Melissa and Chelsea's Visit to California

So Melissa and Chelsea drove back from St. George with us to spend some time in California. Of course the time went WAY to fast. I so enjoy having them down to visit. We got to spend some fun time in the pool. I bought Chelsea a little Ladybug float for her to chill in. So we sat in the spa one evening. Chelsea wasn't sure at first about the water but after that she was splashing like crazy. Jaylee and Patrick came out to visit too. Even Shooter came to visit Chelsea. I love being a grandma.

Chelsea chilli with mom in the spa.

Chelsea with the girls. Chelsea and Shooter.

Aunt Tee Tee and Brian came over to visit while Melissa and Chelsea were here. We had fun in the pool.

Grandpa teaching Chelsea how to take car of the grass.

Quick Stop -- Peggy Sue's Dinner

Driving on our way home from St. George we stopped off at this cute dinner called "Peggy Sue's. It has all kinds of fun collector items there. When we stopped, we go to take Chelsea out of the car seat and she was soaked. She had peed all through her clothes and all over everything. I picked her up and I was covered in pee. So first things first... we take her in the bathroom and changed her diaper and clothes. Then we sat for a bite to eat. The food isn't that terrific but it is a fun place. Oh they do have great shakes!! In the lobby is a huge statue of Betty Boop so I wanted to get a picture of Chelsea with Betty. Melissa and I were twinners. Like mom, like daughter. We were glad when our diapers were dry and our tummys full. BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

Lunch at Olive Garden

Yummy... The Olive Garden

After we left the Temple we went for lunch at the Olive Garden. It was a long wait but it was worth it. Jeff was practicing how to use the baby carrier so when they have their baby he will know how to work it. Greg likes hanging with his niece. We had a great lunch but I was sad to leave everyone. Everyone had to take off for home right after since we all had looooong drives back home.

A Parent's Pay Day

I'm love to see the temple...

I'm going there someday.

Chelsea sitting on the sacred grass at the St. George temple.

A Special Day for Greg

On April 18th 2009 we had the privlidge of going through the St. George Temple with Greg. It was a very special day for us as parents because we had most of our children in the temple. Melissa and Brad came down from Utah and Jeff and Mandy came out from Arizona. Greg was so prepared. His dad was his escort through the temple. As soon as I walked into the chapel where Greg and Steve where sitting I started to cry. There was another mother with their son going through and she was crying too. It was so awesome to all meet in the celestrial room after the session. To me that is what Heaven will be like. That is Eternal families. As you see each of your children with their families and the chain just keeps on growing. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to be part of this special day and to have my children there as well.

February Visit with Mo, Brad and Chelsea

So we took a train up to Melissa's house to visit for a few days. It was soooo good to see Chelsea. She gets bigger every time we see her. She is so much fun. The Saturday we were there Brad had to work so Melissa took us to Park City. Never been before (as we are not skiers). It was a nice day and fun to walk around and watch the people who do ski. I like to watch the snow boarders more. We got some good pictures of our outing.

Like the cute dude in the "Crocidile Dundee " hat.

Steve liked to play the WII and since we don't have Wii fit Steve liked the snow jump game. This is Steve-O playing Wii.

Major Blog Update

February 25, 2009 - The Grand American Hotel in Salt Lake City

I'm still a bit behind on my blogging thing. But I was suppose to go to Melissa's In March but Steve had a business trip to Salt Lake City in February so I changed my plane ticket AGAIN so I could spend some time with Steve before we both went to visit Melissa. It was a nice and short trip for Steve. We were put up at the Americana in Salt Lake City. WOW the room was something else. All the fixtures were of Gold plated. It had a huge bathroom, sunkin tub and seprate shower, a huge vanity. Turn down service with robes and a gold box of chocolates. I felt like royalty. But it was only for one night and Steve had to meet his clients early the next morning. :( I spent the day at the Family History Center and then met up with Steve later to take the train up to Melissa's.

Steve and I decided to take the train to Melissa's house in Clearfield instead of her driving to get us. It was an adventure. Steve was given a tote bag as a gift and as we were in the train he looks through it. It has some goodies for a traveler. It had a mask for your eyes, a blanket and other odd things. So I got a picture of Steve-O the tour guide with his mask on.

