Better days...

So the past few days have been a lot better. Mom has been more alert and has been getting around pretty good. When the aide came to help mom last week, she noticed mom has a sore on her tail bone. She said it was from sitting in the same position for too long. ...(up until the last while, she was pretty hard to move around very much...did good getting her to the bathroom and bed.) But since she has been a little perkier, Camille and I decided we would try to get her to move around a little bit more. We have wanted to have her sitting with us at the dinner table but that would require tackling the stairs. She had not been upstairs since she got here and I know she gets awful bored looking at the same old scenery all day long.
Anyway, we decided to try to get her up the stairs. She did really good! With Camille on one side and mom holding to the banister, she was up them in no time! (I was behind her making sure she didn't fall back)
I was worried about her being able to sit at the kitchen table...the chairs are tall! But she slid right on to one with no trouble and just let her legs dangle. It was actually pretty slick cause she didn't have to raise up to get off of it...just slide off. It was nice to have her eat dinner with us.
Well the next day, we decided to even get more adventurous! It was a pretty sunny day so I thought it would do her some good to get out. I asked her if she would like to go get a hamburger at Wendy's. She said "sure! I'm buying!" So Camille and I got her up the stairs again and out the front door. Then out to the car. She got ahold of the handle above the door and Camille and I got behind her and pushed (lifted) her onto the seat. Whew!
We loaded up Olivia and Sam and were on our way. We got some lunch and drove to the park to sit and eat. Olivia wanted to go swing and run around for a minute (it was cold!) then we headed home. It did us all good to get out and I could tell it lifted mom's spirits.
We have been having her come upstairs and eat dinner with us more and that's been nice. Candice came over yesterday and spent the night here. She is so sweet with mom (even though mom sometimes doesn't recognize her with her different hair colors..."and who are you????") and always is a big help when she is here.
So far, I think things are going pretty well. Mom brings such a sweet spirit into our home. She is always so grateful for everything. Every night when I tuck her into bed, she says "thank you so much for everything you do for me!"
Kelley just built a nice fire and I think mom has said at least 5 times how much she enjoys the fire...."it just couldn't get any better than this!" She is always so grateful for the simplest things....a tomato sandwhich, a soft bed, Lizzy laying by her feet, keeping her company and being able to wake up and see daddy's picture right by her bed.
I'm so glad she is here. Even though it is challenging at times, and I am usually pooped by the end of the day, I feel like our family has been blessed and is learning much from her example of faith, cheerful positive attitude. and enduring to the end.
Next adventure...church next Sunday!

How can you not have a happy day when you have this face smiling at you?
It felt good to go burn off some energy at racquetball. I got mom up and going before I left, then Camille and Olivia took over.
Mom was getting around pretty good in the morning but later in the day seemed kind of sad....not really sure what it was. The hospice aide was wanting to come over but said she couldn't come till about 10:30 or 11:00. I told her that really wouldn't be a help to me because mom was already up and ready for the day by then. I told them I would need someone to come by about 8:30 to help with her shower. So later a girl named Rebecca called and said she could come at 8:30. I was kind of worried about how mom would handle someone new helping out.
Well anyway, back to yesterday... I haven't been to my class for a while...Brother Wilcox has been gone since december when his wife passed away....I like the guy he has standing in for him...he reminds me of the "inconceivable" guy on the princess bride.
He taught a real good lesson today from Joshua about keeping a journal.
I so appreciate Camille insisting that I go and taking care of things here so I could do it!



We just spent a nice evening by the fire watching the Jazz game.

I didn't sleep very well last night...woke up about two and couldn't go back to sleep. I read for a while, then about 4:30 started dozing off.

I got up about 8:00 and went down to see if mom was awake. She was just waking up. I thought I had better warn her that this new aide was coming over. She didn't think that was a good idea at all. She said she could get in the shower fine by herself. I sure understand her not wanting some stranger to come in and give her a shower! I told her that it would be just like when the home health care ladies would come in and help her at her house. She still was not having it, but before she could put up too big of a fuss, there was a knock at the door.

