February 6, 2012
I had a string of contacts this weekend that have made me feeling grateful for many things -so we will have to entitle this one just gratitude I guess.  Not sure why these things hit me so profoundly -because in some ways they are not too out of the ordinary, but they seemed to, so if you choose to read on maybe you will decide I was just in a weird state of mind and rambling - or if you find that something moves you - then I won't feel so silly.  
It started Saturday morning when I went to help someone start to clean out a house of an older couple.  The mom has passed away and the dad recently moved to an assisted living and so the children are left to clean out the family home.  Except the son (about our age) died of cancer last year and the daughter lives in Seattle and is herself battling cancer right now so is trying to do this between chemo treatments.  So all that is hard enough - but being there and going through things made me recall doing that at Grandma and Grandpa's house and how hard that was - but also how grateful I was that both my parents passed quickly and without having to have out of home care.  I can only hope that is that case for us.  It made me so grateful for good parents and a good home that they built for us (figuratively and literally) and that it was a happy place and one that held good memories for so many people.  I owe them a huge debt for that.
Then later that night, Mary said something briefly about her mom and how she hadn't appreciated her enough and I realized both that Mary's mom had surmounted some pretty tough things and rose above it to raise a good family and that my mom had also had some tough things to deal with in her life and right up to the end but endured. I am sure I have not appreciated the legacy she has left me.
On Sunday I attended another ward's Relief Society and a young women taught the lesson - she was very cute, fairly newly married and new to the ward.  She was well spoken, had a command of the scriptures and lead a fabulous discussion on prayer.  Then at the end she talked about being raised by a stepmother from age 12 - who didn't really love her and made her quite aware that she was not as good as the women's biological children.  She was working hard to forgive this woman who has since passed away -so the young sister can't talk with her about it.  Never would have guessed she had a care in the world from her lesson up to that point!  Then in our ward one of the girl's talked about her mounting school debt - her parents made enough money to help her, but had never saved anything so she both didn't learn how to work and save and also had to put herself through school.  She is and will be dealing with this consequence for many years.  The last comment that hit me was made by a new girl in the ward that is going to PCC and newly engaged.  She talked about how she had a baby at 18 that she gave up for adoption and some of her struggle to come back to church.  I was just so impressed with these three women that have surmounted huge odds and yet kept their testimonies and find comfort in the gospel as well as being productive and moving forward with their lives.  Maybe that is part of what we love about the singles ward - while we complain about many not moving ahead as fast as we think they should, in reality, many have surmounted an awful lot just to be where they are and sitting in church.  They are inspiring and keep us humble, knowing that we have not had to deal with so much of what they have had to.  We are truly blessed and hope that we can show that gratitude by serving just a little.
So- if you are still with me, just know that I am grateful today - for great parents, great children, their spouses and grandchildren that I love dearly and am so grateful that they are healthy and just good people. I know you have all worked hard and made good choices, but we have up to now escaped some of the really tough struggles in life.  Let's be grateful for that every day!

Our Brush with the Rich and Famous. . . . .

You all know of the infamous Don and Joe - well at least we had one little advantage of knowing these two once-famous musicians.  On Friday night they got us into a concert with Peter Yarrow - who is that you say??  Well, you have probably heard of Peter, Paul and Mary.  This is the Peter of the trio, and he now tours on his own, but also sometimes with Paul, since Mary has passed away.  The concert was in an old movie theater, seating about 400, now gentrified, on Alberta Street. In fact the whole street has been redone and it was full of trendy eateries, galleries and boutiques.  Apparently in the summer they block off the road and have neighborhood concerts and the like.  So we ate at a pizzaria - I had wonderful feta and mushroom pizza and dad had (any guesses??) meat.  Good caesar salad accompanied it.
So - a little more info on the concert.  Peter Yarrow's son lives in Portland and has a funky music shop in China town.  I guess there are several music groups that do weekend events here like the Portland Folk music association (or something) and lots of musicians come to participate. Don and Joe got hooked up with Peter in trying to put together a PBS type movie about PP&M.  Don and Joe did all his sound check that afternoon and then Joe's significant other, Mylene and her daughter (also musicians trying to 'make it') sang with Peter in the concert.  Peter invited three other 'budding' musicians to participate as well.  We were definitely on the younger side of the crowd and by far the most conservative.  I hadn't really realized how many of the folk songs at least PP&M did were politically charged.   i.e. Lots of cheers for Occupy etc. when it was mentioned as the latest 'protest', and lots of reliving past protests and the songs the 'drove' them forward.  Anyway - still fun to hear them sung even if we weren't thinking of them as protest stuff!  So - fun night - and quite different for your old parents!  Now for some pics -1- Outside the theater (it was pouring rain - sorry for the pour shots), 2- Dad in the foreground - Peter sitting next to him during someone else singing 3- the Caesar salad at the pizzeria - 4- Peter and son on stage.

My posting skills are wanting - still figuring it out.  If I can I will add a video of him singing Leaving on a Jet Plane and Puff the Magic Dragon (with Audience) from my phone.  

And so it begins . . .

We are trying desparately to get up to speed with our children - we are on facebook, we can almost operate our cell phones, dvd player, Wii, camera. . . . . . by ourselves; so we now are attempting the blog!! Sounds rather like a disease at this point, and I am beginning to think it can be judging by how much time it is taking me to figure this out and monitor all these things.! However, I will admit it is very fun to read everyone's blog and see your pictures, read your thoughts etc. Let's just not let these be a subsitute for conversations and visits because we alreaady feel like we know what is happening in each others' lives.

So - here we go - next challenge, to get Dad participate!!