Time out...up to date live happenings...

The crew...

General Conference was wonderful, as always! For years we have been in SLC for this spiritual weekend, but we had to break that tradition this year.

This Conference again fulfilled what I have written in my scriptures by the Parable of the Sower-- "at General Conference

we receive top soil."

For this blog I am recording events that are happening in our life now with having my mother come live with us. We have asked her for years to please come live with us, but she has always said: "No, I would never live with either of my daughters. I don't want to be a burden on them."

After being out of her home in Gooding for two years and having lived in a retirement center where all the meals are prepared, because of her losing so much of her eyesight and not being able to remember things, she has finally consented to come live with us.

Photo below: My sister, Janice, and I with Mom on her 91st birthday in January.

Janice, Julie and Maddie met Walt, and me at Sizzler in SLC to have a birthday lunch with Grama A. Janice is taking the photo.

My sweet 91-year old mother, Verna Albertson, can no longer live alone in her nice little apartment at the Highland Cove Retirement Center in Salt Lake City.

We have all our bedrooms upstairs and one in the basement, but she is so terrified of stairs, and almost legally blind, so we are remodeling our game room as a bedroom and bathroom for her on the main floor.

John, one of our outstanding sons-in-law, has been designing plans for the layout of everything and on Saturday morning we decided on the blueprint that worked best.

John had come on Thursday night, March 31, to get started.

Friday, April 1, at high noon Walt started taking down our life's memorabilia from the walls of the game room.

It had been our garage until 7 years after we moved into this home. In 1978, when we were starting to have teenagers, we remodeled it into "the game room." So for 33 years now we have been adding items to the barn wood walls.

Walt shared my sentiments as the walls became bare: "It wasn't really as traumatic and sad as I thought it would be to take everything off the walls."

John worked so hard all day and into the evening Friday getting the building permit, a plumber and electrician to come for bids, getting the lumber for the framing, taking the barn wood off the walls--which Walt was able to help with; then pulling up the old orange carpet and scraping the glued mat from the concrete floor. (Walt had two pre-scheduled meetings to go to Friday afternoon, so he couldn't help as much as he wanted that day.)

Saturday morning, Janie & Shawn came with Katie, Heidi, Sam, Ashley, Michael and Ashley. Jacee and Jackson were excited to have cousins here! Julie and Maddie are helping take care of Jen's family this week.

All of them worked very hard throughout the day. We did have Conference on the radio but will have to read and re-listen to the talks. The men went to the Gen'l Priesthood meeting, including Sam for his first time, as he turned 12 in January!

Now the only things left in the room are the pool table, the long bench that my Dad had built for their family room in the 1970s--it held bedding for them, toys for our grandkids now.

Just one of the five tall book shelves from the north wall is left in the room. Only our family will know and appreciate all the effort it was to move everything out.

We can't thank John and kids, Janie & Shawn and kids enough for the quick progress in starting this remodeling. John got the framing done for the walk-in closet and the bathroom finished. He is staying on Monday to finish the framing.

Janice, my sister, will be happy with the great start. She has done so much for Mom during our 6 1/2 years being gone on missions since 1995, and these past two years of almost on a daily basis stopping in to see Mom and care for her in many ways.

WE ARE THANKFUL FOR FAMILY FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE!