My sister Susan

One of the few photos I could find of the 2 of us

Arriving home from out NY trip, she looks so happy!

 My sister passed away this last Sunday.  It is fair to say she had a tumultuous relationship with our entire family.  She had been troubled for a long time, and my prayer is she is now at peace, the peace she had been searching for her entire life.

With that being said, there was so much positive about my sister, and this is what I want to remember.  When I was growing up, especially in Denver, I had few friends my own age.  I was (am) fairly shy....and I think have difficulty with "small talk", which made (makes) it difficult for me to engage with people I do not know.  My sister never had this problem.  She could talk to anybody, young, old, male female, stranger, friend.....I wish I could have learned that talent from her.  While we were growing up, she always let me "hang" with her and her many friends.  I never felt she resented my presence, which was a real gift for me, since I always felt like a fish out of water anyway.  Her acceptance of me, and willingness to let her little sister be part of her circle of friends was a testament to her big heart.

We had a idyllic childhood, and I have so many stories that can bring tears of laughter to my eyes.  The time we "skipped" our Rainbow State Meeting to go see a Sonny and Cher parade in downtown Denver, then returned late, with candy, and spent the rest of the meeting unwrapping candy to eat, making a BIG noise and practically disrupting the whole meeting.  The looks we got from our Mother Adviser were NOT pretty....The times in our Rainbow meetings that we rolled coins to each other so we each could put something in the "pot" as they passed it around.....the time my dad took us to the airport to see the Beatles arrive, and he warned

At mother's 90th, the last time we were together.  Here she is with her beautiful girls

 her not to let go of my hand, and she didn't!  As we were running (there was a lot of running and screaming wherever the Beatles were), a poor girl, running and screaming the opposite direction got caught between us, and we made her run backwards for the longest time because my sister would not let go of my hand (it might have been one of the few times she did not

My mother with all her children, the last time we will all be together

 disobey my father, at least a little bit)

When we moved to California, I started to make some friends of my own, and we were not as close.  She was ALWAYS boy crazy, and CA is when she started to date in earnest.  I have to say, I can thank her that I made few very bad choices, because I had her example the steer me in the right direction (meaning I saw some of the bad choices she made, and decided that was not for me!)  We still had good friends together, the Sekiguchi sisters, that lived down the street, were all about the

I just love this photo, we were having such a good time!

same age as us, and we became very close that first summer especially, and even called ourselves the Seki-Days.  Good times.

Susan married young and had her first daughter, Shelly, while her husband was serving in Viet Nam, and she lived with us.  She had Shelly 2 months early, so we all got to share in the joy and fear of having a baby in the house that was soooo little!  Susan was a wonderful mother when her children were little.  She was a wonderful cook, and took good care of her family.  

I have to say also, that in a crisis, Susan was always someone you could depend on.  If something needed to get done, she could find a way to do it!  When she was needed, she really came through like a trooper!  When  Rebecca was taken to the hospital after she stopped breathing, Susan was able to track down the hospital and me in it to place a phone call of support and love (remember this was WAY before cell phones).  When mother first got sick a few years ago, Susan and Shelly just happened to be visiting, and Susan did things for my mother hygienically, that I would never have been able to do.  She was a real help during that time!  

I am comforted by the fact that Susan became a Christian my first year in college, both she and her husband, after he returned from Viet Nam.  They sincerely started a journey together, that unfortunately they did not complete.  I am of the firm belief that once saved, always saved, you do not lose your salvation.  So I am comforted that Susan has found the peace she always sought finally, and is the comforting arms of Jesus.  For all her frailties, all she ever wanted was to be loved and accepted, and to love in return.  She sometimes made this difficult, but I always did love her, always will love her.

Twilight Zone

 OK, so I am on LOA right now, due to the fact I do not have a voice, so I can not work.  While I am waiting, sometimes not so patiently, I decided I should spend this time productively, or as productively as I can, since I don't feel good.  I have not had a voice since 8/26, I guess I will blog more about that later, but in the mean time I have been sewing costumes and working on Christmas Calendars for my last 2 grandchildren.  While I do that, I am catching up on some of my DVD's that I have.  I have the complete Twilight Zone series, so decided to watch that.  The whole time I was watching the episodes I kept thinking about how I wanted to share my thoughts, and decided my blog was the best forum for this.  First of all, the stories hold up very well, even though the production value is very dated, I think the shows would still give today's generation chills just like they did us.  I was surprised

at how many of the most memorable shows were  in the first season.  The show about the man who loved to read and was the only survivor of the nuclear bomb, and was happy because now he could read as much as he wanted, but at the end he broke his glasses, so now he had no people and no books.  Then there was the show about the lady who was shopping and ended up being a mannequin that came to life.  I remember being very scared of that show, and never being able to look at mannequins in the same way since.  I remember being frightened of these shows when I was growing up, in fact, I was surprised I was able to watch them when I was little, but I definitely did, and definitely remember being scared.  And there is that component to the shows, but for the most part they are morality tales.  They also had a very pessimistic view of humanity.  I guess it was the time, Cold War and all of

