A Welcome Home Visit and Lunch Date

We got a call from my father yesterday asking if he could visit us and take us to lunch today. I have a niece that graduated from high school this year. and my father and stepmother are so amazing to go to every graduation. 

With Covid, they didn't have to come visit for a graduation, but still wanted to take my niece and her family to dinner which is the tradition. 

Since they would be driving past my area, they asked if they could take us to lunch and visit us. They came and we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Most of the restaurants are open now for lunch and closed for dinner. 

It was interesting that the servers wore masks, didn't touch the menu after we used them, and they didn't take any dishes off the table until we had finished our meal. It was strange to see how things have changed. 

My stepmother is having a birthday soon, so we were able to celebrate her birthday today as well. I had some other things going on today and in my busyness, I forgot to take a photo with them, so I asked my sister to get a picture of them with their masks on, and one with them off, for me to post tonight. They looked so adorable in their masks today. 

We enjoyed a great visit and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful parents who care about my girls. It was kind they waited until Princess Fives quarantine was over and still came to visit to welcome her home. They usually come to the airport and take us to a meal after the missionary returns, so they came as soon as they were able to give her that welcome home. I am so grateful to be blessed with such amazing parents. 

Princess Five felt very special that they would make the long trip to take her to lunch. It was a blessing! 

Have a safe and Blessed day! 

Social Walking - Talked To Four Neighbors on Our Daily Walk

Princess Four left today. She headed home and we had one last meal together and after that the two girls were laying together on the carpet giggling doing some exercises.  

I am SO going to miss hearing giggles coming from different areas in the house as the two of them visit. I really have missed those girls cute voices the past few years. It has been many years since I have had two of them home for more than a weekend. 

They are so cute together. After she left to make the long drive home, Princess Five and I started out on a walk and instead of going our normal route, she picked a different path. We ran into a friend whose daughter is one of Princess Fours best friends. We got to visit for the first time in three months. It was so nice to catch up. 

After that, we ran into another couple whose daughter got home from serving as a missionary a week before Princess Five. I asked how she was doing now that she is home and I found out she is getting engaged! She has only been home for a few months but the boy met her parents in January and so they have gotten to know him before she arrived home. She went on a mission at an older age so we are really excited for her! 

While talking with them, I noticed another friend leaving her house heading to walk so I texted her and we joined her for a walk. It was so nice to be able to catch up with her as she just got a new grandchild last week! 

It was SO good to get out with Princess Five and to see people who love her and we love in return. I stopped to visit with another neighbor on our street as we returned home and I really have missed my friends. Princess Five has gotten more relaxed as she is getting out more. She was also happy about relaxing tonight watching one of her favorite movies. She has avoided watching movies for the first few weeks as she has been on a media fast for 18 months. She really is finally starting to relax.


I know I have posted about walking for the entire week but I have really been enjoying spending time with my girls. 

Have a Blessed and safe Day! 

Finally Out Of Quarantine - First Of Many Visits and Errands Today

WE ARE SO BLESSED!!! We did not get COVID! Princess Five and the rest of us have been in quarantine for the past 2 weeks since she arrived home from serving as a missionary in NY. 

Today marked our 2 weeks quarantine from her flight home, so we were able to do our first errands and shopping today. We were also able to make our first visit to Family members since her return. 

My sister's family lives in a town near to our town, so we took a drive over to drop off a graduation gift for my niece, and to see her closest cousin. He was serving as a missionary in Chile and was due to return in June this year a month exactly to the day she returned from her mission. 

With the crazy Covid-19 thing happening, he actually returned a month BEFORE her so he has been home and already did his quarantine, and now has a job and is working. For her first visit out, she wanted to see him. 

As she was serving as a Spanish speaking missionary and he was serving in Chile, they both speak Spanish and were excited to visit with each other. Since she left, they also built a new home and moved so we wanted to see the house. Princess was really excited to be able to actually give him a hug. I couldn't get out of the car fast enough to catch the hug, but had them pose for a picture before we all headed into the house. 

We then got stopped on the house tour as my talented niece was showing us her latest artwork. I took a few pictures of some of her art. She does commission pieces for people and makes portraits of their animals. I have highlighted her on my blog several times before, as each time I visit with her, she is working on some new creative project. I wish I had taken some pictures of her pottery she has been making as it is really unique. 

Here is a link to one of those posts.   Here is a link to another.   And still another.   You can see as she gets older, her art methods change, but she is really creative and tends to gravitate to new mediums as she grows. 

