Jewkes Weekly Reader

November Blessings

2011-12-07T20:48:00.001-08:00

November splendor on Hickory Hill Farm

Katie Worthington came to town! Hooray!
Atlantic Station - Katie, me-mom-grandmom-Becky, Amanda, Claire
with Quincy admiring all of us. Present for the outing but missing
in the photo: Jana, Dagmar, Lina, Lilian and a few more little ones

A belated birthday lunch for Dagmar at Georgia Shrimp Co
Left side: Patti, Becky, Lina
Right side: Annabel, Amanda, Jana, Dagmar

Espen's 1st birthday
He asks, 'Is it o.k. to......

'....... dig right in?!'

'I'm hiding, I'm hiding, and no one knows where
For all they can see are my toes and my hair!'
Revealing: Tessa Jane Crofts, November 7

There's more than toes and hair to see!
Big sister Lauren and Grandma Becky with beautiful little Tessa

Tessa has a beautiful mom, Rachel.....

And a snuggly Dad, Brian

Some of the week's activities while Grandma Becky
was in Dallas: We made cinnamon rolls...

We sewed skirts and the girls modeled them....

We spent lots of time at the play park.....

We ate ice cream.....

And we were happy!

Thanksgiving in the family room.....

.....and the dining room, with the kids were outside on the deck!

One of several delicious desserts: Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifle

Our friends: Sue and Jerry Parker
Other guests: the missionaries, Rachel, Megan, and Michelle Smartt, Patti Jewkes from all over the world! Beau and Amy from Los Angeles, Claire and Jason from Augusta,
Josh and Dagmar from Tyrone, Jordan and Amanda from Sharpsburg
and all the little ones attached to these families

A trip to the temple and a dinner celebration afterwards?
What was there to celebrate? Me-Mom-Grandmom-Becky having a birthday!

'Over the river and through the woods to the
mountain cabin we go!' We spent a couple of days in the Blueridge
mountains after Thanksgiving. Beau and Amy
playing Memory with the experts: Ella and Lincoln

Hot tubbing on a cold winter's day!

Brrrrrrr!!! Get me dressed!

The Rockers! Lincoln and Jonah

Jason deserted his family! That's what dental school does to a man.
Claire all wrapped up in love.

Jordan and Amanda

Amy, Beau, Gary, Becky

Lincoln is sad to announce the end of November blessings!

2011 Halloween Parade

2011-11-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

What a fabulous parade!

A KISS to all! Wild Card - guess who?

Gorilla Meets Panda

Poppy and Grandma Becky

Who is the witchy-est of them all?
Grandma Becky!

Monopoly Man gets the fairest witch of all

Amy and Beau

The fairest Geisha of them all!
Jim...yes you read that right: J-I-M

Twilight's Edward with a creature of the woods
Muffy and London

A car full of spooks
Izzy, Gabe, and Hayden in front
Luke, Cooper, Emma and friends

Superman meets Transformer
Hayden and Luke

Tulip finds a Spider
Mamie Jane and her Mom

Southern Belle
Lili

Snow Princess
Sofia

Monkey Man One
Jasper with banana and bandage

Halloween Net Pet
Annabel

Superman!
Jonah

Trick or Treat!
Sedgwicks

Egyptian Princess and Tiny Princess
Madi and Hannah

Harry Potter for real
Caleb

Miss Princess and Miss Witch
Hannah and Lucy

A delicious cupcake!
Hannah

Monkey Man Two
Ammon with banana

Pirate Duo
Cooper and his Dad, Jake

Juno and her man
Emily and Jake

Pirate meets Transformers
Cooper, Luke and Ethan

The bravest witch of them all!
Rachel

Potiphar's wife seducing cowboy's wife!
Kate and Taylor

Dorothy of Oz
Lauren and her mom

Door-Bells!
Amelia, Rebecca, Christian, Oliver

Little sister with her racecar driver
Amelia and Oliver

Trying out the treats....
Amelia

Fairyland Princess
Ella

Transformer Man
Lincoln

A very cute spider for....

Charlotte's Web!

THE END....goodbye!

October Highlights

2011-11-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

Baby Charlotte arrives - Oct 6

Mother love....Claire and Charlotte

Annabel's blessing day, Oct 9

Blessing dress made specially for Annabel

Three generations

Little boys in blue at blessing luncheon
Lincoln, Jonah, and Jasper

Lincoln loves his pink cupcake

Jordan running a 15K in Peachtree City as
a warm up for his November marathon

Birthday boys - Jordan and Josh

In the shadow of the Great Pumpkin
Jonah and Jasper

There's witches in the air!
Who is the scariest witch of them all?.....

....Grandma Becky is!

Super Boy!

Mixed up Emma

You'll never guess who!...or will you?

No guessing on this one!
Poppy and Grandma Becky won a best costume prize!

Best friends, Ella and Lincoln

#32 is our boy! Jonah at soccer

Madison and her Mom

O'Brien's 50th Wedding Anniversary

Purple polka dot ladies, Izzy and Mamie

Mamie is all smiles....

...and so is Espen!

Fall reflections at Hickory Hill

May From Beginning to End

2011-06-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

On the very first day of May, we are in line for the Atlanta Temple Re-Dedication. Josh, Dagmar, Gary, Jason, Jordan, Amanda and Claire all in the picture. Moroni is there, too! It was a wonderful and memorable experience...

Gary helping at our Ward Day of Service for Padgett United Methodist Cemetery

A belated birthday present for Gary - dinner at a hibachi restaurant. Dagmar, Espen, Lili, Sofi, Jasper, Josh, Becky and Gary. It was 'flaming' fun and good!

Julie and Seth in Hawaii, island of Oahu

Julie in front of the Hawaiian Temple

Dave and Jessica leaving for Israel at the Los Angeles airport. Poppy and Grandma Becky got Hannah all to ourselves along with her brothers and sisters while they were gone!

Mother's Day in California. The grandkids crowned me Queen for the Day, Gary and Beau cooked and cleaned, and Lara (Amy's sister) and her husband/children joined us for dinner. Happy day! I love being a mom and a grand-mom!

Izzy in all her glamour had her mom send me this on Mother's Day.

The Nerds, Jim and Emma, knew I would love this photo!

And here is Mamie Jane fisting her wishes. Photos are perfect gifts!

Here's Moroni again - on top of the Los Angeles Temple this time.

Jana and I met up with Beau, who lives just a few blocks from the temple. We did a temple session then Beau gave us a tour of his neighborhood, apartment (loved it), work office, famous Hollywood theaters, and finally dinner, finished off with the best bargain in West Los Angeles: a big scoop of ice cream sandwiched between two personally selected cookies and all for $1.50!

And here's the menu to prove it: 'Sandwich Cookies, $1.50! Very popular destination for the UCLA students, and for me! I'll be back...

We definitely splurged with these ice-cream sandwiches! Jana took over babysitting duties half way through Jessica and Dave's absence. She is definitely a 'one-in-a-million' great-aunt to the Sedgwick kids.

Claire and Jason, Billy Allred and his wife, Alli, ready to leave for Spain. Grandma Becky and Poppy got grandkids (Ella, Lincoln, Quincy) all to themselves again! We have definitely lucked out in May with getting better acquainted with some of our amazing grandkids.

Some of the fun things we got to do while Claire and Jason were gone: Attend Ella's kindergarten graduation.

Watching Ella bid farewell to Orrs Elementary. She'll be going to school in Augusta, GA for the next four years.

We got to cheer Lincoln on at his pre-school graduation. He is reciting, with excellence, his part in the program.

A hug and congratulations from big sister, Ella, who was all dressed up in her flamenco costume.
Sweet 'Q' thought Grandma Becky did just fine as his mommy for a while! But now that May is over, Grandma Becky is quite glad to be back just being a grandma...

April Adventures

2011-05-04T08:03:00.001-07:00

Atlanta Temple Re-Dedication, May 1. We were fortunate to have

tickets for the Celestial Room. President Monson presided and

Elder Ballard conducted. It was an amazing and memorable experience.

Two bum-bums....ta da da da da da! Couldn't resist posting this

picture that Dagmar shared of Espen and Jasper.

Here I am with Elvis whom I had pretty much fallen in love with for horseback riding. He had

the smoothest gait and handled so nicely. Sadly, he was a fatality of the recent tornadoes.

In Blairesville, GA at the Tea Room for lunch. Becky, Jana, and Lucile.

We stole away for a few days in the north Georgia mountains.

Becky and Lucile in the hot tub at the cabin...love the shower cap! Love the lady

wearing it even more!

Our cabin, The Sweet Retreat, and it was sweet! Jana and Lucile

Gary and I celebrated our 38th anniversary in the hills of South Carolina at the

beautiful Red Horse Inn. Gary at a covered bridge nearby.

Gary checking in at the Inn

Looking out from the Inn toward the cottages

The view from the cottages to the Inn

Our own, private, quite romantic cottage, complete with a hot tub in the back

We invited several friends and neighbors to go to the Atlanta Temple Open House

during April. We were so happy when John and Marigold Watson, our Dunwoody neighbors, wanted to go. We picked them up, toured the temple, then took them to dinner. It was

wonderful to reconnect after such a long time - we moved from Dunwoody 16+ years ago.

We also were able to take Andy and Deb Conaway another time. Deb is my wonderful friend

who has gotten me back into horseback riding. Deb loves all living creatures great and small!

2700 youth from the Atlanta Temple District, at the Prophet's request, performed in a cultural production, Southern Lights, the night before the temple-rededication.

I helped sew the costumes for our ward, and

Ella helped me deliver them!

Each stake in the temple district had an assigned day to provide all the volunteers for

the Open House. I helped take the 'booties' off the people's feet as they exited the

temple. It was fun to see the Allred's come through and take their booties off for them.

Our 2nd Annual Back Porch Barbeque. Here is Gary visiting with Reid Galli and

Jeff and Wendy Stebar. President Stebar is lead architect for the Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania Temple and had a lot of interesting stories to share.

Gary with Dorothy Galli, a dear sister in our ward.

Hickory Hill Farm on the evening of the Back Porch Barbeque

Pink Ruffle azaleas in full bloom

We had our Easter Egg Hunt on General Conference Sunday

Ella found the Golden Egg!

