Birthday Tribute to Mother

I wanted to end the month of February with a tribute to my Mother, whose birthday was February 13th. Vicky reminded me of it, and I feel bad that I didn't think of it; I should preface this with the fact that I didn't know my Mother. She died when I was 21/2 years old.

Clydene and Janette worked very hard to put a scrapbook together for me 6 years ago on my birthday that was mean't to give me some insight into who she was through others words. Aunt(s) Dott and Joye both spoke of her amazing musical abilities, her sewing skills, and the wonderful fruit preserves and candy that she made. Elma, Tom, Nadine, and DiAnne remembered how diligent she was at doing the best with what she had and welcoming anyone into her home. They spoke of her patience, her beauty, and her unending love.

I believe her talents and beauty have trickled down through the generations that she has left behind. But I sometimes wonder and feel that she also has had a hand in sending the angels we have received.


From Gods Arms . . .
Sue Shifflett

I look at you and see someone familiar
It’s as though I’m seeing myself.
Not myself as I know myself,
But in pictures that I’ve seen.

I wonder if my dear, sweet Mother
Had anything to do with you coming at this time?
I feel a strange connection to you
As if an embodiment of her and I have been combined.

So when I look into your eyes,
And see you pull your funny face.
I think that there must be a tie
To another time – another place.

When God hands off his angels fair
To someone who might be with Him there.
That someone is a loved one passed
Who then enfolds them to their breast.
And gently passes them to this World
From Gods arms, to her arms, and then to yours.

And then the Circle of Love is complete
As Grandmother, sends you your angel, sweet.
With love, and a wish that we all might see
The connection, the familiarity.

Can't think of anything clever to say but wanted to post a couple of poorly taken pix from yesterday's birthday luncheon at Robintino's for Nadine. 10 of us ladies and Casey (the lucky fella at the head of the table), enjoyed good food and good company. My side of the table wasn't as cooperative on getting their pix taken. Teri left early, DiAnne put her hand up to her face, and Nadine kept scrunching out of the pix frame each time I would raise the camera. And you can tell how interested Casey was in our get-together. Anyway, it was fun to see everyone, and share lunch with such funny gals.

Happy Birthday, Nadine!

A SISTER is someone beside you lending a hand.
Offering words that say, “I understand”
She’s someone you turn to, day after day,
To share any worries that life brings your way.

Sister, you taught me
What it is to share,
And what it is to receive,
You gave me
Love, joy, togetherness,
Loyalty, support, friendship -

I’ve told you a lot, and you’ve tried to understand
And whenever I needed help, you always lent a hand.
You’re older, but somehow I’ve become more gray
I don’t understand how or even why!

Sisters are the mainstays of our life.
Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how
many miles are between us.

The world wouldn't be the same without the women in my life.
When we began this adventure called
womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or
sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we
would need each other.

I Love Ya, Sis!
Happy Birthday

Happy #1 Birthday, Hadley Jo!

This is the cutest lil' Haddie Bug! She is a great grand-daughter to Nadine and Kacy's first baby.

Happy Birthday, Curtis!

Curt is our third son and he will be 31 TODAY!!

He enjoys hiking, camping, traction kite flying, water sports, skiing, and movies & music.

My wish for your birthday this year is to encourage you to stretch higher, to push harder, and to expand your talents and abilities.

Happy Birthday, Kristen!

It's also Kristen's birthday today. She is the youngest daughter of Jeff who is DiAnne's and Glen's son. She turns 16 today and is drop-dead gorgeous, as you can see from her picture. When I asked Jeff about a few of her accomplishments, he mentioned that - between going on her first date to the Valentine's Dance this past weekend & going to get her driver's license this morning, he is actually in mourning! She has participated in dance (& is also teaching a dance class of 8-12 year olds), soccer, and is currently a cheerleader at Northridge High carrying a 4.0 grade pt. average. You might have remembered the story about Jameson and his friends trying to get her attention at the Viewmont/Northridge game a month ago. Who could blame them?

Boys come with NOISE!

Connor is Mike's little guy and our 2nd grandchild.

