Reflections

10 years.

It's hard for me to think about the events of Sept. 11, 2001 without thinking of the events that took place on Sept. 10, 2001. That was the day my grandmother died. She was my last living grandparent, and she was a fiesty thing!

She was born Ollie Wilma Fears (and she hated her name!) on April 7, 1917 in Moore County, Tennessee. She married when she was 13, had twin boys (one of them my dad) when she was 15. Giving birth almost killed her. She had two more children, a girl and another boy. Her husband was a mean drunk, who eventually left her for her best friend. She did what she had to do to support her family, working lots of odd jobs. She remarried, but that ended in divorce as well. Eventually she married a third time, to a sweet man named Alphonso Skrocki... we called him Grandpa Al (or Grandpa Owl if you were too little to understand the difference!).

Most of my life she and Grandpa Al lived in Dearborn, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit. She owned her own business, selling Viviane Woodard Cosmetics and Shaklee Products. Her little shop was attached to a hair salon. I remember visiting them 2 or 3 times, and they came to visit us a couple of times as well. It was always fun when they came to visit. She would spoil us rotten, and get us stuff even if my mom said no. Once when we went to visit them, she drove us to Canada... we crossed a bridge to get there, and drove in a tunnel to get back.

In the early 1980's she and Al joined the church, and were eventually sealed in the Washington, DC temple. In the late 80's she closed her little shop, and she and Grandpa Al moved back to Tennessee. Her youngest son moved in with them as well. Al died a few years later, and then Uncle Richard passed about 18 months after that. She missed them both terribly.

The morning of Sept. 11th, I was getting myself and the kids packed up to go to my parent's house for a few days so I could be up there for the funeral, and help with whatever preparations I could. Barry called me and told me to turn on the tv. I sat there with my children all around me and cried and cried. We eventually got ourselves all packed up and on the road. As I sat around with my family that afternoon, we talked about how we now understood why Granny had been taken when she was. We could just envision her in Heaven, helping where needed.

My grandmother was a no-nonsense kind of person. She was very protective of her family.

She was an awesome cook, and I am blessed to have some of her recipes, written in her own hand.

She had a fun sense of humor, and I think I can remember her laugh most of all when I think of her.

Despite her humble beginnings, she became a world traveler, and she had a collection of towels from lots of different hotels.

She was a successful businesswoman. She had many loyal customers, and kept in contact with most of them even after she moved away.

I wish she had kept a journal.

I'm thankful that she joined the church, and was able to be sealed to her Al. That was a great comfort to all of us after her death - the realization that they were together again.

When she died, she was known as Jean Skrocki. Jean was the last name of her first husband, but she liked it better than Ollie Wilma, so she took it as her first name.

I'm grateful for the heritage she left me. I'm grateful that I was able to call her my Granny.

Meanwhile, Back on the Ranch...

Wow! I can't believe it has been 2 months since I last posted. Life has just been flat out crazy-busy lately.

Let's see... where to start?

Recovery

I really pushed too hard to recover quickly, and ended up taking longer to heal. I never thought that it would be so hard to take it easy. By weeks 3 and 4 my mind was ready to go when my body wasn't, but I couldn't stand being "lazy" anymore, so I was out and doing too much. After a trip to the doctor and him telling me to knock it off, I decided that I would listen and take it easy for the next couple of weeks. A second check-up revealed that I was getting there, but not 100% yet. Finally, by week 7 I was feeling wonderful. I learned, too, that I am a slow healer, but I can't help but wonder if I didn't hurt the process by being over-anxious.

School Started

By the time I was feeling great, it was time to go back to school and work. I shed a tear or two the first day of school. This is Josh's senior year, Kyle is now at Bob Jones, and Megan is officially a high school student. Where does the time go? Before everyone left out that morning, I had to get an official first day of school picture. Josh was being his usual helpful self, and would not cooperate! This is probably the best one out of the bunch:

What a goober!!

The start of school is always a busy time for me, and lately I have felt really grumpy at school. I hate that feeling, and I've been trying to remind myself to be happy. I've had to also remind myself to not bring those angry, irritated feelings home with me and take them out on my family. I do come home exhausted, though. I keep waiting for things to slow down, but it's not happening yet. We have a new principal this year, and he likes to keep us all hopping!

The Garden

I hate to admit that I have not taken as good of care of my garden this year as I would have liked. I kind of fell into that old trap... when I had the time to tend it, I didn't have the energy, and when I did have the energy, I didn't have the time. We planted a couple of tomato plants (Roma's and Cherries), and we got a lot of tomatoes this year. My herbs did fantastic, and the carrots, onions, peas and strawberries did ok. My poor peppers and spinach did not do well at all.

