New Adventure

We are on the verge of starting a new adventure in our life.  In just a few short weeks we will be moving to a very rural area.  I've been a "city" girl my whole life.  I've always wanted to give rural life a try and never imagined I would embark upon it in my twilight years, but that is exactly what is happening. 

When I joined the Church nearly 39 years ago I said I wanted my own sacred grove.  When we moved here over 20 years ago I thought I might actually have my spot.  We looked at property a few times, but it never quite worked out.  I had given up on my sacred grove when we moved the last time thinking we would remain in our city house until the kids had to put us in a home.

Well, just before Christmas last year, our oldest son and his wife said we should sell our house and move out to their property with them so we could help him build the 2nd stage of their house.  He then told us that the third stage was separate quarters for us.  He said since he was the oldest he always planned on taking care of us in our twilight years.  We were very touched by that.  As we discussed the proposal we realized that the time is right to do so now, while we are still healthy enough to help build the house.  So we listed our house and figured it would take forever because of the bad housing market.  Needless to say we got an offer and everything is proceeding nicely.  It all happened much faster than we thought and we need to be out in three weeks.

They live on 5 acres in a beautiful wooded area.  One of the first things I realized is I am finally going to have my sacred grove.  We are very excited to be with our son and his wonderful wife and grandchildren too.  We feel strongly about becoming as self sufficient as possible. 

This will be a grand adventure! 

Alyxrandria Brynn is here!!!

Our newest granddaughter has arrived nearly a week early. Alyxrandia Brynn (or Alyx for short) arrived yesterday after a long day of labor and delivery at 7 PM on the dot. She weighs 7lb 6oz and is 18 inches long. She has lots of dark hair.

Daddy got to help deliver her and earned the name of Doctor Sean by the end of the day. She is the beautiful baby of Sean and MyLiege and rounds out their family with 2 boys and 2 girls. She joins Djeryd, Erik and Anna.

We couldn't be happier. This makes number 16 for us!

Anticipating Alyx

We are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest grandchild. Alyxendria is due one week from today, but she may be as anxious as we are. MyLiege has been having some pretty good contractions for the last few days. They lasted several hours today before they finally slowed down.


I met the Young Women at the nursery last night for a service project of cleaning the nursery toys. One of the leaders is a new mother. Little Brooklyn is a little over three months old. I got to hold her for a while. It made me very anxious for Alyx to arrive.


Alyx will be number 16 for our little clan. I never imagined how much fun grand children could be. I think I am a much better grandma than I ever was a mother. Thank goodness we can continue to improve in our life.


I love my family!!!!

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1 month of Curves

Today marked my forth straight week working out at Curves. I have already felt positive results. My weight hasn't exactly gone down, but they tell me that is normal as I build muscle since muscle weighs more than fat. The two things I have noticed most is my clothes are beginning to feel more comfortable and I have more energy.

I've actually been going during lunch, because I sometimes have activities after work and I don't want to cut my exercise short or risk skipping it all together. Of course going at lunch has its own set of problems. I started coming into work at least 1/2 hour earlier because my lunch time is now an hour and I used to only get 1/2 hour. It is easy to get up earlier since the sun is coming up earl er now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up when winter comes again.

They have a little "Smart Key" that you put into each piece of equipment and it tracks your workout. Then you can plug it into their computer and view the results of your last 10 workouts. It shows things like how many calories you burn, what spots on your body need more work, how well you do on each piece of equipment, etc. My results show that I've been progressing everyday.

Another feature of the "Smart Key" is it increases your "goals" as you progress. You get so many points as you workout. It increases the number of points you should get so it challenges you to do more streneous workouts. There is a little pad on each piece of equpment that shows how many reps you do and the energy level you are exerting. Some even calculate your heart rate. When you first start out it doesn't require a huge amount of energy to get the point credits. As you progress it starts requiring more energy go get credit. That way it increases your workout as you progress. Its really pretty cool.

The Toyshop

We just got back from a wonderful ballet that Madison and Brooklyn were in. They did a fantastic job and looked adorable! Grandpa got to help out too.

Madison is a Cute Kewpie Doll and Brooklyn is a Little Baby Doll.

I think they stole the show and I know the Kewpie dolls and the Baby dolls got the most applause.

As you can see it is a very large cast. They did a wonderful and professional job.

Friends

I think I have been somewhat of a loner most of my life. As a young girl with only brothers to hang out with, I never had a best girlfriend. In junior high and high school the girls didn't like me very well because I got along with the boys better than I did the girls.

When I joined the Church I married my best friend. I was also greatful to finally have a sisterhood that I never knew as a child. I have had many good friends in the Church, but we moved around so much in our marriage that I guess I never completely bonded with anyone.

Thankfully we had family. We used to tell our kids that they were each other's best friends. They are also our best friends. I love being with my family and am so lucky and grateful that all of our children live close by so we can visit often. Now I get to be best friends with my grandchildren too.

We have been in this area longer than we have been anywhere and it is nice to have so many other friends, too. I don't get to hang with them very often, because we are all busy with our jobs and families and church and lives, but we do get together once in awhile for a movie night or game night.

I am also grateful for blogs, because through them I can bond with my family and friends. I have a wonderful friend who blogs almost daily. She is so positive and uplifting all the time. She finds joy in everything. She takes lots of great photos and posts them on her blog too. She imspires me to be better. I want to look at life the way she does. I want to see the flowers and sunshine even when things aren't going very well around me. She makes me smile. She gives me hope. She probably doesn't even realize what a great friend she is to me.

I thank my Heavenly Father for friends and family!