It was fun visiting with my sisters family, and seeing my daughter and her cousin enjoy visiting about their missions and comparing the differences between his Chilean Spanish culture and her American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, Mexican, and South American Spanish. She served with so many different Spanish speakers that she doesn't have a dialect from any one Spanish speaking country. It was cute that even the Spanish music they liked was different due to cultural differences where they served. 

It was not the most productive day around the house, but I think it is good to get Princess Five out and about as I have noticed after 2 months in quarantine before coming home with only one person living with her, to coming home and two more weeks in quarantine, she has become a bit isolated and doesn't seem to mind that. I can understand that somewhat, but she was / is super out going before so I would like to see her feel more comfortable out and about before she heads for school in the fall. 

It was REALLY nice being able to go out with her today and run some errands. I have always needed socialization and this staying home for so long is really hard, especially in a small town. 

I feel VERY Grateful that Princess Five didn't get Covid on the airplane or in the airports. We are SO blessed to be home and safe! 

Have a safe and blessed day! 

Bagpipes at the Cemetery - Why Is That A Thing

The girls and I took our daily walk tonight at the cemetery. We ran into some friends and they were taking down their flags on the graves. 

I was really confused by that as I thought the cemetery put up the flags on the veterans graves. But as we walked, we saw about six different people pulling down their flags and the flag poles! Trucks were pulling out of the cemetery with flag poles hanging out the back. I was a bit confused by that. 

We then get to one end of the cemetery and we start to hear a bagpipe as we get closer, there was a lone man playing  a bagpipe. He was in an orange flagger jacket with reflective tape on the back. He wasn't wearing anything Scottish, so it was a bit confusing, but he played all the military songs and some hymns. 

Every year when we would go to my grandmothers grave, they have bagpipers and they also have free hotdogs and drinks. I thought that it was just that graveyard / cemetery that had bagpipes and I haven't seen them at others cemeteries, but we usually would go to the other family graves on the weekend before Memorial, so I guess I didn't realize that having a bagpiper was a thing at the cemetery. 

It was nice walking to the playing, but I am wondering if the city pays him or if he does it for a service. If so, how long was he there? It was just something new to me. Also, the flags were at half mast the other day when we walked and today, they were all up full. Not sure why it was that way either. Just some questions I have pondered on today. 

Hope you had a Blessed Memorial Day! 

UPDATE: My industrious oldest daughter did some research and found that during the Irish and Scottish potato famine, many immigrants came to the U.S. and would take any work they could get. The high risk jobs were more available, so they took jobs as police officers and firemen, especially in NY and Boston. Many Irish  and Scottish families are still Police and Firemen in both of those cities to this day! When one of their friends would be killed in the line of duty, they would always have bagpipes play for their kinsman, and it started to become a tradition that has carried on from that point. Thanks Princess One for looking that up for us all! 

Memorial Day Walk - Cemetery Overflowing

I walk most nights, either by myself of with a friend, and since the girls have been home, we have been walking together. 

I usually walk around the cemetery as the sidewalks around my street are older and cracked with tree roots etc. I don't want to take a fall as two of my good friends have fallen out walking in the last two years and both of them broke something. One had a surgery to fix it, and the other took weeks to heal. I have been better not having vertigo recently and feel steadier on my feet, which is good, but why take a risk. 

Since I am by myself, it would be so horrible to not be able to drive myself places, or use arms etc. if they got hurt, so I have decided to only walk the sidewalk if it is daylight hours and if it is dusk or later, I walk on paved smooth roads or the cemetery roads that have all be recently paved. There is a path the city has that is a "river path" but it is a bit isolated so I don't like walking it by myself and it also harbors mosquitos being near the water, so I usually opt out for the cemetery more recently. As it heats up, I may return to walking the water route to keep cool. 

It has been so fun to see all the decorations slowly come into the cemetery and decorating the graves as families pass through town over the weekend. 

The flags all went up this week as well, which makes it all the more beautiful as they blow in the wind. The city also put the flame in the "armed services" memorial which only happens over the holiday. 

I went up two weeks ago on my way to pick up Princess Five and put a wreath and a pinwheel on my mothers grave knowing I wouldn't be out of quarantine to go up for the holiday. 

My family meets at my grandmothers grave every year, and then has a picnic and plays games celebrating several birthdays and Memorial Day. However, many of the family left town due to the quarantine, so I don't think there will be many people around to visit with, and we have two days left in quarantine so didn't think it best to go. 

Several of my other girls wanted to come down this weekend as well, but with the chance of Covid, we opted out and may all get together next weekend. We still aren't sure what to do with that. I hope that we can all make it through without getting sick and enjoy some family time. 

