Thankful Thursday

I was working in the library the other day and one of our regular ladies came in. She has a lot of health problems and has been on disability for several years. She comes in every Tuesday and Thursday with a smile on her face and coos and compliments my kids. She loves Thomas. Whenever he babbles or squawks she says, "You tell 'em kid!" I was shelving some books right where she was sitting and I asked what she had planned for Thanksgiving. She has two adult daughters, one who rarely visits and the other in college. She said, "Oh, it will be about like any other day. The girls have other plans." It made me so sad and so grateful that I will probably never have to have Thanksgiving all alone. While we're in Utah, surrounded by loved ones, she'll be alone eating "a bowl o' beans" as she put it., and glad that she doesn't have to clean up after a big meal. Mathan and I both come from big, loving, functional families and that is such an amazing blessing! I think I take it for granted too often. Even if we just had Thanksgiving without any extended family, I would be surrounded by people that love me. I hope when all my kids are grown and gone that I can be as up beat and positive as this library lady. She always has a smile and a sweet thing to say. Even though she is in constant pain she never shows it except in ways that she can't help. What a blessing to be healthy and well, and what a blessing to be taught by example how to be grateful even when life is hard. Without fail, when she is leaving, she says, "Thank you nice lady!" I'll have to write her a thank you note and bring her a pie to brighten up her lonely Thanksgiving, even if it is early. After all, "gratitude unexpressed isn't gratitude at all."

Memories Monday

Near my parent's house there is a hole in the ground about four feet deep and the size of a back yard swimming pool. My uncle had dug it as a basement for the house he planned on, but then decided against building. That hole and the pile of dirt and rock that came from it became our favorite places to play when we were little. We named them The Pollywog Hole and The Mountain. Every summer during the monsoons the pollywog hole would fill up a few inches and pollywogs would hatch. Every few days we would go down the little trail to see how they were doing and catch a few just to feel them squirm around in our hands. We always came home muddy. I remember when the mud dried it was almost white because it was basically broken down sandstone. One summer the rains stopped early and the polywogs were dying because the water was drying up, so we launched the pollywog rescue mission. We found every garden hose we had, and linked them together hoping to get water to the poor polywogs. The hose barely reached to the head of the trial and the trail wasn't deep or straight enough to get the water near the pollywog hole. Plan B was a leaky wheelbarrow with a flat tire, but after one load we gave up on that idea. In a last ditch effort to save the polywogs we caught them and carried them up to the house in a bucket and put them in a little plastic kiddie pool. We firmly believed that polywogs ate cow manure. Do they? I don't really know what they eat, but we gave them cow manure, and put a few big rocks in there so when they grew legs they could hop out. With all our good intentions we had basically made a deluxe bird feeder, or maybe polywogs don't eat manure and they just starved, or maybe polywogs are cannibals. In any case, very few of our polywogs survived to adult froggyhood. Mom thought we were crazy when she found out what we had been doing all day, but she let us carry on our humanitarian efforts to "Save The Pollywogs"
* Next time on Memories Monday: The Spooky Old Tree, and The Mountain.

Pictures!

 Beautiful fall leaves in Woodruff.

 We went to G&G Peterson's house and helped Grandpa put some shiny new running boards on his suburban.

                                                       Pretty girls!

 Then we went on a picnic with G&G to see some more leaves.

                                            A Perfect Day!

Pictures!

                                          My handsome little man.

                            Ellen and May in their fairy princess costumes.

                                          Halloween Party!

               Thomas, not too happy about being a turtle, but soo cute!

Funny Stuff

Mathan was brushing Ellen's teeth and she grabbed the toothbrush and wanted to brush his teeth. He declined and Ellen said, "Come on! It's not gonna kill you!"

We got out of a fireside and I had the kids in the car and we were waiting for Mathan who was talking to the EQP about something. May asked when daddy was coming and I said, "soon." She said, "soon is a long time!" and a few seconds later, "We're gonna have to sleep in the van!" When we got home she still wanted to sleep in the van.

We were driving home from a party and May was telling Ellen that some day they would grow up and get old and almost die like mom and dad. Guess it's time to make our reservations at the graveyard. Haha!

True Confessions.. again

1. I do, in fact, own a camera and take pictures of my children.

2. I'm a lazy bum when it comes to transferring, editing, uploading, said pictures.

3. I live in a van down by the river. Okay, it a three bedroom, two bath, full kitchen, washer/dryer...van down by the river. In other words a mobile home. Every now and then I get a little bit tired of my glorified van, and I wish I lived in a real house, with real insulation, and a real foundation. But the fact remains that our lovely van is all paid off and we're saving our pennies to build a real house just the way we want it, and not go into debt and pay for our house three times over due to interest.

4. Sometimes I am self conscious of where I live. I'm afraid others will look at me and think "trailer trash", but then I remember that in the eternal scheme of things it doesn't matter where you live, but how you live.

5. I need to go back to school and study grammar again.

Tuesday's True Confessions

1.We don't have TV for so many reasons, but we have the Internet and I do watch The Biggest Loser and Survivor. I like them because they have real people on them and not fake made up personalities. Of course the situations they are in are anything but real, but it is interesting to see the lengths that people will go to to win. Oh, and they're not all trashy and violent.

2. Sometimes I take before and after pictures when I clean. Maybe to prove to myself that I actually did clean, even if it only lasts for minute. It makes the satisfaction last a tiny bit longer. Pathetic? Yes, but this is a true confession.

3. I love sleeping on the floor in front of the fire. I've done this since I was a little girl. I think I would be very happy as a house cat. As it is, my life is closer to Cinderella, only with a grateful family that loves me. Do the sweepin and the shoppin! They always keep me hoppin!

4. I don't want to be one of those ladies that brag about their kids, but I'm so proud of May. She is learning how to read so fast! What a smarty. She made the honor roll, got an award for reading, and for perfect attendance. She gave away her honor roll hat to someone who didn't get one, and gave her attendance award to someone on the bus! What a sweetheart!