Who is that masked man??? ZORO

Me and Greggor in St. George

Greg loves it when his mom comes to town to check up on him. We got to see him twice, one on the way up and once on the way back. He got 2 free meals out of it. One at the Claim Jumper and one at the Olive Garden. Not to bad for a starving college student. Love ya Greggor.

Utah Hates Me!!!

A trip with my sister to Utah

My sister was getting bored at home and missing Chelsea after seeing her in December. I have to admit I was missing Chelsea myself. So we planned a road trip. (Me and my sister always have a blast when we plan a trip) So the first of February we took a trip to Utah to Visit. We stopped in St. George to visit Greggor and make sure he was doing OK. He loves it when his mom checks on him. :) Plus I can't seem to make that trip to Utah in one day anymore. Old age I guess. It snowed most the time we were there. I HATE SNOW! Mo babysits Braxton and he wanted to go out side and play so I was brave and got a few fun things to take out with us to play with. Man it was COLD. Us California girls don't have the right clothes to wear here. Braxton and I had a great time eating snow cones (with no flavor) NO we did not eat yellow snow either. We made stone soup though. It was delicious. The day we left for California it snow. It was a big storm. (Blizzard for me) So Utah sent me home with a bang. It snowed most of the way home till we hit St George again. Love St. George. It was a fun trip but I was happy to get home to my sweat heart and the sunshine. After all the time I spent there I didn't get 1 picture of me and Chelsea. :( I guess I was having to much fun in the snow freezing my buns off.

Josh Turner Concert

OK here's the deal.... I saw that Josh Turner was going to be playing at the McCallum Theater by our house so I think he is a really HOT country singer and how cool it would be to see him in concert. So I buy the tickets. Then I'm thinkin... Who do I take??? My husband (who doesn't even know who he is) and could care less or my sister who is fun to go to concerts with but doesn't know who he is. As it got closer to the concert date I decided to give the tickets to Steve as a gift. I was right.. He said "Who is this?" I said I know you have heard his music but don't recognize who he is. So the night of the concert, I'm excited. We get to the McCallum (anyone who knows that theater knows it is an old people theater) . So we walk in and I thought I was at an old folks home. The average age there must have been 70 yrs. old. I'm thinkin to myself these people are season ticket holders and have no clue who this guy is. Anyway I sit next to this older gentleman who doesn't break a move the whole night. Steve on the other side of me not break en a move and me just rocking out between the two of them. I should have switched seats with Steve cause the lady next to him was busting it out. YEH!!! They had some girl band come out first for about 30 minutes and then it seemed like it took forever to get Josh to come out. But anyone who has been to a concert knows you need to heckle, whistle and clap to get the band to come out but no one did anything but sit there waiting. After about 30 minutes of nothing but lame taped old country music some younger girls in the balcony started to whistle and get a bit rowdy. So I chimed in. I was the only one near us and I know Steve was embarrassed. I didn't care I was going to have a good time. One thing good from the night was I found a friend from the ward who was there with her daughter and I talked to her later and she is a big country fan like myself. So I have found a partner in crime for the next concert. :) The music was great and He is so darn cute. His wife plays in the band. I thought that was cool. Oh yeh I almost got my camera taken away for taking pictures. I saw the dude coming and I quickly put it in my purse. So needless to say I have some pictures to share on this blog.

Christmas 2008

I forgot about Christmas.... This year was a bit small in family members. The married children (Jeff and Melissa) spent this year with their in-laws so it was Jaylee,her boyfriend Patrick, Charity and Greg. We did have Dayna (my sister) and her family, Steve's dad & Pauline over for Christmas Eve. We ate lots of food and played Wii. The kids went to a new ice skating rink just around the corner while we fixed dinner. This year was special for us, Patrick spent Christmas morning with us. He read our traditional Christmas story in the morning and we enjoyed having him as part of our family. It was special too because this will be Greg's last Christmas home for 2 years as he will be serving a mission. We bought Jaylee and Patrick Rock Band so we played that or I should say Greg played it. He loved the drums and he sat there most of the day. This Christmas had it's sad moments too as we didn't have mom there to enjoy the fun with us. It is hard to believe sometimes that she is gone. But I know she spent Christmas with Jesus this year and was watching over our family.