I went and let Rebecca in and instantly liked her. She was probably about 30 and going to nursing school. She introduced herself to mom and told her that she was just here to help out. She asked mom if she could use some help getting in the shower and she said "oh no...I can do it myself." hmmmmmm. not so much.

So Rebecca said she would just help a little bit if mom needed her. Amazingly, mom got up and started undressing herself. Rebecca was great and let her do as much as she could, then stepped in and helped her finish undressing and get in the shower.

I just kind of stood back and let her do her thing...she was great with mom.

After her shower, she rubbed her down good with lotion and even massaged her back for a few minutes. She helped her dress, then blow dry her hair and curled it. She did a great job! She trimmed up a few wild hairs and put a little lotion on her face. Then she helped her stand up in front of the mirror so she could see how pretty she looked.

Then she helped her get into the family room and went and made her bed. I was like 'Oh you don't have to do that and she said 'Oh that's just what I do!' She tidied up the bathroom and put away everything she had used. When she was ready to go, she came and gave mom a hug and told her thank you for letting her come see her today. Then she asked mom if it would be ok if she came back again. Mom said "sure!"

She was seriously like an angel from heaven.

The ladies that do this job are amazing!

Had such a fun day yesterday! My sisters all came down and spent the day.

Mom was so excited to see everyone

Leslie came down with Alan and Frankie. They were both going to see the doctor that had worked on their shoulders at TOSH. They dropped Leslie off about 10:00. Wouldn't you know it, we had a big snow storm that morning so it made the driving pretty rough. Brenda and Teina got there about 10: 30.

We had a nice time visiting and mom was sure glad to see everyone.

We got to reminiscing after reading Lisa's blog. She has a great memory and a really sweet way of expressing herself. She had written a post about Grandma's house that really pulled at all of our heart strings. So Sweet. She talked about walking through Grandma's house one last time while she was still living there and all the memories she had of good times with Grandma and Grampa and all the different rooms in their house. I guess we all have our own memories of growing up in that house...the different rooms and cubby holes and fun times we had there with family and friends. It got all of us thinking. Thanks for that Lisa.

We had a little birthday party (for me!) and had some lunch. Teina had even made me a birthday cake! By this time Alan was back to pick up Leslie.

Leslie had brought a bunch more of moms clothes and things and an electric heater that will help out in the bathroom when she is showering.

It was good to be able to talk to them about how things are going with mom. They are all willing to help me out and I know I can call on them when I need them.

I'm sure grateful for my sisters!

A few sweet moments from the last few days...

Olivia is obsessed with the boat. She wants to play on it all the time. She can climb up the little ladder all by herself and get on the boat.

She wanted me to come out and play house with her today. She is the mother, I am the daughter...."get the net daughter....theres a big dog-fish (Lizzy) out here!"

The boat is a big mess! We have accumulated a mountain of bags with the "perfect lure" (this one is guarenteeeeeed!) in it from all of the trips Dan makes to Cabela's.

Not to mention all of the varieties of sparkly, rainbow colored, super stinky cheese. Anywho... Camille and I decided to tidy up a bit. We sorted all the lures and fish line and hooks and stinky stuff into their proper tackle boxes, wiped everything down and cleaned out the cabin.

It was a nice day...probably in the forties. We played hopscotch too.

Olivia drew all the numbers on it....she is so smart!

Snuggling with Sam

Camille came to racquetball with me last week. We loaded up the whole crew.
Susan had brought the cutest diaper cake for Camille. Her and her daughter have made a little business of making and selling them. It was really darling. It had a bear on the top that sang "Jesus loves me...this I know" Susan is a sweet heart and a good friend.
We had fun playing again. Oliva was a good girl and watched a movie, and Sam cooperated most of the time....had a huge blow out, but Camille was prepared this time!



