Monday was Columbus day so we decided to all get together to celebrate Brenda's birthday. She invited us to her new house in Mantua. It is kind of between Mantua and Wellsville, right up in the mountains. You can just see the top of her house from the road so I was excited to see the whole thing! It was really nice. The view she has our her window is like looking at a picture out of country magazine. Their farm is all to the south of them and you can just see Mantua lake peeking through the mountains beyond that. They have built a sun room where you can go and see all around their place. She said there are always deer and other wild life wandering around their house.

We had a lovely luncheon there and opened presents and had birthday cake and ice cream! We tried to do some planning for mother's upcoming 90th birthday in December. Just finding a day will be the hardest thing. We want to have as many of the family be there as possible!

It's hard to believe that she is almost 90! She is really holding up pretty well for her age. I never thought she would live so long because she had so many health problems when she was about my age. Her own mother died of a stroke when she was 60 years old.

She used to get terrible headaches from her high blood pressure and have to go lay down in her bedroom with the drapes closed. Daddy used to rub her head to try to help her feel better. She would have really bad fluctuation of her heart beat...either it would be racing or going so slow, she wouldn't have the energy to get out of bed. I remember daddy taking her to the hospital many times in the middle of the night when she would think she was having a heart attack or being afraid her heart was beating so slow, she would just die.
After many years of trying to regulate her heart medication, they finally found the right drug that has really worked for her. She takes a mountain of pills everyday, ( with much coaxing) but it keeps her going and feeling pretty good. When we go in to see Dr. Stones with mom, he always asks us about her quality of life. I hope that by being able to stay in her own home, with her familiar surroundings, she is happy and content. She always seems to be when we are there. I'm sure grateful for her many years of love and service and Christ-like example. I hope I can be more like her when I grow up...wait, I guess I'm already grown up. Well, I can keep trying anyway.

We ran out of time at Olivias's birthday party to paint little pumpkins, so we did them later that day. Very fun!

Little heavy on the pink...but perfect for Olivia. She likes everything pink, princess and sparkly!

Of course, Chewey made hers into a cat!

Taylor had invited us to come to his setting apart Tuesday night. He is going to the Philippines. It was a pretty special meeting. President Child talked a lot about faith and read from Moroni about the people having to have faith and be tested before Jesus appeared to them. (Faith preceeds the miracle!) I guess Mark is having a pretty hard time with Taylor leaving, so President Child said that scripture was for him. It really was a great reminder for everyone in the room though, you could see that everyone was touched by his message. I know I was. Then Taylor bore his testimony which was also pretty amazing. After he was set apart, Taylor thanked me for raising K.C. to be a good example and a good friend to him. I am so grateful that K.C. has had good friends in his life. I have seen how it can make all the difference in someone's life.

I know God is mindful of each one of us and knows what we need to get through this life, so he places people in our lives at certain times to help us or for us to help them. Isn't that great how that works out?

Anyway, he is a great guy and will be an amazing missionary. Glad to call him my friend too!