I feel like I want to get so much done, but I am enjoying just talking and walking with my girls. I never tire of them as they are so witty and fun. I am so blessed to have a loving family heritage and to be able to have all my girls be healthy and happy when so many in the world are hungry, alone, or in war torn countries. 

I am grateful for my heritage and my offspring and pray I can live up to their examples and be strong to the finish for my girls and grandchildren. Who could ask for more! 

I pray you are having a healthy and safe Memorial Day! 

Putting the Swamp Cooler in the Window - New Brick Base

Putting the swamp cooler in the window every year is a project. When we first bought the house, the owner's father had made a wooden base. Some people hang them off chains with no base. Having kids around, I didn't want it hanging from the eaves. 

The wooden base was never great so I purchased a coffee table and we used that for years as a base for the cooler. With water on it year-round, it rots and I eventually bought a metal base table from a second hand store and was able to put it in and out for the most part by myself. 

The wooden pieces that I had under the base were sinking into the mud each year and one side was getting burred even lower.

With the girls home, I figured they could help me lift the swamp cooler off the base and out of the mud so I could lay some bricks to be at the base of the table so the table legs and base wouldn't sink more as each year I would have to put thicker and thicker wood under the cooler on top of the table so I could fit it in the window. 

We took the cooler and table and put them on the cement pad, and then were able to dig down and level the ground so that I could use the bricks I had on top of a weed barrier, and once the bricks were down, the girls helped scrub the cooler, put in the cedar pads, put it in the window, and I was able to show them how to oil the cooler and talk about the maintenance for it. I have never had them help me put it in other than pulling it out once it was drained. 

It was really nice having help with each aspect today. I had enough time left over to play a game with them after dinner. 

I am loving having the girl's home. I feel very blessed having them home! 

Stay healthy and have a blessed day!

Landscaping, Sorting and Walking Oh My - Movie Quotes Abound

I have several videos and posts I have wanted to share, but it takes an hour to post a video with all the descriptions, and answering all the questions and putting tags on for each video. 

Writing a blog and posting it also takes about an hour. Uploading pictures, writing and editing the content, and posting usually takes some time. 

With Princess Four and Five home, I want to spend my time with them as Princess Four will soon be headed back to her home. I don't want to miss this time with both of them together as I don't know that I will ever have this opportunity again. It is so wonderful to enjoy them together. They are so cute, and banter back and forth with movie and music quotes all day long. They have music playing all the time. 

We haven't watched any movies yet and are looking to have a "pedicure" night soon. We are keeping ourselves busy. We spent today and yesterday working. Princess Five is still going through her closets and belongings and each day she is gathering more and more items that she puts on the growing pile to give away. 

Both girls helped me move a goji berry plant in the back yard that was next to my dryer vent. It was blocking the vent. I had a flower bed in the back corner and decided to extend it to meet up with the raised garden bed. The girls helped me put down weed barrier, get a few loads of extra dirt, move and haul bricks, and plant some garden plants. 

It is nice to be able to work with them and see things progress and move forward in our yard and home. I may have some shorter blog posts because of spending time with my cute girls. We have been taking walks together each night and I love having the company while I walk! Be patient with me. 

Have a blessed day! 

Life Update - 40 pounds down and More Parasite Stuff Tried

I spent a few minutes yesterday making an update video on my life, my weight loss, and a few new things I have tried to cure me of the parasites. 

I want to tell you to NOT try doing or taking anything that I am sharing in this post or video because they are not medications made for humans. I had people share on my YouTube, or comments here, saying that they tried these medications for parasites and other health issues. 

I did LOTS of research and decided to try taking these two medication that are for animals, but have worked for other people.  I tried "Corid" and Fenbendazole. Corid is for sheep and Fenbendazole is for dogs. 

I gave Corid two different trials with one at a lesser dose with no results and then a higher dose with no results. 

I tried the same with Fenbendazole. I tried a smaller dose first, and then a larger dose, and then a medium dose a few days after the larger dose. I had no die off of the parasites and they were as active as they ever are. NO death that I could tell of any kind on either medication. 

Along with the Corid, I was taking Black Walnut, Graviola, Wormwood (artemisia), Andrographis, and Ashwagandha. I took them regularly for days and had no die off of the parasite. I know that this parasite just burrows out of the gut when I take stuff it doesn't like, and then when the stuff is out of the gut, the parasite burrows back into the gut. 

I need something that will kill them off in the lymph, brain, organs, and muscle. The only thing that I have taken that made them move further than just out of the gut, was Pyrantel. 

