Summer & Little-Guy-Ostrich

A few weeks ago I saw a cute ostrich painting on Pinterest. I wanted to see if I could paint it. Thinking it was just a trial painting I turned over one of my paintings I had nearby to test it out on the backside of the page. I then decided to grab my kids former 8-color-count Crayola Watercolor paints – maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was going to be blowing paint through a straw like I did in grade school, but regardless the reason, I’m glad I did! I think the colors turned out very fun. The whole project was fun! I think using the back of watercolor paper, Crayola watercolor paints, and blowing through a straw “allowed” me to just have fun like a kid! Not everyone probably likes this kind of painting, but I fell in love with this little character and can’t stop looking at it. It currently sits in my kitchen, unframed, and totally not in sync with my décor, but he makes me smile! Don’t the colors just scream “summer”?!!

 

We recently went to visit my daughter and her family in Kentucky. My grandchildren were excited for me to take my watercolors and paint with them, so that’s what we did. I showed them how to paint my colorful ostrich, and look how great their paintings turned out! I’m not sure if they had more fun painting or taking pictures of their paintings, but we had a great time!!

 

Last night, after a day of being mostly indoors, I wanted that “summer feeling” about the time I should have been heading to bed. So I pulled out the Crayola Watercolors and designed and painted my own ostrich pictures, using those summer colors once again. What an enjoyable way to end a day!!

 

Happy summer to everyone! I hope you’re enjoying the outdoors and if you can’t always be outdoors, grab your Crayola paint and give it a try!! Just paint little sections at a time and blow the paint  around while it's still wet, using a straw. Protect the eyes and paint them last. The blue and black will make them pop next to all those summer colors. Then add some shadow with the blue paint and you’ll be smiling like me! I showed my niece how to do this, and even though she hasn’t painted much, she too is smiling and showing her painting to others. These ostriches just simply make me happy!

 

Side note: There's a sweet story about kindness and lemonade that took place on a hot summer day. Check this link out.

 "The Power of Kindness" in the article "George Albert Smith: He Lived as He Taught"

 

Down Memory Lane

I am sharing 3 of my paintings/cards with this post. These paintings remind me of flowers on Memorial Day. The words on the card reminds me of the “thanks” I feel for my deceased relatives. Del’s and my grandparents and parents used to decorate the graves, just as we do now. They picked flowers from their yards, which I find hard to do in Idaho Falls as I can’t find many in bloom yet. I don’t know how they found any either. I remember Peony flowers as ones they picked for decorating graves. Perhaps that’s the problem! We tried growing them several times, but have never been successful!

 It is Memorial Weekend in May 2016. Del and I have the tradition of visiting the graves of our relatives in Idaho Falls, Shelton, Blackfoot and American Falls, all in Idaho. While driving I started reminiscing about the past, one of the best reasons for dropping off flowers at their grave sites. As we drove to the Rose Cemetery in Idaho Falls and to Shelton, visiting my grandparent’s graves, I wrote a letter to my parents (sorry it’s a bit lengthy) in an attempt to share with them some of my memories. This is my letter to them:

 

 Hi dad and mom,

 We couldn’t decide what to do for date night, so we grabbed some flowers and headed to visit Rose and Shelton Cemeteries. We followed the same routine as we always do, stopping at Sherie’s grave first. We laid a few flowers by her tiny little grave marker, the size reminding us she was a stillborn infant. How you managed through having 3 babies develop full term, but die before being born, is beyond me. How grateful I am to know and believe in a resurrection/life after death, and for ordinances that allow us to be with our loved ones in the next life! I guess that’s how you made it through those times too. Her plaque reads “Tibbetts” with an “e” instead of an “i” but that’s okay! I know she’s my sister. Amazing we’ll have 3 more siblings in the next life, if that’s the Lord’s plan.
 

 After being there for a short while we headed to the other plots, looking for the wishing well across the street, designating which path to go down. It’s hard to believe that wishing well is still there. Grandma and Grandpa Tibbitts’s grave are easy to spot, once on the right road, as it faces West towards our car, when most of the other surrounding tombstones face the East. We laid more flowers next to their plot and some on Sydney’s, Maria’s and Gladys’s too. I can’t help but think of Glady’s dying just months before her wedding. How sad those times must have been. That also brings back memories of you dad, with her as your sister. Those are such fun stories!
 

