Midnight Memories

Dreaming memories again - I haven't felt well all this month, maybe this is my life passing before my eyes...  At any rate, lots of good times dredged up again.

In the dream, I was at the place I used to work - KMA, but the building was more like another place I worked (Provo Craft) ...but it had a toy department like when I worked at Walmart...  Ok, that's a bit confusing - let's back up the barge  (none of the stuff that happened in the dream really happened anyway.)

I've had a lot of jobs in my time, but being without a degree of any kind, I just had to take what I could get - which was mostly retail.  I did odd jobs at first, like seasonal stints at Muir Roberts, a fruit processing plant in Payson - a few short weeks of the worst job ever, but good money (for a pauper.)
Then a little part time work at the 7-11 my husband managed...

The first job I went out and got on my own, was at a little craft store (The Hobby Hive) in Spanish Fork.  I had stalked the place for years, admiring the pretty displays - and later took my first painting class there, so I was a fan.  When it came time to seriously look for work - it's the first place I thought of.  I applied and got an interview. I couldn't get a baby sitter, so I had to take my little boy with me, (4 year old Bradley.)  That should have been a deterrent, but I think he actually got the job for me :-)  He was, and is, a cutie! ...Anyway, that was the start of my crafting career.

I loved working there, and had lots of opportunities to learn and to stretch and grow my skills.  The owner - Clella Gustin,  was the art director for Provo Craft publications.  There were always displays in the basement - set up's for her photo shoots for those tole painting books.  I loved getting to see the new designs before the rest of the world did...

(This is the store front of the former Hobbie Hive - it is currently the site of MVP Sports)

At the time I was hired, it was managed by a young, single BYU coed.  She wasn't very happy there - not much social life for a single gal, and she didn't have much patience for us "older" girls.  She didn't stay there very long...

Clella took over for a short time, then a young couple moved in - a son of the owner of Provo Craft and his wife.  They were good to work for, and appreciated anything we did.  I was given a lot of opportunities while they were there.  (Teaching classes, taking seminars etc.)
 One time, I was asked to step in and cover a class at the last minute when the teacher didn't show up.  That was very stressful, seeing as how it was for something I had never done before!  Somehow, I was able to bluff my way through it without anyone being any the wiser, but I was sweating bullets the whole time.

As I mentioned, I taught some classes there - so I spent a lot of nights in the store by myself.  The store must have been built partially under the sidewalk, because when someone would run down the street, it sounded exactly like someone was running down the main aisle of the store.  It was creepy!

One night while I was teaching I heard that sound, and I went upstairs to check things out - about the time I walked into the "safe" room (the store was a bank at one time, and had an entire room that locked with the door of a safe, and only opened with a combination.) I thought - "this is really stupid, what if I find somebody?"  I was "protecting" my store, but who was protecting me?  ha ha

Another time, I was teaching on a dark and stormy night, when the power went out.  That basement has no windows and the stairwell had a turn in it so that no light came down that way.  You do not know what darkness is until you've experienced total darkness underground! ...And I was responsible for all those people!  Luckily, it didn't stay off too long...

I got my first (and only) obscene phone call while I was working there - one night - alone.  I don't think I ever felt safe there by myself again.  I always felt that someone was watching me - a sitting duck in a glass bowl...

One time, a shipment came after the store was closed for the weekend, so the truck just left the merchandise outside the back door.  Monday morning, when the boss came and brought it in - and opened it, (it was a box of dried indian corn for autumn decor) he found that it was clear full of mice!  He gathered up as many as he could and threw them in a bucket to be disposed of later - (ie: set free in the wild,) but that building was never mouse free again.

I met some great people there - Clella was a good friend, and she was instrumental in getting me some fun opportunities.  One other lady who got on after I did (Kathy M.) followed me from job to job over the years after the Hobbie Hive closed.  (We worked at the fabric store together and KMA.) She is still a good friend.

That place caused me so many nightmares while I was there - after a year or two, I was put in charge of closing the store sometimes - I would always wake up in the night and wonder if I remembered to lock the back door, or dream about getting locked in that safe room all weekend...

The Workman's (the young managers) were good to us all - they loved their food, and fed us well any time we had a sale or event of any kind.  :-)  Not long after they arrived though, the Hobby Hive was purchased by Provo Craft.  Not a good thing for me, because their intention was not to build up the store, but rather to absorb it and eliminate the competition.   So, I had to help liquidate and close up my fun little playground.  It was while I was doing that, that the manager of Provo Craft decided to absorb me as well, and I ended up staying on there for a while.

But that is a story for another day...

Time Out

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Idaho Falls.  Hubby had to come up for a manager's meeting, and wives are invited to this one. Yippee.  Didn't provide anything for us to do - but we get to be here just the same...

We came north a few days early, so that we could be here for our grand-daughter's birthday - she's a whole 13 now!  Where did the time go?  She's a great kid, we are pretty proud of her!  (she's the one on the left...)

Our old dog actually missed my new puppy - we were here last week, and they were just starting to be friends again.  Snuggling with grandpa:

Also got to spend some time with my sisters on Saturday...

This is the first time I've been to Idaho Falls in a lot of years.  The last time I was here was when Melissa was going to school at Ricks College, and Jeff & I came up for parents' weekend.  We had a lot of fun here - we stayed at the Shilo Suites (right next door to where we are now,)  and we had so much fun.  We ended up skipping most of the activities at the school, and just seeing the town here.  Good times, good times...

We walked around the falls when we arrived last night, (we spend WAY too much time sitting in cars lately.)  It's cold here, but not as cold as a typical Idaho winter...

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I like the horsie bench - somebody "fed" him a whole bunch of pine cones...

It snowed while we were sleeping last night.

I went to the Dr. before we came up yesterday - he failed to find anything wrong with me, or with the labs I brought up from down yonder.  That's good news on the one hand - I've been worrying for nothing, but it's bad news on the other hand - most of what I have been feeling is stress related....
On the third hand - I slept like a baby for the first time in a couple of weeks, and am feeling like a new me today.  Yay for getting help when it's needed.

Not sure what's on the agenda today, I'm just waiting for hubby to break for lunch.  I guess we'll just play it by ear from here...

Something Different

Hubby has been out of town for store meetings this week, so I have been on my own.
I really hate being alone here...  In an attempt to entertain myself, I have been crafting again.

A few years ago, my daughter made me a beautiful hand made journal - I have been at odds with what to do with it.  I thought I might use it to display my favorite blog posts (since I know none of my kids will read it until I'm dead - excluding Brad & Lib, that is...)  And I did start doing that, but it just wasn't working for me - it didn't seem like an appropriate use for such a nice volume.

This week, I finally figured it out - I'm going to use it as an art journal.  For some reason, I have been fascinated with mixed media stuff lately.  It just looks so fun!  It's messy and it's unpredictable, and totally opposite of everything I've ever tried to do...

Monday, I tried my first piece -

Ok, so it's not quite as freestyle as most art of this kind - but I'm a realist - it's going to take time for me to let go of that...  Meanwhile, it was fun and I think a good way to preserve some of my favorite quotes.  I'm going to title it - Words to Live By, and will incorporate some of that paper and other scrapbook stuff I've been hoarding all these years...

That first quote - Live by faith, not by fear has been the challenge of my life.  Faith is a hard thing to learn when your entire life has been governed by fear.  I'm still working on it.

Next - last year I made a little trinket box for my oldest daughter out of papier mache - it was fairy themed and lots of fun - so this week I started one for my youngest daughter.  Hers will be a steampunk themed one.

I'll add some metal gears and embellishments, as soon as I can locate them in that messy craft room of mine...

Lastly, they are doing secret sisters in my ward again this month.  I wasn't going to play, but succumbed at the last minute.  I don't know the lady I picked, so I'm having to solicit help to get her gift to her, but what the heck.  I won't be here that much longer, (knock wood,) and I want to make some kind of mark on the place, no matter how small...

This little token was so easy and really inexpensive to make - the costliest part was the candy! I think I'll be doing lots more of these in the future...

I can not get warm today, so I'm going outside in the sunshine to read my cozy mystery...

Ta ta!

