Life is a box of Chocolates

Well, this past weekend can be called a real roller coaster, up, down all around. Saturday started out so great, doing a few things around the house and then I headed up to Salinas to get to spend some time with my two daughters and some of the grandkids and Seth. Rebekah came down to help poor Chelsea out who is going through the rough 3-4 months of morning sickness. Those who don't or haven't had to experience this are lucky and sometimes unsympathetic, it can be a on going non stop feeling of never feeling yourself. Always a little nauseus not just in the morning, waiting for and fearing the vomiting. Food is not your friend but then neither is non eating, one of the pleasures of life turns into a backstabbing two faced fiend. Anyway, so Rebekah came down with Nolan and Max to help her sister, catch up on her homemaking. Any one who has been around Beba when she turns into Mrs. Clean know an untapped national energy source! When I got there they were on to the food planning and shopping. Seth was great to watch the kids while we went off with list in hand to do the Costco thing. It was fun, we had a good time, Chelsea had to sit down now and again to let the unpleasant feelings pass but it was fun. We got back to Chelsea's where we were able to get some meals prepared some partly prepare and all the stuff put away and organized. Off to home I went feeling happy and content that I had been of some help.

As I pulled up into the driveway Bruce was pulling out. Turns out that Linda Thompson's special needs daughter was in the hospital. He and Brent went over to give her a blessing. While he was gone I settled down to watch the RS women's conference I had missed while at Chelsea's. It was a lovely conference, which encouraged us to love and serve one another. Durning the last part I started hearing a helicopter, sometimes we hear those when they are going to the hospital, of course I wondered if that was for Linda's daughter Anna. Bruce came home things were not good for Anna she was very sick, he felt that she was at the end of her life. The helicopter was not for her. Then we started to hear the helicopter more, then more then it was kind of just going over our block with the big searchlights shining down in our yard. OK, that is a scary thing, what's going on??? Lock the doors. Finally after about 20 minutes it goes away. Now it is about 11:00pm. Off to bed we go, a little shaken and tired. Eleven-thirty the phone rings, wake up, it is the high school principal. Turns out that someone broke into the auditorium got caught by the police, ran away, thus the helicopter but got caught so we can relax, back to sleep. 3:45 am phone rings this time it is Linda, can we give her a ride home. That means she is leaving the hospital, that means Anna has died. Who is Anna? Anna is Linda's daughter of about 40 years, born with special needs, Linda was advised to send her off to live in a care facility so Linda could go on with her life, besides they said she wouldn't live long anyway. I've been told to send a daughter to a care facility so I 100% understand why Linda said no way. So for 40 years Linda has cared for Anna, day in day out. It is a long and tragic story but you can understand how devestating this would be for a mother. So off we go in the middle of the night to take a friend home after this. We get her home, and stay with her a while then get her settled on the futon where she sleeps. She shares her home with her other daughter and her 3 children. But Linda sleeps on the futon in the front room. This is a home of small means, that is an understatement. Linda has a folded blanket for her head and a blanket to cover her. Though she is my age she is in a wheelchair now, diabetes has taken it's toll. She spent her strenght and life working the night shift at the hospital and caring for her children during the day. Now she spends her days caring for her 3 grandkids a troubled and ungrateful daughter and sleeping on a futon with a folded blanket for a pillow. Is she bitter, no, is life hard, yes. So I ask her if she has the folded blanket for a pillow because she prefers it, no she says, they don't have much. Funny how things work out, I was just cleaning out one of my closets and getting rid of an over abundance of what???? Pillows.

Well, home we went, sleep came hard even though I have a new bed and a great pillow and a peaceful bedroom. Morning arrived quickly, off to church, testimony meeting. Who it there to bare her testimony and give thanks? Linda.

