21 Years Ago

Nicole's Birthday

Twenty one years ago today, Nicole was born. Oh, how our lives have changed as a result. Oh, what joy came into your lives. These twenty one years have flown by.

Wendy's Birthday

It is birthday season. Not only our youngest celebrates her birthday, in two more days Wendy will celebrate her 44th birthday. What a great daughter. We have truly been blessed.

Sadie the Dancer
Sadie has been enrolled in a class for three-year old budding ballerinas. On Monday, she participated in her first recital to an audience of discerning critics (moms, dads, aunts, and grandparents) who gave the performance rave reviews. Here we see Sadie with her friend Daryl Freeman. Wendy commented on how the pink tutus accentuate what cute tummies our graceful dancers have.

Ryan the Graduate
Talk about the swift passage of time -- Ryan has sped through school in what seems like the blink of an eye. Nana remembers marveling at this beautiful days-old baby boy when new mother Holly deposited him in her arms at the Salt Lake City airport. Was it really eighteen years ago? We have loved watching Ryan grow up and applauding his achievements along the way. We are so glad we were able to take him to Education Week with us those two summers. It was wonderful to have him with us on both occasions. Now he stands on the brink of adulthood and we continue to be so proud of him.

Graduation took place at Meriwether Post pavilion on Thursday, May 22 and Ryan was commended on the program for his good grades. Just so you know, he is the handsome tall one dressed in green.

Ava the Graduate

Our family abounds with academic milestones -- our Ava Gladwell deserves recognition for her achievement in graduating from kindergarten from Cache Elementary School.















Memorial Day

Tomorrow we will celebrate Memorial Day with Wendy and Holly with their families. In gratitude we honor our military troops from years past and today. We thank them for their service to our country and to each of us.

As we enjoy our traditional family picnic on Monday, we will miss Nicole and Ashley. Both girls are spending the weekend visiting with their respective friends' families. Ashley is in California meeting Ryan Smith's family and Nicole is in Colorado visiting her friend Jeff Bullock and his family.

When we arrived at Holly's house, Reed came out and approached us with a super soaker. Sadie then placed her self in front of Grandpa in a wide stance with her arms spread out and said to Reed, "Don't squirt my grandpa." She was so cute.

Mother's Day Week

Last Sunday Mom had her day with cards, presents, and pampering on Mother's Day. We loved having Wendy and Steve and Amie, Holly and Dave, Ryan, Molly, Michael, Reed, and Sadie come join us for dinner. Dad made pork tenderloin and roasted potatoes and Nicole helped make crepes for dessert. We wished Brett, Lisa, and Sara could have been here, too but they each called and we were happy to hear their voices, if not their presence.

The week ended with Dad's birthday who was kind of hard to pamper since he insisted his birthday should be "just like any other day" and worked hard cleaning the garage and in the yard mowing, trimming, weeding, running over to Home Depot, and then over at Wendy's and Steve's helping finish their basement. Dad declined the offer of a GPS system for now and said the only gift he wanted a bucket hat for working outside. We ended the day with a nice dinner -- steaks and buffalo burger from the grill, potato salad, and green salad and then relaxed in the evening and watched the "Nancy Drew" DVD. On Sunday we celebrated Dad and Molly's birthday together with the classic pineapple birthday cake and ice cream with Wendy's and Holly's families.

During the week we hosted two of members of BYU's chamber orchestra. We had two very nice violinists -- Kaitlin from Tuscon, AZ and Julie from Fairbanks, Alaska. Julie was the fantastic violinist in the BYU Concerto concert that Ashley and Nicole played in in March. On Friday night we saw the orchestra perform with Jenny Oaks Baker at the visitor's center by the temple.

The week ahead promises some very exciting things -- Sadie's first ballet recital and Ryan's high school graduation. Nicole will be flying out to Denver to visit Jeff for Memorial Day weekend.

Grandpa is 69 Years Old and Still Just a Kid

Another birthday. If the truth be known, I am only 44 years old, I will admit that I look slightly older than that.

I have been kept young by you children as I have tried to keep up with you. Playing with you is like drinking from the fountain of youth. Now I have grandchildren to keep my young and they are doing their job.

Actually, birthdays are not that big of a deal to me, after all, I've had 69 of them. And I plan to have many more of them. I plan to play with the grandchildren for a good long time.