Olivia dancing around in her butterfly wings

Kelley trying to comfort Sam. It was funny in church yesterday, Camille and Kelley were sitting by the Scharmans in Sunday School and Kim was holding the Sam. He had a big noisy blow out. Then after Camille got him cleaned up, Mark wanted to hold him. Sam started fussing after a while. Kelley said "Do you want me to take him? Mark said "what are you going to do that I'm not?" But Sam kept fussing so he handed him over to Kelley. He immediately quited down. Kelley seems to have the magic touch with him. Mark was a bit ticked off.

Olivia and Kelley making a fire. She follows Kelley around like a puppy. Always wants to help him do what ever he is doing.

Warming up those cold hands. Hot Chocolate with marshmallows and grampa by the fire.

I told mom I was getting a package ready to send to KC. She said she would like me to write a few things to send to him from her. What a sweet message she sent to him!

Later when I got home from mailing the package, I came downstairs and asked her what she was watching on tv. She said she hadn't been watching it, she had been looking at the picture of her and daddy that's on top of the tv. She asked me if I remembered how many people there were at daddy's funeral. I said yes...the chapel and cultural hall were full. She said, "He spent his life serving other people....he was a friend to everyone." I told her that I remembered him always helping one of the neighbors or family, or sometimes a stranger that would come to see their beautiful yard. He was easy to talk to and have a laugh with...it wasn't long before the stranger became another friend.

She looked at their picture with so much love in her eyes...I could tell she was longing for the day when they would be together again.

I told her I thought daddy was preparing their well deserved mansion in heaven ( most exquisite of flower gardens of course) and waiting patiently (that's just his nature) for the time when she would join him. (I can just picture them out in the beautiful gardens...daddy will whistle his call to her that says "where are you?" and she will answer in her special whistle that means..."Here I am!" I heard it a hundred times while I was growing up. It was their way of finding each other in the enormous yard and somehow, was very comforting to me....You could sense the love between them as they called out for each other.

She said she hoped she had lived a good enough life that she could be with him.
If any two people could be anymore Christ like, or worthy of celestial blessings, I can't imagine who it would be.
Feel so lucky to be blessed with such very special parents.

