This weekend we worked on daddy's den. This is a room full of warm memories and treasures.

We finished going through the rest of the drawers in the dresser. They were full of genealogy and family histories and personal histories. The amount of genealogy work mum and daddy did is amazing! We found pictures and patriaracle blessings, and letters written from ancestors...all helping each other to have a more complete and accurate record of genealogy and temple work. Very cool! It made me feel more connected to them as I looked through old pictures and read personal histories. We all took some books home to peruse for a few weeks. I got a few more of Aunt Pat's books about Providence to go through too. Such fun!

At church Sunday, a friend was telling me how aggravated her and her husband were to have the chore of going through all of his mother's things..."She kept everything!" She said she would never do that to her children. I imagine her situation must be different from mine, because I have found nothing but joy and sweet memories going through our parents things ( and yes, they saved everything too). Maybe she doesn't have three lovely sisters to share the job with...I'm so grateful for that!

Anyway, as we were going through all the things in these drawers, Brenda said " You guys might want to hear this"...and she read to us the journal entries mum had made the day daddy had his heart attack, then, the next few days until his death. I had never seen these before, as they were just handwritten on a sheet of paper...not in her regular journal she so faithfully kept.

It was most tender and sweet as she told of what she was feeling and her love for him. We were all moved to tears. What a precious gift she left for us to find...and a great reminder of how blessed we are to have the wonderful, loving parents we do.

We have been going back and forth and agonizing a bit over what to do with the 9 water shares mum and daddy had.

We knew Boyd would need some to irrigate the yard, so we gave him 4. He has plans of putting in a reservoir so he can get by with that many. We put a little ad in the paper and had several other people ask about them. We wanted them to go to people who needed them the most ( and people we liked). So we decided to give two shares to the Flammers, one to a guy there in Providence...my sisters know him, and one more to Boyd. The water master brought the certificates over while we were there on Saturday so we could give them to them. They were kind of cool to look at. This one from Joseph Keefe was issued in 1939...probably when mum and daddy bought the place from him.

Oh this was neat...It 's a pocket dictionary that must have been given to daddy from his buddies on his mission...they all signed their names and date.

This is the old secretary in daddy's room. I think it was grandma Braeggers. Beautiful! ( we actually cleaned it all off and divided up those things on it. I was so tickled...I got that cool old barometer)

We found several of these kind of books that daddy had kept over the years. He kept account of every dollar he earned. Plus an account of where every cent went! Amazing! I know mum would never write in her check register so I don't know how he ever kept track. But he did! I envy their life style and would love to be able to get to that point someday...They never used a credit card. period. Would save until they had money to buy something.

A few other fun things in the drawers of his desk...

How awesome is this nut cracker?

I got this Know your Gospel game a few weeks ago when we were dividing up all the games...we've played it a few times for FHE and it kicked my butt. I do not know your gospel. Made me realize how dumb I am...want to do better!

(KC put Kelley and I to shame)

We found this seriously old Indian penny...cool.

This dollar was in an envelope that said on it One dollar from world war two with bullet hole. Man I wish we knew the story behind that one!

I brought the Cuckoo clock home since we were taking everything off the walls. My sweet sisters decided I should have it since we sunk about 200 dollars into it to get it fixed about 10 years ago.

Wow that is so special to me and holds a world of memories. The spot where it hung looked very strange and awful with it gone...wanted to put it back!

A neat little coin purse I remember daddy using...

Oh this was a great picture we found in daddy's desk of Camille on her mission.

We all got another book of Clyde's life. I read the book years ago when mum gave us each one. Such a great book! I sat and read a little from it yesterday and was laughing and crying all over again. I'm still amazed at what these two people were able to accomplish in spite of the obstacles they dealt with every day. It's pretty inspirational.

 Pretty cool cigar box full of daddy's beads.

Address book in a cool flip up case! I thought the grand kids would get a kick out of this...I know I did!

Well the latest on selling the house is not good. I feel like we've take three steps backward. Brenda called Boyd Saturday morning and he told her he had about had it with the bank. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but they wanted him to fix the roof on the house, and the green house...repaint the garage ( because there was lead paint on it) and now they want him to repaint the fence east of the house ( also because of lead paint) really people??? fix the green house? They also are insisting that the old house is a dwelling place so that has to be considered in the repairs being done. This was the real kicker though...the guy at the bank said to him..." don't you just want to find some other place to buy?" Boyd was like "NO!" That is the place I want!

So now he is going to go to a different bank and try to get a conventional loan instead of an FHA. I guess they are a little more lenient. I feel like we are back to square one.

Oh how I wish I wish I wish I had the money to buy it.