Busy life--Fun Times

My niece said that she has decided to have a New Year's Do-over on March 1---2014 had a rough start as they have had  illnesses and other "fun things" related to life with little children, jobs, and household things. 

2014 hasn't been hard in those ways for me but I started off the year knowing that from Jan.1 to March 7, life was crazy busy.  I feel that I am going from one task to another without a breath between them.  Now these events are mostly of my own creation--I "chose" to accept the responsibility for the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation and I have to do the things I think are important for that and to respond in a caring way for all of those I interact with, I chose to go to Roots Tech and get excited about family history, and I chose to gather our extended family for an activity. I chose to accept responsibilities within the Church.  And I even chose to cook dinner and clean house (occasionally) for my sweet husband and Jena and Ben.  All of these things I have chosen to do and I love it.  I love the opportunities I have to be involved with life and with others.  I am grateful that I have the freedom to do these types of things.  However, I have to say that as I check each things off in these past weeks, I am really looking forward to sleeping in on March 8 and to feel a bit of a break until the next wake of things come up.  I just hope some of that I do matters to someone.

Monday was President's Day which was a nice day to sleep in a bit and then eat some pancakes which Jena made.

Then I worked on a picture project for our Hall Cousins' Gathering on Friday night.  It always takes longer than you think to gather pictures and put music to it, but by nighttime, I was happy with how it turned out.  We included pictures of Gary's parents and their parents, then went through a number of pictures of Gary and his sisters as they were growing up, then I tried to put in pictures of the cousins together as they grew up including many of the family pictures that I could find.  I gleamed pictures from Valerie's box which I have and also from Gary's mom and my brother-in-law.  I dreamed pictures all time long on Monday but it was nice to have it ready so early in the week.  It really is amazing what technology can do.

Tuesday was basically a UDSF computer day where all I did was work on things on the computer for the foundation (and reviewed our video and added some final touches).

Wednesday I had a fun phone conversation with a woman from South Carolina who is in town visiting who also has a daughter with Down syndrome.  They had had dinner at Red Lobster and met Scott.  He gave them my number after telling them "all about Jena and me", according to Lisa.  Lisa and her daughter both loved Scott.  We are going to have lunch with them on Wednesday. 

Skier Jena

Then I headed out the door to take Jena skiing for the afternoon.  Usually that means for me 2 hours of reading whatever I wanted to.  This time I was in the middle of reading a proposal for funding for the State Board of Education.  That wasn't a fun task but it was interesting to review and then meet with educators of all types on Thursday and review the proposals and share our input.  My scores were fairly in-line with other people so I didn't feel totally out of it during the discussion.  Interesting but I won't want to spend my life doing that type of thing.

Tosha happened to text me when I was at the
ski school scoring the proposals.  Fun times?????

Now the really great news about Wednesday is that I got a package in the mail from my good friend Robynn Thiot.  I knew it was coming because she had sent me the following email on Monday.

 

"Hi Grandma Judy,

I just ordered a book for you and it should arrive on the 19^th.  I couldn’t see anyplace on the order to tell you it’s for your Grandma kit and it’s from someone who loves you a LOT.  Me.  I’m crossing my fingers that you don’t already have it.  If you do you will soon have two.  I LOVE reading this to my daughter in laws tummys and good luck doing it without tears.  Keep a box of tissue close by.  I love you dear friend.  I am soooo excited for your journey of Grandparenthood.  You and Gary are going to be the best! 
SLY
Rob"

 

How sweet is that.  I hope that you all are as lucky as I am to have such a great friend even if we are separated by these long distances.  And the book is so sweet.  It is called "I love you before You were Born".  It is in the voice of a grandmother telling her grandchild how much she loved him before he was born and how she dreamed and wondered about him.  It has beautiful pictures.  It is so true.  I don't think I realized how much my parents and Gary's parents thought about their grandchildren before they arrived.  But as an "expectant" grandparent now, I am surprised how often I think of the two little ones on their way to our family.  I wondered if they will love books read to them or if they will like to play in our sand box.  Would they like to go with their grandmother to a BYU football game or will they want to travel to Nauvoo?  At random times, I wondered about them--and their moms and dads, too.  My mom once told me that one of the greatest things in life is seeing your own children as parents.  I can imagine it.  It thrills me so much how much Scott and Chantel and Tosha and Austen are excited about being parents.  Many in our world no longer see parenting as a life option they wish to have.  Parenting is not easy but it is one of life's journeys I am so glad I was able to experience---even better than walking on the Great Wall of China or cruising through the Panama Canal (and you know how amazing those were to me.).