Palm Springs Film Festival 2009

January 2009 Film Festival

Steve got tickets from work to attend the Palm Springs film festival. He attended a few years back but I was not able to go with him. It is a Tux event so Steve already had a tux and of course was pulling everything I owned in the closet to find something to wear to the gala. After hours of trying on stuff from the closet I found this one dress. When we drove up there was lots of cars and people off to the side waiting for stars to sign autographs. Dakota Fanning was right next to the car signing autographs but I couldn't get my camera to work quick enough. Once we stepped out of the car people would look at you to see if you were anyone of importance or a star. They had two red carpet lines. One for the stars and one for the guests. As we were walking up the red guest carpet Ron Howard was walking down the REAL red carpet. He is a very nice man. He would shake hands and talk to people. When we got in it was a huge room with lots of tables with numbers on them. We had to find the table with our number. It was not to far from the front. We had a table that was a few tables over from Ron Howard, Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland. They would walk right by us to get to the stage. Again to slow on the camera draw. :( It was a fun night and I felt like Cinderella.

Mo's Visit with Chelsea

My daddy was working out of town so me and mom came to visit my grandpa and grandma in California. It is very sunny there. I like the sunshine and my grandma D and grandpa Steve -o. We played Wii and grandpa stole me out of bed on Saturday morning, took me up stairs to his bed (with grandma D sleeping) and hooked me up to his Ipod. I like listening to music. Me and grandpa rocked out with the ipod. He could use some new music! I got to visit with my Aunti Tee Tee, Aunt Charity and Jaylee. We got to go out to eat lots of times. We went to Mimi's and mom's favorite place Soup plantation. It was fun to spend time with the g-parents. I'm very loved. :)

Ward Christmas Party 2008

"A Night in Zarahemla"

Our ward Christmas party was awesome. They did a great job. We were suppose to dress up like Nephites and Lamanites. Brother Risk was great as King Lamoni. They had booths set up and when you walked in the door you were given a burlap sack of wooden tokens that you could spend to get your food. The kids had tokens to play the games as well. They put on a play that was nicely done to. It was a fun night and I know a lot of work went into the preparation of it all. Thanks to all who helped. :)

Rabobank Work Party

Rabobank Work Party November 15th 2008

Every year Steve's employer has a Christmas party. Well as the years have gone on we have watched it change from a Christmas party to Holiday party to Customer appreciation dinner and now they don't even have the gathering in December.... it's November! All because it is not politically correct to say CHRISTMAS. I say if you are offended by the majorities beliefs... Don't attend. The dinner is always good but we didn't get to sit by the FUN people (Keith,Susie, Gus ect). There is always next year.

Yee Haw

The Cattle Call Rodeo November 8, 2008

Every year we try and attend the Brawley Cattle Call Rodeo. It is usually my sister and I since Steve has his young men's Priesthood activity that same weekend. This year he was able to go with us. I love Rodeos and this one is pretty good. It was nice to get away and not think of things of the past. (mom passing away). They always have a nice lunch which is yummy. Then we just look a round at the booths till the rodeo starts. I would really like to attend the large rodeo they have in Vegas in December. I hear it is one of the largest rodeos. That would be the ultimate!!!

Mom's Memorial

WE had mom's memorial on December 12th 2008. We chose that date because Melissa and Chelsea were planning on coming out at that time and so everyone would be her to see them and we could just have the memorial at that time. It was a beautiful day. My brother Dennis made the urn for my mothers ashes and it came out very nice. He made it a little bigger than a normal urn so we could put her cats in with her. My mom wanted to be burried with her cats. She had those two cats for 15 plus years. Most of the family was in attendance. Many of mom's oldest and dearest friends were there as well. The service was nice but they cut us off so it was shorter than we planned. It was great to see so many friends and family.

