In the blink of an eye a day is past and in no time at all a week and more slips by so elusively. I see it happening here on my blog, see it happening with my newsletters and see it happening with my children and little grandchildren. President Monson mentioned something about time passing quickly in a recent talk and he referenced time moving more and more quickly the older he gets. If that's the case, I'm feeling pretty old these days because time sure hasn't been working for me these days.
My last post was about TJei playing t-ball. Since then I've come across pictures of my kids playing t-ball ... just haven't gotten them scanned to get into a post. :-( They were so cute though, it brings a smile to reflect back on those days. Maybe someday soon I'll get a chance to scan the pictures.
Last week I received an interesting (unexpected) phone call, too. It was somewhat bizarre to answer the phone and ultimately have a voice on the other end of the line saying she is my daughter's older sister. There was totally a flood of emotions as I listened to her voice and engaged in conversation - also while running the entire conversation through my mind waiting on Jodie to come in from work so I could tell her about the call.
It was hard bringing up the topic to Jodie - telling her about the call and the conversation. In all these years, although she knew her dad adopted her after we were married, she has never asked about people or events before that time. We have been fortunate to have only one family - one set of rules, one set of parents over these many years. Now, the time has come for Jodie to make some decisions on her own. She'll decide how much contact there will be and whether she will learn about any of those events. This sister contacted her after learning about Jodie just a few days earlier. Their biological grandmother passed away about a year ago and they are named in her will. Someone at a lawyers office contacted her and also revealed to her that she had a sister somewhere. Their biological dad passed away several years ago.
Seriously, it was surreal to get that phone call.
On May 7th my dear friend Claudia had surgery for colon cancer. She is still in the hospital and just recently got out of intensive care. The surgery was far more extensive than expected and the cancer had spread to other organs. Part of her liver even was removed. Claudia is a sweet and gentle lady. My heart aches for challenges her family is enduring. Her daughter Christy is serving a mission and as expected, Claudia was elated to talk with her missionary yesterday!
My heart aches for the calls and conversations that didn't happen yesterday, too. Perhaps a bit melancholic and I just shouldn't go there - not now at least.
Mike and I spent a couple days in QC last week. It was so, so good to spend one on one time with our precious little Baylee and also one on one time with Davis. My, they are growing so quickly! Baylee is sharp as a tack! That little gal recognizes so very many animals by sight - even underwater creatures. Somehow she already senses grandmas aversion to sharks even. She would get a mischevious little grin when she turned to that particular page and slapped her little hand down with her finger pointing to the image as she declared, "shark" with a giddy squeal.
Baylee is talking so well! Sometimes she goes into a lengthy gibberish tale but more often she does shorter, easier to understand, bits of conversation. It is so funny when she does the gibberish - she is so expressive!
She is a little speed demon, too. That little girl has some running legs on her. :-) Mike and I both enjoyed sitting on the couch with her. As I read to her she would take a break every couple pages and crawl over onto Mike's belly and give him a hug as she smiled up at him, "Papa."
Jacob posted a video of Davis crawling across the floor and if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes that very day I might have suspected he doctored the video somehow. That little guy is only six months old and he too is a little speed demon! He crawls so very, very well. He can go from a crawl position to a sitting position on his own. He started out pulling himself up using the bars in his crib but can already pull himself up to the couch, chair or footstool. Just unreal that he is doing all this so young. Oh, he has a couple teeth, too!
We had so much fun with those little ones. We enjoyed our visits with John & Kelly and Jacob & Maria, too. We went for dinner one night with John and Kelly than the next night with Jacob and Maria. We really enjoyed the visits.
Mia is finally getting those eye teeth through. It's taken long enough and she has been a regular little bear. She is talking more and tries to say most anything she's encouraged to say. It is so cute, for grandma she says it "amma" and for grandpa she definitely gets that P sound in there, "ampa." Mia is going through a strip off the diaper and see how long til grandma notices stage. She is bare-bottomed a good portion of the day these days. She is ready for potty training, too. She actually goes into the bathrooom and strips off the diaper then climbs onto the toilet herself. I just wish I were a bit more motivated to get her trained. Better yet, I wish her mommy were a bit more motivated to get it done!
TJei is looking forward to the end of the school year - only because that means summer is almost here then her birthday so she can be old enough for school! She loves school. I love her loving school. She is counting into high numbers now. Usually she can get through the 30's before making a mistake. Sometime 40 comes out "thirty-nine four" but she gives it a good try. Grandpa taught her how to transition to the next 10's group. She has been reciting the alphabet since she was two but now she is doing a bit more sight recognition of the letters. She recognizes her name when written, can write her name, and notices the phonics of words and letters. TJei is looking forward to her little ballet recital - at the high school (she gets so excited about that) in a couple weeks. TJei loves to write and draw. She is a creative little girl and we enjoy her bunches.
My SS sent a text saying she'd call me later, way back when we were on our way to the valley but I haven't heard from her yet. I think she's forgotten all about me. :( Or at least forgotten that she sent that text.
We learned today that one of Scotty's cousins passed away on Friday. Bonnie Jean was in her 80s and lived a good life. How hard that must have been for her daughters and their families to have her pass just days before Mother's Day. Her funeral will be Wednesday. I called Aunt Ruth to share that information with her. I'll print it out and send it for her, too.
Aunt Ruth had knee replacement surgery recently and she hasn't been doing well at all since having the procedure done. She is pretty much convinced it is the anesthesia that makes recovery so hard for her. She was terribly sick for a long, long time a few years back after a medical procedure requiring anesthesia, too. With the news of Bonnie Jean she said, "Well. Scotty was 81 when he died. Bonnie Jean was 81. I'm not really looking forward to August this year." She is such a character!
We are enjoying Ryan's mission emails and we are so proud of him. He gets all the mail sent to him then answers in one email sent to his dad. Perry then forwards his email on to an ever-increasing list of recipients and Ryan includes little footnotes in his email in reply to specific emails.
Just as I was going out the door for a meeting today, I learned that there will be a new granddaughter added to the family in September. Nope, Jacob and Maria's baby isn't due until December and the gender is unknown at this time. Felicia called me after her doctor appointment today. She is due September 27th.
I just received a reminder how lagging my blog is - uh-huh, like I didn't know that! :-) Maria had a birthday in these missing weeks, too. I didn't get a post about that onto the blog although, in all honesty, back in December I didn't get posts made for special people either. :-( I kind of lost the momentum on getting those birthday tributes done. It's sad, I love the people who are part of my life so very much yet miss those timely opportunities to express my love or my appreciation.
Time. There just seems to be so little of it these days.
