up to Rusty's in the mountains for dinner of delicious honey back ribs, after we stopped at Dairy Queen for a yummy blizzard.

Did I have fun today?  Yes, I had fun today and I had a nice birthday too.

But how do I feel being 75 years old?  I can't do what I use to do in the time I use to do it...  and it takes me longer to rest up after a big job.  But I still can work rings around some that are younger than I.  I know that my heart says one thing, but the mirror says another.... but, I enjoy life and the joys and adventures that it holds.

When I turned 70 I looked in the mirror that morning and over night things seemed to drop and wrinkles appeared and then this morning when I looked in the mirror, over night things seemed to drop again and more wrinkles appeared, but that's OK, I'm still loved by the people that I love, and I still love those that love me even more, I have lots of friends that are good to me and I have lots of things that interest me.  My life is good and my life is full.

Did I have fun today??  Yes, I did have fun today and I hope I have many more years of "fun today's." 

Happy Birthday to Me and many more..

We're going to a Wedding

We're going to a wedding.

We received the invitation just a little over a week ago and when I opened the invitation, my heart just smiled. 

Printed on white paper was an embossed picture of a castle, with a horse drawn carriage and a horseman standing on the back of the carriage, all dressed in his finery, there's a flag waving and there's curtains on the windows.  The four horses are pulling this carriage over a dirt road approaching a bridge that has a covered building that you drive through.  You can tell by the picture that someone special is arriving at the castle, and I am sure that the Prince that lives there is very anxious to greet the arriving Princess.

The printing on the front of the invitation says:  "Dreams do Come True."

In side is the announcement of the wedding of my husbands cousin, Nancy and her groom to be Arnold.

Now Nancy is just a little older than my husband.  She has been a widow and so at this time in life finding a Prince charming, I don't think was on her list, but never say never, and age has no boundary when love steps in....

We met up with the happy couple a few months ago and went to dinner.  It was fun to see them so happy, smiling at each other, holding hands and talking about the future.  They had both experienced  heart ache with losing spouses and being alone.

Now tomorrow at 4:15 p.m. they will be come Husband and Wife...

I went shopping for a wedding card and I think I found the perfect one.  It is on white paper. There's  an embossed picture of a Cinderella carriage with four horses.  Sparkles floating in the air and the writing on the card says:  "Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale," and the inside says: "Congratulations on the start of your "Happily Ever After."

Yes, tomorrow we going to a wedding and it's a very special wedding, and oh, yes, the bride and groom are going to Disneyland for their honeymoon, and yes, I do believe dreams do come true and love can come a second time around, no matter what your age is......

Congratulations Nancy and Arnold and may your years together be happy ones.....