Picture for Christmas

This was a surprise gift given to me from Bret and Laura. I had admired it at the Pomegranate Festival a while back in a booth that was operated by a friend whose Mother's paintings were featured. I fell in love with the picture but it was in a gold frame and wouldn't really go well with the colors in my home. They had some prints there of the same picture and I thought about buying one and having it framed. We left the booth with the intension of returning and maybe buying the print, but we never went back and I kind of forgot about it. My son Bret is a neighbor of the friend running the booth, and they told him how much I loved the picture. So guess who bought it and gave it to me as a big surprise. We just so happened to have a frame that we could use and it turned out really nice. It is hanging on my living room wall for all to admire. It's not crooked on my wall, just me taking a crooked picture. The lady who did the painting is a well known artist and I will have to find out her name as I can't remember it and then I will post her name. She does murals, and all kinds of paintings and does fabulous work.

Christmas at the Merritts

We had a wonderful time on Christmas Eve with the family. Renee, and Jason, brought baby Rozlynn and Grandma Sherry out to Logandale to Granny Merritt's home. Bret and his family came too. I made a big salad bar with a pork chop dinner, mashed potatoes with country gravy, southern green beans, corn, and later pumpkin pie made by Laura. We were all stuffed when dinner was over. We watched the birth of Jesus video and then I made everyone sing with an old tape I made many years ago. We sang through the whole book from Jingle Bells to Frosty the Snowman. I am thinking that I will have to figure out a new sing along tape for next year as the old tape is worn out. So I guess I had better start looking. I made the Christmas tape years ago when we used to go on a Christmas caroling hay ride with family and friends. We did that for years, and afterwards we would meet at a friends home and have pot luck dinner. That was the good old days and we sure have fond memories of those times on the hay wagon. Frank would get bales of hay to sit on and decorate it with Christmas lights. We would always stop by the local bar and sing to the people inside who would come outside and sing along with us. I always wondered how many of them were in the bar drowning their miseries in booze and maybe we brightened their day a little.

Wedding in St. George,UT

Top Gina's Mother Lisa and step father Chris. Second picture, Gina's Uncle John and Afton Kate, who is named after my Aunt Kay who was my mother's sister. Third picture,Gina's Grandmother Penny, my cousin, and bottom the happy couple Gina and Gavin.

We went to St. George, UT on December 18th to attend Gina's wedding and it was great seeing family on my Mother's side that I haven't seen in a while. There was a dinner the night before the wedding and they had a slide show of Gina and Gaven from the time they were little to when they met and dated. The food was great and it was fun visiting everyone and to see the happy couple. Frank & I spent two nights in St. George at the same hotel where we spent our Honeymoon almost 32 years ago. The hotel was really nice and we enjoyed getting away from the Christmas rush even though I was pretty much ready for Christmas.

On the 19th we were fortunate enough to go to Gena's sealing wedding ceremony in the St. George Temple and it was beautiful. Gina's face had to hurt from smiling so much. I love the St. George Temple as it was built by pioneers who didn't have the modern day tools. That evening we drove around St. George to see the Christmas lights and the best was last the temple grounds all a glow and then to view the statue of Jesus through the visitor center window, and to see the Nativity scene. All in all it was a nice get a way even though Frank was hurting most of the time.

Proud Grandparents- Renee's Birthday

A couple of weeks ago we went into Vegas to help Renee out a little by cooking dinner. We made a homemade pot of yummy soup, Renee's favorite.

Jamie and Jersey were there and Jersey got to hold little Rozlynn. What a cute picture of both. Watch out Jamie, Jersey will be asking for one of those cute babies.

Robyn dropped by to help us celebrate Renee's 31st birthday. Grandpa took a four generation picture. Grandma sure needs a hair cut. Grandpa and I said we weren't going to get hair cuts until Renee can do it. We are both looking a little shabby. Renee said maybe Monday we can all meet at the beauty shop. Robyn is on cloud nine as she is engaged to be married and the date is set for February.

