Just feeling really grateful today for all the blessings and good things I have in my life.

Seems like those good reminders come just when I need them most.

Saturday I decided I sure needed to get something done with the beautiful box of apples Stacey had shared with me.  The fruit flies were beginning to gather around that area in the garage.  So I had Kelley tote them into the kitchen for me and I got busy peeling.  The peeler slicer thingie wouldn't work cause they were too soft.  They really weren't bad to peel, and before long I had three big bowls of apple slices. I had found a good recipe for apple pie filling and put that on the stove to cook. (although it was just for 7 quarts and I knew I had more apples than that).  I knew I had about 4 boxes of quart jars in the garage from mums basement so I went out and found about 15 jars and got them washed up and ready to go.  These are pretty cool jars...the old Mason, Atlas, Kerr and Ball jars that you don't see much any more.  I got the apples all loaded into the jars and was just waiting for the sauce to boil that I would pour over them. I started looking at some of the jars I had used and saw some had little nicks on the rim, so I went out looking for more bottles.  When I came back in the house, the sauce was boiling all over the place. It was the big ploppy sort of boil that was sending  thick sticky goo all over the kitchen.  I was afraid to approach it...the pan was on the burner right by the switch to turn it off, but I had to, so I reached in and turned the burner off...getting a big splat of the boiling stuff right n my hand. Oh man I was in a terrible mess!  The sauce had boiled over the top of the pan so it was all over the stove, not to mention everywhere else it had splatted.

Well I poured the sauce over the bottles of apples and  the really looked quite lovely, except that I ran out about 3 bottles short.  Ahhhhhhh. It was time to get ready to go to the General woman's meeting and I was no where near done with these apples. I began the job of cleaning the top of the stove off so I could cook another batch of sauce, then threw together the ingredients and got that boiling ( on lower heat under careful supervision this time) and got the last bottles filled.

Just then Kelley came in and said he would finish up and for me to go get ready for the meeting.  I was already very late, but felt like I should go anyway.  So I threw on a skirt and ran over  to the Stake house.  I sat down just as President Monson was beginning to speak.  I'm so glad that I was able to hear that talk.  It was surely just what I needed to know right now...that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us...he knows our struggles, our heart aches and trials and He does hear and answer our prayers.  He did not leave us here alone  to get through this life...but has given us family and friends that He can work through  to show us His love.   Sitting there in that room I did feel His love, and by the time the choir finished singing More Holiness give me, I was a blubbering mess.

Came home to a clean kitchen, apple pie filling done, and a very good husband. Yup my heart is full to the top..

Sunday afternoon, Candice came over for a visit.  I love when she comes over.  We had another exciting round of RACKO...KC dominated this time.  It was so funny while we were playing, Lizzy came in and wanted to lay right on me.  She has been super attached to me lately...follows me where ever I go and wants to be right under my feet.  I hope she is OK.  Anyway, while we were playing, she kept creeping closer and closer to the cards in the middle till she was laying right on top of them.  Then she just sprawled right out  so she knocked over everybodys cards. We were laughing so hard and trying to get her to move by tempting her with popcorn.  She was pretty content right there in the middle of the game.  Ha!  I love her so much. I don't know what I'll ever do when she dies. 

 Sunday night I had another choir practice for this Relief Society music festival.  I enjoy singing with this group so much!  Leah just makes it a joy and the songs are so beautiful...now that we know them pretty well, they really sound amazing.  The words these women have written so perfectly express what is in our hearts...it's hard to get through them without  getting a big lump in my throat.

 I got the nicest package in the mail the other day with these pictures from Kelli Ann.  She is such a sweet heart. Here she is struggling through the 1 year anniversary of her husbands death, and she is reaching out, lifting others.  I admire and love her so much!

