Rest in Peace

My dear sweet husband,
My heart still aches.  I still miss you.  I still love you.  I still cry for you.  May you watch over us and be proud of the legacy you left behind.

Message to Mommies

I learned so much working at the big box store.  If I could say one thing to the mommies out there I would say---put down the phone and pay attention!  Your child and I have a whole conversation as people relating to each other in the real world while you are busy with that phone in your hand.  Your children are embarrassed by your awkward social behavior,  because you are too busy with that darn phone.

The second thing I would say to the mommies out there---your children are children and teach them how to be children!  Without proper teaching they end up being inappropriate, annoying and in danger--but you don't know it because you are distracted by your phone!

It is easy to tell which parents take the time to teach and the time love their children.  Put down the phone....being in the presence of your children and being "with" your children are two different behaviors and you will get two different outcomes.  That is my unsolicited advice to the mommies out there!

Movie Quote Monday

"Your family is making its way in the world, 

and you can be proud of 

the children and their achievements.  

And if you'd ask me I'd have to say in all honesty; 

everybody's fine, 

everybody's fine."

--Frank Goode,

“Everybody's Fine”, 2009, written and directed by Kirk Jones

I must blog, I must blog, I must blog

Life since July has been up and down and down and up!
Four funerals, a new baby, a serious illness, six birthdays, an anniversary, a flooded basement, LDS General Conference, three trips to Wyoming, a trip to St. George and a genealogy conference.  I am behind on almost everything; especially blogging!

My father-in-law passed in August and it has been so difficult watching my mother-in-law struggle down the path of widowhood.  Then on the 23rd of October, my brother-in-law suddenly and unexpectedly passed.  Now, my sister-in-law must also wander down the widowhood path.  Too many funerals; too many widows; and too many memories for me along with Joe's birthday, my anniversary, and next week his death anniversary.

The pain and grief from losing Joe is finally bearable; and by that I mean I have learned how to live with it.  I know how to function and meander through life.  However, watching my mother-in-law and sister-in-law join me down this road has intensified my grief pain as I have seen their faces of shock and grief and heard their tears of sorrow.

I am thankful for the atonement that helps and assists me with this awful pain of grief.  I am thankful for the Comforter, who truly does comfort in those dark, painful and lonely hours day after day and night after night.  I am thankful for family who cannot take away the pain, but can walk beside me through it.  I am grateful for sweet friends who love and care (especially for the sweet person, who every anniversary secretly leaves roses on my doorstep).  I am grateful for my grandchildren who remind me to laugh and keep loving and who hug me like I am their world.   But most of all I am thankful for a man who taught me love and marriage are beautiful!

Life is hard.
Death is hard.
Watching another's pain is hard.

And, on Wednesday it will be 10 years!
Ten years is too long to be away from the one you forever love!
I still love him every single day and every single day I miss him.

William Shakespeare

“After four hundred years of intensive research into the life and works of William Shakespeare, we know almost nothing about the personal life of the most famous writer in the history of the English language. Only about a hundred documents related to William Shakespeare and his immediate family have been found: baptismal records, property deeds, marriage bonds, tax certificates, and court records — nothing about him personally.”

 “Shakespeare’s works are all we know about him. We can study, along with the scholars, his plays, poems, songs and sonnets, and discover something of what life was like for him… However, because he did not keep a journal, we don’t know, and probably never will, if he was happy or sad, if he liked sunsets and long walks by the Thames, whether he liked music, what his favorite foods were, if he enjoyed company or preferred to be alone. Some of his plays are set in other countries, and we don’t even know if he ever left England.”


Source:  

LDS Church News, “Keep a journal,” 13 Sept. 2014 published online at:  http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610722/Keep-a-journal.html

 

Birthday wishes. . .

Sending birthday wishes to heaven today.
Death may have taken you to another place,
but you will forever be in my heart.

Sisters

"Sisterhood is one of the most valuable relationships in a woman's life and when the sisterhood is strained it wounds the soul."

Iyania Vanzant,  Fix My Life, 24 May 2014

July Was Full Circle

What a crazy month July was.  It began with a new baby and ended with a funeral, with travel, a birthday and serious illness in between!

I was able to help out my daughter who ended up being very ill after Missy was born, by taking her children for a few days.  Oh my goodness.  They were good, but mommys are soooo busy!  Of course, the blessings, little kid hugs and funniness of them all was such a joy to my life!

Thankfully, prayers were answered and daughter is well.

I had my birthday--yep, another year older and a time for reflection.

Then, my great aunt passed away and I attended the beautiful funeral services; a tribute and an accounting of her life and her legacy.  It was also a time to visit with close relatives and long lost cousins. 

Now, July is gone and August is here and I realized July was a "life-time".    It began with a birth ended with a death and had serious life issues in between!

July was a month of serious reflection for me, and an opportunity to once again see why family history and genealogy work is so important.  Every person that lives has their story written on the hearts of their family members.  Every person that lives makes an impression in this world; great or small, an impression none-the-less.  And, doesn't everyone's story deserve to be told in their honor and for their life?  Yes, they do, and that is why I do this work--to tell the stories and to learn about the lives of my ancestors.  Each one of them mattered, just like my family matters to me.  They all had mothers and fathers and siblings who loved them.  They all had good days and bad days and they all had their own struggles.  Just because they have passed on, doesn't mean their lives can't help and matter to me and my life.