EASTER 2011

The first thing we did was go to Alasha's grave and place an Easter basket and some flowers around it.

It is a beautiful time of year and the trees were gorgeous! Everything coming to life again is so symbolic of what Easter is all about.

We always love to sit on this bench and take some pictures in the shade. Of course it's not very hot today.
It's still a great place to sit. Easter wouldn't be Easter without going to Memorial Gardens. We actually started this tradition of going to the cemetary in San Diego and it never gets old.

THE STATUES AT MEMORIAL GARDENS

We love the statues at Memorial Gardens because they remind us of the life of Christ. We always love this statue of the resurrection. Our little Alasha is buried a few feet from Christ's right hand. We enjoy walking around the area and taking pictures at each statue. It was a lovely morning in between the rain drops. What a special way to begin our Easter.

The dogs love to go with us and they are good walkers on the grass area. The clouds were getting darker to we knew we didn't have more than 1/2 hour before we would be wet.

Here Christ is praying at the Garden of Gethsamanee.

This statue is the Sermon on the Mount. It represents His teaching of the Gospel and love for people. Since Tami had gone to her Sacrament Meeting before we went to Memorial Gardens, she left for home while Don and I went to our meetings. Sacrament was so spiritual and I found myself tearing up a great deal. I told Don that I think I was spiritually in tune because of going to Memorial Gardens before hand and I really felt the spirit. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of Christ, His Gospel and His Resurrection. It's so much easier to lose loved ones in death when we know we will see them again. This has really comforted me this past month and year.

EASTER FUN DAY

Tami and Jeff brought us an Easter basket with some goodies today. We thought this was a cute surprise. They know that Mr. Goodbars are our favorite candy bar. They also gave us a wonderful smelling candle called Plum Pudding.

We wanted to make some Easter cookies so Tami made the cake mix cookie dough. Of course, then it was time for our traditional cookie dough tasting picture.

I had boiled 2 dozen eggs to decorate. Even Jeff and Don got into this activity. It had been 40 years since Jeff had colored eggs and he said that he had out grown that. After we began coloring the eggs he decided to try it. We had a good time and the eggs were very colorful.

Tami and I decorated the cookies. We colored the frosting with green food coloring and then made it look like grass with a fork. Peanut M&M's were added to the grass to look like Easter eggs. We had done this a couple of years ago at Tasha and JJ's home. I wanted to show Tami how to do it. It's so easy and cute.

As you can see we had a good time. I hope you had a Easter fun day too. Tomorrow is Easter and we are looking forward to this. It's going to rain but we will still make the most of this special day.

SHOPPING AND HAVING FUN!

Tami and I love to shop at the Mall. We look for great buys every week. The Spring jackets we are wearing for Easter were $52.00 and we got them for $13.00. LOVE IT!!

This week when we got together, we had our yearly picture taken with the Easter Bunny. We had a great time doing this.

When I got home from Tami's and my night out, this is the sight I saw. Don loves his new chair and finds it a great bed.

We took the dogs to the vet on Thursday night for check ups and shots. The total was $250.00. WOW!! Two dogs can get expensive. We do enjoy them so they are worth it.

MEMORIES OF A YEAR AGO

I was put in to the hospital because of a tumor in my colon. On this day I had 3 blood transfusions, constant saline solutions and antibiotics to build me up for my operation the next day. I actually was feeling better than I had been for a long time with all this stuff being pumped into my body.

Tami, Jeff, Teresa and Don were right there for me. I was worried about getting the playroom ready for Dadra and the children's visit but Teresa said that she would take care of this and not worry about anything. She didn't need to go to work until 12:30 so she had all morning to get our home ready. I also had a list of things I needed and Teresa brought all those things for me so that I could get myself looking decent. I knew if I could fix my hair and get my make up on I would feel better.

Dadra and the children got in later that evening. Their plane was delayed in Denver because of a tornado warning. I couldn't believe this. What else could go wrong? Anyway, Tami was there waiting for them at the airport and brought them directly to the hospital when they finally got in.

What a relief it was for all of us to have them safe and sound in our hospital room. It boasted my spirits to have so much family that loved me around me at this time. The rest is history. I have recovered from the operation, treatments, etc. I feel better now than I have for a good 1 1/2 years. My energy is great and I'm enjoying food again (almost too much).