Haunted...

Was visited in my dreams last night by folks from my past - first, my daddy, who was in a hospital in SLC, and me and a few other family members went to visit him.  (I had left in such a hurry, I was still in my nightgown.)  All the times we visited, he never woke up.  They last time, when we got to the door, the other family members turned and ran back to the car, so I had to go in on my own...

All the while I was there, I was worried about running into an old ex (who currently lives in SLC, and is a multi-millionaire in real life.)

Dreams can be so telling - right now I'm missing my past.  Not only the people in it, but the carefree life of not having to worry about things like poor health and money (or the lack of it.)  Even though I know that ex and I would not have worked - there are times that I wonder what it would be like to have a life free from the worries of money.

Got all kinds of bad news yesterday - Hubby was told by his bosses that there won't be any place in Utah for him any time soon, unless he want's to relocate to Layton.  It was a blow because we were both counting on moving back home this year.  He applied for a couple of other jobs while we were home last weekend, but his age is a big strike against him...

Also, the land-lords at the place where we are living got some kind of new software to run the company, which requires surprise inspections.  I feel like they are trying to get rid of us, and that this is just another move in that direction.  Just more pressure and more to worry about...

Poverty is not fun.  I want to go home.  :-(

Amen.  But right now I just want to go cry for my daddy.

S'now place like home...

*Note: The photos in this story are not mine, I found them on Pinterest - follow the link under the photo to find the origional source

The past has been very much on my mind and in my psyche lately, mostly because my present is a pretty bleak and unpleasant place these days.  It revisits me in my dreams regularly - people I used to know, things I used to do...

For example, last night I was visited by my mother and my father - in their former house, searching the basement for some books belonging to my old painting hobby.  It was one of those frustrating dreams where you never find what you were looking for, but still...  (Actually, it was found and then lost again.)  My nieces and sisters were even there as I was dividing my excess stuff with them.  One other character showed up - someone who for the last couple of decades has only shown up in my dreams to shoot me point blank in the chest.  This time he was cheerful, friendly and glad to see me! (...and married to that first wife.)  The kind of dreams that linger on your mind and haunt you for a while...

When I was home at Christmas time, it snowed (as I mentioned before.)
At home in Payson, when it snows, it comes down hard and fast - dropping or dumping a foot or two at a time.  While we were visiting my grand daughters in their new home in the foothills, I was trying to explain to Millie about snow drifts and what it was like when I was a kid, living in the foothills of AF...

Winter Memories

We lived just a mile from the mouth of the canyon in a rural area called Highland.  In the winter, it not only snowed volumes, but the canyon winds blew hard and drifted and sculpted the snow into beautiful whipped cream drifts.  We loved going out after a snow storm to survey how old man winter had managed to alter the landscape this time...

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One year, the drifts reached the eaves of the chicken coops that lined the horse corrals.  We had this brilliant idea of climbing up on the roof of the coop, and jumping down into the drifts that were almost as tall as we were.  We walked the fence line and clambered up on the slippery roof... and jumped!  Only to find out that getting into the snowbank was the easy part.  Getting out was another story.  It took a couple of people to pull me out, and I had to limp back to the house in wet freezing socks, because my boots chose to stay buried for a couple of days...

We had a little irrigation ditch that surrounded our property which was a favorite playground year round.  There was always a little stream running to keep us cool in the summer, and an icy wonderland in the winter.  One year, the ditch drifted over so you couldn't tell it was there - so we dug down into it and fashioned the interior of a car in the frigid "clay."  Our "convertible" had not only seats, door handles and pedals, but it was also equipped with a jockey box where we could store our gloves after they became too wet to keep us warm anymore. Because of its shady location, we were able to play there for a week or two, before it became slushy and washed downstream.

The road that ran in front of our house dipped down and then back up a bit where it met the Alpine Highway.  One year, the snow drifted through there so that the road seemed to be level all the way across to the highway.  That morning, a car came barreling down the street, not realizing there was a hidden hill there, and sank clear up to the windows.  It was stuck there for days...

