God Be With You Till We Meet Again

We just got back from St. George, UT.  My Grandpa Scott quietly passed away last week and returned home to his sweetheart who passed away 5 years ago.  Grandpa was my last living grandparent and we felt so fortunate to be able to go.  We missed all of the other grandparent funerals on both sides of our family, so this was a big deal to us.

My Grandpa was a great man.  He was smart, funny, patient, and wonderful.  He was an electrical engineer and his mind was always working.  Once Wally became a part of the family, there was a special bond between the two of them.  Grandpa finally had someone to talk science to and Wally had someone who understood his jargon.  We joke a lot about how I was replaced by Wally as the official grandchild. 

When we moved to the east, back to the west, and then to the midwest, Grandpa always told us that we needed stay west of Denver.  We made it, just in time.  We didn't get to spend a lot of time with Grandpa before he died.  The last time we saw him was about 4 1/2 years ago, when we moved from Pennsylvania to Washington.  My two youngest children never met him.

It was so great to listen to my aunt and uncle talk about his life and all the funny stories about him.  Senator Orrin Hatch (my great-uncle) was also able to attend and said some very nice things as well.  Grandpa wanted me to play the organ at his funeral, and all the great-grandchildren sang I Am a Child of God.  The services were great.

I am going to miss my Grandpa.  We always loved to visit him when we could.  I know that he is so happy right now, reunited with my Grandma.  I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and know that we will see him again some day.

No good-bye's from us.

Only see you later's.

A Great Memorial Day

This past Memorial Day just happened to be my Grandfather’s 89th birthday.  A few months ago, our family was planning a big surprise party for him.  Our plans were put on hold, however, after he was hit by a car eight weeks ago.  From the outside, his body is healing.  The inside is a whole different story.  These last few weeks he has gone through some pretty rough patches sprinkled with a few good times.  We decided to go ahead and celebrate his birthday, even if it meant we were going to all cram all of us into his small hospital room to sing to him.  And there are a lot of us.

I flew out the Saturday before Memorial Day.  It was a long flight and after having to switch planes due to some electrical problems, I finally made it a little over an hour later than planned.  I was able to see most of my sisters and their families who came for the special occasion, and my parents.  It was so good to see everyone, especially since I don’t get to see them very often.

When I went in to see my grandpa for the first time, it was hard.  Before his accident, he was totally independent and healthy.  I have never seen him like this before.  I brought in pictures that my family drew for him and told him that I loved him.  He was pretty nonresponsive that first day.  I did get a little smile and a small squeeze while I was holding his hand to let me know that he heard me and knew who I was. 

My sisters and I came in to decorate his hospital room with a birthday banner and flag (he is a veteran who fought in WWII) the morning of Memorial Day.  He was in another room having some treatment done, so we each took our turn to wish him a happy birthday and told him we would be back later in the day. 

We all (19 of us, I think) came back, as promised later that afternoon and sang Happy Birthday.  He was so happy we were all there and was the most responsive he had been in a while.  He opened his eyes and gave us some priceless smiles.  He was even able to mutter an “I love you” to all of us before drifting off to sleep again.

I don’t think I am going to see my grandpa again in this life, but I do know that I will see him again in the next life.  Families have a very powerful  impact in our lives.  Living far away from both of our families has helped us to understand and appreciate this better.  As unfortunate as this was for my grandpa, it has given me hope and faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Plan of Salvation.

In honor of him, we’re going to head out to the golf course (one his favorite things to do).  It’ll have to be miniature golf for us though, since we can’t hit the ball near the hole no matter how hard we try! 

 

I love you, Grandpa.

Spring Break '09: Day 5

Today turned out to be our low key day. We finally got around to cleaning up the house and I am finished the never-ending laundry pile. We made it over to the mall to pick up a shirt for Caleb for Easter. That was the extent of our traveling for the day. It's nice to have quiet days like this. Wally surprised us and came home for lunch too. That is always fun to see him, since we don't get to see him very much unless he takes a day off work. I even found a little bit of time to give Caleb a very much needed haircut. This was one of those days that I was able to check off most of the things on my to do list. Hooray!

Anyway, for today, I thought it would be fun to see what the kids top 10 list of different things would be. So, here they are, in no particular order (you can guess who picked what):

Movies
1. Pokemon
2. High School Musical (all 3)
3. Ella Enchanted
4. Star Wars
5. Matilda
6. Prince Caspian
7. Swiss Family Robinson
8. Harriett the Spy
9. Cars
10. The Wiggles

Books
1. Junie B. Jones
2. Harry Potter
3. Nancy Drew
4. Pokemon: Diamon and Pearl
5. Choose Your Own Adventure
6. Star Wars
7. If You Give a Pig a Pancake
8. How to Be a Pirate
9. How to Train a Dragon
10. Magic Tree House Series

Games
1. Imaginiff
2. Sorry
3. Life
4. Clue Jr.
5. Ticket to Ride
6. Uno
7. Freeze Tag
8. War
9. HSM DVD Game
10. Smash Brothers Video Game

Things To Do on Spring Break
1. Go the Museums
2. Cook Dinner
3. Make forts
4. Play Tag
5. Wrestle
6. Go to the library
7. Watch Movies
8. Sleep In
9. No Homework!
10. Plant our Garden