...number 11 is beautiful!!

 Yes! Number 11 grandchild!!! And I was privileged to make another dress........

The "other" grandma made these beautiful little slippers............

 

 We are so thankful for our precious little Hannah!

...giving back...

OH!!!! I had a great day yesterday!! Let me give a little background...........I have wanted to be able to donate blood for a very long time. I think I went once, just after I was married, and my blood count was too low. Then came the years of babies...........and after that I offered. But because of a cold sore, they turned me away. Somewhere in the last 2 to 3 years I tried again. What could stop me now??? Right?? Wrong! My count was again too low. I was quite discouraged. During those years I had taken Suzanne to receive blood and platelet transfusions so many times and had felt a deep gratitude to those people who took their time to give and I felt a real longing to be able to do the same. I knew what it meant to people who needed the help!!! Well............the Red Cross was in Delta yesterday for a blood drive. Roger had an appointment. I've kind of been trying to eat better..........well.........long story short.........I went with Roger and my count was high enough!!!!!! SO!!!! for the first time in my life I was able to give blood!!!!!!! I've been giddy with joy since she told me I could!!! And I asked about donating platelets because I learned with Suzanne that there needs to be a more consistent "flow" of platelets. They don't live as long as red cells............and you can donate platelets more often--every week, they told me!! Soooooooo, that's my desire..........to give "back".........though you know I can't really do that........... it's another "paying it forward" I suppose. Elder Scott taught us in conference last April..........talking about good health practices and personal revelation, but it can be applied here as well........"...we can improve both the quality of our service and our well-being by making careful, appropriate choices." Yes!! we can!!! I'm going to continue to take better care of myself so I can serve better! OH!!! Life is wonderful!!!! isn't it?? And yesterday was capped off with a beautiful night out, sitting outside..........the weather and temperature were perfect...........we watched the nearly full moon  rise over the mountain and then had a wonderful ride home under that same glorious moon. We stopped once.........on one of those dark lonely roads (to change drivers) and it was so still.........it felt like we were the only two in that quiet, semi-darkness, under that sky with only the bright moon and a few brave stars...............there is no way I can do it justice..............truly........a joyful day!!!!

...Joyful praise.....with tears........

OH!!!! I just have to share this with you!!! Let me preface this by telling you that I have been missing Suzanne dreadfully this morning............deep gratitude to a loving neighbor who let me sob out my grief and wet her shoulder as she held me. I am profoundly thankful for her love. So.........to help myself, I've been listening to conference as I've been working on little Hannah's blessing dress. Consider these words..........I'm going to write them in prose so you will not be tempted to pause as we so often do when we read poetry.........and I miss the meaning in the pause.....

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation!
Join the great throng,
Psaltery, organ, and song, Sounding in glad adoration!

Praise to the Lord! Over all things he gloriously reigneth.
Borne as on eagle wings, safely his Saints he sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen how all thou needest hath been granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy way and defend thee.
Surely his goodness and mercy shall ever attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
Who with his love doth befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath breath, join with Abraham's seed to adore him!
Let the "amen" sum all our praises again,
Now as we worship before him.

Doesn't that just make you want to shout "hallelujah"???? and stretch and be better and be able to fall at his feet??? If songs of the righteous are prayers.......................

I wanted to share with you the choir singing this glorious hymn but I don't have the time right now to find it, etc., etc.........It was sung in conference, last April (2012), Sunday morning. Guaranteed to make you rejoice and cry, all at the same time!!!! Love to you all!!!!

...our computer is well again! RAH!!!

Yes...........our poor computer has been fighting all kind of things. Sometimes, even itself!! I am so thankful to have it well again. I'll try to do a quick catch up:
End of May to early June: I went to Needles with Roger and Daniel. Our honey crop was so scary we didn't even extract down there. We just loaded everything up and brought it home--along with more of the bees than we had ever brought to Utah. I had HUGE, unbelievable blocks of uninterrupted time in which to sew! Yes..........I wondered if I might have died and gone to heaven.........but no, Suzanne was not there, so I knew it couldn't be that! In just three days I had finished everything I had taken with me!!! obviously, I didn't know how to plan for all this time! I'll try to get some pictures of the things I accomplished, but if not, at least I will have some kind of a record, right? My dear friend here gathered up some more things for me to do and sent them with Michael so I was able to continue. It was heavenly.............

