Grandma Stone

My grandma passed away a couple of weeks ago.  She was 97 years old.  She lived a very full life.  She had been bed-ridden for years and was ready to go so we were hoping she'd be released from her pain.  Still, it's always hard when someone you love is no longer here.  

Isn't she beautiful?

She was beautiful inside and out.

We drove to California for her funeral.  It was really nice seeing so much family there.  I hadn't seen a lot of my cousins in like 15 years.  We stayed with Chris and Lisa two nights.  We had fun having dinner and letting the kids swim at their place.  I was a little stressed practicing my song for the funeral.  I was asked just on Thursday by my aunt if I could play "Savior Redeemer of My Soul".  I love that song and I really wanted to be able to do that so I said yes.  Then I worked like crazy practicing a pretty tricky song for me in one day, basically, since we drove most of Friday.  I ended up simplifying it a lot and that worked much better.  I should have done that sooner.  Anyway, my cousin's daughter sang and she did so well--she has such a beautiful voice.

The service was beautiful.  I liked hearing some stories I hadn't heard before.  Everyone that spoke said that they had never heard an unkind word from my grandma.  I feel the same way.  That was just the kind of person that she was.  

One thing you have to know about my grandma is that she raised five daughters.  

Five fairly dramatic daughters. 

(My mom is the cute little baby)

According to my mom, that qualifies her for sainthood right there. :)

Those five daughters had 22 grandchildren.  Here are most of us:

Sadly, Brad & Katie somehow missed both pictures but they were there :)

We had a good visiting at a luncheon, then we went back to my parents' house to swim and have some Dante's pizza.  It was fun having that time with everyone. 

This guy loved the pool:

 

 

I love watching the kids swim where I had so much fun swimming as a kid.

We went to church with my dad the next day and enjoyed spending Sunday with my parents.  Then, we drove back the next day.  It was a great weekend.

My grandma was such a wonderful person.

I love this picture of my grandma and grandpa around the time of their marriage:

Max & Maxine.  Isn't that awesome? :)

Here's one from right before they left on their mission to Germany:

It's hard to even describe the sweetness and kindness of my grandma.  I think you can get a glimpse of it from these pictures, though.  She was very quiet.  I don't have a lot of memories of talking to her but I do remember her telling me she loved me frequently and I clearly remember feeling that love and how special I was to her.  She always wrote beautiful cards and letters to me.  My mom got that trait/habit from her, too,  and I hope to not fail as a daughter/granddaughter and to keep that going. I sure treasured all of those cards.  Even though I was the second youngest of 22 grandchildren, I was lucky enough to grow up in the same city that my grandma lived so we had lots of opportunities to see each other and spend time together.  

I remember playing at her house when I was young and she'd watch me for my mom.  She lived right next to what was then a Toys R Us and I remember walking over there with her.  She would let me wander all around the aisles looking at the toys.  Then, she'd let me pick out a Pez dispenser on our way out.  I loved that.

I remember going over to her house to make gingerbread houses at Christmastime with some of my cousins.  I always loved that, even though I was young and probably couldn't contribute all that much.  Those are happy memories for me.  

I loved everything about her house.  I loved the gigantic metal swing in the backyard.  I loved hiding in the bushes.  I loved playing in the bedrooms and with her actual sit-down, old fashioned industrial hair dryer like they have at salons (she did have five daughters).  I loved playing with her Russian dolls.  I don't remember ever feeling like she didn't want me to mess with her things, even though she had a lot of nice things.  

I remember how well she'd feed me.  I remember her giving me cookies and treats from her special drawer.  I remember her always wanting me to eat more.  I remember the delicious roast beef dinner she'd make on Sundays.

I remember one time when she was staying at our house to watch me as a teenager.  My parents must have been on a trip.  I think she made us a roast beef dinner.  Then, when we were finished, she made up a plate of beef with gravy on it for our dog, Buddy.  No measly scraps for him--she treated him like a king! :)

I remember her always working, serving, and helping--not resting very much.  I remember how much she loved listening to me play the piano at their house and how much she encouraged me to keep playing.  

She gave me this CTR ring when I turned 16 and I still wear it:

She taught by example how to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.  This scripture says it better than I ever could: "But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." (Matt. 23:11)

She was definitely one of the greatest among us.  I hope I can somehow measure up to her example.

