Fun with

Jackson and Margie and Lance.

Where do i start . . .

After not posting for a month.   It has bothered me a lot that I haven't kept my goal of posting everyday.  But I keep reminding myself that I am the only one it is really bothering, so I shouldn't be so hard on myself.  There have been a few stressful and hard times, but mostly wonderful family times, and I do want to capture them.

The first thing I want to post is Jackson's birthday interview.  He turned 21 on July 28.   But, it does take me some time to decipher my scribbled notes, so that will be after I have a little time.

Right night Margie and Lance are visiting and Jackson has come back to go to school.  Today we toured the new Missionary Training building, and I was going to post a picture, but just remembered it is on Gary's phone.   So that will be later, too.

But it's ok.    

Throwback Tuesday - 4th of July

And this cool video Jared posted on facebook.   It is amazing.

https://www.facebook.com/jared.g.anderson/videos/10158996245400013/

When it rains, it pours.

We had another of Gary's cousins pass away last week.  Alene Hone.  That is just a short time after his cousin Paul.

Then Gary's sister had a freak accident and fell into a crawl space at her son in Oregon's home.  She shattered her leg.  If she had the surgery up there, she would have to stay for a couple of months, so she (very painfully) flew home and had the surgery last week.  Now she is in a rehab center here in Orem for at least a month.

Then Richard has not been doing well and is in a facility where they can monitor him and his medications closely.   This is so hard.

The inspirational message from Paul's funeral was that anytime anything went wrong, Paul didn't get angry, but he would just ask "Well, did you learn anything from it?" or "What did you learn?"  All of the kids basically said the same thing.   A great way to approach life.

At Alene's funeral each of her 6 boys basically said that her love was unconditional, but that she didn't let them make excuses.  She would say, "You know what you need to do, so do it."

I can learn a lot of life lessons from funerals.  It makes me wonder what my one remembered phrase would be.  Maybe, "Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake?"

Margie and Lance's

family is pretty amazing.  I was wrong on the number of grandchildren.  They have 36 with 1 more on the way.

Most of them live within a few blocks of them, and the furthest away any of them live is about 45 minutes away.  The first Sunday of every month the whole family gets together at one of the houses. We were able to be there for it.  Margie always give a gift card to everyone who has a birthday that month and then gives some kind of family history or inspirational thought.  She had Gary as the guest speaker at this one.   He shared memories growing of with their grandma (like her pinning him to the ground and knocking his forehead until he said "uncle."  That is pretty unbelievable when you look at them now.

Here's the family picture they have in the hallway.  They are all standing in front of the family home.

So cute

Lots of little girls to get ready.

A week in

In the life of parents of 10, in laws of 9, and grandparents of 34. 

We went all dressed up to

 Jackson's last game home game on Saturday.  That was after we had been to Paul's funeral and out to lunch with Gary's family.  We would have missed more of the game if we had gone home to change. Fortunately it was nice weather.    

We've been feeling

very sad every since we got the phone call telling us that Gary's cousin, Paul, died yesterday.  He was working in the yard, fell, and hit his head on the curb.   We don't know if he had an episode (stroke or heart attack) that made him fall or if he died from the head injury.   Paul was always so personable, friendly, funny, and interested in everyone.  He always took great interest in our family and was so supportive.

Gary is actually a "double cousin" with Paul and his siblings (Mel, Norma Jean, and Clyde).  Afton (his mom) and Norma (Paul's mom) married two brothers, Jess (Gary's dad) and Frank (Paul's dad).  You see a lot of family resemblance with the "double cousin" grandchildren and great grandchildren from both families.

John Thomas and Elnora Ashton Family

4th in on back row are Afton, Jess, Norma, and Frank (the tall one)

Gary is the Baby on his Grandpa's lap.
Paul is second in from the left, sitting on chair.

I ran into Paul's sister at Days Market this evening.  She told me that she had been working on a quilt for Paul for about 5 years, but had set it aside and had a hard time finishing it.  She finally forced herself to finish it and took it to him for his birthday 5 weeks ago.  He owned Edgemont Service, and the quilt has cars, a gas station, and roads on it. She said he was so pleased with it, and she'll always remember him standing at the door waving goodbye to her.

That is an example of one of those times where you will always be grateful you followed through with something you've been wanting or been nudged to do.   I've had several experiences like that. But, I've also had some experiences where I've felt great regret because I haven't followed through with something.

Lots of lessons to be learned.

Gary and I

were all settled down for a long winter's night, when we got a call from his sister, Geniel.  She wondered if we were coming to the Ashton party.  Ashton party?  We had just assumed that it wasn't happening this year since we hadn't gotten the usual letter about it.  In fact, a couple of hours before the call, while we were eating our obligatory turkey wrap at Costco, I had commented to Gary that they must not be having it this year.   Aunt Leah passed away a couple of years ago, and as the last surviving aunt from the family, we were not really surprised to think it wasn't happening.  But it was, so I stopped my work and Gary changed out of his pajamas, and off we went. (Apparently the letter just got lost in the mail)  We were glad we went.  Geneil and Dickson had come up from Castledale, and it was good to see them.   This Christmas party has been going on since way before Gary was even born.  There is a double connection in the Ashton family.  Gary's dad, Jess, and his brother, Frank, married two Lewis sisters--Gary's mom, Afton and her sister, Norma.  So we are double cousins to some of them.  You can definitely see the resemblances, even in the great-great grandchildren.

We're getting very excited for TIffany, Justin, Eliza, Ashton, Annie, and Lucienne to come on Monday. I had better take pictures of the Christmas decorations, though, because they'll probably all be dismantled after Luci has been here for a day!    This will be the first year in a long time we haven't had the Bishop family here with us, too.  We will miss them.  But our hearts our with them for sure.  Misty's pregnancy doesn't make it doable this year.