Yes, I know. It has been awhile. I have been a lazy girl. The Pandemic has slowed down our lives, and slowed down my blogging. It is interesting to me that more open time has actually made me less productive. Why is that, I wonder! Not that things haven't been happening. We are blessed to be able to get together with lots of our family over the past few months. We shared the purchase of a whole beef with Audrey and Cliff. The beef was all cut, wrapped and ready to roll a while before Audrey and Cliff could come and pick it up. But they finally did in February. We had a lovely weekend with them. They packed up their share and took off to share it with some of their kids. We shared our half with Reed and Dorothy. By the time we did all that dividing, we had room in our freezer with plenty of space left over. Here's Cliff and Audrey, with Cliff wearing a Valentine's vest made especially for him by daughter Allegra (one talented girl!).
Daughter-in-law Dorothy and I have made an agreement to visit Seattle every 4 months or so together, me to visit Chris and Jessica and she to visit son James and his family. So we flew there on the 18th of February and had a fun weekend. Chris and Jessica are redoing their kitchen and it is looking beautiful. Chris is doing all the work! He can do just about anything he puts his mind to. I don't have a picture of the finished work just yet, but it will be forthcoming. In the meantime, here is a picture of Jessica reading to Alex, our great-grandson and son of James and wife Alejandra. They spend lots of time teaching Alex and it shows. He knows so much for such a little guy.
We had a lovely weekend and have decided that we need more visits like this one. I think Dorothy and I will travel together to see our California family too, later this year. Here's a picture of some of my girls; Audrey, Dorothy, me and Jessica.
Seth has been duplicating Layne in his teasing of our kitty. Cherry (the cat) has chosen Layne as her favorite human. But Seth is moving up to a close second. The more he teases Cherry, the more she seems to like it. Here she is, making herself comfortable, right in the middle of Seth's efforts at doing school work. Most of school happens at home these days, you know.
Daughter Jessica had a birthday on March 6th, which just happened to be the day that Grandson Isaiah and his new bride Avery flew to California, via our house, to be sealed in the Oakland Temple. As you no doubt know, these are strange times, thanks to CoVid. Only live ordinances may be done in our Temples, so they had to make an appointment to be sealed and could only bring 12 or fewer people to witness it. Our temples have been mostly closed for a year now. These are troubling times for many reasons. We enjoyed a little time with the happy couple before and after their sealing day. Here they are on their way back home, now connected together for all time, and happy about it.
Granddaughter Rayne and hub Dominic drove over last weekend. They came for some furniture we have been storing for them, but we had a fun time with them in between packing up Dom's truck. They come to visit pretty often and we love their company. They have their own place now and Rayne is having lots of fun getting it all set up and decorating. Both work remotely, which Rayne enjoys, but Dom loves being with people so it is a bit harder for him to spend so much time without the usual family interaction they enjoyed when staying with Audrey and Cliff. Here's Rayne and Dominic with Reed and Dorothy. Dom is even smiling (which he doesn't usually do in pictures).
Layne has been feeling very strongly lately that we needed to get rid of the jeep. You know, that bright green, sporty little jeep that we just got a year and a half ago. I've loved the jeep but Layne's feelings were strong, so one day we drove it to the Toyota dealership and traded it in for a red Toyota Highlander. Just to be a little difficult, I made a list of everything I wanted in a car, including a place for my purse (a particularly difficult request). The Highlander had it all. So gone is our 2018 Jeep and now a 2018 used Highlander sits in our garage. We now are the proud owners of three red vehicles! I have a thing about being colorful, you know, and Layne sweetly allows this indulgence.
I've been Marco-poloing the kids each Sunday and usually get responses back. I love looking into their faces and hearing their news. It is almost like having them present. Things are opening up here more and more, so we have ventured to have some social events with friends, face to face. Well, to be truthful, the events are almost universally lunches. That is a start to getting things back to normal. Or somewhat close to. I can't help thinking that our treatment of this "pandemic" is an atrocity. We are ruining more lives with our stupid response to CoVid than damage from the illness itself. I dare not think about it too much. Instead I'm counting my blessings that we are all healthy and making due all right. In spite of everything, life is good. I hope it will continue to be.
