Grandpa's Pride and Joy

Mikey and Lily came to visit last week and when it was time for them to go home, Mikey cried and cried. "I want to stay at Grandpa's house". Atta boy Mikey! It's always been Grandma's house for all the other kids. While Mikey was still sobbing, Lily wanted to pose for pictures on the front porch. Is that a cute little granddaughter?

On Monday, we shared family night with Angella and David's family. Ben wanted to have his picture taken, but he kept virtually crawling into the lens. I have lots of pictures of his big blue eyes - out of focus. It was only yesterday that he was a newborn baby. Just look at him now. When it was time for Ben to go to bed, he cried for the longest time. It was heartbreaking.

And then there is Sam. Sam always used to pose for the camera with his trademark Cheshire Cat grin. I talked to him about not goofing off and he came up with a nice grown-up smile. You can sure tell he and Ben are brothers. If i could find pictures of the two of them at the same age, they would look like twins. I realized that the little kids aren't getting as much face time on the blog. I will try to be better at that for their sake. I just wanted to share some recent pictures of my precious ones.

It was thirty years ago .... yesterday.

We went to dinner last night with our good friends, Larry and Kay as a belated birthday present for Larry, who just celebrated a milestone birthday. Kay pointed out that it was on this day thirty years ago, that our little family was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Heather was the baby then and David was just getting ready to make his appearance. If you look at Janene, you can see that she was already showing him off.

When Janene saw these pictures, she commented " Oh look, two little kids playing house - with real dolls" It does kind of seem like we were just playing grownup then. Little did we know then how important that sealing power would be to us at this stage of our lives.

Janene and I never seem to be able remember this date. We spent a lot of years remembering the day in November before this day came along. Kay has always remembered, and has remembered to send us a card. Lisseth has reminded us lots of years as well. While we look forward to that day when we will all be together again as an eternal family, we try our best to find joy in the journey now. We can look back at what seemed like happier times in our lives, but we have a tendency to forget that many times we couldn't pay the bills. We forget that Janene was buried in diapers most of time and went days without an adult conversation when I was working out of town. We both agree that we would not want to go back in time. We have learned that life is what you make of it. The scripture says "men are that they might have joy". I would add the word "now" to that. It has taken me a long time to learn that lesson, but I try to make the most of it.

On one somber note, we would ask all of you to pray for Kay, who suffered a stroke this afternoon shortly after bearing her testimony at church. It will be a while before she can feel joy again in her life, so she and her family will need our prayers and God's love.

A Trunk Full of Bees

You probably don't want to drive to church with Janene tomorrow. She picked up our bees today and one of the boxes had a hole in it. By the time she got home, about a hundred bees had escaped. There was no way to stuff them back in their box, so they remained in the car when she carried the boxes up the hill. They don't know where they live because the smell of the queen is still lingering in the trunk. We shooed some out of the trunk, thinking they would go find a home. Instead, they hung on the bumper - even after Janene drove the car up to Judy's house. So.... there they remain, unwilling to leave and doomed to die.

The good news is that by nightfall, the other 20,000 bees were safely in their new home on the hill - our new cliff dwellers. This year, we bought a new kind of bees. They are called Minnesota Hygenics. They are supposed to be able to keep themselves cleaner and able to fight diseases and pests like ants and varroa mites better than our Carnolians. They are supposed to be more aggressive, too. We didn't see that as we put them in the hive with their queens. The air was full of bees, but they didn't seem angry or threatening. We put them in a new location at the back of the garden, just in case.

Busy Bees

Next weekend our new bees will arrive. That means that we are busy little bees preparing new homes for the little critters. We levelled a new location on the hill for the hives. That freed up some ground for us to use for more garden area. Last weekend Shon and Joseph helped me haul up some railroad ties so that I could use them to create another level. This weekend we painted the hives and next week we will be working on the frames, maybe building some new ones. We want to have everything spit spot for our new guests by next weekend. What? You don't think we need more area in our garden?

