Ginny Bell

 Once, when I was in my thirties, my dad told me he had gone to see his long lost sister in Salt Lake City. He had pictures and everything. This was the first I ever heard of my Aunt Virginia.

Virginia was my dad's half sister on his mom, my grandmother's side. My dad said she was a socialist, and I told him he should give me her phone number. He said no, you two would just be a bad influence on each other. This irked me, of course, especially since my dad gave my number to perfect strangers sometimes, if he felt like it.

Some years later, my sister-in-law moved to Jackson, Wyoming, and I managed to talk my husband into driving from Southern California to Wyoming for a visit. We drove right through Salt Lake City on the way.

When we planned to return to Wyoming the next year, I remembered my dad's sister was in Salt Lake City, and once again requested her number from my dad, and he gave it to me.

I called her up and told her I was her niece, her brother Bryan's daughter, that I was coming through Salt Lake City, and would she like to visit. She said yes. She was 85 years old.

On our first visit, she told me about her life. I learned of all of the trials she faced in childhood and her marriages. She told me how she hadn't seen any of her family for the most part since she got to go with her democratic club to have tea with Eleanor Roosevelt and was then labeled a communist by her family.

In front of Sun and Moon Cafe in Salt Lake City

She was thrilled to finally have someone from her extended family of origin who wanted to see her. I was thrilled to finally have extended family I had things in common with. 

She told me she loved me, and I told her I loved her, too. 

These visits became regular each year as my family drove to Wyoming. I tried to give Aunt Virginia a call once in a while, too. Eventually, she'd ask when I'd come see her again. Annual  visits turned into twice a year. 

It's only ten hours from Southern California to Salt Lake City. I would put my kids in the car and drive out, stay overnight, and head home. We even brought someone else along a couple times.

 I had planned to come see my aunt this week with my two kids, and my sister is here with two of her kids as well. She wanted so badly to see all of us again. One of my favorite sayings these days is, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

During my visits with Aunt Virginia, I also learned about her dedication to peace, justice, and what she referred to as the brotherhood of man.

Sometimes when we talked, she would ask me about what we could do to solve so many of the world's problems. I'm glad she inspired me to contemplate that question deeply. And to come up with my answer: wherever you go, spread as much love and kindness as you can. Each of us can only change the world by acting, doing all we can to help others in our lifetimes,  not waiting for someone else to make things better.

I'm pretty sure Aunt Virginia would like these words from Gandhi: "If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him... We need not wait to see what others do."

I know my aunt lived a life that made the world a little better for those around her. I'm so glad I knew her.

To see her obituary, check out
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=virginia-bell-ward&pid=162269653#fbLoggedOut

Undoing of a Parent

I haven't yet blogged about my life beliefs, and I fear doing it. However, I feel like writing about this, so here goes...

A while back, on Facebook, one of my friends wrote a comment like this: Something sweet and banal about children, friends and Jesus. One of his friends commented something like they aren't banal. Friends and children can be mean sometimes, and you shouldn't deal with Jesus unless you want to come undone.

I have to agree that there is nothing banal about children but not because they're mean. However, just as, well maybe, you shouldn't deal with Jesus unless you want to be undone, I don't think you should deal with children, or at least not try to raise them, unless you want to be undone. I had thought about this, and then someone shared this link to "Presence Parenting" which just explains it so well. http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f6dfa116c918f9b5a6e3493a3&id=f4c78f878d

"Peaceful parenting did not come natural for me once my first child hit the toddler years and I was faced with how to respond to questionable behavior. It’s not that I didn’t want peace, it’s that it has required quite the undoing of non-peace to actualize it in our home… and we continue to focus on peaceful conflict resolution  Peaceful parenting requires diligence in observing where I am parenting from moment-to-moment and what short and long-term results I really want to create in our family.

Through many ups and downs in life I decided that parenting in peace was something I’d die for. Even though I did not initially realize it, this meant that the “me” I thought I was would die. Not me – the physical expression and body known as Amy – but all of the stories, patterns, and actions that were not serving me or my family. Such a death does not occur instantly or without pain in many instances. And it certainly requires a focus on what one is living and standing for.