I've been putting off talking about this...I guess because it doesn't seem real to me yet.  It's been almost three months and I still think we should be going over to Kelley's dad's house to visit every Sunday afternoon, but then, he's not there.  I didn't think I would feel such a void without him, but it's there and it's huge. And I know Kelley is feeling it too, only so much more.
Lisle's health has been slowly declining this past year, (I mean at 93, he was still absolutely amazing and awesome and could do everything for himself, even take care of Pat, which was pretty much a full time job) up until about six months ago.  Then it just seemed like he went downhill really fast.
Like I said, he had been taking care of Pat (ironically Pat had said he was going to be staying with his dad so he could take care of him), and with all of Pat's health problems that was no easy task.
Pat had some issues...addictions which led to many other problems...pain killers, alcohol, other crap which led to his ultimate demise. But in the past few years, he has been in and out of the hospital for several problem... and always, Kelley's dad was there to take care of him, drive him to the doctors, stay with him in the hospital for hours on end, make sure he had everything he wanted, cook meals, wash his clothes and bedding and clean up after him.  Pat would make huge plates (yes multiple plates at one time) of food, then not eat any of it....not to mention all the food he would buy (Costco style) that would go bad because there was no possible way to eat that much food!  I could seriously go on for a week about Pat's hoarding problems. 
Lisle would try to get Pat to take his medications (this really tore at my heart, watching him write down all the prescriptions Pat was supposed to be taking, then each day, checking them off as he took them so they would remember...(this got to be quite a problem in the end...Pat was either not taking what he was supposed to or taking it several times, either to try to make himself feel better, or forgetting that he had already taken it) and just having to take care of him like he was a little boy again when Pat would be out of his mind and do crazy stuff.  And I'm sure there was a lot of stuff that went on that I don't know anything about.  Lisle was fiercely loyal to Pat and wouldn't leave him alone.  We would try to get him to go fishing with us, but he never would unless Pat felt up to going too.  
It got to be where Lisle wasn't sleeping because he was afraid of the things Pat would do when he got up in the night and went wandering around.  With Pat's liver disease, his body would build up with ammonia (his belly would get really big) and it would make him lose his mind....I'm talking full on nut job.  He would hallucinate and see  people that were coming to take his things or kill him.  He called 911 several times and told them about the men who were breaking into the house.  He would get out his guns and wander around the yard looking for the bad guys. (this was when Kelley took the guns ( and there were a lot of them!  Pat loved his guns!) to our house. Pat really wanted to drive, but for obvious reasons had been told he could not!  They took the keys to his truck after an incident, then he tried to take Lisle's car.  Lisle would hide the keys, but Pat would find them, so Lisle would keep them in his pocket, which Pat tried several times to take while he was sleeping.  One night when he couldn't get the keys to the car, he just took off walking.  Kelley's dad called Kelley in the night and said Pat was gone so Kelley heads over there (one of the many times Kelley went over there in the middle of the night )  He came home a few hours later and said they had found him at the convenience store down the street.  Um, yeah, he just needed some stuff.
 One day when we were over visiting, Pat asked me if I would take this stack of leather jackets he had set neatly by the door.  He said the "men" were coming to take all of his valuable things.  I was just like...ummmm OK Pat.  I will take them and keep them safe for you. (Kelley would usually set Pat straight and tell him things were not like he thought, but I just thought, what's the point?  he cannot be persuaded or reasoned with.
The whole situation was really just heartbreaking and frustrating and aggravating as we watched it take it's toll on Kelley's dad.  Kelley was going over there every day and cleaning up whatever disaster had happened the night before.  He would come home physically and emotionally drained as he would try to do all he could to make the situation better, but could see it was just getting worse every day.