 I love going to these graves because of the memories that start to naturally flow. From this cemetery, Grandma Tibbitts is the only person I knew and as I walked away from her grave I started sharing with Del some of my memories of being with her. I can picture in my mind the many Friday night sleepovers I had at her home, following with a smorgasbord of breakfast choices!! There were all kinds of foods to choose from, not just out of her cupboard, but sitting prepared and ready to eat, spread over her kitchen table! I also remember her many empty bottles of perfumes and lotions that I’d sit for hours playing with, imagining them to be people or anything else I could dream of. I remember mowing her lawn after school and in the summers, and the Twinkies and soda pop she always had for us. Why I didn’t mow her lawn for free, I’ll never understand! When I think of mowing her lawn, I always think of the letter she mailed to me with payment for a time I couldn’t mow due to being sick. She was paying me for the mowing job you did, dad. I still have that letter.

 

 After leaving Rose Cemetery, we headed toward Shelton. I always love looking at your old home on Highway 26, mom. I only know it from when Uncle Wilford and Aunt Wilma lived there, but your stories of your early year’s runs through my mind as we pass it, looking at the small home and the farm land. I try to visualize you surrounded by cats and dogs, and even mice! It’s a little hard to picture that, but photos of you come to my mind and I can only imagine how it must have been. Knowing the Shelton church is just down the road from this place, it brings back memories of Stephanie and Josh’s wedding reception being held there, and of the story you’ve shared of sitting in the window sills during church dances watching the older kids while your dad, the Bishop, chaperoned. Those are fun stories!
 

 At the Shelton Cemetery it was a bit windy and cold, typical for Memorial Day in Idaho! The trees shaded what was left of the evening sun. We laid flowers next to Grandpa and Grandma Burtenshaw’s grave, glanced around at all the other Burtenshaw graves and jumped back into our car to get warm. The drive was beautiful and the memories this brought into my mind made the little extra distance to Shelton worth it. I typically can’t muster up past memories as well as dad does, but as we drove away I started once again sharing memories with Del of Grandma and Grandpa Burtenshaw from our visits to their home on H Street.

I remember their 3 story home (or 2 ½ story one might call it). I thought that 3rd floor was so cool. I didn’t know anyone who lived in a 2 or 3 story home, that’s just not how the California homes were in those days, so visiting grandpa and grandma in a 3 story home was fascinating to me. I remember playing games in that upper room. Was it as big as I remember it being? I picture 2 or 3 queen or full size beds in it. Remembering that room also reminds me of two things that I thought were unique to the area. Now living in Idaho Falls, these things are common, but back then, they seemed almost magical, creating a sense of being somewhere uniquely different. At night, I’d look out the upper window, and see people getting off or on buses. I later learn about the INEL (called by different names over the years) and now realize they were either returning or heading to work. This memory takes me back to dad’s story of Delmer leaving Gladys candy, gum and other small gifts in her mailbox when he returned from the INEL in the middle of the night. I love knowing that Grandma Tibbitts raced her to the mailbox each morning, hoping to get the surprise first. What a fun story (although mixed with sadness, like I mentioned above). Back to my story…I also remember hearing the train. I still hear it now and then, even in my own home further from the tracks, but back then, it seemed magical. I had never been on a train and I imagined people traveling to fun and interesting places. I have one other memory I want to share. I wonder if you’ll remember this. On one of our trips I got an extremely bad earache. My bed was in the upstairs room on the 3rd floor, but I couldn’t sleep due to the extreme pain I felt. Dad gave me a Priesthood blessing and I quickly fell asleep afterwards. The next day the doctor discovered I a blister on my eardrum popped.

 Well…that’s it for now. This is long enough. These memories have led to more, and I’m sure as we continue to travel to the Blackfoot and American Falls Cemeteries I’ll begin to have memories of Del’s family too. This is truly a blessing of living in Idaho, where many of our relatives lived. It’s one of our favorite family traditions.

 Happy Memorial Day!!

 Love, Trudy

 

Scooped on Our Wedding Day

The following story is by my husband Del. He claims it’s all true. I think it might be slightly embellished, yet…maybe not...at least from his point of view.

 This is his story:

 This story is ultimately about our wedding day, but before you can appreciate what happened to us, you’ve got to know a little bit about Trudy’s parents, Keith and Lucile Tibbitts.

