Beneath the Wraps

            Jaime and I were up before 5:00.  We played Phrasel on the kindle as we waited for Richard to emerge from the bedroom – possibly 45 minutes later.  We opened two presents each before getting dressed.  A calendar from my grandchildren I had spent Thanksgiving with!  What a beautiful calendar it is!           We had invited the missionaries over to have breakfast with us and played some games with them before they had to leave.  We then opened the rest of our gifts and played more games.  Brand new games – two of which we had played with the Elders.           David invited us to have dinner with his family.   We played more games before returning home.   I am very tired and need to go to bed.   Perhaps I ’ ll include more detail and pictures in another post.

                 My whole purpose for going to Utah in the first place was to see my sister’s family and that of my son, Ryan. Initailly I thought I would go at the end of July as Shelly and Shaylynn would have camp and Shelly would need someone to stay with the boys while Todd was at work.  Then I got word of an upcoming ward reunion for August 19 th . I somehow didn’t feel that I would be able to stay that long and declined the reunion.  Later Shelly informed me that she was released from her calling and wouldn’t be attending camp after all – which gave me opportunity to make arrangements to attend the reunion after all.   And then Natalee (aka Sunny) called to ask if I’d be there this summer so that she could arrange for my sibs and I to get together.   She made arrangements for all of us to get together for a barbeque on the 18 th .   So my initial plan was to take the greyhound on the 15 th and arrive on the 1...

  On Thursday morning my cousin Kindra (aka Michelle) and daughter, Aria (aka Melody) drove to Marj’s house to take Jaime and me to breakfast.   We ended up at a waffle house near the high school.   Afterwards  Aria had wanted to get something at Fashion Place and so Jaime and I returned to the mall for a second time. After we were through browsing at the mall, Kindra drove us downtown and dropped us off.              We were specifically looking for a penny press machine and thought there might be one at the planetarium, but there was not.      Jaime received a text message from Richard while we were downtown.   He had made arrangements for us to check in at a hotel as he was planning on driving in to collect us.  I was adamant about NOT returning on Greyhound.   I had wanted Richard to go with us in the first place specifically for the 18 th and 19 th – my soul reason for even being in Utah.   ...

 We ate dinner as a family and I asked if it would be okay to do a family home evening each week.  I really would like to know these three extra people who are now a part of our household.  We know OF them but don't feel a connection to them.  And so I introduced Define Your Dash and answered only one question and asked if we could do at least one per week.   https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/define-your-dash-start- writing-your-personal-history-with-the-52stories-project After we each answered the question Ally and Clair started a game of "Never Have I Ever".  We each started out with five fingers but within six questions three of us had only one finger left, Clair had two and Ally had three.  She said she had never been to Disneyland which made the rest of us go out.   Ally drew with markers while the rest of us played a few rounds of Blokus.  Could be the start of something positive.

                Wednesday was a more relaxing day as the only driving was on the part of Tony who had loaded up the car and came on down to spend with us.  I had washed three loads of clothes before they got here and I think they ended up doing four.           We played or started many games.   I think there were more games we hadn’t finished then there were those we finished.   Richard made fish for our lunch and decorated cupcakes with the kids.   I think Tony and family left shortly after 7:00 and decided to head toward Medford in order to see the temple.   They said they returned to Roseburg after 11:00. Yesterday required more driving as we went to the Wildlife Safari. It seems each time I have gone to the park there seems to be less number of animals than the last time I was there.   We did see a group of staff members watching a cheetah in the parking lot.  ...

          All three of the boys have said they would come visit – though only two have made it.  Randy brought his family over Memorial weekend last year. This year Tony said he would leave Salt Lake after Jaime ’ s graduation.  He left on the forth. They came by way of California so that they could see the Redwoods.  We did not realize that we lived so close. We had suggested to them that they could stop at the Vortex on the way here – but by the time they got there, it was almost time to close.  And then the GPS led them some funky way.  For they were only forty minutes out but took to hours to get to us.         They chose not to stay with us as their middle child is allergic to dogs.   Though we did put Bonnie in the kennel on Monday morning, Liz still has allergies.   She remembered having been there before and was quite excited about her stay.   Jaime was not excited.   The...

          I don ’ t know how old my kindle is.  I am certain a relic according to Kindle standards.  A while back I would not be able to finish playing games as they would freeze up until I finally deleted them because really . . . what was the point of having a game take up space if I wasn ’ t able to play it?  It ’ s not as if I was all full up and lacking for space.  Turns out the games I ’ m playing are also relics – thought it is hard to label them as such because I feel that I am at least 4-6 times older than they are and I don ’ t consider myself a relic.         Anyway there was a while there in which I had only six games to play and was getting bored as only three were word related.   The last couple of months have given me other game options – recycled games.   I know they are recycled as I continue receiving messages that this game will expire at the end of October (or some other mon...

             A few years ago a friend of mine had given me her old kindle.   She said she wanted me to have it so that I could read or play games.   I brought it home and had Roland look at it and create an account for me.   He did so using his Amazon account.   Whenever I turned the kindle on it greeted me as Roland's kindle Roland's kindle (though it's not)   I wasn’t much for reading electronically, but did enjoy the games.   I mostly played word games. After a while I had played the games and turned to daily puzzles which I would download before I left the house.   That way I could play them while I was on my lunch break.             After a while the kindle decided to spaz on me and would claim it would recharge but then it give me the kindlefire sign and I couldn’t get past it.   I did nothing with it for a few weeks and Roland decided to restore the kin...

          Last week I had taken Jenna to the church with me in order to wrap gifts for some members in the ward.  Another sister had dropped by the church to donate some games – which Jenna volunteered to take home.  I ’ m not really certain how that came about but we did end up with them.         Thursday night Jenna ’ s Sunday School teacher dropped off a candy filled sock.   Jenna added the small sock to our fireplace ; she said it would be for Bonnie.           It turned out to be a really nice Christmas.   Each of us had three gifts beneath the tree plus the two games we dubbed from Santa Clause. Traditionally we will first open our socks.   Jenna passed them out one at a time.   I noticed my sock was bulkier than it had been before I had gone to bed.   Gloves, toffee, a chocolate orange and a notebook had been added to what I had already put...

          I had always believed that New Year’s Day was for taking down the Christmas decorations and putting them away as that is the day my mom had always done that.   I had tried carrying it over to the family I am with right now.   Sometimes it works, but not always.   Roland always seems anxious to take it down right after Christmas.                     We did not wait until New Year’s for the outside decorations but removed the lights and ornaments, electric cords and so forth from the yard.   We started at 10:00 Tuesday morning before the fog had completely lifted.   Roland announced that it was going to rain.   He was right.   It poured.   I can’t remember what time it started pouring, but it was still light outside.   I don’t think the pouring stopped until after midnight.       ...

          Monopoly is still not my favorite game, but it is one of the few that Roland will agree to play with us.   However the rules vary quite drastically depending on whether he or Jenna are banker.   One of the last times we played, each of us had monopolies but Roland was banker hoarding houses and we were not allowed to buy hotels until we slowly built up and then traded in.   When Jenna’s banker, hotels can be purchased without having to first build up a housing empire.   There aren’t enough houses – at least there weren’t.           Roland found some extra houses at good will and purchased what appears to be vintage pieces.   Not original 1936 pieces but a remake done in 1947.   We decided to incorporate the extra housing in with our game pieces that were made this century. We played a came the day after Christmas. The hotel sizes are different and the house ...