Cousins on the back porch checking out their egg treasures.

L to R: Jonah, Lincoln, Ella, Lilian, Sofia, and Jasper

Above: Jasper eating his treats!

Below: Wayne coaxed Koda into watching conference...

Tornado Aftermath

2011-04-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

This home is across Highway 16 from Hickory Hill. Claire and Jason put an offer on this home before they purchased their home by us. About 1/2 mile away.

This is about 1/2 mile from our home again

Trees contorted in all directions

Across from Ruck's Dairy on Highway 16

This was a beautiful colonial home with white pillars that sat on 100 acres.
In the back was a stable that many show horses were boarded in. I've been horseback
riding here with Deb several times and 'Elvis', a gorgeous black Tennessee Walker, was always
my mount. He died in the tornado. This is the remains of the home. Portions of the stable are standing but the roof and one side is gone. I don't know how many horses died. This property is 3-4 miles from our home as the crow flies. Between Brooks and Griffin.

Sorry, a double here of the photo above

Someone's house is in pieces in the trees.
About 1/2 mile from our home.

This is near Vaughn Road, about half way between our home and
Griffin on Macintosh Rd

Vaughn Road area again, a huge swath taken out and homes either gone or in shambles

A huge uprooted tree - they are everywhere

March Gladness, Madness, and Sadness

2011-04-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Gladness! Our 27th grandbaby, Mamie Jane, is blessed on March 5

Gladness! Lili is an up and coming Irish Dancer!

Sadness! Sofia was sidelined, but she'll be back!

Madness! Moving Day for the Hutchings Family

Gladness, Madness, and Sadness! All packed up and ready to roll

Gladness! Luke is climbing up to the driver's bench

Emily is making sure he is safe
Cooper and Luke took turns in this favored spot on the long drive West

Madness! Airing out the musky Georgia odors from the household - Emily takes a breather

Gladness! Ethan loves the backyard trampoline which came with the house

The Three Musketeers love their new house and fenced yard - so do their mom and dad!

Gladness! And here is the family in front of their new home in Albuquerque
Sadness! Hickory Hill Farm is way too quiet now! We love and miss the Hutchings!

So, So, So...in the month of February

2011-03-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

SO excited for a girl's getaway to Renstone Inn and Spa
Lavonia, GA

SO relaxed under the paraffin wax!

SO pumped for the 5K in Peachtree City on Feb 12
Yes, Gary won....for his age group; Jordan keeping his dad on pace

SO excited for a last minute trip to the beach - Emily is jumping for joy!

SO cute...Ethan

SO cool...Jonah!

SO reflective...Ella!

SO beautiful - Jason and Q on the Destin beach

SO sad to sad to leave

SO bummed on the couch...Ethan, Luke, Jonah

SO soon from heaven...Mamie Jane, Feb 8

SO lucky to be Grandma Becky to 27 GRAND GRAND~KIDS!

2011-01-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

THE HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS BEGIN....and End

At the Hampton Christmas Parade - Allred Denistry cookie spectacular
Emily, Luke, and Ethan

Soup Sunday and Happy Birthday wishes for:
(see below)

Ethan, 2 years old on Dec 30
Check out the Darth Vader cake
Ethan's Dad turned a year older on Dec 5

Jonah, 3 years old on Dec 13

Wayne was honored for his Dec 5 birthday

Let the Gingerbread House creations begin!

The amazing 'creators'
Lili, Cooper, Luke, Jonah, Ethan, Ella, Lincoln, Kailey, Sofi

A sample of the 'loaded creations!'

Celebrating Rachel's birthday in Dallas
at lunch with Barbara Crofts

Taylor - sweeter than her sugar cookie
Grandma Becky and Cooper at Lincoln's school Christmas party
Cooper showing his gift and Lincoln being himself: goofy!

An early Christmas Eve nativity
Espen is baby Jesus while lots of shepherds gather around

The Wiseman, Luke, came bearing gifts

Christmas Eve with the Tasker's in Denver

While waiting for Santa, Twilight's Edward was created

Is he the real thing?

He is....Edward's clone!

Christmas morning under cover

Santa remembered Jake!

Arsenal fans! Jim and Jake
Arsenal twins!...thanks to Jim's jacket gift to jake

Muffy making the rounds
Gabe is one of her favorites

Izzy is ready to take care of any new babies arriving

The Little Mermaid is exhausted at the end of Christmas Day

The Sedgwick's arrived before Christmas Day came to a close
The next day after church was the perfect photo opportunity

A few days of holiday fun at a cabin near Breckenridge, CO

Heading out on the snowmobiles - so many excited riders!

Red Ryders - Izzy, Kailey, and Kate

White Knights: Caleb and Dave

The cutest littlest one: Ammon
The cutest older one: Julie

The 'Wooky Loft' resurrected!
Izzy, Kate, Taylor, Hannah, Lucy

All wrapped up for sub-zero temperatures!

Hiding behind that bundle of sweetness is Hannah

More bundled sweetness: Lauren

The mom's bundled up, and unbundled all day long!
Rachel, Lauren, Kate

Jim contributing to the evening discussions
Hayden smiling for the camera

Kailey and her Kids Crew!
She entertained at meals, directed skits, created games, and loved the kids

SOBREMESA!

2010-11-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day!

Game night sleepyhead

Peter Espen's blessing day, Nov 28

Rachel and Michelle Smartt
Mr Turkey posing in vegetable mode

Lili watching over her very own turkey

Thanksgiving table favors

GIVE THANKS!

November 28, 2010

‘Sobremesa’ describes Thanksgiving this year – our tummies were full, our hearts were fuller and we were content. The day before, though, I was rather dreading it all thinking about how much work lay ahead, worrying about how many guests were coming, and wondering if I had planned adequately. Gary just kept reassuring me that it would all work out, and then he went to work to make that happen. The Fias were in-house guests and they went to work, too – raked leaves and carried them off to the burn pile, helped Poppy gather fall cuttings for centerpieces, kept Ranger fed and happy, and even fixed breakfast for everyone (Sofia’s famous scrambled eggs). Kailey joined the work crew and kept the little ones entertained and out of mischief. She is one of my favorite people to have come and spend a night or two. Emily treats our home like it is her home – I guess it currently is (but not for much longer) – as she cleans, cooks, and creates. She works a lot harder than I do so I don’t know why I was the one stressing about Thanksgiving! I stand in awe at what she is able to get done in lickety split time and what she is able to create without spending a whole lot of energy on the creative process. She just comes up with an idea and makes it become real. Case in point: ‘Give Thanks’ set in oranges, cornucopia favors for the adults, cute edible turkeys for the kids. Jake took over outside and cleared the walks and decks of masses of leaves. The day was beautiful so we set up tables outside for the kids who really were far more interested in their turkey favors than the real thing: Thanksgiving dinner. We definitely had a crowd (30+) and a feast (two turkeys and a ham!) and it all worked out, just like Gary said. We saved the best for the last when we gathered in our Thanksgiving circle to express gratitude for the blessings and lessons of the year. Sobremesa!

Freddie shared a letter from her mission president that touched my heart with it’s messages. I felt gratitude once again for the pilgrims, learned something about Joseph Smith’s progenitors, and realized that Joseph F. Smith could have said to me on Thanksgiving day were he here, ‘Sister Jewkes, all this and the gospel, too?’

In 1620 a small ship left the Plymouth harbor bound for the New World. Its name would go down in history—the Mayflower. The 102 people aboard the ship were composed of religious Separatists, servants, and crew. The Separatists, or Pilgrims as we now call them, left their mother country reluctantly. They sought only what they believed to be a God-given right—the right to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience. They believed that the Christian “Church” had abandoned many of the plain and precious doctrines of Christ’s original church. They called themselves “Saints” and they referred to one another as “Elder” and “Sister.” Theirs was a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing marked by an amazing rescue at sea of an indentured servant who had been swept overboard. His name was John Howland. Howland later recalled that he felt strongly that he had been preserved for some divine destiny which he did not yet know. He was...for he became the great-great-great-grandfather of Joseph Smith. Howland became a free man in the new American colony of Plymouth and married the orphan daughter of two devout Pilgrims, Elizabeth Tilley. Elizabeth’s parents were among the half of the passengers and crew who did not survive that first, brutal winter aboard the Mayflower where they suffered from exposure, scurvy, and outbreaks of contagious disease while they waited for the snows to thaw. By spring, nearby Indian tribes came to rescue those 53 passengers who still remained alive. They taught them how to hunt, fish, plant, and survive in the American wilderness. Was it any wonder that when harvest came, the colony set aside a 3 day fast and Thanksgiving to honor their Indian friends?

The Prophet Joseph Smith is reported to have said that one of the greatest sins which the Latter-day Saints would be guilty of in the last days would be the sin of ingratitude. Brigham Young repeated a similar warning. President Ezra Taft Benson mentions all this in a Thanksgiving message found in the November 1976 New Era. “I do not think this is because we are less grateful than other people, but we have so much more to be grateful for. “ He then tells the story of his grandfather, George Taft Benson, bishop of the Whitney, Idaho Ward. Elder Joseph F. Smith visited the old Oneida Stake which comprised the Whitney Ward and took a meal with Grandfather Benson. “The table was laden with good things to eat. The family was gathered around… Just before they were ready to start the meal, President Smith stretched his long arms over the table and turned to my grandfather and said, “Brother Benson, all this and the gospel too?”

Espen Peter was blessed today. When Josh started the blessing and I heard the name, I thought how perfect that name seemed – it just fits. Josh gave Espen a beautiful blessing of health, promise, and future. And then at the end he blessed him with the gift of charity. That little baby boy is loved so much and will return that love as he grows. We all gathered at Josh and Dagmar’s last night to watch BYU go down in defeat to the U and it should have never happened, especially with Emily singing ‘Rise and shout, the Cougars are out…!’

And that’s the week’s update…

An Inconvenient Splendid Cruise from a 60 year old perspective

2010-11-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

A fondue dinner in San Juan Capistrano the night before cruise.
Dave and Jessica, Gary and Becky, Jake and Emily

8 Cruisers! Jim, Jenn, Becky, Gary, Emily, Jake
Emma and Madison who are guests of honor

On board the Splendor

Evacuated from our cabins - first mornings meal fare

SS Ronald Reagan to the rescue!