UPs and DOWNs

Yesterday was not a good day. Well it kind of started the afternoon before. Mom was having a real hard time walking. I even used the wheel chair a few times because she just couldn't move her left leg. She always wants to try and walk.
I had called the hospice people to see if I could get an aide to come out and help Thursday evening. I had bunko and was worried about getting mom to bed. They said they don't really have people come out after hours (8-5) unless it's an emergency....but that they would try to get a volunteer to come out. So this is a totally different set up than the home health care. She said a volunteer come out and spend some time with her but that's not what I needed. I needed someone who could get her to the bathroom and help her to bed. (Camille had never taken her to the bathroom before and was a little nervous about it) But she said she would take over and Candice came over and helped out too.
So before I left that night, I got mom to the bathroom and in her jammies and helped her into bed. It was still pretty early, so I just turned on the tv for her to watch for a while. Kelley came home a little while later and set up her tv on a table he has been working on. ( It turned out so pretty!) Anyway, I knew mom was in good hands when I left her with those three.
I got a call during bunko...it was Camille. It sounded like she was either laughing or crying really hard. I was glad to hear she was laughing! Olivia had gotten the febreeze and had sprayed Lizzy all over till she was saturated. Candice was worried about it being toxic so she tried to give her a bath. Ha ! I wish I could have seen that! Lizzy does not like to have a bath! Anyway, Camille was just wondering if I had any dog shampoo.
It was fun to get out for the night. I had a good talk with Jane too about the hospice care. She works for a hospice company called Inspiration. It sounds like that is how it works...to not be able to get an aide out too help after hours unless it's an emergency....So i was glad to hear that. I had started wondering if Rocky Mountain was kind of flaky!
Anyway, when I got home, Camille was still up with Sam and we sat and talked for a while. She said they had gotten along real just fine. They had sat in there with her and watched Americas funniest videos till she was ready to go to sleep.
When I went in there in the morning, she was sleeping with her hand under her head. That is not how she usually sleeps. When she goes to sleep, she lays flat on her back with her arms down. She also had her head kinked to the side.
She woke up when I went in her room and as soon as she did, she realized she had kinked her neck. She tried to sit up but then cried out when she tried to use her left hand to push herself up. I guess she had slept on her hand all night and it was really sore. I had a heck of a time even getting her into the bathroom because she couldn't hold on to anything with that hand and her neck and shoulder was really sore too.
I got her in the shower eventually, she said she wanted to sit there and have the warm water run on her shoulder to see if it would ease the pain. So I got the water running on her shoulder and let her sit for about 10 minutes. When I tried to get her out of the shower, she was moving reeeeeeealy slow. I pretty much carried her to the toilet seat. When she sat down, she just kind of slumped back and closed her eyes. I was like "Are you ok?" She said she felt like fainting. I thought I should get her onto the bed somehow. I hollered at Camille to come help me. (So glad she was there!) She brought the wheel chair and somehow, we got her into it. Then I remembered I had pulled all the sheets off the bed cause it was all wet when she woke up (first time that had happened)
So by this time, we had kind of woke her up and got her dressed. We rolled her out into family room and got her into the big green chair. I asked her if she would eat some breakfast, but she said she just wanted a drink. So I got her some juice thinking that would perk her up. She drank a bit then fell asleep. I tried to wake her up, but she just kept falling right back to sleep.
I was really worried... Great! mom is here for a week and I've about killed her!!!!!
So I called the nurse. When I told her what had happened she said she would be right over. She came and checked all her vital signs. They were all fine. She asked mom a bunch of questions like...real simple things and she couldn't answer any of them except for who I was.
She was worried about her soreness in her left shoulder and hand. But when I told her about how she had slept, she said that could probably do it. She said that she had probably gotten too warm in the shower and that had made her lightheaded, and as far as her sleeping so much, she said that she will probably just have days like that.
She slept most of that day. I used the wheel chair to get her into the bathroom cause she just couldn't walk.
Bad day.
Well the next morning, I woke up to a different person. She was very alert and was able to walk without hardly any help. She said she didn't have any pain in her shoulder or hand at all. The podiatrist came over about 11:00 and worked on her feet for awhile. He was really gentle and sweet with her. He did a real good job on her nails and put some medicine on the sores on her toes. She was wanting to have her fingernails trimmed too, so I asked him if he would do that too. He said he would and trimmed and filed them.
Later in the afternoon, Kelley offered to watch the kids so Camille and I went shopping for a while. He is a peach! So great with mom and always makes us laugh. It was fun to relax and walk around Tai Pan with Camille for awhile.
When we got home, Phil and Stacey had come over to visit mom. I think she really enjoyed seeing them. I know she misses all the family. I'm just so glad and relieved to see her feeling better.

Sure enjoying having Camille, Olivia and Sam here!

The other day, we got some fresh snow...nice wet, heavy, stick together snowman snow! So Olivia and I went out to play!





Olivia has been having some jealousy issues the past few days and has been kind of a little stinker to her mom. I try to step back and let her handle things. Camille is a real good mom! Really patient...but I think Liv pushed her over the edge when she said in a real scary voice "You better come here right now mommy or I'm going to count to three!...one...two...
Ha ! Camille asked me if she had given me fits when she was little like Olivia does. I remember going through the very same thing with her! She was a very strong willed child and seemed to want to disagree with pretty much everything I said. It would drive me crazy! I remember getting so frustrated and mad I would break down and cry! (I'm not a very good fighter or screamer)
That's when the kids would take notice and be like "oh now were going to get it...."
The kids have very rarely been disrespectful or rude or talked back to me. This is a result of not perfect parenting or being given angelic children. But from fear of their dad! He will tolerate a lot of things, but being disrespectful to their mom was not one of them.
He wouldn't ever smack them or anything, but there was consequences to pay...much stricter consequences than I would have ever dreamed of. And he would always follow through.
I used to cringe when he lowered the boom, and sometimes I wouldn't even tell him stuff that had happened because I knew what he would do and didn't think they deserved it.
I guess that's just the mom in me....not ever wanting to see them sad or hurting.
But it definitely nipped the disrespect in the bud...and the kids all turned out to be pretty wonderful people, very loving and respectful to him and to me... so to Camille I would give this advice...just keep doing what you are doing.. ( she really is such a good girl ...you have taught her really well how to behave!)and she wants so much to please you . Try not to let little things make you crazy, and realize that before you know it, she will have grown into a delightful, amazing young woman ...just like her mom.

