Breaking and Entering

So I am still in Utah. (I wonder how many posts I will start with that)

Alec picked the boys up at Gifford's tonight and when he got home his first thought was that we had been robbed.

Something's missing.

Oh, wait. . . it's clean.

Apparently the house was a victim of breaking and entering... only these fugitives cleaned.

Thanks my friends.

M.I.A. Momma

I think this is a first. I have been without my kiddos for a week or so before. I have been without my Sweetheart for a week or so before too. But this, I believe, is the first time that I have been without both of them, all of them. It's been three days. I am starting to "feel it."

I try not to think about it much. Spending time with my parents is nice.

But I am not sure how I will feel in nine more days.

What kind of a saint of husband do I have?
What kind of angelic friends do I have?
What kind of understanding children do I have?
What kind of crazy mother and wife am I?

Stay tuned. . .

even more full

My Cup is beginning to run over.
True friends:
1 - bring lasagna to you at 9am so you won't fix dinner through the day
2 - bring you carrot cake for breakfast
3 - when dropping off the carrot cake, they see what a disaster your kitchen is and clean it
4 - Friend "A" tells Friend "B" to back off cleaning the kitchen because that is what she is here to do
5 - cookies in a cute bag with a pink ribbon and a card that says "chocolate cheers me up"
6 - calls, lots of calls
7 - offer to take my kids so I can go back to Utah
8 - change my plane ticket so I don't have to
9 - being added to the Compassionate service list - I don't know how this happens when it's my job to put people there ;-)
10 - allow me to learn to delegate

empty cup

Sometimes our cups are empty.

You know who your true friends are when they not only fill your cup, but fill it with good stuff like:

1 - lots of emails
2 - send a card making fun of Tom Cruise with an offer of never-ending brownies
3 - chocolate from a foreign country
4 - Homemade Chinese Food for your family's dinner
5 - take your kids for five hours so you can have a melt down
6 - invite you to their house, feed you lunch and let you sit under a purple blanket and babble
7 - They hug you in the hall at church but don't ask you how you are
8 - They call, and call, and call even though they are getting a complex that you are avoiding them, the still call again
9 - They don't call you in the middle of the night, even though something needs your attention, to let you sleep and fight that stress cold
10 - take a week off of work to deal with your family's issues

And that is just the ten I can think of here at midnight.
Thank you all
I love you all

Spaghetti Heads

For whatever reason, they boys started putting spaghetti in each others hair and thought it was hilarious. This was the night that Andrea brought us dinner a couple weeks ago.

Priesthood Tradition

This is over due. Funny how life catches up with us.
On the night of the Priesthood Session of General Conference the Dunn's have ice cream sundae's. This year Alec took the boys out for Banana Splits and then read us the notes he took at Priesthood Session

Funky Socks

I found Noble outside in these funny socks!
I am thankful he has the self esteem to wear these and be happy about it.

This is the house that. . .

This is the house that Alec grew up in. At least from 5 - 8 years old. 1871 Hollywood Salt Lake City. While we were in Salt Lake this past week we found ourselves in Alec's old neighborhood. This is the house that he and Brent burned down the tree. This is the house they would sneak out of to ride bikes late at night. I bet they wondered why we were taking pictures of their house.

Piggy Backs

Liam and Noble got piggy backs from Malachi.

COUSINS!

The whole trip to Utah wasn't just dealing with Grandma's stuff - we got to see cousins too! Shauna was kind enough to take the boys one day - they went to the dino museum and played at the house. On Friday we met them for dinner at the Mayan.


(l-r) Liam, Malachi holding Sallie, Noble, Coco, Hewy, Sophia and Aerie on top.

With a Mayan Warrior (l-r) Coco, Noble, Liam, Warrior, Aerie, Sophia and Malachi.

Cousin Fun while we waited for a table.

Remember Most

Things that I will remember most at Grandma's. Her house, pink, overgrown with everything that grows, American flags, small yard that was somehow always big enough. The front door was always open, in more ways than just one. I love my Grandma's front door. I love the antique-ness of it and that I always knew what to expect on the other side. And last but not least - the table in the front room with hew chair beside it. Grandma watched TV from her, read the paper, answered the phone, ate her meals - all in that chair, for most of my life.

