It's crunch time

Since my last post I have watched little 15 month old Jane shyly touch her new little brother on the cheek for the first time. I have heard Lane, the proud daddy, sing to his new little boy. I have stood by as Rachel fed and changed, fed and changed and crooned to her little son. And as I have said, the visit was worth every minute and mile to get there.

I got back to the homestead where Diana arrived, Dan arrived, Katie arrived, a shower was given, and all visitors departed. Then Julia and family packed up their household during the hottest week possible (116 on one day!). We cleaned bathrooms, washed walls. I transported kids for a sleep-over at grandma's. Their mom and dad dragged in the next day and collapsed. Four short days later the Smith family drove out of grandma's driveway for Boise. Alligator tears were shed.

After their departure I gathered up remnants of their stay crying more tears and then packed the stuff for the wedding in Utah. With a car filled to the gills with glass containers (for a candy buffet), sewing machines, mother of the bride dress, and organza up the kazoo I launch for the long drive to Utah. I had a book on CD to keep me company and only after arriving in Utah realized the irony of the title of my murder mystery. It is called 'Therapy'.

The last three days has been filled with preparations. The photo session for bridals was traumatic because the wedding dress wasn't altered correctly. We just pinned the tearful bride in and braved the camera. I deliver 80 (yes eighty) yards of organza to my dear friend and sister-in-law Louann who has made 110 sashes for chairs! . . in two days, no less! Mom has made trips scouring the area for candy. . . more, and yet more candy for the buffet. My sweet sisters are on standby to jump in at a seconds notice. They will be cleaning up details which will start cropping up.

I keep wondering how I can feel so calm after all of these weeks of hubbub and a wedding coming up fast. I wake up each morning so excited. I am just just shivering with the joy of this occasion. I am trying to stop and consciously looked around to make mental snapshots. Each day I see so much love in the people around me, especially in the eyes of the bride and groom when they look at each other.

Chirp, chirp, chirp. Happy, happy, happy! Bountious blessings.

The reception with it's sashed chairs, food, tuxedos and dresses is just a big party. The celebration of my heart will begin when I am sitting in the temple with my husband, parents, brothers and sisters, and each of my children to watch Diana and Dan kneel across the alter to join hands.

At this moment I am sitting in a room where I slept as a baby, in the room where I would watch for my sweetheart to cruise by in his hot Comero. In this room, I visualized a most wonderful life for myself. Today, I sit here writing about new little grandkids, a wedding celebration for my daughter and the chance to be in the temple with each member of my family.

I could never have imagined the blessings my life today. Blessings heaped upon blessings. Blessings poured out from the windows of heaven.

Accidental Tourist

Picture this. . . .

. . . A lone traveler with, what should be, a fairly direct passage from Sacramento to Dallas. Said traveler at ticket counter, finding out that reservations are for the following day instead of this one. Traveler being booked for a flight leaving at 11:30. Said traveler with 4 hours to waste getting a breakfast sandwich and playing sudoku, reading a book, walking up and down terminal. Traveler arriving in San Diego with a layover of 2 1/2 hours. Traveler successfully getting on her flight to Phoenix.

. . . After arriving in Phoenix, the traveler's stomach saying "I am very unhappy that you ate that breakfast muffin." Traveler running through airport to ladies room, running back to gate where flight to Dallas is delayed. Traveler's stomach screaming "That breakfast muffin is coming through NOW!" Said traveler being stuck in said ladies room for the duration. Traveler's stomach being somewhat pacified and traveler arriving at her gate just as her flight is moving away.

. . . Gate attendants putting traveler on standby list for Dallas. Traveler 'standing by' and watching all subsequent flights to Dallas leaving without her. Gate attendants putting traveler on last flight out of Phoenix to Albuquerque. Traveler being officially categorized by airline as a 'distressed traveler' and receiving a discount coupon for hotel and being booked on a flight to Dallas leaving at 6:50 a.m. the following morning.