Culture Night: France

We had another fun culture night a couple of weeks ago.  For book club awhile back we read a book called French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon.  I had to buy it because I couldn't get it from the library in time.  The good thing about that was that there were recipes in the back of the book.  I also really enjoyed the book and it got me thinking about some of our bad eating habits here in America.  Anyway, so all of the food we made was from recipes in that book and it was all really good.  

Here's the table:

We kind of tried to have courses like they would in France.

We started with an endive and kiwi salad:

I couldn't find just endive in our grocery store so it ended up being some kind of mediterranean mix that had endive in it.  The best thing about this salad was the French vinaigrette dressing recipe that we found in the book.  Here it is, in case anyone is interested:

1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. Dijon-style mustard

1 Tbsp. maple syrup (optional--I put this in)

1 Tbsp. finely minced shallot, scallion, or onion (optional--I think I skipped this)

That's it.  It was super delicious.

For the next course we had some bread and cheese.  We got some imported French brie at Costco with their baguettes.

The kids all hated the brie but loved the bread of course.  I don't think brie is my favorite either.

Then we had Bouillabaisse for dinner.  We used this recipe for younger kids from the book:

Hopefully you can see enough of it to get the idea.  I took those pictures before going to the grocery store for ingredients.  I didn't get a picture of the soup but I thought it turned out pretty yummy.  I just used some tilapia from costco for the fish.  The kids all ate it pretty well.  I don't think Joe liked it much, but he's not too big on fish most of the time.  The leftovers were really good, too.  

For dessert we had chocolate mousse with fresh raspberries from our garden:

I don't think we let them chill quite long enough but they were still pretty delicious (and rich!).

Elizabeth talked about the French Revolution a little bit.  Natalie talked about French rules for eating (from the book).  Nate and Joe did sports.  Marsha talked about the relationship between American and France over the years.  I talked about the language.  

We finished it off by listening to some of our favorite French music for kids: French Bop! :)

Allen Reunion

The Allen Reunion ended up being in mid-June this year.  We were worried it might be cold but we had perfect weather all week.  We had a great time and definitely got some sun.  We loved having everyone there this year (although at different times--we just missed having a family picture with everyone by a few hours since JR had to leave early and Matt & family came late).

We spent lots of time at the pool, like always.  It wasn't a very relaxing year for me since I had to be right by Eli the whole time but we had fun.  Eli ended up loving the waterslide.  He even got to the point where he'd go down by himself and I'd catch him.  He could have done that all day.

Lisa took this great picture of the older kids lined up at the waterslide:

We also had two days at the lake this year.  The first day we got to go out on a boat Chris rented.  I skied, Joe wake-boarded and wake-surfed, and the girls had a blast on the tube.  We couldn't convince Nate to try anything but he had fun riding in the boat.  Poor Eli hated the whole boat ride and was scared for the people skiing now matter what we did to try to convince him otherwise.  Maybe next year... :)

Natalie:

Lizzy:

Joe getting a refresher course on wake-boarding.  He didn't have trouble getting up at all!

 

Wake-surfing was tricky but he had fun trying it:

Enjoying the ride on the front of the boat:

Of course there was lots of crawdad hunting and playing on the beach, too:

This guy loves any kind of beach:

 The second time we went to the lake we didn't go on the boat.  We did rent a paddleboard, though, and had a lot of fun trying that out.  It was a lot harder than I was expecting but none of us tipped it.  The girls loved going out on it:

Elizabeth:

Natalie:

I love that clear water.

Joe got some good golfing in with my brothers and my Dad:

He also went out one night with Elizabeth & Nate:

He's trying to make golfers of our kids.  We'll see how successful he is...

One night we had a lot of fun playing soccer golf.  They set up a course on the driving range and it was so much fun!

 

Two of the highlights for me were the FHE that Abby and Andrew did one night and the temple trip to do baptisms that Brad set-up.  They were both so great.  I also made a baby picture guessing game that was a lot of fun:

The temple-goers:

Those nieces and nephews of mine are growing up too fast.  They are all so amazing, though, that it's really fun to watch.  Pretty soon my kids will be old enough to go, too!  Crazy.

 Here are some group pictures we took:

That stinker Nate.... :)

Having some fun after pictures were done:

It was such a great week.

Until next time, Greenwood!