Remembering Jill

I lost a dear friend.
It was a bit unexpected.
She was only 48.  Really, 47.  She died the day before her birthday.

Jill and her family lived around the corner and down the street from us for 15 years.  It took me a little while to get to know her well, but once I did, I considered her a good friend. 
She was amazingly talented at everything she did - baking, knitting, beading, parenting, playing the piano and organ.  She had a great sense of humor, a great love of Nauvoo, and a drive to do things as best she could. 
She just seemed to have a sense of her place in the world.  It might have been a small corner in Lehi, Utah, but it was her corner and she took care of it well.
My fondest memories and time with Jill was when we were both on the Enrichment board.  We were doing a humanitarian project sewing baby gowns.  Somehow, Jill had gotten a hold of a huge roll (massive carpet size roll) of navy knit.  We spent hours in the foyer of the church, spreading out that knit, laying down patterns and cutting out baby gowns that we would then stuff five to a ziploc bag and beg people on Sunday to take and sew up.  What a blessing to spend that time with Jill.
I remember her trying to teach me how to knit and I was hopeless!  She was so patient and I still just couldn't wrap my head around it.
I remember that she would always drive her car to my house even though we lived 3 minutes apart.  I would always laugh at her and she would shrug her shoulders and impishly smile.
I remember seeing her play the organ in the temple.
I remember how happy she was at her daughter's wedding reception.  She was smiling, laughing and dragging whoever would go with her into the photo booth to get their pictures taken.
I remember saying goodbye to her in May when her and Craig moved out of the neighborhood.  I knew she was struggling with her health, but she looked so pretty, so well and so happy.  It was a hard goodbye.  I just didn't realize how long that goodbye would be.
Greg and I went to Jill's funeral today.  It was obvious how well she was loved.  She deserved all the love given to her and if your were lucky enough to be loved by her - you were blessed.
In memory of Jill, I made bread today to honor all the many loaves she gave away.  I don't think I will every make bread again without thinking of Jill - and that is a wonderful blessing.

Family Read-a-Thon

This afternoon, we were talking about school starting and what were the kids favorite parts of school.  Enoch asked me what I liked when I went to school.  I told him about recess, field trips, learning fractions, and read-a-thons.  He was fascinated by read-a-thons.  After I explained to him what they were (you get to bring your pillow, blanket and treats to school and we moved all the desks to the outside of the room and you could spread out and read your favorite book for a few hours)  he was determined we were going to have a family read-a-thon.  Book and treats - his favorites!
We have been reading Harry Potter outloud as a family, so it was a natural transition to turn this time into our read-a-thon.  The kids gathered their blankets, pillows and stuffed animals, I made popcorn and we all converged in the family room for some reading time.

 It was a blast!
Greg and I took turns reading (his British accent is better than mine!), the kids ate popcorn and snuggled in their blankets and we finally got Harry to Hogwarts.
It was a great night.  I think Enoch has started a new tradition!

Ned

We have been brainstorming ideas of how to get rid of Guard's binky.  We mentioned this to Greg's niece at a family reunion and she gave us a great idea.  Tie one end of a ribbon to the binky and the other end to a stuffed animal.  Whenever the child wants his binky, he has to hold the stuffed animal.  Eventually, he become tired of being hampered by holding something, that he gives up his binky.  I liked the idea of the process being on Guard's terms and timing.  We decided to give it a go.

Meet Ned.

Ned is a super cute, cuddly elephant with giant blue eyes (like Guard).  Elephants are Guard's favorite animal, so he was quite excited when we found this little guy.  He was less excited when we tied his binky to him, but he adjusted quickly.
And...it's working!  Guard hasn't given up his binky completely, but he has it a lot less often.  He is doing great.  And I don't have to listen to a lot of whining and crying because I took away the binky - Guard makes that choice on his own.

