Movin' On

I knew the time would come to sell our house. It always does. And as always, my feelings are ambivalent. I swing from " how exciting, a new adventure to "Ugh, I can't stand the thought of packing and storing! But to use one of my daught er-in-laws most detested phrases, It is what it is. So today I choose to be optomistic that it will sell and when it does, I will think of it as a blessing. After all, it's just a house. I can take any four walls and make it home as long as I have my family around me. But I probably should take a few more pictures so I can "remember when"!

Families Are Forever

This past Thursday, June 30th, became a red letter day in my heart. I finally made it to the temple to do my mother's work. I had planned to be there in May and that didn't work out. Then we decided to go on her birthday and that didn't work out. Because Salt Lake had no record of her death, I couldn't print her cards. After finally tracking down the problem and getting it resolved, I printed the needed records and we were on our way. To say that it was a spiritual experience is an understatement. Suffice it to say, I was where I needed to be and so were my parents. I felt of their love for me and for each other. I felt my mother's excitement as the thought came to me that now she could go to places she had not been able to go before. I am at peace. Tom and I were able to do the endowments for her, her uncle and have her sealed to her parents, her parents to each other, my dad and her sealed to each other and then me to them. It was overwhelming. Some years ago I had the temple work done for her brother who died in the Korean War. As I came away from the alter my thoughts turned to her sisters and brothers. I felt like I need to get the records in order and get them all linked together and soon. Only one of the seven children is still living so I have lots to do. I am so grateful for this opportunity that is mine, to do this work for my family. What a great blessing in my life. The picture here is of my mom and her family when my mom was a little girl.She is the second one on the left in the middle row, with the little curl on her forhead, in a striped sort of dress. They were homesteaders in Montana and all but the youngest of the children were born in the one room log cabin that my grandfather built. It is still standing in the fields of Montana to this day. I walked through is back in the 80's. The second picture is of all of her brothers and sisters and their father at a reunion in 1981. Grandma had already passed away and of course Uncle Arnold. I was named after him as he died right before I was born. His middle name was Lee. I became a Lea but then the nurse that filled out the birth certificate thought it was misspelled and put an h on the end, making it Leah and that's the story I was told of how I came to be known as Patricia Leah. Just a side note there!! Well, this post is getting a little lengthy isn't it? But I couldn't let this special time go by without sharing it in my little blog world. I am happy!

Les Miserables!

Thanks to Sabra for the picture. We had a fabulous time on our girl's weekend. Lots of shopping, eating, and just enjoying being together. Thanks to all of my daughters for a fun time!

Reflection

These days seem to leave me wordless. It has been one year yesterday that my mother passed away. In some corner of myself I have been profoundly changed. I seem to have lost something of me and I don't even know what it is or where to look for it. I had planned to be in the temple on this day but life just didn't work out the way I had planned. Still, I look forward to the day and know it will come shortly. I wonder, is she looking toward the day? I wonder what it is like for her now, is she busy with all of the things she didn't get done here? I wonder alot about death and how it changes you. I don't visit here much anymore. I can't seem to make myself. It isn't that I haven't had a year of wonderful happenings that I could blog. I just don't seem to have any words in me. I am rambling and have no idea why I am here at this keyboard other that it has been a year. I wonder if I will ever stop missing, longing, aching, and feel content again. Perhaps, some day. If this sounds a bit like a pity party, I didn't mean it that way. I just wanted to mark the passing of the year. I am grateful for my mother and her life. I am grateful for the lessons she taught me. I am grateful for the plan of salvation, even though I still wonder. I am grateful for the love my mom had for me, the things she taught me, the capacity she had to endure to the end. For I guess when all is said and done, that is the last great thing we do, endure to the end.

Lost Blogger

Today is a good day. I have been having more and more of them lately. When I sat down at the computer a little while ago to do some browsing I really had no intention of posting anything. As some of you may have noticed I haven't been here for some time. But when I noticed on Sabra's blog a post that said Kelly's Visit under Lemmony Lunacy I was intrigued. Really, Kelly came to visit, who's Kelly? I missed it and it was my blog?! Then I clicked and the page could not be found. I began to wonder if you don't visit or post, does a blog go away into some unknown computer world, never to be read again? So I clicked on The Lemmon Family under my favorites bar and here I am. Because my mind is in a much better place these days, I decided to leave a note to say I was here! I feel like I have jumped a hurdle now and I may even come back and post again another day. I do want to leave here today, knowing that I honored the rest of the cupcake kids. While my heart and mind were checked out last year we had a couple of birthdays. The girls did get their cupcakes from Grama but I just couldn't seem to pull myself together to write it all down. So here are the pictures of the last two of the year. Malaya was in September and Jade was in November. Malaya is my little artist, always drawing for me. She is so quiet that sometimes I lose her in the hubbub of our gatherings. She is undemanding and sweet, kind and funny and silly and a delight to have around. I love you Malaya! Jade wanted a turkey or some Thanksgiving theme for her cake. She wanted me to bring it to school and I did. She loved it. She is such a fun girl, always ready to be by my side. She loves to draw and is always ready for a project with Grama. She is loving and loved so very much!Jade is always up for a gathering of cousins at Grama's and we haved had so much fun together! So Happy Birthday to my little girls, for last year. At least I got this posted before you turned ten and eleven!!

More Birthdays

June and July bring lots of birthdays and celebrations in our family. So we celebrated 3 of them on the 4th of July. We missed Naomi's on the 23rd of June because we were in San Diego. Great trip!! And Mallory's is the day after mine and America's on the 5th of July. So we all gathered on the 4th in the evening for lots of food and fun. All of the boys and families and Ashley were here. We ate and visited and watch old home movies, had cake and ice cream and then headed out to see the fireworks. They were beautiful and lasted longer than any I had ever seen. Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect day. Mallory is now 9 and Naomi is 6 and I am older than both!

The cakes were a little on the slippery side with the heat and humidity so the frosting wasn't standing up much but the girls loved them. Mallory had requested a red, white and blue so Naomi got one too. Of course Maverick had to tell me again how he didn't get a gumball on the top of his so I found him one and he put it in his pocket. I wonder if he ever chewed it up. I think it was more about possesion at this point. Funny boy!

June 13, 1925 - May 19, 2010

My Mother, My Friend

She was kind,beautiful,bodacious.
Loving,patient,tenacious.
She was true and brave,courageous,
with laughter and cheer so contagious.
If I could see her but once again,
I would call her mother, my very best friend.


Happy Birthday Mom, I love and miss you more than I ever thought possible.
I think of you every day,and wait for the sound of the bell.