. . . Traveler hardly sleeping a wink worrying that she will miss her flight to Dallas. (She stays in bed long enough to be a feast for bed bugs.) Said traveler arriving at airport veerrryyy early and getting on the airplane without incident. Traveler sitting back to enjoy her umpteenth package of peanuts only to hear the pilot come onto loudspeaker with the announcement "Love Field in Dallas is closed due to weather so we are diverting to Lovick. Sorry for the inconvenience." Traveler becoming supremely 'distressed'.

. . . Airplane landing in Lovick to wait for permission to fly to Dallas. Traveler walking up and down terminal, reading book, playing sudoku, but not eating food of any kind. Traveler, along with fellow travelers, waiting for 4 hours for an okay to take off for Dallas.

. . . Traveler landing in Dallas 32 hours after leaving home in Sacramento, being driven directly to a hospital, to meet her 3-hour old grandson. Traveler holding the beautiful baby and looking into the faces of the proud parents.

. . .Traveler knowing that each hour and every mile was well worth it.

Abundant life!

Let me glory in grandmotherhood for just a minute.

David and I just returned from Montana where little Samuel was blessed today. What a beautiful little guy! Before we left for the airport Megan, Caleb, and Benjamin covered us with kisses. I can still feel them in my cheeks.

Tomorrow, I plan on putting Diana's wedding invitations together with Julia. I will get to see Mr. M, Miss A, little C and Honey (see Smith Funny Farm).  Honey is just getting so he recognizes me. It's taken a little while for him to want to come to me but now I can make him giggle.

Wednesday, I will get to nibble on Janie when I get to Dallas. She is just so delicious! And sometime the next day, I will meet the brand new little Elliot.

In July, we will welcome a new son into our family. Dan and Diana will be married in July. Their marriage will complete the circle of our family. David and I, our children and their spouses really do form a circle. A protective circle around the new little ones that are coming to bless our family.

Am I loved? I could never question it. I feel loved by all of these. And even more, by the Heavenly Father who gives me this rich, abundant life.

In I Corinthians 2:9 it says ". . . Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Isn't it the truth!

Sisters

They came, they saw, they conquered! Laura and Karen, my sisters, flew in this weekend and snatched me out of the pit of despair.

The event calendar is jam packed for this Olsen family. Samuel Olsen will be blessed this Sunday in Montana. Little Elliot will be born about 5 days later in Dallas. So, this grandma flies out to Montana, flies home and after a 2 day layover flies to Dallas, stays a week and then flies home. After that, Julia, Steve, and their family come to stay while they pack up to move to Boise. Keep in mind that meanwhile we are putting together a wedding celebration for Diana and Dan on July 15th in Utah.

Our house has had many visitors and occupants in the last year. We have loved having each one of them but the house has been arranged and rearranged until more beds were down than up. The whole upstairs was topsy-turvy. The sewing room/guest room looked like a cyclone had hit it (even worse than when Donna Maygren saw it!)

I have been bumping around in the mess like I was a ball in a pinball machine, not knowing where to start. Then my sisters appeared like magic with their willing hands and loving hearts. We worked like maniacs for three days and then they flew away into the sunset.

Tonight I am sitting in a clean, orderly house that feels like angels have visited. Thank you Laura and Karen. I love you.

On this Mother's Day . . .

On this Mother's Day as I was ironing David's white shirt, I thought of his mom and how she raised David to do great things.  She had high expectations of her children and she made sure that they measured up.  When the A- came home she would say, "What happened?"  When they were assigned talks in church, she insisted that they would be memorized.  I thought of how proud she would be if she see her son in that white shirt going about his duties as Stake President.

On this Mother's Day I stood and gave a Sunday school lesson.  I found myself saying "my mother taught me" this and "my mother taught me" that.  I hadn't planned on all of those references to my mom but there there they were, testifying of my mother's goodness. 

My mom didn't ever equivocate, she never gossiped.  I have only ever heard her say one swear word when she was describing one particularly bad day.  We weren't raised with any kind of double standard because mom lived as she expected us to live.  We, her children, have always known where we should be and what we should be doing because mom was already there showing us the way.

