Grandma's Feather Bed

Haha not actually a feather bed, but.....

Years ago, years like maybe 10, maybe more. I don't remember.  But years ago I went to Vernal with my parents and Natalie to help my Grandma Southam move out of the house she had lived in my entire live.  Almost all the aunts and uncles were there and lots of cousins I haven't seen in years.  It had been many years since my grandpa passed away. It was a really fun week.  I have always loved being together with my mom and her sisters.  They can talk no stop and laugh and cry and laugh again.  No subject is taboo and it was fascinating as a kid to sit in the front room and just listen.  My grandma was getting less mobile and she had decided to move in with my aunt Connie.  So a lot of her things had to go and were divided up between her kids.  We had lines up the stairs to clean out the storage room and every nook and cranny was gone through and cleaned.  It was a huge job and every moment was so fun, because the Southams are just great people to be around.  At one point there were these brown metal bed frames that no one wanted and were going to be thrown out.  I decided I wanted some of my grandparents heritage and thought it would be awesome to make a bench for my front porch with a bed frame.  I knew exactly how it was going to work. After the week of cleaning and getting everyone loaded up I saw that my dad had grabbed both bed frames.  I really did not want both but he wouldn't put them back. They were already in the trailer.  So home to Canada we go.  Dad stored the frames for me at the farm until I had a place to put them, or rather the one that I wanted.  Another few years go by and my dad brings them up to where I now live and we store them.  Every summer I ask Dave to make my bench, even asking Blake a few time as he is great at welding as well.  But it never got done.  This last fall as we are putting Blake's stuff into storage, we realized that we had two double beds and two queen beds that have mostly been given to us.  I thought the doubles would fit perfect in the big room upstairs.  And suddenly I was like wait.....I thinks those bed frames from Grandma are doubles.  We went and measured them and sure enough they were.  Dave sanded them and painted them white.  I wanted quilted bedspreads to fit the vibe and viola.  So all these years later I am finally thankful that no one listened to me and now I have these beautiful beds that cost almost nothing. 

Talking to my mom today we figured they are at least 75 yrs old.  I love them.  So while no, not a feather bed, they still have so many memories for me.  My Grandma had a pink bedspread with these flowers that felt like a towel on it and a white on on the other.  We would sleep in these beds when we went to Vernal to visit them.  We would go down the dark scary stairs to the basement and sleep. I remember the pink bathroom and the pink mushroom stool that we would sit on to do our hair and watch grandpa shave. For purple being grandma's favorite color there sure was a lot of pink. The big trough that grandpa would fill with water so we could go swimming.  It would cut up our feet on the bottom but we just kept swimming.  Going to the crik. Eating around the table in the kitchen.  Grandma's cement laundry room and hanging clothes to dry outside.  I remember driving for 12 hours and when we would finally take that final turn at the 7-11 that took us back out of town on the last rode to our grandparents how excited we would be that we had finally made it. I come from great people and have so many wonderful memories that I will continue to tell my kids and their kids as they sleep in Grandma's Bed. 

I got SpOiLed

January has been a fun month.  I seem to only be blogging about once a month now, if that.  Dave and I are not that interesting, but we have a good time together.  Just now anything super exciting.  I could just say, worked on shop, feed cows, went to work, ate dinner, cleaned house and could cover almost a whole month.  :)  Anyways.

We got a big dump of snow.  Blake has been waiting for us to get snow as he really misses it.  He sits at a constant 30 degrees C.  But said he is getting used to the heat now.  Wears his hoodie again as sometimes he is even a little chilled.  So when we got the snow we sent him some pictures. 

With the snow came bitter bitter cold.  We were -30 as a high during the day for about a week.  It was the week we were on cows and the week that my car decided it hated me.  I worked a lot of extra days in January, filling in for someone.  Tuesday I'm at work and start my car at lunch to make sure it will.  All good, then after work it was not all good.  I had to call Dave for him to come rescue me.  He was in the middle of feeding cow.  He had come home early from work to do this so the tractor would not die in the middle of the field from the cold. (That was not a fun few days last year when it happened)  I was lucky I could go back inside and wait for him and had a good book.  It made for a very late night, but in the end Dave decided I needed a new battery.  In my warm garage it started fine in the morning, again at lunch, but I ran out to do a check at 3 and it was a no go.  Dave had already bought a battery and got off right on time so I wouldn't have to wait too long.  Then he got stopped on a bridge for over an hour waiting for an accident to clear.  By the time he got to me and we got the battery changed (in -37 in case anyone wanted to know.  Much to cold!) it was after 8.  And then we still got to go break bulls water and check the cows.  Also that was Dave's birthday.  What a fun way for him to celebrate.  (I hope you feel the sarcasm)  One day when we went to break water the bull was right there, it was funny how he was just circling, waiting. I was too late for a picture, but at one point he was staring right at Dave as Dave was standing on top of the water. 

The next week we got a little warmer.  Cora and Leah had taken Ammon and Braydon to the airport to got to Toronto.  They were hanging out when they didn't have to work and one day while they were both in town, Dave took them to lunch.  He text me after and said, "we really have great kids."  Which we certainly do.  Later as I was telling the girls that, they laughed and said, "that's funny cause as we were driving away, we both said we really have great parents."  But really my kids are the best in the world.  They both came out and stayed with us for the weekend.  We didn't do much but just were together. 