...5760 days.......

We hit a milestone this week. (Well, it was three weeks ago......I've had issues with our computer.) We participated in our 10th high school graduation. During the past 5760 days I have experienced:

• 10 "first day of kindergarten".......not to mention the other 22 "first day of school" days!!!! (and I'm not going to work hard enough to figure out "first days" multiplied by how many were going to school that year)
• 5 (I think) fifth grade breakfasts--early morning the last week of school!
• ....staggering thought!!!!! 64 days of parent-teacher conferences!!! ...again.......I'm not going to do the math. But WOW!!!! I might have to, just because that would be a very interesting statistic!
• 10 Junior Proms........but they were fun! 
• 8 "parent" dances at those Proms.......one of the neighbor boys found me after I had danced with Scott and said, "I need to dance with my other mom". Yes, he still has a special place in my heart.
• 8 4th/5th grade plays
• this ones' a guess.....about 23 high school musicals: Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Brigadoon, Fiddler on the Roof, Pirates of Penzzance, Lil' Abner, Music Man, Into the Woods, Sound of Music, Calamity Jane, Wizard of Oz, Once upon a Mattress, Beauty and the Beast, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers...obviously, some were performed more than once and I'm pretty sure there were some years in there where we did not have a performer...........but you get the idea.
• the audition for each of said musicals and then the costumes to go with them!! 
• numerable times accompanying vocal solos and ensembles, flute solos, violin solos, trumpet ensembles at festivals, concerts, and competitions.
• and I'm not even going to try to guess the number of band and chorus concerts we have attended! ...or dance recitals...or piano recitals (though they didn't have piano in school. But we did have dance!)
• I'm also not going to try to guess the number of football games, water polo games, track meets, swim meets, cross-country meets, or wrestling meets we have endured. I say "endured" because of the stress, the anxiety, and the pain at some of the lopsided scores. I do know we had only one varsity wrestling meet and that was enough to prove to me that I didn't mind that he never again wrestled varsity. Talk about exponential stress!!!
•  then the end of season banquets for all those various extra-curricular activities
• 3 Sterling Scholars
• 10 LDS seminary graduation ceremonies
• 12 years of full-time missionary service
• 5 temple weddings
• a major "good-bye" every year for 10-12 years straight (someone off to college one year then leaving for the mission field the next year..........that one just about did me in!)
• our 17 year old going off to basic training for the National Guard
• that same 17 year old then 19 going off with said Guard to Iraq for a year

I suppose this is a little inaccurate since not all of these things happened on one of those 5760 school days...but that's life, right??? And it's been a good life. Even with the struggles and occasional heart aches we have been so blessed! Thank you to those who made these 5760 days a possibility!!! (I have to admit though........I cheered when we finished with our last "worlds' fair" and the last 5th grade "state report"........I think I'll stop there. I could name a few other things.........

...l...o...n...g jump

We've been to Nephi twice in two days.......it's spring.....it's track.....and this was region track....... We've never "done" track before, and I'm beginning to feel sorry about that. Daniel shows some natural talent and I wonder what he could have done in four years.......I'll never know...... He ran the 200m yesterday and "did" the long jump today. His longest jump was 17' 4 1/2". Sounds good to me, but there were some guys there jumping 19+!!!! It's just amazing to me! So here's my first and last attempt at photographing the long jump.........I'm so glad I tried!!! I love the intensity!!

 

...an even ten...

We blessed our tenth grandchild today...she also makes it five and five. A beautiful little girl, blessed with wonderful parents and attentive, loving brother and sisters. I was able to make another special dress! And I started early enough and stayed with it well enough that I was able to do all the embroidery I wanted/planned and still get to bed at a half-decent hour last night. 

 

 

 

 

And here's a picture of the darling what-cha-ma-call-it Michelle made for our front door. I love it!!! I should have got a closer picture. Michelle took this one--maybe you can see it well enough.