Since I'm not able to be at the funeral I wanted to take an opportunity to share my thoughts about Grandma. This seems as good a place as any.
I'm probably the only one of my siblings who has any memory of Grandma Mildred and Grandpa's subsequent marriage to Cora. That being said, aside from a few pictures of us together, my only remaining memory of Grandma Mildred is seeing her body at her funeral. After discussing the details with Mom earlier this year, I'm beginning to realize even that memory is fragmented. While I don't remember much about Grandma Mildred, I do remember clearly the time when Grandpa and Cora were married. I don't remember a wedding (I assume I wasn't there) but I do remember a sense of unease about this new grandmother I was acquiring. How would this work? Would she be nice? Would I like her? Was she really going to try to be my Grandma? Was I going to be expected to treat her as such?
I don't remember the exact circumstances of our first meeting (I want to say it was when they came up to Utah for my baptism but I'm not sure) but I do remember a feeling of relief. I new instantly that I had nothing to fear of this woman. She would happily be to me whatever I wanted her to be, including my Grandmother. For a while I called her Grandma Cora (as if I needed to distinguish her from my "real Grandma") but before long she was just "Grandma" or "Grandma Romney". All I ever felt from her was unconditional love. She never judged me, never made me feel inferior, and never made me feel like she didn't consider me her "real grandson".
What an amazing woman! She was so good to Grandpa. She was so good to all of us. It must have taken a lot of courage to instantly inherit another entire family of children and grandchildren but you'd never know it. Even after Grandpa died she continued to be my Grandma, unconditionally. I will always love her for that. To be that person for me when she had no obligation to be.
I hope to one day see her again and express my gratitude.
Jason
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Grandpa and Grandma Romney
Grandpa:
I want to thank Amy for suggesting that we move to the blog format for our newsletter. I feel it will be easier for her and all of us to view as well as sharing it with others.
Carrie asked me a question the other day about the temple and in helping her with the answer I came across something in the Bible Dictionary that I feel is worth sharing with each of you. The dictionary described the temple in this way, "A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness." Only the home can compare in sacredness...I would hope that each of you regard your homes sacred enough to compare to the temple. I would hope they are free from jealousy, pride, selfishness, contention and full of love, honor, respect, and concern for each others welfare. Now I know that we are not perfect but we should be striving diligently to make our homes as sacred as the temple; a place where the Lord may come.
Many of you have been asking how Grandma Cora is doing. Let me tell you what I know. She is still in the nursing facility and doing well. I actually talked with her yesterday for just a moment. She got me confused with Uncle Howard because he just visited her while he was there for a baptism of one of his grandchildren. Her mind is fragile but seems to be in good health. It is evident that she will not be moving back to the house. I would ask that you continue to include her in your prayers. She has been such a wonderful influence for good to our family and she is the only grandmother and great grandmother that you know with my mother passing when Jason was only 3 years old.
I know Mom will tell you about a trip to Mexico. We have included some pictures. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.
Love, DAD/Grandpa
Grandma: The highlight of June was our trip to Mexico, compliments of Nicholas and Co. The Carribean is beautiful and the resort we stayed at was very nice. For the most part it was a very relaxing vacation. You have all heard about Dad's lost wallet fiasco, but I have to try not to let that overshadow everything else about the vacation. Anyway, we learned a few important things, some of which we we were glad we had done and some we wish we would have done.
1, Whenever you travel (even in the US) take your passport with you and keep it in a locked suitcase. If you don't have a passport, then don't carry your
drivers license in a purse or wallet because if the purse or wallet are lost, you won't even be able to get on the plane to come home.
2. Always take about $100 in cash and tuck in someplace in your suitcase which you keep locked while at a hotel. Don't ever plan on spending this money. It is there only for an emergency.
3. If you are traveling with a companion, each of you should take different credit cards so if someone loses theirs, you will still have some to use. Be sure to keep in that locked suitcase, a list of your credit card numbers and the phone numbers you call to report them missing.
The doggies survived are vacation as well. Sammy seems to age daily right before our eyes--it is difficult to watch him failing so rapidly. It's hard to estimate how much longer he'll be with us. In many ways it seems like he's already gone as he is nothing like he used to be. But we love him dearly.
I am excited to report that for the new school year I will be teaching literacy and pre-GED at the prison. It's not a certified position and it's only for the mornings, so I will continue to do my present job in the afternoon. It allows me to start doing a little teaching while I finish renewing my license and a chance to prove I can teach. I hope by next year to move into a full-time certified position, mainly because I want summers off!!
