The Gifts of Life

This year Velo’s oldest sister had a wonderful idea for parent gifts.
Each child gave some presents that were sentimental. It sounded nice, but buying the people that brought you into this world and sacrificed nearly everything to rear you a gift that shows the gratitude you’ve developed for them is actually a rather daunting task.
Appearances are important to me, so each gift HAD to be wrapped. I knew this was the kind of thing a parent would treasure forever, so I also HAD to type up the explanations for keepsake. On each wrapped gift we put the “memory” or reason for the gift with the final explanation inside.
Here’s how it turned out...

Velo being the oldest went first. He recapped what we’d written for the outside, then let Mom and/or Dad read them out loud and open the present with the “punchline” inside.
We got them a c.d. of Cars music and a Willow Tree ornament to represent all the Lake Powell family trips.
Then there were cookie mixes. Sentimental of Mom’s goodness she often serves up. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds for all the lessons Dad “planted” in his son (like not falling asleep while driving).
Finally there were tie tack/pins shaped like sport balls that said CTR on them. These were for the lessons taught to Velo by these wonderful parents. Some, like the sports, didn’t stick, but some, like Choosing the Right, did.

We followed with oldest to youngest. Our next sister gave, an itunes gift card for all the music brought into the home, a plush fish for all the fishing trips and bonding times, a unpicker for her mothers help in doing things -especially sewing- right. Finally she gave a sack of apples to resemble all the learning they had given and supported their children in. That one made me tear up. They do have two with Masters, one with a Bachelors, and one with enough credits at 20 to get an Associates.

Next sister gave them Smoothy mix for when they lived there and spilt it all over (and all the good food Mom makes). There was an itunes gift card for how much Dad loves his music. And the big tear jerker, her medal for one of her races. See, she is an amazing runner and has had great support from her “number one fan”-Dad.

Finally littlest sister got to go. She told about the family’s traditions of food and how she loved to eat Lobster on Valentines. So they got a Red Lobster gift card. So clever.

It was amazing. It was super fun to hear the memories, see what had impressed people and how creative everyone had been able to be. It was especially fun to find that everyone thought of itunes gift cards for Dad. Too bad, and yet good thing we didn’t all follow through on that one. Music was another big one. People remember the music around the home. Support was the other theme.
It’s no wonder these two amazing people were able to attend the sealings of all their children and that everyone still loves to come home.

Can you think of anything you’d give your parents?

Company Party

Quick update, went to the “new” jobs par-tee.
They had an open bar. My favorite kind. All the seltzer and lemon I wanted! There were hourdurvours. (How do you spell that any way?) Fancy! And many gals in dresses nicer than church dress. I was in jeans.
Lovely.
That is why I had begged for five days for Velo to check with his new coworker about what he and his wife were wearing. Oh well. Lucky they let us sit most of the time and we had the excuse of being the new guys.
We mingled, well, at least the best we could not knowing anyone.
We sat and filled out a survey scoring a whopping 5 hundred some points. (Seriously that was a lot!)
We were the first table to eat. So I grabbed a roll, salad, potatoes, put the brown stuff on my taters, put meaty main courses on my plate. Grabbed the yummy dessert. As I was heading back I noticed I didn’t get dressing for my salad. I passed by the salad bowl again to see and with a sinking feeling realized the gravy I had put on my potatoes wasn’t gravy at all. It was balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
Yeah, not good on garlic potatoes.
The rest of the night went well. There was an auction for unknown prizes. We won a 50 dollar Visa gift card. One of the very best prizes.
I made friends with some of the coworkers wives.
And the boss told me I had come up several times during Velo’s hiring process because "my happiness was very important to him" (my husband).
Over all and VERY wonderful night.

New Job

My wonderful husband and provider went out and got several offers for different jobs. After pitting them against each other...We took the one with the most pay, of course. It’s almost enough of a raise to bring me home, if you include insurance benefits and my car loan getting paid off soon.
Almost.
So close, yet, not quite there.
But I am so proud of him for being willing to get out there and sell himself.
He’s going to be leaving Jordan School District after 4 1/2 years of service. And trust me, it was that, service, cuz’ he did not get paid what he should have for all the demands of his job. The new job is a company called Edustructures. (hope I am spelling it right.) He is going to be doing help desk type stuff. There will be less gas consumed because it is in South Jordan and one building, vs. traveling to a bunch of different schools and then over to the east side. We are very psyched.
Going to meet the co-workers Wednesday at the company Christmas party. Feeling kind of nervous. I’ll have to come back and document my first impressions.
Congrats Velo! I’ll miss you at school, but I know you’ll do awesome!

Grandma now

Just sitting here watching Grandma tonight. This is my mothers mother. She’s kinda’ cookoo now, but really she’s just gettin old. Oh how I don’t anticipate that. She helped raise me while my mom was off working and being a young single woman. I have always been very close to my grandma.

This poor lady has health issues most people can’t imagine. And she’ll let you know it. She’s been sick her whole life. I’m talking, her school teacher mother kept her at home for three years of elementary, kind of sick. Poor thing, she’s just deteriorating, but keeps living.

I know that sounds cruel and harsh, but it’s what she wants. To die that is. The family is starting to wish it for her too. Terrible, huh?! But when you see someone you love in horrific pain and struggling with life, not to mention whom desires death to befall her, you just want to see her peaceful again. Plus she is starting to ruin relationships with family members, and no one wants that.

See, grandma has had a stroke that deadened the “happy” receptors in her brain. She literally doesn’t feel pleasure. EVER. Can you even imagine if all you felt was pain and fear, but nothing to balance that out? For example, each time I’ve gotten pregnant, she hasn’t seemed to give a hoot. But when I loose the baby, she is all up in arms and teary. It’ s a kinda sick, sad way to show affection. But she can’t help it.

Like I said, Poor lady!

So Aunt Mole lives with her. Noble lady. She quit her job, left the life she knew and loved and moved up here to take care of her disabled mother. This has been a huge blessing to me, but has been very strenuous on her. I use to take care of grandma before Aunt Mole came, but now, I just have to take an evening here and there, and so I get a break from my home. More importantly Aunt Mole gets a break from hers. The side bonus is that grandma can have a little bit of variety in her life with someone new to talk to, or rather, complain to.

These are always good days though. I get the warm fuzzies for doing service. I feel like an important, helpful part of the family. I learn new lessons on patience each time. I also get to mix it up a bit by taking care of someone old, instead of someone young. I really believe, that when I am helpful, my mother beams with pride and gratitude up in heaven.

Do you do anything selfishly, under the guise of being helpful? Or am I just twisted?