However, they just burrowed into the larger muscles and stayed until the pyrantel left my system, and then burrowed back out. It caused terrible and painful muscles spasms, and horrible pain in the smaller extremities as they would feel like drills in my finger tips which caused fingernail damage growing out for months after taking it.

I want you to know that I appreciate people sharing with me what works for them, as it gives me other things to study and try. I have quite the list now of things I have tried, so that when Scientists start studying this in humans, I can share what didn't work and what I have tried.      

Pray that I can find something soon that works as I am not getting much sleep with them burrowing out of my teeth and lips, and going in and out other areas of my body all night long. I know there has to be a cure at some point, I just hope it is sooner than later! 

I don't want my children and their children suffering with this their entire lives. 

Have a blessed day!          

Princess Five Gave a Mission Homecoming Report

Tonight we had a wonderful Mission report from Princess Five. My sister wanted to have a weekly meeting with all the family and has been organizing a Monday night zoom meeting for all the missionaries in my family to report about their missions.

Since six of them had to return home before their missions were actually finished, some of them are planning on going back into the mission field. One nephew has already gotten a new mission call. He was serving in Thailand and has just gotten a call to go to California in July. 

We have heard from all but one of the missionaries who will be reporting her mission next week. 

Princess Five was able to give an hour report and share pictures of her mission and tell some wonderful stories of her service to others. 

She shared her work at Ellis Island and things about each city she lived in. She shared about the people she taught and some insights she gained while serving. 

She was so passionate about her testimony of her Father in Heaven and His blessings in her life, and about sharing that knowledge with others. 

I am blessed to have amazing daughters. 

Have a Blessed Day! 

Unpacking, Washing, and Visiting Kind of Day

I have been fighting a storm headache for the past few days. It hit hard when I was driving home from the airport a few days back and has lingered for two full days as the weather changes.

I gave up coke in January trying to be healthier and have lost 40 lbs as of today, but not drinking Coke has meant my headaches tend to last longer. I haven't gotten as much as I would have liked done in the past few days, but I have been constantly working and finally felt good enough to mow the lawn.

Princess Four has been working from home as she finished up her job at the university she attended for school today. It is her last project for the school. She is a bit melancholy about that as she isn't sure what she wants to do now that she has graduated.

Princess Five has been working hard on unpacking her three suitcases, washing everything, trying on her clothes she left home and since all the stores are closed, she doesn't have any pants. She could only wear skirts or dresses as a missionary, so she has plenty of those. She left a few pair of pants, but her sister lost weight at college and raided her drawers while she was gone and Princess Five's body shape changed while on her mission so they wouldn't fit well anyway.

I have one box of pants of different sizes that I keep in my closet and have one or two in each size hoping to get back into them. Each of my girls as they come home from being a missionary has gotten a few pair of jeans out of that box to wear until they get back into life and their weight banlances. They have all dropped the pounds within six months of being home. She will be walking everywhere on campus so I know she will be similar to her sisters. 

She has piles of clothes out of her closets to get rid of, ones she brought back from her mission, and she has been trying on ones from her sisters. I am really proud of her being able to sort out things and keep only things she needs. We are still working on getting things cleaned out. It feels good to get more out of the house. 

We have had several video chats with all the girls and it has been such fun. I am really enjoying my girls all being "home." 

Have a Blessed Day! 

That's All Folks! Last Email from Princess Five as A Missionary I Forgot To Share

Princess Five wrote this last email Monday as she was getting ready to leave her mission this week. 

I posted early that day knowing I would have a busy night and next day picking up Princess Five and lots of driving as well as other errands. 

I forgot to share her last note and pictures of her mission life, so wanted to share it here so that her entire mission was journaled on the blog. I am going to miss getting updates from her weekly as none of the girls keep up communication in that way, and we do video chats and texts mostly, so I don't often get a lengthy update on their lives. 

Here is the last email from Princess Five as a missionary: 
"I don't have much time but, this week was a bitter sweet, I said a lot of goodbyes, and it's been pretty hard.

On the bright side though, Eva came to church! She said the closing prayer, and when we talked to her later, she said that she loved it and was excited to prepare for next weeks lesson! She is such a light and she is so excited to be baptized! For my fellow missionaries, you can forward your emails to  me, as for the rest of you, I will talk to you soon!

Hermana Princess Five"

I think Princess Five will be missed by those she left behind. I have to say that I am enjoying any minute I get to spend with her and am always looking for something to do with her just so I can be with her. Even if it is watching her unpack or just talking. She has such a light about her that it is a blessing to be around her. 

Hope you are staying safe and have a blessed day!