When the snow was particularly deep, the snow plow threw up barricades on either side of the street between our house and the church.  We conspired to dig out windows in our fortress to watch for cars where we could pelt them with snowballs, completely unseen.  However, the limited angle made it impossible to see a vehicle until it was right across from us, so by the time we could launch one, it was too late.  We sadly abandoned that plan...

 I never learned to ice skate, but when the ditch overflowed and flooded the pasture, and froze solid, I would pretend - and spend hours sliding around on the slippery field in my red rubber galoshes.  (While the horses stood watching... and snickering.)

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Besides getting stuck and building snowmen, playing fox and geese was a favorite winter pastime.  We had a pretty big front yard, so we could stamp out the circle as big as we wanted, and play until our faces didn't move anymore.  When we came in, we would crank the heat up to 80 degrees and huddle around the heat vent until our fingers and toes had feeling in them again.

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 Winter time is cozy time - even now I love looking out the window after it snows and just enjoying the look of the freshly frosted world.  ...And it still irks me when the school kids make footprints in my clean white snow covered yard!  :-)

January 2015

Now that we're all caught up - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We had a pretty quiet new years eve - just watched TV - really OLD TV - George Burns,  Jack Benny etc.  It was kind of refreshing - remember when people could be funny without being obscene?
 It's a lost art.

Anyway, Wayland wanted to stay up, but he fell asleep in his chair around 9, and gave it up and went to bed at 10, so I celebrated alone.  I watched the new year come to downtown Vegas on the news - the way I prefer to see anything down there.  There were SO many people, and it was really cold that night, but the fireworks looked pretty spectacular.  Funny, I didn't hear them this year - last year they kept us awake for hours...

Anyway, I never did get to sleep that night - too excited.  For some reason the prospect of this new year was kind of overwhelming.  So many things I want to do with it, and I wanted to start right away...

Of course, the result was that I was so exhausted and burned out that I accomplished nothing for the rest of the week.  I've always maintained that people celebrate the new year wrong - that it should be welcomed in by getting a good night's rest and waking up refreshed and ready to conquer the world.

By that standard, I guess it was an epic fail.  ha ha

Anyway, I'm feeling very optimistic about this year - I feel like good things are going to happen. 
I don't know why - I have no logical reason to feel this way - so far it's just been more of the same, but here's hoping that gut feelings materialize into truth...

Happy New Year (from my corner of the universe)!!!

Borrowed this photo from the Mormon Channel on Facebook

Vegas Fireworks

Fire Fountains...

December

December was more of the same as the months before - busy work, and tying up loose ends.  I had to scrap some of my projects, but added a few last minute ones...

My sister in law decided to do the big family Christmas party at least once more this year.  We weren't planning on going, because two trips to Utah was really not in the budget, but several of the family members twisted hubby's arm (close to dislocation,) so we went.
Even though I wasn't too thrilled about it at first, I'm pretty glad we did.  It was really neat - they had done so many things to pay homage to Wayland's parents.

All of the siblings were there, and a good number of their children.  LaVeda would have been so happy.

They did something different this year - they put Santa in the living room, and had everyone take turns as families - less chaos, and you could actually hear what the kids said to Santa.  Brilliant!

Ellie

Millie

Arilie

Jenny

Melissa

Jeff & Jennie

Pat & Wayland

After everyone talked to Santa, they took advantage of the gathering for a Sibling photo op...

Back row L to R, Janet, Linda, Shanna, Jeanine.  Seated, Dennis, Carol, Wayland

Back row, Travis & Janet, Linda & Jeff, Keith, Shanna & Mark, Jeanine & Kerry.  Front row, Kathy & Dennis, Carol, Wayland & Pat

 We all exchange Christmas cards there (saves from having to mail them - ha ha) and some pass out little hand made gifts.  There was one that I was particularly happy to receive - this little cookbook that Jeanine put together;

After LaVeda passed away last year, I started asking around the family for some of her recipes - there were some things that she did that were such a big part of all the family traditions - ie; she always made us all a batch of divinity at Valentines,  home made root beer for the summer picnics, etc. etc.
She wasn't a fancy cook, but everything was hearty and homey - and just good eats.

