I really need to do this so much more regularly! Fun things have been happening here!
Kim: My BYU student is an incredible writter! She took some English class that required writting poetry, which she moaned she hated, but she turned out some great poetry! One she wrote about my mother, here it is:
Once you lived so close.
You babysat me
You gave me your jewelry box.
Remember the ant that bit me?
You ushered me to the bathroom.
I thought you were mad.
I think i was wrong.
Time passed.
You moved, we moved.
The illusion of space means nothing.
You loved the Lord.
You were the city on the Hill.
Because of you, my candle will not be hid.
Your path was filled with logs and stones,
Each one a dragon defeated by you, the knight.
You knew you did not face them alone.
Then came the dragon they call Cancer.
We came to your side as you fought.
You fought valiantly, but it was too late.
The dragon conquered.
Then it carried you home.
The dragon that befriended you
In turn tore into me.
But why should it hurt?
This greatest distance is but a veil.
So far, and yet close enough to be almost tanglible.
The breeze from my hand makes it flutter just out of reach.
What dragon will carry me through?
Kim has written some lighter, fun poems too. She is very creative. I was hoping she would be home during summer, but she needs to stay at college. Fortunately she isn't that far! Last week I had to take Sean to the periodontist to check his gum graft... We picked her up and took her to lunch! Second time we did that... it was a lovely time!
Sean: Won't have to leave afterall for college! He was accepted into the BYU music program on a scholarship! He will study on the Organ. He had an amazing experience last week. His now former piano teacher was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir until today. He took Sean up to practice with him a week ago last Thursday, and the Tabernacle Organist gave him a tour of the Organ, and spoke with him. Some very touching moments happened there, it was a beautiful experience, one not to be forgotten! Sean now studies with a BYU professor, he is so diligent practicing. I don't know how much longer he will continue to teach piano lessons... his life is getting crowded. He still works for Subway but is applying other places. He applied at Macy's grocery store since they pay better, he will need a lot more money than he is getting at Subway. Also, a lady at Church that thinks highly of Sean is checking to see if she can get him a job at the bank she works at. Among his many activities, of course, is DATING!!! He went on a double date last week with his friend Chris to the zoo (what a sweet place to take girls!), and this coming weekend is Senior Prom. I keep begging him to let me make a special dinner for him and his friends that are going, but he just hems and haws! Sigh! It would be so much fun, and save them money! I mean, I'd make a wonderful dinner, make it a "retaurant" set up, and give them the entire downstairs to goof of, play games, eat a nice dinner, before going to the dance! I've DREAMED of doing something like that for years... but I don't think it will fly with them!, Oh, well. Won't hold it against them...It's his Prom, he needs to have fun and do it his way... it's his memory he is making. And I have 3 more kids I can talk in to doing it in later years!
Matthew: Slowly coming out of his shell. He is in a prestigious band at school, they had a concert a few weeks ago. Matt plays drums, and I could hear him! He did so well! This was a really cute concert... an "April Fools" theme! They had some funny acts in it.... like they started to do a serious number, then a "pizza delivery" boy yelled in the back of the auditorium "PIZZA! Who ordered Pizza?!" The band director and "Pizza boy" play acted off each other for several minutes, making the audience roar with laughter! In all, a great concert. I was so proud of my Matthew... he is so shy and quiet, but he did his part well. He has his own drumset downstairs and plays it well, but he always played quietly at concerts...until this concert. He was on beat, on key, and played several different percussion instruments. He played "bells" (Xylophone) and drums.
He also has done work outside with Steve this week. It has been Spring Break here, Steve stayed home from work to do yard work. He and Matt put up our backyard gate finally, so now we have a closed up backyard. They rototilled the garden to get it ready, burned weeds, and such chores. Matt is growing, too. He is finally as tall as me. But it doesn't stop Sean from giving Matt a hard time! Matt may now be 5 feet tall, but he still only weighs 80 pounds! He is skinny! I guess he doesn't take after me, 5 feet and round! But he doesn't eat much. Steve and Sean can eat us out of house and home... not Matt. Unless, of course, it is a pizza. Or ice cream. He is a junk food junkie! He also loves the outdoors and is looking forward to some upcoming Scout camping trips. Though, he touched Steves heart.. he choose to go with Steve on a trip instead of a Scout trip in the near future. But he is really looking forward to some regular camping trips coming up. And he is happy about his hair... I made him get it cut last month, and all his long curls are finally back! The girls at school are happy, too!
Erin: I really had reservations about home schooling her this year. She was so shy at school, I thought it would throw her into herself more. But she is actually reaching out more! She is finally taking dance classes now, as is Mary. They are putting on an Annie show several different places in the next few weeks. Now all the kids on the block are hanging out with her again with her. They are now ALWAYS here... at least this week! But Erin still prefers her very favorite friend Brickell. I ask Erin if she wants to go back to school next year, she digs in her heels. Maybe she really did just need one on one time with me this year. I don't know how quality it has been... I haven't felt well a lot. But something is working... I like that she is coming out more... doing more lately.