Kelley's brothers were kind of oblivious (or maybe just didn't want to see it) up until the last couple months of what was really going on in that house.  Kelley would tell Chris, but I don't think he really realized how bad it was until he came and spent several days with  them.  Kelley kept telling all of them that Pat needed to go into a care facility where he could get round the clock help...that it was literally killing their dad to try to take care of him.They had talked with Pat's doctor and she agreed wholeheartedly, and recommended a nice care facility.
So they got all the arrangements made (Kelley's dad was pretty hesitant at first....I think he felt like he was letting Pat down) then tried explaining it to Pat.  He was not for having it and tried every way possible to get out of it, but after much talking to, resigned himself to the fact that this was what was going to happen. (He told Candice in one of his lucid moments that "people go into those places, but they never come out")  I didn't blame him for not wanting to go there...even though it was a nice place, when he was in his right mind, he knew that it was true, he wouldn't be coming home again.
It was really strange to see the change in Kelley's dad once Pat was out of the house.   It was like a big sigh of relief and now I can just let go and slip away.  I've thought about this a lot, wondering if Pat gave grampa a reason to get out of bed every day and keep on living...with him being cared for now by someone else, it was OK for him to go.
The decline was pretty astonishing to see...it seemed like he went from positive, talkative, grampa to this little old man who sat quietly with the oxygen machine by his side and a blanket around his skinny shoulders.  (He had been losing weight slowly over the past few months, but then when he wasn't fixing meals for Pat, I think he just didn't feel like eating himself and would really have to be coaxed)  He wasn't able to get to the bathroom in time so he had to wear depends.  He really hated that. When I asked him how he was feeling he said "I feel like hell!" 
Once Pat was out of the house, the goal was to clean out his bedroom.  Those hoarding shows had nothing on this room.  It would have been condemned if the authorities had seen it.  There was so much stuff in this room, you had to move things just to make a path to get in.  I won't go into details, but just say that it was really bad.  Grandma would have just died to see that pretty room turned into this.
So the brothers went to work...hauling out mountains of clothes (he had more clothes than anyone I had ever seen...real nice clothes!  He was just like his mom that way...would only buy the best and had several of each item???)to Pat's storage unit.  It took days to even make a dent in it. 
Also at this time, they realized that Lisle couldn't be alone anymore, so they were taking turns  staying there at the house. This went on for several days, then they decided to just have Kim kind of move in with him.  Kelley still went over there and spent the days with his dad, but Kim would be there every night with him.
Well they finally got down to the bottom of the piles in Pats room, moved the bed and furniture and cleaned the carpet ( and walls).  When they put the room back together, it was really beautiful! They ceremoniously helped Lisle into the room so he could see what they had done.  I think a few tears were shed that day.
Kelley's dad was having some good, but mostly pretty rough days at this point.  I talked to Katie and told her he wouldn't be with us much longer.  She flew home that weekend.  Camille came up here that week with her family too.  We went over there and had a real good visit with  Lisle one night.  Kate had him telling stories that had us all laughing ( I recorded a few I will try to put on here...they are priceless to me now) and he was able to meet Emily and hold her.  It was a pretty special time I'll treasure and tuck away in my heart to remember when I'm missing him.
It was just a couple days later when Kelley called me and said grampa was gone.  Him and Chris had been with him that morning when he had passed.  He had seemed OK, but had asked for some aspirin and to be propped up in bed. Kelley helped sit him up, then he started to cough, his eyes rolled back and he was gone.
We were all glad he could go so quickly and not suffer the way Maxine did.  No death is easy, but hers was horrible.
It was interesting to watch how each of the brothers dealt with this.  They are seriously each so different.  It was also interesting to see them plan their dads funeral.  They spent many hours together talking and reminiscing and decided they would all say a few words at the funeral.  Mark wrote the obituary and did a real nice job. Being guys, they didn't think too much about music or flowers.  I tried to help out a little there and rounded up all the grand kids  and great grand kids to sing I am a child of God and Families are forever. 
