The 49ers Club and Some Real Excitement!

 It's official. I'm a 49-er now! I've joined the ranks, with the best of the best, including my older sister, Charmaine. We have about 7 more days of being 49ers together before she turns 50 next Sunday. :)

I'm holding my great-great-nephew, Harrison Jackson, here. He is such a sweetheart!! He's so snuggly, and likes to sleep a LOT. Which is fine with me!!

His parents, Caleb and Bethanne Jackson, drove up from Arizona early this week to pick up the rest of their things that have been hanging out in storage since they left our house at the end of March. They are planning to continue their stay in Arizona for about 5 more years, and they hope with all their heart to put down some roots in Idaho at some point. They are such a cute family, and Caleb and Bethanne are truly wonderful parents! 

It was so great to see them on Monday and Tuesday before they had to head back home.

Here they are, with their friend, Tyler (?) unloading the storage unit . . .

I had the easiest (and best) job of all: holding little Harrison! :)

Exciting News: Chelsea and Garret got engaged over the weekend! 

Chelsea is my daughter that was placed for adoption 31 years ago. We keep in touch regularly and even spoke on the phone for a bit this week - she called on my birthday and I was able to get more of the story of how they got engaged. I am so happy for her and Garret! They have been together for about 4 years now, if I recall correctly. I really like him; he's a good man. They haven't set a date yet for the wedding, but will begin making some specific plans very soon.

Monday: Scott's brother, Gordon, arrived from West Virginia to stay for a few days. He drove all the way across the country (again!!) to bring out a car for his daughter, Marissa, and her sweet family to arrive in a few weeks. After he played with us for a bit, he flew back home on Thursday.

Scott and Gordon not only look alike, but they also sound alike! 

Gordon helped us one evening as we edged the grass that was creeping out onto the sidewalk. We borrowed an edger from Ben Parkinson across the street and then we all worked together to get the job done. 

Abby LOVES her Uncle Gordon. She says he is her friend and her buddy. Here they are reading stories on the front porch together.

And Gordon even played dolls with Abby. What a great guy!

I have a story to tell about this next photo.

From the kitchen, I could hear the girls getting upset in the living room, so I went in to see what was going wrong. Abby was upset at Gwen because Gwen was trying to climb up on the couch where she had laid out a blanket and pillow. 

Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Watcha doing Gwen?

Gwen: I want to climb up here to say prayers.

Abby: NO!! We need to say prayers FIRST, and then get in our bed!!

Me: (finally understanding what the disagreement was) I see . . . well, it seems to me that the most important thing you want to do is to say your prayers. And that's wonderful! So it doesn't really matter if it's IN the bed, or on the floor near the bed. But I see that you have different ideas. Let's talk it out and figure out a solution together. 

I modeled for them how that conversation could go, and then they repeated it back. 

Gwen: Abby, I want to say prayers IN the bed. Is that okay with you?

Abby: (on her own with no coaching from me) Actually, I think Gwen is right. We should say our prayers IN the bed. C'mon Gwen. Let's climb in!!

I was so pleased at how easily they figured out a solution, so I just had to take their picture. :)

Tuesday: I talked to Kylie on the phone for over an hour! It was wonderful! She's all alone over in Italy while Benson is in England doing his training. I told her to call me often, or else I would be calling her if I didn't hear from her!

She shared with me that she had just found a homeless pregnant mommy cat. So she decided to take her in until the babies were born. 

But by the next day, she had a feeling that the mommy cat wasn't pregnant anymore. So she took the cat back to where it was found originally, and sure enough: there was a brood of kittens waiting for their mommy to come back!

Benson told her she could keep ONE kitten from the litter if she wanted to. She's got her heart set on this little white one.

While we talked, Kylie went in the kitchen to prepare snacks for the bunnies. 

Then she took me outside for a tour of her garden. Someone in her family - who was inspired at the time - sent her some seed packets during the Italy shutdown earlier this spring. The seeds were her little babies back then, and really got her through some challenging times. She was so careful in taking care of all of them and keeping an eye on their progress. Now she is seeing the rewards!