Grandma's House

Pictures from Grandma's house.


Starting top left, like when you read a book.
"The board" in the front porch that has been broken my entire life that we could never step on - think about that, one board, hundred of people, over 30 years... how is it not broken off? We were all told not to step on it, that's why. The front porch swing, this one is a glider that has been there for about half my life - the original was a swing that hung from the ceiling, until it snapped and collapsed with Grandma on it. She injured her leg and ended up in the hospital and her leg was never the same. The black mail box that I have opened over a hundred times in my life. The Geese planters on the porch normally they would planted and blooming by now. The plastic Squirrel that has been there as long as I can remember. The light post out front that all the kids used to hold on to and swing around - until it got to wobbly and we were told "not to" just like the board in the porch - and look the lamp still stands. The brick park strip that I remember being there when the bricks were put in, but I took this picture because there is a tulip growing between the bricks. I don't know how that happens, but at Grandma's all sorts of things grew in cracks. The over grown front porch - she really had a Grandma porch that was covered with ivy and flowers. In the backyard there was a mound of ivy - that we remembered was a wheelbarrow at one time. The last picture is just tulips - Grandma loved flowers.


The basement

I have conflicting stories of my own about the basement. One story is that we weren't supposed to play down there, and that made it more exciting. The other is that I was/am scared to death of the basement because my cousins told me it was haunted and that dead people were buried down there.
The first picture (top left) are the cupboards at the end of the main room. That is where all the canning was kept. Next is the work bench - the picture doesn't do it justice at all, it's an antique. Then the tin train that we all played with. Then the radio my sister and I found, the fuses inside it were the size of a modern light bulb. The old type writer. Folgers cans that are older than me. Old Crow whiskey that sitting next to the washer - every one said it must have been Grandpa's but he's been gone longer than I have been alive. We found all kinds of old boxes and cans downstairs. And the last picture is of the stairs that went to the basement, small, steep and scary.



Around the House

I walked around and just shot random pictures.
Starting with her dresser - the same dresser that she had my whole life. Next is the latch on her closet door - I always loved this dainty curious latches - why couldn't we have cool things like that? The UGLY sheets that she always had on her bed, I also found on my last day going through a door - the pink gingham sheets that she had for a LONG time. Next are the controls on her well used gas stove. All the numbers and words worn off - she just knew what was what. In the middle is the "I'm too sexy" hat that she wore to garden. Next is the hall phone and the bill organizer that has just always been in the hall. Sailboat pictures that hung around the house in various spots - but we always there. The chair in the kitchen - - I think this was originally our kitchen chairs. The old door knobs - every door knob in the house looked like this.




On the walls

The cuckoo clock that my Dad brought to her from Germany. The weather barometer. Wind chimes - lots of wind chimes. I think I counted 21 inside and outside wind chimes. The door bell. The Nebraska plate - always proud to be from Nebraska. Another plate that hung in the kitchen as long as I can remember. The kitchen clocks. The red velvet picture in the back bedroom. And the strange Egyptian face. These are all things that hung on the walls as long as I can remember.

Boy Treasures

We spent just about everyday at Grandma's house this past week. On our last day we let each boy pick something to take home. They could pretty much have whatever they wanted. (I had picked something for each them that I think they will appreciate when they are older, but I also wanted them to have instant gratification.)



Liam chose these - things. They are those Chinese balls that chime when you roll or shake them. Grandma used to roll around her joints and sore muscles. I don't know what Liam will use them for, but he liked them.

Noble picked a jar of rubber bands that he found at Grandma's and then he went around collecting all that he could find. I think by time we left he had over 200! Silly, but meaningful - - a jar of rubber bands, it's so Grandma!

H. being two, didn't really know what was going on. I found this tape in the kitchen drawer and I always remember it being there. I gave it to him - he liked pulling it out and letting it snap back in.