Well it's been quite a week! On Tuesday morning, I went to pick up mom. I picked up Teina on the way for moral and physical support.

We told her that today was the day she was going to come to my house and visit me for a while. (I had been talking to her about it on the phone the week before and Brenda and Teina had been talking to her about it too)
She didn't disagree, but I could tell she was pretty nervous about leaving her house.
We gathered up all of the things she uses and some other things that we hoped would make her feel comfortable and at home...her afghan, lamp, pictures...her favorite clothes and slippers.
We cleaned out her fridge, turned down the temperature, then got her all loaded into the car.
That was quite a feat in itself. The car is kind of high, so we got her to put one foot up onto the side step, then Teina and I got behind her and pushed her up into the car...you wouldn't think a tiny person like her would be so hard to lift, but man it's tough! We were all laughing so hard by the time we got her in there...it was pretty funny!
She kept asking what city we were in as we drove along. Then she would say, "I never thought you lived so far away!" It's been quite a few years since she has been to my house.
When we drove up to the house, Kelley and Candice and Camille came out to help bring her in the house. It was really cold outside, so I was grateful Kelley had made a nice warm fire. Mom seemed to like it too and got comfortable in the big comfy chair next to it.
Later, I showed her her room and put away her clothes and set up all her things in there. She said she just loved it...she is always so sweet and grateful for everything.
We had a nice dinner, then I think she was pretty tired, cause she said she was ready for bed. I don't blame her! That was exhausting for me and I wasn't going through the mental anguish of leaving my home that she was. I got her all ready and into bed. That's a process....like getting her up. It just takes time. I'm used too racing through life, always doing something, running here and there, at a pretty good pace.
Well I could see that first day with her here, that I was going to have to bring it down a notch. It's not a bad thing, and I am so happy to have her here, but I just need to slow down a bit, and realize that it's gonna take some time to get things done...
The first night she was here, I had a pretty sleepless night, worrying about her getting up in the night and not knowing where she was. I kept checking on her to make sure she was sleeping. Then about 4:00 am, I hear this thud from her room. I go running down there and she is kneeling on the floor, trying to get to her feet.
She said she was going to go to the bathroom, but didn't know where it was. I don't think she was hurt, but pretty confused. I took her into the bathroom, then got her back into bed.
It's going to take some time to get used to things.
The next night, I asked her if she would please stay in bed till I came in to get her up. She has done that ever since. (except for one day when we got up and found her out sitting in the family room watching tv!...how in the world? I don't know.)
The same company that was helping mom up in Providence have a home health and hospice team here in Salt Lake and they contacted me and wanted to come over and meet mom. The nurse and social worker came over and both were very nice. They talked with her for a while, then the nurse checked her vital signs. The nurse said she will be coming in about every week to make sure she is doing ok. They have a podiatrist that is going to come over and work on her feet. She has some sores on her toes that she wanted him to look at. They also have a doctor that is coming today to check her out. They really want to do everything they can to help out. They wondered about having home health come in to help care for her, but I haven't really seen a need for them yet.
The nurse had a wheel chair and a raised toilet seat thing with handles delivered here that have been really helpful.
Things have been going along pretty well. She seems happy and has had a lot of entertainment and company with Camille's family here.
The only incident she has had besides falling out of bed that first night, was yesterday....When we were leaving to go to church, she was sound asleep in the chair so I didn't wake her up to tell her where we were going... Well after sacrament meeting, I came home with Will, Jacob and Jonathan to bring her the sacrament. When I came in she was sitting on the edge of the chair, looking around frantically. She said she had woken up and didn't know where she was and nobody was there. She said she thought she was lost until she looked around and saw the picture of her and daddy on the tv... then she realized she was in my house. She was pretty upset. I felt so bad! I for sure won't leave her again without telling her where I'm going!
The young men were great with her there was a sweet spirit here when they blessed and gave her the sacrament. It gave me a deeper appreciation for the atonement and love of the Savior when I could see how much it meant to her to be able to take the sacrament.
Well I'm finishing this up after the doctor (a sweet lady named Dr. Newman) and nurse that came the other day have left. I really liked the doctor. She is very kind and thorough and sweet with mother but showed her respect and wanted her opinions on how things were going. Mom told her I was taking good care of her and that she was happy here.
The doctor listened to her heart and said it was beating really slow....between 40-45 beats per minute. So she called Dr. Stones and talked with him about changing her heart medicine. She said he was really helpful and told her some of mom's history. Then she called in all the perscriptions with the changes she had made.
Then they started asking questions about how I was getting along and dealing with the work of caring for an elderly person. (The nurse had wanted to weigh mom and had brought some scales in. Then she tried to get her up and walk to the scales and stand on them...by the time she was finished she was dripping sweat!) She said "how are you doing this? She is really hard to move around!" I don't know exactly what happened next, but without any warning, I just started to cry. I guess all the feelings and worries and lack of sleep of this past week that had been building up all came out. They listened to me and were very understanding and kind. They said it was my decision, but they wanted me to have the aides come in to help. I told them I would let them know when I wanted them to come. That's nice to know there are there when I need them. I can see that I'm going to need some help.

