Father's Day 2016

These Hands

These Hands serve me well. I remember my Gma Elggren ' hands and it makes me happy, and sad. She never complained about them. She never once winced at the request of a piece of toast or a glass of juice. She made the greatest Sunday roast gravy and entertained us with dinner and loves. Her hands greeted me at the back door every single time with at least one cupping my cheek. They drew me in for a hug when it was time to go home. I remember being 5 and she came to visit in Reno. It was Winter and she chastised me sweetly for being bare footed in the house as her gnarled, bent fingers carefully applied socks to my kindergarten piggies. I think of all the times she held my hands in hers while looking me square in the eyes and calling me, "Sugar". A term I now call those I adore, with most reverent love. I think of those hands I loved and wonder how she ever did all she did. They bent over toward her thumbs, a little more at each joint. My Gpa once gave in and took her to Mexico to have them injected with gold. A treatment she was desperate to try because she heard it worked miracles. I cried in the back seat on the way home from our visit because I overheard my Gpa tell my folks, "she screamed" it was so painful. She had one or two joints replaced and they were so fragile, the dr broke the tips of her small fingers.
My mother is no different. She inherited my Gma's hands. They are delicate and beautiful. They are gnarled and have loved much. I once caught my Mom as the back screen door closed exactly over the knuckle lowest on her right thumb. She just stood still as the tears flowed and she held her hand, cupped in her left. I felt so terribly not able to help her feel better. It was the last I heard about how much they hurt.  I once balked at my Mom doing my dishes when she came to visit. Embarrassed they were there to do. She looked at me and pleaded," Oh, please let me do them! The warm water feels so good on my hands!"  She daily looks for ways to use her still aching hands to serve those she loves! An endearing example of service and love. I think of another set of hands that set a powerful example of the Ultimate Love. I don't know if they were gnarled and bent from arthritis, but I have read about times they healed and blessed and served. I am moved with gratitude to know who He was, is.
I saw the hand specialist at work yesterday thinking he'd look at my sore hands and say, "yep, arthritis". No idea he'd pronounce a curse of joint replacement. Injections first to by more time. Painful injections that stung and put horrible pressure into my already throbbing joints. But, there is good medicine and talented hands to bless my hands. So, I will suck it up, for I have babies to snuggle and children to hold and life to clap at and a sweetheart who loves to hold my hands. I will cry when the time comes for more surgery, but I am grateful. And, I am a blessed girl with a heritage of strong women, with gnarled hands. I can do this.

Sunday, Go To Meeting

I love going to church! Sunday mornings, our ritual is to leave early and go to Einstein ' and get a bagel and vanilla hazelnut coffee. Then, off to hear pastor and friend Shawn McCraney reach verse by verse, historically correct, Greek checked Bible truth. After coming from where we've spent our lives in religious spoon fed cult, I love hearing truth as it is meant to be taught, not as someone wants me to hear it so that it backs up artificial scripture. It's a fa r cry from the dressed up, ivory tower we were used to attend, but it is authentic and most of the people are much more transparent. So refreshing! Shawn encourages people to look for themselves. Nothing is off limits. Read and research, compare and contrast. I love how it works and have never felt closer to God. I feel blessed we found C-A-M-P-U-S Church.

New Year's Eve

Our tradition is to get together with our kids and grandkids and make pot stickers from scratch. This year, however, we took the easy way and bought them at Costco. We ate SO much food and then played Yard Yahtzee. It's a giant version made of wooden blocks painted to look like the real one. It was fun and it allowed the Littles to participate by rolling the dice. We kissed at the stroke of midnight, Rick and I♡♡♡! Bring in the adventures of 2016!

Here We Go!

So excited to start a new adventure! I am so happy to have such a wonderful, supportive family and want to create a blog I can add to easily and make into a book at the end of the year to have. I think I have figured out a way to do that and so I am jumping right in. Some entries will be paragraphs, other only a sentence or two, and some will just be a funny picture or word and picture! Sometimes it will be a brief description of something that happened that day, or even just a memory of something. Anyway, that's my goal! 
My family is growing and changing so much! This is all of us on New Year's day 2016! We got up and went to breakfast at one of our favorites, Eggs In The City. Down in the neighborhood of 1300 South and about 1700 East. Ammon and Lana go almost every week so they are on a first name basis with the owner and staff. We had the littles stay over so we took them with us and we all met Simon and Sara and Kaden there.
 We happened to run into a lifelong friend of Ricks named Kurrin Bickmore. He had his daughter Kenzie with him. So fun to see him. He lives in Arizona and only comes up once in awhile. When he comes next, we will have them over.
The holidays have gone far too fast for me! I'd like a few more paid days off before we head back into the mix again!