1922

This is a picture of the entire school (K-12) in Spalding, Nebraska taken Sept 22, 1922. Grandma would have been ten. My cousin is going to get a copy of the picture for me, but I took this picture of it while I was there.

Memories

What we remember of Grandma



Dixie - I called her Grandma One because when I was little I had Grandpa and Grandma (My Mom's parents) and Grandma - who didn't have a Grandpa to go with her from a child's perspective that made her Grandma One. I also thought about her saying "Ya'hoolie" to describe anyone that she couldn't recall their name right away. Divinity (the candy) that she whipped by hand.
Noble - "Grandma Great" is what we called her. The "toy box" that was all junk. She would ride an exercise bike everyday. She had an ultimate casino game that she let us play.
Liam - She was very very nice. She was very good. Going in the basement. The toy box. Sitting by the heater to stay warm.

Myrtle Marie Porter Simpson

Myrtle Marie Porter Simpson
May 8 1912 - April 13 2008


This picture is a couple years old - it's the last portrait she let me take of her.

Grandma with H. I like this picture for a couple reasons. One, she is looking at me. She never looked at the camera. Two, she appears happy in the content way that I associate with her for most of my life. And three, H won't remember her. I think that the older boys will, but H is too little. She loved him just as much as she loved me. Some of my last memories of her are of our last visit (Oct 2007) and I played games with H on the floor with the empty pill bottles and other random things from the "toy box." I remember thinking at the time that she seemed very pleased to just watch us play and laugh together there on the floor.

My dear friend Lois took this picture in 2006 on Grandma's birthday. I hated being in Texas and so far away from my Grandma on her birthdays. Lois would go and visit her for me, take he flowers and a Millie burger for me. The night that my Grandma died - when I got the news she wasn't doing well - it was Lois I called for comfort.

antiques

Today we went to the house. My Grandma's house. It was surprising that I didn't feel weird about it. There was once that I looked down at her chair as I stretched over it to reach something and almost apologized for the reach. That is how constant Grandma was. Her chair. Where she sat. Where she was when I popped in for a surprise visit.

The best part. Exploring. Grandma's house was small - but there were plenty of places that were off limits. And out of respect for 32 years I didn't disturb those places. Today I did. Today I peaked and looked. The best part was allowing my kids to do so too. Well, and the other best part was discovering the basement with my sister Lisa.

I can't say I found anything that surprised me. But it was delightful to be in a place and stumble upon a memory. She had lived in this house for 50+ years. That's a lot of memories. And she kept everything. I opened her sewing machine up - that's where I learned to sew one summer. The cast iron skillet still on the gas stove waiting to fry up some potatoes. The mail box, the broken board, the porch swing still there the same today as yesterday.

The kids had gone in the basement first. The basement was not somewhere she let us roam. "What's down there that you would want to see anyway." And personally, I was scared to death of the basement. My cousin had told me dead people were buried in the cement shelves of the foundation. I was convinced my entire life that it was haunted. It was unfinished and full of cobwebs. But exploring today in the eyes of children and with my sister, who I must say is braver than I am when it comes to bugs and mice and such, it was a treasure of memories and gems waiting to be found. Again, nothing too important. But fun to make a new memory by exploring other memories.

I did take one thing from the house. My scrapbooks. Anyone and everyone knows that if I make a scrapbook for you or about you - that it is really "Dixie's book about..." in this case Grandma. I had scrapbooked her life for her and gave it to her for her 90th birthday six years ago. I took those books today. Looking through them, I was like - WOW this is a lot of work, I can't believe I did this. My energy is spent on other things these days.

95, make that 96

My Grandma passed away this week. For those that may not know me well, my Grandma is one of my greatest life influences. She has been my only Grandparent since I was 7 years old. She was 95 but would have been 96 on May 8 this year. So in her honor, I want to make a list of things I remember and/or love about her.