Hand a 3-year-old boy a toy truck and he'll immediately start brrrr-ing his lips together while moving that toy truck around. In fact, when my boys were young, they didn't even need a toy truck. They could take a shoe or wood block or a pair of my eyeglasses and run them across the floor - all the while making that brrr-ing sound. (It took years before I realized it wasn’t my vision but the scratched glasses!).

And it’s not just trucks – it’s airplanes, dinosaurs, any kind of Star Wars or Ninja activity, and guns! OMG! - Ask a boy to hold out his hand and make a shooting sound - and he'll immediately ask you, "What caliber?" Two hours later, he will still be shooting his finger at every object within sight. Occasionally, he'll pause to throw out a Dirty Harry phrase, like, "Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya' punk?" and KAAPOOHA! His arm will suddenly go skyward with "believable" recoil. Then, without warning, he might switch to 2-handed machine-gun mode and shoot Rambo-style - right from the hip. The truly gifted will sometimes even hoist an imaginary bazooka up onto his shoulder and will actually close one eye to look through his imaginary sights before pulling the imaginary trigger. You ought to hear that sound. It's a beautiful thing!

Connor comes with NOISE! And questions . . . ‘You wanna see something?’, ‘Can I tell you something?’, ‘Hey, guess what?’, ‘You wanna know something?’ When you finally give him the attention, there comes a long pause as he tries to figure out something to make your time worthwhile! Then he always has the answer and solution to tell you. Even tho he’s only in kindergarten, he has a cell phone with his favorite pictures, music from the 80’s (I wondered who programmed that, Dad?), and numbers to family and friends. He actually told me the other day that I needed to get a cell phone so that he could text me. ‘Fat chance of that!’ Anyone that knows me, knows I like anonymity.

When we were with him at Christmas, he flexed one arm and said – ‘This is REASON’; then he flexed the other one and said ‘This is persuasion‘. The kid literally cracks me up! While living down in Hurricane for the past year he has climbed mountains with his Dad & Mom, ridden four-wheelers, gone boating, flown his Dad’s traction kites, and lost 3 teeth; he’s gone to Vegas more in the last year than I have in 10; learned to swim; become accomplished at Wii and his Playstation games; whooshed his way down the ‘Zip line’; mastered his bike (without training wheels) in just two days; has attended -not one but two- kindergartens this year and is well ahead of kids in both of his classes – not just scholastically, but actually a whole HEAD!! Although he is only going to be 6, he’s more the size of an 8 year old! He always wants to know why his Granpa Woody tells him that he ‘thinks he’s DUTCH’ – his comeback is, ‘No I’m Connor!’ He has a collection of Star Wars light sabers (7 at last counting); he enjoys playing with the old Star Wars action figures that his Dad played with so many years ago; and games on his Playstation - He’s a bundle of energy and intense noise-making while jumping up and down in front of the TV and bouncing off the furniture like a ‘super ball’! The BOY is definitely ALL BOY! And we love every minute of him and his NOISE!

Happy 6th Birthday, Connor!

Happy Birthday to my Good Friends

It's that time of the year, within the first 3 months of any given year, that the 3 Amigo's/3 Musketeers/3 Stooges celebrate their birthdays. Candy's is the 18th of January, Paulette's is the 26th of February, and mine is the 27th of March. We all belong to the 49's Club, and are damn proud of it! We met and had dinner at the local Mandarin (so yummy!), gossiped and cackled over the silliest of things, and then went back to Candy's and reminisced about almost every aspect of some 40 years! We have such a great time together, and always come away with a renewed trust & faith in friendships.

We three have been friends since Jr. High and have seen each other through many good (and bad) times. In 9th Grade, we were all expected to participate in 3-act plays through Mrs. Wilcox's Journalism class, so we did that together. Paulette and I laughed and cried over boyfriends, sneaked out of church meetings to grab a cherry coke, and most recently, she is the one I have gone to help with dog-training search and rescue sessions. Candy and I decided it would be fun in High School to take lunch money, thereby affording us the opportunity to meet and greet all the cute guys that came through our line! Back in the olden days, we weren't allowed to leave the school campus for lunches, so if we weren't in the book store buying candy bars and a pop, we actually ate a school lunch! Novel Idea, don't you think? Candy drove a very old VW, that had blinker signals that literally jumped out of the side of the door panels when engaged. We found it great fun to flip the blinkers on - left, right, left, right, at the drive-in movie; thereby bugging people around and behind us! Such innocent mischief!

