Letters and Grandma - June 14

June 14 - from mom

Dear Ones,

Grandma is not doing well. I have been gone for 7 days and Mom's decline during that time is very evident. She has had frequent "episodes" with chest pain and her ability to walk is dramatically reduced. In fact, yesterday evening she was unable to walk 200 feet to a park bench without chest pains. She hasn't been around the yard to see her garden.

Today I spoke with her hospice nurse, Charly, and ordered a wheelchair for Mom. I asked her "off the record" how she viewed Mom's situation. Does she have weeks? Months? Charly thought about it and said that she would estimate that Mom has about a month or so left. Of course, this is just an estimate and not a hard science. I was thinking sometime in November and so her observation has been very sobering.

The take-away lesson here is to make this precious time count. This is not going to go on forever. I spoke to my friend that cared for her deceased mother and she said that she wished she had been kinder, more patient and understanding. We literally have a few weeks to heed this wise advice. This is the time to demonstrate our love for her and to act on our good intentions today rather than tomorrow. She fatigues quickly, but she loves short visits, letters, cards, short phone calls, pictures, etc. Stories about the antics of her posterity make her smile and she repeats them to everyone she sees. She's a wonderful matriarch.

I just wanted to share a few of the thoughts that are running through my head and my heart.

Love all of ya!

Ali

aka Mom

Girls Night

A month or so ago the boys went on a Father’s/Son’s campout to the beach, so the girls and I went shopping, painted nails, did facials, and watched Dora the Explorer.  Sage picked out the nail polish color.  Even Charlotte got her toes done.  Sage didn’t want to sleep in her bed, so we set up a cot in her room and she LOVED it.  It is fun to be girly every once in a while.

     

When the boys came back from the beach, Jack was absolutely glowing.  He had a GREAT time.  He talked a lot about the food they ate and they went swimming in the ocean.  Joel didn’t want to go but he did it for Jack.  Jack’s excitement was definitely worth it.

These Kids

These guys are the best of friends.  Well, sometimes they can be the worst combination EVER and drive me absolutely insane crazy and mad and the very worst side of me appears.  But when they get along, time stands still.  My heart bursts with love and joy.  These are the moments worth it all.  The thing is, you can have the extremes within 10 minutes.  It can be exhausting. 

Earlier this spring, when we just moved into the new house, I was doing dishes to find the kids having one of those heavenly moments.

  

I quickly decided to make the most of this moment and laid on the couch so I could watch them and read my scriptures.  I looked up a minute later and found this:

  

They had the greatest time.  It was pretty funny.  There was sand in their hair for weeks, no matter how much I scrubbed. 

Man I love these kids.  I am so thankful that I can be home with them and not miss out on moments like these.  It is so hard at times, I think what on earth am I doing bringing a 4th one in, I can’t even handle these 3 without losing it.  But the happy moments are the sweetest things I have ever experienced.  And that makes it worth it.

Internet Again

Hello, hello! It has been a while, but we are finally back online. We were all excited to be one block from town because the internet would surely be better than what we had in Oregon....WRONG! No one connected out here except for the dreaded HughesNet. Finally we got a connection through the school district because Jack is starting Kindergarten in the Fall. Ready for school or not, he's going dangit! We got the internet, so now I feel a little more connected. Funny thing is, Facebook is exactly the same since I left it a few months ago...exactly the same people living wonderful single lives, same people giving kid-isms, same people whining about the same things. I don't think I'm going to be on there as much.

I was about to give a little update on how we are doing and where we are at, but it is not even 7 in the morning and Jack is already pestering his sister to no end and Sage is incapable of using words. Needless to say, they are already driving me crazy, so I guess not much has changed here either :)