** THE TOYS ARE LONELY . . . **

Hi again, Alert Readers! The toy box is looking forlorn and lonely this morning.  Rory is not coming today. She and her Mama and Daddy have flown back east to meet some of Andrew’s family. Rory’s toys are looking desolate. They seem to be asking, “Where’s that cute little girl who plays with us?” Oh well . . . there’s always next week!

We had a lovely Mother’s Day. We don’t get out of church until 4:30 (groan!), so the family came over at 5:30 for dinner. EVERYONE was here: our whole posterity! Kristin, Chris, Ali, Andrew, Rory, Nick, Emily and Trevor. My goodness! There are not very many of us, but we love each other, and we are growing! The men fixed the food: Andrew, who loves to cook and is a GOOD cook, made Argentine empanadas. These are not the sweet Mexican empanadas; these are made with meat. We had beef, chicken and ham and cheese ones. YUMMY! Chris made two delicious cheesecakes. Again, YUMMY! OH! And, fun!, we watched our DVD of our Santa Monica 1^st Ward roadshow “Circus Daze”. Our grandkids had seen it before, but it was NEW to Andrew and Emily- and a riot for all the rest of us too! We were all falling on the floor with Denny’s “I’m turning into skin and bones!” part. Had to play it twice! 

That DVD made us very nostalgic for “the good ole days”. Those 27 years in Santa Monica were the highlight of our lives. Working in the youth program was our joy. We couldn’t do it anymore. It was truly physically demanding. What a shame . . . we loved those kids!

We are missing our Sunday School kids. It is good to be back among the adults after a really long absence (our illnesses, etc), but there’s something very special about working with the youth. We love teaching Gospel Doctrine, and hope that we will get to know the adults in the Ward now . . . . BUT we miss those special kids! I love to get a hug from them in the halls.

Last Tuesday night was fun. Our Ward Relief Society had a very special Mother/Daughter Activity. I invited Krissy, Ali and Emily to come. It meant a lot to me that they came. There was a short program and then CRAFTS! Ali and Emily had signed up to embellish some summer flip-flops. CUTE! All four of us made photo blocks. We painted rather largish blocks of wood black and then Mod Podged a photograph onto it. Then came a nice black ribbon bow! Emily tied our bows for us and they are really beautiful! Her little girls are going to have cute hair bows, I bet! My block has our wedding picture on it- in black and white, of course. It looks really nice sitting in our bookshelf. Emily did a black and white photo of her wedding day too. Ali did one of her cute little family, and Krissy made one with Rory! All of them turned out really cute. And EASY! *** After the crafts, an ice cream sundae bar opened! Oh my . . . all kinds of toppings for ice cream! It was soooo good! We were only there for about an hour and fifteen minutes. PERFECT! It was so fun to be with the girls. I love them!

NEWS! I am going back to serve in the Temple on Wednesday nights! I am still having too much pain in my left knee to STAND, but I can volunteer in the laundry from 3:00 – 6:45 PM, and then go to the Recording Office until all of the ordinances are recorded (usually about 9:45 or so). Sister Milly Pike (who has been the volunteer running the office on Wed nights) is moving to Idaho, and they needed someone to take her place. Luckily, I’ve been serving in the office for nearly a year, and have been trained on all of the jobs and machines- so I can come in and take her place!  J  This will require me to train the two sister ordinance workers who come in on Wednesdays, but I think it will be fun. If another office opening occurs on Tuesdays, I would like to take that one too. That will put me in the Temple the same times as Denny.

MORE NEWS! John and Elaine Wallace and four of their kids (Daniel is staying home) are coming over Memorial Day Weekend! YAY! It will be so fun to see them! Elaine told me not to worry about “entertaining” them. We really don’t know much about childrens’ play places around here. They have rented a place to stay. And it has a community pool!!!! That will be fun for them. LOVE LOVE LOVE the Wallaces!

Must go. The laundry is screaming my name. I wish it would just wash, dry and fold itself!  . . . sigh . . .

Love to all, Sue J

** RORY SPEAKS! **

Hi, everyone!  It’s RORY!!!!!  My GG (who loves loves loves me- bigger than the sky!) said she would help me with the spelling today. So this will be easier to read, maybe!  I thought I was doing a pretty good job, but I guess there is room for improvement, huh?

BIG NEWS!  I am WALKING!  And I mean EVERYWHERE! As soon as I caught on about putting one foot in front of the other, I just took off and haven’t looked back since! My PapaGG say they have a hard time keeping up with me. They put big thick cardboard against their bookcases to “keep me safe” (but I really know it’s just to keep me from playing with their pretty things) and they put a card table down on its side with sofa cushions on each side to keep me corralled in the living room. I am allowed to walk down the hall, but it dark and scary, so I come back right away. All of the doors are shut down there. GG has big cushions on each side of her rocker too, but sometimes I fool her and get through there anyway, and head straight for the fun shiny stuff in the kitchen. Papa jumps up and runs after me. It’s a game!     . . . and I win!