Disembarking on Nov 11 in San Diego

Waiting to check in at the Hyatt, compliments of Carnival

Our guests of honor were brave and oh so good from day one forward

60th birthday dinner at the Hyatt, all expenses paid!

Two bookworms in sunny San Diego

A week to remember with our granddaughters
and looking forward to another week in the future, compliments of Carnival.

Here’s a sampling of some rather memorable phrases I’ve personally heard the last couple of weeks – ‘Alpha team, alpha team, alpha team – report to your stations!’ ‘Evacuate your cabins!’ ‘The ship has lost all power!’ ‘This cruise is terminated!’ Then this: ‘You don’t need to put on your life-jackets!’ Whew! It was a wild beginning for the Heninger Reunion Cruise aboard the Carnival Splendor. What was supposed to be a seven day vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Matzatlan, and Cabo San Lucas ended up being a totally unexpected and inconvenient adventure with trying to stay warm after a cold shower, finding something appetizing to eat after standing in line for a long, long, long time, ‘feeling’ rather than ‘seeing’ your way around your cabin and bathroom, having an ‘open door policy’ 24 hours a day to get a little light to do all of your private business, trying to sleep with the open door policy (unless you were lucky like me and could electronically disconnect from the noise), having an aircraft carrier come to the rescue, watching helicopters drop loads of food, trying to ignore the smells permeating the ship, and…..well, just read the Hutchings blog for all of the details! http://jakeandemilyhutchings.blogspot.com

Emma and Madi get a gold medal for being brave, full of adventure, happy, and delightful to have along. They explored the ship from top to bottom and bottom to top, met cousins and played with cousins, got lost and then got found, made origami with their Japanese neighbors across the hall, and couldn’t thank us enough for the ‘adventure’ when it was all over, and can hardly wait for their next cruise. Emily was the most disappointed of us all to have her dream cruise of relaxation and sun turn into more of a survival cruise and clouds, but she’s looking forward to a free cruise in the future thanks to the generosity of Carnival. We were reimbursed all of our expenses including cruise fare, travel expenses, and maybe even babysitting costs – Emily is working on that – plus given a future free cruise. My cruising spirit hasn’t been dampened at all and I will definitely be on board.

What did I learn from this adventure? I learned that order digresses to chaos very fast, cleanliness to filthiness even faster, humans can get rather uncivilized and very selfish quickly, and a flashlight would have come in right handy! I learned that it was a lot of fun to be with our granddaughters, Gary, the Hutchings, and Taskers – as if I didn’t already know that important detail.

And now for some words from Caleb that are even more memorable, to me, than the ‘alpha team, alpha team, alpha team…” – ‘You cook the best food, you are always willing to do stuff, and you always bring presents, so congratulations on being the best grandma in the world and I hope you have a happy 60^th birthday!’ And so I did – it was the BEST. Why? Well, we got off the Splendor right in the middle of my big day! Carnival put us up in a beautiful hotel in San Diego. I took a long, hot shower and I could actually see in the bathroom! There was hot food and no lines. The Sedgwicks joined us so I had lots of help blowing out the candles. I have a book of 60 memories from all of you – the PERFECT gift. I have another ‘101 Things I love about you’ from Gary, added onto 36 other such cards in past years for a running total of 3737 things that Gary has noticed and expressed appreciation for in who….me? I find it rather astonishing to say the least. It really was the BEST day and I don’t mind being 60 at all – in fact, I rather like it.

We have a new member of our family who joined us on Nov 4: Espen Peter who is just as handsome as his name sounds and came complete with a full head of black hair, tiny nose, plump, dimpled cheeks, and little mini body. How I adore these little mini bodies that come so perfect and straight from heaven. Dagmar looks wonderful and says she feels good and I believe her. She is radiant. And I know that Josh is a proud father – he deserves to be with four beautiful children.

We came home from California to Georgia in all her fall glory and I have to say it again: there is no place more beautiful than Georgia in the fall. Even the weather is perfect, as if apologizing for cooking and steaming us over the summer.

I can’t quite put my finger on November and here it is almost Thanksgiving! Taskers are going to St. George to be with Jim’s family, Jessica and Dave are in Boston but will be back barely in time to host the extended Sedgwicks at their home, we hoped to get the Crofts to drive to ATL and share the holiday with us but weren’t convincing enough, Bells have the Bells right around the corner just like the Allreds have the Allreds right around the corner and will share Thanksgiving with them, Beau and Amy will be in California watching the Sedgwick kids, Julie and Seth have been invited to Connie’s (I wish I were feasting at Connie’s), and Jake has mentioned driving to UT but I haven’t heard the final word. We will miss all of you – we really will. My heart will be full but empty too, if you know what I mean, and if you are a mom, you know what I mean. We will love having Josh, Dagmar and their children, Piet and Lina, Jordan, Amanda and Jonah, the Hutchings and Vickers, and more missionaries than you can count on one hand! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love being outside and enjoying the beauty of the fall season, I love the simplicity of the celebration with minimal materialism, decorating, and preparation. I love acknowledging my overflowing cup of blessings, and I certainly love the whole feasting idea put into practice!

I read a tribute to a woman whose life was dedicated to ‘giving away’ rather than ‘accumulating’ – seems fitting for the season, for the year, for life:

ChenShu-chu is a seller of vegetables in a stall in Taitung’s central market in Southern Taiwan. Out of her modest living, Chen, 59, has managed to donate nearly $320,000 to various causes, including a children’s fund, a library, and a local orphanage. What’s so wonderful about Chen’s achievement is not it’s extraordinariness but that it is so simple and matter of fact in its generosity. ‘Money serves its purpose only when ti is used for those who need it,’ she told a newspaper. And rather than bask in her celebrity, Chen seems to dismiss the whole thing with a wave of her hand. ‘There isn’t much to talk about, because I didn’t enter any competition and I haven’t really made any huge donations.' I doubt ChenShu of Taiwan knows it, but she is a Christian and following Him.

It Feeels BIG, SWEET, and GOOD...

2010-11-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

Claire convinced me to get back into blogging mode with pictures, so I coaxed her over to help refresh my very limited skills and we ended up with something BIG (figuring out blogging again after more than a year in hiatus), something SWEET (every picture of the grandkids!), and something GOOD ( pushing ‘publish post’!) Now for some detail on the pictures and times in between. The BIG fish was caught by Glen, our most recent fix-it-up guy. He claimed it weighed 15 pounds and it definitely came right out of our front lake. He says he is going to ‘mount it’, but for now, it is in Claire’s freezer…good for me since he’s not using my freezer, bad for Claire. I loved the SWEET picture of Hannah and Lucy together in the ‘chair lift’ swing taken one morning on our walk at Sundance, and Amelia thinks the ice-cream sandwich is very, very GOOD. I got the cute shots of Kate and Taylor in their community pool when Connie and I stopped in Dallas enroute to Denver early in Sept. Our destination was driving Patti’s car to Denver, but our goal was to have a fun road trip together which I would say we accomplished! I got several shots of Izzy with a band-aid on a different part of her body each time. For now, they are her trademark. I have to admit that I nearly fell in love with Muffy, the little dog at the Taskers, and offered to swap her out for Ranger, the big dog at home. I had no takers and probably just as well since the dog on Hickory Hill Farm has to fend off possums, skunks, beavers, snakes, and other scary things which Muffy might not have been too successful at. Gabe and I had an ice-cream date which he managed to turn into a visit to his favorite restaurant where he skillfully pointed out all of the stuffed animals and then wanted to know which one was my favorite! Have you ever seen a jack-a-lope? Cute little things….but not near as cute as Gabert T. Tasker. Jenn and I spent some good time doing kickboxing at the church (she was the teacher!) and yoga at her fabulous gym (where I was definitely the oldest, the stiffest, and the most uncoordinated but I did persevere). We enjoyed an afternoon at the temple and that evening we split ways so she could take kids one place and I could take kids another place. I got to take Emma to her gymnastics class and witnessed 2+ hours of bending, flipping, vaulting, and balancing. What a stark contrast: myself at Yoga, Emma at gymnastics!

Gary and I spent some time at Sundance – our annual fall retreat. He commuted to and from Utah instead of back to Georgia between his work days. Jessica, Dave, and children came up for a week loaded with their bikes and bike trailers, as well as several volumes of Harry Potter which Madi was totally immersed in. She read, Dave and Caleb mountain biked, Lucy played with Hannah, Jessica fed Ammon, and then Jessica broke her leg and that changed everything! They stayed an extra couple of days at the cabin so Jessica could feel up to traveling back home. This delay meant they would miss the St. George marathon which was a big reason for their coming to UT in the first place. Gary stayed at the cabin to help out as well as recuperate from a lot of travel and work. I headed south to St. George for the marathon weekend. Our runners this year: Rachel, Julie, and Amy. Rachel was injured early on (so sad), Julie endured to the end and completed her second marathon, and Amy did an amazing job on her first marathon. One of the highlights was driving back over the racecourse and realizing what an incredible thing it is to be in a marathon. Julie says she will be back next year with determination to train better, Rachel says she will definitely run a marathon someday but right now she is working on getting her knee healed, and Amy is undecided – too soon to tell!

The next week I was at the cabin alone – kind of nice some of the time, kind of lonely some of the time. I did have great company one night when Dave and Kathy, Steve and Melanie came up. They were on their way to St George themselves but did a layover at Sundance. Melanie was keeping her foot elevated (just like Jessica was keeping her leg elevated) as a result of a four-wheeling accident a couple of weeks earlier where she broke most of the bones in her foot – serious stuff. I told Melanie she had earned the right in 2010 to be depressed…but she declined and smiled! The latest news from their family is that Andrea is expecting - #6 for the Lovelands.

I did ‘fall cleaning’ at the cabin if there is such a thing. When I was growing up, it was always ‘spring cleaning!’ When I left, the cabin looked GOOD and I felt GOOD! I went from UT to California, and Gary came from Kalamazoo! and we were able to share in Ammon’s blessing day. Dave and Jessica had the blessing at their home so all of Dave’s family could be there. Lucy climbed the wall so she wouldn’t miss a thing – isn’t she amazing in her picture… amazingly cute. I stayed for a few extra days to help (Jessica has been ‘couch bound’) and just had a fun time with the kids, with the baby, with Jessica, with going to soccer games and piano lessons and anything else that needed to be done.

