Back Tracking a Bit...Saturday, October 2nd, we had a wonderful text message dialogue with our daughter, Andie. You see, her daughter, our youngest grandmonster, is going to the Homecoming Dance with a young man named Brady. Brady was going to the Marx home for a visit and to get to know the family. Andie set up a text stream between her, me and Claude. Here is some of that text which still makes me laugh. Oh to be a fly on the wall of the Marx home as this transpired.
A: Psst...Brady the wrestler is coming over today to hang out with Bailey. I will be in touch with my inner meerkat. (This was accompanied with a gif of a meercat.)
S: Oh no!!
A: They are making cookies and watching Carrie. She said he is six feet tall.
S: How daring are you? Could you sneak a picture?
A: I am very daring. I will prop my phone on a water bottle and pretend to have a video on.
A: (With a picture of Bailey's heels with string straps wrapped multiple times around her ankles) Is it even legal to wear shoes like this if you also have on EMBROIDERY LOSS ANKLETS?
S: I'm thinking that string around the ankle will make sure she doesn't lose her black slipper if she runs away!!
A: The laces overwhelmed us. I need to take an airplane pill. Haha!
S: Okay, tell Michael we need pictures of you going through this. It is hysterical!
A: I tried to get a pic of him seeing her walking in the shoes and got in trouble. Ugh!
C: Please remind Michael that his FIRST responsibility as a father is to terrorize all his daughter's suitors, an act I fully support and will happily provide backup services for...
C: Tell Miss B that all men are now and will forever be pigs...
A: I already asked Bailey if you guys could come over and bring Dilly Bars. She said that was a bit fast.
A: (With picture of a pot of soup on the stove) I am making pasta salad and salting it naturally with my tears. 😂😉😂
A: (Picture of a post from 11 years ago that reads: Just so you know...disposable chopsticks are worth hanging on to. Turns out they are pretty effective for fishing small toys out of the toilet. That's the last Bailey will see of Tiana's Crown. Must ask hubby to bring home takeout to replenish the stash...") Eleven years ago...thanks Facebook. 😐
S: Isn't it interesting that mom's are still growing while their kids do?
A: Yes, it is. Michael is now grilling hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. Asserting manhood over vertically enhanced man child guest.
C: Excellent plan...
A: Update: I have napped and am presentable but also look capable of throwing down if needed. He is not here yet. Apparently he had work and thought he'd be available around four so Bailey told us four to seven. He asked Bailey to tell us he will be arriving in uniform. Apparently he does some kind of Navy ROTC thing...
S: A man in uniform often catches a girl's attention.
C: You know what they say about sailors...
A: Whelp, for the next few hours the tallest person in our house is Brady. He arrived in camo pants and boots. There's a Navy Seal veterans event at Gallrein farms this weekend and they were volunteering.
S: How old is Brady?
C: How OLD is this kid?
A: He's a freshman. Just very tall and very lanky. The cats like him. Probably because he's been hauling hay and they smell farm. He went to East Oldham Middle so they just met this year.
S: Is he polite? Naturally, not forced.
A: Yes, he seems very polite. Pretty sure I heard a military yes ma'am once already. His mom dropped him off and came in to say hello. That's good. I was hoping there wouldn't be a drop and go without that. She is going to pick him up around ten or so. Next week for homecoming, she'll drop him off here and we can take pics. Then I will drop them at the dance.
S: Sounds good so far! Did H come up to meet him or does he already know who he is?
A: H just knew she was having company to watch a movie. Then when he picked up that it was a boy, he said, "Oh, so Bailey's boyfriend is coming over?" Then Bailey said, "Yup."
S: I'm in stitches!
A: Michael thinks he seems nice and is currently pretending to have no other reaction. I'm stationed in the dining room with earbuds on and nothing playing.
S: Oh, this is amusing.
A: It is done. Brady has been picked up and we all survived.
S: We knew you would. But you will enjoy these memories as a family for many years to come.
