Happy Butterfly Birthday!

(photo credit EmmaDean)
Thankful for this sweet girl in our family!

We Will Try This Space

Cousins in the kitchen.  He came and knocked on our door and we had to get a picture.

Happy Birthday Sam with reversible felt crown, dumplings, sauteed mushrooms, raspberry jello salad, green salad was his dinner choices!

Chocolate, chocolate cake with chocolate chips inside and on top, as requested.

Painting project behind photos of our children...

Left side and

...right side of space.  Yes, it glows in the dark.

Last Photos of Maxwell

 

Roxie turned 13 yesterday.  She loves the felt crown I made her, blue & green with lace around the rim.  (Max asked for a purple and bubble gum pink felt crown for his birthday next week so I took his head measurement and wrote in permanent marker his name next on my measuring tape...  He also put in his request for Pad Thai and chocolate cake with pistachio pudding frosting.  He wanted to take Roxie & Sam to the baseball game, so we were going to eat at 5 so they would be on time to the game.)  We celebrated at 2:00 pm since Grandpa John was leaving for fishing trip to Canada that afternoon.

The rest of the story is that early this morning Grandma Sandy rang the front door bell with the chief of police and a detective to tell us the bad news about our son.  No foul play, is the official investigation, apparent suicide.  Grandpa cut short his dream fishing trip.  Max's memorial service will be on his birthday, Friday the 25th, 7 pm at the LDS Church, Level Rd.  We will wear purple and bubble gum pink instead of black.  We will sing, remember him, miss him.  And eat birthday cake with everyone who comes to grieve with us.

Catch Up on Phone Pictures

Do you see the airplane at the top, hanging from the light chandelier, one for each of our faraway children coming home for Christmas!

My parents were here over Thanksgiving/Mom's birthday...Notice red "you are special" plate!  Suzanna, we thought of you!

We took Mom on early morning 25 degree walk to see local color!  We are bundled up, she is wearing my orange polar fleece...

All our children's living grandparents in one room!

Three siblings.  Roxie's temple quilt in living room now, David's paintings back in dinning room.  Gray stripes (wrapping paper) covering blue/green vertical stripes which may come back for Christmas, still deciding.

 

Couple photo.

Sister missionaries came to our parade!

Family Far Away

First, for Suzanna:  black F string was broken when I got home.  White B string broke sometime Friday when I was at work (it was one that I had tuned on Thursday, and it wasn't broken Fri am during seminary, did I tune it too far?)

Suzanna, Roxie, Sam before headed to Renaissance "Time Travelling" Fair in PA before she left for college!  They had a great time together.

Sam had a birthday while I was gone.  This is the Milkyway cake I made him before we left for a family celebration!  See the mini-candy bars edging the top?  See that homemade caramel oozing out from the edge?  I used my favorite caramel popcorn recipe, double batched so there was some for cake, some for popcorn.

Celebrating July Birthdays

For the Sunday family gathering to celebrate birthdays I took two long rows of the chocolate pecan cookies John made, layered them with caramel/nut and topped with chocolate icing that was very fudge-like, more nuts on top.  Good to collaborate.  Max loved it.

Suzanna made Roxie an ombre-frosted cake, which she enjoyed all by herself!

I Can Almost See You There

I miss him.

Thanks to Google Earth and photographers across the country, I can see where our son is serving/working.

(photo credit to WillyZ)

(photo credit rtbfredrick)
Gorgeous! It isn't stalking when it's your mom looking for you, right? Happy BIRTHDAY WISHES to you, Stewart, a week in advance so you see this on your next P-Day (preparation day)!

For the Lady in Red!

She calls me her grand-daughter-in-law, and she turned 91 yesterday! I made her a party hat (my first one ever, following this pattern, when I googled how to) that she wore all evening.

She told us she used to go to the movies for 25 cents, twenty to get in, 5 cents for treats. Her favorites were the "Tarzan" films with Frank Merrill.

Another Teenager (our 4th one)

Tradition dictates you are allowed to light your own candles, maybe with some help.  Sam burned his finger on one of the short-lived matches.

Then we will sing to you, both verses.   He graciously served us all huge pieces of his requested Mint Chocolate Chip Chocolate NO NUTS cake.

Today we drove by the hospital he was born at, the biggest baby they had ever seen at 11' 8 oz.

The "Spider Park" no longer has the huge spider tunnel-jungle gym.  Replaced by plastic, modern stuff.  This looked like a sailboat in profile, scary from the top, but got easier as the kids slowly slid down...

Near the Lock House, looking out where the Susquehanna River ends, and the Chesepeake Bay begins...(wearing Thank You Uncle Bob shorts and sporting his Thank You Grandpa John watch).

We call this the "Dragon Park" but better known as Tydings Park, Havre de Grace.  On the way home, we stopped and Sam chose chocolate marshmallow ice cream from Brewster's, a whole quart for himself.  He couldn't finish it all, so he carefully labeled it all over with his name before he left for boyscout camp for the next two nights.

It's a Good Day When I Can Touch Paint

Didn't paint any walls like I would have liked to have done today. But I did clean up spilled paint, put it in smaller containers. Must carry a hammer with me to mural jobs so I can securely close lids before bringing things back home.

And thrift-shopped with Emma. And did a Target run. Thank you to the anonymous quilter friend who gifted me with a gift card there!

Thank you, Mom & Dad. One of my seminary students facebook "Happy Body Day" to me! Love it!

Peace and Whirlwind

Saturday morning we made our way here. Peaceful. Quiet. Right.
Friday night we celebrated Thanksgiving while Emma and Stewart were still here with us. I spent the whole day cooking turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, pumpkin mini-pies, and cookies, and a chocolate cake with the wrong frosting for Sam's birthday dinner celebration...delicious, but I was dead tired at the end. Now we can have tacos in November like Johnny has always wanted!
Back to school haircuts! (Same night as Thanksgiving.)
Saying good-bye Saturday morning. Stewart will be a freshman living 3 blocks from Emma.
Good-bye, my blue-eyed son! I think the reality hit me last night during family prayer: we only have 4 kids left at home. FOUR?! Our family has shrunk.

Last Sunday of the Year

What a year. We are hoping for good news in the new year. Happy New Year to all of you readers.

Resolved: to think about goals next week.

Happy Birthday to my favorite husband. It's your turn for the "You are Special" plate, thank you very much.

Backdrops & Siblings!

Still no job, so another photo of us.
Some days I feel like I am stretching to think of a new place to take our photo. How much could I charge for other couples to use this as a backdrop? Divide our mortgage payment by 20 friends=$100.00! 40 friends=$50.00. What kind of fund-rasier would that be? I'll announce it here first.

Actually, I have an interview Wednesday at the Inner Harbor for a job I would love with Urban Outfitters...and finally heard a voice-mail rumoring that the Census Bureau is re-hiring all of us managers...(don't leave me time-sensitive messages, ever. If you don't get me when you call, email. I listen to my messages eventually, but not as often as I check email or blogs!)
Happy Birthday to one of my super creative sisters LUANNA today! Glad you are in my family!

My brother David (white shirt, glasses in above picture) sent me a sepia edited version of Us. See if you can tell what is different--a detail deleted that takes away a distraction, and not just the color... Thanks, David!

Birth and RE-birth Day!

She wanted to get baptized on her birthday. Today she is 8 years old, accountable, old enough to know wrong from right. We believe in baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, making a covenant to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, and to follow Him.







It was a beautiful morning on the Susquehanna River!