Upps…. The left out New Year’s Post

I am trying to ignore the fact that I am getting wackier by the day. I have absolutely no excuse since I haven’t been on pain pills since last Oct. Before that when I would mess up …blow it .. make an error, I would excuse myself saying that it was the  “Medication’s Fault” or the  “Pain’s fault”  that I couldn’t think straight. Well, I’ve goofed again and I have nothing to blame it on this time….. except as already stated…. I am getting wackier by the day!!!

I just realized that I never did my …

…. Happy New Year Post…

I made a digital photo book and put New Year’s Pictures in it. I guess because I had done that I thought I had done a blog post too.

Well….. it is  too late now  still January so here goes.

Here is a recap of my smiles for the New Year 2012

For many years it has been our tradition to have Christmas eve and Day with Mindy’s family here in CA and then leave the next day for Utah where we would have a 2nd Christmas with our Utah family and bring in the new year with them.

We  have a wonderful time. Lynell always hosts a fun party where we all get together and bring in the new year with good food, fun, games, singing, enjoying each other’s company and counting our blessings.

This year I just wasn’t up to making the long trip after Christmas. We traveled up to see them in October. They all came down to our house for Thanksgiving.

The thought of taking a 11 to 12 hour drive with my sore ribs…. when there might be ice and snow on the roads  was just too scary to me.

 

 

 

 

The last time we tried driving on the icy Utah  freeway it didn’t turn out so well for us.!

So, as much as I hated missing our New Year’s tradition with Utah family … I just wasn’t up to making the trip this year.

I hope next year I won’t be such a scaredy cat! Maybe when my ribs are more healed and less painful I will be braver. I hope so.

So…. what did we do this year???? What brought us New Year smiles???  I’m glad you asked…I was just getting to that……

New year’s eve we went out to dinner with a group of our friends.  LouAnn and Darrell do this every year.  Since we are usually in Utah for New Year’s eve, this was the first time we’ve joined them. It was fun to spend the last evening in 2011 with these sweet friends. (Can you find us in this picture?)

LouAnn invited us to go back to their home after dinner to bring in the new year with them….. but we couldn’t….. we had other plans. We were off to New York City…

We were excited to meet our friend Buttercup in Time’s Square!!!!  

Well… maybe not…. but I can dream can’t I????

Actually, sitting in the restaurant for a long time got my ribs upset and they started yelling at me. So, we took them home where they could rest in my soft recliner while I worked on my digital photo book I was making and brought in the new year with Dick Clark on T.V.

It wasn’t as exciting as being at Lynell’s family party…. or going to LouAnn’s party… but John and I were thankful to be together… to be alive…. to make it to 2012. We were both smiling as the clock struck 12:00 and we brought in the New Year together.

New Year’s Day brought us lots of smiles too…. I will share those with you on my next post. …. I know…. I know….. I should have posted about these smiles the first of January…. not the end of the month…. but then don’t they say better late than never????

Have a good week. I hope it will be full of smiles.

Hugs, Lura

Sunday Smiles in January

 

How can it already be the 4th week in January??? Wasn’t it Thanksgiving and Christmas just a few days ago?   No??? Well, it seems like it was to me. One day seems to blend into another so quickly…. Is it just me or does it seem that way to you too?

We had a lovely visit from Patrick and Erin last week.  I wasn’t feeling well much of the time but their visit still brought many smiles. Who could not smile with their darling little ones around??? As you look at the pictures I am sure you will see what I mean. There are a lot more than 6 pictures but that’s OK…. there were a lot more than 6 smiles. I will share part of their visit with you this week and the rest of it next week.

Even though I wasn’t feeling well, Calan took my hand and got me to go with him up to Grampy’s shed.   He made me smile.

His favorite place is Grampy’s shed and Cal loves the tractors. . Before long he will be driving Grampy’s tractors around our back lot and helping in the orchard.

He also worked hard building towers….. and…

…sweeping up the leaves so we could have a nice lunch on the patio. (Don’t ask me why his shoes are on the table because I have no idea?????)

We had nice sunny days the whole week they were here… but even though the air temperature was in the 80s, Ellie checked the water temperature in the pool and said it was too cold. I agreed with her. I hope that they will come back for a summer visit and we can swim to our hearts content.

Swimming was out but Ellie loved playing ball ..upps… orange…..with Grampy……

 

Who needs a ball when you can roll one of Grampy’s oranges???  Don’t Grampy and Ellie have the happiest smiles ever! They surely make me smile.

Speaking of Grampy’s fruit, Austin and Calan were good pickers. They brought in some citrus and bags and bags of avocados. We ate some and sent a lot back home with them for our Utah family to enjoy. Grampy’s fruit makes us all smile.

We ate out a few times and had delicious meals together….

…but Austin and Cal’s favorite meal was chicken noodle soup….

…and…

…Ellie’s was Honey Nut Cheerios…

Ellie also loves having her picture taken.

She saw me coming over with my camera and she gave me this poised smile. Ahh…. she knows how to win her Grammy’s heart!!!

Speaking of Grammy’s heart…. my heart is full of thankfulness for Brooke and Jenny, Ellie’s and Cal’s birth moms. Through them, Erin and Patrick are a family. Through them we have these precious children to fill our arms and our hearts.