One thing we do a lot of together... is reading! Last year we picked up the "Fablehaven" book, and thoroughly enjoyed it! We got Kim into it... who also got addicted... and some other family members! The second one came out last year too, we devoured that one! The third one comes out tomorrow, we will be the first in line to get it! In between Fablehaven books, we have tried different series. We tried Leven Thumps, it wasn't too bad. It was okay if you can get passed a lot of just plain silliness... like a walking, talking, magical toothpick. A trust in "Fate" instead of "Faith", a magical "dreamworld", and other such things. We tried "Mice and Magic" this summer.... I just couldn't enjoy it! We are still working on the sequel "The Wizard of Ooze." But there have been other books we have shared too. My very favorite is "The Chronicles of Narnia".
Erin also bought herself a rabbit! It is a Jersey Wooley! Gads! Aren't there enough animals around here!? I let her do it, though. This is a sweet, gentle, furry thing that loves you to hold her all the time. Except in her cage! You don't try to pet her there. We learned they are very territorial... and they like their things as they put them. This also includes... HORRORS!... were they.... um.....how do you put this delicately.... potty themselves! This bunny doesn't like Erin cleaning things for her, she objects her "cleaning" her "area" each time Erin reaches in to do it! I kept hearing, "MOM! I reach in to clean Angel's floor, and she LUNGES at me!!!!" After some research, Erin and I discovered Angel was territorial and resented her efforts to clean her "area". And they will "fling" there.... waste... where they want it! UGH!!!! ..... This is worse then when Sean introduced us to the joys of pet rats years ago.... looking back, they were simply a piece of cake!!!!
Mary: Ah, Mary! Not much new on her... she is still ever the active, talkative, friendly and strong-willed little girl she has always been! I love her to pieces, I am absolutely proud of her. And she makes me EXHAUSTED!!!! She is also taking dance lessons. Mary just loves to play with friends in the neighborhood all day long. Barbies, dancing, play acting are the things she loves to do with them, or swinging in the hammock in the backyard with Matt and Erin when friends are not around. Mary is also learning to write her letters... she practices that every chance she gets.
Her favorite thing in the morning is to cuddle with me in the chair for awhile, then demand my homemade cocoa before breakfast. I'm just flattered... but I make her eat, too. This so reminds me of my Matthew when he was little. Matt would drag me out of bed before anyone got up, then have me make a large cup of cocoa. I would put some in a small cup for him, then we would climb on a chair and read. His favorite book was about dinosaurs, and he would guzzle his cocoa while I read to him. And as I read, he would refill his cup with my cup of cocoa. Eventually, he would finish mine and his while in the course of my reading about dinosaurs, and cars. So anyway, Mary is following suit after her brother, but no cocoa will do... only mine! I'm just honored!
Family History: Amazing. I have been looking for my Grandmother Fontaine's father for a long time. Grandma used to tell me stories of her growing up as a small child in France. They had a farm, and at the time she was the only child of Eugene Henry Clement and Anna Zoe Jacob. She remembered her father carrying her around on his shoulders telling her how badly he wanted to travel, and take her with him. He was in the military, and WW1 came. He went off to battle, and was killed. She was 5 years old. She said she had to work hard after that on the farm, as a little girl. She remembers her mother taking her to some river there to wash the clothes on the rocks. There was something about a partician or something separating them from others there washing clothes too. In 1920 or so her mother remarried an American, Donald Agar, and they immigrated to America, winding up in Worcester Massachusetts. I didn't realize it, but grandma did have step-siblings. Grandma married my Grandfather William John Fontaine. Grandma always told me how close she remembered being to her biological father, Eugene Henry Clement. And after marrying grandpa, they traveled so much she didn't see much of her mother after that. I have letters Anna wrote grandma... they sounded sad at times... I think they missed each other. In 1981, Grandma asked me to help her find her mother. I told her I would. I became busy with school, then marriage, family. But I finally found her mother about 2 years ago! Grandma was long gone... as was her mother. Anna had passed away not long after her husband did in 1982 in a nursing home in Ohio. I assume one of Grandma's step siblings lives there.
So last weekend a miracle happened... I found out some more about grandma's genealogy. I started searching French genealogy sites, google will "translate" for you. I found a Geneanet site in France, and what is obviously some sort of relative of mine put Generations of grandma's mothers side on there... going back in some lines to the 1600s. There was so little of her father though. But it did have his birthdate and death date, and it was confirmed to me he was an officer in the French military. I long to find out more of him.
Grandma was such an incredible lady.... a devout Catholic with a deep love of God. And she loved animals. Grandma said that as a child on the farm, she had to work so much she never had playmates, so the animals were her friends. Now, as an adult Grandma was a very friendly lady, she made friends everywhere. I know that the neighbors loved her, I am in touch with some of them still, they say she was very giving. Traveling with Grandpa while raising their children, they were very poor. But they always helped their neighbors, and neighbors helped them, she always said. And I have letters from friends she wrote to for over 50 years. But her animals.... she had a St. Francis of Assisi statue and bird feeder. She always fed the birds, and she also had chickens. Those chickens followed her everywhere! This was after Grandpa retired and they lived on some property with my parents. They had some black angus cows, intending them for food. But grandma of course named them.... they never did become food! Grandma loved them too much! Grandma was a beautiful person! And I am determined to find out more about her father.