 Lucile was raised on a farm in Shelton, Idaho. As a little girl she drank out of the ditch and basically ate the food raised and prepared on the farm. I’m sure she had eaten her fair share of bugs and dirt and she surely shared things with her brother and sisters as all kids do. Somewhere along the line she must have decided she didn’t want to eat bugs and dirt, nor have people playing with her food, for I’m told she relinquished her cherished candy bar simply because her brother barely touched it.

 

Keith and Lucile were really quite particular with cleanliness of food in their home and didn’t even like to, or actually wouldn’t, share food or drinks, even between themselves. Now everyone on the Tibbitts side of the family was aware of their affinity for clean-germ-free food. As the soon to be newest member of the family I had not yet had instilled within me the sacredness of this aspect of the Tibbitts’ culture. Consider that for a moment as I tell you about something else you need to know about the Tibbitts’.

 

 
Just short of their love for the gospel of Jesus Christ is their exuberance for all things ice cream. Family gatherings often included ice cream and they always had ice cream in their freezer for just about any occasion. It’s my understanding that one important aspect of their family vacations were making sure they discovered all of the good ice cream shops along the way. I was made keenly aware of this when I first met Trudy’s parents as they were on their way into an ice cream shop in Provo, Utah. I would later discover that Snalegroves was more than just an ice cream parlor, it was an adventure. My background was limited to thinking that Neapolitan was about as exotic as one needed to be, while the Tibbitts’ had association with every kind of berry, flavor, nut and topping. When they talked about ice cream, 31 Flavors really meant something. To this day, Trudy still likes to sample two or three flavors before she makes her selection. You can actually see it in the Tibbitts’ eyes as they approach the ice cream counter. Messing with their ice cream is just not something you would do lightly.

 

Now that you have a little background it will come as no surprise that having to drive from Hemet, California to the Los Angeles Temple we left making sure we were plenty early with the provision that if we didn’t encounter untoward traffic, we would have time to stop for some ice cream along the way. I thought that was a terrific idea and I knew Trudy would be excited about doing what she always had done with her family.

 

As we got down into the L.A. area, a little closer to the temple, we stopped at a Baskin Robbins/31 Flavors. It was pretty obvious that we weren’t the typical patron at this location. All of us were dressed in church attire and Keith, at the time, had a very nice yellow Cadillac that made us stand out. It was obvious we weren’t from the neighborhood. As we entered the shop we were in the process of making our selection when it became apparent that one of the counter attendants was busy cleaning and mopping the floor. As we got to the point that we were actually getting our ice cream he was now standing on the serving counter and with the same mop, was mopping around the ice cream containers. The worst part of it was, this was obviously routine and no one seemed to notice or be concerned about his activity.

 

I’m sure mom and dad Tibbitts have had other traumatic food experiences in their lives, but as I think back on that situation I can just feel the horror with which they must have viewed that ice cream treat. I’m pretty sure that Keith and Lucile may even feel a little bit queasy just reading about this, some 36 years later, but I have to tell you they are worthy of our greatest admiration for their love and devotion to their daughter on her wedding day. Not wanting to do anything that would distract from what was about to happen they pretended that everything was okay and they actually ate the ice cream. I’m quite sure they didn’t enjoy that ice cream nearly as much as they would have if it hadn’t of been served with a mop!

 

And so, this story about something that happened on our wedding day is ultimately about Keith and Lucile Tibbitts. Thank you for being the great people you are!

It's a Boy!

One week ago today my youngest daughter, Stephanie, gave birth to our 7th grandchild, Luke. I get to visit her and my son-in-law Josh and our new sweet little grandson tomorrow. I absolutely love holding our new little grandchildren as they come into our lives. I am always awestruck at how quickly I love them. It’s amazing to me that we don’t need to know their personalities or know them for very long to have a deep love for them. What a precious blessing!

This little Luke is my parents “one hundred and one” great-grandchild. What an amazing posterity! I say “one hundred and one” (rather than 101st) for a reason. It reminds me of a story about my daughter Stephanie when she was young enough that the only words she knew how to say were: “dada” “mama” and “bubbles”. Around this age “101 Dalmatians” was the first video she ever watched all the way through in one setting. After her first viewing she wanted to watch it over and over and over, even 3, 4, and 5 times a day! Because she couldn’t talk, she would pat my leg, point towards the television and bark! As time went by, we introduced her to “The Lion King” and “Aristocats”. If she wanted to watch one of those she’d roar like a lion or meow like a cat. The funniest part of all of this is when we’d tell her it was bedtime she’d start barking like a dog, meowing like a cat and roaring like a lion, pointing to the television the whole time we carried her up to her crib. As we got closer to her room, she would frantically bark, roar and meow louder and louder. Without question, she didn’t want to go to bed! Without question, she wanted to watch a movie…any one of the three…anything to stay up a little bit longer!