1. Tootsie Rolls - she is why I love them so! She always had them in the bottom of her purse and I remember being passed one or two when I was being naughty.
2. Homemade bread – she never used a recipe and nobody makes bread like Grandma.
3. Warm homemade chocolate cake with butter
4. fried potatoes from a cast iron skillet
5. Lima beans (I love them because of her)
6. Eating tomatoes in the garden with a salt shaker in hand
7. “I’m too sexy” hat with an onion on it that she wore to garden. She got it from our family produce man that we bought veggies from every year.
8. Porch swing on summer nights
9. Ice cream sandwiches (25 cents back in the day)
10. “She can make a dead stick grow” how Alec describes her green thumb
11. Wind chimes on the front porch
12. Tree swing in the backyard that Bobby hung.
13. Dog house in the back yard but never had a dog
14. Sweet pea flowers
15. Garage door that never had garage door
16. Canning and canning and canning – everything; peaches and pears, beans and tomatoes – if she say fruit going to waste from a neighbors tree she would ask for it, and can it.
17. Peach pit jam - she didn’t let anything go to waste, even the pits from the peaches she canned. She would boil them to get the peach bits off the pits and make jam from it.
18. Unlimited Popsicles
19. Saving plastic bags to use later – she raised a family through the depression, she didn’t throw anything away.
20. The can cupboard where I would play and stack the cans over and over and organize them different ways.
21. Pumpkin pie - everything was homemade, crust and whip cream to boot.
22. Making her own butter from whipping cream by hand and giving me the buttermilk
23. Saltine crackers with butter on them!
24. Saltine crackers with ice cream.
25. Bowling, she bowled on a league until she was 89.
26. Wheel of Fortune
27. Jeopardy
28. Matlock
29. The Utah Jazz (“Them Damn Fools can’t hit a basket”)
30. Leaving notes on her fridge every time I left the house.
31. The time she stood up for me and threatened my cousin with a wooden spoon to stop teasing me.
32. Sundresses
33. Playing Uno with her and her sister ”Short” (Aunt Hazel)
34. Pink hair tape used to hold you hair in place when you sleep – stuck to the bathroom wall to use again, because she never threw anything away.
35. Claw Foot bath tub
36. Body powder – always in the second drawer in the bathroom, incase you needed it
37. “Stuff” hidden everywhere. Tuna fish in the towel drawer, peanuts under the bed, “You raise six kids, they’ll eat you out of house and home, I had to hide it.”
38. Phone calls after my summer days at her house – “D.Jo where did I put…”
39. Backing up the 40ft narrow driveway
40. Her neighbors, Gordon, Josie, Elizabeth, Mrs. Daniels, Barry that I grew up feeling like they were my neighbors.
41. Walking to the store from her house in Sugarhouse.
42. Flannel jackets
43. Knee-high rolled down to her ankles
44. “I’m to sexy” Monkey that danced
45. “Seein’s how your here…” and she’d put us to work.
46. “Sure, Sure” was what she would say when she didn’t agree, but didn’t want to disagree
47. Millie’s burgers
48. The fridge wasn’t in the kitchen it was on the back step
49. Screen doors, front and back
50. Freezing house in the winter thermostat set no higher than 60*
51. No hats in doors
52. Never turned on heat until Thanksgiving
53. No cutting biscuits – you pull it open with your fingers
54. “DJo set this clock for me.”
55. Filling the bird feeder for her
56. Never eating at the kitchen table
57. Stale potato chips and marshmallows
58. Using cloths pins to keep things closed, like potato chip bags
59. Plastic animal planters – Geese, Squirrels and bunnies.
60. The toys basket that consisted of empty jars and pill bottles.
61. The wood front porch that has one board that you couldn’t step on because it was broken.
62. The “back room” and the “back-back-room.” How we knew what room she was talking about.
63. She lived in a pink house.
64. She would always leave her keys in the front door lock when she came home because she had to hurry to the bathroom.
65. She always hung her keys by the paper towel holder by the sink
66. She also collected rubber bands
67. Her scar on her leg where the flesh was eaten away to the bone.
68. Taught me how to frost a cake.
69. Poppies
70. Climbing roses
71. Narrow steep stairs to the basement (that in the latter years she crawled up)
72. She would only do “wash” (laundry) once every couple weeks because it was in the basement.
73. “on the back porch” seemed like her answer to where everything was.
74. Any picture that any one sent her got taped to the bookcase – there has to bee hundreds of pictures up there by now.
75. At Christmas she taped the cards that were sent to her to the back of the front door – and they stayed there until July.
76. She hated to have her picture taken – but she let me take once when she was 90 and again at 94 (?).
77. I have a picture of her from 1986 in a flannel jacket and she is smiling (she never smiled for pictures, someone caught her off gaurd) I have kept that picture in my bedroom since 1986.
78. She and her neighbor Josie shared the newspaper – Josie would have it delivered, and then Grandma would walk down and get it, this was my job when I stayed with her.
79. Freedent gum – the only gum she would chew because it wouldn’t stick to her dentures.
80. Zebra gum – the gum she had for kids. It was always hard and brittle because it was old.
81. Valentines – she always sent me (and then my sweetheart and kiddos) valentines every year with a dime or two.
82. She couldn’t hear. But insisted she could.
83. She loved onion rings.
84. The sharpest, oldest, rattiest knife I have ever seen in my life that she used for everything.
85. She mowed her lawn until just a year or two ago.
86. She also shoveled snow.
87. She drove a car until she was 92-ish.
88. There was hanging lamp in the living room that we weren’t allowed to touch and it was never turned on – I often wondered what it was for.
89. Big Lots, Sav-On, Walgreens – Grandma loved a deal.
90. She had her total figured to the penny whenever she went shopping – tax and all.
91. Her brown purse that she kept behind the bedroom door. This always seemed like an odd place to keep a purse.
92. She displayed everything I ever made for her – still to this day
93. She loved Chinese food
94. She hated to drink water
95. About 7 years ago when she gave me something – anything, an Easter treat, a Valentine, a birthday card, she would say, “This may be it kiddo…” implying tomorrow may not come. I kept everything she gave me or wrote on to me from that day forward. I am thankful to have my Grandma’s handwriting – right up to very recently.
96. The greatest thing I learned from and loved about my Grandma was she was content with what she had. She never asked for anything more or expected anything more. She had lived a very hard, trying, tragedy stricken life – and kept on living. Some saw her as ornery and stubborn – I saw her as determined to be okay with the way things were. She was okay with who she was, she didn’t more stuff to make her better.