We went into Vegas to go to Renee's for her birthday, and to see the baby. We couldn't believe how much Rozlynn had grown. She is 9 lbs now. Renee was looking better but her eye was hurting her and she called me yesterday to tell me that the yeast infection had come back on her and the baby, and she thinks she has a Sty starting on her eye. I feel so bad for her as it has been a tough time adjusting to the baby, no sleep, and then she and the baby getting a yeast infection.

The yeast infection is very painful and makes breast feeding a very painful event. It makes me wonder if the infection doesn't get under control, if Renee will be able to continue to breast feed. I guess our hair will just have to get longer and longer as I can't see Renee feeling well enough to be cutting hair.

When we got home there was a message on our phone letting us know that the X-Ray Frank had last Friday shows a fractured screw in his back surgery. Wow! how does a stainless screw fracture? Now we are all stressed out as to the fact there may be another surgery involved, but hopefully it does answer the question of why he is still having so much pain in his back. Frank has a Doctor appointment with his surgeon on the 23rd. That kind of puts a damper on the Christmas spirit. I keep thinking "When will it stop!!" What a way to start out the New Year. We will just have to wait and see what the doctor has to say. I am sure he will want a CT-scan so as usual it will be a process of wait and see.

Blog Slacker - Thoughs Running Through My Mind

I haven't been keeping up with my blog as I have been trying my hand with facebook. I wasn't going to get involved with it as I feel that keeping up my blog keeps me busy. I joined it mostly to see what our grandson is up to. I really need to get back to doing genealogy, maybe after Christmas.

My sister in law e-mailed me with some bad news a couple of days ago. She had been in remission with stage four lung cancer for several months and then she noticed a swollen lymph gland and had it checked out. Sure enough the cancer is active again. I was hoping that she would be in remission a lot longer and that maybe even a miracle had happened. She has started treatments again, and had a bad reaction. It sure makes me think of just how fragile our lives our. We never know from day to day what is in store for us.

Life isn't what I thought it would be. For instance I thought when I married my first husband we would grow old together but at age 28 he was killed in a bank robbery along with his two women tellers. I was only 26 left with three very small children.

I always wanted a family that was close, and that was due to living with a very dysfunctional family. Mom and Dad were alcoholics and my Dad was a very abusive person both physically and mentally to his family especially to my Mother. We were always glad to see him go to work as he would be gone for a few days at a time. He was an Engineer on the Union Pacific Railroad. As soon as he came in the door, I would head for my room and try to stay as far away as possible from him.

I thought when I got married that I would have a happy close family and I remember daydreaming about being married and most of all being happy. I think that when we are young we all have a story book image of how our lives will be. My life took so many twist and turns and it was never what I thought it would be. However I am happily married to the love of my life and he does make me very happy, but getting to this point wasn't easy. Well, I can feel my mind starting to feel fuzzy, it's time to take my medicine. There is so much more on my mind lately, but to lengthy to go into.

Santa Land at the Merritts

Frank worked several days putting all the decorations up and the results are really nice. You can see how big Santa is by comparing Frank standing next to him in the above photo. The Santa talks every now and then. I see cars drive by every night from our office window, and I hope it puts smiles on little children's faces. That is why we do it, for the kids and the big kids too.

We bought the nativity scene from Costco several years ago. When I saw it, I had to have it as I love nativity scenes. After they sold out the ones they had in the store, I never saw them again. We are going to try and fix them as the wind has damaged some of the pieces. I am in the process of making new angel wings for the angel. I hope we can figure out how to save it and we have come up with a few ideas. A good summer project.

Decorating the Yard & House

Frank started the outside decorations a few days before Thanksgiving. He started with the Nativity Scene and putting the lights up on the house. We love to decorate our yard and this year we added some new things, a waving Santa sitting in a chair, new rain deer, a cute bright red fire truck with a Dalmatian Dog as the driver, candy canes decorating the sidewalk, lights in the trees and all over the yard. Every one thinks we are in competition with our neighbors across the street as they go all out. We could never compete with them as they have a thousand lights in just one tree compared to our three hundred. It looks like Santa's Land on this end of the street.

