Random smiles and updates

I thought I would post some smiles I’ve had recently.

Twenty six years ago today ,Jordan, made me a grandmother. I thought being a mother was great but being a grandmother is even better.  Happy Birthday dear Jordan. We love you lots.  Thank you for being such a hard worker and so loving and sweet to me. That makes me smile.

 

Our 12 year old Claire attended opera camp and got to be in another LA Opera production.

I was not allowed to take any pictures of Claire on stage but you will just have to take this proud Grammy’s word for it that Claire was radiant.

Claire not only sings like an angel……  she glows when she is on stage and stands out in the group even when she is not in the spot light.  This is not just my imagination…. she really does.

She recently sang at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Children’s choir and the camera man kept focusing on Claire. Her beautiful face filled the big screens around the bowl. One of the other girl’s mom made a comment to Mindy about how much “screen time” Claire got. She said “the camera sure seemed to love Claire”….. of course we agreed.  Hearing Claire sing makes my heart smile.

Claire’s 14 year old brother, EJ, brings us musical smiles too. He is officially a member of his dad’s high school band now. He has been playing with the band unofficially off and on for years but now he is a legitimate member and he is an outstanding trumpet player. He got to play the Star Spangled Banner solo at the first football game.  He also just auditioned and made it into the top orchestra of the Claremont Young Musicians. EJ brings us smiles.

Flood update: (This does not make me smile!)  Our house and patios are still a total disaster after our flood. The drywall has been cut out and a big dehumidifier continues to run in the room to dry it out.  I still do not have any hot water in the kitchen. The hot water heater broke and flooded the room on Sept. 1st. I think it is high time something gets done to fix the room and clean up this mess. I guess one good thing is it is forcing us to sort through our emergency food supply and get rid of the out dated cans…. but what a mess.

Health update: I’m not feeling too good but I saw a vascular surgeon Friday who told me that it is most likely the blood thinner I am taking that is making me feel so tired and worn out.  My blood clots have gotten a little smaller and  are only blocking 2 veins now instead of 3.  He wants me to stay on the Warfarin until December when I will have another ultrasound. At that time  he will  take another look at the clots and determine if I can stop taking the stuff that is making me feel so exhausted.  Maybe there is a light at the end of this year long tunnel. I hope so.

I had skin testing done on Friday too. I am allergic to some trees, grasses and weeds.  As you can see from this picture, our home is surrounded by these things… so… I guess I’m out of luck….. unless we move to the desert…. but I hate the desert….. however it would be one way to get away from our flood mess…. hummmm…… maybe I will have to give that some thought.

Meanwhile I am sending you all hugs and hoping that you have lots to smile about.

Have a great week. Hugs, Grammy Lura

My cup runneth over ...Uppps.. I mean my water heater runneth over

Oh NO!… Not another flood!  Yep…  but it’s not as bad as our last flood which covered every room in our house. This was really  just a big leak, but a messy one.

We went away a couple of days to visit a friend who lives about 80 miles away. While there we got a call from our neighbor that water was running out of our house. Our water heater had busted and hot water was pouring into our house.

Luckily only our back bedroom had flooded when our neighbor noticed the water running. It is a blessing that he saw it. His house is up the hill from ours and he rarely gets to our side of his house.  If  he had not noticed and turned off the water the whole house would have flooded again. Thank Goodness for good neighbors!

We got home to to a soppy wet carpet and walls….

….and started clearing out the room.

What a hard job! It is finally all cleared out and repairs can start.  Walls have to be cut and dried out…. carpet replaced and room repainted. 

Where did all the stuff out of that room  go????

All over the house!  What a mess!

Our kitchen went from looking like this …. to….

…. this…. I had to spread out all the wet, old precious papers to dry.

Our laundry room..

….before….. and…… after

Our front guest room became a dumping spot….

But our big game/buffet room wins the prize for being the biggest mess….

It now looks like this….

What a disaster!

Before……………………. After

I doubt if I will be getting much done at my desk/computer center. I can hardly find it any more.

I HATE MESSES!  Chaos drives me crazy!  Oh my goodness…. how will I ever get this all cleaned up and put back?

Even though I know this is not a matter of  life and death, I feel overwhelmed. Thank goodness it was not the whole house like last time…. but it feels like more than I am up to… especially since I’m not suppose to lift anything over 5 lbs. with these blood clots.

I am grateful that it happened after my 70th birthday party and not before.  We enjoyed using the big room for my birthday buffet dinner. The flood came just a few days after we took these pictures at my party.

So… after paying thousands for the  insurance deductible…. tearing out walls and carpet, rebuilding, repainting and putting everything back…. the room will be back to the way it was… no better and no worse. (Except John and I will be the worse for wear!)  Hopefully it will all be back together by the time our kids come for Thanksgiving.  I feel too old for this.

Can I come and live at your house for a month or so???