I've had kind of a lot going on this past week, but it's all good!

First...KC sent a few pictures last week with his email.

This is an investigator that he has been working with named Vladimir (of course! every third person there is named Vladimir!) Anyway, he said he is going to be baptized next month. KC was transferred to a new area this past week though so he won't get to see it happen, (that's gotta be tough) but he is happy for him and a few others he has been teaching there that will be baptized next month.

This is in front of the Bolshoi temple

On Friday, I flew to Arizona...to help Camille fly back home to Utah!

We had a nice weekend there. Camille and Kellen have moved back in with Kellen's parents for a little while. They have a beautiful home that is HUGE! There is a whole wing of the house that is empty so they have plenty of room for them.

Bev and Gary took were great and took good care of us. I really appreciate them and all they do for Camille and Kellen.

It's really lovely in the winter there. Temperature was around 60-65. It felt so good coming from an extra cold spell here in Utah where the high for the day was 15-20!

Olivia and I had fun with her new sticker book...

Olivia loooooooooooves baby brother! Isn't it great how that works out...she is always touching him, tickling, kissing him or singing to him, and he never gets annoyed...just looks at her with this knowing look on his face like "yup, you're my sister and we are going to be together forever and one day, I will be bigger than you..."

She is really sweet to him though and a big help to Camille (most of the time...he was in the other room fussing one morning and we hollered at her to give him his binky...we went in there a few minutes later and found her feeding him an old bottle she had found that had fallen behind the bed. He was taking it happily. ( No ill side affects...thank you Lord)

They had a lovely huge bedroom for me, but I wanted to sleep in the bunk beds with Oliva! I haven't slept in bunk beds since I was about 10! I loved our bunk beds at home...especially the bottom...you could make great tents in there plus I got to kick Leslie's mattress (she always got the top)

We were looking through Kellen's baby book and Sam looks exactly like him at this age!

We went shopping Saturday and took our picture in one of those little photo booths

Then lunch at Paradise Bakery

Playing with the puppy...

Olivia is the puppy

We went to their church Sunday. Sam looked so cute in his little white shirt and tie!

They had a really good sacrament meeting. A young couple sand "I know that my
Redeemer lives" and it was really beautiful!

