Spring

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Grandchildren are the Best!

We came up to Lancaster last Sunday morning to watch over five of our grandchildren while Dan and Ramona are in Europe. It is now Saturday, and what a week. The children all have a whirlwind of activities to be shuttled back and forth to/from, and then there are three meals a day to prepare, and chores for everyone. Ahhh, the memories of handling a large home with six children in tow! But ALL the children have been so good and helpful that I cannot complain one iota.

Benjamin, who is 22 months old is the biggest challenge. He pretty much runs the show all the time! Ha! He snacks all day and then refuses to eat his three meals, so yesterday I refused to give him snacks all day and he finally ate his meals without difficulty. We took him with us to WalMart today and he decided since we'd bought yogurt it was time to eat it - and had a HUGE tantrum in the store, so Tony had to take him away so I could finish the shopping.

Tony bought smoothies for us and he latched onto Tony's and wouldn't give it back until we got home and gave him a yogurt for lunch. He's so funny. He's just learning to talk, so everything he says is cute right now. The other kids enjoy encouraging him to say their names, and he is fairly cooperative about it.

We bought "Avatar" and showed it to Ewa and Elias last evening and we all enjoyed it very much. I'm not real big on it's overly pro-ecological kick, but it is entertaining and exciting. Miguel latched onto our copy of the film, so we had to find and buy a new one. MIGUEL!!

We only have two more days here, then it's back home to packing and throwing stuff out for the big move. We still have to make the offer on the house up here, but I'm sure it will go smoothly and we can start moving our things in quickly. Since we are paying cash for the house escrow should be a breeze. Yay - because the escrow for our house has not been without glitches.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Better Late Than Never!

Yesterday morning Tony and I went to our monthly inservice meeting for seminary and institute teachers. Brother Neeley who is the director of the Santa Monica Institute (and my superior) gave a wonderful lesson and taught us a new skill for bringing our students forward to teach the class. I really liked the idea because it was far different than any of the ways I've used my students to help present in my classes.

If you didn't know - I teach the New Testament class on Wednesday night at the Santa Monica Institute, and Tony is in his 19th year teaching seminary on Friday evenings for the home study students.

After yesterday morning's class in Santa Monica we headed back east to Rancho Cucamonga and attended funeral services for our dear friend Mary Hendrickson. Her family paid tribute to her fabulous musical talent as well as her eternal contributions to her husband, children and grandchildren. I feel so honored that Mary was my friend and will be happy to see her again when I pass from this life. She made such a mark on my life - I shall never forget her.

Mary was Miguel's first serious piano instructor, and one day after he had been studying with her for about a year she called me and told me not to send him over for lessons any more. I was devastated because I thought he had done something to offend her, but she reassured me that wasn't the reason for her request. She told me she had taught him all she knew and that he was beginning to teach her. We had a good laugh together over that. Miguel also sang "Der Ring" for her second daughter, Kristen's wedding reception, and Mary accompanied him. Miguel's God-given talent will always be credited to Mary's fabulous knowledge of music and her fine piano skills.

Then this morning I taught at the 9th Annual Roots Conference here in Los Angeles. I presented lessons/discussion on using the U.S. Census for researching family history as well as how to use community boards to further family history research.

I felt the Census class was a flop, but the community boards class was fun and informative and there was a lot of participation.

This is the first Roots Conference Tony ever attended, he said he learned some things in my classes, for that I was happy.

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