I really appreciated all the love and attention Teresa gave me last year and will always be very grateful to her. She was there when I needed her. The day that I had my 3 month check up from my doctor is the day we found out that she had died. It was like she was telling me that now that I was OK, she could go on and leave this world.

A NEW CHAIR!

Our blue recliner is slowly wearing out. Jeff reinforced the bottom of the chair but it was beginning to lean backwards. Don fell in love with a very comfortable recliner at Big Lots. It really was like sitting or laying on pillows and it was easy to get in and out of. I decided to surprise Don and buy it for him today. I got our new neighbor to help me out since he had a truck. He had a friend help him lift our bllue chair in to the playroom and then met me at Big Lots to bring our new chair home. I paid them for their services.

I could hardly wait until Don got home to see his reaction. At first he didn't see the chair. We said our hello's and he was wondering why I was taking pictures of him.

Finally Don looked at the chair and could hardly believe his eyes. He was delighted! I told him that I wanted to buy this for him because he works so hard every day and he deserved this. Then I said "HAPPY EASTER!"

I thought I would add our little Easter Bunny Dogs to finish off this blog. They are sitting on our new chair to pose with the ears.
Hope you had a great day too!!

EASTERS ALMOST HERE!

Can't help but think of Teresa at this time of year. She loved all our traditions. Here she is coloring eggs last year with Tami and I. Didn't realize this would be the last Easter she would be with us. Sometimes it's hard to know that Teresa won't be coming in our door in the mornings to just say hello. I do miss her!

I feel so blessed that Tami lives close by and we will still do our special things. Tami is such a rock for me and even though she is a worry wort about my health, I think she is beginning to relax about it. I told her that if I wasn't doing good I would have never been able to go across country by myself.

We always get together on Thursday night for our mother/daughter night. We have such a good time going out to eat and do some serious "sale" shopping. Our favorite stores are Herberger's and Christopher and Banks. We are changing our mother/daughter night to Wednesday nights this summer since Jeff will be golfing that night.

Here we all are at the cemetery last year. Part of our Easter Tradition was to go to Memorial Garden's after church and walk around to all the different statues of Christ. We also visited our little Alasha's grave (our stillborn baby that was born in 1978). She would have been 33 years old. That's the same age as Christ was when he died and was resurected.

It was only a year ago when I had my surgery in April and began 6 months of treatments for colon cancer. What a year it was!! It's amazing to me that it's been a year and yet it seems like such a long time ago. I still love to watch the wonderful tribute video that Dadra made for me. It gives me such strength and a boast to carry on. I still get teary eyed whenever I watch it. Lara helped me put it on Facebook when she was here in March for Teresa's Memorial.

I took this adorable picture of Reygan when I was in Ashburn. She is only 10 days old in this picture. What a cute bunny and so alert. I feel so blessed that I was there for her birth. I had such a wonderful time the 3 weeks that I spent in the east coast. I truly have a fantastic family!!

It is good to be home with Don. We love our life together and he did miss me a great deal. We are looking forward to our Easter traditions this year.

I DID IT!

Being with Dadra and her family as well as Tasha and her family was great!

This is a portrait of the Call's while I was in Hagerstown. It's so nice that the Call's and Ladner's live close enough that I can see them both while I'm visiting in the east coast.

It was wonderful to be a part of another grandchild coming into our family. I was able to travel all by myself. After my experiences last year, I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to do this again. I had good energy and was able to do everything that I wanted to do. My main purpose was to be there for Coldon when his mommy was in the hospital for 4 days (Tasha had a ceaserean birth since the baby was breech). Then when the baby and Tasha got home I was able to get to know the babies personality.

Of course, I took lots of pictures and recorded everything. This is Tasha and Jeff's first family portrait. The babies name is Reygan Alaesha Ladner. I was moved to tears when they told me her middle name because she was named after our little stillborn baby girl that was born in 1978. What a wonderful tribute to her memory.

Reygan is a delightful little baby as you can see by this picture. She has a wonderful disposition and I loved holding her as much as I could. Taking pictures of her was so fun!

I love being a grandmother as you can tell. We feel so blessed to have 7 grandchildren and another one on the way in a couple of months. Yes, Dadra and Jason will be having their third child this summer. We don't know the sex of the baby because they wanted to have it be a surprise. Don and I will be going back east for the babies blessing in Sept. Another trip to look forward to. It will be fun to have grandpa Don with me.