Some Depression Stories

I think the whole family has heard lots of stories about my Grandfather, Al Morton. Most of the stories revolve around his talents as a famous photographer, river runner and cinematographer, and we have all watched and enjoyed his adventure films. But today while talking with my mom, I heard some other stories about my grandmother and grandfather that some of us have probably never heard. Here are a couple of those stories.

Grandma and Grandpa lived fairly close to the tracks in Salt Lake, and often men we called tramps in those days would stop at the house for food. My mom thinks the house was marked somehow so that they knew it was a safe place to get fed. Grandma always made sure that they got something, even if it was only a peanut butter sandwich when times were hard. Grandma used to bake two loaves of bread every night and then leave them on the counter to cool. One night, she left the bread on the counter, mopped the floor, and Grandpa left his wallet, spare change and keys on the counter before bed. When they awoke the next morning, Grandma found muddy footprints in the kitchen, and one loaf of bread was gone. The money and wallet had not been touched. As we talked about that, I wondered if that would happen now. Back then people stole what they needed to survive. Now it seems to be another profession.

During the depression, it was hard to find work. Grandpa Morton, was not immune to the troubles and had to scrounge to find whatever work he could. He heard there was a job opening for someone to clean apartments, so he decided to apply. When he got to the place, there was a huge line of people waiting for the place to open so they could interview. He knew the job would be filled by the time he could get in. He decided to do something out of desperation. He went to the back and found the coal chute to the building. Stuffing his hat into his shirt, he crawled into the coal chute, dropped into the bin, dusted himself off as best he could, and put his hat back on. He went upstairs where the office was and startled the man who was hiring, scaring him into falling off his chair. "I'm sorry to bother you", he said, "but I really need this job. I have four little girls and a new baby." The man decided that if he was willing to crawl through the coal chute to get the job, he deserved to have it, and Grandpa got the job. "There's just one thing, though" came the response. "You must leave the same way you came in. I can't afford to have a riot here." So that is how Grandpa got the job to support his family and feed my mom who was the new baby.

People complain about how hard things are right now, but I think we have no idea how hard things can really get, or how much our parents and grandparents suffered during these times. We owe them all a huge debt of gratitude for what they did to make our lives better.

Time for Janene to shine

I am always posting pictures that I took or would like everyone to think that I took. Many of our family photos have been taken by my talented (and lovely) bride. I thought today would be a good time to show off some of her photography.

These first two pictures were taken last year on our trip to Colorado. Janene has an artistic eye and a talent for composition that really stands out. She is often very aware of textures and contrasts that I walk right past.

Janene is used to dealing with details, especially as she has been involved in her pottery work. Often, the difference between a beautiful pot and one that goes to DI is a small detail, a double line instead of a single one, a slightly muted glaze instead of a colorful one, or some such intricacy. She will throw stuff away that I think is awesome. That attention to detail, I think, helps her in her subjects for photography. She took the picture below, I am sure, to document the creation of our dining room set , but the placement, shadows, color and texture demonstrate her talents as an artist, not just her excellent craftsmanship. Our home is a beautiful warm place thanks to her creativity.

Hmmm - April Fools Day

I had great plans for an April Fools blog post. First I thought about maybe posting that I had lost my job, but since that could be close to a real possibility with the decline in the construction industry, that wouldn't be funny. Then I thought, "Why not announce that Janene and I had been called on a mission to Mongolia?" Nope, we know someone that went there. That wouldn't be funny. That would be too cruel to our grandkids. Besides, some people at church might believe it since it is one our goals as a couple, and I would have a hard time explaining why we weren't really going.

I remember one time when my mom wasn't feeling too well, sick in bed, and I decided to scare her into thinking I had been bitten by a black widow.....(or something involving spiders). Turned out not to be funny, for me  - or her. Then there was the April 1st that I got up in the morning, put on my nice clean underwear, and then found out later that Janene had sewed up the flap in the front. Again - not funny!

I guess I'm just not cut out to be an April Fools jokester. I would like to hear about some of your favorite April Fools pranks, though. I can laugh at the things other people do to each other. I just  can't bring myself to do it to people I love.