Counting Blessings: Gramma Great!

My wonderful grandmother came with my mom to watch the kids last Thursday while I worked. She came to see Miley and the boys since she hadn't seen them since we blessed Miley the beginning of August. I have so many special memories of her! She watched me when I was a little girl, and I have many, many childhood memories of the times spent at her home. Some of my fondest memories include: sitting on her lap and reading stories and singing the songs her mother taught her, making bread and eating it warm with lots of clover honey, picnics under the cherry tree, picking raspberries, going to the dress rehearsals of Ballet West and the Utah Symphony, making dolly clothes, banana milkshakes, and sitting by her as she played the hymns on the piano. She tells me every time she sees me about how she cherishes her memories of me...I want her to know how grateful I am to her for all my memories, and how she helped raise me and make me the person I am. My old gray granny is an elect lady! (That's what she calls herself--old gray granny!)

Our mothers, grandmothers and all our relatives are gifts, whether our relationships are tightly bonded or not. Each person in my life has touched me and helped shape me into who I am today. I am grateful for my ancestors and all their experiences.

Craig has wonderful memories of his grandparents, all of whom have now passed on. He shares many great stories about them that I love to hear. I am excited to share these with our children too. I was blessed to know and care for Craig's grandmother before we were married. She was a great lady, and one of my favorite patients.

My grandmother is in her nineties now, she's a little slower, a little more hard of hearing, but I love spending time with her and I loved seeing my kids with her. The boys couldn't wait to show her things and tell her all about their toys and stuff. Miss Miley was perfectly content to sit on her lap and look at her. She gave her a big smile first thing and there was a look in her eyes like "There you are! I know you!" I cherish these times because I don't know how many more moments like these there will be.

I am counting my blessings. Gramma-Great-Gramma is a blessing! (That's what Jake calls her, too cute!)

"Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

My Attitude of Gratitude

We had a family night activity not long ago talking about being grateful and counting our blessings. We wrote blessings on paper turkey feather and attached them to a turkey picture as we counted each blessing one by one. By the time the acitvity was over, that turkey looked more like a peacock. This is the perfect month to remember how blessed I am, so I am going to post my "attitudes of gratitude" this month to acknowlege how many blessings I enjoy.

Tuesday was Veteran's Day. I would be totally remiss if I did not offer my thanks to all those wonderful men and women, and their families, who served our country and who now continue to serve the cause of freedom in many divers places. Regardless of your political beliefs, our soldiers and sailors throughout the world deserve our vote of confidence and our thanks for being there. Their families deserve our thanks and our honor for all their sacrifices.

Many of our friends know that my brother Wade serves in the Navy. I have watched that service shape him from the boy I knew into the man I can see him becoming more and more each day. I am truly proud of him. This is what I wrote him earlier today. I'd like to share it so the whole world knows how grateful I am for the sacrifice that he puts forth, as he now stands as a representative of all those heroes before him. I am grateful to them for giving me the freedom I have to exercise my voice, vote, faith and beliefs.

Wade, I wanted you to know a few things.
I wanted to thank you for your service to our country.
I wanted to tell you that I have your picture in a place of honor in my home so that I can see your face each day and so I can teach my children about how brave you are.
I wanted to thank you for taking these years of your life and giving your time and service to this great nation.
I wanted to thank you for being brave enough to be the watchman on the tower and to answer the call of duty.
I wanted to thank you for standing up and being counted and for doing what I could never do.
I wanted to thank you for being braver than I am.
I wanted to thank you for saying that you would go where no one else wants to go, that you would represent America and show the rest of the world how good she is, and how good of a man you have become.

I wanted to tell you that I am so very proud of you for being where you are, and that you are an inspiration to me. I watch profiles of military families on the news and it touches me deeply because of your example to me. The plight of the military service men and women are near and dear to me because I know that every man and woman serving this country is someone's mother or father, son, daughter, brother, sister, cousin, friend.

Sometimes I miss you so much my teeth hurt.
Sometimes I lie awake and fear for you and what situation you may find yourself in out there.