President Jacobs was there, we chat after church. He is a great man with a lot of insight. He has listens when the Lord is instructing him, and he shared what he had been learning. He has been understanding that those of the saints who have will and need to be giving to those who have not. He believes and hopes that the saints who have will be able to feel and understand this without being instructed by their bishops. I have been feeling that it is important that we (meaning me) learn the principles of resource management. Which I have felt was some secret I didn't know. But have been learning and trying to practice what I have been learning. Now I maybe I am learning more. What can I do? I will now be searching out to find the answer to that. I am also overwhelmed with my blessings. Not just the "things" I have, more so the blessings of my wonderful children and children-in-love, and the great wonderful joyful grandchildren I have been blessed with. Still learning, growing and stretching at 60. Onward and upward.

What's it all about Alfie?

Alfie was a great movie. Love Michael Cain, love British like Heather loves Amish. Loved the song, "What's it all about Alfie, is it just for the moment we live..." (now we are talking about the 60's as well as me being 60. Alfie is a playboy who has no affection for the women he woos, his life is lived for himself, then in the end things happen and the movie ends with him realizing or coming to grips with his life and how he is choosing to live it.

Today I attended a funeral for a man who was a year older than me. I never met him, yet I was asked to give the closing prayer by the bishop. Evidently he had been married several times, at present he was married and had a 3 year old son. He had other children from other marriages, didn't see any of them, there were about 20 people at his funeral, looked like it was mostly his wife's family, I say that because she is Asian and most of the people there were also.

I felt sad for him. Where were his friends, where were his children? No words for him but from the bishop who had only recently become aquainted with him. What happened to cause this. A funeral in a church he had never attended though he was a member on the roles. No friends from his days in the service, no friends from his work at the prison. Strangers conducting and participating in the funeral, only his wife in tears. Caught me up short. Making me think....What's it all about Alfie? I am grateful that I do know what it is all about but I also know I could do better, I want to do better.

I love sister Hartey

Today was my temple service day. I enjoy my temple day for many reason. Today was special cause Sister Hartey was there. I haven't seen Sister Hartey for quiet a few months. I missed her sweet spirit and her friendly smile. Sister Hartey is 90 years old. She has one son and one grandson who is I think like 4 or 5 years old. Her husband is no longer alive, she babysits her grandson, she host the holiday dinners she serves in the temple once a week and she always happy and friendly. Oh, yes she is humble too. I love Sister Hartey.

The Big Bed and I don't spell well so what

Just reporting in on the new big bed. Sometimes you make a mistake, my (I'm taking personal responsibility) mistake was ordering a bed off the internet. A bed that I really didn't know anything about except that it wasn't a water bed, I was so over the water bed, and supossidly it was a bed with super duper relaxation qualities. Sounded good. It even had a guarentee. Well, it was great for a while, like 2 days, mi esposse no like it ( it is el grito today the Mexican independence day so I am speakin a little espanoal.) He didn't like it cause he said it smelled funny, since I don't smell well I didn't care, well I did care so I got a mattress pad that I thought would block the smell. Maybe it worked, he stopped complaining. Then I got a better mattress pad after I slept on my sisters bed that was very comfy and she had a really nice mattress pad so I thought that would do it. It kind of did it for a while. But lately I had developed aches and pain. I could only sleep in one position and even then I woke up tired, achey and unhappy. After sleeping on Chelsea and Seth's bed over a weekend, waking up refreshed and not sore, I had a light bulb moment, it's the bed!! Call me slow, go ahead call me slow. We went shopping the next week for a bed. Beds are not cheap, well some of them are but after our last experience, (it was not cheap money wise it must have been cheap construction wise), we didn't want a cheap bed. We found a place that seemed like they 1. had a large selection, 2. was an actual store where we could test out the beds 3. delivered to King City 4. had a guarentee. We tested almost every bed in the place even the one for $36,000, yes ladies and gentleman 36,000 big ones, 36,000 smackeroos, 36,000 g washingtons. It was nice but not THAT nice. We found one we both liked and we got the king, I know I already mention the king, that is part of the notes from the sixties, it does then come down to the king or separate bedrooms, we chose the king. Now with almost 2 weeks past I must report it is great. Sleeping great, lots of room, I can now sleep on my back again. We had a 45 day return policy that I don't think we will need to use. I am only hoping that the 10 yr guaruntee does not need to be used but if it does I saved all the paperwork. While looking for the id number to register the bed I saw that it was manufactered on Aug. 24 2009, we ordered it on the 21st so it was not sitting around some skanky warehouse waiting for some poor sap to snap it up. A Good night sleep to you all where ever you may be and may you not every decide to order a bed off the internet.