Sunday afternoon we got everything packed up and ready to go to Utah Monday morning!
Bev took us to the airport. We were a little nervous because we had 4 suitcases, plus the stroller and car seat and Olivia!

We checked our bags at the curb and that went pretty well, except Camille left all of our boarding passes sitting on the little table by the curb. Luckily, we realized pretty quick we didn't have them and she ran back and got them. We had a real nice man get us through security...you seriously have to take the stroller and car seat all apart and get the baby out to be inspected. Then they tested her breast milk (she had made a bottle for the plane) for explosives! Ha!

Sam was incredibly good through all this process and Olivia is always good.

We realized we had a little spare time so we went into a gift shop to get a drink. All the sudden, Sam just starts grinning this big cheesy smile. I was like "Camille, you've got to look at him...he's really smiling!" She got down close to him and said "oh dear! " He had had a terrible blowout...poo everywhere! Up his back, down his legs even on his elbows!

For a second we just stood there with a look of panic. Then we started looking for a bathroom. Luckily, there was a "family bathroom" right next to the gift shop. It was really a life saver! A big padded bench to change him on, and even a shower. Camille just threw his onesie away...it was beyond repair. The outfit he had on was covered in poo too, but we rinsed it out and stuck it in a plastic bag.

Then Camille realized she had taken the extra outfit out of the diaper bag the night before, so all he had to put on was a little t shirt....it did have this matching hat though!

So we wrapped him up in his blanket and by this time, they were loading the plane. I bet people wondered what we were thinking bringing a new baby to freezing cold Utah in just a t-shirt! Ha! He was a perfect angel the rest of the flight...didn't make a peep.

Now we know what's going to happen when he looks like this...

Happy New Year!

I've gotten a little behind, (actually I'm getting a big behind...did I really eat that whole box of orange sticks? Kelley doesn't like them and I'm the only other one here... hmmmmmm) so I'm just going to try to remember some of the highlights of the past few weeks...

The week after Christmas was very nice and relaxing. Kelley was off of work so we had a lot of time together....which I thoroughly enjoyed! We worked on some projects we are doing around the house to get things ready for Grandma and Camille's family to come.

New years eve was fun. Brenda and Dan invited us all to their house and we had a real nice dinner, then got to visit and get caught up on each other's lives. Sure feel blessed to have this great group of friends.

We have had some real doozer snow storms that left us with mountains of snow and bitter cold temperatures. Kelley spent several of his days off digging out the widows in the ward and other neighbors and cleaning the church walks.

Kelley's dad made these cute things for Sam. In the winter, he gets bored just sitting around, so he does a lot on his knitting looms. He is such a good guy...always concerned about us and each of the kids and how they are doing.Oh this is the cool shadow box collage Kate gave us for Christmas. She is so creative and clever. Always puts a lot of thought, effort and love into the things she does.