Jeanine included a lot of family photos and memories along with the recipes - it is just a sweet momento of a mothers love.  I love it!

We were just there for the weekend and had to run back - but we were able to see our son's new house (if only from the outside.)  They will be able to move in before Christmas, and are so excited!

We didn't do much celebrating in Las Vegas, but my friend called me one night and asked if I would go to the live nativity with her - Wayland actually had the evening off, and wanted to go with us, so the three of us set off for parts of the city unknown.  I love going places with Lorene, it's always an adventure!

When we got there, the line was around the block and down the corner.  We were there for the last showing, and were afraid that we wouldn't be able to get a seat.  We stood there for about 45 min. - eventually, some of the actors came down through the line and told us that if there wasn't room, that they would do a third showing.  It was really neat seeing that many mormons in one spot in sin city LOL.  While we waited, we went into one of the buildings there that had a display of creche's that had been gathered from all over - it was an amazing variety - everything from miniatures to lawn sized ornaments, and in every style you can imagine, (and it was warm inside!)  Meanwhile, hubby was holding our place in line, and striking up new friendships right and left - ha ha.

We finally got in to the arena, and the show was really good.  I've never been to a live nativity, but it was really cool.  In the smallest way, you get to feel a bit of what it was like on that night of nights...

When the angels appeared and started singing, it choked me up.  Wow.  (Although I would not have wanted that part - they were right on the edge of the roof!)  What a fun evening - I'm so thankful for friends who make it possible for me to see these things!  Finally feeling a little Christmas spirit...

We ran home on Christmas Eve.  All through the season I thought about talking hubby out of this, but as the time grew closer, I just couldn't imagine spending Christmas Day alone down here without my family.

We left around one, and got home just in time for the turkey dinner.  :)

Then we gathered around and brought our Seattle kids in via Skype, and opened gifts.  The kids had all drawn names and had their own little exchange - that was really fun to watch!  They all know each other so well, the gifts were well thought out, and kind of a hoot.  Then they all opened the pajamas I had made (it's the Christmas Eve tradition,) and, I just couldn't stand it - I had them all open everything else that I had made.  I wanted to see their faces - it's my right as a granny.  :-)

It was such a fun evening.  We pretty much opened everything that night, but it was more fun to do it while everyone was there.

That night while we slept, Mother Nature dropped a foot of snow in the valley.

 Is there anything more magical than Christmas Eve snow?

It was all too short of a visit, but it was so worth it.  We finally got to see the inside of Jeff's new house, and share the girls' excitement of all the things Santa had brought. 

That's what it's all about...

November

Now that the unpleasantness of October is out of the way, it's time to move on.

November was a very busy month.  On my last trip to Utah, (We went up on the first for Wayland's birthday,) I loaded up on flannels, yarns, etc., to start my projects for Christmas.  It's really frustrating that I have to travel so far to find the things I need!
But, after we got home, I dug in with a vengeance - spent the whole month and then some, sewing and knitting, crafting etc.  I had a schedule of what I needed to accomplish every day...

 I made pajamas for all the girls, little spa kits in jars, and swirly twirly scarves.  The boys got pj's from hubby's store, and little "winter survival kits" in ammo tins.
I also made more doll clothes for the little girls, and since the oldest gran isn't into dolls anymore, I made her a pillow for her new room. They just moved into a new house.
(I was going to paint her a picture too, but I ran out of time, so she got a poster instead.)

I asked the girls what kind of outfits they would like for their dolls way beforehand, and one of the things Ellie wanted was an outfit for her doll to wear to school;

The nightgowns matched the pajamas I made...

 Millie saw a pirate outfit that I had made for another doll, and she had to have one of those too...

 One of Millie's other requests was a "fancy dress."  What's fancier than Princess Elsa from Disney's Frozen?

 Ellie also wanted a dress for church;

 Arilie's pillow - she is heavily into a cartoon called Invader Zim at the moment - this is Gir, Zim's robot pet.

Melissa and Jennifer were able to come down for Thanksgiving - it was just the four of us, but it was really good to have them there.  (If they hadn't come, we probably would have just gone to In & Out Burger.) 

We are so thankful for our family!