In my shade garden, something pretty funny happened. This is how it looked last year after I planted everything:

Pay special attention to the fern in the back.

Several of the plants were annuals, including the fern, so as I shopped for new plants this year, I wanted to try and find more perennials. I needed to replace the dead fern, but I couldn't find anything that I really wanted to go there. Then, it came time for surgery, and I could really did not care at all what was in that pot. I don't think I even went in the back yard for a month or more after surgery. Imagine my surprise when I did go out and found this:

Those are impatients. I had a couple of small pots of them last year, but of course they died out over the winter. They were not even right next to this big pot, so I am really perplexed as to how so many of them ended up there this year. But, they are beautiful, and a nice surprise as well!

Callings

I am so excited to be working in Young Women again. Teaching the Laurels is so much fun... and there are so few of them this time as compared to last time I taught... 5 vs. 13! I do miss my sweet Primary girls, but by this time next year, all but one or two of them will be in YW.


Odds and Ends


We don't have any kids playing soccer this year, but they are still keeping us plenty busy. Josh is in Advanced Production Drama this year, and he has practice 2-3 nights a week. Kyle and Megan both have heavy class-loads this first semester, and stay busy with homework. Both of them have much lighter loads next semester, thankfully.


Kayti is in school again on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her last class is not over until 8:15 PM. But, this is her last semester at Calhoun... she will have her associates degree in December. She worked this summer at RFCU in the marketing dept., and they agreed to keep her on part-time through Sept. In January she will have to find more full time employment, then work and save all she can. Her plans are to head to BYU-Idaho next fall.


The kids decided they wanted to go spend the weekend with their grandparent this weekend, so they worked out all the details with Granny, and off they went. Megan is taking care of Savannah's animals while she is there, which she loves to do. Barry and I headed out to dinner on Friday night, hit a couple farmer's markets and thrift stores yesteray, then headed home to watch football yesterday afternoon. The Auburn game was a nail-biter in the end, and the BYU game made me so mad that I had to leave the house. Of course, that is when they scored and finally won the game. I jokingly told Barry that I should have left the house much sooner! Barry has to work today, and I am sitting here in a very quiet house. I started feeling like I was coming down with something yesterday, and I don't feel a whole lot better today. I've been trying to fight it with zycam, but so far it does not feel like it is working.


I am so excited for Fall to get here. I'm ready for cooler temperatures. I'm actually looking forward to the rain that is supposed to come the next few days as well. It has been too hot and dry around here lately.


I guess I have rambled enough... I think I may just go crawl back in bed for a while.

Tough Decisions

I was supposed to be at girls camp today. Have I ever mentioned how much I love girls camp? I didn't as a youth... had to be bribed into going. I actually almost hated it. (But hey... I think you might not have liked it so much either if your very first year you went with just one other girl from your ward and NO leaders. We were told not to worry about a tent... there was one in the storage shed at church we could use. And guess what, that "tent" turned out to be an actual TEEPEE! I kid you NOT! Not only was it totally embarrassing, but it was hot! And, there was only ONE outhouse that we could use, and no showers. And when we went on our big hike, we were promised an awesome swimming hole at the end. That was dried up, and then they got us lost on our way back to camp. We probably hiked about 10 miles (ok... that might be an exaggeration!) The next year we went back to the same campgound, but they at least let us pay $1 to go take showers at another campgound, and they actually took us to the swimming pool. Sorry... I digress...)

Anyway... I had to make the tough decision to not go to camp this year. I was supposed to be the first level leader. And the girls were so cute and so much fun. I got to meet them in March during a camp meeting. That made the decision even harder because I knew what cuteness and fun I was going to be missing out on. I tried to convince myself that I could still go, but would just have to take it easy. I was sure that I would be fine enough after my surgery to go. I decided I really needed to pray about it. I had that deep down gut feeling that I shouldn't do it, but I just couldn't stand not being with all that cute and fun!

So, it took me a while to actually make that final decision. I finally did, though, and let the stake know I would not be able to make it. I know now that it was the right decision to make. Seems that I am a slow healer, and my body is not moving as quickly as my spirit wishes it would. I had a doc appt. this week. I am healing nicely, but still have more healing to do. Being at camp this week might have just put me in bed for another 2 or 3 weeks. And trust me... there are moments when I can't stand the thoughts of being in bed anymore. There are other times, though, when I can't wait to get there, and I'm afraid I would have had lots of those if I had gone.

I am missing my baby, who is at camp this week. I know she is having fun, though. I am sure camp will be a wonderful experience for all those attending... it is every year. I've been to camp 12 of the last 14 years, and this is the only year I have not voluntarily gone. (One year they didn't want me because I had just been released as the stake camp leader... who would want that hanging around? I understood, but I still cried like a dadgum baby! ) I hope they will have me back next year. I hope this body cooperates and lets me!