On this Mother's Day, I picked up the phone 5 times to hear 5 children, now adults, tell me how much they love me.  Talking to Greg, I could hear sounds of his children ooooing and aaaaing over a new 4 day old brother.  With Diana, I could hear her fiance Dan interjecting a phrase here and there.  They sound so happy.  Julia told me that her baby Henry was sleeping and that she was lying on the floor while Calvin put toys on her face.  Rachel's little Jane fell asleep after saying "I love oooo".  Katie had just gotten back from taking a cake that she had made especially for her Grandma Packard.  She uses her little kitchen to make wonderful things and shares them with everyone she loves.

On this Mother's Day a couple of my children apologized for not doing more for me.  What they don't know is that I already have what I want.  Their gift to me on this Mother's Day is to know that they are living their lives as I always hoped they would.  When Diana is married in July, I will be able to sit in that sealing room of the temple surrounded with my husband and all of my children and their spouses.

On this Mother's Day how could I ask for more?  I am blessed beyond measure.

What's up?

What's up with the weather in California, more specifically Roseville, California?  Last Tuesday it was 97 degrees (92 at 8:00 at night).  Today (Tuesday) the high will be 62 with 42 degrees at night!  Now I ask you, what's up?

I could complain about Calfornia's financial climate (dismal), or it's political environment (abysmal), but the weather?  Come on!

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a Utah girl at heart.  Go ahead, scoff, but my soul floats somewhere over Winnemucca, never knowing whether to go east or west.  I'm homesick for my mountains and I can't get over it.  

Our plan was for David to do his residency in Pathology in San Francisco and go back to Utah to set up practice but . . . .    

Years ago my dad said "Don't tell me you want to move back here to 'happy valley' because there is no 'happy valley' He knew that happiness can be wherever you are and it is true.  We have had a bountiful life here.  Our children have grown up healthy, strong in the gospel and if you ask them, they would say they are Californians at heart.  Zion is wherever you are.  But their mom feels like a salmon swimming upstream, forever trying to get back home.

My secret plan is to get a motorcycle saying that it is an important part of our emergency preparedness.  I'll say that it will be easier to get out if we are told to evacuate.  But if that time comes, I'll tell my neighbors that they are welcome to my food storage and then I'll light out over the Sierras.  Of course, David is welcome if he wants to come.

Do you think I will get away with it?  In truth, I will stay here doing what I am supposed to.

   Oh well, I can dream.

i'm undone!

There must be a name for this condition.  It's really starting to worry me.  My kids have been worried about it for a long time but I really didn't think I had a problem. . . way back then.  I had some very good reasons for doing what I did, but now, this is just a habit.  I keep undoing things.

Most of the time, I undo things that I have made myself.   It doesn't matter what kind of project I am working on, sewing, knitting, crocheting, I undo nearly half of my work.  When I am sewing and I don't like what I have done I get out my Exacto knife and let her rip.  When crocheting or knitting, I find myself pulling out whatever and rolling it all back up into a ball.  Am I a perfectionist?  I think the problem is bigger than that.

When I am clothes shopping I don't ask myself "Does this shirt fit?"  I tell myself "I can make this fit" and I take it home and promptly unpick it.  Before I know it there are pieces in my lap where a shirt used to be.  Then the pieces go into a baggie and the baggie goes onto the "needs to be put back together" shelf.  What is that?  The word counterproductive comes to mind.

Okay, so I take things apart.  The bigger problem is I don't put them back together.  I just let the pieces all languish there on the shelf.  

My poor husband!  We were in Utah last week and one night we went out with our daughter and her husband.  "What is this?" she asked her dad pointing to his sleeve.  He had packed a shirt that had been subject to my scissors and there he was in public with unfinished sleeves.  I realized then, the problem had gone too far.

Seriously, I am going to turn over a new leaf.  This self defeating behavior must stop.  My new mantra will be 'get it together' or 'leave it together' or 'leave it alone!'  Someone needs to come and take my scissors away.  Pleeeeeeeeaaaasssseee!