Last Days

As mentioned before mom looked great and didn't look like anything was wrong. It was getting harder for her to breath. On Wednesday October 29th I had a hard time getting mom a wake. She was sleeping a bit more. She came out for a little breakfast. Dayna was here with me. Mom was talking about wired stuff and wanted to see her friend Charlotte. So I went to pick her up in the afternoon and the two of them were like two girls at a slumber party. They talked into the night. Charlotte was able to get mom to eat some applesauce. I guess during the night mom had a hard time getting up to go to the bathroom so we had the cam ode by her bed but that was hard for her too. We put a diaper on her as a precaution. The next morning mom tried to get up to go to the bathroom and she couldn't. We didn't have strength to help her. I told her to just go in the diaper. She cried. She didn't want to go in the diaper. We called the Hospice nurse and she came to evaluate mom. She told us she was dying. I couldn't believe it. She was just OK the day before. It happened so fast. They took mom back to the hospice facility. We called all family members as they didn't think she would make it though the night. I called Melissa to see if she could get out here. One thing mom wanted more than anything was to see Chelsea her Great grand baby. As we stayed by mom's side Melissa and Chelsea got on a plane and came to the hospital. At about 7 pm the nurse who was leaving her shift came in to say goodbye. She said she couldn't believe mom was still with us. She said " She must be waiting for someone?" I told her she was waiting for her great grand baby. Mom was pretty much out of it the whole time. Melissa and Chelsea got to the hospital about 9 pm. We told mom baby Chelsea was there and laid Chelsea by her side. I know mom knew Chelsea was there. She had a slight smile on her face. I was so grate full to the Lord for letting her see her grand baby. We also didn't want mom to die on Jeff's birthday. We kept telling her she needed to wait till midnight so it wouldn't be Jeff's birthday. Everyone left and Dayna and I stayed the night. Mom was out of it, mumbling every once in a while. We had to suction out her mouth as she kept foaming. Dayna and tried to sleep taking turns watching over mom. About 5:30 am I looked at mom and she looked so peaceful so I told Dayna we should go home and get some rest. We told mom good bye and we would be back. We got a call at about 11 am saying mom passed away. I just lost it. I wanted to be there for her. When we got to hospice we were so upset we were not there when mom died. They nurse on call said a lot of the time the person waits for the family to leave to pass. That brought some comfort. We were able to say our good byes. She looked as though she were just sleeping... very peaceful.

Coming Home to Sad news

Beverly Fleming- Loving mom and Grandma
After spending a great time with my new grand baby in Utah I came home September 11th. When I came home I found out my mom had pneumonia. She had it for the whole time I was gone to Utah and she was having a hard time breathing. I took her to see her doctor Tuesday Sept. 16th in the morning. The doctor agreed that mom needed oxygen and said from the chest x-ray that she still had pneumonia and wanted to change her antibiotic. After taking my mom home and getting her settled I got home about 3:30 pm. I get a call just after 4 pm from her asking me if I could take her to the hospital. The nurse that came to see her said she could not get her oxygen levels up. I drove her to the hospital and stayed till they were able to stabilize her. They admitted her about 8 pm. The next day they did a CT scan and mom called Dayna and I to come to the hospital to talk to the doctors. When we met with the doctors they told us that mom had Lung Cancer and for her to get her things in order. She didn't have long and to con cider Hospice home care. WOW what a blow. No warning... just hey you have cancer and you are going to die soon. Not knowing what to do next and the doctors telling us she would not be able to go home we talked to the Hospice people. Didn't really understand completely what was going on with that either. After talking at length with the guy from Hospice we were told mom could not go home and would be released to Hospice care. They released mom on Thursday the 18th to Hospice. They were suppose to release mom from the hospital at 7 pm and hospice to transport her to the facility. We drove to the facility and waited for mom to arrive. Well after waiting a while we found out that they didn't have transportation for her. They tried to call for another service to pick her up. When it got to be after 10 pm Dayna (my sister) and I went home and told them to call us when she got there. At 10:45 pm the hospital called and asked if mom was going to be picked up. I told them Hospice was taking care of it. I called hospice again and they told me the guy was on the way. I called mom and told her. After a long night she was finally taken to hospice home care facility. She stayed there for the weekend so they could get her stable. Dayna and I had to speak with the hospice social worker on Tuesday. After talking to him he said mom would never be able to go back to her home. What a shock! When you looked at mom you would never know anything was wrong with her except for her being on oxygen. I thought she could at least live at home with some help. I was wrong. The only solution was for her to come live at our house. Greg was in school and we had an extra room close to the bathroom and everything. Talk about a 180 in your life. The next thing I know they are moving in hospital beds, shower chairs, oxygen tanks, a wheelchair and walker. It is amazing how quickly your life can change. It took a bit to adjust to the situation. Like I said it wasn't like mom was bed ridden. She could move about the house as far as her oxygen cord would go. I asked the people at Hospice how long mom had left. They said 0 to 6 months but could not tell for sure. It depends on the person. Watching mom daily it seemed like we were in for the long hall. She had her appetite, she could get around but got out of breath easy. From the time mom was diagnosed with cancer till the day she died it was 7 weeks. We never had to go through the bad stuff and I think mom would have wanted it that way. Those 7 weeks were very busy ones as Dayna and I took turns caring for mom and we had to take care of her cats and apartment. It was tough but I'm glad I was able to be of service to her in those last weeks.

