R is for....REUNION

Today there is a grand reunion in Heaven. My Granny passed away early this morning and is finally with my grandpa, after nearly 60 long years. He passed away when she was about 30, and she was 89 when she died. She worked hard to raise 3 wonderful children, mostly by herself and was blessed with 6 grandchildren and 5 great-grand children.

Granny has also been reunited with her son who died 10 years ago of Lymphoma. It's a happy day in heaven!

It's a bittersweet day on earth, though because we will miss her. But her mind is now clear and her memories are bright and she is finally with the man she loved more than I think we'll ever know.

Granny, I love you!!

Q is for.....Quilt!

I married a Utah boy and unbeknownst to me, because of this, I'd learn how to quilt. Not just tying a quilt, but real, stitch-around-the-edge-of-a-pattern quilting. My future in-laws still lived in the LDS ward (congregation) where my husband-to-be grew up. About 4 months before we were to be married, my mother-in-law told me to go pick out some fabric for a quilt and to mark it where I'd like it to be stitched. I chose a lovely rose pattern and every Tuesday morning for about 2 months, I'd travel an hour from home to quilt with the ladies that knew my husband since he was a little boy. Now, I understand that it wasn't real, real quilting--as in we didn't piece together material in a sunburst or log cabin pattern (someday I'd like to learn that!). But, it was real stitching, tiny stitches in a room full of women who were 30, 40, even 50 years into their marriages and me---so happy to reap the benefit of their advice and experiences.

P is for.....Prom Dresses!

I recently had a conversation about prom dresses with my nieces, one of whom will be 16 in March. I talked about my prom dresses and promised to find them and bring them over to show them. What a hoot that was! Oh, the memories. My first dress was a long burgundy number. I wore it to Homecoming Dance, which is a formal dance where I grew up. It was not only my first prom, but it was my first date. The evening was going quite well. We sat at a table drinking our punch and visited with friends. We decided to dance, so he, being the dashing gentleman that he was, pulled out the chair from behind me. I knew he was doing this, but what I didn't realize was how far he had pulled the chair out. You see, my dress had become stuck under the leg of the chair and I stepped back a bit to sit back down to free my dress. But, WHOOPS! The chair wasn't there and I, holding a cup of punch still, fell right on my bottom, spilling the punch down the front of my dress. But, I improvised and switched the bow from the back to the front. It covered the stain nicely. Oh, and atBYU , I used that same dress for Preference. I altered it a bit to make it shorter by gathering it up along the side seams and pinning it.

My next prom was a spring prom. My mom made this beautiful mauve dress out of watered taffeta (moray taffeta?). It had a ruffle that when from the center of a sweetheart neckline to two huge rosettes on each shoulder. In the back, a 8" stand up ruffle went across the back and ended up in two more huge rosettes on each shoulder. It was gorgeous. I don't remember much about that date, or that prom however. But I had a gorgeous dress!

The third dress I had in that bag was a pale aqua dress that I wore as a bridesmaid. It had a scooped neck and bell-like sleeves.

It was fun to reminisce about those dresses and even more fun to know that I actually fit into something that small at one time!

O is for.....October

Yes, it's now November, but I love the month of October. The air is starting to get that crisp, fall scent. The maple leaves on the trees in my yard have turned the perfect color yellow. And, oh. When the sun is shining the yellow leaves almost don't look real. The temperature is a perfect 65 degrees during the day and in the 30's at night.

N is for.....Newborns

Sigh. It's been 8 years and now I can look back on my twins' newborn days with a smile on my face! I can giggle with my husband about the fact that our 2nd night home with them, after we put them down to sleep, we both fell into our bed and cried. We cried wondering how we were going to do this--to take care of them. Two at a time! We wondered how we were going to "teach them all that they must do" (from "I Am a Child of God", The Children's Songbook). Could we do it? Why in the world did Heavenly Father trust us with these two beautiful little spirits?

We did it though. We just buckled down and did it.

Here's a snapshot into my day and night with our newborns. We'd put them down about 10pm and go to bed. At about 1am, J would wake up. Bill changed him and brought him out to me to nurse. Then he woke up C, changed her and brought her out to me to nurse as well. (Yay for big, huge nursing pillows! Well, it was more of a foam shelf actually, but hey. It worked!) Then, he fell asleep on the couch. I whispered loudly when one child was finished and he'd take that one and put it in the crib and went back to bed. When the other was done, I'd take that one back to the crib. I slept until Bill had to wake up for work at 4:30, and we'd do the same thing. Only, instead of going back to sleep on the couch, he'd make me fried eggs and toast and give me a big, ol' glass of apple juice. Then, off to work he'd go and I was there to fend for myself until he came home.

Those first 3 months were pretty much a haze, but we got through it somehow!

M is for.....MOUNTAINS and MICHIGAN

Growing up in Michigan, I never saw mountains before. The first time I saw them was late at night when we drove into Provo, UT so that I could start school at Brigham Young University. I vaguely saw the outlines of the mountains that night. But wow. In the morning when I looked outside, it took my breath away! I love how the sky seems to go forever and you are surrounded by the sides of a bowl of mountains.