Spent a lovely day with my sweetheart Saturday.

We had planned on going up to mom's to do a little work up there.
I looked out the back window and saw these beautiful Iris had just bloomed so Kelley picked a bunch of them to take to the cemetery.

We picked up Candice and went up to the Salt Lake Cemetery first to visit Maxine's grave.
Her headstone looked real nice. I think grampa must have been there recently cleaning and shining it.





We wanted to see Candice's new house so we drove over there...not too far from the capitol...memory grove area.


It's a real cute little house with a neat yard. (potentially) It's been neglected and from what Candice says pretty much trashed on the inside...so she will have her work cut out for her. I admire her for jumping in and tackling this huge job. (she could say a lot of negative things about the way things have transpired, but doesn't...I like that about Candice!) We are going up there today to help her move in.

When we got to Logan, we went right up to the cemetery. They must have come on Friday and put mom's death date on the headstone cause it wasn't there when we went there on Thursday.

I like how they put flags on all the veterans graves. I found out from my visit with my sisters the other day that Keith Watkins (who has owned Watkins printing there in Providence forever) started putting these flags on all the graves way back when...just out of the goodness of his heart. And now he is gone, his sons carry on the tradition. Nice!

We went over to mom's and Kelley went right to work on the bathroom. Alan had finished up some rough edges around the doors and it was ready to paint.

While Kelley painted, I cleaned and vacuumed. Lots of spiders!!!!! And I think there is a squirrel living back by daddys desk!

Mostly, I just liked wandering around the house, trying to take it all in.

I got a call from Leslie last week...she was all excited because she had gotten a call from Mardene Knowles. Well let me back up a little bit...

At mum's viewing, LuDene had mentioned that her daughter Mardene had always loved mum and daddy's place and had told her that if she ever saw it up for sale to let her know.

So when we were sending out our thank you notes, we mentioned to LuDene that we were going to be selling the place, so if she wanted to tell her daughter, that would be great.

So when Leslie got this call from Mardene, it was pretty unexpected...I just thought that was a long shot.

She told Leslie that her husband is getting ready to retire ( they live in Idaho) and they want to live closer to their children who are all there in Cache Valley. She said her and her husband both have always loved our yard and would want to have it stay like it always has been.

Leslie told her we were having it appraised this week so we would let them know what we come up with. She said her husband was going to come down and walk around their place on Saturday. I don't know what will happen here, but I feel like if it works out, it would be an answer to our prayers. The Knowles family has lived across the street from mum and daddy since I was a little girl. We grew up with their kids. ( all 10 of them!) Marlo was our home teacher forever, and LuDene played the piano for us when ever we sang. I can't really think of anyone else( besides one of us girls) I would rather have be there.

It still makes my heart ache to think of it not being ours anymore,..not being able to go there and find refuge in that beautiful peaceful place... ( it is a very real and tangible feeling as you pull in the driveway of leaving the noisy world behind, and entering a sweet quiet haven) Daddy's baby picture

His desk...it's fun to read all the little thoughts he has stuck under the glass and everywhere.

Just reminds you of his character...he was a perfect example of what these thoughts portray.

His hats....sigh....miss him.I could write a whole page about this typewriter and the memories I have of seeing daddy sitting there at it every night. Keeping a journal of their lives...plunking out the words day after day was an incredible gift our parents gave us. We went out and assessed the damage to the roof of the old house...it's leaking pretty bad. Kelley said he would need some help on this...still wondering if it's worth fixing. I imagine whoever buys it will want to tear it down.( although it is on the historic building registry) It's pretty much falling apart.Even with no attention or care, the rock garden still looks quite beautiful.
Kelley finished up the painting ( although he was not one bit happy about the way it looked..."this needs at least 3 coats! I can't leave it like this!" along with lots of swear words. I told him it doesn't have to be perfect... just make it livable. That is not in his nature. He does not do a job half-way...I wouldn't be surprised if he went up there and put another coat on there, just so he could sleep at night) I finished tidying the house and we locked it all up and left.

We went over to the Bluebird and had a nice meal. I love that place...full of happy memories of lunches with the girls and singing for Mother's day programs for mom's club ladies.

We stopped back by mom's place to get a old scythe Kelley had seen up in the wood shed, and Leslie and Alan pulled in the same time. We talked about selling the place...I think we all feel the same about it (ripping our hearts out) but trying to come to grips with it.