We haven't had much holiday spirit at our house - in fact, we talked about not even putting up a tree this year, but after the girls left, we wandered around the house feeling so blue that we decided putting up tree would (hopefully) lift our spirits - so we did.  That very day.

Wayland's mom passed away last year - these ornaments were some of hers, we thought it would be nice to use them this year...

October...

Dear Blog,  I've been avoiding you.  October is a month I have not wanted to think about - but as historians have been known to say, even bad experiences must be recorded, or the lessons learned are lost and forgotten - so - I guess sufficient time has passed that I can be a little objective about it...

We were looking forward to October, as we always do, after the scorching heat of summer, finally - some relief.  We were also excited about conference weekend, and a chance to relax and be taught by church leaders in the comfort of home.  That Saturday, (Oct. 4th, to be exact,) Wayland had to work, so I puttered around the house, getting ready for Sunday. 
As I watched the second session, I started to feel a sense of foreboding, that got stronger and stronger as the session went on - I started to look more closely at each of the church leaders, to see if any of them looked particularly unhealthy - thinking that maybe I was feeling a warning of some kind that something would happen to one of them...

By the time the session ended, I was feeling really anxious, and pretty depressed - so I did what I always do in those situations - I put on a funny movie, and drug out the craft stuff.  
When Wayland rushed in from work later that evening, he got after me a bit, because I wasn't watching the priesthood session, as we had talked about earlier.  I wasn't really keen on it, feeling like I was, but I kept that to myself, because hubby really doesn't believe in things like "women's intuition."  So, of course, being the lovely wife that I am, I snapped at him, grumbled a bit - but changed the station.

The priesthood session was really good, as it always is, and I even served hubby a piece of pie afterward. (Pie after this session is a family tradition that goes way back.)  ...But he didn't eat all of it because he was exhausted and not feeling up to par...  We settled in and went to bed.

At 4:00 am, I was awakened by Wayland crouching over the bed, saying, "you need to take me to the hospital - NOW!"  I could tell by his demeanor that he was serious, so I fairly flew out of bed, and scrambled to get dressed.  I grabbed my purse and shoes, and even though he got after me for taking the time, I had him take some aspirin and one of my nitroglycerin tablets.  (Which, they told us later, is what saved him - hooray, I saved his life!)

We took off down the road, and approached the light, which had turned red - I slowed to stop, but he said "just go!"  So, looking around and seeing that no one else was crazy enough to be out on the road at that hour, I sailed through it...  We flew down the road - granny can drive fast when she's highly motivated - hubby opening the door to throw up every so often.  I took him to the closest hospital which was Centennial Hills.  (I would regret that choice several times over the next few days.) 
Being the only ones in the ER at the time, they got him into a cubicle fairly quickly.

I don't know how she knew it, but the charge nurse asked us if we were LDS - when we told her that we were, she offered to have her husband and her son come and give him a blessing.  Of course, we jumped at that - we were pretty scared!  About a half hour later, two gentlemen showed up, a little rumpled looking, but somewhat awake - and did give him that blessing, a comfort and relief to both of us.  We found out later, that the son had just been ordained an elder to serve a mission, and that Wayland was his first blessing ever.  Kind of neat...  Anyway,  they did some blood work,  got him stabilized, and scheduled an angiogram for the AM, so I went home to get some sleep.

I did sleep a little, but the more I tossed and turned, and the more awake I became, I just felt so afraid - if anything happened to him, I just didn't think I could handle it - emotionally, or physically, having heart problems myself. 

As I let people know what had happened, I got so many texts that I was late getting back to the hospital.  Wayland had let his family know, and I got a text from his sister asking if I needed her to be there for me.  ( It was kind of weird because that was something that her mother would have said if she were still here.)  I told her at first that I couldn't ask her to do that, but as I dressed and got ready to go back to the hospital I texted her - "to heck with that, how soon can you get here?" 
When I got to the hospital, they moved him to a room.  He was still in a lot of pain, and had motion sickness so bad that even moving his bed made him sick to his stomach.  We were told that the test wouldn't happen until later in the day, so I ran home for some breakfast (and to catch what I could of the morning session of conference.)  It's all such a blur - I remember it being good, but I can't tell you anything that was said...

