Happy New Year, 2025.....

with a new year flight to Amarillo, Texas.  Jena and I flew out in the early morning hours of January 1st to go to Amarillo to visit my sister, Robin, and to help make plans for what are the next best steps for her.  She fell near the beginning of December, was in the hospital for about 10 days and now is in a rehab Center.  She is making good progress, but is likely require a wheelchair for most of her living.  Changes ahead....

Salt Lake City airport was still decked out with their Christmas trimmings. You can see we did have an early morning drop off.

We had a stop over in Denver and they had these interesting chairs which are oddly somewhat comfortable and a change from regular chairs.  I enjoyed "lounging" back and reading a book during part of our 3 hour layover.

Heading up to the plane which took us to Amarillo.

I think this is the only picture I took while we were in Amarillo.  We were busy visiting my sister and running errands around town.  We decided that it was time for her to move to Utah to be nearer to us and where other family members visit.  (The small stuffed dog was a gift from my brother, Scott, from his visit the week before.)  We started the process of packing up as well.

I did take a couple of other photos of some weird rash I had on my face when I woke up last Sunday morning in our rental house.  I actually think I had a fever during the night and day.  I took pictures to share with Gary to get some sympathy, but don't need to share them here.  It turned into a wide spread "sunburn" looking skin and is still recovering.  Weird for me, but I know people deal with all sorts of skin things.  I spent the day sleeping on the couch while Jena watched Christmas movies.  By Monday, I was feeling much better with some cold medication on board so I could help with some packing at Robin's.  We flew home on Tuesday.

Our hope is that Robin can stay at the Rehab Center until the end of February and then I will go get here and start the process of moving her here.  It depends on Medicare and Medicaid so it is a day by day situation. As they say, stay tuned!

Extended Family Photos

Family Photos done by PhotosnStyle. Danika did a good job managing so many people and children in a fairly short and orderly fashion.  We took indoor photos (since it was November) at the Fifth Floor--a venue on downtown Ogden.

These are a sample of the photos---

Scarlett, Scott, Chantel, James

Jessica and Elessia
Alex, Carter Ezri in front
Liam and Zander in the middle

Tosha and Austen
Cooper, Ava, and Niki

Ben

Jena

Our "nuclear" family---

Ben with the grandsons

Jena with the granddaughers

Grandparent pictures.....

The whole family

Us...

Jena wanted Ben to twirl her like Austen had done with Ava earlier....

a good way to end an extended family photo session!  Until next time.  Thanks for the photos!!!

Christmas At Home

I saw the title of remarks given by Emily Belle Freeman (General Young Women President of the Church) at the MTC in Provo on Christmas Eve-- it was "Some Christmases Are Different".  That related, of course, to the young and senior missionaries on their missions and away from home on Christmas, but is also a reference to her own personal life where her husband had been battling cancer and having chemo over the past 12 months.  He finished his last round right before Christmas day, but she had said that it would be a quiet Christmas for them while he dealt with the side effects of the chemo over the next week or so.  It is true, some Christmases are different and that is okay.  That is like life and we can manage with the highs and the lows as long as we keep focused on the reason for the season--our Savior Jesus Christ and His Great Atonement for us. All the rest is just "ribbons and bows."

With that said, there were sweet moments being at home for this Christmas--to hang four stockings on our hooks where all seven of our stockings hung for many Christmases together.  A quieter day that started at 9 instead of 6 am (and we went to bed much before 1:00 am the night before)....but sweet in its own way.

These stockings are the ones I bought the last year we were in Salt Lake.  Still haven't pulled out the Christmas stuff packed in the back of our stuffed storage room.

Coming down the stairs Christmas morning---the youngest to the elders....

Jena passed out presents again this year--one for each of us.

My "best" present!

Jena had asked for a picture of Christ for her room.  There were so many that I finally took her with me one day and asked which one she liked.  This was her choice.  Not one that I would picked--since I was worried about things like matching her room and being the size I wanted, etc...but this celebrates the Risen Lord who Lives! She loves it and we will find the right spot in her room when we finally "move in" for real.

I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast (well, me and Mrs. Rhoades).  Jena said it made it smell like Christmas. 

And the bonus of the day was having Jessica, Elessia, and their kids come for some more present opening and Christmas dinner.

Zander wasn't too excited when he first opened his book until he opened it up and then his face lit up and he said, "It is a math book."  Actually it is a collection of games and activities which involve logic and some of them are number problems.  It was so fun to watch him grab a pencil and start to work on some of the problems.  Not everyone's cup of tea, but I like logic problems and it was fun to watch him try them out as well.

Merry Christmas, my dear family and friends!  Have a great wonderful holiday and a good new year!

Work Moves Forward On The House

 Getting ready for the new stuff to start going in the master bedroom....

Even Gary is pounding some nails to help Gary Kerr with the library wall.  I seriously teared up on Monday when I stepped into the living room and saw the work they had done.  It took me back to my Grandparents' home when I was little that had a front Parlor room with bookshelves filled with books on three walls of the room.  I loved that room long before I could read books and I have wanted my own version for a long time.  Not really practical for it to fill three walls in our house, but I hope that this room will be a special spot for our grandkids to read a book or be read to.  When I mentioned that to Gary, he pointed out that half of our grandchildren live out of state and won't spend much time at our house.  I too didn't live near my grandparents and we usually only visited once a year in the summer.  My grandfather died when I was four and my grandmother moved from that home when I was 9 or 10.  I don't actually remember seeing either of my grandparents reading in that room.  When we came, we spent our time in a large room/dining room near the kitchen at the back of their home (which was actually the ground floor of home with others living upstairs.  However, I didn't not understand that as a child, they took care of the yard with its many roses and to me, it was their house.) Anyway, I just remember the feeling of the room that books brought to me then and still do.  I am glad to have this small token of connection to my grandparents in our home.

The tile for the master bath is already piled up in the master bedroom, but I am struggling with the kitchen selections.  After I settled on the kitchen counter, I had to change my first choice for the backsplash tile because it wasn't quite the right colors of white.  At the tile store on Friday, I found something similar that had the right colors and tones that I wanted, but then the salesperson told me that I didn't need to worry about them having enough stock because "this is one of our most popular tiles so we keep it well stocked."  Yuck....I don't want the "most popular" tile. Now I haven't personally seen this white tile in anyone's kitchen.  Of course, I haven't been inside many people's homes in the past few years, so what do I know? But it is causing me to rethink my idea and wondering if I wanted to change it completely. Decisions....so many factors play into them when you are designing your living space.  Gary says I shouldn't worry and get what I want---but what I want is not "the most popular tile".  Does that matter to you?  Should I go ahead and get that tile or choose something different?  Stay tuned!