Dave bought me flowers and chocolate treats for our anniversary.  It was still not really warm enough to finish the last of the shop so he started working on inside projects.  He fixed my car so it now starts with a key instead of a screw driver.  I had forgotten what a luxury a key was.  He fixed the light in my oven and a burner on my stove top.  Fixed my bathroom fans, one still has some attitude and might need to be replaced.  He work on my bed frames (more on that in future post).  After each one he would say Happy Anniversary:)  And I loved it.  The perfect gifts.  I really got spoiled.

During the following week, we used our Keg certificate and went to dinner and watched The Boys in the Boat.  I had read the book years ago and was very excited when I found out they had made a movie out of it.  I love true story movies.  This did not disappoint.  Everyone should see. 

The following weekend, Ammon and Braydon had arrived back very early Friday morning.  They had planned on taking the red eye as usual, but the flight kept getting delayed and ended up being very late.  Getting them home about 5 in the morning.  But after work Cora and Ammon came to our house to make some frozen meals for Cora.  Her midwife has told her to eat a ton of protein and as she is barely hungry, some days are a struggle.  She mostly eats yogurt, and drinks milk.  Those are her cravings.  Good cravings to have. This breakfast just made me laugh.  Granola in one, her favorite yogurt in one, and the yogurt she needed to use up in the other.  She would just dip her spoon in each for each bite.  Cora has always avoided every extra dish she can.  Why dish up a bowl when you can eat out of all three containers. 

We were busy all day and made a ton of food for her. 

They brought mangos, chocolate pecans, and show home chocolates for snacking.  I made chili and baked potatoes for dinner.  Braydon and Leah got here about 7ish.   They had had a fun day driving around and doing some work stuff together as they celebrated their anniversary. 

What a beautiful world we live in.  Look at that sunrise.

They had all come out to stay as Sunday was Emry's farewell.  It is fun to have them all at church with us.  Being in nursery now I go home at the end of church and realize I haven't seen or usually talked to anyone.  Kinda sad. We walked over to have dinner at Jared and Amber's and after we took the scenic route and all checked cows on the way home, since we had our gum boots anyways. 

Monday we heard from Blake briefly.  He doesn't call every Monday, but I sure love when he does.  It is usually for only 15 mins.  But I wait all day for his letters.  This past week he had gone almost the entire week without water or power.  They had to haul it in every couple of days.  Said he is getting good at getting clean with only 1 L of water.  He was sure glad when it was back on Monday. 

He is doing well.  Says Salone feels like home now.  He gets along with his companion, which I am thankful for.  He has some solid families they are teaching as well.  Loves zone conferences and district meetings. And said he is getting the hang of being a district leader and trainer.  Doesn't feel so stressed anymore.  He is a master at brooking and fluent in Krio.  Thinks we should all learn.  I think he is subtly

 trying to teach us in his letters.

It has warmed up a lot since that super cold week.  Warmer than usual in January, we have gotten rain instead of snow, mud is everywhere, and our moat is full to the brim.  Today as Dave and I where finishing the last sheet on the shop we saw a few different groups of geese flying north.  NORTH. Crazy times.  Even the poor birds are confused. But I love the warmer weather. 

And that is January.  It's been fun and lots of time spent with our kids.  Life doesn't get better than that.

Christmas and NYE 2023

 We had a lovely Christmas. A few days before Christmas, Cora needed to pick up Ammon from the airport.  I have wanted to go to the Giving Machine for years and it has never worked out.  This year I was determined.  Dave said he was not driving all the way to go to a mall, so I had decided to drive up myself when Cora asked me to come with her before the airport.  It was a fun experience and I will totally make time to go every year.  It was the year for all to go to their in-laws, so it was just Dave and I.  We had several nice friends that invited us to come be with their families when they found out our kids were all away this year and we politely declined.  We were looking forward to seeing what Christmas would be like in this new phase of life.  It was quite.  We don't do presents so no opening or garbage bag of wrapping after.  We slept in, went for a walk, had a nice salmon dinner, puzzle, read, I worked on some projects.  We had still done our appetizers Christmas Eve.  That was interesting to figure out how to make in very small portions.  We made enough to have left overs in the evening of Christmas Day. 

  

It was fun to talk to Blake that day.  All the rest of the kids were able to be on the call during some down time with their families.  Blake had an interesting Christmas.  His companion at the time was Filipino and the Philippines Consulate had invited all the Filipinos and their comp to come.  Blake thought it was going to be a quick stop by and and say hi.  But they were feed a big meal and sang some karaoke. The night before his landlady had made boko food and gave it to them.  

Dave had the rest of the week off.  I had a few days I needed to work.  We got lots done on the shop and Dave cleaned the garage, organized the shop, and lots of other things he didn't need two people for while I was working.  Saturday we went to Myrna's for the Puzey gathering.  Delicous meal and nice to see everyone there.  Sunday Leah had wanted a turkey dinner, and invited her grandparents to come.  They had also been given some new games that we played.  After getting all cleaned up and saying good-bye to the Gs, we all decided to watch a movie.  When the movie was done, I remembered I had some Martinelli's and we all toasted in the New Year at 8:30.  Dave thinks that was our earliest toast in ever.  Leah and Braydon then went home and we stayed up for a bit reading and puzzling before deciding there was no point staying up, we could go to bed whenever we wanted. :)

2023 brought a lot of changes.  Leah got married, Cora is expecting a kid, Blake graduated and left on his mission, Dave has a new job title at work.  We are so very close to the shop being enclosed.  Made some changes with how cows are going to be done and have enjoyed the empty nest stage.  We love when the kids stop by and love that at the moment they are pretty close to us.  

We have some goals for the New Year and some things we want to finish.  

Happy New Year.  May it be wonderful and joyous for all.