This is her watermelon. The only problem is that somehow bugs got into it, and they have eaten out the entire center! She was very sad about that!!

She's also got cucumbers . . . I told her this one looks like a giant pickle!

This is her pumpkin so far, and she's hoping there's still time for it to turn orange. I think she's got plenty of time left in the season!

Her biggest problem in the garden is slugs. She says they are huge and they are everywhere!

They come out of this grate every day and head straight over to her garden.

I told her I would send her some slug bait right away. And thanks to Amazon, she'll be getting it very soon!

I just love this girl so much!  She's just an amazing young lady. 

Tuesday was such a crazy day for the whole rest of the day after that phone call with Kylie. Between the phone ringing, and the doorbell ringing, and me being needed for something constantly, it was exhausting! I did a lot of good things though, and that felt good. But at the end of the day, and after a young women's planning meeting at my house, I went in to my room and shut the door at 8:30 p.m. and never came back out. I needed some quiet time to myself. So that's what I did.

Wednesday: Gratefully, the day was a much slower pace. It started out with me going to my monthly massage in the morning. What a great gift to myself, ha ha!

The only other thing I remember doing was helping the girls to rig a giant "telephone" system with a mile-long piece of pink yarn and some dixie cups on the ends. It was my way of trying to keep them entertained while Amber made us all a yummy dinner.

I sat with Gwen at the top of the stairs and had Abby see how far she could get with the other end. She made it clear down the hall and into their bedroom. 

Then we shortened the length and tried talking to each other from my bedroom all the way into the dining room. Abby could hear me pretty well, but I had a hard time hearing her. I kept having to ask her to say it louder and slower, ha ha.

Thursday: The day I became a 49er. I got several texts and phone calls all throughout the day from family and friends. And my dad sent me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers that I have ever received in my entire life!

Gwen also came in and climbed into bed with me that morning. What a cutie!

Later in the afternoon, I went out and did a little shopping for myself. Mainly, I was looking for a couple of picture frames. I found this great quote:

Friday: I cleaned out the craft room quite a bit, so that we could take some photos of the weight machine that we wanted to get rid of. We ended up selling it on Facebook Marketplace the next day (Saturday). Now we have a LOT more space in that room! How exciting! 

Scott wants to hang up a pull-up bar from the ceiling as a form of exercise, and Amber can also use it to hang up her yoga swing once winter hits and she can't use it outside.

Scott has also been knocking off several items on the honey-do list that I made for him. This is just one of the big projects that he's been working on. Our fence post broke at ground level, so now this section of fence leans precariously whenever we open the gate. He's been digging around the cement footing, trying to figure out the best way to get it up and out. (Dad - any ideas? He's been pounding it with a chisel and a hammer, but it is SLOW GOING!!)

Gwen was having a rough time around dinner time again, so I took her outside to play while we waited for dinner. (Amber is such a great little chef and I'm so grateful to have her here!!) 

Here she is pretending to taste the sky. She said it tasted like eggs and potatoes.

Here is a cute video of her in the swing, pretending to eat the sky. And then she ends by doing a funny blinking thing, ha ha. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wdZjAMnkY2DwPhDx9

Then Abby came out and joined us. They pretended they were dead from too much swinging.

Saturday: I woke up with a lot of sneezes, as did several of us, from the change in weather. It's been breezy, mixed with some residual smoke from area wildfires. I think I must have sneezed too hard at some point, because this happened: 

A broken blood vessel maybe??

I talked with Kylie again, too. She told me that there was a tornado outside their house!! She even got a little video of it she said. Some of the animals from her little family zoo kept escaping during all the thunder and lightning, so she kept having to chase them down outside. As soon as she'd round up a bunny, she'd notice that another one had escaped! And then one of the cats escaped too! She had to fight through the strong wind to get to each one and bring them back to safety.

And then about 20 minutes into our phone call, her power went out! At least some of the power, anyway, as we discovered a few minutes later. She didn't have any lights, but the wall outlets were still working because her phone was still charging just fine.

