Easter/Birthday Weekend

Yes, it was a very busy, but wonderful weekend. Saturday was my 84th birthday and we celebrated it by going to Riverside (about an hour and a half from our house) to be with our great friends, Cherie and Stan, who just happen to be Heather's parents. To all of you who may not remember off hand who Heather is, she just happens to be the Mom to three of my greatest great grandchilren (Sue's grandchildren) and one of the best photographers I know.


Cherie was here, one day during the children's spring break with Heather and the kids. They came for dinner after spending a difficult day here in Palm Desert. They had taken the kids to the Living Desert and it was cold and extremely windy. Actually, the wind was the worst we have seen in 22 years of living here. Unfortunately, it was so bad that many of the animals had sought refuge in their habitat so they couldn't even see many of them. I think they were happy to get over here out of it all. They were a little unhappy though that they weren't allowed to go in the pool. We would never have been able to take the cover off the or it would have just blown away. At any rate when Cheri found out it was my birthday Saturday, she invited us to celebrate an early Easter dinner with them. It was a family affair with lots of her relatives and a few neighbors attending. We arrived there at 2:00 in the afternoon a whole hour early due to a misconception on my part. It was fun though to have an hour with just them and an hour later they started to arrive. Stan had fixed both ham and turkey and after a little time just visiting, we all went to the park, which was just around the corner from them. A great time was had by all. There were five children and 21 in all and there were many activities going on, kite flying, various balls being tossed about, skate boarding and of course, the egg hunt. Then we went back to the house and had a tremendously good feast! Everyone had brought side dishes so we had lots of salads, vegetables, fruit and desserts. I made and brought my own birthday cake. It was still in the 9X13 baking pan it was baked in. They put candles on it for me to blow out and Heather, our professional photographer , took a picture. If she posts it, I will put it on here later so you can see.

While I was there, Nikki, my third daughter, called me from Boston where she had gone to be with her husband, Perry, who is a production designer and was there filming a movie. All of her family was there with the exception of her daughter Kristin's husband. It was so neat to talk to everyone, but really hard to hear because I was on the cell phone and with 5 children and 16 adults there, you can imagine what the noise level was.

It was so nice of Cherie to invite us and we certainly did enjoy the day. She also presented me with my favorite house plant. Can't think of the name of it but it has longish broad leaves and has white lily like blossoms on it. Maybe one of you can enlighten me with the actual name. Also Heather gave me a darling picture of the kids in a very cute frame.

We left about 7:00 and were home at a decent hour. I hate to drive late on Saturday night with all the crazies on the road. After I got home, I got calls from all the rest of the kids, so it was a very nice birthday. I then worked on my talk for a short while........mostly trying to time it because I didn't want to run over my alloted 10 minutes.

The next morning I was a bit upset trying to find something in my closet that would fit me comfortably so I could have all the breath I needed to force my vocal chords to perform. Both Dick and I gained 10 pounds over the holiday and haven't been able to loose it. Every Monday we start on our "Healthy Eating Plan" which really does work. But something during the week has us going off on a regular basis. It can be going out to dinner, having someone in for dinner, leftover sweets that NEED to be eaten, right? So many excuses. So today we are starting over one more time.

I did find an outfit that looked and felt okay so off I went to church. When I read how long the program was, I was a bit concerned. They had three of us women speak (I was the first) and three musical numbers. I was thinking we never would have been able to quit on time and when we don't it takes time away from Sunday School Our Bishop is pretty good about stopping at 10:05a.m. (We have my most hated schedule, 9 to 12. I am just NOT a morning person.) I did well on my talk and so did the other two, in fact they were great, so the program was a big success, with musical numbers by our primary, one soloist and the choir. I did receive a lot of compliments and comments on my talk, mostly about how they absolutely loved Sue's poem and could they get the book in the bookstore. I think I have talked Sue into sending it in to Deseret Books to get it published so that a lot of people could have access to it. She just published three copies of it, for her, me and the grandchildren for whom it was written. The best compliment of all though was one I received just as we was going out the door. A little girl, around 6 or7 whom I didn't know, came up to me and said, "I really enjoyed your story." That just made me want to cry. What a great tribute. At any rate, it was a great ending to a very enjoyable weekend and there you have it!