It was major catch-up time when I arrived back in Georgia – catch up with everything I missed, catch up with office stuff and church stuff, catch up on a pile of mail and a bigger pile of laundry, and catch up with the birthday people! Gary and I caught up with Josh (Oct 24) and Dagmar (Oct 27), Jordan (Oct 26) and Amanda and celebrated together at the Farmhouse where we had a delicious dinner that could almost be called ‘homegrown’ – they actually grow quite a bit of what they serve right on the property. It was a fun evening out together. November birthdays coming up: Julie on Nov 5th, Emma on the 6^th, Baby Boy Jewkes soon to arrive on the 8^th, Grandma Becky on the 11^th, Jasper on the 13^th, Isabella on the 21^st.

We finished up Halloween celebrations on Sunday with a Halloween dinner: cheesy ghosts, mummified doggies, creepy punch, spider web dip, monster munch. We nearly scared our guests (the Mayfield family) away! Do you remember our first Annual Halloween Parade a year ago? I’m hoping for a second Annual Parade in 2010 – send pictures!

Life is good!

It Feels BIG, SWEET, and GOOD to blog again!

2010-10-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

BIG

SWEET

GOOD

Kate says 'Hi!'

Taylor says 'Bye!'

Izzy loves bandaids almost as much as her dog, Muffy

A dinner date with Gabe and his wildlife friends at Saltgrass

Making cookies with Kailey

Lucy and Hannah at Cascade Springs

St. George Marathon runners: Julie, Amy, Rachel
Beau and Rebecca joined the last few miles

Steve and Melanie being lazy at the cabin

Kathy and Dave joined us at Sundance

Lucy is climbing walls!

Ammon's blessing day, Oct 10, 2010

October Birthday celebrations at The Farmhouse in Serenbe for Josh, Dagmar, and Jordan

November birthday celebrations at Soup Sunday for Quincy, Jasper, and Grandma Becky

The cutest Irish dancers ever: Lili and Sofia

2009 Summer Summary

2009-09-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Summer has come and gone, as of today! Such a busy summer and so many memories stored away under ‘My Pictures’. Can I possibly publish them all? Not a chance, but you’ll get the highlights. Summer started early with the Taskers and Crofts trekking to Georgia in early June. They came just in time for Lincoln’s 3^rd birthday celebration at the local country volunteer firestation just down the hiway from Hickory Hill Farm. There was definitely a cousin majority on the guest list – 15 of the 19 guests were related! When the fireman honked the horn, all of the kids ran for cover, except Lili and Sofi who weren’t about to give up their throne on the front of the engine!

The days of June definitely weren’t lazy – the dress ups got a full work-out, swimming, gum-balling, horny-toading, and even a prince posing as a princess kept a houseful of grandkids busy! I don’t believe there was a quiet moment during the waking hours, and that’s coming from someone that doesn’t hear the full volume of the noisy moments! Somewhere in between all of this we managed a trip down to Cinnamon Beach – just one picture of Amanda carting Jordan and Jonah up to the condo is the only evidence I have of that, but I promise there were about 25 more of us around, too!

Speaking of Jordan and Amanda – they have returned to Georgia and are almost our neighbors, if the living in the next county counts for neighborhood closeness. Jonah has joined the Georgia Cousins Club! The Club celebrated Lili and Sofi’s Big 6 at the Bounce House – fun, fun, fun. All of this was topped of with ice-cream cake at the park which melted faster we could eat it – it was a gooey delightful delicious mess.

July’s main event was the big gathering together at Brianhead for a few days before the even bigger gathering in St. George of the extended Jewkes clan. The big gathering included everyone in our family with the exception of Jeremiah, Jason, Brian, and Dave, which means there were 40 people under one big roof. The bigger gathering included over 100 Jewkes relatives spread out under several condo roofs to allow for breathing room.

Unfortunately, Ollie B’Gollie had a hard time breathing and spent a couple of days and nights in the hospital. Fortunately, he is all better and back to his shining, happy self. The family marathon trainers were diligent – they continued their training whether we were at 9,000 feet or in 100 degree weather!

Since those of us that drove to the reunion (Claire and kids, Emily and kids, Rachel and kids, Rebecca and kids…and one grandma Becky) were on a marathon road trip, it just seemed we needed to get more mileage out of our miles, so we extended the reunion phase to a Sundance phase, driving north to Provo, and taking in all the traditional delights there for a few days. Somehow, we all managed to get back to GA in one piece, with no fender benders, no car breakdowns, and a manageable number of kid breakdowns. Rebecca and Christian get the gold medal for feeding the five thousand, or so it almost seemed as they were our main way-station on the drive west. Rachel and Jennefer get silver medals – they only got a portion of us! Claire says she isn’t going on another road trip for a long time, but Emily was ready to go the next week which was a good thing because the Sedgwicks came to town the next week! We had three delightful weeks with four delightful Sedgwicks and I must have been too busy once Jessica and Dave left for Africa, because I have no pictures to prove their presence! Enjoy the moments from our 2009 summer!

Taylor, the Oreo Gal

Three Princesses, Ella, Kate and Taylor

The Gumballers

Fias on the Fire Engine Throne

Cousins in the Majority

Bell-Boy Service for Jordan and Jonah

Prince or Princess?

Horny Toad Lovers

Little Tykes at the Bounce House, Jasper above and Luke below

Race to the Top

Cake Walk at the Park

The Three Musketeers: Cooper, Luke, and Ethan
Cedar Breaks National Monument

Jenn and Izzy- too close to the edge for comfort

Oliver and his Mom

Ahhhhh........need more be said?

Brian Head Scouts, Luke, Lincoln, and Cooper

Julie and Seth at Brianhead

Guess who?

The Young and the Old - London and a very old tree, Cedar Breaks hike

Jacob on Edge! Cedar Breaks National Monument

Josh on the edge, too!

Julie, Gary and Becky overlooking Brianhead at 10,000 feet

Too Cool! Sofi, Poppy, and Lili

Rachel and her girls, Taylor and Kate. Where's Lauren?

Our Treasures - grandkids at the Brianhead summit

Four Generations at the Jewkes Reunion, Grandma Jewkes, Poppy, Jenn, and London
St. George, Utah

Hoop skirt gal - Madi at St. George reunion condo

Oliver had breathing problems -St. George Hospital

Cascade Springs Nature Walk near Sundance

Tatoo Man! Luke wears Smokey the Bear.

Mostly Connected with a little Disconnect

2009-05-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last two plus weeks bonding with four Sedgwick grandkids and five Taskers. I've been a full time mom again and am reminded how much I love being a part-time grandma most of the time. Full-time is exhausting; part-time is exhilarating! Full-time means lots of stinky diapers to change; part time means you just hand the stinky kid back to his mom! Full-time means you have to get up early; part-time means you can sleep in a little. Full-time means you have to cook three meals, and wash several loads of laundry, and clean house; part time means you can eat out, the laundry can wait, and so can the house! It's been good though, and I feel reconnected to these precious kids that live so far away from Georgia. I am also amazed at how good my grandkids are - they are helpful, happy, obedient - handsome and beautiful. I adore them all. There has been a downside to being gone from Georgia for nearly three weeks: Ella has been asking where 'Uncle Becky' is. In the process of reconnecting it looks like I've also been disconnected and renamed. I'm heading back to Georgia in two days and am going to reclaim my status as, 'Grandma Becky!' Here's some fun pictures from all of the connection time.

Here, There, and Everywhere

2009-05-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

I just survived a California earthquake....or at least a tremor! I've only felt what I felt tonite one other time in my life and that was when we lived in Northern California from 1977-80. at that time I was standing in the living room of a friend's home when the chandelier began to swing and the floor to move beneath my feet and all I could do was 'stand' there and hope the end wasn't coming! Well tonight I'm in California watching four very cute, very busy, very creative Sedgwick grandkids and I was sitting in a big comfy chair reading to them when all of a sudden my chair started to shake and all I could do was 'sit' there and hope the end wasn't coming! It is a completely strange, helpless situation. But I'm alive to write the tale, so the end didn't come!

Gary and I came out to visit Dave and Jessica earlier in the week and enjoyed time together with everyone here until yesterday when all of the adults left: Gary back to GA and Dave/Jessica to Seattle for a few days. Dave is doing a Myers-Brigg certification - does that ring a bell? Think : Jim Tasker - Dominican Republic - Myers Brigg - finding out that most of us are opposites of our spouses, except Jordan and Amanda who were just alike! This trip to California has come with some strokes of good luck. Jessica shared with us two of her free United passes that she got last year after the family reunion in CO when her flight was overbooked. When we arrived for our flight last Tuesday, it was overbooked, too, so we volunteered to give up our seats. It wasn't a big sacrifice since they put us on a flight that was a non-stop and got us to our destination faster than the original flight, plus Gary got to upgrade to first class, and we each got two free round-trip tickets for future use. As if that wasn't enough, Gary's flight home yesterday was overbooked, he gave up his seat, got upgraded to first class on the next plane, and got another free RT ticket! We flew out on free tickets, got three free tickets in return. This is better than Claire's coupon shopping at Walgreens!

I love coming to California even if one risks her life in so doing. One of these days the 'BIG ONE' that's been predicted for so long will probably happen, but maybe not until the Second Coming and if we are prepared, we'll look forward to that, right? It is so beautiful here, the weather is perfect, and San Juan Capistrano is sort of like what Dave described as a 'cowboy town.' It is small enough to get to Costco in seven minutes and big enough to have it's own character-filled down town that hasn't changed much since Dave was kid growing up here. No skyscrapers block your view and the town is centered around the San Juan Mission, which is described as the 'jewel of the California missions.' It's easy to see why the Sedgwicks love it here.

We loved having Julie and Beau home for several days - long enough to go to Cafe Pig twice, a Braves game, Fox Theatre, the Allreds Fun Farm, and several days at the beach. I'm glad Amy came along with Beau so we had a good excuse to 'play.' We had a crowd in Palm Coast and had to spread out a bit between the Cinnamon Beach condo and Tidelands on the Intracoastal. It could be our last big group trip with the condo getting close to being sold, and Tidelands on the market. It has been fun to always have room for everyone that wanted to go if they were willing to 'pay the toll' at the bridge and ferry back and forth. Claire, Emily, and Amanda were willing - so were Lincoln, Ella, Cooper, Luke, Ethan, and Jonah. We had a good time sunning by day, and playing games by night. Then when we all went to bed, Beau and Amy would finally get some privacy! Amy seemed right at home with all of the company, the kids, the noise, and the Jewkes chatter that always happens when the girls get together!

Julie put her special touch on Mother's Day and made it just very memorable for her mom, lucky ME! She cooked a gourmet breakfast under a the scope of a very big, artistic Mother's Day greeting that she also created. It was the perfect gift! In fact, the entire was wonderful from beginning to end. I got some very clever cards, one very delicious chocolate-caramel apple, a steak dinner prepared by Jake Sr., and no attention at all from Jake Jr. I felt honored to be asked to be the speaker in church, but that is always an 'ordeal' beforehand, so I'm glad I don't get asked often! I think I forgot to mention the most important thing of all: I LOVE being a mother! I love being a grandmother! I'm convinced this is the BEST season of life!

This coming week I'll head back to Georgia and find my husband, and together we'll go visiting again...this time to Colorado and the Tasker household. We are the official household/grandkid caretakers while Jim and Jenn spend a week in Hawaii! We seem to be in demand lately and we are having a great time going here, there, and everywhere!

Marathon and More

2009-04-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

With the Atlanta temple closing on July 1 for major renovations, I've been going weekly for the past couple of months and have on occasion run into these two characters who try very hard to distract me. See if you recognize them!
Gary is overseas but but will be home later this week, just in time to enjoy Julie, Jeremiah and his girlfriend, Amy, who we are certainly looking forward to getting to know better. Beau is going to show Amy around town, starting with a Braves/Cardinals game on Wednesday evening and a Broadway musical at the Fox on Friday. Their first request, though, was to go to the beach and since we just happen to have a place right on the beach, we'll spend a few days with them there. I hope Julie brings her scissors and clippers to shape a few of us up. She just spent a week at the Taskers taking care of the kids while Jenn, Jim, and London went to Boston for the famous Marathon that Jim ran in. Claire, Jessica, Emily and Ethan, Rachel and Lauren, and myself were the official cheering squad, complete with T-shirts that read on the front: J. Crew, Boston Marathon 2009, and on the back some clarification on the crew: Jim's CREW meaning
Courageous Runner Endless Waiting. Courageous because Jim was determined to qualify without having to ever run on Sunday which is quite a feat since most marathons are on Sunday.
Runner because that is just what he is, rain or shine. Endless because that is what the miles feel like when your body wants to shut down, or maybe it is because Jenn feels like Jim's passion for running is endless, with no end in sight! Waiting for a few years to qualify took patience, persistence, and a fair amount of money! Whatever, the CREW was thrilled to be able to go, the CREW had a fabulous time, the CREW fell in love with Boston, the CREW wants to go again and hopes someone in the family qualifies again! In our spare time we rode the trolley all over historic Boston, jumped off at Cambridge to go to church, rode the subway to Harvard to get a picture of London in front of John Harvard, enjoyed some tasty deli's,

and mostly just had fun being together in a beautiful, historic city cheering on our man, Jim. Gary and I lived in the township of Northboro, MA way back in 1976 when we just had Jennefer and Josh so this trip for me was a trip down memory lane.
Gary had business in Tampa earlier in the month, so instead of flying he drove and I went right along with him. Jordan, Amanda, and Jonah came over as well and while the guys had meetings, we checked out Costco, the giant horses at PF Changs, and a few other things inbetween. Jonah wasn't feeling great so we restrained ourselves!
I don't believe I've shown off Baby Amelia yet who worked her way right into my heart while I was in Albuquerque. Now she has worked her way right into Jake's heart while he is in Albuquerque! Oliver's place in our hearts was already secure before his baby sister's arrival.
I know some people come to Hickory Farm in the to fish and fish and fish but end up without a whole lot of luck. Then there are other people that fish and fish and fish and end up with a lot of luck. There are some BIG FISH in our lakes, that is for sure.
April is a celebratory month for us. Gary always has a birthday (#61) and we always have an anniversary (#36). There are a few other family birthdays, too: Jason who doesn't want his age posted, and Caleb who does want his age posted (7....next year a big one for him).

A Tribute to my sister, Launa

2009-04-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

March 2009 - Becky, Luke, Launa
Launa has always been and will forever be two years older than me.
I spent a lot of time in my growing up years trying to figure out how I could close that age gap. I wanted to do the things she was doing and have the friends that she had. When I reached second grade and had Mrs. Hart, who was also a member of our church, for my teacher, I thought maybe my chance to time-jump had come and that she would let me ‘skip’ a grade putting me one year closer to my ‘idol-ed’ big sister. Unfortunately, Mrs. Hart’s theme was always to use my own ‘initiative’ rather than relying on her mercy to speed up my academic age. Obviously, I didn’t have enough initiative because Launa still graduated two years before I did, and now many years later is more than years ahead of me in her wisdom and gentleness of spirit: attributes that aren’t measured in earthly years.
Growing up in Idaho Falls, Launa blazed the trail for me. She was beautiful, talented, popular. I would introduce myself as Becky Heninger, but more importantly, I would always add that I was Launa Heninger’s sister. She could always make her hair look so perfectly ‘stylish.’ My hair usually looked perfectly ‘boyish’ despite my best efforts. We both took dancing lessons – Launa was a natural and I fumbled my way along. She was always the better horsewoman – I just got lucky because I had a better trained horse. Launa ran for school offices and won. She was secretary of the 9th grade. When I reached 9th grade, I was an ‘also ran’ for the same office. She was homecoming princess in the same grade – I didn’t even make the cut. I remember watching her ride the float in the Homecoming Parade and dreaming big dreams for doing the same.
Despite my setbacks, I didn’t give up. I still wanted to be just like Launa. Years later that is still my quest. Launa was president of the Young Women in her ward, and when I was able to be just like her in that respect, she was my resource and inspiration. I think I copied all of her files and ideas and she generously shared them. Every time I am around her I realize just how much there is to Launa. She has allowed herself to be taught and molded through her life experiences. I remember her joking once that if trials count for wisdom, then she should be one of the smartest people around! Well, I think she is. I remember being with her in Oregon when our older sister, Susan, was sick. Launa just intuitively knew the right thing to do and say to comfort Sue. I thought to myself, ‘When I am sick, I want Launa to come and take care of me.’
When Launa has hard times, she still maintains her sense of humor which invariably makes the tough going a little easier. She called the Nelson family’s last Thanksgiving together before Bill left, ‘The last supper!’ She gave me some great counsel on marriage a few years ago when we were driving to Canada for Dominion Day. I asked her how she was able to manage the difficulties in her marriage and still be happy, and she wisely said, ‘I choose to focus on Bill’s positive qualities.’
Lately I’ve been asking Launa how she is able to have the energy to be help raise young grandchildren at time in her life when she should be pampering herself – taking it a little easier. I want to have Launa’s energy, her compassion, her love. Launa loves her children and loves their children and wants the best for them – and she is willing to be an instrument in that process. Launa has the gift of charity – you see it in her actions and you see it in her eyes. She has received His image in her countenance and in who she has become. She is someone I love to be around – she is someone I love deeply. I hope I can be just like her someday!

Weekly Reader

2009-03-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

I was reading in church this morning, waiting for the meeting to start (miracle of miracles, we were ten minutes early!) and came across this counsel from Brigham Young: ‘Render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations….’ Who, in all of your world, does that remind you of? Gary ~Dad ~Poppy came right to my mind and I imagined the angels visiting Hickory Hill farm in the form of all of you from Jim the eldest to Amelia Grace, the youngest!

We were lucky to have some of those angels visit a couple of weeks ago: Jordan, Amanda and Jonah the King, even though right now he is just a very handsome prince.

We enjoyed every minute of the long weekend they were in GA and I promised myself that we had to make this happen more often. They only live in the neighboring state of Florida and not some faraway place like Dallas, Albuquerque, Denver, or California. They enjoyed time on the trampoline, canoe, and tire swing, and if they had arrived a couple of weeks later they could have done an azalea walk through Gary’s gardens which are just waiting to burst forth: quite a contrast from his life in sandy, dusty, dry Saudi.

I know he is missing his yard and getting it in perfect shape for spring, but it will be beautiful nonetheless. He is missing his family even more, and will head straight to Albuquerque without even a layover in ATL on his way back from Saudi Arabia this Wednesday – anxious to meet the latest member of the Jewkes clan, Amelia Grace, #23. I was lucky enough to arrive at the Bell home in the knick of time exactly one week ago since Amelia decided to come early depriving Rebecca and I of a day together to get prepped before her scheduled C-section. I arrived late on Sunday night, Rebecca and Christian left for the hospital a couple of hours later when her water broke, so when Oliver first saw me the next morning, I was sure he would start crying at the ‘stranger’ in his house. As he peeked around the corner from his bedroom, I saw him and said, ‘Oliver, it’s grandma Becky!’ To that, he ran right to me and gave me a big hug. The perfect way to melt a grandma’s heart. We’ve been bonded every since, taking long 2-3 hour walks in the mornings interspersed with stops at playparks along the way. So far, we have found six parks within walking distance of his home! The afternoons have been consumed with trips to the hospital to see mom and baby sister until Ollie would become too rowdy, and then it was ‘home again, home again, jiggety jig.’ He is such a delightful, entertaining little boy and happy 95% of the time, obedient 96% of the time. Rebecca came home Thursday which gives us more ‘baby time’ until Oliver wants something, and then it is, ‘Put your baby down right now and come here!’

I love the beautiful, sunny days and cool, desert nights of ABQ, and I love the temple that is just a hop, jump, and skip away. I was able to do a session last week and look forward to a session or two this week with Gary. For the weekend, we all plan to visit Taos and Santa Fe, and have a ‘spend the nighter’ in the latter. It’s such fun to be with the Bells – lots of good conversation, delightful company, clear play movies, and time to just be lazy….and hang out at play parks!

We had my angel sister, Launa, visit us at Hickory Hill Farm, too – squeezed inbetween the FL Jewkes and the ABQ Bells timewise. What a fun time we had together visiting, playing games, watching movies, going to the temple, eating good food, and just re-connecting. I love and honor her for the wonderful woman/sister/friend person she is. She often jokes that if trials make one wise then she should be among the wisest of the wise!

I’ve discovered (more truthfully, was led to the discovery by Emily and Claire) the perfect place to take visiting angels/grandkids when they come to Hickory Hill: Noah’s Ark ~ a home for animal rehabilitation right in our very own Spalding County. I was along with Lincoln and Ella when they saw tigers, lions, bears and ostriches; pot belly pigs, leopards, llamas, and goats.

I’m looking forward to a Fia ‘overniter’ and we are for sure going to Noah’s Ark. But before then, the Fia’s (Sofia and Lilian) are going to Holland for two weeks with their mom and brother, and maybe their dad if he can figure a way to get out of work. It will be Jasper’s first trip abroad and he’ll get to meet his great grandma who is celebrating her 80^th birthday. Safe travels to that family. And safe travels to the Tasker family who are enroute to Sundance today for a week of snow and sledding, skiing and sleeping. Jim will ski – Jenn will sleep. She is worn out from taking care of sick kids non-stop for about six weeks running so she deserves uninterrupted sleep if that is what her heart/body demand. Jake Jr. is joining them on his birthday this Tuesday, March 24 (to watch the kids while Jenn sleeps maybe???), and will spend the rest of the week in UT before heading to ABQ for a new job (well, his ‘old job back’ might be more correct) and a transfer to University of New Mexico for school. Jake’s motto will be ‘Work by Day, Study by Night….never, never, never give up!’ Oliver is so excited that Uncle Jake is going to be rooming next to him once again. Jake is definitely the guy the kids all love. Happy Birthday to my beloved youngest son who is officially turning 21 even though he’s been acting it for a while now! And late birthday wishes to Jim – the patriarch of the Hickory Hill Farm angels.

Julie is traveling back to UT today after a week with the Sedgwicks in California. Dare I say she was suspended from school for a week? I’m glad she’s an adult and gets to take complete responsibility for her life. She’s had a good time and thinks suspension is the way to go. Lucy kept her busy playing games over and over and over, until Jessica came to the rescue and they all went to the beach! That’s the thing about California – you can always use the beach for a distraction!

Rachel and Brian enjoyed a week at Sundance recently, too – so now Dad is thinking that his (I’m not taking credit for the idea by using ‘our’) kids should buy the cabin so we can get ready for a mission. Maybe you’d all like to buy a beach house, too, as well as a 53 acre farm, and a few other things, too!

Jeremiah told us he dropped the ‘L’ bomb, if you know what that is. If you don’t, just give him a call and get informed. He is making plans for a summer in Washington DC interning for Price/Waterhouse/Coopers, even though he doesn’t see accounting in his career future. Julie was hoping for some volunteer service in India at the Rising Star orphanage this summer until she found out that volunteering cost big bucks so it probably won’t happen. She is considering a very attractive option in Southern California as a part-time game partner for Lucy and full time worker for money which at this stage in her life could be vital to her survival.

I am missing all of the little angels back in GA and some big angels, too. Emily is quite amazing to watch in action – she has definitely mastered multi-tasking. She is also in the process of becoming ‘less’ – does anyone every want to become less of something? Claire is helping making the year 2009 an expansion success by announcing grandbaby #24 due in November. Lauren in January, Amelia in March, baby Allred in Nov. I’m thinking that could be it for 2009, but I would like to be proved wrong. Could one grandma ever be surrounded by too many angels?....not a chance!

And now for a million-dollar ending to this post: name the Three Musketeers below!

Money Rules

2009-02-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

If I had remembered to take my new camera to Utah with me last week I could just post some great pictures and not worry about saying much! But since my memory failed me (which is getting to be a rather regular occurrence), my ramblings will be a poor substitute for what could have easily been conveyed visually! With the Sedgwicks at Sundance all week, the temptation to join them for a few days was just too great to resist. I never cease to be grateful for frequent fliers which allow me succumb to such temptations on a last minute’s notice. I was also grateful to be picked up by them in SLC and treated at The Pie, as in pizza pie. They had spent most of the day skiing, then took their family to Temple Square which coordinated nicely with my evening arrival. Jessica now has an iPhone which has, among many things, a GPS system which guided us ‘almost’ right to The Pie – which, by the way, is a University of Utah hot spot, and understandably so – it was very tasty right down to the last cookie crumb of the pizookies. By the time we arrived back at Sundance it was way past everyone’s bedtime, including Grandma Becky who was still on Eastern Time. People weren’t sleeping in on this vacation, though – Madi, Caleb, and Lucy were on the slopes with their mom and dad nearly every day, and every day the skiing/snow was reported to be fabulous. After a skiing lesson or two those kids were taking on the top of the mountain! They did the same with Mexican Train Dominoes – after a lesson or two they conquered the game and were strategizing and beating an old pro….me. Sedgwick geniuses at work. I totally enjoyed observing how the Sedgwicks settled in and took full advantage of the cabin: skiing by day, fireside smores by night and a massage or two squeezed in here and there. They said it was the perfect vacation and I believed them, and I also loved them when they were perfect sports about having to leave two days earlier than planned to accommodate a rental (money rules the cabin, I’m afraid). Still, they had a full week ‘smorzing’ at Sundance and were lucky enough to be able to spend the evicted last two days in Deer Valley with Dave’s brother and his family. Because it was Valentine’s week, Jessica was doing something special for Dave every day – the Seven Days of Valentines which is their tradition. The day before Valentine’s is the BIG one for them – their anniversary. On that day Jessica resisted the slopes and spent the day in Provo setting up a scavenger hunt for Dave that would lead him to all of their favorite haunts from their BYU days. I was glad I was there to play with the kids later that day and into the evening so those two could decipher and track down the clues unhindered. The next morning was crunch time as we had to clean the cabin and get out before we got snowed in and we barely made it! A huge snowstorm had moved in and even with the Pathfinder in 4-wheel, I was slipping and sliding down Timpview Road only to be met by a snowplow coming up the road at full speed totally oblivious to the possibility that another vehicle might be on the road. We missed each other by the hair of our chinny chin chins. That was only the beginning – traffic was backed up Sundance canyon road and moving at snail’s pace. What usually takes 20 minutes (from cabin to Provo) took an hour and half, which made me almost an hour and half late for my hair appointment with Julie. I love having a hair pro in the family and Julie is definitely becoming a pro. Thanks Julie for shaping me up  I was also an hour and half late for an afternoon with Connie before catching my flight, but we did manage Café Rio and a little time for visiting.
Beau during most of my time in UT was in CA with friends and, might I say, his girlfriend, Amy, for the long holiday weekend. We did go together to the Phi Kappa Phi honor society induction, but opted to skip the speakers after a very ordinary but expensive BYU catered meal. I used to love BYU food – I’ve changed my mind (well, I still love their mint brownies!). I do love Beau and won’t be changing my mind on that.
One of the best things about my trip last week was that I was able to route home through Dallas and do a layover for Lauren’s blessing day. She is still as cute as ever and as good as ever. Taylor let me sleep in her bed and Kate told me she didn’t want me to leave. Ahhh, the joys of being a grandma in demand, or at least feeling like you are demand. Josh, Dagmar and family are with the Crofts this weekend – full, fun, lively house there, I’m sure.
I made it back to GA on the first flight out Monday morning, located Gary’s car in the parking lot at the airport, and headed straight to Athens. Jake had a combination rhinoplasty/septaplasty that morning and I got there just in time to give him a big hug on the recovery bed, take him back to his apartment…and pay the bill! At least I thought I was going to pay the bill, but reality hit and I only ‘started’ paying the bill. It was a $20,000 surgery with our insurance only covering 70% after we meet the $3000 deductible (I naively thought the insurance would kick in at 100% after the deductible). I nearly burst into tears at the payment desk
Jake is doing good, in fact, this is what he said:
‘I can't even begin to say how good my nose feels. It is sooooo clear. I'm already breathing really well out of it, and I'm sure it will only continue to get better. It feels amazing. I just want to say thank you to you and Dad so much for allowing me to do this. I can already tell a huge difference. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome’ – no more billing tears for Jake’s mom. It was worth it.
Sundance seems to be the place to go this winter with Crofts planning for the first week of March and Taskers the last week of March. Keep your fingers crossed that you won’t get displaced in the event of the money rule/rental booking! Just wanted to add some suspense to the planning….
Gary is in Saudi through March 3 and for the next two or three months, he will be home for two weeks, there for two weeks. Money does rule, doesn’t it? We feel blessed that he has this work during a time when a lot of people are out of work, and he is working in a country which isn’t too affected by world economic problems. Over there, oil rules and money flows. The reality of his life there is captured in the one photo for this blog sent by someone who remembered his camera. One picture says it quite well, don’t you think?

