My Gram

On Tuesday, my sweet grandma took a fall (or more accurately her legs suddenly quit holding
her while she was standing) and hurt herself pretty badly. When I got the call, I cried to think
of her going through so much pain. And then to discover after the fall that her heart had
worsened and was not doing well at all, it just about did me in. I began fasting for her and by
the next day, I knew I needed to go see her. I definitely didn't have the thought that something
was going to happen, but just that I needed to be with her. As I've mentioned before, my Gram
 and I are incredibly close and I knew I needed to be there, even if just for a few hours.

So my amazing husband (oh, I'm so grateful for him) told me he would do whatever he needed
to make it happen and within about four hours, I had rented a car, packed my suitcase, made sure
things were somewhat calm and stable at home and started the 4 1/2 hour drive to see my grandma.
I arrived about 11:30 on Wednesday night and went straight to her home to sleep (she was staying
with my wonderful uncle and aunt who were taking amazing care of her). It made me emotional
to be in my grandma's home without her, but I was grateful to at least be in the same city
as she was and anxious to go to sleep, so I could wake up and go spend time with her.

The next morning, as I was waiting to hear if she was awake and ready for
visitors, I walked around her home. My heart felt so emotional and I felt
strongly I wanted to take some photos of things that remind me of my Gram.

Like the path up to her front door. My grandma moved out of the house she has always
lived in a few years back, in order to be closer to family, and while I was sad to have
her leave the place that holds so many, many memories from my childhood and early
marriage, her home is anywhere she lives and I love visiting wherever that might be.

I love these painted rocks (and other treasures) by the front door. Every time I see them, I know
I am seconds away from seeing my grandma. It was hard for that not to be the case this time.

The painting over my grandma's bed. This just reminds me of my grandparents and I love it.

This sums up who my grandma is and what matters to her. She has had this
 tile for almost as long as I can remember and it means so very much to her.

This may seem like a silly photo, but seeing her exercise bike in her sun room reminded
me of my grandma's exact obedience in all things. When her doctor tells her to do
 something, she doesn't use age or lack of time or lack of energy or any other excuse.
She does what she has been told to do. She is that way with the gospel also.

And next to the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing matters more to my Gram then her family. Nothing.

 And following her family, the temple would be next on the list. Her commitment and love of the
temple is inspiring and beautiful. When she fell, she was ironing her temple clothes to be ready
to go to the temple as soon as it reopened after being closed for cleaning. In six more days.

The twelve hours I spent with my grandma that day felt sweet and sacred to me. Much of it was
spent reading while she slept, some of it was running errands for things she needed, some of it
was visiting with her or helping her eat. But it was such a privilege for me to just sit by her bedside
 and be with her. I love her so much. (And while taking a picture of her might have made more
sense, as I watched her sleep, she was so weak and vulnerable, I just couldn't bring myself to
take a picture of that. But this photo reminds me of those wonderful hours just as well.)

After heading back to her house that night, I got some sleep and then woke up anxious to spend
a few more hours with her until I needed to head home. As I walked down her front path toward
the car, I looked up at the sky and this is what I saw. And while that may just feel like another of
my millions of sky pictures to everyone else, this one was so much more. Because at the same
moment I saw the beauty of the sky, I knew, to the deepest part of my heart, that my Heavenly Father
  was aware of my Gram and that He loved her and would do what was best for her. I was so grateful.

Before I left, I cut my grandma's toenails and fingernails and rubbed lotion into her feet
and hands. I never imagined such an ordinary experience could feel so holy. I will never
forget that experience. Nor having to say goodbye and crying a good part of the hours home.

I'm so thankful for that time with my sweet Gram. And while I don't know what the
coming days and weeks and months will bring, I know without question and without
doubt that my Heavenly Father does. And that is enough. More than enough.

Pumpkins

A little earlier this evening, sweet Annie came up me to quietly and asked if she
could go and buy a few pumpkins from some little boys that were set up down
the street from our house with a pumpkin stand. Apparently, she had passed
by them a few times on her bike and no one was buying anything from them.

So she wondered if she could use her own money and go and purchase one or two.

When she returned, she let Gracie help her set them up on the porch. When I asked her
if the boys seemed excited, she smiled and said they were so thrilled they kept putting
pumpkins into the stroller because they were sure she wanted to buy that particular one.

I love this sweet girl and her compassion for others. And her darling little sister.

Who couldn't believe she got to help set up those fabulous pumpkins on our very own porch.

A first choir concert

 

I'm so grateful that these cousins get to sing together and that their friendship
means so much to both of them. I loved tonight and watching our Annie girl sing.