Although I do try to write poetry, I took license of some thoughts I found and added upon them with thoughts of my own about our youth and friendship.

CHEERS! To the Girls we Have Become...

Happy Valentines Day, Everyone!

The love in your heart wasn't put there to stay
Love isn't LOVE, 'til you give it away.

Spread the LOVE!

Since I last posted about Heather's cute little clay buddies, she has worked up a deal to have some of them displayed and auctioned at the Eccles Art Center in Ogden; contracted to make some for friends of friends, co-workers of friends, and is pretty much goin' NUTZ with all the rage of wanting the next thing! Everytime she shows me something new, I love it more than the last one. Currently, I am in LOVE with the little gal in the swimsuit and flip-flops! Want her for my birthday . . . (Hint, Hint!)

I actually went to bed at a reasonable hour last night - but 'the talker' decided there was something too important to wait to discuss, so he woke me up at 11PM and I've been up ever since! I am thankful that there are no young children that have to be taken care of, cuz this day will find me in a hot bubble bath and back in bed after 'the talker' leaves for work!

Happy Birthday, Michele & Sara

Today is two of my nieces special birthdays! Michele, who calls herself 'FryBaby', actually shares that title with myself. She amazes us all with her youthful looks, her beautiful smile and her energy level, as she manages a home, subs teaching at the local schools in her community, supports sporting events, scouting events, church activities, and all the while offers up moral support to the 6 guys and 2 other gals who reside in her home. What a GAL!

The second niece is Sara - who turns 10 today! She is the daughter of Paige who is DiAnne's and Glen's youngest daughter. She is a vivacious, beautiful little brunette with gorgeous big blue eyes. She participates in competition soccer. She plays for the Wasatch Storm, both indoor and outdoor. She plays defense and her team is tied for first place right now with one game left in this session. She spends most of her spare time reading. She loves books about horses, wolves, and dogs. The Black Stallion series is one of her favorites. She has a large collection of wolf and husky dogs, as well as horses. Right now , her goal is to be a vet when she grows up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GIRLS! We love you.

Today was a beautiful day - albeit a bit on the brisk side. But at least, the sun was shining, and that warmed the cockles of my heart!

Early morning clouds wisp away - making room for the sunshine
Together the sun and I gather strength and within an hour or so we’re both smiling as if we controlled the day.

The Winter Woods are quiet now, The snow is on the ground;
The stillness almost hurts your ears, there's not the slightest sound.
And, once again, in solitude, I stand within the wood;
To watch the snow come falling down, where Summertime once stood.

Ghosts of winter drift along snow-white corridors in a Winter splash of golden sunlight; but my mind is conjuring memories of a warm courtyard where you can smell the bougainvillea, and hear the lilting chirp of the songbirds.
Compliments of Michael Shifflett (Artiste Extraordinaire)

Laila is our 5th grandchild and the daughter of Heidi.

Child of my child - Heart of my heart
February 3, 2008

When God was making Laila
He thought, “what can I do” -
To create a perfect little girl
To make Mom’s & Dad’s dream come true?

He started with 'cute and healthy'
Then added extra smarts
He threw in lots of giggles
To lighten all our hearts.

He added great big blue eyes
And put extra twinkles there
He stroked her skin with angel dust
To make it soft and fair.

It’s been three years since God sent you
And I’m thankful everyday
For the little Laila branch
Upon our family tree.

Of all life's earthly treasures
None can quite compare
To the treasure of a grandchild
And happy moments shared.

Love with an open heart
have fun with the little joys of life
know that you are capable of doing any thing you want
and make a true difference in the world!

Happy Birthday, Sweet 3 Year-old
Grandma Shifflett