Guard mostly has Ned when he is lying down, watching TV or when he is still (for whatever crazy reason that could be!).  He rarely has Ned when he is playing or walking around.  When he does, he just lets Ned dangle from the ribbon while his binky is in his mouth.  It drives Kate crazy - she always says, "Pick up that elephant and snuggle him!".  Spoken by a true lover of stuffed animals.
We are hoping this does the trick of getting rid of the binky.  Only time will tell.

Guard got a bit disgruntled tonight when I was taking pictures of Ned and not of him.  Luckily, it didn't last too long.

Scattered Thoughts on Guard

1.  His new favorite treat is ice cream.  His favorite flavor is Sparkle Sherbet from BYU Creamery - it tastes like carbonated grape soda.  He always tells me, "big ice cream", meaning a lot of ice cream.  Hmm...he must be related to Grandpa Randall.

2.  We have wore him out this summer.  Yesterday while at Target he said, "Mom, home please."  Poor kid - we have been running pretty fast this summer.

3.  His favorite TV show is Wild Kratts.  He absolutely loves it.  And since he knows we can get it on Roku he asks to watch it all day.  Really - the first thing he says when he walks out of his room in the morning is, "Kratts!"  He throws quite the fit when I tell him no.  At least he is learning something while being glued to the TV.

4.  He loves to help Kate weed the front yard.  He puts the weeds in his new bucket and can't wait to fill it up.  Last night after weeding, Guard and Kate put their buckets on their heads and ran around the yard for 20 minutes - and laughed and laughed and laughed.  Then they would knock on each other's buckets while they were on their heads and say, "Hello!", and giggle some more.  It's so wonderful to see your kids having fun together.

5.  He loves nursery and can't wait to go.  It's almost too much to sit through Sacrament Meeting.  He always finds Sister Day in the chapel and has to go say 'hi' to her.  He loves his teachers, Sister Day and Sister Turner, and always walks right in without a problem.  His teachers tell me he doesn't like to share, he likes to play with the cars and balls, is the best snack eater and he has the best frowny face when they sing If You Chance to Meet a Frown.

#4

My parents are leaving on their fourth mission on November 3.  We were able to be with them when they opened their call.  Actually, they asked Gavin to open it for them.  They will be serving in the Philippines, Tacloban mission with assignment to the Perpetual Education Fund Self-Reliance training center.  They are very excited about going back to the Philippines and helping with self-reliance training.  Good luck!  We will miss you.

Rain

August rains are special in Utah.

We don't get many of them.

 We enjoy them when they do come.

Warm, drizzly rain is the best.

A perfect excuse to take your shoes off and walk through the puddles.

Beautiful rainbows.

Smiles all around.

Love.

Cub Hike

Our Pack Meeting for August falls during the first week of school.  That is a crazy week for families and we didn't want to add one more thing to the mix.  We decided to hold Pack Meeting earlier in the month and go on a hike to enjoy the last bit of summer.
Our turn-out was sparse - just us and half of the Morrison family.  That's okay.  I undestand that it is hard to get up to Little Cottonwood Canyon at 8am on a Saturday in the summer.  But, I'm so glad we made the effort to go - we had a great time.
We made the short hike up to Lisa Falls without any injuries.

When we reached the falls (really, just a small waterfall, but I'm sure it's bigger in the spring), the kids were so excited!  There were climbing rocks everywhere!  Heaven for Enoch and Kate.  Guard stayed down with me and Trenton (who had a broken arm), while the rest of the crew took off and went up.

They had so much fun hiking and scrambling.  They went up so high, I lost track of them!  I think Enoch is getting over his fear of heights.  Kate has almost too much dare-devil in her.  I'm just glad they had fun and nobody got hurt.
After hiking, we had fun playing in the cold water to cool off.

It was such a great morning to be out in nature with most of our family.  Enoch came home with a backpack full of rocks, Kate slid a bit down the trail on the way back but was tough and Guard was so mad to get back in the car.  He wanted to stay.  What a great time!