A Dream Come True!!

The Big Day!
It has been a long time since we have had any of our children living close to us. Many of you will remember the main reason we moved to Arizona was because we had three children and about 12 grandchildren living here. Then, after only a few months, Stan and I went on a mission, and, wouldn't you know, one by one the kids all moved away, and worst of all, they took the grandchildren with them! Well, things are looking up for us now.--In January, Dave brought Brenden and Landon out, got them enrolled in school, and left them with us. Then in February, he and Roberta drove two big trucks out from North Carolina and moved into a house just two miles from us. They got here just two days after the biggest snow we've had in years. Great timing!

They hadn't seen the house they were moving into, except on the internet. But I had taken the boys over, and got their approval, so we just hoped they wouldn't be disappointed. As soon as the rest of the family got here, we took a quick trip over to have a look. Because of all the snow and ice, we could barely get up the driveway which, I must say, is pretty darn steep. But we were determined to get up there.



The next day we all went to help unload. Needless to say, the trucks couldn't get up the driveway either, even though by this time the sun was out and the driveway itself was pretty clear. So they had to unload the stuff from the truck into the car and onto another trailer and pull it up with a pickup, and then unload the trailer.
Here's the second unloading process.
Notice that everything still had to be carried across the icy driveway. It was quite an ordeal and took two days, with the piano being unloaded on the third day. But we were glad to help because we're so glad to have them here. I just hope they will stay for a really long time. (Sorry to take them away, Van Buskirks.)

A Plea for Sympathy!

Okay! I've swallowed all my pride, and I'm posting this. I had a little mishap on Easter Sunday. Was out on the back patio with my grandsons--missed the step and fell flat on my face on the concrete. You can see where my glasses cut the bridge of my nose. It scared the kids to death. Brenden wanted to help me up, but I told him to just leave me there until everything quit hurting. He said he was going to go upstairs and get Grandpa. Meanwhile, I was bleeding all over the patio. It's amazing that I wasn't in more pain. I just remember seeing the concrete coming toward me, and thinking that this is really going to hurt. My first thought was that I had broken my teeth, but fortunately they seemed okay. Next worry was that I'd scratched my new glasses (which I did, but only slightly), and then we were all certain that I had broken my nose. Not a pleasant thought. I may have, but since I knew they wouldn't do anything for it (unless it was really bad), I just sat around with ice on it. This picture was taken that evening, after I called Maren and told her what had done. Her first response was, "You are going to take a picture and put it on the blog, aren't you?" Then I called Casey--Her first response, "You need to take a picture and put it on your blog!" How's that for sympathy?

So here I am. Actually, I think I was just getting ready to say something when Stan took the picture, so you can't really see how swollen my lip was, but take it from me--it was really fat!
I should have taken another picture a day or two later, because the bruise above my lip got really ugly. Couldn't hide it, so Stan kept calling me "Charlie" (as in Chaplin) which was a wee bit better than Adolph.

I tried to cover it with all the makeup I had, and Tuesday morning after I got myself looking the best I could, I came into the kitchen and Stan said, "You look like you've been beaten." I said, "Oh (whiny voice here), do I look that bad? I really need to go to the store." Stan: "Do you want me to go for you?" (Insert this implied followup--"You probably shouldn't be seen in public.") He's a real morale booster. Anyway, I'm much better now--the bruise is slowly fading, the lip is back to normal, and I think the swelling is almost gone on the nose (or maybe not, and this is what I'm left with.)