Grandma Honey: 7/1/19

Two things I learned from Wayfair

I sort of liked the area rug we bought from Wayfair.

Then we noticed after just a week on our floor, it was starting to
fray...and that was before we had any grandkids over.

I contacted Wayfair online.

I told them about what I now refer to as the "defective rug."
They said they would refund 60% of the price if I would like to keep it.

I told them, no, I don't want to keep it since it's already coming apart.

So then they said they would automatically refund my money in total.

They suggested I just put the rug in the trash (they didn't want it back) or they said I could donate it through donationtown.org who will come pick up the rug for free!

After putting my zip code into donationtown.org, up came the Salvation Army with any available date of my choice!

Depending on what zip code you put in, up will come a charity in your town willing to pick up your discards.

1. So the purpose of this post is to let you know that Wayfair, is just that, way fair.

2. And, secondly, to let you know that if you have usable discards you want to donate and don't want to load them up and bring them somewhere....go online to donationtown.org

PS I've bought several things through Wayfair over the past 3 years that I've been quite happy with. Thanks to my DIL Karen for telling me about it!

Once I bought two wooden chairs, and one arrived broken. When I called and told them they said no worries, they will refund my money. I said, "But one chair of the two is fine." They said to just keep that one chair, no charge. So I bought two more and then I had a set of three.

PS #2 However, if there is nothing wrong with the stuff I buy from them, I have to pay for the shipping to send it back to them. And I think they give me 30 days to decide.

So glad I was introduced to this salad!

So my niece Natalie, who is always looking after me
(plus the fact we are both foodies)
sent me this salad idea she said they can't get enough of

And my response:

And then here's the one I made...

Well don't tell Natalie this,

but I used extra virgin olive oil (I didn't have any mild on hand)

and it tasted great.

Apparently canola oil tastes better though.

Listen to Natalie, she knows.

So after filling up on this refreshing salad

we got to take these two lovelies out to dinner:

Cousins Violet, 8 and Téa, 10

Dinner out with them was miserable

The girls were great, but it was so HOT in that restaurant

and I was feeling borderline sick from the heat.

All I could think of was getting home to more of Natalie's salad!

I'm serious.

It's so refreshing, and that restaurant was so not.

Did the grand girls like the salad?

Since they have never been obvious fans of tomatoes and onions,

I didn't even offer it to them.

Téa's sister Macie came to pick her up after dinner, while her

boyfriend was in the car, and her parents were still on their date...

Less than 4 minutes later, Violet was fast asleep!

How does this little girl who was sound asleep

when her sister comes to pick her up.....

...get herself decorated with her treasures

within a minute of being in dreamland?

How did I end up putting my grandkids in a post
about a salad they didn't even eat?

Just a little lunch date with Grandma Honey

As Elora and I were making plans to go out to lunch,

she asked if Cami could come with us.

Of course!

During our lunch I said,

"Hey Elora, do you remember the time we came here and you

had the waitress help you with your homework?"

She had to think a bit and then she said, "Yes!" and laughed.

Then I looked up the pictures and remembered TWO waitresses

helped with her homework that day.

"And remember the time cousin Téa came with us?"

Elora is old enough now that we have a past together!

Today we also talked about how Cami will be a freshman this year.

We are both just sat there for a bit trying to take that reality in.

Elora: "Cami is really good with my phone!"

Me: "I know! How does she learn all that?"

Elora: "From taking our stuff from us all these years."

I told Elora, "When the day comes that you leave home

someday, Cami's really going to miss you!"

Her reply? "Oh my gosh I'm going to really miss her! I'll miss

Violet too, but Cami needs me. Or maybe I need Cami."

I thought that was one of the sweetest things I've heard.

6 sweet thoughts right now...

1. My friend Allyson's aunt died. All the family was told if they had any quilts that Grandma made, to bring them to the funeral. And then this miracle happened:

2. Tyler does not like his hair and beard like this, but he's been growing it since April for a good reason. He will be in one of the church's Come Follow Me videos.

I've never thought of Tyler looking like his Dad,

but he does in this picture!

3. Last week I had to wait over an hour for my dental appt (unusual for the dentist I go to)...

But it was a sweet experience....because I got to watch that little boy all curled up in the chair

waiting for his mom to get her teeth cleaned.

It reminded me of when I had little dark haired boys like that.

I just stared at him and reminisced for the longest time,

counting my blessings.

4. And after that dental appt was over (my good dentist worked through his lunch hour) I texted Den and said I was ready to be picked up, and that I was hungry.

When I got in the car, he had this yogurt waiting for me,

along with a spoon he neatly put in a ziplock!

My ever thoughtful husband.

5. Our tile grout was badly in need of cleaning but Den didn't want to hire out. He searched many places but everywhere he was told there was no such machine to buy.

Finally, he found a company on the net

and bought his own machine.

It's been a lot of work for him but he's doing an excellent job.

Look at the difference above.

6. On Instagram,

I was surprised to see Elizabeth Smart show her beautiful family.

She's encouraging to so many, that life can truly go on.

And it can be good... even when it looks to everyone else like it can't possibly.

And that's it for now!

The hospice worker who tried

Since my Dad died, we get a call from hospice once a month.

I usually see their message later. Basically they are expressing their condolences again, and asking if we would like to talk to them about our grief, or any emotions pertaining to my Dad's death.

This month, our 5th monthly phone call came in....I was standing right by the phone when it rang so I decided to go ahead and take it.

After identifying who she was, the hospice worker said she just wanted to call and see if she could help in anyway. I thought to myself that I was struggling with a few issues so I decided, hey, I will give this a try.

So I said to the very young sounding woman on the phone: "Well actually I am having a hard time with something. Before my Dad died he implied that he wanted to die in my home, rather than a facility. As the time came near, I made some phone calls trying to arrange a transfer for him to our home, but then I let the nurse talk me out of it."