that.  Even though there was an element of the supernatural, or science fiction, these were just tools to teach us a lesson about the downfall of humanity.  I have to say the morality tales are the struggles today's society still have.  The value of individuals over conformity, or technology, the difficulty of making the right decision, the bravery of overcoming fear.  The shows also have a lot of the commercials and Public Service Announcements of the time.  There was a lot of encouragement to worship at your church or synagogue, and support your favorite institution of higher learning.  I had forgotten about these "commercials" and wondered why we still don't see them.  I then realized that colleges probably don't rely on individual donors anymore, but more on grants from the government.  How times have changed.  Of course the commercials were all about the cigarettes.  Rod Serling has a cigarette in his hand almost

every time you see him. As far as the acting, I have to say, almost everyone later became famous, or were famous at the time, but they all went to the same acting school, the William Shatner School of OverActing.  Everyone is SOOOO intense.  But again, that was what the stories were about, and again a sign of the times.  It was a scary time.  Everyone thought at any minute the world would end, either from our own hand by detonating "The Bomb", or at the hands or Martians, due to invade at any time.....There were also stories that lived on.  I was SHOCKED, to hear "Are you looking at me???", spoken by a man talking to himself in a mirror in a show in the second season.  Not to say that Martin Scorsese directly stole that and put it in Taxi Driver, but there it was, the exact line in almost the same situation.  I have highlighted the shows that have stuck with me through the years here.

Reunion/90th Birthday

Well, mother's long awaited 90th birthday/family reunion has come and gone.  We are still recovering here, as I'm sure the rest of the family is too....The first day after everyone left my mother never even got out of her jammies, we are now 3 days post celebration and she is still sleeping 75% of the time.  I have to say, I wish I could join her!  I still have not taken down the cabana's or totally cleared the yard of all the furniture!  It's hard to do by yourself in 100 degree weather!  We did have a wonderful time though, and would not have traded a moment (well, maybe a moment or 2).....I dropped a very heavy guitar in it's case on my big toe which everyday has a bigger bruise and still hurts like the dickens!  I do have to congratulate my brother John, who I think reads this blog occasionally, for being on his very best behavior at the County Line while he was sitting next to my sister!  Thank you from all of us for biting your tongue and helping us all enjoy the evening!  Mother loved her books about her life, as did the rest of the family I think.  If you read this blog and want to see the books you can create an account on Mixbook.com and look at "Mother's Memories"....it is free to get on, and if you ever need to make a book, is a really great and easy way to do it!  Thank you to Hai Le for taking some great photos of the family, and thank you to everyone who came! It was great fun.....I wish mother could travel, because I would say the next reunion is on you, but while she is still with us (which I hope will be for as long as her life has good quality), I guess TX and our house is the gathering place!

Mothers books

Speaking of the next round of birthdays, the books I made for Mother's birthday have arrived and I am pleased as punch at how they turned out!  I can hardly wait to give them to her!  It was so fun putting them together and we will all have a good time going through them when we all get together for mother's 90th birthday bash!  If you want to see them you can sign up for MixBook.com, and view all the published books, mine are Mother's Memories, and they are in the Family section.  You have to sign in, but it doesn't cost you anything, and it appears many people make books only to be viewed online, which is totally free!  You can even rate the books you view....I give mine 5 stars!

May Birthdays

 So our May birthday blitz is now over.  Abigail turned 7 on May 5, and she had a Birthday Ball.  This was built around her fancy dress her father bought her while he was in Iraq, which now fits her perfectly!  She was a true princess, and I think she has not yet come down from her birthday high

Addison turned 4 and Aiden 1 last Saturday and Tuesday.  Addison had a birthday makeover with her friends, getting updo's, makeup and manicure's, all right up Addison's alley...she wanted rainbow butterfly earrings, and I was lucky to find some on eBay....she was thrilled.  Luckily, Aiden was not particular what kind of party he had....so he had one at Old Gaga's house with his cousins and both sets of grandparents.  He was happy as a clam, but was not sure what to do with his birthday cake.  He is a kid who is particular about food textures, so not sure he liked the texture of the cake and frosting...now on to the next round of birthdays.....

Rearranged!

Melissa and Adam and crew spent part of their Family Fun Friday helping me rearrange my room!  What a blessing to me!  My room is much more comfortable now, and I really don't want to leave it!  Thanks so much!  I hope I can keep it up now!

Mother's Day

Had a wonderful Mother's day!  We went to The Melting Pot, and even though it was VERY EXPENSIVE!, it was also VERY NICE!  It was quiet and relaxing, and all the kids were very well behaved.  We were in a private room.  I think all of us mothers enjoyed ourselves!