Dad and I also have purchased bikes and try to go riding four or five evenings a week just before it gets dark. It surely seems to be a better workout than walking is!! We have a long ways to go in building up our stamina.
Thank you all for joining in our belated father's day celebration at Mindy and Chris's house. It was a lot of fun and great that we could interact with Jason's family through the use of Joe and Amy's Wii. Even Nanny had fun bowling!!
We love you all and hope you have a fun July. Mom (Grandma)
I want to thank Amy for suggesting that we move to the blog format for our newsletter. I feel it will be easier for her and all of us to view as well as sharing it with others.
Carrie asked me a question the other day about the temple and in helping her with the answer I came across something in the Bible Dictionary that I feel is worth sharing with each of you. The dictionary described the temple in this way, "A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness." Only the home can compare in sacredness...I would hope that each of you regard your homes sacred enough to compare to the temple. I would hope they are free from jealousy, pride, selfishness, contention and full of love, honor, respect, and concern for each others welfare. Now I know that we are not perfect but we should be striving diligently to make our homes as sacred as the temple; a place where the Lord may come.
Many of you have been asking how Grandma Cora is doing. Let me tell you what I know. She is still in the nursing facility and doing well. I actually talked with her yesterday for just a moment. She got me confused with Uncle Howard because he just visited her while he was there for a baptism of one of his grandchildren. Her mind is fragile but seems to be in good health. It is evident that she will not be moving back to the house. I would ask that you continue to include her in your prayers. She has been such a wonderful influence for good to our family and she is the only grandmother and great grandmother that you know with my mother passing when Jason was only 3 years old.
I know Mom will tell you about a trip to Mexico. We have included some pictures. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.
Love, DAD/Grandpa
Grandma: The highlight of June was our trip to Mexico, compliments of Nicholas and Co. The Carribean is beautiful and the resort we stayed at was very nice. For the most part it was a very relaxing vacation. You have all heard about Dad's lost wallet fiasco, but I have to try not to let that overshadow everything else about the vacation. Anyway, we learned a few important things, some of which we we were glad we had done and some we wish we would have done.
1, Whenever you travel (even in the US) take your passport with you and keep it in a locked suitcase. If you don't have a passport, then don't carry your
drivers license in a purse or wallet because if the purse or wallet are lost, you won't even be able to get on the plane to come home.
2. Always take about $100 in cash and tuck in someplace in your suitcase which you keep locked while at a hotel. Don't ever plan on spending this money. It is there only for an emergency.
3. If you are traveling with a companion, each of you should take different credit cards so if someone loses theirs, you will still have some to use. Be sure to keep in that locked suitcase, a list of your credit card numbers and the phone numbers you call to report them missing.
The doggies survived are vacation as well. Sammy seems to age daily right before our eyes--it is difficult to watch him failing so rapidly. It's hard to estimate how much longer he'll be with us. In many ways it seems like he's already gone as he is nothing like he used to be. But we love him dearly.
I am excited to report that for the new school year I will be teaching literacy and pre-GED at the prison. It's not a certified position and it's only for the mornings, so I will continue to do my present job in the afternoon. It allows me to start doing a little teaching while I finish renewing my license and a chance to prove I can teach. I hope by next year to move into a full-time certified position, mainly because I want summers off!!
Dad and I also have purchased bikes and try to go riding four or five evenings a week just before it gets dark. It surely seems to be a better workout than walking is!! We have a long ways to go in building up our stamina.
Thank you all for joining in our belated father's day celebration at Mindy and Chris's house. It was a lot of fun and great that we could interact with Jason's family through the use of Joe and Amy's Wii. Even Nanny had fun bowling!!