Monday, October 4th, was Claude's 72nd birthday. We truly, mentally, cannot grasp we are in our 70's. However, when we stand to walk, we quickly realize age is setting in. I posted this picture on Facebook with this caption to recognize Claude's birthday: "My guy is an Ultra Green Jeep kinda guy. He is aging well. Today Claude Christensen turns another year older and another year better! Happy Birthday Big Guy!! Love ya Bunches!!🎉🎁🎉🎁"
Received this picture of our youngest grandmonster in her dress for Homecoming this weekend with new sneakers for shoes. The girl has her own style. Bailey has had a close connection with Claude and I truly believe it is as hard for Claude to see her grow up as it is for Michael, in a grandfatherly sort of way.
And Katelyn posted this picture of Joel, our youngest great grandmonster, sitting up like a big boy in his high chair. His face reminds me so much of Katelyn as a baby. The first picture is Joel in his high chair. The second picture is Katelyn in her seat.
Now look at these two pictures. The first one is Katelyn and the second is her baby, Joel. Yep, I do see a strong resemblance.
Tuesday, October 5th, I worked from a list. We are taking a Self-Reliance course entitled Emotional Resilience. My challenge for myself this week was to make a list of the things I wanted to accomplish in the day. Then prioritize that list and work my way through it during the day, with the understanding I might have to reorder my priorities...and that's okay. I love lists. This is not a hard challenge for me at all. However, I haven't been great at writing the number beside the things on my list to prioritize them. I look at the list, pick the thing I need to do first and go do that. Then on through the list. Monday, all I had on my list was to make sure Claude had a happy birthday. Tuesday, I had chores in the house, on my laptop and to take Papa for a drive. I got everything done on my list except stenciling the milk can. That will come later.
I took Papa on a nice drive. I still can't visit him in his room but we can go for a car ride. This time I drove and figured out the route I would take as we drove. Papa loved every minute of it. Our drive took us past the cemetery where my mother is buried. I pulled in there to check on her flowers and so we could give her a howdy. I need to buy new flowers. The thing that caught my eye was this sign. There were several placed throughout the cemetery. I honestly can't wrap my head around it. It seems to me to customers would be those who are buried there. How do you show appreciation for the deceased if you are a cemetery? I posted this picture on Facebook. My sweet hubby commented, "I've heard that people are dying to get into these places which kind of makes the signs redundant..."
Wednesday, October 6th, our big activity this day would be having the missionaries come for dinner. Claude had a small roast which he smoked. Since one of the missionaries has diabetes, he follows, as closely as possible, the Keto Diet. So Claude prepared riced cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. We served a salad and rolls. For dessert, I baked an angel food cake in three loaf pans. We had strawberries and blueberries with sugar-free Cool Whip to top the angel food cake. The missionaries loved the meal. I told them we wanted no left overs and they complied very well. When all was said and done, we had one tiny slice of the roast and one roll. I sliced the roll, put the meat inside, put it in a baggie and stuck it in the fridge. Claude would have a sandwich later.
After the missionaries left, we had a nice long talk with Jake.
Thursday, October 7th, I finally got a picture of the doily I made with a ball of deep red crochet thread. I posted a picture when I finished it, I believe. However, it will look a lot better now that it is pressed and blocks. I think this will be very pretty at Christmas time. In the interest of total transparency, the pattern had about four more rows. I ran out of thread. Since my desire was to use up the ball of thread on hand, I really didn't want to buy another ball of thread and use it. Now, really, if I didn't tell you that, would you have known it was missing a few rows? I think so not!!
Friday, October 8th, would be a full day. We were up early for what was to be an 8am start on pouring the additional sections to our patio. However, it was a really foggy morning so things started a little later than 8am. They arrived with the 'mud buggy'. This would carry rock and then concrete to the back yard through the gates to that back yard. That meant the mud buggy would drive over the new French drains. Ugh!! Necessary evil.
Before lunch we had three workers. They started on the right side as you face the house. It would need less work. Not as much leveling to be done before concrete work. They got the wood frames up quickly. Then they started on the left side as you face the house.
