***I recently read some letters of my great grandma. I found them fascinating and illuminating. So, I thought I'd try that venue here. Enjoy! (Melanie is my sister just younger than me.)
Melanie,
Are you back from your cruise? If you are, how was it??!! What was your favorite place to visit? Where do you wish you could spend more time?!
Sorry for the 20 questions but inquiring minds want to know!!!!Love you!!!
Sharla
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Sharla,
Your email made me smile.
Yes, I am back from my cruise. My two favorite places to visit were Venice (and Venice, and more Venice) and Turkey. Turkey surprised me by how much I liked it. The country side was beautiful. We docked in Izmir (Smyrna) first, and traveled to Ephesus, or the ruins of Ephesus, which were humongous...it just kept going. On the way we saw ancient forts every 15 miles or so built on the mountain tops because it used to be along the Roman trade route. But Istanbul was COOL! Everything was so eclectic and different from what I'm used to. The mosques were beautiful and they broadcast their call to prayers (which they do 4 times a day, I think) over the loud speakers throughout the whole city and you can hear the different mosques calling back and forth to each other. Plus there was really cool stuff there. I spent my wad in Istanbul. I bought a bowl, and these cool earrings, and two pairs of genie pants, and a coin purse and more. The ceramic work they do there, well, I just fell in love with it.
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Melanie,
I loved your e-mail. I've always wanted to go to Istanbul. It's top on my list of places to see. It sounds delicious. Where else did you go? Venice has always held my interest as well simply for the engineering feat of the whole set-up!I'm sorry I didn't answer your question faster. I put it off for a couple of reasons. 1. I couldn't come up with a generic or detailed answer that I felt like typing on my phone. 2. We had a hectic weekend (the description of most of my time). 3. Competition for my computer is quite fierce! As for your question, my first thought was to describe my life as busy or crazy or even chaotic, but you answered my questions honestly and with detail. You deserve the same from me. :)School is out which means no homework, and time to schedule as we desire for the most part. I've been teaching my two oldest to drive, potty training my two year old (when she wants to), nursing my baby, making my calendar events happen, grooming my 12, 10, 8, and 6 year olds to be the next Cali and Cecilia, and maintaining the reading level of my 10, 8, and 6 year old (trying to, anyway). Every now and then, we pump Disney music throughout the house and the kids dance and sing while they "help" me clean. Right now, Marching Band practices, parades, and fundraising for marching band are huge aspects of my time involving Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia as well. And, over the weekend, Ladd brought home some extra sod, so we've been trying to move the back of our yard to the right a couple of miles or two (or so it seems to our sore muscles :).Our summer is made up of "camps." The first one started this morning. We got Jarom off on time, but it took some considerable brain work to remember everything he should be taking and make sure he had it! Mckenzie has a day camp for Activity Days this Wednesday. Girls Camp for Cali and Cecilia is next week. That's about half of them.Garrett tried out for soccer last week, and we still haven't heard back from them, and don't yet know what that means for our calendar. Garrett, Cali, Cecilia, and Jarom are also working for their Olsen grandparents every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It's been a huge blessing for Garrett to have his Drivers License, although I've been stranded at home without a car or my phone. And, when I've had a car, Ladd's been stuck at work without one.As for me, I'm still wearing pregnant clothes for lack of anything else that fits me (my extra large clothes are too small). So, many of my thoughts revolve around how to loose weight when I'm still nursing. Self-control seems to be the problem. I'm also trying to fit in exercise to my insane schedule and then deal with sore muscles and thru-the-roof-pain in my feet. I've been seeing a foot doctor over the last couple of months so I could have the surgeries to correct my bone spurs permanently, but the doctor thinks that his inserts will solve all my pain, so we're trying them first. I'm leaning more and more to the surgery. . . .We have coming up in a couple of weeks the 50th anniversary for Ladd's parents and his grandmother's 100th birthday (on the same weekend, even!) Those events are wandering around in my brain. So is setting up dentist appointments for the whole family, or the eye appointments half of us need to have soon. Or, my hair that needs to cut. Or, that I need to cut Garrett, James, Mckenzie, Ruby, and Lena's hair.My house is in a constant state of flux and is terribly dirty all the time. My sleep is on the endangered list which makes what comes out of my mouth so silly. For example, all last week I thought it was supposed to be Father's Day yesterday. Enough that most of my children came up to me yesterday morning whispering, "Isn't it Father's Day??!!" Getting ready for church yesterday was a test in futility. James was searching for a certain pair of socks, so I told him that I did wash all his diapers. No joke. I actually told him that. Ladd has taken to blurting out random words while I'm talking to see if I'll say them. Most infuriating!!! :)My favorite quote I've heard my children say in the last month was Alyssa, who walked up to me while I was sitting in mom Olsen's living room with most of my sister-in-laws and moaned, "Mom! I just want to hit someone!" Not something you think is going to come out of a tiny two year old!I've been planning on making pizza for a week and a half now. The time just wasn't ever right. Jarom was the one who kept asking me if we were having pizza each night. So, in anticipation of Jarom being gone ALL week long, yesterday (yes, it was Sunday!), I skipped my nap and made a double batch of roll dough. I spent four hours making pizza, helping James make cookie dough, assigned Jarom and Ruby make brownies (Jarom needed snacks for the week and I was taken by surprise, so I was scrounging up some "snacks"), and then a pan of cinnamon rolls. Not how I wanted to spend my Sunday, but everyone seemed really appreciative!Well, that may not be a comprehensive view of our life, but perhaps it's a flavor of what's happening here. Sure love you!!Sharla
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Sharla,
Wow. Sharla, you're right. Chaotic doesn't cover it. If it helps, I pray for you every night. The pizza/brownies/cookies/cinnamon rolls...that's quite a day right there. And I thought it was Father's Day yesterday too. I hope you can get those bone spurs fixed. They sound painful. Maybe you can have surgery the same time as mom, then you can convalesce together. I love you.
Melanie
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Melanie,
Thanks for the reply. I've been scrubbing dishes for the last hour because of yesterday's adventure. On the upside, the edges and legs of my table are looking clean-er due to Lena scrubbing them (her punishment for throwing something at her locked door -- she was trying to discourage me from washing her mouth out. She called someone a name.). I've discovered she cleans fast. I guess since she does everything else fast, it shouldn't surprise me. She's currently in the corner until she willingly picks up the math flash cards she scattered all over.
James just informed me breathlessly that Mckenzie just threw up. I'm guessing she made herself sick by spinning for ten minutes straight. Never a dull moment!
Sorry to inundate you with details from our life. I really am interested in your itinerary!!!
Love you!!
Sharla
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