We love you all and hope you have a fun July. Mom (Grandma)
Jason, Jen, Kelsey, Connor, and Parker Romney
Kelsey & Connor With Their Plants
Parker Smiling
Parker Playing In His Own Pool
Kelsey and Connor Swimming
We have been enjoying our summer so far! We haven't really done very much, but it has just been nice to be together and relax a little bit. The kids have been playing in the pool, arguing, playing the Wii, fighting, watching movies, and basically driving Jen bananas! But, they have also been super helpers this month. We started having them help with chores as soon as school was out. Jen made some special chore charts and they get a sticker each time they do a chore or help with a chore. When they fill up their sticker charts, they get a reward. We really thought this would only last for about a week, but it's been three weeks now and they are still loving it! They are doing a great job.We are also very happy to report that Parker FINALLY gained some weight! He is doing so much better with eating as he has discovered there is more to food than thickened milk (yuck!). He really likes macaroni and cheese, pizza, and crackers. We hope he continues to do well.Other than playing the Wii together, we have been enjoying taking care of our flowers, plants, and vegetables that we planted as a family last week. We started a bit late, but hopefully we'll have some tomatoes, hot peppers, watermelon and zuchinni this year! We are looking forward to the 4th of July this weekend--we will be going to Tanglewood Park for the best fireworks show you have ever seen! We hope you are all doing well. We love and miss you. Love, Jason, Jen, kelsey, Connor, & Parker
Chris and Mindy Rosqvist
Time sure seems to fly, especially when it comes to the newsletter!! Not much is new with us, just trying to enjoy our house and get all the projects finished. Chris has been a little overwhelmed by them because they take up all his free time, but they will all soon be done!! The current project has been fixing our garage so that we can park our cars in there. Chris put in our garage door opener a few days ago and has been working on epoxying our garage floor. He has run into a few roadbumps so that has been put on hold for a week or so. Then comes the building of shelves so we can store stuff out there. Then hopefully the garage will be done!! We are also hoping that the buliders will come put are front yard in this week. It will be nice to have some grass instead of dirt everywhere! Anyway- we were also realizing a few days ago that this week, the first week of July will mark 1 year from when Chris went into the hospital for his blood clots. He is still on coumadin and will be indefinitely, but he is healthy and able to do things as if it never happened. So we are greatful for that. I am just busy working and will be picking up some extra shifts in July and maybe August because we have lost some staff and also to help cover for summer vacations. But the pay is really good for those shifts so its definitely worth it! That's all for now-Love- Chris and Mindy
Carrie Romney
I have a little more direction in my life now. I started working for a marketing company that offers promotional products, company apparel, and printing services to organizations. For now i am just on commission with a small base pay. My position is sales rep/ marketing consultant. Right now as I am just starting, I feel just like a sales rep, but once things get rolling hopefully I will feel more like a marketing consultant. The advantage to being on commission is I get to set my own schedule. I have daily quotas I have to meet but I don't have to be in the office from 9-5 everyday and I have 4 days a month where I don't have to work if I don't want to. But since I am on commission, I am still working at Missionary Mall until I get more money rolling in. I also got a part time job teaching Spanish at a language academy in Salt Lake. I will be teaching small group classes and private lessons. Once I learn the curriculum well and prove to be a good teacher, I could teach business classes and get paid a lot more money:) So starting this week I will be working 3 jobs. So I just got really busy. I look at teaching Spanish however, as more of a hobby than a job. Hopefully soon I can quit Missionary Mall to free up some more time. After all, it is summer and I want to do fun things. Carrie
Joe and Amy Fail
June has definetely flown by. We are enjoying the warm weather as long as we are not in our apartment. We do not have central air conditioning, therefore some days are not so fun. We do have two small window air-conditioners, but those don't quite cut it sometimes. Thankfully, we are both busy and do not have to spend a lot of time at home. Poor Xander.
We haven't done too many exciting things this past month. We do occassionally go on bike rides together and ride to restaurants and movie theatres. Thankfully, Joe now wears a helmet. One of his professors bought one for him and made him promise to wear it. I tried to give him a guilt trip, but he wouldn't listen to me. I have seen way too many bike accidents with head injuries at work and if they were just wearing a helmet, their injuries wouldn't have been so bad.
We enjoyed going to Mindy and Chris's new house to celebrate Father's Day. It's always fun to get together.
We hope you all have a great holiday and enjoy the fireworks!
Love,
Amy and Joe
We haven't done too many exciting things this past month. We do occassionally go on bike rides together and ride to restaurants and movie theatres. Thankfully, Joe now wears a helmet. One of his professors bought one for him and made him promise to wear it. I tried to give him a guilt trip, but he wouldn't listen to me. I have seen way too many bike accidents with head injuries at work and if they were just wearing a helmet, their injuries wouldn't have been so bad.
We enjoyed going to Mindy and Chris's new house to celebrate Father's Day. It's always fun to get together.
We hope you all have a great holiday and enjoy the fireworks!
Love,
Amy and Joe
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