Grandmother or just "Mom"

An adorable pic of mom; don't know who she is standing beside, but mom is on the left. Hmmm, that body looks familiar, maybe because I have her body type exactly. We even like to eat the same, lots of protein. One time I mentioned something to Squirt about her loving hotdogs. Squirt replied mom didn't eat a hotdog in her life. I said yes she did, she loved them. Oh, no, Squirt said, she ate wieners. I had to smile because it was too true. That and Vienna sausage in a can; now those I never could eat, but mom loved them. I think Pa ate the Potted Meat on a saltine cracker.

This so cute pic of mom is with her sister, Betty. After the strokes when mom was trying to pull a name out of her mind to call someone, it was mostly Betty. The person could have been Cheryl, Kristi, or me, but we were always Betty. At first this confused us, until we clued into that her mind just wouldn't find the correct name - hence we all became Betty. But she did always know who we were.

Family Pic

I have been trying to remember to get a family pic. And I like this one.

Gmother Funeral

It was a cold, snowy day. I think mom ordered it special; her last bit of drama.

Chris and Jason

Jason, Paige, Crikette

Braden (?) and Squirt

Bishop Tree, Simon, Jacob (?), ?, Adam

Gmother Funeral

Part of her life's work - her grandsons. The only ones missing are Jeramy and Willem

Gmother Funeral

3 Sisters with Gary

Our last goodbye - what a great mother she was and is.

Funeral of Gmother Jensen

I will be periodically posting pics and thoughts from my mom's funeral; I will just title most of them Funeral of Mom/Gmother Jensen/Gmother Deeney.

 Jennifer Brownlee (Charles and Jolene) did this display table with the baskets and signs. Cheryl, many years ago, made the Grandmother pic, the middle pic is the 80th birthday party, and I did the far right pic. It is mom with Aunt Betty, her sis. I love that pic of mom; she looks so pretty and skinny!! Squirt came up with the 2 themes, which fit mom so well.

Squirt also came up with the idea of having all these pics of mom for people to take. They are dollar store frames with printed pics. I love it and most of the pics were taken. Shows her with a well-lived life.

Mom's passing and funeral

I have so much to blog about, but I'm going to take it slow and add pics and thoughts. Squirt several times turned to me and said, Now we're orphans. It's true, we are. And I discovered that you're never to old to lose your mother. It will always be sad and always leave a hole in my life and heart. When I texted Eric about how he was doing and told him I have ups and downs with getting sad. He said he's not, he's happy. Mom is finally out of pain, her body and mind work again, and she is having a grand reunion. And that is so true.

Funny pic from Jason to Paige

My mom

My mom's time for passing is getting closer. I have many, many wonderful memories of her and just how great of a mom and grandmother she was. Very involved, concerning, loving. She was a real outdoors woman - she loved being outside, in nature best of all. And she loved to fish.

 I have memories and memories and pics and pics that I will be posting as the time goes on.

Last big push to finish house

Alyona's birthday is Feb 8 and has let Chris know she wants to be in her house because she has friends coming to visit. Chris has been over there everyday after work, sometimes staying quite late to finish. The floors and countertops are really the last to be done. They ordered the carpet and have a date for laying; not sure about the countertops - those were ordered at least a month ago, hopefully no delays on them.

He will still have baseboards to do, but they can be done after the move in. Chris is quite handy and just learns how to do whatever needs to be done. He has saved in the thousands by doing the work himself.

The wood floors are beautiful.

Emily's family

Emily and Tyler and family spent 1/2 day with Paige; I made sure I was there because I wanted to see Emily and her sweet grrls. It would be fun if Paige and Emily stay close - perhaps their grrls could go to college together.

Mikayla, Madison, Katelynn, Stella, Hattie, Macy, Makenzie

Emily, Yvonne, Paige

I'm not photogenic like my daughter and Emily. But this is a nice pic.

Yvonne, age 8 or 9

Squirt showed me this pic. The first go 'round with braces on my teeth, little hard to see but they are there. I actually really like my hair, except the bangs are shortish (and so begins my life long struggle for cute hair). Love the cat eye frames.

Rick to Indy, Stella baptized

Rick left on Sunday after Christmas to spend the week in Indy taking care of his mother while Michelle went to Denver to see her kids and gkids. He saw Aunt Phyllis, had breakfast with Linda and Dave, saw his Dad lots and Brian and the girls. He had an enjoyable time, and made it back late Fri in time for the 9am baptism of Stella. Yay.

I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and for some reason could do nothing but cry. Very embarrassing.

Paige and I spent the night before fixing the food - 6 breakfast casseroles, plus she got ready hot choc, yogurt parfaits, muffins from Costco, and OJ.

It was a lovely baptism, Stella looked like a young lady. Can't believe she is 8 already, and Macy starts Kindergarten this Fall, and Hattie will go to Paige's neighborhood Joy School. How the time flies.

Play dough with ggrrls and Papaw

Hattie got a bunch of tubs of new play dough and the day after Christmas she was anxious to get at it, as were the rest of the ggrrls. I have to say new play dough is especially fun.

Christmas Eve and Day

Jason and Chris went skiing and about froze but had lots of snow!! That night we ordered Indian food from a place the boys claim is the best ever. I'm not a fan. It's ok, but the older I get the more I just want plain Idaho farm food - throw me a potato, a hunk of meat (and proper meat, which means beef, chicken and pork, nothing gamey like deer, pheasant, duck, rabbit, not turkey, it started tasting gamey to me, maybe a fish or two as long as it's not slimy or fishy) and a few vegetables and I'm good.

We didn't even do our usual reading of the Christmas stories, skits, Bible reading. So sad, I like to bring Christ back into the frenzied season of food and gifts.

Christmas morning was at Paige's. They have their morning with just them and the girls (and Nano and Papaw), and then the screaming horde arrives. Lots of fun presents. Paige and I made biscuits and gravy, and as usual, waaay overdid it. We ate biscuits and gravy for the next several days.

Lots of snow in Utah. I'm sure the skiiers are crazy happy. Also cold, temps in the teens. I'm enjoying it, put on my coat, scarf, gloves, and boots. I don't get to wear them much in Texas.

 

 Rich and Cathie and family arrived at 4pm for a taco dinner. We have done Christmas Day dinner with them for 7 or 8 years. They are wonderful peeples and we really enjoy seeing them.

Christmas in Utah

I arrived in Utah on Dec 21 and drove to Squirt's to help with my mom for a few days. Each time I see her she seems like she has gone downhill a little more. So grateful for the great care Squirt and Gary are taking of her.

All the kids came on Dec 23 to spend time with Grandmother. They all were so grateful to get to see her one more time before she passes. Squirt had bought gingerbread men for mom to give one each to Stella, Macy, and Hattie. They stood beside her for just a few minutes as I helped mom give the treat to each great grandchild from Grandmother Deeney, as she requested Stella call her soon after Stella started to talk. Wish I had gotten a pic with each one, but I forgot or just never plan that far ahead. We did get this pic.

 

That evening we went to eat at Brick Oven, a fav of Jason's. Squirt and Gary joined us, and we all had a delightful time.