Family Visit

So it's getting to be springtime in the mountains, which means it's time for my grandmother to spend the next few months in her own house. After my uncle died last February, it was decided that she should stay the autumn with my mother in Rexburg, and the winter with my other uncle in Salt Lake City. In the summer she goes home and does her own thing.

My parents went down to SLC this past weekend to fetch her. I met them in Riverside last Friday, for a little while. They brought me milk from my favourite dairy, and we had lunch and ice cream. My dad was in fine form and we proceeded to have a Clark Family Laughing Moment. You know those kind -- you laugh so hard over something so incredibly inane that your stomach hurts? Remind me to tell you sometime about the belt buckle that says "Maybe".

Monday they left SLC and stopped in Layton to visit their other daughter. Tuesday they came up to see us. I got off work a few minutes early and went home to make dessert. They had just barely hit town, and came over shortly thereafter. As soon as he walked in, my dad grabbed the remote and turned the TV to ch 529, which is the western channel. He watched Gene Autry and Bat Masterson and Big Valley. I showed off my spinning wheel, and some of the yarn I've already spun and plied. My dad likes to see how things work so he was hanging over my shoulder, poking this and yanking that. DD was an hour late getting home from school, which caused me some worry. I checked the bus schedules, and determined that if she wasn't on the 4:36 bus then I'd have to go out looking for her. Luckily for her, she turned up. So we all sat down and had supper. Then my grandmother decided she wanted to go and lay down, as she wasn't feeling well. But she wanted to watch American Idol, so I set up the DVR to record it so that she could watch it when she got up.

We sat around and watched other things I'd recorded that I thought they might like. They get three channels at home (when the wind blows the right way) and I really don't have much exciting going on around my house. Only one kid, and she's not a baby anymore. Boring job, although sometimes I do have a funny story to tell.

After awhile my grandmother got up and wanted to watch her program. She doesn't like the "screechy girls" so we were able to fast-forward through those parts. My grandmother is 94 years old, about 4 foot 11, and full of opinions! When it was all over, my dad took "the girls" back to the hotel, and he came back and slept on my couch. As my granny was going out the door, she gave me a hug and said, "Don't worry, it wasn't your cooking that made me sick. I was already sick from this morning!" She is so funny sometimes, but I can tell she just isn't herself since my uncle died.

On to a happier bit of news: I got a new washer tonight! I had mentioned to my old home-teacher's wife that mine had died. She mentioned it to him, he called me up last week. I confirmed I was still in need, so he went to work, trying to locate one. He called the High Priest Group Leader, who knew that a family had just moved out of their house into a new place that had a nicer washer/dryer and so their old one was available. He was about to go on vacation, but before he went, he fetched it over and left it in his driveway. So he called me tonight, and I rounded up my neighbour, and we got it installed! I also found three socks behind the old one, so that's a small mystery solved. I am really grateful for my Home Teacher. If anyone out there doubts the need to do your Home/Visiting Teaching, I just want to say that when you have few resources, having that contact is very important.

And I bought my plane tickets for Chicago. By very happy coincidence, I will be there the week of MCM's birthday. His headstone is up, and his condo is on the market. We have already planned lots of places to go and see, and things to do. Of course I have to hit at least one yarn shop. I don't think the socks I knit for him will ever be found, but at least I can buy some sock yarn from there. It's kinda the same. The Idaho state quarter *should* be out by then. He was buried with four quarters in his pocket, because he always carried them, but I want to leave an Idaho quarter with him too. I still miss him so much. Sometimes I dream that he is still here. I won't erase my answering machine because it's filled up with his messages. Some are from before I moved here, before he got sick, when his voice was still strong. I feel him watching over me. I'm still glad that the last thing he heard me say was "I love you".