2009-02-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Weekly Reader

2009-01-30T14:05:00.000-08:00

I've been putting this off because I'm still unsure of myself on this whole blogging thing, but I'm determined to be successful. A New Year's Goal: conquer the world of blogging...or at least be able to publish posts and pictures on my blog. I'll be happy with that. I am converted since I used to have major problems sending pictures with the Weekly Reader. If I had more than a couple, it would take a long time to send, then inevitably most, if not all of them would come back. Then I would work it over and send again - sometimes I would be lucky, sometimes everything came back. This way I can put as many pictures on as my heart desires, and a Grandma's heart desires to show off her grandkids, so be prepared.
Since my last post, I to meet one fabulous gal: the latest grandchild, Lauren Mae, #22. Because she arrived a week earlier than scheduled, our official meeting was postponed so I could witness the sealing and blessing of Luke and Ethan Hutchings. Lauren was a week old by the time Claire (complete with Ella and Lincoln), Julie, and myself set out for Dallas, TX. We had a detour right at the start when Gary called the night before from the airport, a bit frantic, because he had left his bag that had his work files and scriptures on the security belt. Unfortunately, he didn't realize this until it came down to a choice of fly or don't fly and he chose to fly since he had a definite work commitment starting in Saudi Arabia. We were given the task of finding his forgotten bag the next morning and figuring out a way to get it to him on our way out of town. That delayed us a couple of hours, but we were successful; unfortunately, the bag made it to the Middle East only to get lost/misplaced there. Fortunately, Gary found it in the Bahrain cargo hold enroute back home two weeks later, so he is 'whole.' Have you ever lost your scriptures? Well I have and you feel like your better half is missing!
Speaking of fortunes and misfortunes, Claire had a 'series of unforunate events' almost as soon as we crossed the border into TX. We dropped her off at her good friend/roomie, Aleisha's home, where she planned to stay for one night. That was Monday evening on our long, long drive from ATL to Dallas (just ask Julie how long it was and she'll give you the details). We ended up not seeing Claire until Friday afternoon. She and Aleisha went to 'On the Border' (no anonymous name protection here) and inside of her burrito was buried a 2 inch razor blade which she discovered when she bit down on it! Claire called Rachel who in turn tried to tell me why Claire wouldn't be coming as soon as was expected and all I could picture was that blade going down her throat cutting it's way all the way to her tummy. I nearly passed out myself before I found out what really happened. She bit down on the blade, but did not swallow it. She summoned the waitress who called for the management who somehow managed to make Claire feel like he was suspicious she had 'planted' the razor blade for monetary benefit. Now how is that for turning the tables on the victim? He offered her a $10 gift card for future use. That was the ultimate insult. Corporate the next day acknowledged that they cut tomatoes with a similar blade, even though the manager said they didn't have anything like that in the kitchen. Coverup! The next morning Claire is sick with back pain, nausea, and chills which are symptoms of e-coli poisoning. Off to the Dr. she goes only to find out a few days later that they 'lost' her culture. She did some detective work and found out that it wasn't really lost, the culture was never ordered by the Dr.! All hopes of a multimillion dollar suit went down the drain. Actually, Jason said he would have been happy with $100,000! Claire definitely had a series of unfortunate events but managed to fully recover despite the country doctor's ineptitude. As for 'On the Border', they are probably still losing razor blades in their burritos, so BEWARE!
Claire's absence meant Julie and I only had to share Lauren 50/50 instead of splitting her three ways. She is a total delight and totally cute. She was eating and sleeping and pooping like an expert, and being carefully attended to by her older sisters who quite adore her. Rachel is such a great mom - I loving being the mother of great moms. Truly, I feel like I have 8 incredible moms in the world as my daughters and daughter in laws - each one mothering in their own unique and wonderful way.

We were so glad when Claire finally joined us in Dallas even though it meant a full house at the Crofts! Kate, Taylor, Ella and Lincoln wore themselves out chasing each other all over in tutos and ballerina slippers. I can't say that we did a whole lot other than just enjoying the time to be together but that's really all we wanted to do anyway. I did mange the neighborhood outlet mall a couple of times as well as a $1600 back up accident that was totally my fault, and totally covered by our insurance. And I suspect the insurance company will totally recoup that with increased premiums!

Julie left us early to head back to UT and a couple of days later Claire and I made the long drive back to ATL with Ella and Lincoln who were pretty close to perfect for those 14 hours. More positive proof that there are amazing mothers in this family!

Grandma Jewkes, Lucile, has been with us for a few weeks - spending time between Jana's home and ours...and her computer. She is working on her life history and she has some great stories to tell. She also let me take her to STOMP at the Fox and did we ever have a stomping good time. What a great show - if it comes your way, figure out a way to see it! I enjoy taking walks with her in the morning, sharing good books to read, and just letting some of her goodness rub off. We both just read, 'Left to Tell' a heart-reading story of survival during the Rwandan genocide in the 90's - by Imaculee Illibigaza. It is more than a story of survival - it is a story developing faith in God who she testified 'saved' her from certain death time after time. It is a story of learning to forgive those who did unspeakable things. I also just finished 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' - another very good read. My goal for the next few days is to read 'Three Cups of Tea' for our book club coming up on Friday.

Jacob was home for the weekend - a surprise visit and we always love surprise visits from him. I teased him about being one of the richest members of the family - he definitely has more discretionary income than we do and maybe than you do, too! Jake is having surgery on his nose on Feb 16 as a result of an injury in 2006 when he was elbowed during a basketball game. He went to the Dr. who confirmed it was probably broken at the time, but we're finding out now it was not only broken, it was misplaced. He has gradually developed breathing problems which means he's not sleeping well which means he is tired after a long day at the dental office which means he isn't getting a whole lot done on his academics because he falls asleep! (Jake...correct me if I'm wrong!) So he is going to have his nose broken again, the scar tissue cut out, the nasal passages all cleaned, his nose straightened and maybe even a new nose shape! It will not be fun, but it will be worth it, right Jake?

I'm so glad Gary is back home safely from Saudi. He got back Wed morning and had two days of work with Franklin Covey on Thurs and Friday. He hasn't had a chance to recover yet! He is working way too hard if you consider he also has a very time consuming and stressful job with United Capital as well. Seems like the closer we get to retirement the crazier/busier life gets.

Now that the New Year is here we are on the afternoon block for our church meetings. That's pretty challening for Luke who isn't yet old enough for the nursery and has to endure three hours of adult meetings right smack during his three hour nap time! From the noise level in our sacrament meeting, I would say Luke has some company. I recently read an article by Orson Scott Card on helping children be reverent in church. I like his philosophy on this a lot better than my philosophy as a young mother, but as Lucile always says, you do the best you know how at the time. If you want to check it out, here is the website:Message

http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/070926story.html

First day of February - 2009 is already well on it's way. Brian (do I dare say it....Big 30 for him) and Beau have already turned a year older in January with Hayden, Gabe, Jenn, and Ella celebrating this month. As for the future, Elder Holland said it just right, 'Faith trusts that God has great things in store for you...faith has to do with blessings and truths and events that will YET be efficacious in our lives.' Didn't we hear the following at the past General Conference: 'The best is yet to come!'

To the Future!

2009-01-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

In honor of my new camera (thanks to a lot of you, and a special thanks to Emily and Jake for orchestrating it all), this Weekly Reader will be long on pictures, and short on words. I remember on the days that our TIME magazine used to arrive, Jacob would come home from school and immediately sit down for an hour and read it from cover to cover. Only later did I find out he was only looking at the pictures and the short explanations under them – fast food style current events! Take a glimpse at some of the latest current events from our family:

First photo: Welcome to Ethan Cole Hutchings who arrived on December 30^th just in time for a 2008 tax deduction! Isn’t he handsome? I was called to come up to the hospital just minutes before he was delivered and was lucky enough to witness the miracle of his birth. He cried for just a minute, then opened up his big eyes and started looking around. Within 30 minutes he had about a dozen visitors in his delivery room – things have definitely changed from when I was having babies. We had to beg and bend the rules to have Gary in the delivery room, and then later only select family members could visit the new baby and that was after they had thoroughly sterilized their hands and covered themselves with hospital gowns. Ethan is still spending a lot of time looking around when he is awake, and very little time crying. Emily is ‘training’ him already and he is on a routine. I’ve not had nearly enough grandma time with him.

Second photo: This little gal, Lauren Mae Crofts, arrived two weeks early but still didn’t quite make a 2008 tax deduction for her mom and dad. Born Jan 5, her mom said she came way too fast. Rachel likes to enjoy every moment of labor and delivery and she got cheated on this one. This new little gal is beautiful and I can hardly wait to meet her in person. Julie, Claire, Ella, Lincoln, and myself are leaving for Dallas early in the morning in the reliable and old suburban. What’s another 1500 miles added on 250,000 anyway? Brian took the week off and has been taking good care of Rachel. Kate, with Taylor as her assistant, is reported to be taking good care of Lauren.

Third and fourth photos: ‘Visions of sugarplums danced in their heads!’ The excitement in Sofi and Lili’s eyes is a preview for the excitement at Hickory Hill Farm as Christmas drew near. Gary and I did host our annual ‘Older Folks Christmas Dinner Party’ the weekend before Christmas. We had a big crowd and some interesting white elephant gifts….like a six pack of beer! The college kids all made it home safely. Chase Verzello tagged along with Jacob and spent a few nights with us. Gary invited Rolando, our Spanish speaking carpenter/fix-it-up guy, to bring his family to our home for Christmas Eve. We thought he was bringing seven others along and we told them we would have dinner at 6:00. We planned a big Christmas feast for a big group. At 4:00 they showed up – Rolando and three of his brothers – not quite seven but hopefully four hungry men. At 4:30 they told Jake Sr., in Spanish, that they had to leave about 5:00. At this point I realized there had been some serious miscommunication between Rolando and Gary when the invitation was extended, which often happens when we only speak English and they only speak Spanish and Jake H. isn’t around to interpret! To make a long story short, when I started pulling out the bread and milk for them instead of the ‘feast’ whose aromas were filling the kitchen, they changed their mind and stayed for the evening. They even joined us for our traditional Christmas Eve reading of the First Christmas from the Book of Luke, complete with grandkids bringing their selected nativity piece to the scene, and our voices joining for carols as the story progressed. It ended up being a lovely evening filled with love, laughter, good food, remembrance, and sharing of stories and testimony. We sent our guests home laden with food and hopefully touched by the Spirit of Christmas. That night the stockings were hung with care after we bid farewell to Josh, Dagmar, Jasper, and the sugar plum fairies.

Fifth photo: You’ll see a group of us perched in a big old tree on St. Simon’s Island. We were lucky enough to find a beautiful home on the beach available starting on Christmas Day and through the weekend with time to play on the beach, swim in the pool, pedal on a ‘bycycle built for six’, compete in our own American Idol contest, play Ticket to Ride, and even sleep….a little.

Sixth photo: ‘I saw momma kissing Santa Claus….’ I mean, I saw Julie kissing Christopher! Chris Ricks joined us for five days before heading to Israel for a semester abroad. Julie is now a lonely heart. Chris is just one of those guys you can’t help but love. While he was here we went to Cirque Soleil/Jungle Fantasy on New Year’s Even. What a great show – fabulous costumes, music, and performance. The girls made sure Chris hit all of the hot spots: El Charro, Red Neck Gourmet, Café Pig. In case those weren’t southern induction enough, we bequeathed a bright red University of GA sweatshirt on him to replace all of his sweatshirts that Julie has taken over.

Seventh photo: Luke with his mom and Dad on the day of his sealing in the Atlanta temple, Jan 11. The sealing was over before I even knew it began J Because I was the lucky one that got to bring the boys into the sealing room from the children’s center, that meant I was supposed to help Luke put his hand on top of his mom and dad’s while they knelt across from each other at the altar. The problem was, Luke didn’t want to his hand to be put anywhere, so he started protesting which meant I stopped hearing, and the next thing I knew it was over and people were getting in line to congratulate Jake and Emily….and Luke. So, it was different than I expected. Cooper and Ethan got to witness all of this, too – and so maybe you could ask them for some more details. After pictures, we all gathered for lunch at La Madelaine’s: Hutchings (including Butch, Debbie, and daughter Jamie); Josh, Dagmar and family, Jana, Wayne, and Kailey; Jason, Claire, and family, Grandma Jewkes (hooray – she is here for a stay!), JD and Meredith Parker Ethington, and most importantly….Julie! We thought Jake Jr. was coming and missed him when he didn’t – he qualifies for ‘most important’, too.

Eighth photo: Luke and Ethan all dressed in white for their blessing day. Jake H. joined the ‘double blessing club’ (elite members are Josh and Gary) for having the privilege as Dads/Melchizedek Priesthood holders to give two blessings back to back. Jake managed to do it without having twins and Luke was a BIG sensation, and Ethan was a SMALL sensation. Jake gave wonderful blessings joined by the boys Grandpa Hutchings and Poppy Jewkes, Josh, Jason, Wayne. Special weekend for Jake and Emily who seem to almost overnite have grown from two to a family of five!

Since the last Dec 16 Weekly Reader Amanda, Hannah, Christian, Luke and Lucy have all celebrated birthdays. Lucy had her birthday dinner at ‘Lucy’s El Patio’ and that really is the name. Every time they would pass this restaurant on the way to church, Lucy would say, ‘There’s my El Patio!’ She had a Fancy Nancy party this week just like her big sister Madi had in December.

I’m going to quote Ella for the close of this Weekly Reader Photo Edition. She had her first close up of a temple yesterday at Luke’s sealing. Here is how it went for her. ‘Mommy, there’s a man on top of the temple! ‘So this is where Heavenly Father lives?’ ‘I don’t want to go home, I haven’t gotten married yet.’ You’ll see her in the final photo enjoying some freedom on the temple grounds.

2008-12-06T20:10:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year when things get put on a 'to do' list and then it takes days to get them checked off! The Weekly Reader has been on that list for the last week but I'm learning in my growing age to be more flexible and allow for distractions....or maybe procrastination. Probably a little of both. Distractions come in lots of forms around here, but lately, Luke has decided he is no longer going to be content sitting on the sidelines. Because I love to see him light up whenever I look his way - he has had Pavlov conditioning from Grandma Becky - I can't resist picking him up and getting some Luker Loves. Then Cooper has suddenly become very mischievous just as his mom is becoming very heavy with child. Cooper is exploring drawers, cupboards, closets, and even the out of doors. He has discovered that he can open all of the doors which has alarmed Emily and now she can't sleep at night for fear he is going to wake up and wander outside and fall into the fish pond! She could only go for so many nights without sleep so they had to come up with a plan. Plan A was to lock the outside doors. What....lock us safely in? That's unheard of on Hickory Hill Farm. Anyone can walk in at anytime here - it's open door policy as I'm sure you all know. That's made me nervous on occasion, too, when I'm home alone. Plan B was to change the door knob on Cooper's bedroom - both plans are in place and things are under control. Emily is now sleeping again....well sort of. She has to make several trips to the bathroom during the night as it goes with being nearly nine months pregnant. Emily and Jake have run away for the weekend for one last chance at peace and quiet. It is Jake's birthday today - not quite 30 but getting close! Jake shares a birthday with Wayne Vickers, not quite 50 but close - Jana has planned a party for him at Medeival Times tonite. But tonite I have Luke full time and Gary is returning from FL, so we'll miss out on the four course meal, the jousting and fencing and everything else. Happy Birthday these two guys!

Last Sunday was a special day when Jasper David was blessed. He was wearing the little white suit Josh wore exactly 33 years ago on the very same day, Nov 30. Jordan and Amanda were with us as well as Hutchings, Allreds, and Vickers - a circle of family priesthood holders placing their hands on that special little baby. Jasper David was perfectly quiet while his Dad, Joshua David, gave him a beautiful blessing. Lili and Sofi were missionaries and had their next door neighbor friend with them as well as her parents. I'm sure Dagmar had her hand in that - she is always including non-members in things we should all be including non-members in! She is the exemplary missionary in the Jewkes extended family.

The blessing brought the perfect finishing touch on a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Jordan and Amanda drove up from FL late Tuesday night with Jonah being on his best behavior. He is such a handsome, cute, happy, fun baby. Gary and I have decided that we have the best, the cutest, the brightest, the funnest grandkids in the entire world and that's the truth. We have felt it all along, but now there is indisputable proof over and over, like 20 times over. We had a tableful of guests on Thanksgiving with all of the GA families (the Allreds quite by accident and at the very last minute - they were scheduled to be in Augusta with Jason's family until Ella and Lincoln came down with colds; they have a little cousin in cancer treatment that can't be exposed to any obvious germs), Jana and Wayne (we adopted Kailey as well for for a couple of days - she is such a great help and fun to have around), the mission President and his wife and son (who at 18 is expecting his mission call this week), the senior couple in the office who were just delightful (she confessed that she was reading the Twilight series but realized she was addicted when her first waking thought was about vampires and so she dropped the books 'cold turkey'- now you know why we all enjoyed her), the office missionaries who also live in our ward, Sue and Jerry Parker, and Meredith with her husband and little girl. Parker even stopped in for some dessert and to sign (mentally at least) a contract to put up our outdoor Chrstmas lights which he did faithfully. I loved Thanksgiving - no one had to work too hard, everyone magnified their cooking assignment (John David Ethington's rolls were better than mine which hurt my pride a little), and Emily made the cutest little favors yet. Dagmar cooked two turkeys when she heard about the crowd that was coming - two delicious, tender, juicy turkeys, gravy included. I am quite impressed that I was able to delegate the two most time consuming jobs to a guy and a brand new mom! About all I had to do was show up!

We had a delicious meal then a Thanksgiving gratitude circle, minus the Berkana talking stick. Amanda was thankful that she gets to be a full time, stay at home mom and she also told us that she has the best husband, so I didn't dare tell her that I really do. Jordan was grateful to be nominated for best husband and to have a good job and a son that he adores. The mission President said he was grateful to be living a dream of serving a mission with his wife! Hopefully Gary and I will be able to do the same in the near future (although probably not in the president role). Dagmar and Josh were very, very grateful for their new little boy, and that was what I was feeling a lot of gratitude for, too - a miracle in the day of miracles! Gary was thankful for the opportunity to have his testimony of faith increased (he forgot to nominate me for the best wife, but that's o.k. because he told me that in his 101 Things card I got for my birthday!), Emily and Jake are thankful for each other and to have four capable hands to manaage two little boys and almost three, and I can't remember what everyone else was grateful for - either that or I didn't hear what they said - probably the latter. Either way, there was a wonderful spirit of gratitude to Heavenly Father for rich blessings of life and testimony.

Seems like we traveled around the USA a few times later that night with our Tickets to Ride. Emily always manages to win...well nearly always. If it isn't Emily, then it's Jake. Either way the Hutchings dominate. Jordan joined the game, but had a hard time deciding which routes to keep and which to toss, so that kept him out of the winner's circle. As for myself, I just keep being a good sport as best as I can. Besides, there was banana cream pie, apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and other delights to keep the losers happy. On Friday Claire and Jason led the gang out to Mega Maze where nearly everyone helped shoot a basketful of golf balls over the driving range, bat a cage-full of baseballs at slow (Claire, Emily and the wee ones), medium (Jordan), and fast (Jake and Jason) baseballs. Then we headed indoors to the actual Mega Maze of slides and chutes and ladders and ball-y mattresses. For some crazy reason Emily thought she could climb around it all, and she got stuck in one of the chutes because it wasn't just Emily, it was Emily and Ethan-soon-to-appear; the owner had to come and push her (them) out! Luke and Jonah howled when they were dumped in the pile of balls. Even Jacob Jewkes was climbing around - tall, six foot Jake, and there was a very clear sign that read, 'No Adults Allowed!' It was a fun afternoon topped off by lunch at El Charro. Nightime found us riding around the country again on the trains. Actually, maybe this was the night we went to Australia. When we came out of the theatre there were mixed reactions: Gary, Jake, Emily and Claire loved it; Jason, Jordan and myself thought it was all rather dramatic, but then, I was only watching and not hearing much, so maybe it was even more dramatic than I realized! (Amanda was neutral, I think, but don't trust my memory). It was fun to get out of the house and see Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman no matter what you thought of the movie. Saturday was the annual D-Day as in Decorate. We had so many good helpers that it ended up being V-Day as in Victory. The fastest decorating job we've ever done and that included the outside lights by Parker. Victory indeed and I hardly had to do a thing.

So now that D day is past, this house has lots of busy grown-up elves around...and a traveling Santa. Gary has been in FL most of the week, and is heading to Dallas next week. We are contemplating another 'older folks' Christmas dinner party which would make it our third annual such event. I did hear a talk at general conference about establishing traditions, so maybe we should move beyond contemplation to action on the fourth annual deal.

Gary has been writing rather faithfully in his journal the last few months and he asked that I attach his last journal entry with this Weekly Reader – his thoughts on a subject that is addressed every single general Priesthood meeting.

I hope you all enjoy the fun days of December and are able to soak in a little bit of what it's all about. It’s the month to be especially good – oh, never mind. I know you all are and don’t need reminding.

Love, Mom