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p-fff boys!

"p-fff" = the sound of air escaping your lips
"p-fff boys!" = said around our house at least once a day to explain some random act of chaos or destruction.

Recent chaos or destruction that brought it to our lips.
231 (that's an estimate) pretzels scattered across the floor and step on until they were saw dust in the family room.

I had heard nothing, nothing of concern anyway. When I rounded the corner from the family room to the entry H-y was sitting on the stairs, looked up at me, said "sorry, Mommy, sorry" and then I noticed that one of the spindles of the staircase was broke in half. ??? Still haven't figured that out.

Liam created a waterfall by threading the hose through the basketball hoop and turning the water on.

Liam didn't want to eat his noodle Roni for dinner so he started playing with it - which led to Spaghetti in his and Hewy's hair. (There will be a post on that later, with pictures)

All of that was just yesterday!
Alec reminds they are pretty creative. I need that reminder sometimes.

does your house ever look like this?

Probably not. But mine does from time to time. And it does look like this right now. Even Noble said yesterday, this room is a disaster! I decided to snap a few pictures and blog it - because yep, this is our life right now. Everyday, real stuff. Life isn't always roses and gumdrops. And I want proof that I don't always make the boys clean, even if that is what they claim. Nope, mess more often than not.


I can see a lightsabor, H-y's fave red truck, another lightsabor, bright builders, Potterybarn catalog, sunglasses, a globe, Easter basket, Wii remote, a hat, Susan Boyton book, Cars book, MadLibs, and so much more.

These are H-y's favorite toys right now. Rescue Heroes.

The homeschool room.

At least in this one, I have done laundry and folded it! It has just been left in piles.

what's this?

What's this?
A messy room?





See the piggies?





Peek a boo!





It's an H!



Can you believe he scrunched himself into that little box?