This is how cute they looked as I read
the sweet story to "Baby Lemon"
(the fruit of the week last week at 14 weeks)

Wednesday night I FaceTimed with Tosha and Austen and read the sweet book to their little one.  It seemed right that I should read it to them first as Tosha and Sister TO (which all of my kids, even as adults, still call Robynn) have a strong bond with each other.  I expect that my little Oklahoma grandchild might get some loving from Sis. TO when Tosha and Austen are missing family and can make a quick trip to Plano for some hugs.  I am sure that Thiots would be glad to be there as well as all of the Texan Gibersons.

 

Chantel and Scott got to see the book the next day when they dropped in for a visit.  I can't wait to read this book to both of these grandchildren in person.  This summer will be so excited.

 

Now the book has its own spot on our entry way bookshelf where I can look at it every day.  Thanks, Robynn, I love it.

 

Thursday was an all-day meeting day for the proposal readings and UDSF.  Part of the day I checked out places for our Buddy Walk and I think we have found a place in West Jordan.  Waiting now to see if the city will accept our proposal.

 

Friday---too much UDSF stuff in the morning so I turned into the "Party witch" which is what I describe myself before we have people to our house.  I am much better than I used to be when I had little kids around, but I get a "bit" tense about the house getting ready before people come.  This time it didn't all get done, so luckily no one asked to see my laundry room (stacks of unfolded clothes), my refrigerator (needing to be cleaned) or my master bathroom and closet (not cleaned either).  I am not sure why I need my master bathroom  and closet cleaned before we have company (nor does Gary!) but it must be a woman thing because my friends says they can relate.

 

Despite the uncleaned items in the house, it was great fun to have Gary's sisters and their husbands and the grandchildren who could gather together for a dinner and game night.  It was fun to talk without worrying about the little kids.  We missed those who couldn't come because they lived so far away, or working (Scott and Chris) or they were sick (Jessica and Grandma Hall).  It was really sad that Mom Hall was unable to come.  She would have loved to see her grandchildren and hear their conversations with each other. For one of the games we played "Scattogories" centered around Syracuse and some of their memories of Grandma's house.  She would have loved to hear their stories.  Then with dessert we showed our 8 min. slide show which was great.  I cried even though I had seen it many times.  I loved watching it with these awesome people which I am related to.  Now that is what real FUN TIMES are about.

 

A sampling:

Holly and Wayne Hall
wedding day-1954

 

Holly and Wayne
Valerie, Gary and Charon  

The grandchildren in 1984

Grandchildren plus in 2013

Saturday was another busy day as I had a meeting and then hosted a brunch for new parents of children with Down syndrome.  We had a panel of teens and young adults with Down syndrome of which Jena was one.  They all did fine.  I didn't get a picture, but Jena took this picture of herself before the panel started.

 

 

We then headed home for a couple of hours as I had to work on some other things at home and then Jena and I headed south again to attend a dance for the Salt Lake/Tooele group of UDSF.  I asked Jena if she wanted me to invite a friend to come with her and she told me no that she could make new friends, and she did.  She danced for almost the whole two hours with a group of teens and young adults who were there.  I think she stopped briefly to eat some chips and salsa.  I only dance one song as I talked with different parents all time long.  It made for a long day as we headed home but it was good and we had made many new friends along the way.

 

We were happy for 11:00 Church as the two of us slept until 9:30, although poor Gary was up at 6:30, I think.  We have enjoyed our quiet day today.  Getting ready for another fun filled week of adventure ahead.





The cleaning continues.....

When I finished the storage room, I headed into my "office, exercise, sewing, family history" room and started cleaning and reorganizing those totes which contains the hundreds if not thousands of pictures from the past.  I was looking for pictures of the Hall cousins for a project Gary and I are doing for our upcoming "Hall Cousins Gathering".  However I decided I might as well do a major sort and purge.

I had an unexpected find in the process.  I found the picture of Scott with his birth mom at the age of about 6 weeks.  I was so excited.  This picture has been missing for years.  We had put it on a timeline for Scott in third grade in Texas and he had thrown the timeline away at school since he didn't want to carry it home.  (Such a boy thing to do) It was the only one we had and also included a small note from his birth mom in Spanish on the back of it.  I was so sad and retold that story many times over the years to adoptive parents telling them to make copies of these special photos and documents.  I couldn't believe it when I found it yesterday stuck in some other pictures.  I must have made a copy for that timeline all those years ago.  I don't know how it could be that I didn't know we still had it.  But if we were going to find it what a great time--when that little baby is now waiting for his first little baby to come!  A little sweet mercy.  I texted the news to both Chantel and Scott and sent a picture of the picture to Scott who was at work.

This was taken in Miami where Scott was born.

This is one of the first blessings from the RootsTech--I was seeking those pictures of the Hall cousins because of some of the things I thought about during the conference, and I found that picture for Scott.  How awesome is that!