We were trying to come up with a place to do the flowers...Camille was checking out the Internet and came across this place called Daliahs.  She said it had gotten good reviews, so Katie and I went to check it out. As soon as we walked in the door and met the owner, we knew this had been a tender mercy for Camille to find this place.  This girl was nothing short of amazing.  She talked to us for a little while, asked us about Lisle and what he would have liked, then told us some ideas she had.
Lisle had always loved red roses and asked specifically for them so we did one big spray with those.  It was really cool though how she wove in other twigs and greenery to make it look very manly.  We had told her that he liked fishing so she asked if we could bring her some of his fishing gear.  Kelley found some cool lures and ice fishing poles and we took them back to her. This arrangement was really cool!  She used burlap ribbon and big orange Lily's, yellow star mums and some red roses, with bells of Ireland for greenery...so beautiful! She worked the poles into it and had the lures on the ribbon and a big deep sea fishing( Lisle's favorite) lure on the pole.  We had so many people comment on the flowers...I would and have recommended this place to everyone.
In letting all the family know we had contacted Kelliann and Suzanne. They are so dear!  Even though they are cousins on Maxine's side of the family, they said they wanted to come out from Oklahoma for the funeral. We offered up our house for them to stay and they took us up on it. It was so nice to have them with us....I'm not going to lie, we had a very full house...with Camille's family and Katie here too, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  They were super helpful in everything we did and just a joy to have with us.
Friday evening they had a viewing over at McDougal mortuary.  It was wonderful to see the old friends from Kelley's  parents neighborhood. My dear sisters were so thoughtful and kind.....I was overwhelmed by the love and support we felt from them and of so many friends.
The funeral was just really nice.  all the brothers spoke and Lisle's bishop spoke too.  The  grand kids sang their song and I thought it sounded really nice.I know it was out of the comfort zone for several of them (these grand kids are about as diverse as you could ever find) so I was really proud of them for doing it.
It was pretty emotional at the cemetery to watch all those brothers (except Pat) carrying the casket to the grave site.  They asked Kevin to stand in as the last pall bearer.  Kevin and Lisle  had a pretty close relationship so I know it meant a lot to him to be able to do that.  There was again so much support from friends, neighbors, ward members and family.  We are very blessed.
The brothers had decided they wanted to put together their own luncheon.  I don't know why.  I didn't really love the idea, but tried to keep my mouth shut. We had everything set up in the back yard  Friday night so it was ready when we got done at the cemetery.  Chris had ordered food from Famous Daves and it was really good.  All the family came over and we had a good time visiting and reminiscing about grampa.  I was glad Warren and Myrna  had come from Arizona too. (Clyde's health kept him from coming with them...I surely thought he would go before Lisle...he has had a few episodes lately where they thought he was a goner)  It was nice to get to visit with them...they are the cousins you can always count on.  Good people  Kelley's whole family are good people.  I feel very blessed to have married into this crazy, loving, free spirited, caring, and  unpredictable family. There is never a dull moment, that's for sure. 
We are surely missing Lisle.  It was very hard for Kelley at first because he had been spending most every day there with his dad...taking that away leaves you feeling pretty empty.  I know it was time for Lisle to move on... he had lived a good long life  and he was ready to go.  The last few months of his life, he grew impatient as his health declined and he couldn't do the things he could just a few months earlier. He would say " I don't know why I'm still here...maybe the Lord doesn't want me!"
It  really was quite remarkable the way he maintained such good health and was able to get around, work in the yard, work in the temple, and drive his car right up until just a few months before he died.
But the greatest blessing was that his mind was clear and sharp right till the end.  He was always so great to talk to...I loved the Sunday afternoons we would spend with him.  He was always happy to see us and thanked us so much for coming to visit.  He was cheerful and positive and always had good stories to tell us.  He was very real and didn't put on for anybody.
He always interested in what we were doing and what each of the kids were up to..and I knew that he really loved each of our kids.  He would tell us all the time how much he admired them and the good people they had grown up to be. That means a lot to me.  I think the kids inherited a lot of their goodness from him.

 Saturday night as we were sitting there in the adult meeting for stake conference, Kelley got a text from Katie with this picture.When he showed it to me, my heart sunk.  He said she was OK, then went out immediately to call her. When he came back in he said she was OK (I may have asked a few times if she was ok)...that some lady had run a stop sign and bashed into her.  She said all her air bags went off and that hurt her more than anything.  She knew too, that they saved her life. 

I called her when we got home from the meeting.  She said they had to tow her car away so she had called Stacey and she had come to help her.  I'm so grateful for Katie's wonderful friends. Stacey and Obe made dinner for her that night and took care of her.  This is sure one of the many times I wished Kelley and I were close by so we could help her.(sometimes you just need your dad) 

Feeling very grateful as I consider what could have been. Life is so precious...My Katie is so very precious to me.  I poured out my heart with gratitude that night as I thanked Heavenly Father for watching over her and keeping her safe in this accident..

So a few months ago I started seeing ads about this concert with James Taylor and the Tabernacle Choir coming in September.  Oh boy, as soon as I saw this I was so excited!  I do love James Taylor and with the Mo Tab and Utah Symphony...are you kidding me?  I had to get my hands on some tickets!  That was the thing though...It was being presented by OC Tanner, but they went through the church to distribute the tickets.  You had to register for them, then they would randomly choose people to get the tickets. So I found out the day ( time and second) you could start registering and made sure I got my name in there early.  The kids were all here on that day so I had them each register too...(only one registration per household) just to increase my chances. 

Well a few weeks later, I get this email saying we had been selected to get tickets!  Oh man I was so excited!  I never dreamed we would get picked...I'm just not lucky like that.

A few weeks later, I got these in the mail!

 Getting up to the conference center that night was pretty intense.  We went to Maggie's wedding reception early ( oh my sweet little young women getting married!) then headed right up there.  We were sailing right along till we got downtown then my heart sank when we saw the traffic backed up all the way down west temple.  There was this  Comic Con thing going on at the salt palace and it was absolute madness downtown.  There were so many people! All dressed up like every freak show, super hero, comic book, harry potter, video game person you could imagine...walking down the road and sidewalk, it was like we had driven into the twilight zone.  At each light you would only move ahead a few cars.  We were really getting worried cause we were supposed to be in our seats 30 minutes early or they would start giving the seats to those there waiting on stand by.  The parking was pretty much impossible too.  We decided to try this church parking lot northwest of the conference center...pretty sure there would not be any spots left by then.  We pulled in and the parking lot was packed....not one place.  So we were just going to drive through and back out again.  Just as we pulled in, a parked cars lights went on and he started backing out.  No way!  So this amazing parking spot opened up...we parked, hopped out and took off, half running, half walking to the conference center. Lots of people were just going in, so I guess everyone was stuck in that mess.  We showed them our tickets and they directed us to the main floor.  We though,'well that's cool...pretty decent seats'.  We went inside and showed the usher our tickets again.  She looked at them and said

" oh these are good seats!"  and took us right down to the front!  Ha!  Once again....this never happens to me! 

  The place was packed!

 Well the concert was just wonderful.  It was a unlikely partnership with the choir, but I read in the paper that James Taylor said it was one of the things on his bucket list.  It sounded amazing with  his songs that I love with that orchestra and  choir for back up.  The choir and orchestra did a bunch of songs  on their own too that were really so good.  We have seen James Taylor a few times in concert before and  thought maybe since James was getting older that his voice wouldn't be what it used to be, but it was actually better! He sang all his oldies and some new ones that I loved.  He had everyone singing along and clapping with shower the people you love and came back for two  encores.  Such a fun time with my sweetie.  (he loves James too!...I remember listening to his cassette tapes ( Ha !) with Kelley when we were dating!) It really was a magical night.

Saturday I got to go to a s shower for Phil and Stacey's babies.  It was so great to see everyone! 

I picked up Candice and we headed up to Mantua.  It was  raining  pretty hard a lot of the way up there so we had to go slow, but we finally got there. 

The babies couldn't be there because they are still  too small to leave the University hospital.  They were born in June...at 27 weeks  Stacey had been at the Hospital on bed rest because the babies kept wanting to come out but it was way too early!  They had her on medications to  try to stop it from happening, but they just couldn't. Each baby weighed about 2 pounds....so incredibly tiny. 

Camille was here when they were born, so we went up to the hospital to see them.  You have to be really careful to not bring any germs into the ICU so they had us scrub up good before we went in.  It was pretty amazing to see these tiny little babies.  They were all hooked up to breathing, feeding, heart machines so you couldn't see a lot of them, but you could see that each one was perfectly perfect.  They all had lots of dark hair and sweet little faces.  It was very emotional just watching their little chests rise and fall as they seemed to struggle for every breath.  I couldn't hold back the tears when I watched Phil and Stacey with them.  Phil had this deer in the headlights look on his face and Stacey was just kind of in shock trying to deal with the incredibly challenging road ahead of them.  Both of them so grateful they were doing as well as they were.

We got to visit the babies several times..kind of holding our breath each time for the new challenges they were facing.  One of the boys, Brigham, struggled from the very beginning and he was not thriving as well as the other two, so we were concerned for him.  Stacey wanted to nurse them but couldn't at this  point so she has been pumping her milk and giving it to them through the feeding tube.  She didn't  have a breast pump at first so Camille took her hers to use till they could get one.

As I considered their situation, my heart surely went out to them.  They live in Idaho, where Phil teaches school, so they had to set up house at the Ronald McDonald house until they could bring the babies home.  This place is really a life saver that offers low cost housing and shuttle back and forth to the hospital.  They both stayed there for the first while, then Phil had to go back to Idaho to start school, so Stacey stayed there alone.  I offered a hundred times to have her come stay at our house, but I'm sure that is more convenient and close to the hospital. 

Anyway, the reports were all good on the babies and she had some adorable pictures on her computer of each of them.  They are so cute! They each look completely different from the other. The little girl...Analei ( she is the biggest one at 5 pounds!) has the sweetest little feminine face and the boys, Alex and Brigham are just cute as can be with lots of dark hair.   

 It was so good to see my sisters and their families too...it's been way too long! Gosh I just miss them something terrible...the past few months have flown by and we haven't had a minute to get together.  We made plans for October though....blaaaaaah that's too far away!  I got to have a good visit with Denise too.  I hadn't seen Jasmine since she was a new baby!  She is just darling and that Sophie is just adorable.  Julie said she is way into dragons right now and insisted on wearing her dragon costume to the shower. 

Showing me her "Puff the magic dragon"

 Stacey is such a sweet girl and so grateful for everything.  I got in the crochet mood and made some little hats for the babies.  I got them a bunch of onsies diapers and wipes too....just can't even imagine what it's going to take to keep three babies going! 

 

I'm just so very far behind here...it's overwhelming when I go back and look at all the pictures I have of whats gone on this summer.  I'll just try to catch up when I can but go forward with life too...it seems like time is going by so fast...I can't believe it's the middle of September all ready.
I had a good day yesterday.  We had a regional conference that we were to attend down at the conference center.  We decided to go down early and go to the "Music and the Spoken Word" program.  I have mentioned in the past that I'd like to go to it sometime, but we never could because our church is always at 9.  I hadn't really thought of it recently, but out of the blue, Kelley says "why don't we go to see the music and spoken word before conference"  seriously...he did.  HA! I love him so much!
So we left home about 8:30 in order to be in our seats by 9.  Stacey had asked me earlier if she could come to conference with us because Rick was on call, so it was fun to have her there with us too.
The Tabernacle was about full when we got there...I guess it was the first time they had done the program in the tabernacle after being over at the conference center all summer, so it was kind of a big deal.  They had Mark Eubank talking to everyone before the program started, telling us about the history of the Mormon Tabernacle choir and about the building we were in.  It was pretty interesting.
Then they announced how it would work when they did the broadcast live and how we were not supposed to clap or make any noise.  It was hard not to bust into applause after some of these numbers....they were pretty awesome!  Then for one of the numbers, Alex Boyer was the soloist.  He really got into it and was dancing all over the place.  It might have been a first for this show!
As soon as it was over, we hurried over to the conference center...it was after ten but people were still filing in.  They said there were 116 stakes  involved in this conference...so it was full!  It was a really good conference...Russell M. Neilson, Whitney Clayton,Wixom lady (general primary president) and then Boyd K. Packer.  President Packer's talk was recorded from another talk her had given. They assured us that he is fine and we would hear from him at general conference in a few weeks. He was not looking so good at last conference though.  They were all really good talks though.
I also got to go sing with this new choir that Leah Tarrant is directing again.  ( I actually hated leaving for a practice this time because Candice had just come over a little while before and I wanted to spend some time with her)  I love  singing with this choir though.  It's for a relief society music festival that is happening in October.  I got to sing in the same program several years ago and really enjoyed it so I was excited when I went up to the high school to play the piano for Abbi to try out for the school musical, Leah came up to me after and asked if I would like to sing with this choir. I said I sure would!  I mentioned it to Colleen and she said she would like to too.  It's just so fun to sing with this group.  I don't know how to describe Leah...she is quite an amazing lady...she keeps everyone laughing the whole time, but then helps us all feel the spirit there too.  We move along at a intense speed...never one dull moment, but then she takes the time to talk about the music so we can understand and feel what these amazing composers were trying to get across.  It's a pretty wonderful experience and we all leave renewed and uplifted.

I had kind of a disturbing thing happen at racquetball today.  We had five of us there today so I got to wait in between games a little while. A couple of guys had come in to play on the other courts.  The one guy had a couple of teenage boys with them that were his sons.  They were sitting down at the other end. Ruth had been counting the money from the vending machines and then came and sat down by me to chat.  All the sudden the boys took off out the door.  Ruth looked on the table where she had set the money and it was gone.  She took off after the boys and a minute later brought them back in and sat them down on the bench.  She said "I know you took the money...just give it back and I won't get your dad involved"  First they both said "no way, we didn't do it" Then  Ruth said, "OK, I'll have to tell your dad then"   The younger boy said "wait, here's the money I took" and pulled it out of his pocket and gave it to Ruth.  He said "I'm sorry"
Ruth said "there was more than this... where is the rest of the money?"  the younger boy told the older one to give it to her but the older one said "I don't have any money, I didn't do it!"  So Ruth poked her head in the room these guys were playing and said she needed to talk to the boys dad.  He came out and Ruth told him what had happened.  The dad really kept it together pretty well and calmly told the older boy to give Ruth the money right now.  The kid was very defiant to his dad and talked to him so rude  He was like " I don't even want to be here, why did you make me come to this stupid place?"  The dad said he had to take the boys to the dentist after he played racquetball or he wouldn't have brought them.  The dad kept insisting that the boy empty his pockets and the younger boy was like"Ya don't be a jerk...just give her the money" The older kid just swore profusely at the younger and would not admit that he had taken the money.  He even pulled out his front pockets to show he didn't have the money in them.They were really yelling at each other now and I was afraid it was going to get physical cause the dad was grabbing the kid now and the kid was swinging and pulling away.  He broke free and ran out the door.  He was only gone about  15 seconds though and  then came back in the room where we were sitting there with our mouths hanging open.  Then the dad insisted that the kid empty his back pockets cause the money had to be somewhere.  The kid let his dad search all his pockets....they were empty.At this point, the dad was really puzzled.  He said "I'll just give you what ever is missing Ruth...I don't know what he did with it."  I just felt so bad for him. You could see he was just dying of embarrassment and so angry at his son.  Then Ruth was like " I'm sorry I had to make a big deal about this...it wasn't that much money...I just thought you should know.  The dad said "Well if he gets away with a few dollars now, it will probably be even more next time...he's already stealing out of my wallet. 
Just then the other ladies came out of the court so Susan and I went in to play.  I was glad to get away from the whole situation!  When we got finished, the guys had all left.  Ruth said the boy had never admitted to taking the money, but they had figured he must have done something with it when he ran out the door.  They had gone out in the lobby and looked around and found the money thrown under the vending machine.
Ruth was pretty fired up and I was actually pretty disturbed  too.  It made me so sad for this man to see his son talking to him like he did.   There was no respect at all. I thought about the future for this kid. He was a very angry, defiant young man. 
I thought about the relationship that KC and Kelley have and was reminded again of what a blessing that is. I am so grateful that we don't live with contention in our home.  I know I kind of live in a bubble, but after the sick feeling I had after witnessing what I did this morning, I am very content to stay in my sheltered  little world indefinitely.

 I couldn't let this special day go by without giving a shout out to my amazing daughter! 

Happy Birthday Camille!

My heart is aching to be with her and give her a big birthday hug.  (This long distant stuff is not working...as Liv would say)  I just got to talk to her on the phone though and wish her a happy day. She can always make me feel better...She has a great attitude about life in general and makes the best of whatever situation she is in.  She has a gift of lifting all those around her up  too...makes me happy just to talk to her.

Looking back over a few pictures I took,  my heart just fills right to the brim as I remember all the wonderful  experiences we were able to share this summer.  

Being able to be there with their family when Emily was born was such a special time for me. Liv and Sam and I got to spend some quality ( and much needed on my part) time together while we were waiting for Emily to make her entrance. They are such sweet, loving kids...I think that is a perfect reflection of the kind of parents they have.  Olivia is wise and compassionate way beyond her years and Sam is just a little whirlwind of fun, mischievousness, and curiosity.  He reminds me of Camille when she was 2-3.  Very strong willed and stubborn, but with the personality that  is so full of love and sweetness, they just wrap right around your heart.

Anyway, we had a real good time together while Camille and Kellen were busy with the new baby.  Then when I got to watch Camille loving that new little life and Liv and Sam too, it just showed so clearly how God just keeps giving more and more love so theres always plenty to give to  everyone.  Camille was so sweet, patient and relaxed with the kids so they felt perfectly comfortable with Emily joining their family.

I got to spend 10 days with them when Emily was born. Then a few weeks later, they were able to come and spend the month of July with us! Kellen drove them up and was able to stay for a week or so.  It was a blessing the way things worked out so they could be here when Kelley's dad passed away. I was so glad Lisle had a chance to meet the new baby and visit with Olivia.  I know it meant a lot to Camille to be able to spend those last few days of grampas life with him. 

Pat's health was declining pretty quickly about this same time, and Camille spent as much time with him as she could.  She has not ever been one that's all sappy and "poor Pat"...she would go in there and talk to him and joke with him like she always has.  She really has a calming effect on people.  I have been a recipient of this gift so many times. 

We just had a lovely month with Camille and the kids here... with a new baby we mostly just enjoyed being at home together....it's nice cause we are both very content that way...happiest place...sitting out on the patio in the swing, holding Emily, enjoying a perfect summer evening while the kids ran and played around us. I truly savored every moment.

 This was one of my favorite pictures of this summer because it tells the story of what made my summer so special..Just watching Camille with her kids.  She is such a good mom...loves to play with them and be silly with them.  There is a lot of love going on there.

We took the kids over to the pool a few times which was a nice way to cool off...such a hot summer...I love it!

 The only way I could stand letting them go home at the end of July was knowing we would get to be with them in Arizona a few weeks later when they blessed the baby.

This was so funny...Olivia made this contraption one day while I was there for a family talent show (that we all participated in...another one of Camille's gifts...making fun out of a boring afternoon)  look at Sam's face...priceless!

 We went right over to California that next Wednesday from Camille's house and they drove over that Sunday night.  It was so much fun to spend that week at the beach with all the family...really was a little bit of heaven for me. 

 

 

 The week flew by, truly one of my favorite times at Newport...then we had to say goodbye. That was not easy.  Fell into a bit of a funk after we got home.  The house was way too quiet without the kids here and I just missed being with  Camille.  I guess this is one of those times when I need to smile because it happened, not cry because it's over.  I'm surely grateful for the time we were able to spend together this summer, just having withdrawals. I hope someday they will be close by so we won't have to miss them so much. 

Anyway, hope you know how much you are loved and missed and thought of by the folks around here. Thanks for the joy you bring to our family and just for being the special person that you are.  We love you!