A girl and her purse

With 8 year old Téa in the backseat of our car (minus her twin 
brother this time) we were on our way home from Cafe Rio. 

As we were driving along, Den and I were busy talking, 
while she was reading her bird watching book 
she'd had in her purse. 

I was talking to Den about a friend of mine who is 41 and 
expecting her first baby. How she and her husband, and her entire 
extended family and friends (including me!) are just in awe over 
excitement for this baby boy to arrive soon. 

I told Den, 
"Can you imagine the love that will surround this 
baby!? He will have SO much attention. Oh my goodness. 
They will probably never lay him down!!"

That's when I heard Téa come to life from the back seat. With a bit 
of accusing tone, she asked me, "Well what about you Grandma? 
What if you were to have a baby?"

"I'm too old for that."

"I know. But what if you did have a baby?"

"Uh...well...okay" (not knowing where we were going with this) 

"Would YOU lay your baby down??"she slammed right at me.

"Uh, no, I guess I wouldn't."

"Well then!!" 

Like we thought it was a bad thing to hold a baby so much. She was 
trying to stand up for them.....which I thought was SO endearing, 
and SO sweet. 

Especially since she doesn't even know the people 
we were talking about.

We have noticed that Téa has become 

more Téa since she got her first real purse.

Not only does she try to protect people she doesn't even know, 

but she's become very protective of me as well....

Like later on that evening while I was on the phone,

she was across the room, but when she heard me say to my friend, 
"Okay, I will try to remember that..." she quickly pulled out some 
sticky notes from her purse 

and waved them in front of my eyes and gently whispered to me, 
"Grandma use this to write it down!" 

Or right before eating at Cafe Rio she gave me the choice of 3 hand 
sanitizers she also had in her purse,

"Here Grandma, which one do you want to use?"


On the other hand, 
give a girl a purse and look what happens....

 If I worried that night about her suddenly growing up...

the thought disappeared when she wouldn't even consider being alone for a few minutes while I took a shower. 

Nope, she decided to take her bird book down the hall 
and hang out with Grandpa. 

And later on when her sister Laurynn came by to pick her up...

the contents of Téa's purse were all over the floor.

I found that rather comforting. 
There's still lots of little girl left in our Téa. 

Not my circus, not my monkeys, but here it is anyway.

My empty nest started 12 years ago.

But my sister Robin, hers and Dave's starts this week. 
There won't be much explanation here, since it's not my story.

But I couldn't help but share some of the pictures she texted me, 
while taking their youngest, McKenzie, to Rexburg, Idaho 
for college. 

After arriving in Rexburg she heard our nephew, Ty Kennington 
being paged....and there he was! 

(our sister Peggy and Jeff's son)

Then who should she run into but our grandson Austin!

Keeping with the Rozier tradition of maps on the wall,

looks like McKenzie got her apartment room all set up. 

Must be easier leaving their baby girl in Rexburg, 

since her cousins Kaidy and Ty near by. 

Or did she move in with cousin Kaidy? I don't even know.

And then Robin and Dave went onto 

Provo to see Brooke and Davey. 

Not sure if Alpine came before or after Provo, 

but Robin and Dave also got to see our brother Richard and Wendy!

And that's all I got! 

Robin, this one's for you:

Life is not always how it sounds

Earlier this summer Den's oldest son Kevin, his wife Karina and 
their daughter Kaylee came to see us for a few days. 

One day while out to lunch Kevin told me THE best sandwich is at 
Chick-Fil-A and do you have one of those here in Clovis? I said, 
no, BUT, we are getting one very soon! 

He said, "Oh you will LOVE it!" 

Well here's our Chick-Fil-A so many of us were excited about 
getting in our neighborhood....

I heard from various store clerks near our home there would be one 

going up here, and we would watch it every few days as we'd drive 

by. Then came the day when the sign went up!

Triple A....Chick-Fil-A...what's the difference. Reminds me of 

that old telephone game we would all play in grade school. One 

little change in a sound, and the story was completely different!

And apparently this little change in sound went from clerk to clerk 

and store to store....
because I heard from several sources it would be a Chick-Fil-A. 

I guess the only way we'll get a chicken sandwich 
there is to bring our own!

Some we can't forget

Bob Ellis died. He was the DA for Bill's murder trial.

I remember something unusual.  
During the trial I would see this unknown woman sitting in the 
court room. She came in alone, and left alone. I finally asked our 
court advocate about her one day and she said, "Oh that's Bob Ellis' wife. Whenever Mr. Ellis is in court, she's here too."

After reading in his obituary this week:
"Bob was the master of home improvement projects and was 
the envy of many of his wife's friends, a great "honey-do" guy," 
I realize they are examples of 'what goes around comes around.'

She was there for him, and he was there for her.

Since the trial was 18 years ago, I don't remember any of my many 
conversations with Bob Ellis, but I do remember how kind and 
helpful he was. 