She didn't have any flashlights, except for the one on her phone, and no lanterns either. She did have 3 candles, so she lit those up for some somewhat helpful lighting. I ordered her some flashlights and LED lanterns to go with the slug bait, so she'll have a few things to help her out soon. :)

I suggested she go take a look at the breaker box. This is what hers looks like. I had Scott and Weston look at it with me, and other than the middle section being off, it didn't look like anything was tripped. She couldn't get the middle switch to budge, so we abandoned that idea, surmising that perhaps it isn't meant to be flipped to "on".

She ended up texting her landlord, using Google Translate, and they are going to send out an electrician to fix whatever the issue is. I hope she's doing alright tonight!

Benson is doing some heavy training in England. He texted me saying that he gets up at 2:30 a.m. to leave the hotel at 3:30 a.m. to start training each day at 4:30 a.m. I'm sure he'll have more stories to share once he gets all done in a few weeks.

This is the picture he sent once they were all loaded up on their plane from Italy to Lakenheath, England.

He's been able to do a tiny bit of sight seeing, mostly when they first arrived in England. They are staying in the Cambridge area.

This is a recent photo of him at the shop on base (I think). Kylie must have brought the puppies to share with all the guys.

What a great view and what a great life!

Scott also helped me hang up a few pieces of art in the living room last night (Saturday). I've been hunting for a while now for a complimentary piece to go with Amber's painting and the "Hear Him" sign that my niece, Hunter Jackson, made for me earlier this summer. I finally found just the right accent to tie it all together.

I also found a frame and a matte for this big and beautiful painting of Jesus that Amber made last year for Benson. She originally painted him a much smaller version, and then as an afterthought, she had him take a quality digital photo of it in Italy so she could use it to create prints. Amber's friend Julie wanted a large 20x20 inch version of it, and when it arrived a few weeks ago, I was BLOWN AWAY. I had never seen the original painting that was sent to Benson in Italy because Amber was in Texas when she created it. 

I knew instantly that I NEEDED to have my own huge print of the same painting. So I had Amber order me one. (I paid her for it!) And here it is in a beautiful new frame as of yesterday. It just needs to be hung up on this wall sometime this week. (There's a hint of a glare on the glass and you can kind of see the word "Gather" backwards - from the dining room wall opposite from this display area)

 Earlier today, we drove up to Rigby to have dinner with Scott's parents, Phil and Coy. She made a delicious array, as usual, with just about every color of the rainbow! We enjoyed visiting and playing with the girls after dinner. They had fun playing with Grandma's stuffed animal collection, and Gwen enjoyed trying her hand at playing the organ downstairs.

We also sang several songs together with me playing the piano and trying to keep up with their beautiful voices! (I'm a little rusty, ha ha)

Abby is on the couch, singing and playing with the stuffed animals. Gwen is on the rug playing with some toys. Amber is next to her. Grandpa Phil is also on the couch, and Grandma Coy is on the chair. Scott is taking the picture per my request.

After we got home tonight, and after Gwen was tucked into bed, I got out something special for Abby to enjoy during her "quiet time" while she waits for Gwen to fall asleep. 

I have a precious collection of dolls that my Grandma Zoe made, ones that my cousin Daphne gave to my sister, Charmaine a few years ago. Charmaine entrusted them to me, knowing that I am somewhat the family historian and super nostalgic about anything that used to belong to a now deceased family member. 

I got the dolls out of the treasure box, one at a time, with Abby and she was so impressed with each one. She lovingly held them, and gave them names. Then she played for almost an entire hour, making up stories and acting out scenarios with all of them. I know my Grandma would be happy to know that they are so cherished and that they are bringing joy to yet another generation of her posterity.

I sure miss my Grandma Zoe. She was a special lady. She is the one person that I am certain is a ministering angel to me from heaven. She has come to me numerous times, even choosing to "sit" nearby for an hour or more while I work on a craft. She brings peace and a loving reassurance to me in times of need and I am so grateful for her and for her loving influence that continues beyond the grave.