Random thoughts...

Thank you to everyone who comment on my blog post yesterday. I wasn't sure if I was going to post it or not... didn't want it to feel like a "hey, look at me!" kind of thing.

In answer to a few of your comments...
Karen - the Gigi's cupcake was awesome! I didn't eat it all by myself, though! I brought it home and shared it with the kids.
Jenni - I discovered Hyster Sisters before my surgery, but I've spent a lot more time on there since. Some great information, and some funny stuff, too! Right now I am suffering from "swellibellicus" and can't wait to feel like my regular clothes fit me right again!

I've decided that having cable cut off the week of my surgery was not the best timing in the world. I was in such a hurry to get my kids out from in front of cartoon network every time I turned around, that I forgot I would be without food network while I recover. Network day-time tv really STINKS!

My sweet hubby hooked up the wii to the tv in our room so I could watch movies through netflix. It was so sweet of him, but intant-view through netflix kind of stinks, too. Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of good choices. So, if any of you could recommend something that I could watch instantly through netflix that I have not stumbled upon yet, I would appreciate it greatly!

I've seen a lot of commercials lately for this new show coming out on ABC this summer called Expedition Impossible. Don't know that I will watch it, but I can't help thinking that I want the blind guy to win it all, and it just might be funny to see a bunch of Brooklyn girls in the sand, yo!

I've been reading President Monson's biography. He was a real prankster as a kid! Kind of gives me hope for my boys!

Online shopping isn't nearly as fun as real shopping. And speaking of shopping, I should have bought myself those cute pj pants I wanted before my surgery.

Well... I guess I've bored everyone long enough!

Glad that's over.

I've been hesitant to talk a lot about my health issues of late. I seem to have been spending way too much time at the doctor's office since February. There is actually a funny story behind all the madness, and since I've pretty much got nothing better to do right now, I'm going to tell it; sorry you have to sit through it, though!

I've had hypothyroidism for years. That means that my thyroid does not produce enough hormone, and I have to take a pill every morning. I knew that I hadn't been feeling just right, and I knew that it had been a while since I had it checked, so I called my doctor's office and made an appointment to get some labs done. I've done that before... just labs to get the thing checked... no sit-down time with the doc. Well, when I got there, low and behold, the doc decides she wants to have a sit-down with me, since it's been a while. CRAP! I didn't want that, but oh, well - not a lot I can do about it at that point. So, when she comes in, I start telling her some of the things that are going on with me - all things that I feel can be traced back to my thyroid (you would really be amazed at how much that simple little organ and its hormones control!). She thinks it might be something more, and adds more tests to be done on the blood sample that is about to be taken. Then, she asks me what I dreaded hearing... "Are you getting your regular paps done?" And, I am ashamed to say, I flat out lied to her! I won't tell you how long it has been since I actually did have one done, but let's just say it's been a L.O.N.G. time. This is also the point where she asks me about my mamograms, and since I've already posted about that saga, I won't go into it again here.

Anyway, I leave her office feeling GUILTY as sin for lying, and so a few days later I decide to actually make an appointment with a gyno. I get in a week later, and have the deed done. The results came back just fine, but I did have an enlarged uterus, and we needed to find out why. The same day that I had the second mamogram done, I had an ultrasound done to see what was up with the uterus. The answer came back fibroids, and the decision was made to have to have a hysterectomy. The things were only going to get bigger and cause more problems until I went through menopause, and since I am only in my early 40's, who knows how long that would be.

Meanwhile, I hear back on some of the other bloodwork that was done at my original doc appt. My thyroid was off so we had to do some playing around with the meds. Also, one of my sugar levels was high... not too high, but inching up there, indicating a risk for diabetes. Double CRAP! I have family members with diabetes, and it is not a pretty disease. The good news was that I did not have full blown diabetic, and there was something I could still do to change it.

Starting in February, I completely changed the way I eat. I started trying to educate myself some on the disease, and what I could do to prevent it. I have tried to cut out as much sugar as I can from my diet, but it's not just about sugar. It's also about lower carbs, and higher fiber, and eating more whole grains. I have a sweet-tooth a mile long, and this has not been an easy thing to do. Do you know how many times a cupcake, brownie, cookie or candy came across my desk in that first week? It was insane, but I resisted. After a while it became easier to do. I also love potatoes, but I've cut way back on eating those as well. I no longer eat white rice or pasta, either - only brown rice and wheat pasta for me. I also gave up sodas. I only drink water and occassionally milk. Whole wheat breads and whole grains, fruits, more fresh veggies, leaner meats - those are the things I try to eat more of now. And I added excersice - wii fit and walking. One tip I came across that I loved was to park in the back of the parking lot when you go shopping... that way you are forced to walk more.

