Happy Birthday Grandma and Andy

March 9, 2013

Today has been a fun day. We celebrated Andy's 2nd birthday (25 years in cat years) as well as my Grandma Alene Chamberlain's 80th birthday today. My family had a huge party for her at the Old Rock Church in Cedar City. I really wished i could have been there, i guess the 30 minute phone call will have to suffice. My grandma was very touched with all of her children ad grandchildren traveling just to be there for her. She told me that in her mind this birthday celebration was not so much to celebrate her but to celebrate all of her children and grandchildren and other decedents for how amazing they all are. She told me how blessed she feels to have such wonderful family that loves each other so much. I told her it is because of the way she raised them and her faith that has blessed them too.

My grandma is a wonderful woman! It was such a great blessing to live with her and be her house-mate for 2 years of my life. It was fun for her especially because she and i were both sister missionaries at the same time! and we were and still are the only girls on the Chamberlain side to have served full time missions. So it was really fun to share stories from our missions with each other. One fun one that connected us while in the mission field happened while i was serving in Rochester MN. i had a sweet companion from the SLC Temple Square mission. She was in my mission for just 2 transfers and she knew my grandma! When it was time for Hermana Garcia to go back to SLC she took one of my extra name tags to my grandma and gave her a big hug from me! My grandma has the name tag still as far as i know! What a fun connection, a connection that usually will only happen within the church.

I must share one other fun story about living with my grandma. I always had a difficult time knowing when the dishes were clean or dirty in the dishwasher. There were so many times where i would have put dirty dishes in a clean load and my grandma would laugh and laugh and laugh! it was kind of the inside joke between us! So for her birthday last year i bought her a little magnetic thing that said clean on one side and dirty on the other. she would flip it to clean when they were clean and dirty when they were dirty, that way i would know! We had some good times and good memories during those 2 years together. She was a wonderful support to me while i was going through some of the most difficult times of my life. Working grave shifts, while being the Relief Society President, being a full time student, planning a wedding, and keeping a relationship together was just part of it. What a wonderful woman my grandma is and i love her so much!

Now for a little shout out to my kitty Andy! He is now 2 or 25 depending on if you go by human years or cat years. He has a great curiosity of what goes on outside and all of our windows are very high set. He is just too short to see out them without getting on top of a table (not allowed). So we bought him a pedestal for his birthday! HE LOVES IT! In fact he spent most of the day sitting on top of it watching all the cars go by and the children playing. I think we did well in our gift choice for him! We also got some catnip to refill his toys and such. He has really been such a great joy in my life! Well other than the annoying meowing and pounding on our bedroom door in the early hours of the morning... but i guess that comes with the territory! I love him anyway!

I also must say that the weather today was the most beautiful i have experienced in a long time! it got up to 65ish! so wonderful! I had all the windows open to air out the house and i did a bit of spring cleaning too! Well, the weather for tomorrow is supposed to be really cold and snowy. i guess the weather has its own schedule. Spring will have to wait. sigh... and so will i.

To leave on a happy note, the weather was perfect for wonderful Birthday Celebrations! Cheers!

P.S. Grandma was 50 when the picture above was taken. Isn't she a beauty!?