The Storage Room

One of the great things about our house is our storage room, but it is amazing to me how quickly it can become a mess.  Of course, it makes sense in the busyness of our lives that food gets randomly stacked here and there and the holiday totes are never completely put back the way that they should and the fact that the storage room is a great place to put things you don't know where to put---it all adds up to messes and piles.  A few weeks ago I took almost everything out of the storage room to clean it and reorganize it especially the food section. That day I got the food back in along with many of the other items.

 

 

 
However I hadn't yet taken down my Christmas decorations (faithful readers of this blog will recall that it was mid-January before I did that.)  Anyway, I was determine to sort through our Christmas and fall holiday totes and keep only the things which we use year to year.  So since mid-January I have had piles of storage room stuff in our basement game room.  Finally yesterday I completed that task and got the rest of the storage room "moved back in".  Yea.

While sitting on the floor in our game room, I notice this snowflake under our bench near the pool table.

It was left over from our Christmas party---in 2012!  I promise that I have swept the tile there a few times since 2012.  I have even noticed this little snowflake before but apparently I didn't stop to ever pick it up.  It reminded me of a fun time.  However it is now thrown away with other things I don't need.  But its picture is here for posterity.

Man's best friend(s)

Mowgli and Jasper

Dogs can drive me nuts as they track in mud worse than any children, they shed hair and we don't even want to discuss their bathroom habits in our backyard.  They dig, they bark, and they can be wild.  Despite all of that, we keep them around and we love them.  Mowgli and Jasper are crazy dogs but I love to watch them interact with each other (they are brothers who whine if one is taken on a walk without the other).  I love watching them with Jena and I appreciate the fact that they will protect her by barking loudly if any strangers try to get on our property while we are gone.  I love seeing them curled up around Gary when he tries to take a nap on the family room couch.  They are part of the family so they should be acknowledged in this blog.  (And I consider myself a cat person!)

Face Time

Speaking of technology (that was a couple of post ago), we finally figured out a way to work the Face Time feature on Jena's IPad (it wasn't difficult, the problem was the Apple Account we set up for Jena).  Anyway, we got to FaceTime with Tosha on Wednesday night and it was so awesome.  We got a virtual tour of their apartment as well as their night time view outside their apartment.  It was nice.  Austen had already left for his graveyard shift at work so Tosha and I talked for almost 2 hours.  It was so nice to talk and SEE her at the same time.

We then FaceTime with Austen on Valentine's Day when Jena figured out how to do it herself and gave them a call just as we were trying to head out the door for our Valentine's night with Jena, Uncle Allan and Grandma Hall.  (Pizza Pie Café and Phase Ten).  Tosha was getting ready for their dinner out to celebrate the holiday, too.

I can see FaceTime will be important as grandparents.  I wonder if I can read a book to Baby Russell each week.  We will have to figure all of that out.

Speaking of Austen, he received a medal for some of his work when he was deployed.  Tosha said it was a very formal event and the first time for her.  She asked the person next to her if she could cheer when they called his name and they said no.  As it turned out the officer in charge did ask "Mrs. Russell, do you have any words for your husband?"  It caught her off guard and she didn't have anything to say on short notice.  She said she will be ready next time.  We are very proud on him.  He is a hard worker.

Jena and I will be making a trip down to Oklahoma over the Spring Break.  We will leave Tuesday afternoon, March 25th and come back the following Tuesday.  We are going to drive down so that we stop in Amarillo for Wednesday night and spend some time with my sisters, Robin and Lynette.  Then we will spend Thursday through Monday morning with Tosha and Austen.  We are excited to see them.

It's A......

February 10th was the big "reveal date" for our Baby Hall grandchild.  Scott and Chantel headed off to their appointment and we didn't hear anything from them all day.  We knew that both Scott and Chantel wanted to be there when they told us so we expected that they would come over after he finished work that evening.  It was very hard not to send a text or call and just see if they would slip up.  Finally I got a text from Chantel inviting us over to their house at 9.  The minute Gary and Jena got back from the bowling alley we headed over there.  Scott wasn't home yet but Chantel was amazing at keeping the secret.  Her parents joined us along with Chantel's two brothers and sister.  When everyone was gathered we tried to call both Jessica and Tosha but neither of them answered so they got the news by text later.

Scott had their camera on us while we all were given these cute cupcakes which Chantel had made:

We were given instructions and then Chantel counted---1   2     3

 

And we all bit into our yummy cupcakes and discovered:

 

 

 IT'S A GIRL!

(Historical note:  Yes, Gary lost the bet with Chantel!)

 

We then got to watch a 1 or 2 minute view of her ultrasound.  Baby Girl Hall was wiggling around and making sure it was very clear that we knew SHE was on her way.  (However out of respect of her I will not post those pictures on our blog.  :) 

Here she is.  Looking good according to the midwife and us!

 Now we are excited to hear about Baby Russell--that will be in 3-4 weeks.