Cars are starting to drive by to see the decorations, and it is fun to see the smiles on the kids faces as they see the fun things on the lawn, especially Santa waving at them, and the adults love the Nativity Scene as it us unique. I don't know how many more years it will last as the wind and storing it in the garage through the hot summers has taken a toll on the different pieces. I will take a picture and post it.

Catching up -Thanksgiving Day

Jason did a fantastic job of cooking the turkey, yummy yams, and mashed potatoes. We all brought something, so it made it easier on him.

Jason's Dad started to carve the turkey, but ended up having Bret carve the bird. The turkey was really good and moist, and the dinner was tasty. We were all stuffed.

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at Renee's. We tried to talk Renee out of having Thanksgiving at her home, but she said Jason was going to do all the cooking. The baby was only eight days old and we knew that it would be hard on Renee to have so many people around. Sure enough, Renee and the baby had a yeast infection that had just started the day before, and Renee couldn't nurse, so had to pump, and then little Rozlynn was fussy and hungry, and had a little purple mouth, and that upset Renee, and she ended up in tears. She has been on a roller coaster since the baby was born. We are going in to Vegas tomorrow to see them, and Frank will give Renee a blessing. She is learning the trials of being a new Mom. I think all of us Mothers can relate to sleepless nights, baby crying, and raging hormone imbalances. It will get better but at the time it is happening, it doesn't seem like it will ever end. Sure glad those days are over.

New Great Granddaughter - Rozlynn

It is still hard for me to believe that my daughter Sherry is a Grandma. Little Rozlynn is so cute and Sherry is a proud Grandma. We both had the chance to hold her and cuddle her. All we needed was to have Renee in the picture and we would have had a four generation picture. We will definately have one in the future.

Rozlynn Louise is Born

We have been sitting on pins and needles the past couple of days. It all started with a phone call from Renee yesterday morning to tell me she was having contractions about 15 minutes apart. Jason came home and got her and they headed to the hospital only to be told to go home and wait until the contractions were a minute long, at that point they were 30 seconds long.

Sherry was on her way in to Vegas and instead of going to the hospital she met Renee at home. They ended up taking the dogs for a walk, shopping, and eating. Then Renee's water broke and she was told to head for the hospital. To me it seemed like a long time as we were waiting for the news of the baby being born. The last I heard from Sherry last night was that they had given Renee a block, so I thought that the delivery should happen within a few hours. So much for my knowledge as I am from the old school of the 1960's. I told Sherry to call me even if she had to wake me up. So I was restless all night long waiting for the big phone call. It never happened, so this morning when I got up I called Sherry. She had gone home to get some rest and was waiting for Jason to call her. It is good I called or she would have missed the text that Renee was ready to deliver. She headed back to the hospital, and called me around 10:30 AM this morning and the good news was: Rozlynn Louise was born at 9:56 AM this morning weighing in at 7 & 1/2 lbs, and 19" long. Sherrry said "She is a beautiful baby." No pictures yet, I don't know if anyone had a camera there. Update: Sherry did have her phone camera and the above picture is what she took right after Rozlynn was born.

Frank & I should have been on our way to Salt Lake City, to go to my nephews wedding, but instead I was sick and have been since last Saturday. We were disappointed that we didn't get to go and see my brothers and their families. I don't know when I will be able to go to Las Vegas to see the baby, as I want to make sure I am completely free of any bugs that I may have, but when I do I will be taking pictures and will post them. I can't wait to see little Rozlynn.

Granddaughter in High School Play

Thursday after we got home from Vegas, we went to the high school play to see our granddaughter Sierra play the part of Dr. Tonya Kirkland. The play was "The Night of January 16th." It took place in a court room setting. A murder had taken place on the night of Janurary 16h. It was a play where the audience took part in it by being the jurors, and they set in the juror seats on stage. The setting looked just like a court room and it was really neat.

Sierra's character, Dr. Kirkland had examined the body of the man who had been murdered and she was sworn in and questioned. Sierra has turned into a good actress and did a fantastic job as well as all of the other students. We disagreed with the jurors verdict as we thought the father of the mistress on trail for the murder did it. I guess there was a different verdict every night of the play.