Fourteen

Our darling Annie had a birthday today and it was such a sweet day celebrating her and

her goodness and our gratitude that she is in our family and makes life so wonderful.

 Present opening started early with a high schooler in the family.

Annie wasn't too sad about that or the first present she opened.

She loves cute clothes and shoes and a pair of fall boots seemed perfect for October.

And then on to the newest tradition in our family. A gift from her siblings that
involves a toilet paper roll, tons of hilarious sticky note comments/coupons and a
dollar at the end. Only in this case, she had to go find it. Oh man, it was awesome.

 It takes a minute or two to get through the entire roll.

And her last gift. Which she thought from first glance was a new phone
case to make her pretty pathetic current phone look more fancy.

Until she opened it.

And realized it had a little something inside that case. I seriously love those picture.

And I seriously love this gorgeous girl.

Although I'm not sure how that many candles could be possible after
such a short amount of time. Good grief, how could we be here already?

We love our Annie girl...like crazy. And are so happy she is ours.

Campbell's 16th birthday trip

For his birthday last month, Cam received a trip to LA with Jacob for two days, to watch the US play
Mexico in a soccer game. And today, they arrived home from that trip. Yesterday they visited the
beach during the day and then headed to the soccer game that evening. And they had the best time!
I'm so grateful and so thrilled we were able to make it happen. Campbell deserved every bit of it.

Annie's 14th birthday party

At our house, our kids get friend birthday parties when they turn 5, 8 and 12. And then we do something really exciting and special for their 16th birthday. We came up with that rule really early in our marriage and to be honest, it has been lovely. We are big into birthdays at our house and try to make all of them happy for the kids, but we try to especially make their friend parties as exciting and wonderful as possible. And every year, the kids don't beg for a friend party or wonder if they are going to get one. They know the plan and they seem to like it a lot. Win-win for all.

So why am I posting photos of Annie's 14th birthday party? Well, I'll tell you. Because her brothers are just really kind to her and love her a lot.

Without going into details that don't matter, Annie's last two friend birthday parties (8 and 12) were fun and good, but a bit of a bust for two different reasons that Annie couldn't control. And she has always been so sweet about it, but I have felt sad about it for a while. And so when I asked if the boys would feel bad if Annie was given a friend party for her fourteenth birthday, they could not have been more happy for her.

Annie invited a few friends that live nearby and they had a simple, but really fun night together. And I wanted to make sure and put it on the blog to remember darling girls and how much fun they have together and sweet brothers and how kind they can be to their cute sister.

 We started the night at a nail place here in our town.

 The birthday girl with all of her friends getting a manicure.

 At the nail dryer posing for me.

And a little less posing, a little more reality.

 Pretty cute nails for sure.

After sort of watching a movie, while mostly talking and laughing,
they came upstairs to sing to Annie girl and have some of her donut cake.

 And in shocking news, they spent the rest of the party just laughing and talking together.

So grateful for these amazing girls and their kindness to Annie.

And for our sweet girl and how thankful she was for her birthday party bonus.

Sweet waffles, I'm old

 When we were so very close to him being handed his temporary paper,
I asked him how he felt about the whole thing.

And it's official. Good grief.

Random sharings

This temple sits across the street from the MTC. I took a picture of it when I was in Provo
yesterday. It just looked so beautiful there in front of the mountains, I couldn't help it.

Speaking of beautiful. Oh I joke. But I do love this quick snapshot of me
with my three youngest. They make me all kinds of happy.

 And speaking of why Ben was there and should have been in school...we weren't?
This sweet boy took a big time fall to the face on our tile, while swinging between two
chairs. I wish the picture did it justice. After we cleared away the blood, the swelling
to his nose and upper lip was immediate. It is just now starting to go away. I kept him
home from school the day after, to keep from worrying about it getting bumped or hit.

But staying home made Ben miss crazy hair day at school. I'll give you one guess as to who
did not miss crazy hair day at school. Help me Rhonda, this boy makes life exciting.

And now full circle (full-random circle) to the temple picture I took this morning.
Two temples in two days. I love that. I wish I could make it three in three. Maybe someday.

Visitors from the east

Last week, our friend Lorri and her people (Addi and Grace, who are like nieces to her,
but not technically, so we just took to calling them "her people") came to visit us. Addi left
this afternoon to enter the MTC to prepare further to be a missionary for our church and will
be headed to Tonga in a few months to serve the people there. Such an exciting time for her.

So the three of them flew out from back east and spent several days with us. We were grateful

they would take the time to be with us and glad they also had time to do many exciting things
while they were here. (Lorri is why I was able to attend general conference in person last
Saturday, so kind of her.) I think it was a wonderful/exhausting several days for all of them.