I continued: "I have felt sad that I didn't go with what I knew was right, and that I let my Dad down. I only have myself to blame, but I'm still feeling bad about this."

The very young hospice caller said in an upbeat voice:
"Well it's good it all turned out well."

"But it didn't," I told her. "He died, and I feel I let him down."

There was an uncomfortable pause, and then I thought, no sense me hurting the hospice worker over this, so I said, " Well it was so nice of you to call. Thank you.

She sounded relieved: "You are welcome! And if we can ever do anything else to help you, please let us know."

As ridiculous as that conversation was, I did feel better. She was kind, she was sweet. She was also young, and didn't know what to say.

But I will take the kindness. In my head, much in life can be solved, or at least we can feel a little better, just with that.

This week in Montana

I love that my Idaho grandkids got to be together with their Montana cousins.

It makes this Grandma Honey happy!

McKay and McKenna just moved into their new home 2 months ago.

I can't get enough of the pictures either.

Annie and Juliet walking to Primary at church together.
They are both 3, born a month apart.

Had to include this one too...Annie always has something to say.

Scarlett and Richie

Uncle McKay and Daisy

Grant helping McKenna with dinner.

Richie and Grant

Both almost 8, born a month apart

And I thought this next idea was genius.

Karen got fishing tackle boxes

to put the kids snacks for traveling.

(Juliet and Leo)

She said it was one of their easiest and best drives they had.

My Mom would say, it's not too early!

A few weeks ago at Hobby Lobby I gasped (yes I did)

when I saw their Fall display up.

A lady near by, heard me and said,

"Oh but they have Christmas up too...

they just put it up last week."

I turned my head, and sure enough it was there.

I know some (most?) people find Christmas decor in the summer disgraceful.

But ever since I was a child and I'd see an early holiday display

I'd think of my Mom's words.

She use to say:

"There are so many people in the world now.

The stores would be too crowded if we all wait till December.
There is no way everyone could shop at once."

My mom, the forever optimist, always looking out for all humanity.

My calendar agreed.

A few weeks ago we had a thoughtful presentation at church teaching us what is now allowed in the schools here in California concerning sex education, gender identification, etc.

Regardless of how a parent feels about this, or what they wish to teach their children instead, or how they wish to teach their children, it should be the parents' decisions not the schools'.

And furthermore, the way I understand the law states now, any teacher at any time during school, can randomly teach your child about sex and other personal issues.

We were advised during that meeting to educate ourselves in these matters and do all we can to question what is being taught, and to fight against laws that take away parental rights.

In other words, the parents should be the ones making these decisions about our children, not the schools.

We were encouraged to voice our concerns or questions during this church meeting.

One man in our ward, a father of 4 little daughters, stood and quietly said he had something to say. He talked powerfully about how we need to stand up for what is right for the benefit of our children.

He explained that he was the only one who stood outside his daughters' school with a sign on "take your kids out of school day."

I was in awe by his courage, and determination, and taking the day off work to do this.

The very next day was July 1st and time to turn my calendars in our house over to the next month.

When I flipped over the calendar in our laundry room this is what I saw:

My Dad's Grave Marker

I LOVE what his marker says because these are his words.

I LOVE that whoever walks by through all the decades ahead will know much of what our Dad was all about.

I had to go through several sprinklers to get this picture. My hair and clothes got drenched, but I had forgotten how fun that is. Perhaps I gave up childhood too quickly.

Now that was weird....

Just about every time we take the twins to a restaurant, 10 year old Jonas will invariably say, "Something always happens when we go to a restaurant with Grandma."

It's really not every time, but I guess enough, that he remembers. Usually simple things, like they we were given the wrong food, or the waitress suddenly gets sick and needs to go home.

I think he's probably too young to even remember this time.

But its happened enough in his mind, that Jonas will usually mention it on our drive there.

So imagine how I felt last week when we drive up to Dennys and saw this...

That's Denny's front door all boarded up.
No sign, no explanation.

Jonas said, "I think there was a shooting."

I didn't see any police tape.
"Obviously they aren't open for business,
so let's just go somewhere else."

But then I couldn't just leave without knowing what was going. So we looked in the windows and saw customers eating.

But how did they get in there?

Then we looked to our right and saw this:

Apparently there was some sort of

make shift sign that had fallen down.

Then Den wandered over the other side of the restaurant

and saw this..

We walk up closer and see, oh, here's the entrance!

At this point I just wanted to go elsewhere, but not without first finding out what was going on. We went inside and asked a waitress.

She said an elderly person accidentally drove their car through the entrance and into the restaurant.

Amazingly no one got hurt! That was right in the area customers are coming and going.

She said there was this loud bang and the restaurant rather shook, and the customers were all nervous.

Glad we missed that one!

But here's what's nearly as odd. That event happened a whole week before. You would think a big place like Dennys would have maintenance help in place for emergencies like this.

We drove by tonight, 3 1/2 weeks after the incident, and here's what it looks like now...

So at least they have a proper sign up now.

But it still makes me nervous.

Thinking back many years, when my first husband had a robbery in his store, the windows were covered with paper because of painting that week. It made it much easier for those guys to readily sneak in there with no notice.

So yes, I think a business like Denny's needs to step up their maintenance repair department!

4th of July 2019

I'm grateful for the family pictures still coming in from last night.

For now, take a look at this video.
McKenna warned that it would terrify me.
But since I knew it all turned out okay, it made me laugh.

Scarlett, McKay, Annie, Grant, McKenna and we are soooo excited baby #4 is coming in October!

I'll put more family pictures below as they come in.....

Logan here, is representing his family. I think most of his family celebrated with him, but this is what I have to share.