That's pretty much how the day went - running back & forth to the hospital, keeping the family updated via text, and waiting for something to happen.  Later that afternoon, I got a text from Shanna saying "we're here - how do we get to the hospital?"  We weren't even sure they were coming, and here they were.  (Shanna and Janet.)  In the meantime,  our daughter, Melissa, had arranged to leave and come down too.  When the people at her work found out she was going, they excused Jennifer to come with her.  A definite blessing, but all of a sudden I had a house full!  It was a god-send to have them there though, to keep me busy, positive, and feeling supported.  I am so thankful for family!

As hospitals are, there was a lot of waiting involved - they did blood tests, x-rays and finally an angiogram.  As it turned out, he had 2 major arteries that were blocked - one 100% and the other 99%.  They all just shook their heads and said he was lucky to be alive!

  They did a stent on the artery that was 100% closed, and had him wait a day before doing the other.  Centenial Hills is a secondary hospital, which means the doctors had to do all their surgeries at a different one before they came to do what was needed for hubby - that's the reason for my regretting taking him there.  I felt like he was on the back burner the whole time.  There was just so much waiting involved.  But he had some really awesome nurses who put up with him, cared for him, and kept him entertained.  We couldn't have asked for better nurses.  All in all, he spent 5 days in the hospital - and came out feeling better than he had in ages.  His sisters left on Thursday, giving us a couple of days alone with our daughters, which was nice.
Meanwhile, hubby's brother Dennis worried so much about him, that he had to come down and see him for himself - so he and his wife came and spent a couple of days.  (A real blessing, because it would have been so hard to keep Wayland from over doing if he hadn't had him there to give him something else to focus on.)

It was a crazy month  - who could have forseen that those foreshaddowing feelings I had were for someone in my own household!

 Lots of company, lots to worry about, but lots to be thankful for too.  Wayland had his follow up check up a week later - and the doctor released him to go back to work a week earlier than he should have because he wanted to go on vacation.  (I'm still fuming over that one!)
But, he is steadily improving, and doing well.  

Thanks be to God.

Catching Up...

Wow - I'm so behind the times...  Debated whether to backtrack, or just skip ahead, but I had some fun memories that I don't want to forget from the past few months, so bear with me as I fill in some blanks...

Finished out August with a bang - spent a couple of weeks in Utah with the family. Did a lot of shopping in my favorite little places - and even got to plant my big flower pot (autumn arrangement - sadly, no photo :-( )
Jennifer left Melissa and I for a weekend with her friend (in Mesquite,) so she and I had a one on one girls weekend - shopping, a movie, and a visit to a local museum.

We saw Magic in the Moonlight - a delightful film, that I'm sure I will be seeing again...



Then we went to BYU to see an exhibit at the Museum of Art   called Cut - highlighting period costumes from several different movies.

This one was one of my favorites - the wicked stepmother's dress from Ever After.
(The museum didn't allow photos, so I borrowed all of these from Pinterest.)

Melissa loved this one - said it would make a nice wedding dress for her...  (Millie loved this one too)

It was really interesting to learn how much research and detail goes into these costumes - they're not just for pretty (although they are!)
The beading on this one was amazing!  (Opera gown from Finding Neverland)

I went back again later with Jeff and his family - Arilie was totally in love with this one...

Jeff & his family took me there for family night, and we went to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner.  Haven't been there in a long time - it was much better than I remembered :-)

Hubby was able to join us for labor day weekend - spent it with the family doing the usual "Onion Day" activities.  My sister came down for the parade on Monday, and she spent the day with us - lunch at Dennis' house, then a walk through the booths at the park - the car show, and then just home to visit...

Back to Vegas on Tuesday - spent most of September sewing dolly clothes for my sister...

Also, I got asked to help make the birthday cards for the women's auxiliary at church - so I've been making cards by the dozens...

I make them in batches of 4 to 6 - there are an awful lot of ladies in our ward!

I'm tired just posting all this stuff - taking a break now, October will have to come later...
(Now you see why I've been too busy to blog!)