Memorial Day – Thank You

Memorial Day

THANK YOU to all those who now serve our great and blessed country.

THANK YOU to all those who love this country and served in the past.

And to those who served with pride and honor and lost their lives, WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOUR GREAT SACRIFICE IN OUR BEHALF OR IN BEHALF OF OTHERS WHO SOUGHT FREEDOM.                 (John 15:13)

Busy Month

 

.What a busy month this has been.  Things are picking up at work and it has been pretty busy (tho’ my supervisor tells me it’s not that busy – I’ve seen the numbers and it has picked up, but yes it will get much busier :P).  This week will be the busiest of the month and will only get busier as the summer comes.   My weekends this month have been busy with church projects for service.  I went to the Temple the first Saturday of this month (it’s a 2 1/2 to 3 hr drive), cleaned the chapel the next Saturday and yesterday our Relief Society did a service project and made baby blankets for the neonatal preemie unit at our local hospital and made thank you and birthday cards for the local meals on wheels program.  Always feels good to do service, but makes the weekends go by way too fast :P.  Next Saturday I have a dear friend that is coming to town to visit me and to see her daughter graduate from high school, that does not seem possible – only yesterday her daughter was this little girl getting ready for kindergarten.

There are some people who ride the bus in the mornings that have varying degrees of Down’s syndrome.  They are going to their day hab programs or to the places that hire them to work a few hrs a day.  I notice that when other people get on the bus they usually sit farther back.  I don’t, I sit up front closer to them – I enjoy their playful light hearted chatter with each other and their friendliness.  They always have a smile and a hello and it’s a refreshing distraction before the stressful duties of my job.  I feel like they are the closest I will get to angels here on earth.

I continue to work on the comfort shawl, but have not had the time to work on it as much as I would like to, I was hoping to be done with it by now, but am just a little bit over 1/2 done.  I’ll give my self another couple of weeks before I start fussing at myself.  I do knit a few rows on the bus ride home and when I’m not to busy to take my lunch break, I knit then too, but that really is not nearly enough time to be spending on it.  I’d really like to be spinning on that cria alpaca, however I can’t justify my spinning until I get closer to finished with the shawl.  I’ll update my progress on the shawl next week, maybe setting a deadline will make me find the time to work on it.  sigh.

One Year Ago Today…..

Son & Grand Daughter

 It’s been a year ago today since I lost my youngest child.  He called me almost every night and I miss those phone calls.  He never had anything  really serious talk about, I think he was just lonely and wanted to talk about what his day had been like to someone who would listen to him and cared about it.  My biggest fear is that his little daughter won’t remember who he was because she was only 3 1/2 and she and her mom live about 5 hrs from me.  My car won’t drive that far so I have no way to visit her and if the mom ever comes to my city, she’s never let me know.  I’m not angry at the mom, tho’ she will have a lot to explain to her daughter when she gets older, I just hope she will help my grand daughter to remember her dad, who loved her very much.

.

Grand Daughter's Watercolor

.
My oldest grand daughter is very artistic.  She likes to do beading and she plays the violin.  Now she has done this watercolor in her art class (she is in middle school).  I’m properly impressed – I know my sister will be impressed too as she is also very artistic as well and she and my grand daughter are best buds.   I also enjoy many crafts and I sing so I guess she comes by it naturally. 😉  She gave this picture to me and probably tomorrow I will go find a frame for it.  I introduced my other two grand children (who will be 5 and 3 next month) to the Smurfs.  Hehe, they loved the old cartoons.  When I go to babysit on Friday nights they always ask if I’m bringing my Smurf dvd (bought it from amazon.) 
..
 
I’m over half way through the 2nd comfort shawl now.  Had to tink about 4 rows, twice – was trying to knit in a car while carrying on a conversation while on the way to the Temple in Nauvoo last Saturday (such a peaceful place).  Anyway that meant that I had to re-knit the tinked rows twice,  sheesh.  Hope everyone is enjoying the last of spring as we get ready to head into summer.  And I have to say that we have hit the upper 80’s already this last week, and my air conditioner is on the fritz.  My land lord is going to have someone come look at it.  He looked at it and said he thought it was the fan.  After today the temps are going back down a bit so it won’t be so hard on my fur baby.  At least living on the upper floor of the apt I have been able to leave windows open so it wasn’t sweltering inside.