We can choose peace. In any moment, in all moments… over and over again until there’s nothing left but peace. It starts with us, on the personal level. Join me in the journey…"

I have joined the journey. It's caused me to dig down deep, to try to be undone. It's a process. It definitely is not happening as quickly as I'd like, not because I don't like it but because the more quickly I catch on, the better for my children, at least I hope.

Chuck E. Queen

Winter's Sixth Birthday

We were in Redding the week before Winter's birthday. She had wanted to have a party at Chuck E. Cheese, so we thought it would be fun to do it there with her cousins and aunt and uncle. It wasn't enough of us to do the whole party reservation thing, but we got everyone food and tokens and a cake. She really wanted the Chuck E. Cheese cake. 

Winter's aunt Monica bought her the birthday crown they include if you reserve a party there, and since the people working knew we were doing a birthday, I guess it's customary for them when they bring out the cake to have Chuck E. come out and for them all to sing to the birthday person. They also threw in a Chuck E. balloon. Her cousins gave her presents from them to open, and her two older cousins were very sweet to play games that they won lots of tickets at and gave to Winter for prizes. The little ones picked out their own prizes, so that way party favors were included. It turned out to be a really fun celebration.

On Winter's actual birthday, we took her to Build A Bear at home.

 The dress she's wearing is one that she got for her birthday. She loves wearing dresses.

She also got a new queen dress that I bought at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

She is pictured in that below and is waving her new Harry Potter wand she also received as a birthday gift.

She had more cake and other presents, too.

This doll house was sent from her grandma and grandpa. It was a very nice birthday.

2011 Blog Blitz

So...can I catch up on a year of blogging? I have pictures of things we did last year that I wanted to write about and never did. I've been a little busy. My kids stay up pretty late. They like to use the computer during the day. They wake up fairly early in the morning. It's hard to get my computer time in.

I took pictures last Valentine's Day. They were on my phone, though, and it had a problem. I had to replace it, and all the pictures on it were lost.

However, I finally dug this out of Matt's car today and took a picture of it. On Valentine's Day, we went to a

members' party at a kids' museum, where they got to do crafts and decorate cookies, then on to Matt's work for more festivities, including more cookie decorating. They had a guy doing caricatures. He said he couldn't put all four of us in. Winter chose to have her dad in the drawing, so this is it! She wanted Matt to put it up in his office, and it's been in his car ever since, until I brought it in today.

In March, we went to the same kids' museum for a Mad Hatter Tea Party. They had more crafts and got to play croquet with flamingo mallets. 

Winter took classes at the museum all last year, and Miss Allison, her teacher, was at the tea party that day.

Holly didn't participate in most of the tea party activities, but I enjoyed getting pictures of her favorite museum activities, like the train table and the waterways.

At the end of March, we all traveled south, flying into Dallas, where we spent time with my aunts, uncle, and cousins, and Sharon, one of my very best friends. Then we drove out to Louisiana to visit with Matt's grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousins and their families. Matt's grandpa took all of us, the whole family group, out to his friend's miniature horse farm. When we arrived, we were loaded onto the back of a truck to be driven around the ranch.

Winter and Holly were excited.

One of the best parts about visiting there is just hanging out in the back yard, with the dogs

and the ATVs.

Matt's uncle John recruited the kids to help with some yard work.

It's always so nice to reconnect with family. We hope to return to the South before too long!

In April, we met my friend Lily from Vancouver, BC, up at the tulip festival. It was so fun. Winter loved watching the parade. She said it was the best parade she'd ever seen.

Lily got this picture of us in the tulip field.

 Winter got lots

of great shots of the tulips. This is my favorite because she's got her toes in there, too.

Around Easter time, we were at the mall. Winter saw the Easter Bunny there for pictures and decided she wanted a picture with him. There's a Target in the mall, and we went to get outfits for them to wear. Holly wouldn't put on her pretty dress, but I love this picture anyway! ;)

In May, Matt's parents came for a visit. We ended up at the Disney store at the mall. They put on a princess parade, and Winter joined in as Ariel.

Holly warmed up enough to her Papa Bob to ride on his lap on the monorail.

  At home, Winter put on a play for all of us and then continued her role as Ariel.