He would call me with updates on our case, and always willing to 
talk when I called him with my multitude of questions. 

Fast forward 18 years later, and I've learned he has passed from this 
world. Something tells me he will be terribly missed. 

Back in that day I hardly read any of the news articles about it. My 
visiting teacher at the time said she was saving them all for me 
should the day come that I change my mind. I remember thinking 
at the time, 'well that's very nice, but I'll never want them.' 

I still have not read them all, but I am thankful to have them should 
our posterity be interested someday. And they have my visiting 
teacher to thank for that! I just think that was such a creative act of 
service.

SIX pictures on my mind lately

1. When McKay first sent me this picture I didn't know why. 

Then he said, "Can't you see Grant?" Then I gasped. 

2. What happened to this girl, I could only dream about. She had 
NO idea she was pregnant until she was 28 weeks along! Wow, she 
got to totally skip that first trimester, and the 2nd one too. 
(This is Kara Vukovich. Her mom, Terri Emler, grew up across the street from us.)

 3.  Just so happened, the missionary to the right here, Dylan Tanner 
Jr, lives in my sister Robin's ward here in Clovis, but he spent the 
last few months of his 2 year Boston mission in McKay and 
McKenna's ward! 

They had him over for dinner several times.

Dylan's father, I might add, was Tyler's 11 year old scout leader 

right after Tyler's Dad died 20 years ago. What a blessing that was.

4. Lunch from leftovers in the fridge:

Leftover salad, lentils, GF pasta, and chicken, 

with honey mustard dressing. SO good. 

5. I spotted this picture in Kirklands recently.
I just wish everyone believed it.

6. Surprised us, 
but this was Cafe Rio last Saturday evening from 5-6pm. 

A few families did trickle in before we left, but seriously I've 
never been there when the place was not packed. 

I even asked one of the waitresses what was going on. She said 
typically early Saturday evenings are very slow like this. I would've 
never guessed. The waitress added, "Now you know the best time 
to come here!"

And now, so do you. 

We put them to work

A friend of mine told me something years ago 
that helped me this past week.

She said when her 2 youngest kids went to Utah to visit their older 
sister and family, she asked her older daughter to give her younger 
siblings some chores to do while there.

I was curious about that at the time.

This info came in so handy this past week as my 8 year old 
grandtwins stayed with us.

I wanted to keep them busy and happy.

And I know that 
all play and no work does not a happy person make. 

I really didn't care if their beds were made, but it was good for 
them, so I asked them to. 

Only one morning did they forget.

All about keeping them busy and happy.

Grandpa taught them how to set up tables for 

our weekly vegetable club.

Sweet Tea folded laundry

Jonas wasn't real thrilled about folding his own laundry. He said, 

"My Mom does that for me at home."

But seriously I saw pride all over his face as he carried 

that same laundry down the hall and put it away.

I may have made up some of the jobs.

And don't think we didn't have plenty of time for fun. We did.

And the interesting thing is after their little jobs I would say, 

"Okay, now you get to have free play."

And they would get so excited!

I was a little concerned before taking them to the 

Primary water party yesterday morning.

What if they got hurt and their parents were called, and of course 

couldn't answer because they are climbing Mt Whitney.

So I asked them to write Grandpa's phone number 

on their arms before they left.

Jonas asked why.

I said, "If Téa breaks her arm 

they need to know who to call."

After a pause in thought, Jonas asked: 

"If Téa breaks her arm, do I have to come home early too?"

Jonas asked me to take a picture of his Dollar Store puzzle he is so proud of

The twins have only been gone an hour, 

and the house feels so empty.

Téa told me before she left, 

"If you miss us, just call us and we'll come back."

But then again, now that their 2 favorite people 

in the whole world have returned, it may be awhile.

The twinses are here

Look who arrived to stay with us for a whole week ....

while their parents climb Mt Whitney, AGAIN.

(the highest mountain in the US, I might add) 

First things first.

Shortly after they arrived I had them unpack  

kind of like one would do after arriving to summer camp

and organize their outfits into the closet 

I then explained that we were all going to my eye appt.

I thought I better warn them it was located at the hospital.

Their eyes got very big, so I assured them all was well, 

that was just where my eye doctor's office was.

Their eyes were still big and looking worried Jonas asked, 

"Will we see any dead people?"

I assured them we would not. 

Glad we got that cleared up.

They were patient little waiters. 

So after my appt we took them to Sweet Tomatoes.

We literally had not been there in years, 

and they did not remember it at all.

They were thrown off by the name.

What child is attracted by "sweet tomatoes?"

But once they began eating, 

Jonas said several times, "I love this place!"

He even said, "I need to tell my Dad about this place!"

I didn't heart to tell him his Dad does NOT like eating here. 

After all that food for lunch, we were not home 15 minutes and Jonas announced, "My appetite is coming back."

Good thing I got the fridge and freezer stocked for our 8 year olds.

It's going to be a great week!

But then again, they've always liked to eat.