June 2011

The Grand Mesa, Cedaredge, Colorado

My grandma, Mary Margaret Knox Kiser, passed away on June 18th in the evening. She was at home, surrounded by her two daughters, her two son-in-laws, and good friends. I will miss her so much. She was an amazing woman: strong, dynamic, loving, generous, full of service. To me she was a caring and fun grandma. I always knew she loved me. I loved to listen to her stories of family--she had a gift for connecting this generation with the past generations. I loved to eat anything she cooked. I loved to visit her at the ranch and follow her around. I loved to stay up late with her, talking of everything. I loved to shop with her. I loved to feel her hands stroke my hair. I loved to hear her laugh. I loved looking over her many collections--she knew where everything came from and had a story for every treasure. I loved the way she cherished my children--her great-grandchildren. I think she made every member of her family feel special; she was good at that. She was one of my most-loved people ever. It was a privilege to be able to share in her care over these past three years since she had a stroke. I felt close to her in a way that I never had before. She took care of me when I was little--I loved visiting her at her homes in San Diego, in the desert town of Ocotillo, and finally, at the ranch in Colorado--and I got to help take care of her for these last few years. What a blessing that was!

These aren't very good pictures--just photos from photos in a book (I don't have the originals), but here's my grandma and grandpa shortly after they got married. Isn't she beautiful? And he was just as kind, charming and full of fun and love as he looks. And also here is a photo of them on their 50th wedding anniversary. What a wonderful couple they are. And now they are together again! THAT is something to celebrate!

Isaiah and his cousin James had boy scout camp during the time that the rest of us traveled to Colorado for the burial and memorial service. So James came to stay at my house and Cliff stayed home to take care of the both of them.[Side note: the boy scout camp that Isaiah and James attended flooded out while they were there--the bridge separating their campsite from the rest of the camp buildings, including all the food!!, was washed out. They were trapped on one side of the camp for a day. The forest service was called in, food was pulley-ed over the river and that night when the river receded all were evacuated--along with their soaking wet gear--to the other side of the river, the side with the food and the other official buildings AND with the camp staff. Such excitement!! The boys still came home with 4 or 5 merit badges each!] Meanwhile, the rest of us made our way to Colorado. I drove up in Cliff's truck with my Allegra and my nephew Scott (Reed and Dorothy's oldest). I came a few days before the burial and memorial service so that I could help cook and clean and pack. We loaded up the truck with things my mom wanted to take home. Rayne picked up my brother Ben and his son William at the airport in SLC on her way from Rexburg. The three of them drove in Rayne's car to Cedaredge, so I had my two girls with me for the burial and the memorial service.

Here's my Raynebow. We visited all our favorite places in Cedaredge. I don't know if I'll ever return. It's so far away from my house and with my grandma gone, there is really no reason to go there again. Here Rayne and I (and my brother Reed and two of his sons) visit the Grand Mesa. Allegra and I visited it already and Rayne was disappointed we had gone without her. So back up we went.

Here's Reed and his son Vincent, throwing pine cones at each other--too small to do serious damage and light enough to go far when thrown. This is what boys do when girls come up to look at the view and "bond", right?
Here's Rayne and me, in front of one of the largest lakes on the Grand Mesa. It was beautiful up there--there was still snow (!!!), but it was warm and sunny.

The burial was on Saturday, the memorial service was on Sunday. The burial service took about 5 minutes. Short and sweet. Here's Mom with grandchildren Scott and Allegra at Grandma's grave. She's buried right next to my grandpa, of course.

My mom took all the flowers from the memorial service and arranged them in Grandma's front room around her portrait. My aunt laughingly called it "the shrine". Beautiful flowers. Beautiful grandma.
Here's my sister and her husband. I really loved visiting with her and wished we had more time together. Hopefully I can go to Seattle in August and visit her and the used bookstore that she just opened. She and I share a great love of books.

June is a month full of birthdays in our family. Allegra's is on the 25th, mine is on the 27th, Scott's and Jacqueline's (Ben's oldest) is on the 28th. Unfortunately, Allegra shared her 16th birthday with Grandma's burial. Her 16th birthday is a special one and we had planned some fun celebrations, but sweet Grandma's death precluded those. Allegra didn't expect anything special on her day, but her daddy and brothers sent her flowers. And the sweet relief society (church) ladies who fed the whole family after the burial also made a special birthday cake for Allegra--complete with her name, red roses and 16 candles! So sweet!! She was surprised and touched.