You are always in my prayers.
I pray that you are safe.
I pray that God walks with you where ever you go.
I pray that you will come home safe and whole.
I pray that you can feel me hugging you from miles away like I am now.

You are always in my heart.
You are always loved by me.

Thank you.
Thank you for your choice to be a part of something larger that yourself.
Thank you for your sacrifices.
And thank you for being not only my brother, but also my friend.
I love you.

Sarah

Blessings: freedom, family, faith, love.

Verbosity

Okay. I know. My apologies to those who think that I have completely forgotten this blog. Honestly, I haven't. I've just been...busy. You know how time gets ahead of you, how suddenly weeks have passed and you're standing there thinking "what the heck??" That's how it's been lately. I know that's not much of an excuse, but hey, I got three kids and let's face it, my brain just ain't what it used to be. So, my truest, sincerest apologies for not keeping up with things.
Sooo, anyway, let's see, what can I share about the last three weeks of our lives? Umm...well. Okay, so, we've had Halloween, the seasons here in UT have gone back and forth between summer and winter lately, the election came and went, we've had family parties, our first shindig for our new ward, and the kids have been sick. So, here's the updates:
HALLOWEEN: Unfortunately I had to work Halloween, so Craig got the honor of dressing up the boys and taking them around for the candy craze. We actually had three Halloweens in a way, with our old ward's trunk or treat, Halloween, then our new ward's trunk or treat. The kids packed in a gigantic haul of candy. (We're talking three pumpkins full, and two ghost pails full.) Craig took the kids down to his brother's house Halloween night and they got to go around with their cousins. They thought that was awesome. Sam and Jake were ghosts, I spent the week before making and repairing their costumes. Here's some pictures of them with our own pumpkin patch.

All those pumpkins actually grew in our garden! First year we've gotten more than 2, and we got 17! Miley was a pumpkin too! She looked so cute in her little pumpkin suit! We also went to the family party and the kids loved the carnival that was set up for them.
The Saturday right after Halloween we did the ward party which turned out okay, I think. We had about a 100 people there is all, but people said that was a good turnout considering the size and the newness of our ward. (It's on the small side in numbers.) We're just used to activities having 200-300 people there. Now it's on to the Christmas party. It never ends.
SEASON CHANGE: With the cold snap a couple of weeks ago we had to say goodbye to the garden. We've been trying to get the yard cleaned out in preparation for winter. We kind of have to plan around the rain and when the trash cans are emptied. ;-) We lost quite a few tomatoes but enjoyed the last of the summer squash and a few late pole beans, beets and carrots. I actually donated two five gallon buckets of tomatoes to someone who puts up over 80 quarts a year!! (I stew them and can them, but I still had about 2 dozen quarts from last year so I elected to not do any this year.) And the folks at SDCH loved the 4 gallon-sized bags of cherry tomatoes we brought to share throughout the season, and yes, they were all from just 1 plant!
ELECTION: What can we say? Our friends and family all have differing opinions and we've heard it all from how the country's going to heck in a handbasket, to how it will be like the Kennedys again and all will be just groovy. We're going to sit back and reserve our opinions and judgment and take a wait and see attitude. We did go and do the early voting thing, though. It took about 1.5 hours in line, and when I got done Jake glared at the machine and asked "That was it?" He thought the sticker was a let down too.
In other news, we had dentist appointments and Sam and Mom ended up with bad news and have to go back. The dentist recommended Sam needs to see a pediatric dentist for his "holes." (That's what he calls the cavities.) He wouldn't sit still for a complete cleaning. We also asked about his thumb sucking, and the dentist said not to worry about it for now. Also, the kids have had the stomach flu this weekend and it was pretty hectic keeping up with them for about 36 hours. (Just one big round of emptying pink buckets and changing diapers, it's so much fun being a parent!) Mom got a touch of it for about 16-18 hours, but feels okay now.
So that's it. I think. I don't remember. Oh, the recipe was updated, Cheese Enchiladas that are great! And, we added a follower list, so be sure to register!