I've just gone thru some of my Grandma's papers. She died less than a month ago at 90 years old. Reading her memories and stories made me wish that I'd asked her more questions about her childhood.

She was the second of six children. Two of whom died in childhood. Her oldest brother Lamont (Monty) drowned at age 8 in the river while attending a birthday party. Her younger sister Beatrice (Beebe) died at age 6 of diptheria. Her brother Ben lived to adulthood, but died in his twenties of Alport Syndrome (the hereditary family kidney disease) leaving behind a young wife and six children. Grandma's poor parents, I can't imagine having to cope with the death of three of my children well before their time.

Grandma never talked much about her brother RL, the black sheep of the family. He had spent time in jail for writing bad checks and in Grandma's time you didn't talk about family ne'er do wells. I read an account of hers that talked about how RL was slow to speak clearly and that the teacher of the one room school house refused to work with him. When he did go to school, she would just give him paper and a crayon and tell him to draw a picture. Not surprisingly he often skipped school. It made me sad to think that the little boy was refused an education just because of a speech impediment. He died in 1992 or '93, I wish I'd been able to know him.

My grandma was a scrappy little girl. If she lived today she would have been a much more rebellious teenager than any of her daughters or granddaughters. She was out to have a good time. She loved high school and had a lot of friends.

Laurie is staying with us this summer. It's nice to have her here as I think her presence and help with kids/dishes is probably helping to make this summer more bearable for me as well as preserve my sanity. Other times I just can't wait for her to move out. Sometimes even a helpful family member can be an unwanted guest.

We joined a pool this summer and haven't gone as often as I thought we would, but a couple of weeks ago for the first time, Joel put his whole head under the water -- a very scary thing for him. I was so proud of him and loved seeing in his shining eyes that he was so proud of himself. He's my sweetheart.

Eli is a terror. The most adorable terror ever, but a terror nonetheless. He's very demanding and wants my attention ALL OF THE TIME. If I'm cuddling Cara, he has to cuddle with me too. If I'm trying to work with Joel, he has to be included. He's very sensitive and short tempered.

I think Kelly's dad and Melissa thought he was a brat when they visited earlier this year for Cara's blessing. They commented on his "interesting" personality. Of course I've loved watching him grow up. He's done so many "normal" things that Joel never did. Lately he's been pretend playing with pretend, meaning non-existent, objects. I know that is a step in typical child development, so I love watching him cuddle his pretend blue puppy or pretend his pretend blue car is zooming around a pretend road.

For some reason, the pretend objects he assigns to himself are always blue, the ones he assigns to Joel are always red and mine are always yellow. I think it's because when we play Pop up Pirate those colors are usually the color of swords we each normally use.

Cara is adorable, she seems more aware and more interested in her environment than either of her brothers and definitely more connected to me than either of them. She loves to watch her brothers play and Eli, who interacts with her A LOT MORE than Joel, can really get her laughing. I think she is going to keep her blue eyes and I hope she keeps her pinky complexion like her daddy's and doesn't get my sallow one.

It's been nice having the playset in the backyard. A week or so ago Kelly put up the teeter totter swing and Joel and Eli love to get on it and swing together and I thoroughly enjoy watching them doing it. Anything that Joel will willingly and happily do with Eli is so precious to me. Even though they are very different I hope and pray that they will be close and support each other's endeavors throughout their lives, and have each other to lean on.

I noticed in my BYU alumni magazine that Stephen Harvey Fletcher died, he was the patriarch who gave me my blessing. I loved him instantaneously-- he just radiated warmth and love. His obituary in The Daily Herald said he was known for his warm and generous personality and though I only spent a half hour with him in an empty room in the Jesse Knight Humanities building, I can attest to his wonderful nature.

I am so anxious for school to start. Eli is staring preschool too. I need some down time from kids to get my house semi decent clean and have some more time for myself. Joel had a wonderful kindergarten year and I hope he has another wonderful experience in first grade. Eli is supposed to be potty trained for preschool and he basically is, but he's not good about going to the bathroom on his own, without being prompted by us. He also thinks he has to take off everything below the waist in order to use the toilet. I know a preschool teacher won't be wanting to redress him all the time. My biggest fear is that they'll send him home saying he's not ready for preschool yet. I need that child to be ready for preschool and I think he will absolutely love it. Only time will tell.