So, last week I had my hysterectomy done. As I weighed in before they took me back for surgery, I had lost a total of 23 pounds. I'll be honest, I am afraid to get on a scale this week. With all the yummy food that has been brought over, and no walking for me, I do not want to see what the scales say. I still have more weight that I would like to lose, but honestly, it has become more about being healthy than it has about being skinny.

I feel like I can finally say I am really back on the road to good health. I'm looking forward to getting back out and walking, or getting on the wii and playing. I am trying to be good and let my body heal from the surgery. I am bored to tears just sitting around "healing"! ha!!

I want to set a better example for my kids, and I think I am on the road to doing that. It feels good to be on this side of issues, rather than facing them all like I was a few months ago. I go back to the doc for more bloodwork in a few weeks, and I am confident that they will tell me my sugar levels are back to within normal ranges. Isn't it funny how wonderful "normal" can be?

Sorry to have posted such a novel... but like I said, I have nothing much to do right now other than sit and type. This whole thing started with my only wanting one simple blood test to check my thyroid! I didn't know it was going to turn into such a saga, but I guess I am glad it did. Isn't there a scripture about small and simple things...

:)

Happy Birthday, Barry!

Today is my wonderful hubby's birthday!! I won't tell you how old he is, but it's older than me! ;)


These are a couple of my favorite pictures of him from our family pictures last month. I love that he laughes with his eyes.

He has a great sense of humor, and he makes me laugh all the time. Sometimes he does it when I am really mad at him, which kind of ticks me off to be honest. But I love that he can make me laugh no matter what.

He is a hard worker and he does his best to provide for our family. He really does not like his job, but he goes everyday so we can have the things we need.

He loves to explore and see new places. I loved seeing his wonder and amazement when I took him to Idaho a few years ago. He had been to Utah plenty of times, but I think mainly he stayed in the city. To get him out into the wide open spaces of Idaho was an adventure.

He is inquisative. He loves to ask questions and learn more about things.

He is loyal and protective.

He loves simple things - chili dogs, sitting on the porch reading, blue jeans, spending time with his family.

He is a sports enthusiast... football and soccer are his favorites. Although, if hockey were on tv more he would watch a lot more if it.

He is very opinionated... I think that is standard issue for a Mayfield! :) And he can get very passionate about some of those opinions!

He is a wonderful father and husband. This month we also celebrate our 20th anniversary, and I am very thankful to have been his wife for these past 20 years. We haven't always had the most smooth waters to sail, but we have navigated them together, and grown a lot from the process.

I love you, Barry, and I'm grateful we are on this journey together!

Happy Birthday, Kaytibug!

This beautiful daughter of mine turned 19 yesterday.

I know what you are thinking... she can't possibly be 19 when I am only 25... heehee! ;)

She enjoyed a quiet birthday yesterday... she got to stay in her pj's all day, and enjoy a nice quiet house. She had her favorite meals all day... bacon and cheese omelette for breakfast, potato soup for lunch, and fajitas for dinner. Then she had her favorite yellow cake with chocolate frosting and Blue Bell chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream when dad got home from his class.

I love this girl... and I don't know what I would do without her. She helps out with housework and laundry when she is not in school, helps me get meals on the table, gives the best back rubs, and helps keep her siblings in line.

This girl has plans! She will have her associates degree by the end of December, and by next fall she plans on being in Idaho. She wants to eventually be a writer, and support herself as a book editor while she is waiting to make her millions. She thinks she is going to someday live in New York City or Spokane, or some other far, far away city. I think Atlanta or Nashville would be a lot nicer! Although, I did tell her she could move to Savannah, Georgia and I could come visit her often!

She has worked hard in school... she started college two weeks after she graduated high school, and has been going non-stop. She made the Dean's List her first semester, and the President's List the next two.

I am proud of her and the choices she has made in life. I admire her strength in Spiritual matters. I push her a lot to get outside of her comfort zone, and while I know it is hard, I appreciate how she tries.

She is a fun girl, with a great laugh! She loves just hanging out with her family, and can be found usually with her siblings surrounding her.

She is a great example.

We have teased her that she has always been the "anti-teen". She hated talking on the phone or putting on make-up. She never really fussed over hair, or was dying to get out of the house and away from us. She has always been a little older than her years.

I'm thankful that she is my daughter! I can't believe it has been 19 years since she joined our family. We have loved every minute of it, and I can't wait to see what the next 19 years hold for her.