Sierra is excited about the next play as it will be a comedy and will be in the spring. They spend a lot of hours after school for play practice and it pays off as it was professionally done and was enjoyed by all who attended it. We couldn't believe the make up and the way it was applied to make the characters look much older. There were some humorous characters who gave the audience a good laugh. We really enjoyed it and look forward to the next one.

She's About Ready to Pop

Whoops! I need to change the date on my camera again.

We went into Vegas last Wednesday the 11th as I had a doctor's appointment the next day. We took a rug into Renee and took her out to lunch to Mimi's and of course I had to take a tummy picture. She looks like she is about ready to pop and it is amazing to me how big her belly has grown in just a week's time. She is carrying the baby just like I did with my pregnancies "All In Front." Renee is so miserable and can't wait to have the baby.

We went back into Vegas Friday as I had bought a dress from Penny's and they left that button thing on and if you try to take it off it will make a mess with ink all over the dress. Renee had gone to the doctor to see if there are any changes, and much to her disappointment there wasn't. She was still dilated to one, but that can change in an instance. I caught her on the cell and she had just left the doctor's office and she was bummed. She ended up coming over to Red Lobster and meeting us for lunch again and then we went to the mall to get the button off from my dress and she helped me pick out a couple of velour pant outfits. She said if she walked it made her have contractions and maybe it would start something. It didn't. Oh well we had fun eating, shopping, and visiting again. If Renee doesn't have the baby before the 20th the doctor will start labor that day, so we know for sure that Rozlynn will be here by the 20th or sooner. It just seems to drag to all of us, but mostly for poor Renee. I can't wait to see the baby and hold her.

Visit With Renee

Rozlynn's bedroom. Jason & Renee painted and decorated the room a few months ago. Isn't it cute? They are all ready for Rozlynn to arrive. See the cute bassinet right by their bed.

These pictures really don't show how big Renee is. Her tummy is as hard as a rock, and you can see little Rozlynn moving around.

Note Renee in front of a Christmas tree. She and Jason decided to put their tree up early so it would all be done when the baby comes and since they were just moving into their home around Christmas time last year they didn't really enjoy Christmas.

We were able to spend the afternoon with Renee last Wednesday as we went into Vegas to spend the night so I could go to my doctor the next day for blood work. It was nice just to sit around and visit and then later Jason came home with sub sandwiches for dinner. We watched part of the Phillie's and Yankee's game and then went back over to Sherry's.

On our way back to Sherry's we kept getting a notice on our instrument panel that the right rear tire was low. So we stopped and put some air in it. The next morning as we were getting ready to go to the doctor, I noticed the front right tire was flat as a pancake. The tire sensors were attached to the wrong tires so Frank had put air in the wrong tire. Luckily for us, Sherry was still home and we took her car to the doctors. We had to buy a portable air compressor and then Frank was able to drive over to Sams and get the tire fixed. Thanks Heavens, as I was worried about him trying to change tires. It was quite a morning for him as it doesn't take much to wear him out.

Bret's Article in The Progress

As I was looking through our local newspaper, I came across this little notice. I know that Bret's friends and patient's prayers and thoughts are what helped us get through his trial.

Our valley is a great place with a lot of wonderful people and I am so grateful that I was able to raise my children here. I have so many friends here that also helped us with their prayers and thoughts during the past year with both Frank and Bret's trials with health.

Halloween Pictures

The top picture is my two neighbor kids Kody and Allison. Doesn't Allie look like a miniature Abbey from NCIS? They even colored her hair black as Allie is a cute little blond.

Frank saved the day by taking my battery out of my camera and then putting it back in. For some reason the battery wasn't making contact or something like that. Any way it started to charge and I was able to down load my Halloween pictures.

I know people had a hard time recognizing Sierra as the wig and makeup totally changed her looks. She looks good as a red head and the hair style is really cute on her.

She has really long hair. It is clear down to her waist and it is blond. May be when she gets ready to cut her hair this is a style to remember. She is so dang cute! I am sure Laura helped with the makeup and she did a super job.