"......with every paper I'd deliver...."
That's a line from a Don McLean song "Bye, Bye Miss American Pie" which without googling it I predict was recorded in 1971 - as were "Horse with No Name" by America and "Maggie Mae" by Rod Stewart. I get morning sick whenever I even think about those songs! I'd had the "stomach flu" for four or five straight days in late October, 1971, and couldn't shake it. We called Uncle Joel Jolley, who was a pharmacist, to see if he might recommend some medicine I could take. Dennis laid out my symptoms over the phone I could hear Uncle Joel on the other end of the line laughing..........
...and nine months later on July 9, 1971 we welcomed Angela Denise Sweat into the world!Isn't she CUTE?
In no particular order, here are some February happenings which include lots of pictures of baby Truman because it's so fun to take pictures of new babies! Julie gave my parents a bulb for Christmas and it bloomed wonderfully. This February photo is so pretty - they match the flower!
We caught Jane's last basketball game where Tony was helping out as coach. Dennis has never been a fan of baseball hats worn any other way than front and center, slightly curved on each side. At least Tony's just wearing his hat backward. Now if it had been sticking out on the SIDE I think Dennis might have physically come down and turned it!
Jane's LEG cracks me up.
And a jump shot to boot!
Truman and Calvin testing the lively forest animal quilt, made with gargantuan help cutting and piecing, and 100% quilting from Debbie. I am a bad quilter. I just like cutting out the fabric and sewing it back together. Most fun I've ever had putting a quilt together, although when I made the first diagonal cut and hacked off half the fabric, I was horrified that I'd made a huge mistake but Debbie calmly assured me that it was correct. Every piece begins as either a perfect square or a horizontal strip and then you sew them together either side by side, as say the stripes on the owl, or diagonally as everything with else. When you're done you have a little face looking back atcha. "Why, hello mister Fox!"
The crew watching the Super Bowl right before the younger members of the family fell sound asleep.
Andrea and Andrea, AVERT YOUR EYES! I wanted a photo documenting the first Super Bowl Truman watched. I didn't mean to get the score included in the picture and you can hardly see us. Next year, next year for sure! I was extremely impressed with how you handled it though. When I was your age, the Jazz had made the play-offs and were squaring off with the Portland Trailblazers. The Trailblazers beat us and soon the phone rang and Dennis answered it. He handed it to me and said, "It's your dad." I said I didn't want to talk to him because he'd be gloating over the Trailblazers winning and he's not even a crazy fan like we were! Dennis just stood there holding the phone and said, "But it's your DAD." Still wouldn't talk to him. I had to settle down. It's one of the good things about becoming aged....we can take things like this a little more in stride? So, kudos to you young people who still have hormones being able to handle the emotion of sports and putting it into its proper perspective. When you're my age you'll be a regular Buddha of composure!
Truman stretching out with Cindy during halftime.
One more halftime shot with Jane in her new bedroom she shares with Reagan.
See how much he looks like Jane? They both have eyes, nose, mouth.....one of them has teeth.....
.....and one of them has no teeth, just like his grandma. Okay, I'm the proof that we're all one tooth away from being a hillbilly. Who knew I'd bite down hard on a fork tine instead of the fried green tomato I was enjoying at the after-temple dinner with our temple group of friends? Needless to say I kept my hand over my mouth for the rest of the evening and luckily our dentist is also our home teacher and he got me right in the next morning. Two and a half hours later.........
....I left all fixed up with a temporary crown! Then, last week, my dad used his front teeth to open a plastic wrapper from a piece of sugar-free candy, despite my sweet mother's 65 years of warnings. I took a picture of him matching my toothless smile, but I'm honoring his request NOT to include it here. Smart guy. I probably shouldn't have put up mine, but you know, it's too funny. I told Dennis I wouldn't have had any friends in the 1700's but he reminded me that they'd probably all be toothless too. And maybe we wouldn't have owned mirrors. And you know what's funny, I still use my teeth to open wrappers despite my mother's 63 years of warnings. But I don't think I'll ever do it again. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way.
I think this photo with my dad is just perfect!
My mother is always nervous she will make babies cry so sometimes has said she doesn't know if she wants to hold them, but lately she's lost much of that fear and it's fun to see her enjoy him. We were at the dentist on Friday while my dad got his front tooth worked on, and my mother was enthralled with every little child that walked past. So interesting to see the changes that are taking place with her personality, many of them hard, but some of them like that are kinda sweet.
I love how this captures a moment of four generations.
This is a very random post. Here is a picture taken out the windows of the conference center last week when a torrential rainstorm came out of nowhere exactly at noon. I was #1 on the wait list for the next tour (on deck in baseball terms) and predicted we wouldn't have another soul for that last hour. Surprisingly, I got a family from Chile who came in with umbrellas covered with wet snow. Two of them spoke English and translated for the other four. I showed off and counted to 15 for them. Earlier that day I'd been fortunate to take a back stage tour given by a person in the know. We saw the rooms where they translate conference into 58 different languages, pretty cool, and also got to see into the the mechanical rooms, carpenter shop, massive storage areas, and walked behind the "rostrum" which is one of those words I wish they didn't use. How about the "area where the podium and choir seats are." It's kind of like when I worked in Human Resources and our insurance group would send out emails to the employees using HMO, PPO, HSA, EOB. Really? Like who knows what that means? Call it something that makes sense. "EOB" means "Explantation of Benefits" for your information. Thank you!
How fun is this? Denny and Joe got beautiful new family room furniture and had no use for this child sized "fainting couch" and asked if I wanted it. Of course!!! I've always wanted a fainting couch! I'm going to turn this corner in a reading nook that will be all cozy and ready for you all your kids when you come to visit!!
We also caught Eli's last game yesterday. Lots of fun to watch him. He has a sweet shot!
This gym is the original gym that the BYU basketball team used. Boy how things have changed!
And just to finish up - I sent this to Angie yesterday. I shopped at Harmon's yesterday (which fills my heart with happiness, but I save $50 to $100/month by shopping at Walmart, which fills my heart with leaden-ness). I was flabbergasted at this price! I kept thinking I wasn't seeing it right, unless Velveeta has shot up in the past few months. I'll have to price check next time I'm at Target because Angie says they have the lowest price on Velveeta.I do love using my red card and saving 5% just like you hip kids.
And lastly, here is a scan of the organ registration that I use each week. I had two copies but gave one to a lady in another ward last week. She was early and came to practice the organ before their sacrament meeting began, and we started chatting about how hard it is to know if our registrations are correct so I made her day by giving the extra copy to her. It made her day because it was created by Brother Norm Squires who is a master organist who lives in our Stake. He has served two missions to the Jerusalem Center where he gives weekly organ concerts. His feet are like kittens on the keys. He was so nice and met me at the church a few years ago and created all these registrations for me. Unfortunately a few months ago somebody changed my special pre-set #10 on our church organ, which included all of these registrations that I could change at the touch of a button so now I have to manually go in and change them as I go along from prelude to opening to sacrament to closing to postlude. This means I have to cheat during the prayers sometimes and close my left "congregation" eye and read the changes with my right eye. So I decided to scan my copy so I would have it permanently and now you have it too.
Well, that's a wrap for February!
Love
Mom