And we are thrilled for Addi and the people she will bless and serve in Tonga.

 See how excited they were to be visiting us? Okay fine, maybe this photo
isn't directly linked to visiting the Allens. But it sure is cute.

And all three of them the day before Addi left.

One more photo right before we dropped Addi off at the MTC. That is Addi's brother,
who lives in the area, and his darling girlfriend. Such a sweet picture for sure.

Thanks for coming Lorri, Grace and Addi! It was so fun to be with you.

A before and after

For the first 15 months we lived in our current home, there was something about it

that drove me pretty darn crazy. But I didn't want to rush to change it, until I knew for
sure it was worth the money and time. So I kept living with it. Until this past spring.
When I knew I wanted it changed. And sweet Jacob, and our incredible home teacher,
agreed to do just that. And I was so very thankful and so very excited.

This was the before. When you walked in the front door, this is what greeted you. And while the
wood was beautiful, man, there was a lot of it. I didn't feel like you could focus on anything,
because there was just too much--the actual fireplace over the stairway, the railing, the banister,
the large mantel, some very shiny tile, the frame around that tile. It made my brain want to cry.

(And yes, I'm fully aware many people wouldn't be bothered with it, but I
tried for more than a year, and apparently I am not one of those people.)

Because we haven't always dreamed of having a fireplace over our stairway (the other side of
the two-sided fireplace is in the living room, where a fireplace is meant to be), my first thought
was to have it replaced with a one-sided fireplace and just make that wall look like, well, a wall.
But after multiple bids that came in at many thousands of dollars (apparently the fireplace
is an odd size and the job is an odd job), I couldn't feel justified spending that kind of money.

So plan B it was...

Calm that wall down to make it look lovely and simple, rather than so very busy and busy.

Jacob and Mark took off the mantel, the banister, the frame and the tile. And even before anything
else happened or anything different was done, I was so thrilled with the simplicity I could have cried.
I think I squealed instead. Over and over again. I felt bad for them because I even annoyed myself.

 After the wall was fixed, patched and dried, the tile we picked out was put up. Oh my word,
I loved it so much. They could have stopped there and I would have been set.
But I didn't tell them that or they might have taken the offer. And probably should have.

Jacob then applied the grout and painted the wall and boy howdy, was I loving
how it looked. But then we had to figure out how to finish the edges of the
tile and that rough-looking spot where the mantel used to be.

Weeks when by with us trying different options and attempting to match different wood frames
to the original wood on the railing. Then one day, my darling friend came by (hi Carolyn!) and
I happened to mention to her we couldn't figure out a calm, matching version of a frame.
And she replied, "Do you have to put a frame up there?" Sweet chicken, I knew immediately
she had the right answer and was so very, very thankful. (I still am. Thanks Carolyn!)

So Jacob taped around the tile and he painted the small edge all around it the color of the wall.
Oh I loved it a lot. But still didn't know what to do about the area where the mantel had been.
We still couldn't match the wood and nothing was coming to us on how to make it work.

More weeks went by and one day I realized the answer. We could use a smaller piece
that came off the mantel and cut it down to size (both ways) to cover up that spot.

Mark and Jacob did exactly that and...

I love it, I love it, I love it!

(I love less that one of the lenses on our camera broke and I couldn't take a photo of
the finished product with the good camera and instead had to use the phone. Ugh.)

But help me Rhonda, even that can't ruin it because I just love the simplicity so much
that I keep finding excuses to stand in the entry and stare at the beauty of it all.
Usually those excuses include a desire to stand and stare at the wall and its beauty.

I'm so grateful for our kind home teacher and all that he did for us. And for my
wonderful husband who so kindly makes things happen that matter to me.

I love our house so much. I'm so grateful for it.

Love him

Yesterday, on a road not far from home, I was finishing up my morning walk. Suddenly from
the other direction, I saw Jacob headed out for a run. When he got within a few feet of me, he
suddenly leapt from the road where he was running, to the sidewalk where I was walking, pulled
me to him and kissed me. Then let go and kept running in the direction he had been going.
About 10 seconds later, from behind me, I heard him yell insanely loud, "Best run EVER!"

That man. I adore him.

A glorious day

The privilege it was to attend general conference and witness three new apostles
sustained still feels amazing and beautiful to me. As the session began and our
prophet walked in, I knew as surely as I know anything, that President Monson
is a prophet of God. And that God loves His children so very, very much.

I love this gospel. And am so incredibly blessed.

Spoiler alert: I said yes

Seventeen years ago today, this guy got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. 

Being married to Jacob Allen has exceeded my expectations in every possible way.