And so…with this story in mind, I just think it’s very fitting that Stephanie had my parent’s “one hundred and one” great-grandchild!

Congratulations Joshua and Stephanie! He’s adorable!

If Mothers Were Flowers

About 3 weeks before Mother’s Day, my mom sent out an email to my siblings and me, expressing her desire for us to not do anything for her on Mother’s Day. I think her note to us shows what kind of a mother we have – a selfless mother, who always served and blessed her children’s lives, never wanting to impose upon us or have us wait upon her, serving us with unconditional love. I hope she won’t mind, but I want to share part of the email she sent to us:

“Hopefully I am not being presumptuous or sending the wrong intent of this letter.  But I just want you to know that the very best Mother’s Day gift you could ever give me is the 5 days you 6 girls spent here with me!!!  Nothing else would even match that!  I want that to be my Mother’s Day gift from each one of you this year!! … Mother’s Day will be just so special when I think of the wonderful memories that were made and I reflect on all of “My Favorite Things”!!! …”

By the way, you need to understand that for Christmas, part of our gift to my parents was letting them know that we were going to all gather to visit them in April. All but one of their daughters and daughter-in-law live away from them and knowing that they would enjoy a visit, we wanted them to have something to look forward to.

As a side note: this isn’t a new thing for us to show up at their home as a “gift”. We chuckle about this idea – as if our presence is a perfect present! About 20 years ago we all arrived in my parent’s town and hid in my sister’s home for an afternoon until the time my parents were invited to her home to open up their combined birthday gift. When my parents showed up at my sister’s, we were hiding in a huge box with wrapping paper covering the box, including the opening at the top. When they saw such a big box, they were worried that they were being given some sort of an extravagant gift. That was troubling…they hated for us to spend money on them. As they gingerly tore into the box, 4 of us jumped out, almost causing two heart attacks! What an exciting surprise. They claim we were the best gift they could ever have! What a fun week we had with them. What a fun memory.

And so…our tradition of “us” being a gift continued…we told them this past December that part of our Christmas gift to them was a trip to their home in April.

As March approached, the month of my mom’s birthday, we all got an email from her requesting that our birthday gift to her be the trip we were still planning to make in April. Remember, this was part of our Christmas gift! And now she was asking for it to be her birthday gift too! And this is not because she forgot it was part of her Christmas gift, it’s just that she didn’t want us to have to worry about what to get her. So we agreed it would be her gift (but added a wreath for her door as an “extra”).

Well…in April we made our trip to their place and had a wonderful time visiting, eating, and just being together. My mom’s comment about “My Favorite Things” in her note above, is referring to some things we did while at my parents. Each of us took something to share with everyone, and we titled it: My Favorite Thing. We shared a variety of things, some including gifts. Our favorite things were: recipes for a healthier way to eat, a yummy waffle recipe and a special ingredient, a favorite smelling soap and lotion, instructions on Indexing, instructions on doing Genealogy work, demos on some great exercises, favorite bunt cakes to taste and share, how to sew a pillowcase without a raw seam, a favorite book, and watercolor painting instructions. What a truly, wonderful time we had with my parents and with each other. We enjoyed it as much as my mother said she enjoyed it.

And now…three weeks before Mother’s Day: Mom once again writes a note asking us to let our trip to their home take the place of our gift to her for Mother’s Day! I wrote back to her: “You are so cute mom!! Our trip… covered your Christmas gift, your birthday gift, and now Mother’s Day!! Wow!! A gift that keeps on giving! Well, I’m not sure it keeps on giving, but it does keep on covering EVERY occasion that comes along!”

So… in honor of my mom this Mother’s Day, I have written a post. This is not a tangible gift (because I told her I’d honor her desire, letting our visit be her gift for 3 occasions), but a gift to let her know, in print, that I love her.

I wish her a happy mother’s day and hope all you mother’s out there have a happy day too!

I love this video. Check it out: It Was Mom: A Mother’s Day Tribute to Moms

74,484 Faces

This number represents the amount of names my father has indexed as of April 27, 2016!!

