feebies, eating, jumping, & uncles...........

HI everyone and good morning. I can't believe how much I have missed in a weeks time! I have been reading your posts and lots has been happening! I'm going to come and visit you today and do some catching up......Hope you all had a great day yesterday with your families and Mom's! I have discovered another fun blog, a Craft blog with a huge variety of crafts. I looked at many of her back posts and found a variety of ideas! Thanks Robbie!http://cashstrappedcrafting.blogspot.comf/

All you primitive fans, in case you haven't been to Bird In The Hand Primitives for awhile, Robin has a new freebie! http://birdinthehandprimitives-robin.blogspot.com/ I want to stitch this one up on linen. I made several different sizes trying to decide what size I wanted to do. Robin offers us all fun freebies. Thank you too Robin!

We had a pot luck yesterday afternoon and each of our children and families were here! It was nice and warm and we ate outside. Lots of room for the grandsons to run, not to mention the sand box......LBC has a pogo stick, and yesterday it was the star attraction with the "big" kids. We laughed so hard!

LBC pogoing in front of the camera, making it look so irresistible that all the big kids had to give it a shot....and another....and another....! I had no idea how much fun a pogo stick could be! I have no pictures of the adult kids jumping, but it was a hoot to watch them! Soon Landon wasn't satisfied just jumping, he had to jump over things....and then they started talking "back flips".......

I wanted to get all 6 grand kids in one happy picture.....uhmmmmm. how about one picture! LOL(Aunt Laura didn't want to be in the picture at all !)

We ate a flat of strawberries yesterday! The kids ate them hand over fist!........dipped in soft chocolate...........believe it or not, these pictures were the "clean face" pictures! lol

While I was in Grand Junction I went to Visit a three of my Mom's older brothers... well, at least I went to visit their graves...lol

This is my Uncle Reid, He was 19 when he died......He had talked my grandma into signing him up in the service so he could parachute. He was 16. She didn't want to, but she did. He was very good and in fact he was so good he taught others how, until they found out his real age. The they sent him home. He was full of life and energy and they said he had a hard time sitting still...Anyway, after he came home from war, he was mixed up in something.....ummmm......don't know for sure.......in Washington state and was shot in the back and killed by a sheriff there. The Sheriff that came to tell my Grandma he had been shot, brought his coat and gloves to her, and told her how he was shot, and that his gloves were blood splattered on the backs which meant he had his hands up above his head, when he was shot in the back. He told her to get a lawyer and pursue it, but she had no money to do any of that. So my whole life the stories were told that he was involved in something he shouldn't have been, and perhaps had found out things he shouldn't have known, ......who knows. But he left a tiny little son also named Reid, whom my Grandma was able to adopted when he was two, and he became my Uncle Reid. His sisters called him, "little Reid". Little Reid and my mom are all that are alive in their family now.

Next is Uncle Harold.

I have never met this Uncle either, and yet I feel such a connection to him.......The

last time I was in Junction was the first time I came to this cemetery to find their graves. I came armed with butcher paper and crayons to make rubbing of the headstones.......anyway, as I was rubbing my crayon over Harold's headstone, all of a sudden the head stone fell over!!! No kidding! I was in total shock! And then it was as if the three of my uncles were laughing! I know they set me up for this! So I laughed with them LOL

The headstone was upright this time when I went. & no, I didn't knock it over again........

My mom said Harold was soft spoken and tender hearted and had red hair. (red hair is a coveted thing in my family! ) While he was in Germany, he met and married Verbena. She was Itialian, and she was just finishing her schooling and was becoming a Doctor . They were married in Munich Germany where they both died a month apart from each other of asfixeation in their apartment. Why? Don't know....Lots of stories.............. Verbena is buried there, and Harold who died a month later was sent home to Paradox Colorado where my Grandma was living. He was 25. Another son was sent home to grandma in a box.

She had previously lost her husband, and a baby daughter at the age of 2, and then these 2 young sons came home this way. I know it broke her heart.

This is Harold and Verbena on their wedding day.

This is my Uncle Ben. I did know this uncle. I have so many good memories of him. He had sandy red hair, was covered with freckles and was also soft spoken and gentle. He fell down a mine shaft once and broke his back and shattered his legs and was told he would never walk again. Well, he did. And without a limp. He had several accidents like that happen to him in his life time. He died when he was 50. I was 16 the year he was killed & I remember it well.

He and his youngest son were headed to Mullen Idaho and were driving on the freeway somewhere just north of Roberts Idaho . They have really terrible dust storms there, and he was in one. He had stopped to help a woman change her flat tire and was run over by a semi truck whose driver couldn't see where he was going.

My grandma had so much sorrow in her life. It is amazing to me how strong her faith was, and how grateful I am for her incredible example. My Mom was the baby of her family until Little Reid came to live with them, and she was the "darling of her 5 older brothers. I grew up knowing and loving these men. They were very good to me and spoiled when I was around them. I was a huge fan. And sometimes its almost hard to imagine that I never actually met Reid nor Harold in this life time, because they have always been a part of my life.

here the three of them are.......

So that is the saga of a few of my uncles in a nut shell.....

And if you have stayed with me through all of this family stuff.......you are brave souls!

I'm so grateful for my children! I love them dearly. I am grateful for my parents, and their parents and so on. For the generations of people who belong to me, who lead the way and built lives through toil and sorrow and happiness. Who pioneered in harsh conditions and who homesteaded and worked hard and loved the Lord. Thank You. Thank you for making my life so easy. Thank you for the richness of family heritage!

Have a great Day everyone!