I’m such a big girl now (almost 11 months old!) that I can eat some regular food. PapaGG went to the store and bought me a bunch of “toddler food”. I don’t like some of it AT ALL!!!! My GG is determined to feed me veggies, and I like the smooth veggies she feeds me, but I don’t care for the lumpy stuff. She told me last time that it was veggies with chicken. YUCK! But she kept feeding it to me until half of the big bottle was gone. Then she gave me some bananas, and I felt a lot better! I absolutely ADORE my GG, but I wish she wouldn’t feed me that yucky stuff! I’m going over there tomorrow, and I hope she has something better than that chicken stuff!

 My Mama and Daddy took me swimming the other night. I have a new swimsuit with The Little Mermaid on it! I look soooo cute in it! See? 

I liked the water, but it getting pretty cold, so I was glad when we got out. Maybe next time we can go during the daytime! Then I can show off my cute swimsuit! 

Mama is taking me to a special class tomorrow at Church for little kids. We are going to have MUSIC!  I LOVE music! Plus, there will be other little kids there. Playmates! I am very excited! When it is over, she is taking me to visit the elementary school she worked before I was born. The ladies there really really really want to see me. So I am practicing being extra cute. After going to the school, I get to go to PapaGG’s for rest of the day! YAY! I sometimes fuss a bit when my Mama leaves me. She is my favorite person in the whole world . . . but PapaGG love me very much and will play all day with me. Plus, I get a bath!

 That’s my GG rinsing off my hair. Yes, I am in the kitchen sink. And here I am, being dried off by my Papa!

I have lots of toys at my PapaGG’s house. My First Birthday is coming up, and PapaGG have MORE toys to give me then! PapaGG want to give them to me NOW, but they decided to wait until my party. . . . sigh . . . But I DO have a lot of toys now.

I asked my GG to write how much I love all of you . . . I will write again later!  Love, Rory ;)

** SUMMER HEAT/BODY BEAT **

Hi Alert Readers! Who can believe that it is MAY?????  My word!  Where did Spring go? We are already in triple digits here in the Valley of the Sun. GAH!  Well, I must admit that I don't actually go out all that much. Now that I am on Leave from the Temple for a while, I pretty much only leave home to go to Kristin's for "Girls Day" once a week, and to church on Sunday. So I don't suffer the heat much. Denny does almost ALL of the shopping. He has done the grocery shopping for 3 or 4 years. Yep! I am a spoiled brat. Denny is Hubby #1 in the whole world! Love, love, love him!!!!! Now, I do SOME shopping- but it is on the Internet!  Does that count? 

I am frustrated because my left knee is simply getting worse- not better. We were hoping that time would come to our aid, and the knee would somehow just "self-correct". I know, I know . . . that was dumb to even consider. But we were not in favor of "exploratory surgery" for Dr. Matthews to get a look inside my knee to see what is wrong. We chose to wait three months and have another bone scan.

What I have to do is LOSE WEIGHT. I absolutely hate to say that out loud like this, because then everyone is WATCHING . . . and I feel that I am letting people down if the weight doesn't come off easily, which it won't. Losing weight to me is a very personal, sometimes bitter battle. Please, friends, just be patient and please do not mention my battle to me. I am aware that I need to lose weight. I have heard EVERYBODY'S weight loss scheme and story. I have done it before and can do it again – my way. If you see me eating a cookie at a party, please allow me to enjoy the cookie without criticism. CRITICISM DOES NOT WORK. Never has; never will.

Okay- okay- I'll get off my soapbox now.  ;-)

Rory is coming to be with us tomorrow!!!! We are so happy to have her once a week!!! We have bonded tightly with her. She is now 10 months old, and so fun, entertaining and sweet-natured. Now that she is walking/sprinting, she really keeps us on our toes. We build a barricade to keep her safe, and she is really good about staying "in". Sometimes, of course, she DOES get away and escape.  But she's really good about coming back to us when we call her, uhhhhhhhhhhh . . . SOMETIMES! 

Rory's birthday is next month . . . and we have her presents all hidden in our closet. Why we are HIDING them is pretty silly- SHE wouldn't recognize them anyway!  But half the fun is stowing things away for later.  Her Mama and Daddy already gave her the big present. It is huuuuge, lights up and makes fun noises, and GUESS WHAT SHE WANTS TO PLAY WITH????  The box they keep the balls in!  Bwahahaha! I think for Christmas, we are going to give her some shoe boxes, wrapping paper and a ball of tape!  She'll be thrilled!

Not too exciting of a blog, I know. But THIS. IS. MY. LIFE.   . . .  sigh . . .   Farewell for now, Alert Readers!  We'll talk again later!   Love you all!  Sue ;0