My Grandma died on Saturday night. She was a very hardworking lady and she lived a good long life. We just got together a couple weeks ago to celebrate her birthday. She wasn’t very much with us. Dementia had taken over.

When I was a kid, my brother Scott and I used to go and spend a week at my grandma’s house every summer. I’m not sure how my mom and dad were so lucky, but it was a great thing for everyone. I have an aunt who’s only about 7 years older than me, and only 5 years older than Scott, so she looked forward to having us come every summer. We didn’t have anything fancy or go anywhere special, we just played. I remember making zucchini boats, hiking up the hills of Springville to get clay and making clay creations. We would ride bikes to the fish hatchery, or even go to Park Ro-she. Lisa had a bike with two baskets on the back, and I remember riding on the back of her bike. We would camp out in the backyard, play with the fox (yes, my grandparents had a pet fox when I was little), and just be regular members of the family. Grandpa was grumpy and crotchety, but he still loved us. Grandma was fun and loving, although very busy.

When I was at BYU, I would visit my Grandparents often. My brother lived there for a bit while he went to school, and it was close. I even brought my roommates to pick cherries or rake leaves. My grandma made me a camping quilt that we lovingly refer to as “monster blanket”. It’s pieced polyester on the top, and inside it’s filled with not one, but two wool army blankets. As she was making the blanket, the story is that my grandpa said, “One blanket? That won’t be warm enough for Paige. You’d better put two in there.” Well, it’s warm enough all right, and it weighs about 50 pounds.

My grandpa died shortly before Cole was born, so none of my kids knew either of their great grandpas. In later years, I remember how Grandma ‘s home was always plastered with pictures. It seems every grandchild and great grandchild HAD to make pictures for Grandma, including my own kids. She didn’t like living alone, but she made the best of it, and bought all the books and dolls (or anything else that Grandpa would have considered frivolous) she wanted. Always wanting company, she would invite the grown grandkids to come and visit, and she’d take them out to dinner or lunch. My kids would LOVE to go visit Grandma and go to McDonald’s.

For the past few years, she hasn’t been with us mentally so much, which has been hard for all of us. But I’m glad my kids have memories of her when she still lived in her own house, and when she knew all their names. I’m sure she’s happy to have all her memories back.

Although I will miss my sweet grandma, I’m glad that she’s gone on to be with my grandpa again. It will be a nice day to connect with family and those that I love in remembering one that we love. I love you, Grandma. I’ll miss you.

Today I had to carry my screaming child BACK to the pool for swimming lessons. Oh, the embarrassment. Have you had similar experiences with reluctant swimmers? I remember when Jenna was little, I literally peeled her off my body and threw her in the pool. –To the teacher, not just randomly thrown in the pool–. Today it was John’s turn. He started out great, but after 10 minutes, he got up like he needed to use the bathroom, and came to me instead. I don’t EVER WANT to swim, MOM! He kept saying over and over. When I decided that tough love was in order and I took him back to the pool, he was kicking and screaming and biting and pinching. Then he cried in the pool. I could hear him loud and clear crying, “I just want to go and talk to my mom!”

Oh the joy.

I apologized to the teachers, but they assured me that they have seen much worse.

Sigh.

Tonight is a free night for us. And by Free, I mean no kids! The kids are going to be sleeping over at their aunt Julene’s house, and they are VERY excited about it. Hmmm. No kids, I thought. I went to Ryan and said, “I’ve got an idea.” I think he automatically tunes out when he hears those words, but I’m not sure. So, in my most seductive and romantic voice, I said, “Since the kids are going to be gone tonight, why don’t I…” maybe I was getting his attention at this point.
“…get some paint! We can paint the family room! Doesn’t that sound great?!”

Well, apparently, to him it does NOT sound great. He did not jump all over that idea, even when I explained to him that this might be the ONLY time we have for the next month to paint, since starting next week we’ll have visitors for most of the month, and then the play and all that. And we could paint all night and be done by tomorrow.
ahem.
Not going to happen.

Instead maybe we’ll go on a date or something. Isn’t there a Sandra Bullock moving playing now?

A while back, Ryan brought home a big old tv. For a grand total of about $40 bucks, he fixed it. Because he’s handy that way.

Then, in April, that tv broke. So we were forced to watch either a decent tv up in our bedroom, or a crappy tv in the basement. After a week or so of no tv, I let the kids move the Wii and the X-box downstairs to the crappy tv, so they could at least play. That turned out to be a good thing. Because now they can play rock band for hours without driving mom crazy.

Handy Ryan eventually took out the green tube from the tv, so that it actually worked, but there is just no green. Everything looks kind of pink. After a day or so, you get used to pink. Really. He should never have done that if he wanted to get a new tv. Because we can watch pink tv for a long time. Unless you are watching LOST or something where half of the screen is plants, having green is overrated. But, being the man that he is, Ryan was still pushing for a new tv. He brought home some kind of gadget from work, but couldn’t use it on our tv because…well, I don’t really know why. But we’ve actually been “shopping” for a new tv. But our visions of our perfect tv are a little varied. He, being a guy, thinks we need a BIGGG TV. Something you can see from down the street, preferably. And inputs? It’s got to have lots and lots of those, of course. Me? I’m ok with, well, whatever is the cheapest.

