Visiting My Parents With Uncle Jerry

Last week I picked up Uncle Jerry to go see my dad (his brother) for a visit. Jerry lived with my parents for many years until they could no longer care for him. He has been mentally challenged since he was at least 2 years old. His mother died when he was 14 years old and he moved from one relatives home to another's home several times and earlier in his life, he even spent time in an institution (and not a very good one, either) until he moved in with my mom and dad. It was a very hard decision for my dad to have to find another place for Jerry when it became evident that they no longer could care for him. But, Jerry is in an excellent place with a staff that really seems to like Jerry because he is polite, quiet, very neat and a little bit of a flirt. They have nurses, recreational therapists, and special aides that keep him quite busy. They take them out to a lot of community events. He is also signed up for summer day camp.

Whenever Jerry and my dad see each other, Jerry gets quite emotional -- it starts out kind of as a laugh and then he starts to cry. One of the activities mom, dad and Jerry used to do every evening, when they all lived together, was play a game of Dominoes and have a bowl of ice cream. So whenever they are together, they always play a game. Jerry, despite his mental challenges, seems to do very well with math and numbers. So he is very serious about the game.

Here we all are playing a game of Dominoes at Rose's house. My sister, Sharon, her daughter, Amber and granddaughter, Madison were up from Nevada for a visit and that made it more fun.

My mother won the game with Jerry close behind in second place. Jerry looks a little perturbed that he didn't win and he has won a lot of the games in the past! No kidding!! (Then again, he just might have been a little annoyed that I kept yelling, "Jerry, smile"!)

A quick lunch with the gang, thanks to Rose! See cute little Madison! She kept us all entertained! P.S. Her mommy is expecting another in October. As you can see, dad and Jerry take their meals very seriously! Because dad has Parkinson's and Jerry has had a couple of strokes it takes them both quite awhile to finish their meals.

It is at least a 200 mile trip for me to either pick up Jerry in Gig Harbor and take him to Olympia and back or to pick up my parents and take them to Gig Harbor and back. However, I have enjoyed the experiences. When in the car, Jerry likes to reminisce about the "good old days" in northern Idaho. My parents like the leisurely drive to Gig Harbor and are constantly telling me over and over and over what wonderful kids they have and how they all take care of them so well (Mostly, Rose)!! But they give all 13 of their children credit!! My brother Ed, also takes time to visit them regularly and they love it. Several who live far away do call -- which my mom doesn't always remember (but at the moment it thrills them). My dad counts on me to take care of Jerry now, and when he passes away. Jerry is 16 1/2 years younger than my dad so he could live easily at least another 20 years.

So that is what I did last Tuesday -- or was it last Wednesday? Heck, I'm getting old and can't remember!

Easter Highlights

Thanks to Mary for this picture! I was so busy that Saturday, that I only got a couple of pictures and sadly, mostly of our yard and weeds.

Here are some of our highlights:

1. A fun Easter Egg Hunt at our house, even with the cold and wind.

2. A treasure hunt. Mostly for the older children. However, they had discovered the treasure before I got it hidden. But, I hid it anyway and they had to find it before they could play with it. The hunt itself was the most exciting for the older children and the Elefun was the most exciting for the younger ones.

3. Keeping tabs on David, who at one point was locked in our coat closet and was yelling "Gamma" before we had missed him.

4. Playing "forward rolls" on mat with David, Catie, and Jenna.

5. Trying to beat Blake to the ball before he kicked it away. Man, that kid is fast and determined.

6. Playing Score Four and Hungry, Hungry Hippos with Ethan and Tommy. I never won one game of the Hippos.

7. Watching Jenna try to get the butterflies first in the Elefun game. She's competitive and a little impatient.

8. Seeing Ryan knock the big exercise ball away from Ethan and Tommy. He's getting more competitive all the time.

9. Watching Emily seeing the Easter Eggs across the lawn while missing the ones right under her nose.

10. Catie refusing to go inside to warm up because she loves the outdoors.

11. Sitting in church next to Brian, Mary, Jenna and Catie. Smiling at Jenna when she cried because she wanted, but wasn't invited, to sing a special music number with the other children (who were the older ones).

12. Being embarrassed that our cell phone rang during the Sacrament Meeting.

13. Jenna telling everybody that she got Easter Candy, colored a Jesus picture and went potty as her highlights of her primary class.

14. Audrey being sweet and wanting me to play with her and then being patient when I got interrupted by littles ones needing me elsewhere.

15. The beautiful talks at church.

16. Singing with the choir, "Because He Lives". Two phrases that mean a lot to me from this song are, "My heart is filled with peace amid a world of fear", and "Because He lives I can bear whatever burden may be mine."

17. When around my grandchildren I feel the Spirit so strongly.

Politics and Caucuses

This Saturday morning I had the exciting privilege of being a delegate for our precinct at the legislative district caucus. It was exciting to see how it works. I have attended a caucus only once before and it was such a small precinct that it was held in a home. I never got any further than that caucus. Now being a chosen delegate I get to see so much more of the workings. Our job was to select delegates that will represent us at the state convention in Spokane in May. The goal of the state convention is to eventually narrow the state delegates down to 40 (I think!)that will represent the State of Washington in September at the National Convention.

I am grateful for a country that allows us to choose. However, I am a little concerned that at this caucus we had to choose from a list of people we knew nothing about and would not recognize them if they stood in front of us. Many were nominated before the caucus and their names were just on a list. They were not allowed to even give us 15-30 second introduction of themselves, who they would vote for and what they stood for. Those nominated at the caucus at the last minute were able to do so. You would think that there is the only one presidential candidate being represented and that this caucus is all just a formality. But, not so! Several former presidential candidates have some pretty loyal supporters here and therefore they all plan to vote for their favorite candidate at all the future caucuses right up to and including the national convention. So here I was at this table of 6, asking people who and what they knew about the nominees on the list. Pretty scary way to nominate someone to represent my values for the most powerful governmental job in the world!!

But, I get to be a delegate at the King County Convention where these rules and policies can be addressed and possibly changed.

Great experience!! And I love this country!!

Thanks!

A big thanks to Becca who helps me with my background each month! As soon as I feel better and have time, I plan to have her give me some lessons. I'm always impressed with the different layouts and backgrounds I see when I visit all your blogs!

Grandpa Stringham Growing Up

Mark is the second child and only boy in his family. He was born in Idaho Falls, ID on March 9, 1947 and lived in Ashton on his parents farm his whole childhood life. His parents are James Edward Stringham and Mildred Hannah Hillam Stringham who are the hardest working people, kind, generous and fun to be around.

One of the favorite things for our kids to do when we visited them was to play in the water when Mark's dad flooded the lawn to water it. It was a big shallow swimming pool. Here is Mark and his sisters enjoying the same.

I think he needed to grow more to enjoy his trike.




Mark, his mom,(holding Ilene), Nadene and Lila ready for church. His dad was Bishop for many years and so his mom had to handle all the kids in church herself.



His dad was farmer so Mark knew tractors well. His dad grew a lot of potatoes for seed.





Mark and his sisters would help raise orphaned lambs. They would feed them with a bottle until they were old enough to eat on their own

Mark in his junior high years.

Mark and I at our wedding luncheon with his parents on the left and mine on the right. My kids have only seen my dark brown hair in pictures!

I think Mark's dad would have liked him to grow up and take over the farm, but here is Mark (with his two sisters on the left and me on the right), graduating from BYU with his degree in Computer Science. After graduating, he got a job with Boeing and has worked there for 35 years now.

And that is a brief summary of his life up until we moved to the Seattle area. We lived with my parents in Seattle for two weeks, before we found an apartment just above Southcenter. Shortly, after Brian was born we moved to a small rambler in Renton/Issaquah area where Rebecca, Jason and Maria were born. When Maria was 8 months old we moved to Kent in our current house where James was born. And we have lived here ever since despite my frequent attempts to get him to move.

He is quiet, has a dry sense of humor that our kids really appreciate, and really enjoys when his grandkids want to talk or play with him. He doesn't like to tell me "no" verbally, so he frowns instead and I usually get the message (luckily he doesn't frown often). He can cry very easily at touching stories and when our children were at church with us they would always look over at him to see if he would cry at whatever sad story was being told -- and he always was and still does. He can be very self-disciplined about things that are important to him. And there you have a little synopsis of this great husband of mine.

If you want to know more you will have to ready his life history.

"Happy Birthday" Dear Grandpa!

Tonight we celebratred Mark's birthday. Yesterday was his actual birthday, but one would never know. I think I wished him a "Happy Birthday" once. We ate popcorn and watched BYU TV. He was excited when Maria called him in the morning, but she only asked what time it was (because of daylight savings), then immediately hung up when she realized she was an hour late for church. But, we made up for it tonight. A lot of the family was able to come over for a simple dinner and birthday celebration. 3 year old Jenna was here most of the day and was so excited for grandpa's party so we could all wear party hats. I hadn't bought any, so what was a grandma to do? I immediately went out and bought some.

Jenna was my helper in baking and decorating the cupcakes.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to grandpa.

It can be pretty hectic with so many of the kids and grandkids here at once, and we are always tired when it is over, but these are great memories! We missed Jamie, Ryan and Emily who stayed home because Ryan was sick. And we always miss Jason, Jenn, Jaylee and Jenni who live so far away in Pennsylvania!

Tagged Again!

It's taken me awhile to respond to this tag. Sorry about that. So here goes.

Donuts or bagels? Donuts, But I only eat them for a special treat these days. Diabetes.
Rice or noodles? Depends on the dish! Probably noodles.
Soup or salad? Love salad.
Mexican or Italian? Mexican
Purse or shoes? Shoes
Morning or night? Used to be morning. Now it is night - just relaxing.
Summer or winter? Definitely summer!
Candy or chocolate? Chocolate - it's hard for me to stop once I get started.
Going out or staying in? Love to get out and about.
Laundry or dishes? Dishes.
Skirt or dress? Skirt, I don't have many dresses.
Flip flops or tennis shoes? Actually, I like barefoot the best but between the two, flip flops.
Hot chocolate or chocolate milk? Chocolate milk.
Water or juice? Juice, but I'm trying to train myself to drink more water.
TV shows or movies? Movies. Especially old movies.
Cats or dogs? Definitely dogs - it started when I was a child - my only pets were dogs and horses.
Diet or regular soda? I only drink diet.
Cake or pie? I loves pies the best -- almost any kind.
Hair up or down? With short hair it has to be down.
Mountains or beach? I love to take scenic drives through the mountains but, play on the beach.
Pink or blue? Blue
Drama or comedy? Comedy
Hamburger or hotdog? Mostly hamburgers, unless it is Costco's polish dog.
McDonald's or Burger King? McDonald's - small one with less meat.
Football or baseball? Baseball when it is the Mariners playing.
Epidural or natural? I'm a wimp - epidural.
Carebears or my little ponies? My Little Ponies - have no idea why.
CD or radio? CD - ones that I burn with all my favorites I have purchased. I play them on my computer during the day and in my car while running around.
Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella

Goodness! When I look over these answers, I realize what a boring person I am!

I have been going through all my old pictures, scanning them into my computer and it brought back lots of memories. Was feeling a little melancholy. Also, feeling very blessed! Hence, the slide show below.

Our Children - A Short Trip Down Memory Lane