 These names become “faces”when a person uses online genealogical programs to search and find names, histories, and facts of their own missing ancestors.

Volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been indexing since 2006, producing more than one billion searchable records!! Hundreds of thousands of volunteer indexers have participated in this effort throughout the world. This has allowed millions of people worldwide to find information and discover stories about their ancestors. Volunteers add millions of names of ancestors weekly to the Church’s FamilySearch.org archive. How amazing is that?!!

My dad indexes almost daily. He averages 50-100 names per day. He is one of those hundreds of thousands volunteers who take the time to record valuable genealogical information from handwritten records and type them into transcripts that can be searched online. I think that’s incredible. As stated at the top, since he has started indexing, he’s indexed 74,484 names as of April 27, 2016. I think this is a wonderful, selfless act, by him and many others! Thanks all you indexers!!

I have been the benefit of such selfless deeds. I recently searched among the historical records that have been made available due to those who index and within a fairly short amount of time I found “missing” people from my ancestor line that lived in the 1800’s. What an exciting find! Who would have thought that I’d someday enjoy searching for my ancestors?!! I love it!

…NAMES…PEOPLE…FACES…

It’s an incredible feeling to find ancestor names, learn about them as a person, and even sometimes find photos of them. In this process, names become people and people become faces. Sometimes we don’t really know what they look like, but we start to create images in our own minds, just as I created a face with paint and paper. What wonderful and exciting times to search and find and discover someone you’re related to!!

For those involved with Genealogy and Family History: Happy hunting!! Happy finding!! Happy discovering and learning about your ancestors!!! If you haven’t ever gotten involved, try it! It’s exciting!

“Getting into Indexing,” by Brittany Beattie, in the New Era magazine of May 2012 is an excellent article about indexing, especially for the youth. You don’t have to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to index. I hope you enjoy this article.

I Love You To The Moon and Back

On July 31, 2015 we had the rare phenomena of a “blue moon”. Every now and then (about every 2 to 3 years) a full moon appears more than once in a month and apparently during one of these appearances there was some atmospheric dust particles that caused the moon to look bluish at that time. Because of this, the occurrence of having a full moon appear more than once in a month, took on the title of “a blue moon.” And so although a moon isn’t really blue each time it appears more than once in a month, the title stuck. Perhaps this is where we get the saying:  “Once in a blue moon”?

A few days before the appearance of the “blue moon”, my husband and I were taking our nightly walk and he pointed to the moon and explained this phenomena. I had never heard of it. On this night the moon already appeared to be full – and it was gorgeous! While we walked and talked I started thinking of a picture I wanted to paint in relation to the moon. This painting is the result.

Unlike things happening “once in a blue moon” my husband often told our children while they were growing up: “I love you to the moon and back…twice.” And so, although I was inspired to paint this during the phenomena of a “blue moon,” it is actually a painting depicting this verbal exchange between my husband and our children.

We have 3 daughters and 1 son. Although my husband spoke these words to our son as well, I painted it depicting him with one of our daughters and in my mind it definitely depicted all three girls. I ended up posting this picture on Instagram and so our daughters, now grown and married and living miles away, saw it for the first time. Their comments reflect the reaction I had just depicted. It was as if they were just told by their dad: “I love you to the moon and back…twice” and had reached out and given their dad a great big hug!!

The youngest daughter called me and said she wanted a print of this – as large as I can make it! Our oldest daughter sent a reply on Instagram and wrote: “Oh that is so cute! I want a framed copy in my stocking this year…just saying hint hint!” Our middle daughter said: “I love this one!! I want a framed copy too. Because the little girl is me, right? Don’t answer that question…I know it’s me:)”

Of course it is of her!! It’s of my oldest and youngest daughter too…it just depends on who I am talking to when she claims it’s a painting of her!!

I recently read an article by David A. Bednar called: More Diligent and Concerned at Home. In this article he said:

We can begin to become more diligent and concerned at home by telling the people we love that we love them. Such expressions do not need to be flowery or lengthy. We simply should sincerely and frequently express love….

…[W]hen was the last time you took your eternal companion in your arms and said, ‘I love you’? Parents, when was the last time you sincerely expressed love to your children? Children, when was the last time you told your parents that you love them?…

We should remember that saying “I love you” is only a beginning. We need to say it, we need to mean it, and most importantly we need consistently to show it. We need to both express and demonstrate love.

A BIG thank you and a big hug to my family – for always saying and showing their love!!