The first picture is the original dig and wood frame below the surface of the ground. They would have had to dig out all of that dirt to get low enough to make and even patio like the original. The second picture is the replacement of the wooden frame to create a step. No additional cost to us. Easier on them. We feel like it will add character to the overall patio. The only concern is my propensity to trip and fall!!
Even after they got it level with the board and pulled out that center leveling piece of rebar, there were still uneven place in the concrete surface. Spots that needed to be filled. How could they do that without standing on the concrete. This is how. A very long pole with as many additions as needed to reach the opposite side. A strong arm and back and a steady motion was needed to smooth out the concrete. Many passes back and forth until it was extra smooth.
Also, during the day, our cranes were delivered. We were not expecting them to arrive this early. I posted on Facebook, "The Cranes, the Cranes!!" with this picture of them. We will place one on a concrete block by each of the gates to the back yard.
Then Andie made sure we got pictures of Bailey getting her make-up ready for the dance and her hair done. When Brady got there we got pictures of them with their flowers and then together. There was even a picture of them going into the dance. Our little girl is growing up.
Saturday, October 9th, we got pictures of Katelyn kiddos. It seems Joel decided it was time to roll over from his back to his tummy and hold his head right up. So cute. And, we got an added bonus of a picture with all three of Katelyn's children. Raelyn, Joel and Emelia.
Sunday, October 10th, was a really good Sunday. It was hard to get out of bed as we were still tired and very achy. But we did. I bore my testimony in Fast and Testimony Meeting. I am so very happy with this Emotional Resilience Self-reliance Group. It is further evidence to me of the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us in giving us these tools to live in today's world and prepare for tomorrow. I felt strongly prompted for a week that I needed to share that testimony this Sunday.
In Primary, we had a class with no teacher. I grabbed Claude and he and I went to teach these little ones. There were three kids in this class on Sunday. I found the lesson on my cellphone and read the first paragraph. We spent our entire lesson time talking about that. I then asked the kids what they knew about treasure. They each shared what they thought treasure was. It was mostly gold and jewels in a treasure box. Nyla thought it would be great if the gold was the chocolate coins covered with gold paper. I heartily agreed. Then I told them I would read them a scripture reference that talked about a different kind of treasure and asked them to see if they could figure out what kind of treasure it should make them think about. I read Doctrine and Covenants 111:2, 10 "I have much treasure in this city for you, for the benefit of Zion, and many people in this city, whom I will gather out in due time for the benefit of Zion, through your instrumentality. For there are more treasures than one for you in this city." We then spent the rest of the time talking about what these treasures could be. These little ones, who are about six years old, started thinking of treasures in their lives that are not silver, gold and precious jewels. They came up with family, home, temples, church, bodies, schools and the list goes on. As they named each item, we would stop and talk about why it was a treasure to them. When we got to the end of class time, I shared with them that in the New Testament it tells us that "where our treasure is, there will our heart be also". They needed to be sure the treasures we talked about today were more important in their lives than the silver, gold and precious jewels. We listed again the treasures we came up with and they accepted the challenge to tell their parents what they learned today about treasures. For not preparing a lesson, I felt it went very well.
After we got home from Church, I received a text from Amber Marcum. She is the mother of Kenny who was in the class today. Amber said, "Kenny is telling me what a treasure I am and all he learned to day about God and Jesus and temples, the prophet, our heart, skin, etc. They are little sponges and I'm glad he has you!" I thanked Amber for sharing this with me. Then I shared with her that Kenny told me his mother was 33 and his father was 40. I know that Amber is a bit older than her hubby. She got a chuckle out of that and was happy Kenny found her that young! It made my heart full to know one little one learned one principle of gratitude for real treasures.
In the afternoon, we hosted our Self-reliance group. Great discussion about depression and anxiety. This is such a good group of people. Two in our group suffer with depression. They had great insight for the rest of us.
We also called Jake and talked to him for a good while.
Then Claude called his mother who just finished a trip. Turns out she fell before going on the trip and then two times while on the trip. Not good. She is okay but we are concerned.
It was a good week. Filled with lots of good times and work on the difficult parts. We lived life this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment