A few things from this last week...

Lizzy and I love when Candice comes over on her lunch hour

Our combined activity Wednesday night...I'm mad at myself for not getting pictures of these kids while they were out there working,,,they were pretty awesome. 

I sent around a sign up sheet in relief society on Sunday for the ladies to sign up if they wanted the kids to come do some service at their house.  We had several sign up, and I also called Al Barcarse to see if we could do anything for them.

I was really praying all day that the weather would be decent to do this activity.  We have had the coldest spring...snow, rain, wind...and it keeps on going.  The day started out clear, but windy and cold.  So when we text all the kids we told them to dress warm.   ( ha some still show up in shorts and t shirts!   "where's your coat?"  "Oh I don't need one!" They didn't complain when they were out there in the wind working, so I guess they didn't need a coat!  They are tougher than me for sure!)

When the kids all got there, we divided up into groups and went off to do these jobs for people.  I got to go to Brother Barcarse's house.  He wanted us to rake leaves and clean up his back yard.  He can't get around any more and is in a wheel chair, but him and his cute wife came outside with us while we worked in their yard.  He was so proud of all his flowers in his yard and told us what they all were.  I had never had a chance to talk to Toyoko before so it was nice to get to know her.  She is such a nice lady.  She gave us a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts to share with all the kids for our service.

 After we finished, we went back to the church for pizza.  Just as we walked in the doors, it started to snow.

 Had to cover the peach tree that night...temperature down in the 20's. 

KC helped me cover it with sheets...it was pretty comical.  ( I probably knocked more blossoms off the tree than what would have froze!)

 I've been in the mood for cleaning this last week...went through the boxes and tubs in the garage and got rid of a few things (just a few...still can't let go!)  Came across this mug when I cleaning out some cupboards in the kitchen. Had a flashback to when we were cleaning out mums house.  We had to come up with a way to fairly divide up all of her things, so we wrote our names on a little paper and put them in this cup...then we would draw a name out to see who would pick first.  I think it worked out fair, but there was a lot of emotion that went into this process.  It took a lot of self control to just sit there and smile when I wanted to throw myself on the floor and kick and scream when I could see there was no chance that something I really wanted was going to be there when it was my turn to pick.  Ha!  But we were all in the same boat and I think because we all wanted to get through this without causing any bad feelings between us, we made an extra effort to be fair.  Anyway, seeing this cup again, just stirred up all those memories.

 Bunko was fun this month.  It was at Cheryl's house. She is going through some very hard things right now.  My heart aches for her.  It's kind of strange to step back and look at our group of ladies and the different  things each of us have gone through over the years.  When you think about it, each of us has had our own challenges,  our many joys and blessings, and our ongoing struggles.  Really grateful I have these dear ladies in my life to share all of those things with.

 

So many little fishies!  They are getting bigger though and changing from black to bright orange, white and red.  There's going to be some real pretty ones...just don't know where we will keep them.

 I made this casserole carrier for Chris B's  fiance shower.  Kelley's cousin Kelly Ann gave me one years ago and I have used it so much.  I tried to find a pattern for one on the Internet, but they were a lot more complicated than they needed to be, so I just used the one I had and cut a pattern off of that.  Turned out pretty cute!

Stacey was having a chocolate fountain at the shower and I told her I would bring something to dunk in it.  Candice suggested cream puffs.  I was a little nervous cause my last two batches have been a flop.  They just didn't raise up at all.  But I thought I'd give it another try.  I made them a lot smaller and piped them out onto the pan.  They puffed up just perfect!  Ha!  not quite though...I had piped them out in a kind of swirl and they looked great until I picked them up...where I had swirled around, it had left a hole in the bottom of each one!  So when I filled them with the creamy goodness, I tried to put a little piece of the stuff you pull out of them in the bottom to cover the hole.  Ha!  They turned out OK though.

The shower was nice...she is a darling girl. I was so glad Candice came over and went to it with me.  She had told me when we went to lunch the day before that she was going to color her hair purple.  yes. purple. I was like ...really?  OK um that's cool.  But then she text me Saturday morning telling me it had turned out pink instead.  Ha!  When she showed up though, it wasn't too pink at all.  It was just a light blondish pink.  She said when they rinsed it, most of the color came out.  She always looks so pretty though...I swear she can pull off any hairdo you can dream up!

 It was nice to get to visit with all the girl friends there too. Talking to Brenda brought back so clearly the last few days of mum's life.  Dan's mother has been in really bad shape...her liver is not working anymore.  Brenda said they have been caring for her at home and the things she was going through were the same things that mum went through those last few days.  She told me how she sleeps most of the time now and had stopped eating.  When mum was at this stage, I remember having so many mixed emotions.  I used to go into her room and just watch her sleep...wanting to be able to wake her and hold on to her and not let her slip away...but at the same time, I knew she was going, and I didn't want her to suffer or have her continue on in this condition.  The veil was very thin those last few days and I knew we were not alone as I felt the presence and comfort of loved ones on the other side coming to escort her home.  I hope the Northrup's felt this same comfort in her last few days.  Kelley heard from Dan last night that she had passed away peacefully.

 So KC's good friend Jared ( he comes over most every day to work out with KC ...then they will come in and fix their selves a protein shake and sit and visit. He's worked a lot with KC too and has helped us out a lot around here too...such a sincerely nice guy...I've sure grown to love him) well he decided he was going to ask Marki to marry him.  I was kind of surprised when KC told me cause I didn't realize they were that serious.  But he had it all worked out how he was going to ask her.  She loves softball so he thought up this idea of putting the ring inside a softball. He came over and wanted a little advice on how to put it together so I got to help him a little bit. He had drilled a hold down in the middle of the ball to hold the ring, then we covered it with velvet.  It turned out really cool! 

Jared wanted to have all their friends and family there when he asked her, so he made all these arrangements to have everyone up at park city, then he would take her on a date up there and everyone would be waiting for them.  KC said it went off without a hitch.  So happy for him.  He's a good catch.

Candice sporting her new pinkish hair.  She came over yesterday and we spent a lovely afternoon baking, tending to the chickens and enjoying a little sunshine.

Pictures from Sunday plus my adorable grandchildren...

 

 Kelley let the chickens out when we got home from church.  It's so funny to watch them follow him around where ever he goes...like he is their mother hen!

 

 

Chris, Maggie and Andrew were in town for the funeral so we had them over for dinner.  Wish they lived closer so we could get together more often.  Sure do love these guys!

 These are some pictures of my cutie patooties that Camille sent me....

 Sam has all the sudden changed from a toddler to little boy. 

He was really giving Camille fits while Kellen was gone for a week to Germany. Wish so much I was closer so I could help her out in times like these.

 So glad Katie can get over there pretty often.  She adores those kids and love her so much!

 Liv has mastered the skip it.  She sent me a darling video of her doing all kinds of tricks while she is doing the skip it!  oooooooo just want to squeeze her!

 And this is a very early photo of my new grand daughter.  Isn't she beautiful?  Ha!  Camille looks great as her due date approaches...

 Kellen brought back some special things for the kids...beautiful carousel for Olivia

 Bath tub crayons...hours of fun...come off the tile easily...the grout..not so much.

Kelley's Uncle Neale passed away last week. I didn't know him very well...mostly just saw him at weddings and funerals, but from what I knew, he was a kind and gentle man.  I found out a lot more about him at his funeral...he lived a good life of service and dedication to his family and the church.
 Kelley wasn't able to make it to the funeral...this is a really bizarre story...like Kelley said...you can't make this shiz up.
He had gone with Tommy to California to pick up this huge load of bees...like 50,000 dollars worth of bees.  Tommy had it all figured out how they could fit them all on their big trailer...come to find out this is the first time something like that has been done.  Usually people just go to this big farm and pick up their own little bee box and take it home.  Tommy was picking up all these bees to deliver them to the IFA's in Utah.  Don't ask how Kelley got involved in this...pretty much Jamey was really in a pickle and Kelley helped him out.
So anyway, they had planned on going down there, loading up all the bees, then heading for home because they were supposed to have all these bees at the IFA main store in Ogden by early Saturday morning so they could distribute them. 
Well they drove all day Thursday to get to Redding.  Found a place to stay that night, then headed to the bee farm bright and early to pick up the bees.  They found out that wasn't going to happen though cause when the sun comes up and it gets warm, the bees want to go out and play..and they won't be back in the hive until the evening so they just had to wait.
While they had some time, they thought they would get some work done on Tommy's truck.  It wasn't running good at all.  Kelley explained all this mechanic mumbo jumbo to me that they had done to his truck,  so it should have been in good shape for the drive home. 
So later in the afternoon, they went back to the bee farm and started loading the bees on the trailer.  They had been hanging around with the bees for a while, and weren't wearing their bee suits ( Tommy actually gave his to one of the Mexicans that were helping them cause he felt bad for him...come to find out this Mexican had two bee suits in his truck!)  The bees weren't bothering them much at first, then they started stinging them, so Kelley put on his bee suit.  Kelley learned a lot about bees this weekend...including this fact...when bees sting you they release fermions.  These fermions get the other bees excited so they go into defense mode and all want to sting you.  Kelley got several stings...one got into his bonnet and went up his nose...yup that's right...right up his nose.  So he tried to blow it out and it stung him.  He had a bunch get in around his ankles and sting him too.  Tommy was in much worse shape.  He had stings all over his face neck and arms.  He swole up and it made him physically sick.
Well they got the bees all loaded on the trailer and were heading out of the farm.  There was a little bridge they had to go over to get out of the farm that went  over a stream.  They got about half way over, and the bridge collapsed.  The back wheels of the truck  and trailer were stuck in the stream and the trailer was tipping sideways.    Kelley said they had strapped the bee boxes on so well though, they didn't fall off.  So they got the bee farmers to come help them get out with their fork lifts.  It took about two hours to inch the trailer out.  Then they decided to reload all the bee boxes in a different way and that took them three more hours.  I can just hardly imagine what this was like...on my end, I was just sick with worry after getting a text from him at 2:00 am saying that trailer had tipped into a stream.  I didn't hear from him again for hours, then he said they were on their way again.  By this time, Tommy was in pretty bad shape, throwing up from all the bee stings.  So Kelley drove the truck for a while.  When he felt better, Tommy started driving again.  The truck was running really bad acting like it was out of gas.  They stopped in some small town (Susanville?)  to see if they could have a mechanic look at it.  One said he could get to it next Friday, another looked at it and didn't want to tackle it so he sent them to another mechanic.  After hooking up to a  engine analysis machine, he told them it was the fikm...what ever that is.  He said to get them home, if they took out this chip that was supposed to make the truck run more efficiently, that  would do it.  So they had him do that and got on their way again. 
Tommy was driving now and all the sudden, a big truck pulled right in front of them so he had to slam on his brakes.  The truck died and wouldn't start again.  This was the next text I got...truck broke down...not going to make it to funeral.  Really?  who does this happen to? 
So now they have this trailer load of bees that are ready to come out of the hive again because it's sunny and warm, their truck has broke down and they are out in the middle of Nevada.  They called a tow truck to take them to Well's Nevada, then Jamey came and got them and hooked the trailer to his truck.  They rolled into Salt Lake city about  4:00 pm.  I went over to the IFA  on 21st south to pick him up.  They had just finished unloading all the bee boxes and people were already there to pick them up..apparently  people are pretty anxious about getting their bees.
So I went to the funeral with KC...he was a sweetie to go with me!  We saw Mark  as we were going in, then the rest of the family when we got into the room.  I was glad I got to visit with Barbara for a minute...she is such a dear lady.  I know Kelley felt so bad he couldn't get there.  Sometimes stuff happens.

This is a very random bunch of pictures I've been collecting the past little while...

I got to  spend a special evening at the temple last night.  A few weeks ago after Sacrament meeting, I was talking to Cicily and she told me she was going to take out her own endowment.  She asked me if I would like to be there.  I was thrilled to be with her...she has got to be one of my favorite people!  I've watched her grow up  and have seen the challenges she has been given.  I was her young women leader for years.   So proud of her for the choices she has made and the way she has dealt with the some hard things in her life.

There was a sweet spirit there as she was surrounded with friends who love her.

This was the other day when I went over to the shop to take Kelley and KC some lunch.  (will this rain ever stop?)  I pulled into the parking lot and there was only one place left to park. With  all of the rental places full now except for the insurance guy ( and that is almost ready) they need more parking.  Kelley and Dan have been looking at this little house across the street.  It was bank owned and pretty run down...but it has a huge back yard and nice garage in the back.  So they were thinking they would fix up the house, rent it out, then build a parking lot in the back for all the employees of the little strip mall. Dan made an offer to the bank but someone came in lower and got the house. 

Well that afternoon I was over there, Dan came over too and we were talking about the parking problems.  We walked around the place to see if there were any other options.  I suggested the west side of the lot where there is a little room, but part of it belongs to the man next door, so that would be a last resort.

Dan had talked to the guy who had bought the house across the street and told him we were interested in buying it from him.  He is a house flipper and had already started fixing it up. The guy was over there with his crew so we went over there to talk to him and look at the house.  It is a cute little old house.  The people who owned it before must have had the kitchen remodeled because it's really nice and newer...lots of cool cupboards.  They had repaired the roof and cleaned the whole house out and also started framing the basement.  It has a lot of potential.

Kelley, Dan, Bailey and I went back out to the truck to talk about  the house (Brenda had already looked at it) and decided we should give them an offer.  Dan is such a wheeler dealer!  He has a way with people and could pretty much talk anybody into doing anything!   He went back in the house to see what they could work out.  After a while, he came back to the truck and said they worked out a price they were both pretty happy with.  I was glad cause this would be a perfect situation for parking...and  renting out the house would help pay for the property....kind of wary though of the amount of work that needs to be done.  Will I ever see my husband again?

Dan's cute grand daughter Bailey She is a little character.

Kelley has been so busy lately...I don't really know how he keeps going.  He has been working over at the west valley shop trying to get it ready for the insurance guy to move in. Then he has been helping Jamey and Tommy with the bees too.  I'm pretty excited about getting our own little beehives going.  Tommy has had huge success with this spray that they put on the bee boxes and has so many orders for the boxes he can't keep up with them.  So they have a company making the boxes now, but then they have to put this bee feeder into each of the boxes, which Kelley spent two days helping them do, then they are distributing them and all the other things that go along with keeping bees... ( Kelley spent Tuesday driving down to all these little towns in southern Utah to take supplies to all the IFA's with Jamey.That's all before you even have any bees!

.  Kelley and Tommy drove to California to pick up the bees yesterday.   It sounds kind of risky, driving all the way home pulling an open trailer loaded with bees.  He just text me and told me they have to wait till the evening to head home cause the bees are out buzzing around now and don't go back into their house till night.  Ha!  I'm glad he took his bee suit!

These are some seeds I planted about a week ago...Zinnias, Marigolds, Snap dragons...isn't it great to see them poke their little heads out of the dirt!  It makes me happy!

Last fall I couldn't bear to see the geraniums die...they had been so pretty!  So I got a bunch of starts off of them and poked them in some dirt.  I kept them in the window sill and they did really well.  Then about a month ago, when it started getting warm, I transplanted them all into their own pot and took them out on the picnic table.  They didn't really like it out there.  I covered them when it got cold, so I don't think they froze, but the leaves all started turning yellow.  I wasn't watering them too much so I couldn't figure it out.  They weren't getting any direct sunshine, so maybe that was why they were unhappy.  So I clipped off all the yellow leaves, and brought them back in the house.  Now they are thriving again. I guess I'll have to wait till it's warm enough to put them in the ground before I take them out again.  I love geraniums!

Oh these are the doors Kelley finally finished that go in the upstairs rooms. We decided to  put them in all the rooms upstairs so there is 5.  I love how they turned out....now if he would just hang them?   Hate to nag when he is so busy, but seriously...just the one on the bathroom would be great!

Daffodils are powering through this crazy spring...snow one day...winds that flatten them to the ground, then 70 degrees the next day!  I hope to bounce back so well.

So as soon as the ice melted off the pond, we went out to see how the fish fared through the winter.  So sad to see the two cute Coy Candice had got Kelley for his Birthday last year were dead.  But were totally shocked to see this poor fish was still alive!  It's the one that started getting really fat last spring...I mean it was huge...We thought it must be pregnant.  But it never laid eggs or gave birth or what ever fish do.  It just kept getting bigger and bigger.  So then we thought it must have a tumor.  It didn't seem to be bothered by it though and would just zip around in the pond like all the other fish.  It kept growing and growing till I was just sure it was going to burst....seriously a freak show fish.We thought surely it would die over the winter.  But this spring, there it was...bigger than ever.  It isn't moving so good though...just kind of lays on its side at the bottom of the pond.  But when it sees you, it tries to move a little...like it's trying to say 'I'm still alive!'  Kelley thought it would be most humane to whack it on the head and put it out of it's misery, but I don't think I could stand it.  It's survived this long...I think we should just let nature take it's course...what ever that may be.

There was also about a zillion little black fish that have now turned orange that have hatched this spring.  I'm not sure what we will do with all of them...there is sure not enough room for them in the pond...anyone need some fish for your pond?

Today was a good day...in so many ways.

We had a get together  for Teina's birthday and it was so fun. I picked up Teina and we met Les and Brenda up in Ogden at Sears.  This was where we spent countless hours shopping with mum so it felt right to shop around there for a while.  That was the place mum liked to shop for a new dress cause they have a nice petite department.  We would look through all the racks, pulling out possibilities and showing them to her.  She had certain requirements that made it kind of tricky to please her.  She was super self conscious about the little hangy moles on her neck so she always wore a high collar or a turtle neck.  She liked  her skirts a certain length too, which was sometimes hard because she was so tiny, everything would drown her.  Anyway, we would take a load of things back to the dressing room for her to try on.  She would try everything on for us and we would give our opinions.  After hours in the dressing room, she would most often come out saying she didn't like any of them, but in desperate times when she really needed a new dress for an event, we could talk her into getting one of them.  Shopping for shoes was a whole other story.  Mum had terrible bunions on both feet that really limited the shoes she could wear.  We would help her find some wider shoes but it was pretty hard to find anything that felt comfortable.  She would mostly wear her cute little blue keds that she had broken in and were comfy.  In her later years, she would just wear her slippers unless she was going somewhere.

Anyway, after we had helped her find what she was looking for, she would take it home and think about it, then the next time we got together, she would take it back.  Now that I think about it...that's probably where I got my disfunctional shopping anxiety from.  I don't like to shop...at least not if I am pressured and have to find something.  It seriously causes me to break out in a sweat and full blown panic attack. Kelley says I'm the only woman he knows that doesn't like to buy something new for myself.

  Kelley's mom was the queen of shopping. When the kids were little, she used to call and ask me to go shopping with her. After a  horrifying drive to Fashion Place or Cottonwood mall (seriously the scariest driver I've ever ridden with...she would sit up on the edge of the seat with both hands gripping the wheel as if she could see better from there, with the air conditioner blasting so cold that it would get frost on the vents..then she would slam on the brakes for no particular reason, sending us all flying...that was back before anybody cared about wearing seat belts..Ha I'll never forget that!)  She could shop all day (she would keep a pair of comfy shoes in her purse to slip into when her feet would start to give out on her mid shopping trip)  She loved Nordstrom  and Dillards and would shop there so often, she would know just what was there and when things were going on sale.  She kept my kids in the cutest clothes and shoes you could ever find.  I think it gave her a lot of pleasure to spoil them. They were lucky kids to have a grandma like her.  Really so blessed to have her and mum in their lives all of their growing up years.

Anyway, I'm  really getting off track...So in mums honor, we shopped around in Sears and found some cute clothes.  They were having a great sale on their winter stuff and I found a cute coat for 15 dollars!  We walked around in the mall a little bit, then went to lunch over at Applebees.  The waitress asked if we were celebrating and we said yes and that it was Teina's birthday.  The next thing you know, all the workers there came out clapping and singing their birthday song.  Teina had a big birthday this year.  So lucky to have her for my sister...she is just the best!  So glad we can get together like this...these times are so special to me.

 

I made her this little picture for her birthday.  Kind of was a gift to me too.  Over conference weekend, I was feeling kind of blue...I guess it's just remembering all of the happy conference times I spent at mum and daddy's place.  I loved sitting there on the couch with her, taking in all the wonderful talks and singing along with all the songs.  It was a time when all the sisters that could, would gather there to watch conference or listen to it while we worked outside in the yard. It was just a time that I loved and cherished. 

 Anyway, everything is so different now, I listened to the morning session of conference alone cause Kelley and KC were working over at the shop.  While I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself, the words to the song "Home" started going through my head.  I decided to write them down.  Then as I read over the words, the picture of our house, the way it used to be, with flowers blooming all over the place, came into my mind.  So I drew what I was thinking.  Then when I saw it sketched out, I thought that would be a nice thing to stitch.  So I started stitching.  It was healing and comforting to my soul as I recalled and brought to life some of the details of the house that have etched a place in my heart.

As I sat and listened to the wonderful talks and music I was touched by the messages...words of hope, encouragment, and words testifying of the love our Heavenly Father and Jesus have for us.  Sure did comfort my heart and I didn't feel alone or sad anymore.

Kelley and KC came home and got cleaned up and ready to go to Priesthood meeting....nope they just can't smile for me. ( pretty handsome anyway)

Watching them walk out the door, I was struck with the thought of how very blessed I have been in my life...to have the wonderful memories  I have of my good parents and then to have my own incredible family that are more dear to me than life itself. I couldn't ask for anything more..  

Anyway, back to my really good day...  well I have to back up about a month.  I had gone to see Keelee to get my hair done.  She was going along coloring my hair and we were chatting away and all the sudden she stops and says " You have a really scary looking mole on your head...I don't mean to scare you, but a guy that comes to me to get his hair cut had a mole that looked just like that...I told him about it and he went to the doctor and found out it was melanoma and had already spread to his lymph glands." 

Well that's not what you want to hear!  I was kind of freaked out, so I called dr. Bradley when I got home to get an appointment.  The closest time they could get me in was when I was gone to Arizona, so the next time they had open was today.  I have to say this has been weighing on my mind quite a bit all of these weeks. I was glad to have the time finally be here though so I could get it taken care of.  ( I was pretty sure I was going to die)

I had tried to look at it myself, but couldn't see anything, so I just told Dr. Bradley it was somewhere on the left side of my head. I told him the story about how my hair dresser had found if and what she said about it.  Then he started telling me this story about a lady that had come to him with a similar story...except that her's ended badly.  Her hair dresser had found a suspicious looking mole on her head and told her she should get it checked out.  She just ignored her warning.  But every time she would go back to get her hair done, the hairdresser would tell her again that it looked bad and she really needed to get it checked out.  After about a year of this the hairdresser put her foot down and said I won't do your hair till you go see a doctor.  That's when she went to see Dr. Bradley.  When he did a biopsy and tests on her, they found the melanoma had spread to her brain and she was a goner.

In the middle of the story though, as he was looking at the mole, he paused and said, "to set your mind at ease, this is just a seboreah keritosis ( I have them all over me!)  Oh boy, what a relief!  He said just to be sure he wanted a second opinion, so he brought in the other dermatologist and had him look at it.  He agreed. They both said  with my history, it was definitely important to check out anything that looks suspicious.

 So Dr. Bradley froze it off and that was that. ( He did set up another full body scan appointment for me though so I have that to look forward to!  NOT!)

In my little mind, with big immagination,, I can work myself into a real tizzy.  And with all the dental work and xrays I have had done on that side of my head, it all made perfect sense for that to be what does me in.  Then with Keelee's story ( and believe me, I'm grateful to her for pointing it out to me!)  and my paranoiah and tendency to worry, I just figured this was my fate. 

Well leaving his office, I felt like I have a new lease on life.  All those promises I made to God if He would let me stick around a little longer...I'm gonna keep them.

To top off my very good day...we took the young women to the temple tonight to do baptisms for the dead.  They let Bonnie, Stacey and I go in the room with them while they were being confirmed and baptized...something they haven't let us do before.  It was pretty sweet to peek at the room full of girls in the middle of one of the confirmations and see them all so reverant with their eyes closed and heads bowed...all dressed in white, they looked like angels.
Yup, that was a good day.