Snow Scootering

Andrew has the misfortune of having a Christmastime birthday.  That means all his really big gifts come in the dead of winter.  Last year it was a new bike...which he had to wait nearly 5 months to enjoy outside.  This year it was a scooter.  He wasn't having any 5 month wait this year.  This week we still have a foot or so of snow on the ground, but the sidewalks are relatively clear and the weather was doable, so three days in a row he was out on his scooter, breaking it in.  

Its been great as all of us are benefitting from the higher level of natural exercise.  

I love his Xtreme Sports attitude!

Barbara Darlene White Shultz

Darlene did pass away Friday, March 6 at about 4:30pm. Her daughters were all at her side when she passed.

Over the last two days we have received telephone calls which indicate that Scott's mom is in her final days.  I do not think Darlene was ever very fond of me, and I think overall I'm pretty unpopular with her daughters, but I'm still a bit nostalgic.

Joyce, Darlene's youngest, sent Scott a journal entry she found in one of their mother's notebooks.  It seems the best sort of eulogy a person could wish for.  

I knew very little about Darlene, I met her just a handful of years before her last husband died.  She was still walking at the time, but with a cane for longer trips.  She had stopped driving at this point.  She had already been diagnosed with MS for several years at that point.  She was an avid painter and loved all kinds of crafts, before her vision took this away from her.  She loved books and listened to hundreds on tape once she could no longer see to read them.  

 In 2002, a little over a year after her husbands death, she agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to move to Minnesota from Missouri, as three of her four children lived here.   I got to know her a little better at family gatherings and weekly visits to her apartment in the assisted living facility, and was struck with her kindness.  She did not strike me as a lover of children, her grandchildren did not seem to hold much interest to her, other than a topic of conversation with her new friends at the facility.  But she seemed kind, forgiving, and if she treated me with a reserve that saddened me, it was not a harsh one.  She was always happy to see her "Scottie" come to visit, and was always sweet to him.  Although she was clearly unhappy at all the various health facilities she has lived in these past 7 years, she did always seem to look for the silver lining in things.  

A family rift occured when her mother was moved here from Texas in 2007, and I haven't seen Darlene since that Christmas.  At the time I last saw her, her condition had stolen a good deal of her mental faculties, and it wasn't clear whether she knew us.  She cut the visit short, asking to go back to the comfort of her room.

I am sorry for those years of pain she has suffered.  Her life has not been an easy one, and the last 5 years or so have been, I think, particularly hard on her.  I am happy that she is about to get a new body in a new place, and if there is any mercy that is what is next for her.

Here are some excerpts from her journal:

 

My Most Loved People and My Favorite Things

 

 

Blessed Trinity

God the Father

Jesus the Son

Holy Spirit

 

Angels

 

Holy Bible

 

My Family

 

My husband, Joe

 

My mother, Evelyn

 

Memories of my father, Lloyd

 

Vivian

Liana

Peter

Monte

Cara

 

Scotty

Andrew

Minda

 

Brenda

Kendall

Connor

Rick

 

Joyce 

Billy

Jeff

 

Gary (her younger brother)

Kristie (his daughter)

 

Jeanette

Kyra

Tiffany

James Owen

 

Chris

Kali

Tim

Jean and Weaver

Yandell and Kathleen

 

Gladys Meledez

 

Frances Hempheld

 

Dr Goldstein

 

Marsha Schulte

 

Paul

Cody

Carson

Norma

 

Laura

Drew

John

 

United Methodist Church of the Shepherd

 

Hymns

Amazing Grace

 

Allelua

 

Mom's 80th Birthday Party

 

Visits to El Paso

 

Visits from my mom

 

Visits from my children

 

Babes

 

Children

 

Mountains

Rivers

Lakes

 

Clouds

Snowflakes

 

Deer

Raccoons

Squirrels

Cougars

Canadian Geese

Ducks

Blue Jays

Cardinals

 

Sounds and smells

Laughter

Smiles

Silence

 

Sunday

 

Going to Church

 

Smell of bar-b-que

 

Distant thunder

 

"Let's Eat Out"

 

Christmas:

Pine trees

Wreaths

Santa

Ribbons

Music

Children laughing

Wrapping paper  

 

Easter:

Sins forgiven

Spring Time

Pretty pastels

chocolate candy

colored eggs

"The Old Rugged Cross"

"And God Cried"

"Crown Him king"

"Were You There"

 

Thanksgiving-

Family

Good food

Good smells

Sweet potato

Pumpkin Pie

 

Flowers

roses

Pansy

Gardenias

Azaleas

Iris

 

color purple

 

Sunshine

Rainbows

 

Castles

Cottages

 

Birds singing

 

puppies

kittens

Bunnies

 

Garage sales

 

Amethyst

 

A smile from a stranger

 

A touch from a friend

 

A hug from a child

 

Baby smiles and giggles

 

Paintings (oil) by Thomas Kincaid

 

Sunday's choir

 

Morning

 

Sunset

 

Prayers

 

Gentle breeze

 

Snow on Pine trees

 

Sunshinning on Snow

 

Gentle rain

The first snowfall

 

the smell of rain

the smell after the rain

 

