Mary, Mary!!

I keep coming across random photos of my mom.  Everyone says that Hannah really takes after her. And she does.  You see it more when she is smiling though, I think.

The one above and the one below have some similarities.

 

And I always think of old photos of my mom when I see Hannah's reincarnation of that era.

 

And I sure did like that dress - seems amazing that it ever fit me!!

What we do around here!!

We enjoyed having Esme and Annika while Bonny and the big girls went to camp. A new craft has emerged - making accessories out of colored duct tape - very cool!!

And of course we visited with Grandma Mary - and Aunt Donna took the little girls to movies and to McDonalds.

We shopped for fabric for American Girl Doll sleeping bags - made our way - the cheap way!! They came out quite nice if I do say so myself!

The white board - always fun - especially for leaving reminders that you were here!!

We had a puzzle going the whole time too - on the last day, Grandpa helped us finally solve it!

We also enjoyed swimming, Grandpa Bob stories, chocolate milk and Milanos, and shopping for skirt material - I made the three girls matching skirts - need a photo now!

Our next event is the Clayton Reunion, then a trip to VA for the blessing.

The fun never ends!

GREAT kids - and Great Grand Kids!!

Here's the shot from Sunday of both the Great Grandmas with a portion of their shared brood.

I knew my great grandma all my growing up years - she didn't die until I was an adult - and it was a blessing in my life.

I think these great kids understand that it's a blessing too!

Daily Gratitude Journal

Here's my sister Mary with her daugther Tami. There are also not any baby or small child pictures of Mary - although I distinctly remember when she was born! Alice and I went to Grandpa Clayton's house - he was married to Helen Pratt then - and there had been a burglar - and we saw the footprints in the mud. I remember wondering if we were a movie or something!!

Mary was always quiet and pleasant to be around. When she went to Ricks College, she often came down to visit me. After Bonny was born, she seemed to come even more often, and loved to tend Bonny. In fact, she was Bonny's first babysitter!! I was nervous about leaving her - she was about 10 days old - and we went to the ballet. Harry wouldn't let me call at the intermission to see how she was doing. He said it would spoil the evening if she was fussing and then I wouldn't enjoy the rest of the performance!

When we got back home, Mary rather disappointingly told us that Bonny had slept the whole time!! Mary had been looking forward to holding her!

Mary is always interested in everyone's lives - and seems to have a great memory for events and other important data. She quietly goes around helping out - often after an event, when I am going through the photos, I notice that there are none of Mary - probably because she is busy in the kitchen - fixing or cleaning up!!

Mary is a wonderful sister to me - and I am grateful for that!

Some late night thoughts

When I was out visiting my mom a couple of weeks ago, she commented that her house - the one where I grew up - is the only house on the block that has never been sold. Something I hadn't thought of. And when I mentioned it to Dad, he pointed out that the house to the south of us had never been sold either.

She also mentioned that she'd never lived alone. When my dad died, Donna was living there too. She said, "I lived with my parents until I got married. Then I lived with your dad. And now I live with Donna." I have never lived alone either - unless you count the 6 months in Grenoble when I had a room to myself in the dormitory at the university there. Not that I'm itching to live alone or anything!! Actually I was talking to a friend who has lived alone for 25 years - and she said she still sometimes feels sad about being alone. She said, "You'd think I'd be used to it."

I also thought about the "If you give a mouse a cookie" syndrome. I had one overly ripe banana - so I ended up mashing up two less than ripe bananas to have enough to make a loaf of banana bread. I'll let you know how it tastes. It does smell good baking.

I am impressed anew at how easy it is to forget what seem like essential details. At least they at one time seemed essential. I have been back in my classroom setting it up for Monday's start of school. I can't remember where I put anything!! (We have to pack up our rooms because they are used by other teachers for summer school.) And I need to remember my passwords, not just for the computer, but for the copy machine. Where is the safe place I wrote them down?? And where did I put the pencils??

Speaking of remembering, I continue to run into former students - whose faces are very familiar and whose personalities are engraved in my memory. But not their names!! The latest incident happened at the Street Fair last week. The young man said, "Hey Mrs. Terrill, do you remember me?" I asked him to refresh my memory with his name, which he did. Then he pointed out his infant son to me. And I said, "Are you old enough to have a child??" (He certainly didn't look old enough - nor did the proud little mother of the baby!) He said he was. I hope he was a student of mine 10 or 12 years ago!!

On this chipper note, I will sign off and go check on the banana bread.