A Friend in Indeed is a Friend Indeed even when you're not in Need

To the surprise of my children, (well they are used to it now), I have friends. Right now my BFF is Dayna. Well, after my eternal BFF, of course. Anyway, she is always coming up with fun things to do. On Friday she planned a fun day for her, Barbara Ramaro (who is also my friend) and myself. We went to one of the Monterey City art galleries that I didn't even know about. It is tucked up off the main streets up a little hill in what used to be one of the old adobe, (can you say adobe) homes of the original Monterey. They have since built on to it and enlarged it but it is still cool. It is a lovely place surrounded by large trees and walled gardens with fountains and tiled walls. The galleries are the newer part built in modern times with large glass windows and high ceiling. The show we went to see was original art from children's books. I loved it and learned a lot from seeing them close up. Some of the things I learned were that they are not large. Some of them, like the art of Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit) are quiet small, most of them were almost close to the size they were in the books. The other thing I thought was so interesting was the combination of media that was used, like watercolor and oil, watercolor and colored pencil, most of them were some combination of media. They were also amazingly detailed, well most of them, some of them like the one from the Madeline book was like in the stories kind of a loose sketchlike work. All of them lovely and inspiring. We then went over to Lighthouse and found a tiny Greek restaurant that Barbara knew about, The Paprika Cafe. Of course I liked that. I had the lamb kabobs, good, rice ok, taboolie ok, the hunmas the best I have ever had, and a little sliver of baklava, very good. So we left there full and happy, drove over to a nursery in Carmel picked out some nice plants to bring home and oooed and aaahed over the beautiful flowers they had, then drove back over to cannery row to the frozen yogurt place we found when Eric and the boys were down, I'm sure only because Dayna knows how much I like frozen yogurt. We took a short cut that went from Pacific Grove to Monterey down this huge hill. I was fine at first and then the weird "Hill fear" crept in, I didn't have to close my eyes but I did have to control the scream that was creeping up my throat, "We're all going to die!!!" Instead I just announce, "I have a fear of hills" Dayna said I could close my eyes since she was driving but I chose to tuff it out.

We talked and shared and laughed and had a good time. The weather was the best. I'm teaching in Relief Society tomorrow about friendship. I'm grateful for friends, the ones that lift you up and help you feel good about yourself. Here's hoping I can be a good friend to others.

I got to have a little time at the Words before I hit Walmart and took my drive home. Missed seeing much of Sadie, she was napping but Linkin was as always good for a laugh and Chelsea is always fun to be with. So that's the tail of a day of fun for someone who is 60.

Run Silent, Run Deep

Attempt #2 @ blogging.

Ok, Run Silent Run Deep was a movie about a submarine, this blog is about swimming. Both have to do with water, cause my swimming is neither silent nor deep. To go deep you must be muscular, my body is like a human floaty. All those little cute fat cells keep me wonderfully afloat.

Swimming is not my strong suite, nor running, nor jumping, I'm a walker, so the fact that I go swimming several times a week is interesting. It all started with my husband having a gall bladder attack. Lots of pain, the solution was have the gall badder out!! Normally I would think he would go for that, if it offends you pluck it out, but NO, not this time, this time somehow reason took over and he decided if he got in shape his gall bladder would not bother him. Simultaneously Sarah decided the best gift she could give her dad was a personal trainer, the stars alined and voila, my husband turned into a jock, well it wasn't over night but nevertheless, a jock he is. As he transforms himself, with the help of the Sarahlike trainer, she starts to realize this guy is serious, so she invites him to participate in the swimming part of a triathelon, so he starts swimming and asks nicely if I would also like to swim.