Sunset

Spring- the flowers, the smell, birds singing

 

Fall the colors, the crisp air

 

the sound of flying geese

 

Trees

 

painting

landscapes

flowers

snow scenes

with oil, acrylic, ultragloss

 

cards, bookmarks

canvas

glass

wood

candles

 

Painting books

 

watching ice skaters

country music

soft music

 

desert

Texas

new Mexico

Cacti

Pine cones

 

Ice Cream

cookies

hot fudge sundae

candy

coffee

pie

Mexican food

cake

Chocolate

Ice cream

Bacon

brownies

fudge

maple

Iggies

 

Pets,

Dogs, Spotty, Herman, Barney, Misty, Mindy, Rusty, Schatzie, Amity

 

The smell of

Bacon cooking

Thanksgiving dinner

Cakes or cookies baking

flowers- roses, gardenias

Fresh cut grass

watermelon

 

 

 

On the phone, "Hi Grandma, this is Connor, Do you remember me?

 

Kendall, "My hand is all sprinkly" (it was asleep)

 

My mom said, "Kendall, put it in the ice box."

Kendall whispered, "Grandma, what is an ice box?"

 

Brenda said, "Connor, stop stepping in all the puddles"

Connor said, "I'm walking on the water like Jesus did."

 

Billy said after falling into the deep end of the swimming pool. "I thought I was a goner.  My mom jumped in and saved my life. Whew"

 

Kendall, "I keep pushing the numbers on this phone but nothing happens"  It was an old rotary dial.

 

Peter after observing adults at a party, walked up to a stranger and said "Hi! I'm Peter and this is my friend, Monte."

 

After Joe lost all his hair from Chemo.  Connor came over.  Joe said, "Do you want me to take off my cap?"  Connor after a long pause said, "Er-ah no thank you."

 

Kendall asked, "Grandma, when you were a little girl did people wear clothes?"  Was she thinking of Adam and Eve or cavemen?

 

 

 

Love God above all

Love one another

 

Find something good in every person

 

Look for the silver lining

 

Find something good whenever possible.

The March Kit

Nice and early, I received the March kit from Tallyscrapper.com tonight and began designing right away!  The many elements and colors took me in several directions.  Here is one of the scrapbook pages I did tonight, more to be posted in the daylight!

Jason Update and a change

I'm back, after too long of an absence, and I've made a decision.  Scrapbooking is back on Minda's blog!

My reasons are my own, but hopefully even those who follow my blog who don't scrapbook will enjoy the added burst of color.

February brought some big news for my son Jason; he moved into his own apartment!  I cannot stress enough how important a step I think this is, learning how to manage a household on your own and the internal growth that happens when there is no parent keeping you on track...I'm so very proud of him and his growth.  

This week we were invited over to take a peek and he has really started to make it a home.  Of course he has a killer entertainment system, no surprises there, and we quickly got caught up in watching a bluray version of Phantom of the Opera.  Now I see what all the fuss is about!

Anyway, here is a little scrapbook page tribute to this big move for Jason.  For the scrap techies, I used a piece of cardboard, centered and affixed my title letters and then painted the whole thing the same color.  This is a technique I learned from Jen over at Tallyscrapper.com, where all my scrappy friends hang out.  Once it was dry I took a brown ink pad and scrubbed it over the title to give it a little more depth, then added some layered pen work and the photos.  Nice and simple!

Erin and Lance are dealing with an out of order bathroom as they deal with a leak and mold issue...yes, in a one bathroom house!  Jason is helping out when he can between starting his new job at the Eagan Little Caesars.

Today is my daddy's birthday, and he just got home from a cruise.  I haven't read mom's whole post about it, but I guess it wasn't their best cruise.  

Thanks for sticking by this blog even with my huge absences, I'll try to refocus here a bit going forward!

Trudging Through the Tundra...

As told by Andrew---

We went to the moon and walked on the solar snow today.  Not really, but we did go for a snowy walk.  I wanted to get my crabbiness about homeschool out before we did our work.  Little did I know that I would want to hitch a ride even before we were half way done.

Mom made it fun by adding in a trip to McDonalds and to get a movie too.  At McDonalds mom blow dried my boots in the bathroom and gave me her dry socks.  I decided that I want mukluk boots like hers because her feet never get cold or wet when we walk.  We ate two orders of french fries; mommy ate the majority of the first order, then I ate most of the second order.  Mom taught me about McGyver when we outfitted my boots with ugly McDs bibs to keep my feet dry.

We ran to the move store being chased by intergalactic space aliens, and looked at the WII games.  The movie I picked out was Star Wars Phantom Menace.  

On our way to the grocery store, we were chased by people wanting us to take surveys, and then we searched all over the grocery store for dry, robotic gloves.  Foiled!

Trudging back over the moon's surface was TERRIBLE!   All our energy was wiped out by the survey and intergalactic chases.  

When we arrived home, wet, cold and dizzy with tiredness, we crashed against our hover bubble couch.

Erin is a Quarter Century!

Erin had her 25th this Sunday...I wonder if she has officially reached an age now where I need to stop announcing her age...we'll call this the last announcement!

For a neighbor with a crazy dream!