KC's last email was really sweet...
Jan 1, 2011
Kelley Carson Jensen to me


Hey Guys! Happy New Year!!!
We have the office elders in our district so we all spent the night at their house and watched Alice in Wonderland and Bolt last night. It was a lot of fun and now we are here in the office emailing. How did you guys celebrate New Years? Hopeful you had fun. I wish you guys all the best in this next year. Russians are really big into wishing you things on your birthday or on the New Year, they’ll say "I desire you health, happiness, luck, success...."and lots of other stuff. And its all really nice but I never really know what to say back, because I don’t want to wish them all the same things back, but my vocab is only so big, so I usually just say "thanks, you too." with a big smile. Kinda lame, the key is just to be the first to wish, then you don’t have to think of crazy things to wish. Anyway, I wanted to tell you guys about how our Christmas went. Sorry about the call by the way, I will buy a better card in May. So on Christmas we went and ate breakfast at our senior couples house, it was really nice, then we watched a Christmas movie. Then I called our investigator Aleck from Krygistan, and he told me that his aunt wanted to invite me over for Christmas dinner, so he gave her the phone and she invited me in English, because she’s and English teacher. So we went to there house, he lives with his aunt and uncle and they are probably two of the nicest people in the world. The uncle is a teacher of traditional Russian instruments, so he played us some songs on his Garmoshka...its like an accordion but it has buttons on both sides and no piano keys. Anyway, they were both really interested in the gospel too, the uncle was raised as a Baptist, which is way rare here, so I think that things are going to work out with them. We went over to Aydars house but his brother was busy so he couldn't’t meet with us, but told us to come back. We also had some success working with one in active family in our branch. The son is really active but the parents aren’t at all. So we stopped by with a Christmas present(a chocolate bar) and had a nice chat with the mother. She is really nice and wants us to come by more often, President Kremenchuk, our branch president lives nearby, so I think there is a really good chance at helping the whole family get active. So things are going really good here, my last day in Arbatskii will be on the 11th of January, so I'm sad about that. I have really enjoyed serving here and have put my whole heart into making it a good area. But you have to move on sometimes. Everything will keep on running without me just fine. This morning I woke up about 2 hours before everyone else and so I had some time to think and ponder on the past year. It was cool to think about all of the things that happened and all the I have learned. It was the hardest, coldest, most spiritual, most satisfying year of my life. Looking back, I love every minute of it, even if I didn’t realize how much I loved the hard times at the time. I have really grown to love and rely on my Heavenly Father, because he was often the only one who could possibly understand why I felt or what I needed. Missions are the best. Thanks for sending those pictures, its way nice to see Grandma, I hope you can figure out what to do to help her. I hate to think of her being sad missing home, but I don’t want her to fall down anymore either. I will pray for you guys to know what to do. Anyway, I love you tons. Ill actually get to talk to you on Wednesday too, sorry I didnt tell you that our p day was moved. But have a nice few weeks. Love you!
KC
Brenda called on Sunday and asked when I would want to go out to lunch for my birthday. She's so thoughtful! We decided on Monday evening for dinner so some of the working ladies could come. What a fun night! I love these ladies! It was so fun to get to talk and laugh and get caught up on whats going on in each of their lives.
Seems like each of us are dealing with some big changes in our lives right now...some happy, some, really difficult. Just part of life I guess. Makes it easier to battle though, when you have good friends that understand and give you their love, encouragement and support.


I celebrated my 52nd birthday on Tuesday. I had such a nice day...family and friends made is really special. These are the beautiful flowers Katie sent me! Candice came over for lunch and brought me Michael Wilcox' new book..."What the scriptures teach us about adversity" Super thoughtful! She knows how I love to hear him talk!
Candice, Kelley and I went out to dinner that night to PF Changs. Love, love love their food! Had lots of sweet birthday wishes from family and friends....I'm sure lucky to have such wonderful people in my life! That's what makes life worth living!

Did I tell you about the most wonderful gift that Camille and Kellen gave us for Christmas? It's a web cam skype thing! The kids were laughing at me cause I was soooooo excited about it, but when we got it up and running, it was confirmed.....coolest gift ever! I could just about reach out and touch Sam, and Olivia and I were doing a lot of kisses right through the screen!
We were giggling and pulling faces and flapping our lips at each other like we were 4 years old...wait, she is 4. Oh I don't care...we had so much fun!

Then she wanted to see Lizzy...so instead of taking the web cam down, I tried to lift Lizzy up so she would be in the picture. Man she is heavy! and also didn't want to be lifted up! It was pretty funny. Then Camille suggested I move the web cam. hmmmm now that's a good idea!

Anyway, I love technology and my sweet daughter for letting me have the next best thing to being with them!

Look at his cute little double chin...I just want to eat him!

Counting down the days till they will be here!

Last night we had a YW new years party over to Jenny's house. She made a nice dinner for us and we had a fun time playing games and talking.

We played the white elephant gift game and this is what I ended up with.

Awesome!

I was glad Faith came . She has decided to move on to Relief Society now...we will sure miss her!

I love Jenny's girls. They remind me so much of Katie and Camille when they were that age.

Love ALL the girls!