Seventy Two

January brings lots of family birthdays.  I am among them.  Once again I miss family but all my kids called me for my birthday and gave me some sweet conversations.  Except Ben.  He forgot me this year.  But I can see why; his Jessica also has a birthday this month and he put lots of thought into it.  Once he remembered, he called and apologized and was very sweet about it.  So I forgave him.

Layne bought me a ring I could not resist last November and called it my birthday present.  I was thrilled, especially when he told me he didn't mind if I wore it right away.  It's a lovely garnet and opal ring.  It ties his October and my January birthdays together, you see.  So he gave me flowers on my actual birthday.  And my friend Carol Wintersteen baked me carrot cookies.  I also received more than my share of goodies this year.  And, perhaps most special of all, Bob and Maryanne drove over from Salt Lake to spend the weekend last week with us.  It was wonderful to be able to spend a bit of time with them. So I felt celebrated.

Bob and Maryanne, shown below.

Maryanne and me.

Today was Allegra's missionary farewell.  Not wanting to miss it, we made yet another trip to California, arriving last Thursday.  Cliff made my favorite dinner, roasted chicken and mushrooms.  We spent Friday and Saturday babysitting Ben and Jessica's kids while they celebrated her birthday in Sonoma.  We had fun with those babes!  It is a wild ride for sure but the children are so loving and are willing to adjust to my way of doing things...at least temporarily while we are there.  Layne does the running around while I tend the home fires.  It works out well and I feel like we made a sweet connection with each of the kids.

Ben and Jessica's youngest, Victoria (Tia), wiping off the counter (and not crawling on it.)

Our BJ kids are "techie" to the max.  Here is Alexis playing with her ipod.  The kids spent most of their free time on the plentiful collection of tech gadgets that Ben loves to provide.

 Rayne had us girls (me, Allegra, Audrey and Dorothy) over for dinner on Saturday night at her new apartment.  It was great fun.  Today was the farewell, and Allegra did an amazing job speaking about the value of happiness.  She has a flair for speaking, I think.  We left for the airport and home right after her talk and missed the family bash this afternoon.  But we are home in time to attend our pornography addiction meeting tonight.

Sister Allegra Adams-Hart leaves for the MTC later this week.  Then on to Wisconsin.

Traveling always seems like such a pain at the front side, but feels so good at the back side.  I'm happy to be home, but loved our time with California family.