In the middle of June, we met my sister's family in Redding, way at the north end of California. It is such a beautiful area. We took a tour of the Shasta caverns and hiked around Burney Falls.

After hiking at Burney Falls, we found a lake to splash around in for a while.

We also went to the Turtle Bay Exploration Park and visited the Grossology exhibit at the museum there.

Before returning home, we stopped in Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I had always wanted to go there and was so happy to finally make it.

Shortly after returning, we celebrated Winter's sixth birthday.

We went to Build A Bear and had cake and presents at home.

She got a new queen dress from the Shakespeare Festival and a Harry Potter wand, which she is waving.

Whew! Well, that's the first half of the year. Hopefully, I'll finish the second half very soon!!

5x7 Folded Card

Sparkle Joy Holiday Card

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Half a Glass

Talking about the glass half empty or full has become, dare I say, a cliche at this point. I, for one, never liked the saying much. After hearing it some, I started to think, reallly, it's both, isn't it? It's half empty and half full. Or, actually, it's full if you include the air.

Nothing in life is really one way or another, anyway. There are all kinds of in betweens. And no one is just a glass half empty or full kind of person. Really, someone may be more of one in certain situations or another way in others. At different points in life, someone may tend more often to look at the glass in one way and at other points, the other.

No one has ever accused me of being an optimist. However, lately, whenever I hear someone talk about if a glass is half empty or half full, I have trouble even picturing a glass half-filled with some sort of liquid in my mind. All I can conjure up in my imagination is a glass that is overflowing.

The Monson New Year

For many, many years now, Matt and I (and then with Winter and, eventually, Holly) have celebrated the new year with Matt's Uncle Mike, Aunt Nancy and their kids, Lily and Drew. It began with Mike and Nancy in San Francisco when we all lived there. Then it was with Lily. Mike and Nancy moved to Modesto and then had Drew, and the tradition carried on. It's been almost 20 years since our first new year together.

Mike and Nancy separated a few years back, but the tradition has continued. We've gone each year still to the home where the kids are and rung in the new year together. Mike married Rebecca a couple years back, and now she's become part of the celebration.

When Lily and Drew were growing up, January first at midnight was party time! We would put on Times Square and count down. Everyone would toast and hug and kiss. Then we'd break out the party poppers and pots and pans and go outside. We screamed and cheered and made all kinds of noise. We danced around in circles. We would chase each other around the house with silly string.

The party has quieted down some over the years, but I hope I can carry on the excitement with my own kids as time goes on. It's always been such a joyous occasion. This year we were at Mike and Rebecca's house. Over the past few years, we haven't had Lily home with us at midnight because she's out with friends. Mike and Rebecca went to sleep at about 10:00 on December 31st this year. Holly was asleep before that.

At midnight, the roster of those of us awake at the Monson home were me, Matt, Winter, Drew and his girlfriend of about six months Amber. This was the first time we met Amber, since we hadn't seen Drew for almost six months, and we think she's awesome. The five of us had a raucous celebration at midnight, and I was so happy our new year tradition happened once again.

  

Little Bear Rapids

The creek in front of our house is called Little Bear Creek. Whenever we get some heavy rain, it's more like Little Bear Raging Rapids. Here it is on December 12, when it was rainy.

Our yard usually looks like this from our window.

Later on December 12, after two days of steady rain, it became Little Bear Pond.

Some of the aftermath, after the water receded:

As of yet, our bridge is also completely dismantled. Matt tried to go out and remove the planks during the rain but almost got himself killed. He's been able to locate most of them since, and they'll be easy to replace once he gets around to it.

Birthday Reindeer

Holly's birthday was December 5, a Sunday. We thought she might like the zoo. They aren't officially open in December, I guess, but they do a reindeer festival during the month instead. It was a nice day. This zoo lets people feed some of the animals with apple pieces or food pellets one can buy there. Holly seems to really like feeding the animals.

She tried really hard to get the lion statue to eat an animal cracker. He must have known he wasn't supposed to eat anything brought in from the outside.

When we got home, Holly fell asleep. We had to wait for her to wake up for cake and presents. This gave me just enough time to wrap her gifts and get the cake ready.