Family Communication Styles

Roxie had a project due in history, and she couldn't take her bow to school so I took 100 photos of her so she could make a powerpoint presentation.

I yarn bombed back yard tree for Memorial Day.  I had some red t-shirt sleeves from an old Max boychoir shirt...

We went to the temple

Memorial Day smores and baby holding!  Baby Lincoln and Baby Olive are our friends.  Aunt Candy was visiting Gma Sandy.  The party was at Wainwrights, and that is host on pole, since he was out on ship working and his wife had the party anyway.

I am thankful for family blogs, the honesty, the realness, the photos, the love.  We don't visit as often as I wish we did!  Since we live so far spread apart blogging is a good way to get a glimpse of what is going on.  My phone skills are limited to talking to John every day from his work at lunch time...

Be Glad...while Sober!

We skyped with Emma in California after the kids opened up their Max quilts, wrote letters to him (what we would say to him today) and took pictures in front of the yarn bomb trees.  There are 4 (!) in front yard now.  The tree with lights is the black & white yarn bombed one.

They are all very different-Roxie's has a bunch of "Roxy" brand t-shirts I have saved over the years for her, Sam's includes some of his school shirts, Stewart a GEMS program shirt they were both in, Suzu's foot and hand print hot pink shirt, so they know which one is theirs.

I yarn bombed the red bud tree this morning, after doing a neighbor's tree after she said her little boys had been talking about our yarn and wouldn't mind being yarn-bombed for sobriety....her tree was so big and wide around the trunk that I couldn't reach around it, had to run around wrapping the t-shirts and got dizzy!

We opened birthday presents today, too, (Mom, thanks for the shiny sparkly purple hat!) and my mom's good advice to "Be Glad" is a theme for me, a reminder.  I am glad for these amazing children, their laughter, and support and hugs and tears.  They are stronger, more sensitive to suffering and distress of others having gone through this hard summer of losing a sibling. 

Emma is waiting for their Santas to wake up before she opens her quilt, and I hope she posts a photo, because I forgot to take one of completed quilt before I sent it off to her.

QUILT construction detail:

(these-above and just below-are from Emma's quilt in the making, auditioning position of squares) Smooth out t-shirt on cutting mat, use 12 1/2 clear cutting acrylic cutting square to cut front AND back of t-shirt.  Sandwich a same size flannel square inside; sew X from corner to corner; determine order of blocks and sew generous 1/2 inch seams to FRONT of quilt; clip with scissors to create fringe.  Remember to sew around perimeter to secure/stabilize outside edge of quilt.  They were heavy with just the flannel "batting."

Back of Roxie's quilt, smooth edges on this side, fringe on front which looks better after each washing.

I didn't wash these yet, they still smell like Max a  little.  It was very emotional to make them, surrounded by the memories of him wearing the shirts, thinking of him, missing him, but glad for the project to give the other children a memory to hug.

Today is Hard, but not the fault of friends or family...

She wanted to make sure, after the yarn bombing outside faded, that I had a permanent memory of Max.

They each brought a snippet of t-shirt hems, pink for their only daughter, one of her own shirts.  I tied them together as they sat and signed Max memory books.  These boys were his peers, in his classes at Church.  I taught them in Primary, Sunday School, two of them in seminary.  They sang "Silent Night" for us with 2 guitars in harmony, brought amazing toffee (what carb free diet?) and gave good hugs.

We have been loved, remembered, hugged, and I think I am emotionally just worn out.  So hard to keep a happy-all-the-time face on.  I am sad, missing far away family, including EmmaDean.  Holidays are for gathering, and as grouchy as I can be about crowds and claustrophobic, I crave it.  And chocolate. 

Kids are cleaning Great Grandma Billie's condo, John just walked in the door.  We did all our Santa wrapping last night, so we can go to bed early.

Merry Christmas to all.  Take a family photo tomorrow, and some video to capture the now happening before your eyes. 

Yarn Bombing for Sobriety

Yarn bombing.  Harmless, decorative.  Knitters have decorated bridges, statues...You can google it, a real thing.  My sister told me about the yarn bombing in Pittsburgh on the bridges. 

For me, this is a way to use up the 3 foot high pile of t-shirt scraps leftover after making t-shirt quilts for Christmas.  The shirts came from our son, Maxwell, who passed away this summer.  I couldn't just throw them away.  This has been cathartic, helping me deal with the grief of missing him during the holidays.  I don't want any teenagers to go through what he did.  It started with pot, escalated.  Smoking spice hurt him. 

Being sober needs to be a choice.  A decision.  A want these yarn bombing trees to spread all over the city, and maybe it will help somebody else know that being sober matters.  Drugs hurt you.  Be safe.

 "Yarn Bomb a Tree in Support of Sobriety this Holiday Season!"
First tree, with brightest of Max's t-shirts.

More of his t-shirts:  black, white, & gray version, with Christmas white lights.

I took fliers over to the middle school craft fair and talked it up. 

And two families from the fair stopped to help.

The added blue yarn is scrap yarn.  They took pictures of their teenagers committing to be sober over the holidays.  I gave them each a big ball of Max t-shirt yarn to go home and bomb their trees.

Got permission from neighbor across the street to bomb her tree!

A view of both the trees in our yard.

Quick tutorial for cutting t-shirts into "yarn" here:

It is easy to cut off the bottom hem, and use the main body of t-shirt, but you can cut spirals from the sleeves, every part of the t-shirt.  Cut about 1.5 inch strips.

Tie a square knot to attach one strip to another.  Roll into a ball inside to make easier to pass around the trunk and branches outside in the cold!

NYC Marathon Trip

Julie Babcock & Luanna, some super nice policeman, and the 45,000 runners coming over the bridge on the far right...

The difference b/w phone camera (apple in NY) and above (my Dean camera) is clearly obvious...

Cake celebrating Alzheimer team running.  David kindly inlucded us (and our spouses, just in case) on the list for the swanky reception after the race.

One of my favorite things I saw on the subway, super crowded, older Latino couple, her hand in his pocket.

Luanna is a lot of fun to hang out with!  Giggly sister making me laugh. Julie is calm and good at navigating and full of complements and kind words.

Eating out day before race, teryaki burgers...

Beautiful, smart doctor-in-training daughter of my cousin was super kind and has a great single's ward we went to Sunday early.  In our jeans and "Knit & Run" t-shirts.  We were made to feel very welcomed.

View from Kellie's place.

enJOY burgers (north of Kellie) gave us playing cards with our receipts, called out the card when our food was ready (and we turned in cards to be reused, clever, clever and good food).

Sunday after Church we subway-ed to Queens to catch the racers at the half-way point.  David went by so fast that we went north on the subway to chase him, caught him with minutes to spare at Duke Ellington memorial.

Picture below is in Queens, roof of an LDS celebrity...

Famous person spotting:  When David was teaching people to finger knit in the park with Lion Brand yarn (lovely, lovely yarn.  David is a spokesman for them, official promoter) Julie met Kristy Glass and worked out an invite to her apartment to watch the race.  This is her rocking chair.  She calls it "Yarn Bombing" and I was delighted! She is an amazing person, has a sweet family, and a home that is filled with the Spirit and lots of love & cool color!  We helped make a sign for her friend SHAY running right near David.  Sam has been a big fan of Shay for years, and was impressed with the networking.

Kristy has 3 children now, works as an actress, runs, and so does her husband.

David finished under 4 hours, which met his goal.  AND he finished knitting this scarf early in the race WITH LETTERS!  I am so proud of him and it was wonderful to be there and be supportive of his achievement!