Merry Christmas

First Christmas without Earl. We made it. Just another time for missing the things that Earl did not just that we miss him in body. Earl always did Santa. Not just in public for parties, but for Mary as well. He was the keeper of presents because I am not good at keeping them hidden. I would buy things throughout the year and they would disappear almost as soon as we got home. He would never tell me that he had put them away. He just did it. Then they would re-appear Christmas morning.

Mary received 2 American Girl dolls. She had asked for one and then someone gave me money for Mary for Christmas. I guess I should have not been so frivolous as to buy 2 expensive dolls for the same Christmas but I have watched Mary play with dolls. She gives each one an identity. Each one has their own personalities. I just thought that 2 would be more fun than one and we have been missing Earl so much. I just needed to spoil her a little more. Now I am making American Girl doll clothing so that she has more than one outfit. I just can't pay $22+ for doll clothes.

We missed not doing Santa Claus. It is so hard to do a Christmas Party with Claus family and not have Santa. The Christmas Season hasn't been near as hectic, but it hasn't been near as fun either.

Mary got to play Mary for the Primary Nativity. She cared for that baby doll as if it were a real child. We have had a chance to focus on Christ this year from making a Nativity together at Super Saturday to Mary reading Luke 2 all by herself on Christmas Eve.

First Christmas back in Lewiston. I had forgotten how truly cold it gets here. Right now it is 12:15 pm and 5 degrees! Brrr! We spent a good part of the day at my parents home.

I am really trying to get my house put together. We moved in April and it still looks like we are just moving in, or maybe we are moving out. Who can tell? I have been sorting through boxes of paper and all kinds of stuff. Throwing out a lot. My sister comes over a couple of times a week to help me carry out the garbage. I almost have my big living room looking like it is actually lived in instead of being a warehouse.

Another one of thoses things that Earl did was the housework. I am terrible at it. I would rather do almost anything than wash dishes. My laundry stacks up. Mary's room always needs picking up. And right now because I'm working through the boxes in the living room, it is looking worse instead of better. What I need is a schedule. Like the old dish towels. You know Laundry on Monday, Kitchen on Tuesday, whatever it was.

Now I'm off to take Mary for a late lunch. Merry Christmas everyone!

I have a new calling in my Ward

I am happy to announce that I will be serving in the Nursery in my ward. I love Nursery. I sort of knew it was coming because I was talking to one of the Primary Presidency the other night at the Christmas party. She asked me if I would be willing to sub for Nursery and I told her that I love Nursery. Her husband is in the Bishopric. I will be doing the lesson and the music for them. I love it!

Dress is finished

The dress I have been working on for most of the month is finally complete with the exception of the hem that I will be measuring for next week. This one has been a fun learning experience. I recently read a book called "The Dressmaker's Guide" I was able to apply lots of the information from the book into making this dress. I really learned a lot.

Now I get to make a men's outfit. Button Fly wool pants and a very fancy waistcoat (vest). I love sewing for the museum because I learn so much.

Halloween Costume

For the third year in a row, Mary wants to be a pumpkin for Halloween. The first year we used my sister's pumpkin costume. Last year we found a very cute sweat suit that had a jack-o-lantern face on the shirt. Since we moved this year, we couldn't make it to my sisters to borrow hers again and the sweat suit was too small. So I did some brain storming and one day I was walking through Micheals and they had orange t-shirts 2 for $5. Bingo! I had made my sisters pumpkin costume years ago so I knew what the construction was like. So I bought 2 shirts. One in a child Large and the other in an adult XL. I ironed on a face using double sided adhesive like Wonder Under but a different brand. I cut off the hem's and sewed the two shirts together taking tucks in the larger shirt so that it fit the smaller shirt. Cut off the sleeves so that it resembled a tank top then serged the armholes together. Stuffed in between the two shirts with nylon net to make it puffy. I made a hat out of one of the adult sleeves and viola! Pumpkin costume. Yes I am quite proud of my creativity. Usually I have to have someone's instructions to be creative, but this one I came up with all by myself!

Baptism, Ben and Friends

Seems like it has been so long since I posted. Okay it has been. So much has happened so quickly and then there are just some days that communication is just not on the list for the day.

To start off with Mary was baptized on August 29. She decided that Steve Sorensen should baptize her since he baptized Earl in 2002. Then she asked Uncle Richard to confirm her. I need to collect pictures from those who took them. I only got one of her and Steve in their white clothing.

She wanted a dress of her own design and I got it done but again, Mom took the picture and I have forgotten to take a picture when she has worn it. It is really pretty. She designed it and I sewed it.

Mary was having a hard time going to Primary by her self. She would either come to Relief Society with me or I would go to Primary with her. The RS president's dog had puppies (10) in July and they were ready for homes so she told Mary she would give her a puppy if she would go to Primary all by herself. (Jill checked with me first so it wasn't without Mom's consent) Well, that seems to have done the trick. She knows that if she stops going to Primary again, that the puppy will go away. She really anguished over a name for her puppy. She wanted a good name. In her words not a silly dog name. She finally chose the name "Ben" He is a black lab mix. He is 13 weeks old and loves to chew. He is an outside only dog. Last night really stressed Mary out because of the rain.