Hugs, Grammy Lura

70th Birthday Smiles…. part 3… the almost surprise

Thanks to those of you who have left me supportive comments on my last 3 posts.   Thank you also for the prayers you have offered in behalf of my friends and family who are sick or have cause to mourn. I am a strong believer in the power of prayer. I hope to visit each of you on your blogs soon, if I haven’t already,  and thank you. With dear ones suffering around me, it is sometimes hard to be cheerful… but …. my blogging and Facebook friends are a real support and I thank you.

Thinking of all the sweet things that were done for my 70th birthday also fills me with joy.

Today’s post is a happy one….. brimming over with smiles.

It is about my Happy 70th birthday smiles…. part 3

As I told you in my last post, after having my early birthday part 1 with the family in Utah

and part 2 by going out to eat and celebrate with friends and family here at home,

I thought I was all done with birthday celebrations…. but NO NO NO….

Birthday Part 3…. the best was yet to come!

  Mindy, John and Louann were planning a surprise birthday bash for me.

Mindy and Claire spent days making darling invitations and mailing them out. (I crossed out the personal information because of privacy issues.) They wanted the party to be a surprise held at Louann’s house …. but …

…It turned out that Louann’s husband went into ICU with pneumonia and congestive heart failure. Louann was spending 8-10 hours a day at the hospital. Mindy and John didn’t want Louann to have to worry about having a party. Mindy lives 20 miles away… so… it was decided that our house was the best place for the party.

Mindy told me….. “ Dad, Louann and I are giving you a surprise party….. and SURPRISE…. IT IS AT YOUR HOUSE!”   Mindy told me early because she knew I would want to get my house and patios “party ready”. She was right about that. I was glad I had advanced warning!

The day of the party Mindy filled the house with beautiful flowers, cheerful balloons and Happy Birthday Banners.

John had our favorite little Mexican restaurant cater the food… and it was delicious.

We had people eating all over the place…

Inside….. and out

Look closely at this next picture and you will see that John even fixed ….

… the fountain in the middle of the spa.  It has not spouted up like this for years.  John fixed it just for the party.  I was totally surprised and delighted.  It looked pretty and falling water sounded nice.   I thought it added a lot to the atmosphere.

Mindy and Claire had planned a little program for me.

Mindy collected pictures of me through the years, from each of our kids, and made them into this wonderful collage card. What a treasure. Knowing how busy Mindy is…. and knowing how hard it is to make a collage come out right… I was amazed at her efforts.

Then Claire brought me to tears by reading this poem that she and Mindy had written.

“Now that you’ve turned 70, you may think you’re old and frail. It may be an excursion just to go and get the mail. But in our eyes you’re young at heart ‘cuz of all the things you do to fill our lives with happiness and great memories of you!

As you look upon these photos, it is clearly obvious, that you have blessed our lives by spending so much time with us. We don’t know what we’d do without the Grammy that we love. We thank our Father daily for this blessing from above.

You’ve been at every baptism and performances galore. You’ve had us all for sleepovers and cleaned throw-up off the floor. You’ve been to competitions and watched us do our flips. You let us stay at your house when our parents go on trips.

You’ve turned us into super heroes by making magic capes. We’ve been princesses at tea parties with sandwiches and cakes. Then of course, there’s dresses that you made with loving style. You carefully placed bows and beads, which took you quite a while.

Thanks giving is our favorite as we spend special time together. It warms our heart to understand that families are forever! We can’t forget your camera, and how annoying it can be…But we know we’ll pictures to place upon our family tree.

So happy birthday Grammy, we love having you around. We want you to know that in our hearts is love for you abound. We hope that you enjoy looking at our little presentation. And know that when we think of you we feel love and admiration!”

Both John and I were so proud of  Claire and Mindy…

… and considered their presentation the high- light of the evening.

After the poem presentation we played a “How well do you know Lura?” game.

It was no surprise that Sil, my dear friend of 58 years won the game.

Even though we were stuffed with Mexican food, we all found room for birthday cake.

Our friends sang happy birthday, I blew out the candles and we ate the yummy cake.

I got some nice gifts … which I appreciate…

…even though it was suppose to be a “no gift” party.

The very best gift was being with sweet friends ….

….and feeling loved.

Mindy made these darling “ Thank you for coming”  Oreo- pops for each guest to take when they left. Wasn’t that a cute idea!  They tasted as good as they looked.

Thank you Mindy, Claire and John for all you did to make my “almost a surprise” 70th birthday party so special.  I will treasure these memories forever.

(Louann and Darrell from 2 years ago)

Sweet Louann missed the party because she had to stay with her husband at the hospital that night… but… she sent food and…

…she called and arranged for other friends to help. Thanks Mary, Debby and Alicia for the great job you did on clean up duty. Thank you Terry for helping me get ready for the party and for the extra food you brought. It was delicious.

My Heart absolutely bursting with HAPPY when I think of my 70th birthday.

Thank you dear family and friends. I am blessed and so grateful.

Hugs, Grammy