Adoption is a wonderful blessing.

I have seen adoption from 2 views. As an adopted child myself, I have experienced the blessings of adoption from the child’s point of view.

As the grandmother of these 2 darling little ones, I have seen the joy adoption has brought into the lives of my daughter and her husband… and to all of our family.  We had all been praying that Erin and Patrick could have their prayers to have children fulfilled. Adoption answered those prayers and we are all so thankful.

If any of you reading this are considering adoption as an option for your situation…. I implore you to prayerfully consider it.

Adoption is not easy. It is a lot of effort and expense for the adopting parents…. and a heart wrenching sacrifice for the birth mother…. but adoption is  a wonderful option.  From my birth… through my childhood…. and now as a Grammy…. my life has been blessed through adoption.  That makes me smile.

My computer was not working right last week and I couldn’t get on the Intenet. I am glad that it is fixed now and I can come back to visit you again.

Have a great week.  I hope it is full of smiles.

Hugs, Grammy

 

I’m Back on line again

You may not have noticed but I have been away from blog world this week. My computer decided to rebel and refused to let me get on the internet. However, with the Geeks at Best Buy helping me, my computer had a change of heart and decided to let me blog again.

It is too late Thursday tonight  to early Friday morning visit any of you…. We got home late from working in the temple today.  I have a lot of travel agent business I need to do must do ASAP on the computer …. and scholarship committee work that I have to organize for WIC…. but as soon as I can get that work done…hopefully tomorrow… the first thing I want to do is visit with each of you. I have missed being able to do that.  Have a good weekend.   Many hugs, Grammy Lura

 

Looking back with smiles part 2

Last week I recapped the highlights of the 1st 6 months of 2011. In some ways 2011 was tragic and difficult year… but… in many ways, it was also a year full of blessings and smiles.

For my Sunday smiles today I want to highlight the smiles I had during the last 6 months of 2011.

My biggest smiles in July came when I found I did not have cancer.  At the time of our accident a CT scan showed I had enlarged ovaries. The doctors feared I had cancer and felt I should have surgery as soon as my broken ribs were healed enough . The date was set for July 18th.

My 2 and 1/2 hour surgery went well.  Family and friends once again rallied around to help me.

We were all smiling.

John and I also celebrated our 46th anniversary in July. How thankful we were that we both had survived the accident and we were together. Smile Smile

August was filled with birthday smiles. My friends Louann and Craig and I all have birthdays in the first week of August. Dear Friends and family came over and we had a nice time celebrating together.  Life is precious.

 

The day after my birthday, John drove me to San Diego to meet my blog friend, Buttercup. That was a special day full of smiles.

In September we took a wonderful cruise though the Panama Canal with a group of friends. After getting so badly injured in the accident and having major surgery in July, I was afraid we would have to cancel this cruise which had been planned the year before. …. but…. I made it just fine and had a wonderful time. I will give you a travel log and share those smiles with you one day.

I got to return to working in the Redland’s LDS Temple in October. My husband and I had been temple workers there for 3 years before the accident.  I was released on medical leave after the accident.  I missed serving in the house of the Lord and was very thankful when I was healed enough to return. (If you would like to see other temples or learn more about them click on the picture of this temple.)

We also made a lovely trip to Utah in October…. We finished the trip we started in March that got so rudely interrupted by our accident.

We had a wonderful visit with family and I got to meet another dear blog friend… Leann. Our trip was full of smiles.

Thanksgiving was the highlight of November…. which you already know since I posted about every detail. We were truly thankful for all of our blessings during that month of Thanksgiving… and we still are.

Getting to speak at Stake Conference and at our Women’s Improvement Club luncheon was also a highlight for me. I was thankful to be able to share the story of our Accident Miracle and my testimony of the power of prayer with others. I was also smiling that I got to meet sweet another blog friend, Kris.

November was full of smiles.

 

As always, December was full of smiles. We had wonderful dinners and parties with family and friends.

We loved spending Christmas Eve and …

…Christmas day with Mindy and Ernie and the kiddos.

Church was special on Christmas day. Ernie lead the choir, Mindy played her flute and Claire sang a solo. We were busting out with smiles and love for these dear ones.

(This picture was taken at rehearsal…not during church.)

I was not up to traveling up to Utah the day after Christmas like we usually do. I missed spending time with Utah dear ones but the thought of driving on icy roads makes me nervous after the terrible accident we had last March. I hope I will get over the fear I have of driving on ice and snow with a little more time.

 

We said goodbye to 2011 with hearts full of thankfulness for the blessing and Miracles we experienced during the year.

We went out to dinner with our friends rejoicing that we are alive and healing from our accident.

I am not sorry to see 2011 end…. but I do not regret the experiences we had. The accident was devastating.  We still have pain and there are many things we can no longer do. I miss being like I was before the accident…. but… we have been blessed a thousand times over with loving family and friends who have rallied around us and supported us.

You are among the list of friends I am thankful for. Thank you for the prayers you said for us and for the love you gave me. I treasure the sweet memories of your kindness in my heart.

I’ve not been well since Christmas but I am feeling better today. I will get back to visiting you soon. Meanwhile, I am sending you my love and best wishes for 2012.    Hugs, Lura