Today, Sadie gave me a wonderful birthday present. I had just given Reed and Sadie some candy and I asked for my customary hug. Reed said, "we'll give you a group hug," to which Sadie said, "No, I want my hug." It doesn't get much better than that.

This Week's News from the Old Homestead

These are the headlines from this past week in Johnsonville:

Nicole and Mom got new phones.
Believe it or not, dad is cleaning the garage.
We got our Education Week tickets.

Yes, Dad is cleaning the garage. He asked Mom what she wanted for Mother's Day and Mom said, "A clean garage." It's an idea whose time has come, don't you think?

This week Mom has been fighting writer's block as she drafts her penultimate research paper of her undergraduate career. She is trying to muster something worthwhile to say about "The Dead" by James Joyce and then she will tackle producing some brilliant research about George Eliot. That August deadline for graduation looms threateningly in the near distance.

We had a stake Relief Society service day on Saturday. Among the projects to choose from were gardening and beautifying the city of Sykesville, visiting residents of Harmony House (an assisted care facility), or making quilts for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed. Mom spent a couple of pleasurable and peaceful hours (a lovely break from studying) piecing a flag quilt top and then a morning stitching (and chatting) with other women as we quilted them.

Dad has been busy tending to his tomato plants and trying to outsmart the deer. The repellent du jour is Dial soap -- a bar hangs suspended from each tomato cage.

Nicole started work for Brother Koncurat this week. She and Dad are able to drive to work together and would be able to come together if Dad didn't have to work longer hours. It's nice to have more life in the house as well as an enthusiastic leftovers eater.

Nicole and Mom are very excited about their new phones. Nicole traded up from her first phone -- a graduation present from three years ago. Mom has had hers for maybe eight years (and it was the cheapest one available when she bought it). She asked the salesperson at Verizon to please not laugh when she saw Mom's dinosaur phone. The women responded that no, she wouldn't -- she'd seen many old, old phones in her job. When Mom handed over the old phone the salesperson started laughing and then apologized, saying, "Sorry, I couldn't help it."

And now, a word about Mother's Day from Mom:
I think the best thing I did for each of you was to marry your Dad. You could not have a finer Dad or one who loves you more.
Dad and I love talking about how sweet, how cute, how funny, how smart each of you were as children. Those were wonderful years for us to be together as a growing family and we are sorry that time in our lives went by so quickly. We could not have loved any of you more and we continue to be very proud of you. We pray for you and those perfect grandchildren each day.
More than anything, I hope we will be a family forever -- that there will be no empty chairs around our table in eternity.

To My Children and Grandchildren

As I was thinking about Mother’s Day, and how grateful I am to my mother and to Nana, my thoughts turned and I began to think about what began as Nana and I were married and about what a wonderful privilege it is to be a husband, father and grandfather.

I expect that no one enjoys his or her family more than I do mine. I expect that no one loves his or her family more than I do mine. I expect that no one gets more joy out of the accomplishments of children and grandchildren than I do. I doubt that any father has enjoyed being with and playing with his children and grandchildren more than I have with mine and I plan to have many more of these wonderful experiences with you children and grandchildren. I treasure those moments. They are very important to me. To have you around and to be in your presence is a great joy.

I want each of you to know that I love you very much.

I want each of you to know that I have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is true. I know from my own experience that God is our Father, that he lives and that he answers prayers. I know that families can be together forever. I desire with all my heart to be with each one of you for eternity. My love for you is eternal.

Grandchildren overnight

We had Holly's three youngest children overnight. They are Michael age 10, Reed age 7 and Sadie age 3.

We did our best to spoil them by getting them whatever they wanted. They wanted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, crunchy Cheetos (not baked), raspberry sherbet, Tootsie Rolls, Peanut Butter Cups, and 3 Musketeers. Sounds nutritious and yummy doesn't it?

We watched "The Little Mermaid" and played ping pong, "monkey in the middle" and dressed the dolly about a dozen times.

Then at 10:30 we settled down to watch Harry Potter.

They stayed up half the night. This is great fun for all but it is certainly exhausting, at least for those over 12.

Here is the evidence. You can see Sadie on the right, Reed in the red sleeping bag, mostly under the chair and Michael next to Reed.

The children slept late, the old folks were unable to enjoy that luxury.

Then there were the usual pancakes for breakfast, shaped as pandas, children's initials, etc. Next was more "monkey in the middle."

They truly are grand children.

It is wonderful to be grandparents.