Simplifying Round 4 and 5--I think

This is one of the reasons that it is time to "simplify" and "spring clean" or whatever else you might call it at your house.  Yesterday I took about 15 minutes to clean out our hall closet.  This is also where we store our vacuum hose for our in-home vacuum  system. We keep the long hose in a tall laundry basket.  However I found two of these wire "holders" which can be mounted on the wall to hold the hose.  That doesn't work in our closet but apparently I was saving two of them for a rainy day!  I also found two complete sets of attachments (for the two times we have replaced the hose and vacuum head) which have never been used.  Why do I keep things like that?

Hopefully in my "new" mindset, I will be keeping only the things which we use or bring us joy in some way and won't have to do such a major overhaul again.  Is that true, my friends who are good at this type of thing?.

The shelf below became available after I did a purge of our books so I moved it into the Craft/Exercise/Family History room in our basement and started sorting some of the projects I have planned in there.  Simplifying all of the totes of pictures and stuff that I have collected to "organize" and share with my family and our extended families will probably be a task for the remainder of my life.

So far I am liking the effects of simplifying--next up (after I finish two papers for school) are the master closet and the laundry room.

Missionaries coming and going and the rest of the week

It has been exciting as a number of missionaries who we have known since they were 3 or 4 years old have returned--one to our ward and another to our old ward.  And then a girl Jena's age had her "farewell" last week (in the other ward) so we have been attending a lot of Sacrament meetings lately.

And it doesn't stop.  At the end of the month Sis. Cassie Slater will be returning from Taiwan (to our old ward) and will be reporting.  For the next year or so we will have to get tracking of missionaries coming and going throughout our Stake as so many of Jena's friends are serving missions.

The soon-to-be Sis. Holmes and Sis. Hall
They have been in Primary and YWs together most of their lives.

Other related news:  I have been called to serve as the Pack Committee Chair for our ward---and by the way, no plans have been made for the Blue and Gold in a couple of weeks.  Welcome to Cub Scouts!!  We met as a committee last week and I think we have a plan for Feb. 18th.  Cub Scouts is fun and Pack Meetings are on Thursday which is the one weeknight I am free usually. Hopefully that will remain true in the future.

Jena has a break for the next three weeks from Centerpoint as there is not a current production. Beauty and the Beast will open at the end of the month.  Here is a picture from last Monday when we were working with the fabric.

Some pieces of fabric are a two person job!

Two days this week I attend a conference down in Salt Lake (no not Root Tech which was also being held those same days), but  The Bridging the Gap Conference put on by The Children's Center which brings in presenters who talk about current research in the brain and interventions designed to help parents and children do better.  Society can't quickly change all of the factors which lead to stress and harm on children and families, but research is showing that certain types of parenting approaches can mitigate stress for children.  They presented two different programs to help with high risk families to improve their connections with their children.  It was very interesting and I am glad that I went.

It was held at the Salt Lake City Library.  As I walked back from my lunch at a nearby Subways, there was a large flock of birds flying together back and forth over the lawn east of the library.  I stopped and watched them for a little while.  It is amazing how they seem to turn instantly as a group.

You can see it was an overcast day.  I think it was about 20 degrees outside.

I am still struggling to get my back ground approved for my internship despite starting this process last July.  My papers were lost but no one told us until December, then we started them again and sent me to do "Life scan" finger prints.  I have done them 3 times now and my fingers keep failing.  The tech says my fingerprints are too "soft" meaning worn down.  Well, I am 60 years old.  I guess that could happen.  The prints are there but they aren't "deep enough" for the live scan.  The 9th is some sort of deadline but I am not sure what will happen next.  I had to stop seeing clients by myself which has been a pain and I can't get onto their computer system except my emails.  I am hoping that I can simply do ink fingerprints but we are waiting to hear back from the head people about my last set of fingerprints.  So mostly I have been going to meetings of all types.  Child Welfare is an interesting field and I am learning things.  I just wish I could do some things.

Baby headlines:  Scarlett is saying words and coping almost everything you say: Niki is a master block builder--I can't believe how many blocks he can put quickly in a tower; and Liam just figured out how to clap and is quite proud of himself.

Wonderwood Academy

On Wednesday evening, Jena goes to Wonderwood Academy, a new program, to provide education classes to people with Down syndrome.  They hope to eventually open a school for people with Down syndrome ages 14-26.  They are teaching reading, math and speech along with a social activity each week which are based on research specifically for individuals with DS.  It is a great group of kids and also teachers and Jena loves going.

