An August of Beginnings

We’ll begin August with some beautiful August roses. I’m always grateful for beautiful roses in my garden.Dad’s not a rose, but I’m also grateful for him- especially grateful that his health has improved and he’s had a great summer. We celebrated his 59th birthday this month. Lots of kids called home to visit with him and I know he appreciated that the most. So, in order for him to enjoy keeping in touch with everyone, we bought him a new computer. He already had a good monitor but he was using Granpa Harmon’s old computer and it was all but gone. Dad and I had looked at this one for a few months and I decided it was time to really celebrate and buy it for his birthday. He has really enjoyed it since then.Tessha added a touch of class with an Armoni tie – baby blue!!On August 17th Dad and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. So much has happened in so few years. It makes me wonder about all the things that are yet to come throughout the eternities. 35 is just the beginning. We celebrated the week before because I had to go back to work on the 17th. So, for our anniversary Dad took me to dinner and then to see "Harry Potter". We also went to a couple of temple sessions and did Sealings after each session. The Idaho Falls temple is no longer making assignments for Sealings. Instead, after each session they open up the Sealing rooms to anyone in the session who would like to spend about 20 minutes doing Sealings so we took advantage of this opportunity. The first time we did Sealings Bro. Dale Murdock from Thomas was the sealer. He is a good friend of the family and Dad and I have a lot of respect for him. It was nice to be in a Sealing room with him. Tessha took some pictures of us for our anniversary. We waited till Sunday so Dad could show off his new tie.
Next we celebrated Tessha’s and Alisha’s birthdays. We all went to dinner at Garcia’s on Friday night since we were all off of work that night. Then on Sunday Tessha and I fixed a nice dinner at home. And then both girls got to open their presents – Alisha’s idea :-)Tessha got a new florescent light for her bedroom. She’s been busy painting and fixing it up nicely, so we thought she would enjoy a new light. Dad installed it and it works great. “ Let there be light”.
Alisha had picked out and was way excited for her new NIKE shoes. We blame Will for this obsession, but only Alisha could make it this fun!!! Proof that it’s a “Real Nike”
Afterwards we had cake. Not any ordinary cake but an Oreo, Ice Cream Cake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. The next night we had Alisha’s favorite dinner – pizza. Lindsey brought her a new country CD and Alisha declared the day a success.Last Saturday I had the day off from the pharmacy so I sat down at my sewing table and finished off all the projects sitting there. Of course, there are more coming but … I did all the mending, made three pair of pajamas for a friend, and four skirts for Alisha. Now, I can start the other projects. I’m excited! I started back to school on the 17th and Alisha stated today. We read scriptures this morning and Dad gave all of us Father’s blessings. Some things stay just the way they’re supposed to be and some things have new beginnings.
September begins tomorrow……………

July Came and July Went

It seems I'm only getting a new blog out once a month now but that's got to be better than every six months. :-)
And I can't remember if it was June or July but... Elizabeth and I finally made Gwen a crib set. Actually, it was just the bumper guard and sheets but it's what was wanted. Elizabeth had sent some fabric from Hawai long before they came themselves. And then I waited till she got here so we could make it the way she wanted. Elizabeth helped with it and Gwen encouraged us as we went.
I tried hard to rejuvenate my sad gardena plant. From the way it looks now, you would never have guessed that just a year ago people were borrowing my beautiful two toned leaved gardena for a weddings, etc. I'll keep trying. There is a touch of a new leaf coming.
However, I have been able to set out several potted flowers to color up the patio.
One day I even got a picture of a huge, beautiful orange and black butterfly sitting on a tiger lily. It took a couple of tries but I finally got a good picture.
We celebrated Elizabeth's birthday - kind of low key style.
And then we took a weekend trip to Orem/Provo. Haini and Kristi just had their third baby - Elijah Lucky Suguturaga~ born on Jenn's birthday~ July 17
and Marley (alias- Little Miss Marley) was celebrating her big 2. Wow, she had quite the party. Of course, her daddy was responsible for all the wonderful food and cousins were just able everywhere. And I got to hold and play with grandkids. We visited with Auntie Grace, did a little sewing with Laura (no photo) and of course, we went swimming with everyone.
(You can look at Elizabeth's blog for pictures swimming). We left a case of diapers and a case of wipes for Eli , took the Roemhildts and the Sugies to dinner and then headed home.
After all, Elizabeth and James were getting ready to move on.
We were so sad to see them go but we are grateful for the time they stayed with us.
So as not to end July on a sad note and because I want to be like Will (and I don't run 50 mile races or hike to the top of mountains) I brought home a little aquarium and two new fish for Jimmy to play with.
I had to watch them pretty carefully that first night but they are all doing well together. Alisha named the goldfish - Butterscotch and the little one is Scaper because he cleans up after the others. It took Jimmy a while to adjust to the filter and water current but he's doing great now. Just one happy little family :-)