The Tenth Ward opened a time capsule that was sealed in 1909. We made a day of it and went to the Aquarium with the Putnam's. The kids had a great time and I had fun spending time with Marti again. And I actually got pictures. So I posted them but I don't know how to move them so they are at the top along with a picture of Gabby and Mary at the 10th Ward and Mary with Ben.

Mary's Baptism

Mary will be getting baptized on Aug 29 at 1:00p.m. It will be held at the Richmond Stake Center 135 W Main Street, Richmond UT. As you travel up the Highway through Richmond, when you come to the light there is a park to your right. Turn right and the church is on the right hand side of the next intersection. We are getting all the details settled but would love to have all her friends and family there.

What a couple of Month's it has been!

We are finally winding down on our trek season. I have one more week of heavy sewing and then it backs off drastically from there. I haven't had much time to update the world. So here it goes. Mary finished school. She is now officially a 2nd Grader. She got up this morning and said that she couldn't wait for her birthday because then she would be accountable and know right from wrong. We had yet another discussion about the fact that you just don't wake up one morning and know how to choose the right. You have to practice making choices every day.

About a month ago, after yet another screaming session of doing Mary's hair, I made an appointment with the local shop to have her hair cut. She fought me all the way but after it was done, she loved how not tangled it was. It is now a chin length bob and it is very cute. Now she does her hair almost constantly. Just before the hair cut she decided that it was time for her bangs to be cut so once again she cut her own hair. She cut them off right at the roots. Her hair might look normal for the beginning of school.

Business has been very busy. We have been sewing about 12 hours every day for a couple of months. To make matters worse, I'm not adjusting well to the earlier ship times so we have had to make rush trips to Salt Lake to make shipments at the airport on the average of twice a week. Hopefully next year will be better.

Our house looks like we are either moving in or out. Can't really tell which. I have been so busy that the unpacking just hasn't happened. I'm hoping that now that it is slowing down, I'll be able to finish putting the house together before the end of the first week of August.

In June, my heart flipped out. I spent 2 weeks in atrial fibrillation (a-fib). The doctors told me that because they have eliminated the stroke factor with the blood thinner, that the rest of a-fib is more or less just a nuisance. It makes me really tired; my resting heart rate was 140. Finally after they gave me a medicine to reduce my heart rate, my heart started beating normally again about 2 weeks later. The really bad part of it is that Mary will not go anywhere without me. She goes with me to Relief Society and Sunday School which is really the only place I go lately. She used to spend my sister's days off with her, but now she won't because she is worried that something will happen to me if she isn't around. I don't know how to help her out of this. We need to figure out a solution before school starts because I don't really want to go to 2nd grade.

One advantage to living so close to my parents is that we go to their house for lunch every day. My sister prepares ultra healthy food for my mom and dad so we get at least one healthy meal every day. Other advantages include that my dad mows my lawn and my mom doesn't have to drive 2 hours just because she's worried about us. We really like the small town living.

Mary had a great time on the 4th of July. We went to a neighbors house to watch the parade because our house isn't on the parade route. Almost every entry in this parade throws candy. Then after the parade the kids all head to the park where the firetruck soaks them with the hose. The rodeo grounds are right across the street from us which is where they light the fireworks so almost without my knowing, Mary set up a family BBQ to watch the fireworks. Someone in the family let me know that she had invited them, by asking what they could bring. She is definitely her daddy's little girl. He always wanted to have a group over for some reason or another and I was always the stick in the mud. We have a fire pit in our back yard. We had some very expertly roasted marshmallows courtesy of my nephew's girlfriend. Yum! The fireworks were great too. Front row seats and we didn't have to fight traffic afterwards.

When Earl passed away, I promised the Gillmore's that I would make sure that we made one trip a year to Seattle. We are going for 12 days in August. Returning on Mary's birthday. At first she wasn't very excited about that but then Grandma told her that it would be like having a birthday party on the plane. Now she can't wait and I hope Grandma's right. Mary starts school on August 20th so we have to be back in time for school.

My calling in the ward is "Audio Specialist" We have several older members that can't get out to church so we record Relief Society and Sacrament meeting with a Digital Voice Recorder, then I take them a transfer the recordings to CD's and deliver them to the home bound visiting teacher who makes weekly visits to these sisters. What a cool church we belong to. Always taking care of everyone.

I miss Earl every day. Today we had a pioneer centered program partly because of Pioneer Day coming up and partly because the stake just got back from trek. One of the sisters spoke about how she felt like those that had passed through that way in the 19th century were helping them reenact the trek. I think Earl probably is in that group. I can't imagine that he would be anywhere else but teaching others about the pioneers.