We Celebrated Teina's birthday this weekend when we got together.

Gosh I'm grateful for her and the wonderful sister she is!  I so enjoy every time we get together and are able to just talk about  anything and everything as we make the trek up to mums.

I really don't want this adventure to end.... then I know we won't see each other nearly as much.

I guess we can only drag it out so long though...we told Boyd we would have all of the inside  of the house cleaned out by April 1!  Ha! At the rate we've been going, it looks like July 1 would be a better date! 

We really tried this week to make some decisions about all the furniture, appliances and things left in the house.  We had all written down 4 things we would like to have and we are trying to work it out so each of us gets one of our favorite things.  There were a few things that we all wanted, but I know we will be able to work it out.

 We went to look in the out buildings to see just what was left in them.  This little "dream house" is so full of memories...it sure tugged at my heart when we went in there.   thinking about the old days...sleeping under the mosquito net daddy rigged up so we wouldn't get eaten alive, having friends sleep over, giggling till all hours, then waking up to the rooster crowing and tearing across the dewy lawn to the east room door to come in the house for breakfast...usually mums yummy pancakes.
I love that our kids got to spend some time and make memories of happy times in the dream house too!

The old bull lamp...I think Bruce gave that to mum and daddy.

While we were sitting there talking, 4 deer just came wandering through the yard.  There is really no reason for them to be there anymore...they should be back in the mountains.  I'm sure they think this place is their own now though.  They have eaten all the bushes and trees and any little sprouts of daffodils or crocus that have come up in the rock garden....plus they have pooped everywhere. 

Not really that cute anymore.

We decided to clean out mums china cabinet. That was fun!  So many treasures!

Some of these dishes were from my grandmas....on both sides.  Mum had these labeled as Lena's wedding dishes.  How special is that?

There were a couple fancy cups that said "Present" on them.  I'd like to know what that meant.

I got this one...so pretty!

Then we decided to tackle the bottled fruit and beans in the hall cupboard. There was a lot of grape juice ( probably nice and fermented by now) and jam and beans. 

We thought it would probably kill the garbage disposal to put the grapes down it, so we took them out and dumped them in the garden. Some of the beans were from 2004...I thought they would probably be safe???  Gosh I miss mums beans!

 Teina rinsed out all the empty bottles so we each had a bunch to take home.

Then we got really brave and went down the basement.  We looked around a bit and decided that getting all the old fruit from down there was going to be a full day project.  So we brought a bunch of the empty bottles ( old peanut butter jars, cheese whiz jars, baby food bottles) upstairs and dumped them in the recycle can.

While we were down there, we noticed one of the windows was completely out.  I don't know how that would have happened, or why anyone would take it out.  We went outside and tried to put it back in place but it's going to take some man work.

The wall by the stairs had kind of fallen off too...plastery stuff.  The place is looking pretty rough.

I don't know what's going to happen when the guy come this week to do a new appraisal.

This is surely the ugliest time of year to see the yard...the rock garden didn't get cleaned out last fall so it's full of dead stuff...there's branches that have broken off from the wind on the lawn, the deer have eaten all the bushes and trees so there is just the stump there.  Ahhhh makes me sad to see it like this.

We went out in the garage just to see what was left out there...hmmmm there's still a bunch of things we need to take home or to the DI or to the dump.  I thought I'd take a peek up in the attic.  I could see all these boxes way back in there so I crawled in to see what was in them.  Hides.  Lots of hides. I don't know if people tan hides anymore, but if they do....we have a lot of hides.  Maybe I'll put it on KSL just to see.  I found a couple other cool things...daddy's old temple suitcase, a few magazine racks and the old bamboo blinds that used to hang on the back porch.

 You can't really see this but it's a beehive made out of a big rope.  I remember it distinctly from when mum served in the MIA. ( a good portion of my growing up years...)  She was the beehive leader.  It was spray painted gold and had cute little bees on it. Very cool.

 There is a ton of boards and cupboard doors drawers and old parts of furniture still up there.  It's fun to look through this old stuff that's been stashed away for so many years.  A few things really sparked the memories....the old Santa suit that  Nephi Bott used to dress up in  and come to grandma Braeggers

Mum and daddy ended up with a lot of stuff from their older relatives (their parents, aunts, uncles) ...I guess they just became the keepers of stuff when these older ones started dying off.  There is a ton of genealogy books, family and personal histories, important papers like birth and death certificates, ordination certificates, awards, patriaracle blessings and pictures there at their house.  I guess now, they will move to one of our houses.

We all went home with loads of stuff to go through....we're just passing everything around so we can copy what we want.  I spent a few hours this morning reading letters and papers daddy had saved from his mission and from the war.  There was a letter that mum had written to him when he was in Tahitee.  I wonder if she had any idea at the time how things would turn out with him.   I'm sure grateful that they did!  I know mum went through some really sad times when she was married to Reed.  Can you imagine having your husband come home and tell you he wants to be a polygamist?   I can't begin to.  But to hear her tell the story... as dark and sad as that time was for her, she just kept going...she was able to get a temple divorce from him moved back home with her mom and dad. After a few years, daddy came home from the war and they started dating and were married.

She didn't talk about it very much, but I remember one time we were talking about some hard things my girls were going through, and she said she had been through some pretty hard times too. She said she learned from this experience with Reed, that as unhappy and hopeless as you may feel, if you just keep your faith and keep trying, things will get better...happiness is just around the corner waiting for you!