On the way home from Colorado, I stopped halfway in Las Vegas to spend a few days with my very good friend Becky. We were roommates in college, best friends then, and we have been blessed to have a relationship now that grows closer every year. She is a source of love and strength to me. How lucky I was to meet her all those years ago!



While in Las Vegas we visited the beautiful atrium in the Bellagio:


























It was a trip full of stress and fun times and emotion and love. I was glad to be there in Colorado and glad to be in Las Vegas too. And I was especially glad to at last return home with my full truckload of treasures intact and with me, Scott and Allegra safe and sound. All the rest of my family traveled safe as well, a great blessing. It's been a very busy month!

One final note: Chase and his district all got matching t-shirts and he sent us this picture. I love it! Look at my boy! I think he's lost about 30 pounds. He looks healthy and oh so happy. What a blessing a mission is! I miss him like crazy, but I wouldn't have him anywhere else. I LOVE MY CHILDREN!

May 2011

May: the month of Isaiah's birthday and the month we're all tired of homeschooling and can't WAIT to be done. We set a goal to be done by the end of this month and Isaiah RACED through his work and finished by the end of the first week in May. Very impressive. Allegra worked steadily through May and finished just about everything by our goal date. I alternated between keeping Isaiah busy with non-school projects when he got bored enough to start BUGGING Allegra and I, and gently reminding Allegra of the school projects she still needed to finish. At the end of May we all breathed a sigh of relief. Cliff, meanwhile, is in the thick of finishing up all the internship paperwork for the 116 student interns that he places and supervises. He is counting the days until June 16th, when he'll be done and FREE for the summer.


Every week, Cliff posts the menu. This week the kids shanghaied the menu board and wrote down what they'd LIKE to see on the menu. He retaliated with the menu you see here. Yum yum.

Our Expedition has been our dependable bus for 11 years now. We have put over 250,000 miles on it with our many driving trips here and there, often filling all 9 seats with family and friends. It has been comfortable and strong and we have loved it. But! It's aging and is developing problems that are not worth fixing. This month we have finally decided to get rid of it. So, good-bye to a wonderful car! For the next few months I'll drive Chase's car while we decide what to get to replace the Expedition. (Something that uses a LOT less gas, for sure!)

Isaiah's "red-headed Irishman" blossoms. He takes such good care of these cacti!

My dearest grandma begins to fail. On this day we thought we were going to lose her, she seemed so absent from us. Mom called all the family and most of us gathered to say good-bye--one cousin even flew in late at night from Utah. By afternoon, Grandma was unresponsive to everything. This was all new to us. Early this month she went to the hospital with pneumonia, but she recovered! They discovered, though, that one of her lungs had collapsed and they told us that she would not live too much longer--it was inevitable, they said, that the other lung would slowly fill with liquid and she would slip away. They sent her home and put her on hospice care. But she seemed to rally! She was her old (post-stroke) self again and even started to regain some of her pre-pneumonia strength! But here, at the end of May, she dramatically began to fail. It was sad and stressful. On this Sunday, Grandma, before she became unresponsive, didn't want to be alone, so my momma and I sat with her. Here's Mom, slipping into a little nap by Grandma's bed. My beautiful mom. Losing her mother will be so difficult for her.

Happily (and surprisingly!), when Mom went in on Monday morning to check on Grandma, Grandma greeted her with a bright "hello!" Wow! We all expected that she wouldn't last the night, but there she was, back with us! We enjoyed her company all that day and she faded in and out of strength for the next few days. Finally on Thursday of that week Mom and Dad decided to get her to Colorado immediately. Colorado is her home and is where she wants to die. They loaded her and all her stuff (oxygen, meds, clothes, wheelchair, etc etc) into the car and drove straight through--18 hours--to Colorado where she perked up a little more. She was so glad to be home! The oxygen company and the hospice people made the switch from California to Colorado SO very easy! They are so wonderful!

On a happier note, Isaiah turned 13!! I have no more little children in my immediate family--they are all teenagers or adults. I never imagined this day, and here it is--reality! Here is Isaiah with his birthday loot.


And here is his birthday dessert: butter pecan ice cream pie with homemade praline topping. VERY sweet and rich. He loved it!


So May has been full of happy times, lots of schoolwork, and some worrisome and sad times with Grandma. I guess that's sort of what life is all about: happiness, hard work and some sadness too.