We are at John and Judy's today. We have had a relaxing day. For the first time Larry got up earlier than me and talked with John and Judy for as long as I slept in. When I got up he came in and we read scriptures and said prayers.
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| Jaron with his presents |
We had a late brunch and Judy has gone all out to have the things for Larry's no carbohydrate diet. So she had ham and eggs this morning. She had chocolate milk for me so I was satisfied.
John is so much better as far a his diet is concerned. He is eating better. He has to go in for another biopsy on the 19th because they want to send a sample to another place. They have determined that he has a tumor about the size of a pork chop in his lung and stomach area. He is not feeling well though because he asked Larry if he would take him to the VFW to visit and then he backed out. He is even feeling like he might miss his reunion in September after we leave. But for now he is acting better at home. He has hundreds of stories of his experiences in the military that I wish I had recorded while he talked.
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| Family Party |
I worked on the blog today while we watched TV and talked during a John Wayne marathon and now we are watching a navy movie called "Bridge at Toko Ri" He is great to comment on whether something is authentic or not according to his knowledge of the Navy and the boat that they were on.
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| Jaron with his cake or cookie |
Judy fixed a wonderful dinner of Cornish Hens and Brocolli. She is a great cook!!!She knows the art of presentation and serves things on the plate rather than family style most of the time.
On Wednesday we went into the office and worked in the Morning. I tried to get the basics done before I went to pick up the kids to start a quilt for Sammy. I was supposed to be there at noon but I had an emergency referral that I needed to get out and so I didn't get there until about 12:30 p.m. I planned to take the kids to the Chick-Fil-A on 410 and then go to the JoAnn's that was right behind it. So I took them there and we had a great lunch. Sammy had a hard time getting full but we were able to finish with him not complaining.
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| Friends party |
Then we went to JoAnn's. Sammy had said that he wanted an Angry Birds quilt or blanket. When we got there there was no Angry Birds fabrics except for a Packet for making a 48x60 lap quilt. I explained that it would be a small quilt like a baby quilt and Sammy wanted to to have a big quilt like David and Isaac's so he chose a Spider Man Fleece. However there was not quite enough so I bought two pieces that made 5 yards and then we took it to seam it before we tied it.
I had borrowed Larry's keys because I could not find mine and then they showed up so I decided that we needed to go to the office to take those to him before we went to work on the blanket. As we were going into the office Sammy was worried about it raining because he had heard it might rain and it was a little cloudy outside. I told him I didn't think it would rain but after we finished in the office, and we were only there about 10 minutes, we came out to a pouring rain. I had told them that I would take them to the playground after we went to the office and I said that maybe they wouldn't be able to go to the playground. Maggie said, "Why not?" I told her because it was raining. She laughed and said that it would be fun to play in the rain.
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| What fun it is to be a monkey |
We drove home and as we got closer to our apartment it had quit raining so we stopped at the Walker Ranch playground and played for a while. I was glad that they have this cushion type material under everything as it kept them from getting muddy.
By the time that we got to the apartment I just barely had time to lay the fabric out and determine how to seam it before it was time to get the kids back to their home.
After taking the kids home I went to the office to pick up Larry.
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| Michelle at the entrance to BYU |
After we had dinner I tried to work on the blanket to get it seamed but when I plugged the cord into the socket and the machine then tried to sew nothing happened. I tried several things to see if I could get it to work but every time it just sat there and did nothing when I put my foot on the foot pedal. I finally decided that I needed to go to bed.
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| Daniel, Michelle and their family |
Thursday I went into the office for a while to see if there was something that I needed to do and to drop Larry off. I was hoping to get the sewing machine fixed that morning and talked to some people that said that they repaired Bernia's but then I felt like I needed to just call someone and see if I could use their machine. So I called Teresa Johnson and asked her if I could use her machine to sew two seams. She said that she would be home between 11:00 a.m and 2:00 p.m. if I wanted to come then. So I thought that my troubles were over.
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| Michelle on the campus of BYU |
We had an emergency referral asking for a blessing so it took me longer to get there than I thought. When I got there Teresa showed me her machine and threaded it and said she didn't know much more than that because it was really her husband, Mark's machine. I began to sew the one seam and it wasn't sewing right. The thread kept breaking. So I asked Teresa if she knew why. She didn't seem to know why so I started thinking about what causes thread to break. I looked at the threading and it seemed that it was threaded wrong according to general threading rules so I fixed that. I also knew that the thread would break if the needle had problems so I looked through her sewing box and found a new needle. Then I started to sew. It was better but still not good but after looking at it I decided it would hold and just sewed the seam that I needed to do to secure the two pieces of fabric. Teresa had already left to do her thing and I finished up by myself.
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| Cieli in her walker toy |
While I was sewing a friend in the Woodlake Ward, Becky Vaudrin, texted me that she had some clothes for Maggie if I could come and get them. So I decided to go get them on the way to pick up the kids even though I was almost late to pick them up. I put her address into the Google Maps and it took me almost there but then confused me about where to go at the end when there was two roads that formed a Y so I had to call again and find out how to get there. I couldn't believe it when I got there. She had probably 30 dresses and some shoes that she wanted to give me for Maggie. After loading those in the car and talking with her for a few minutes then I went to get the kids and give Sara the clothes.
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| Finally out of the hospital, Elder Holt and Elder Nelson |
Again I was late and Sara was needing to go. I took in the clothes and got the kids and we went towards the house. We went to Little Ceasar's by my apartment and got pizza. Sammy wanted me to get them some cotton candy so I went into HEB to get that but they were out so after talking to several people about that we went home and ate the pizza and soda. The kids were each trying to outdo themselves on how to irritate their siblings. I was trying to lay out the cloth so we could get it ready for tying and after about 30 minutes of this I realized that this was not going to work with everyone there. So after I finished laying out the fabric the way I wanted it I then packed up the kids to take home.
In all the confusion I did not look at my cell phone. When we got to Sara's house they were not there. So we began to figure out what to do. My phone had died and we didn't have a charger. Some how we figured out how to get it charged a little bit with my portable one that I found in my purse. When the messages came up Sara had been texting me that they could come and get the kids because they were out. Frustration. I started to try to text them and the phone died again but finally Sara and Kenneth came home and the kids were able to get in the house. I went home one tired Grandma. I think that Larry was working at the office during all of this.
Friday I was too frustrated to work on the quilt. Sara had the kids that weekend so I just worked in the office until the afternoon when Larry decided it was time to leave for Kerrville. During all of this Nathan was in Utah with Marcy.
On Facebook we later discovered that despite all of this fun we were having Michelle was graduating with her Master's degree from BYU. She posted the pictures on Facebook, and we are so proud of her and all her hard work. We hope that her family is as thrilled as she is. That is a huge accomplishment when you have a family and are working also.
Jaron had his birthday on the 11th and we forgot but luckily he posted pictures so we could see the fun he had. He turned 12 this year and is old enough to get the Aaronic Priesthood.
Elder Holt had to go home a while ago because he has cystic fibrosis and he got sick again. Elder Nelson had to go home with a broken foot that needed repaired. It was fun to see that they got together to go to the temple on Facebook also.
And of course Cieli is as cute as ever. Love the pictures, can not wait to see her.