Well, I never had swimming lessons. I can kind of swim, but I feel very self conscious about the whole thing. I'm thinking things like the life guard is going to 1. laugh, 2. stop me and say you can't swim laps cause that is not really swimming and 3. point me out to the other life guards so they can all have a good laugh. But that doesn't happen so I go. I like the water, it is just the swimming. So back and forth I go looking up at the beautiful blue sky. The pool closes for the summer. Bruce announces that we will now be going to Soledad to swim, no "would you like to go to Soledad to swim?" Just "now we are going to Soledad" OK, now I have to worry all over again about the 1,2, 3 but it doesn't happen so back and forth I go, with a smile on my face. Not silent, not deep but content.

Tiptoe through the Tulips

I just love reading the blogs of my family members. They are so creative and fun. I think it may be a little like karaoke, when someone else is doing it it looks fun and kind of easy, but.... humm.

So this is my first blog entry. The name of my blog is Notes from the Sixties. The sixties could be like the 1960's cause I was there for that but this title is really notes from me who is now somehow unbeknown to myself sixty years old. Not sure how that happened, I'm thinking it must be some kind of time warp, a fold in the time continuum that took me from 35 to 60 in a blink of an eye, Blink 182 maybe.

I'm not sure that I can really explain 60, cause I don't feel like what I thought 60 was way back when I was 28. Sixty was old but I am not old. Now my moms 60 was also not old, she was always young, even after she had her stroke she was young, I could see past the old outside into the young eye. My dad at 60 was also young, he didn't really retire until he was 75, and the company he worked for MADE him retire. He told me after they retired him that he had never in his life been fired until now. That made me laugh, "dad you weren't fired, you are retired AND you are 75, not 65. He kept busy, even though he became a grumpy old man, now that I look back he was probably grumpy cause his body was falling behind and not keeping up with what he wanted to do. His last little bit of life at 88 he accepted his mortality and he wasn't grumpy anymore. As a matter of fact his last week on earth he seemed very much at peace with the whole situation, which was interesting to me because he never appeared to have any relationship with God at all so I thought he might be a little worried about what was to come, but he didn't seem to be at all. Then my dad's mom, well she was my gram, she died at 95 so at sixty she was a grandma but she was a hard working grandma, and she was very pretty and kept herself up. So her 60 was not old, and then my mom's dad died at 98, I didn't know him at 60, that's another story, but I'm thinking no, he was not old at 60, so I guess at 28 I was very wrong about 60 and in fact 60 is still young. So good news for all you young'uns.

What 60 means then, I don't have to worry about getting pregnant, nor do I have a choice to become pregnant, and after having six kids that is a good thing, though I love them all dearly. It also means I know things and understand things I didn't know or understand before. Which can bring a lot of peace and contentment. Some of the negatives are I don't feel I can wear some of the really cute young shoes that I see in the stores, love the shoes still. I have to be careful about the clothes I pick out and remember I am not dressing the 28 year old me. But I am never going to the grandma clothes, even if I am 98. The whole plucking of the eye brows is becoming difficult, it has to do with either having the glasses on and actually seeing the hairs or removing the glasses so you can reach the hairs that you then can no longer see. The body is not as cooperative as it used to be. It does want to have a few aches and pains, which is a pain. You just have to work a little harder to get it in shape and it does put up a bit of resistance.

One of the best things is though that I am no longer as impatient as I used to be. I am able to take a little more careful time with things. I keep thinking about Zen which I am not sure if I know what that is but I think, take your time, do a good job, slow and steady wins the race. Now you have to be careful that that doesn't just make you start things you don't finish. Wait for the paint to dry and 10 years later finish the job. So there is some careful balancing you must do.

So there you go, my first blog. Hope it is at least a little bit of interest but if not, try again I may do better next time.