Here is a picture when they had a artist come and teach them some painting skills.  They were focusing on birds.  Here they are painting their skies.  Jena painted a falcon--she is truly a

Clearfield Falcon at heart. 

Thoughts about Family Photos...

As a kid, I thought everyone was forced to participate in the "Family Photo" experience.  My parents didn't have a lot of extra money when we were little but they still had pictures taken throughout the years.  I love those pictures (and we love to make fun of the clothes we wore.  Back then we just wore our best clothes and often they didn't match at all.)

This is the first formal picture, I think.  All of our relatives had this picture in their houses for YEARS!  Todd and I were always wishing they would take them down.  At 12 and 11, we weren't sure this picture fit our images.

My brother Todd and me

 It helped that my Uncle Grant was a photographer and some of our family pictures were taken in their front room with a white screen in back of us.  (When the pictures were black and white, it didn't matter so much that our clothes didn't match.

Dad, Mom holding Valerie
Mike, Robin, Todd, me

 This was taken in our back yard in Amarillo, Texas and one of the pictures we love to make fun of because our clothes did not match.  It was also windy (it was in Amarillo after all where it is always windy.) so some of the pictures have our hair flying in the wind.

Valerie, Mike, me, Todd, Robin, Lynette
Rick, Dad, Mom, Scott

 This is the first family picture with in-laws and grandchildren in it.  This was in 1983.

Rick, Valerie holding Jarom, Lance, Joann, Todd, Mike holding Paul, Me holding Jessica, Gary, Scott
Lynette, Mom, Margaret with Lisa, Dad, Robin

This is a scanned picture of the last extended family picture which we had taken the summer before my mom passed away.  It was taken at a park in Plano, Texas as part of our family reunion in 1994.

For Family History purposes:Sitting:  Ben Hall, Jessica Hall holding Tosha, Sierra, Jordan, Lora, Zech, and David Giberson, Paul Giberson, Scott Hall, Jarom Ipson
First row standing:  Megan Ipson, Niles Giberson, Justin Ipson, Rick and Linda Giberson holding Katie, Mom and Dad Giberson (Richard and Eileen) Valerie and Lance Ipson with Kristen, Kara, and Jordan Ipson, Landi Ipson, Lisa Giberson
Back row:  Robin Giberson, Scott Giberson, Gary and Judy Hall, Linda and Todd Giberson, Lynette, Mike Giberson

And although I am sure that I might have complained along the way about getting dressed up or having my hair done, I am so glad that I have these pictures of my family and of course, I continued that tradition with my own family.

It hasn't been always easy.  In fact the phrase, "We are doing this for your mother so be happy about it." was frequently heard as kids were getting ready in the clothes I had picked out for them (because we are in the time where clothes need to "blend" artful in family photos.)  And I love our family photos over the years.  Each one captures a time and place in our family.  Just looking at them can bring a flood of memories of the day the picture was taken or where we were living or what was going on in our lives.  In fact I love them so much I couldn't bear to put them away when we took the next new family photo.  So in our hallway, I have several of them posted so in a flash we can see our family and how they have grown.

(Side story:  One day when Scott was in high school he had a girl over who needed to use the bathroom.  Instead of directing her to our powder room, he instead sent her off to the main bathroom which meant she walked down this hall. I tried to redirect her but she had already made the corner and I heard her call out to Scott;" Scott, you were so cute."  He smiled at me and headed to the hall where he stood to hear her comments about each of the pictures.  After that, most times when he had a girl over we pointed her in the direction of the family pictures--just to get it over with, we said.)

I was thinking about family pictures because I finally got around to hanging up our most recent family pictures and the first ones to included our 3 little grandchildren.  I removed our former collage of family pictures which were taken in 2010 right before Scott and Chantel got married and also a set of pictures of each of the kids which they gave to me for Mother's Day one year (2009?).  I have always loved those pictures, both because they were darling but also because they had arranged it between the five of them and even had their clothes blend in blues and yellows. And even Jena had kept the secret.  I was totally shocked and I love them all.

And here is the new arrangement:

Family picture taken in April of 2015
Niki and Scarlett together in April of 2015
Liam in November of 2015

Jessica, Elessia and Liam taken in November)
Everyone else in April during the family picture

Already, our grandchildren have grown so much.  I can't wait to take another family picture.  It will be so fun to see the three grandchildren sitting all together.  It will be a few years since Tosha and family are in Japan but someday.  Until then, I get to enjoy these gorgeous pictures (thanks again, Ashlee Hair.)!

I LOVE these peoples!

and I love the history these pictures hold for me.

I hope that my children love them, too.