Chelsea's Blessing / Greg's Priesthood ordination

Greg ordained an Elder of the Church

(Men in Black.... Sexy)

Greg was ordained an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints August 31st 2008. This took place in Melissa and Brad's home as that is where the baby blessing was held due to Mel's condition. Greg wanted to be ordained an Elder before the blessing so he could take part in it. So before the blessing of Chelsea, Greg was ordained and Elder by his dad. Standing in the circle was his brother Jeff and Brad (brother-in-law) It was nice that we were able to this when the family was all there to participate, since they were all gathered for the blessing.

A Very Special Day

As stated in a previous blog, Melissa had to go back into the hospital to have the infection removed. We were getting a little worried as we had Chelsea's blessing planned for the 31st of August as that was a Holiday weekend and all family members could be there. Melissa was discharged from the hospital Saturday the 30th about 5 pm after Melissa told her doctor her whole family was there for the blessing of Chelsea and that it was to take place Sunday the next day. The doctor was very compensating by letting Melissa go home however she had to be on a IV antibiotic. She had to have this IV every 6 hours. We had to call a member of the Bishopric and explain the circumstances that Melissa can't go to church with her IV and that we had the blessing already planned. So we were able to have the blessing in Melissa and Brad's home filled with family and friends. It was a beautiful blessing. Mandy, Me and Jeff got to get Chelsea ready for this special event. She looked like an Angel. Brad gave a beautiful blessing. Melissa's friend Sara wrote down what was said in the blessing for Melissa to have. I thought that was very special. It was great to see so many old friends and visit with family too.

Yellowstone Nation Park/ 29th Wedding Anniversary

After spending some time with Melissa and the new baby we took some time to spend together for our 29th wedding Anniversary. We both had never seen Yellowstone National Park so we decided to take a drive and spend a few days touring the park. We stayed in a nice hotel just outside the park. We found this place that rents GPS navigational systems that also narrates what you are seeing. It was the greatest thing ever. It hooks up to your radio and as you drive it tells you what you are seeing and a little history of the area. It is better than a regular tour because you set your own pace and can stop when you want. We saw some beautiful country and lots of Bison (Ta-Tunk-Ka's) . There was one that was walking down the middle of the road, just taking it's sweat o'l time. The thing that amazed us the most was how the earth could have these hot spots. It would just steam from the ground. The guisers are fasinating to watch too. We saw Old Faithfull spout. We came upon a group of deer that was hanging around these houses in one of the towns we were driving through. We stoped to get some pictures. There must have been about 20 of them with bucks too. We didn't see any bears or cayotes, but we did catch a large Bull Elk in one of the fields. Cars had pulled over so we thought there must be something here. We got out and there was this huge Buck Elk. We got to hear his call as well. That was cool. We spent one day traveling to the Great Tee Tons. We dind't see everything but we saw a lot. We really enjoyed ourselfs. I'm sure we will go back again.

Steve and Greg coming to Utah

Steve and Greg drove up to Utah to visit Melissa and Chelsea before we had to take Greg to school at Dixie. Greg had a great time playing Uncle to Chelsea. He just thought he was all that and a bag of chips when he held her. He told everyone HE was going to be the favorite uncle. Steve had a Wii game sent to Melissa's house for my birthday as my gift. So Greg had a fun time playing Guitar Hero and teaching Chelsea how it's done. Greg had a good time playing Uncle. As most good things had to come to an end we had to take Greg down to Dixie in St. George to school. We drove down to St. George on Friday the 22nd and stayed the night. We got up early the next morning took Greg shopping for all his neccessities. (That cost a bundle) and got him settled in his new room at school.

I'm still waiting to get a picture of Greg in front of the Dixie College sign. He took one on his camera but never gave it to me.