Father's Day

Father's Day 2024  My Dads, husband and sons - Love them all so much. 

This was after the second operation - It looks better now - forget vanity and eye make-up, vision is so much more important!

Some very thoughtful friends and my Sister sent me get well gifts.  I am blessed.  Many friends have brought food and came to visit as well.  Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, fasting, gifts and just being you!  My days are made brighter because of your thoughtfulness                                                        

The last couple of months have been trying and painful.  I had a stint inserted for glacoma and a new lense with cataract removal.  Something went wrong and I had a painful headache and pressure in the eye which resulted in blindness in my left eye.  Unfortunately, there has been some terrible pain as well.  The Dr. gave me three injections and a biopsy in my eye which hurt more than I thought possible and the eye was better for a while, then began to hurt again.  Dr. Britton then went in and cleaned out the back of the eye and found it worse than he has thought and the retina was detached and not able to be fixed.  I came out of surgery hurting even more.  I am taking a lot of pain medication and trying to stay positive and pray for strength to endure this eye problem.  Fortunately, I have a terrific husband, children and wonderful friends in the neighborhood and ward. who have visited, brought food, flowers and expressed their love and prayers in my behalf.  I know I am blessed and am trying to understand what I can learn from this experience.   The doll in the picture was a doll given to Amanda when she had surgery as a child.  She brought it over to give me while at the hospital - just a sweet and thoughtful daughter!  Also had a visit at the hospital from daughter, Valerie.  Mal stayed overnight at the hospital until I could come off the IV and take meds home. 

We have a lovely Lincoln Rose in our front yard.  This is our latest bloom:  Love Roses!

Alaska Trip

Malcolm with a big bear at the University

 

Creamer's Dairy near Fairbanks, Alaska - We had milk delivered 

from this dairy when we lived in Alaska

Patsy sitting in Santa's Chair at North Pole, Alaska

A Moose at Santa's House at North Pole, Alaska Near Santa's House

Malcolm near the Alaska Pipeline

Flying on Alaska Airlines

We had an opportunity to visit Alaska for our 50th College Reunion at the University of Alaska.  One of the most fun activities was to have dinner with Sandy, Alex and Philip at a great restaurant just outside Fairbanks.

Malcolm in Santa's seat at Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska

This is where we started at the University of Alaska

 The Choir of the North plane I flew in when I attended the University of Alaska

Our 50th Anniversary surprise

All of our children and most of our grandchildren planned a surprise 50th Anniversary for us in Sonoma at Train Town, then to Mary's Pizza for dinner.  We were totally surprised.  We had a planned activity with Dan and his family and had just purchased tickets for the train ride when all the other children just walked in and surprised us!  What a wonderful day we had.  Valerie ordered some delicious cakes and Amanda took many terrific pictures of all the families, couples and groups of us and of course some candid shots.  Perfect day with a fantastic family!!  Thank you to our Children!!!

New Living Room

Time for a change and to lighten up our living area - we love it and it is comfy!

Pageant of the Masters

We had a fabulous time for dinner and Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach with Mike and Annette!

Cooking and Canning

Bee

n Cooking and canning from the garden lately and enjoy it so much!  Got a recipe for Krispy Kreme donut and tried them - very yummy!

Happy Easter - we are blessed to have the Savior in our lives!  He has shown us the way to live!

This is a picture of my Mom and her two sisters years ago.  She is such a great lady and a good examplwe for all~

 Chili sauce and Jam

 Dill Pickles

 Peaches

Tomato Soup

I just finished canning chili sauce, tomato soup, zucchini relish, peaches, plum jam, beets and more jam.  I feels good to have the shelves filled with canned veggies from our garden and some good fruit too!

Trip to Utah with Nicole, our granddaughter.  She had fun getting to know Gram Eastland and visiting with Dan's family and out to dinner with them, then to temple square to see the sights.  Malcolm drove over to pick us up and drive home.  Nicole and I took a sleeper car on the train to Utah from Sac.  It was fun and we enjoyed the trip, food and visiting.  She was a great pal to go with me.

We gathered some tomatoes, onions and bell peppers from our garden today and canned some chili sauce.  I use this a lot in meat loaf, but it is good on egg dishes and hamburgers too.   I love to put up fruits and veggies from our garden.  Thanks to Caleb Stewart for bringing over more tomatoes just in time!

We had a wonderful and full vacation the past couple of weeks.  We first wanted to visit my Sister Val in Sequim, WA but they had a family emergency and had to drive to Arkansas, so we visited the town anyway and enjoyed the quaint little town.  We stayed in Olympia for a couple of nights, then on to Malcolm's Sister Kathi's in Arlington, Washington.  We were there for a few days and saw the Chilhuly garden of glass and attended a Giants/Mariners ball game.  We ate out and saw some sights in a small village and generally just enjoyed ourselves, ending up with ice cream and strawberries.  Then we went to Todd and Billie's in Tillmook and spent a couple of days with them, eating, visiting, sharing photos , eating out and enjoying their home.  Todd had built a garage and apartment so it was fun to see the improvements.  We ate out one evening;, had a barbecue, the had breakfast at the Tillamook Creamery.  We stopped on the way home and saw Brittany and Jim on our way home in Monroe, Oregon and had a good visit with them too.  We enjoyed the cool and rainy weather in Washington and Oregon while it was hot at home.  Great Trip!!!

Chilhuly Gardens of Glass in Seattle

 

My Sister, Val's home in Sequim Washingon

 

Some of the Bridges we saw in Washington

 

Todd & Billie's home in Tillamook

 

Tommie and Billy at Todd's singing on the Banjo

 

Space Needle in Seattle

Love this quote from Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Birthday for Nicole and Chilly's graduation

Nicole blowing out the candles on her three tier strawberry shortcake

Chilly after graduation

Chilly's money tree for graduation

Nicole's 17th Birthday with New Scriptures

Malcolm has had quite a few interesting T shirts which he was not wearing so we cut out the logos and inserted them in a blue background and made a quilt top.  This year for his birthday, I put the quilt together and tied it for him.  He as pleased and it is a soft and comfortable light quilt with memories!