I broke down and told him that I was ok with him getting a tv for Father’s Day. How about this nice number from Costco? I suggested. Well, after some research, he came back and told me that the Costco TVs don’t have all the “stuff” he needs in a tv, and don’t react well with the whole home automation system. And since we are a beta test site for the home automation system, we must get the right tv, right? Hmmm. Sound like a ploy to get a bigger tv? Yeah, to me, too. BUT, he said, he had a dealer friend who could get us a tv at his price, or for a discount or something. A nicer tv. Plasma or something like that. With all the colors of the rainbow. Even green. I agreed and gave him the go ahead for the purchase of said tv. But you know what? If we get a new tv, we need a tv stand, or cabinet or something like that. And if there’s going to be furniture moving, there will have to be painting, right?

Yes, friends, it’s all in the spirit of the compromise.

Monday he actually brought the nice new tv home, and we set it up. It’s sitting on our lovely coffee table at the moment until I find a cabinet or stand that I like. Oh, yeah, and we paint.

The kids saw this very nice Expensive tv and said, “It’s kind of small, isn’t it?” SMALL? Are you kidding?

We’ve got to get this big old monster tv out of here.

While driving in the car the other day, we were listening to a song on a new CD I won , and I was singing along to the song, and then checked to see who sang the song, and the kids already knew. “Oh, she’s on Disney channel, mom.”

Well, isn’t that great. Somehow our conversation turned to something like this:

Me: Well, Jenna, you’ll have to get your own show on the Disney channel, and then you, too, can record songs and be rich and famous. And I can be your manager.

Jenna: What would my show be?

Me: I don’t know. What WOULD your show be about?

Jenna: Something with dogs. Lots of dogs.

Me: And you could call it “Josie and the dogs”. Because you never use your real name, you have to have a character name.

Jenna: Then I want my name to be Chrissy.

Me: OK, Chrissy it is. Chrissy and the dogs? Chrissy’s dogs? Let’s think about that.

John: And I will be her neighbor.

Me: Ok, John. What will your character’s name be?

John: Joe. And I’ll like help her with the dogs and stuff.

Natalie: And the dogs can have superpowers and stuff.

Jenna: Where are we going to get all the dogs for this show?

Me: Well, that’s something you let the director worry about.

They kept asking questions and coming up with more ideas for “their show”, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them that this is all hypothetical and it’s NEVER going to happen, but I was glad that it at least got their brains thinking. And who would I want to play in this little show? I’ll play Chrissy’s other neighbor, the broadway star who is always rehearsing for a show.

Note to self. Don’t try to tackle the really yucky jobs around the house (like cleaning up after the birds) without a nice cold drink.

Oh, and send the kids outside before you start because you’ll just end up yelling at them if you see them lazing around when you are working.

I’m just sayin.

I managed to make it out garage sale shopping a week or so ago. What with rainy weather and rehearsals on Saturdays, I haven’t been out hitting the garage sales like I would like, but on this paricular Saturday, the boys were off at their fathers and sons campout, and I was taking all the girls with me to a rehearsal/work day for Annie Get Your Gun, and I took the girls out for an hour of garage sale goodness before we had to be to rehearsal at 8:45. Yes, we scored some good stuff, of course. One of those things being a fabulous “Gucci” bag. I put Gucci in quotes there, because it’s probably not a real name brand bag, but I think it’s fabulous. Yes, I have a little love affair with purses, do you want to make something of it? But when I am spending $4 for a new purse, I don’t see what the problem is.

ANYWAY, I really didn’t want to talk about purses. I wanted to talk about music. Yes, music. I know. Strange way of getting to the point. Yes. But, I picked up two CDs at a garage sale, and they’ve taken me back!

I hear that saxophone solo in “NEVER TEAR US APART”, and I’m instantly back to my junior year at BYU. My little finch Stevie is chirping away, and my friend Robin is there at my side as we do our air saxophone. I hear “NEW SENSATION” and I think of a roadtrip to Montana.

Or I hear “WE WILL ROCK YOU” or “ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST” and I’m whisked back to good old Brighton High cheering my lungs out at a basketball game. Oh, nostalgia. My kids were laughing at my ‘silly music’, but they really liked the “I want to ride my bicycle song” and had pretty much learned most of the words to that one by the time the day was over.

Music can really bring back the memories, can’t it? And it’s such a powerful emotional tool. Have you ever been watching a scary tv show or movie that got a little too scary? Just press the mute button. Without the music building and building it’s not so scary, right?

We’ve played This is the Christ in our bell choir for a few of our concerts, and I have to say that every time I play it, I get a little bit choked up inside. The message, the music, and the words are so powerful, that I can’t deny the spirit that fills my heart even when we are just rehearsing it.

Do you have those musical memories that come with certain songs? When I hear Raspberry Beret I think if my friend Ger, Simply Irresistible makes me think of Patty and Robin, and more than one Chicago song make me think of my brother. I used to love the Sugar Plum Fairy from the nutcracker, but after we played it in our first Christmas concert, I still haven’t really recovered from the stress. I can’t hear that song without cringing. Fishing in the Dark belongs to Michelle, and Three times a lady makes me think of Melinda and Sharmyn. And there are many, many more songs that bring back vivid memories for me. Is it that way for you, too?

I’m glad I have those memories, too. Because maybe when I’m old I will hear a Queen song and it will, even then, take me back to high school.