Roots Tech

On Feb. 5-8 they held the 4th annual RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake.  I went last year and this year Gary joined me and my sister Valerie and her husband came up from Mesa.  This is a conference which focused on Family History and the amazing technology which can help us remember, record and share our life stories and the stories of our ancestors.  It is awesome and overwhelming at the same time.

Gary went on Wednesday which was more technical in nature.  Then we went together the following two days.  We had a great time rarely taking the same classes.  It was fun to have Valerie and Lance there as we joined for meals and sometimes ended up in the same classes--even though we didn't always know it until afterwards.

I so appreciate the wealth of written information and journals which we have on my mom's father's family as it is so nice to read and to feel the goodness of these people we come from.  It puts added importance on leaving a record of my life and the great blessings which we have received during our lives.

Technology has added so many options for us both to record our lives but also to do genealogy in searching for our ancestors.  The work is being hastened on all fronts at this time.

This is the only picture I took
It is of the schedule board.

Gary and I, Lance and Valerie and my dad and Karla all met and had dinner on Friday night at Zupa's (excellent) and then played a game together at their house.  Gary and I had made arrangements to spend the night in a hotel near the Salt Palace.  Unfortunately during the late afternoon on Friday I started having some of my pre-migraine signs and during Friday night I had a migraine so we both slept in on Saturday and then just headed back to Syracuse.  It was sad to miss the last day which included an LDS-specific track with some excellent speakers--darn! ( However it has been four months since my last migraine so I really can't complain about that.)  I have learned enough in two days to keep me busy for a long time.

Join us next year for the 5th annual conference on Feb. 12-14 in Salt Lake, I think--around then.

What a day!!!

It has actually been a very busy month with lots of things going on--in many different areas of my life.  and this week has been no exception.  In fact it all seems to just accelerate as deadlines (some set by me and some by others) all seemed to end on this week.

For the UDSF, we were preparing to launch the web site and preparing for an audit in the Dept. of Commerce (which is tomorrow) which has required a huge amount of time to retrieve the appropriate paperwork for the past three years.  Also last Monday I noticed that Utah State University was still indicating that they hadn't received some of my paperwork.  That was stressful as that included my packet of information with my 5 page essay, application, resume and  letters of recommendations.  All could be replaced, of course, but I didn't feel I had time to do that again.  Plus I had worked hard to get it there before the first deadline. So that started a week of emails and phone calls as we both worked to figure it out.  I also had to work on our ward yearly emergency prep. goal program and the list can go on.

AND THEN CAME FRIDAY----

Early in the morning, I got an email from Utah State saying that everything was fine and put in the right spot.  Checked off---

Another email indicated that a former treasurer of UDSF had found some missing documents which saved me a lot of work and the foundation about $400 to get duplicates from the bank.  Another item checked off.

Later after some final last touches of the web site---it went live!!!  Yeah, Yeah!!! It has been a frustrating project which has been long in coming.  Check it out at:  www.udsf.org.  If you ever know someone who has a baby with Down syndrome have them check it out.  There is great information no matter where you live.

Two of the new volunteers who I had trained on Thursday reported some work that they had already started working on---and they thanked me for the opportunity to volunteer!  Nice--two more worries off my plate with their awesome help.

BUT the very best thing of all came through a text from Austen and Tosha:  It came with no words just a couple of little orange notes.  When I clicked on it, we heard Austen checking out the sound and then a sweet little heartbeat in the background for the next 20 seconds and then the sound of Austen and Tosha laughing.  Yes, #2 grandchild is on their way.  Due date in August 12 which is a hot time to be born in Oklahoma.  How fun for there to be two coming so close together.  Exciting times for us. 

Chantel and Tosha are both doing well.  Tosha hasn't felt great for the past month or so as she has had a cold on top of pregnancy stuff.  She is looking forward to feeling better as she is getting past the first trimester.  Chantel is out of that early morning sickness and has been busy cleaning out her closets and the garage.  She has started to stencil a elegant stencil on the wall in the baby's room.  I feel so blessed that these two sweet women are so excited to be moms (and they have great husbands who are thrilled as well).  They are willing to take that big step into the unknown to bring children into this world despite the sickness and the physical demands of pregnancy.  I also am so grateful that they were able to get pregnant and that so far things are going well.  A tender mercy which I am so thankful for.

I sent the afternoon at Snowbasin watching Jena skiing, reading a book and drinking hot chocolate..  She had two ski days this week as we can't do it at all this coming week.

Coming down the hill

Jena took this picture on the way up
to Snowbasin

It was a GREAT DAY! Even though Saturday was going to be about 11 hours of stuff for UDSF mostly paperwork related stuff, I went to bed on Friday so hopeful and upbeat.

Thanks!  I needed that. 

Flowers in one of the jars from Tosha's wedding.
These baby breaths have lasted from the wedding
and some from a Christmas decoration.