Grandma Ada (Life History Stories, #2)

Grandma Ada
(Life History Stories)

My maternal grandmother, Ada Thomas, was a great lady.  She was a wife, mother of ten children, grandmother to 60-something grandchildren and 70-something great-grandchildren, pianist, organist, swimmer, runner, tap dancer, music teacher, frequent bread baker (to feed those kids!), and life of the party!  She loved to have fun, and though she was married to a "health nut" she loved sweets, and always had cookies and other treats for us whenever we came to visit.  We sometimes referred to her as our "Cookie Grandma" when I was little, but we always called her "Grandma Ada."

I loved spending one-on-one time with Grandma Ada.  She was so much fun.  I have fond memories of spending the night at their house; grandma took me to the mall in Scottsdale near their home and we had lunch (and dessert!) at Duck and Decanter.  I don't remember how old I was (maybe 12?) but I will always remember that; just hanging out with my Grandma (who I thought was beautiful and "cool"), window shopping and talking.  I loved every minute of it.

I also remember playing the organ at their house (mostly just playing WITH the organ, rather than actually "playing it").  Grandma would sometimes ask me to play something for her on the piano, which was intimidating, since she played so well, but I did it anyway.  Once after I stumbled through a hymn or something, Grandma taught me an important lesson I will never forget, and for which I'm continually grateful.  She said, "You don't need to look at your hands when you play... just look at the music, and feel the notes with your fingers.  You know where they are.  Keep your eyes up.  You waste too much time looking back and forth between your hands and the notes on the page."  I was surprised!  I don't think anyone had ever taught me that before.  My piano teacher must have mentioned it sometime, though I don't remember if she did, but some reason when Grandma Ada said to do it, it made an impression.  I was certain I would not be able to do it, but Grandma firmly insisted that I try.  I really struggled, but I kept working at it.  I forced myself not to look down at my hands.

I think I learned more from that one "lesson" with Grandma Ada than in all the years I had taken formal piano lessons.  Over time I was able to get better at keeping my eyes on the music, and my piano playing improved vastly because of it.  To this day I avoid looking at my hands when I play.  I think it's one of the reasons I enjoy playing the piano, and I always think of Grandma Ada when I do. 

Student Council

Mary decided to run for student council (better known as STUCO at our school) this semester..... vice president.  She lost to a sixth grader but I'm so proud of her for working hard and being brave.  I'm sure she will try again next year.

For her speech she bravely SANG, unaccompanied, in front of the entire school... and it was amazing!  We wrote words to the song "When Will My Life Begin" from Tangled.  (See lyrics below.)  It turned out really cute.  People were very impressed.  She has a really lovely singing voice and did a fantastic job.

Though she didn't win she was selected as a student council representative for her classroom, so she still gets to be part of the action. 

Mary's Student Council Speech 

(sung to the tune of "When Will My Life Begin" from Tangled)

Seven a.m., the usual morning lineup:

Do my chores and pack my lunch for school

Practice the piano, eat breakfast, get my backpack

Grab my coat, head to flag ceremony, it's cool!

And then I do seat work

And math and science too

Diagram sentences, write spellings words, a few

I'll read my his'try book

And recite phonograms

And I get A's on report cards too

Then one day I decided to run for STUCO

I would really like to help our school

I will do my part to help us all grow.

I will lead, I will help, I will serve, I'll be cool!

So if you vote for me

Your choice will be the best

You won't regret it ever

Put me to the test

Because I'm Mary and I'm perfect for the job

The best vice president I will be

A perfect job, very,

For me cuz I'm Mary

Our school will be the best!

Follow the Steeple

My book club is doing something different this month... writing! Actually, we are reading too... books about writing... and then writing stories from our own life.   Here is one from my childhood.


Follow the Steeple

"Just follow the steeple." said Aaron.  "It will lead us home."

I believed him.  He said it with complete confidence, and I had known him my entire life... all five long years at the time... so I had no reason to doubt him.  Besides, he was a boy, and since I had an older brother and was used to letting him tell me what to do, it seemed that Aaron was the obvious leader over me and my best friend, Liselle, who was also Aaron's cousin.  Liselle and I simply trusted Aaron in our 5-year-old way.

The three of us lived on the same street in Mesa, within a few houses of each other, and attended morning kindergarten at a nearby elementary school.  Our mothers were friends, so carpooling was natural.  On this particular day, someone was late picking us up after school (we didn't keep track, so I have no idea whose turn it was... we simply trusted them too).  We were tired of waiting what seemed like an eternity, though it was likely only a few minutes longer than our normal wait.

I don't remember who had the brilliant idea of walking home, but it seemed like a good plan to our grumbling tummies.  It wasn't far; certainly it was within walking distance.  And the weather was nice (always an important consideration in the Arizona desert), but it would require crossing a busy major street in mid-day traffic, though that didn't seem to concern any of us much.

What did concern us was that we didn't know the way home.  Since we were used to traveling to and from school in a car, and our young minds had not yet developed much sense of direction, we were rather stumped at first.  We seemed to know the general direction, but not how to navigate the streets around the buildings between the school and our homes.

At this point, Liselle and I gave up.  Waiting seemed preferable to getting lost.  But Aaron was undaunted.  "Just follow the steeple," he said.  That perked us up.  Liselle and I didn't even question this; we knew he was right.  The church, whose tall steeple towered above the houses and trees, stood at the end of our quiet suburban street, and we walked there to attend services every Sunday.  We knew exactly where it was!  We could see it from the school!  And because we trusted Aaron, we knew the steeple would lead us home.

And somehow it did.  I guess Aaron deserves some credit too, for he was able to keep two gasping 5-year-old girls pressing forward on what turned out to be a much longer walk than any of us anticipated.  Taking a route that I now know to be very much "the long way home," we arrived at the church, exhausted and hungry (it was now well past lunch time), and found our jilted chauffeur driving around frantically to find us.  Down came the car window and we heard an anxious voice exclaim, "You walked home?!  How did you know the way?"

We three triumphant hikers simply smiled and replied in unison, "We just followed the steeple."

Catch up... again... and thanks to "Anonymous"

Sorry I have been MIA for a couple of weeks. I put everything aside for a while when I was feverishly planning an event for church that was moved up 2 weeks from it's original date. I was a little crazy for a while, but it went well.

So, here is an update on what else has been going on.

Collin started his first season playing flag football. He is super excited. Jack started T-Ball, and is very excited too. So, with practices for both of them twice a week, and games on Saturdays, that will keep up busy for the next few months.

The kids have spring break this week. We spent the first few days of it a my parents' cabin, and I didn't take one photo. Oops. Besides preparing meals (simple ones!) I did practically nothing but sit by the fire and read. No projects this time. We did take our usual walk around the lake though. The kids played outside a lot, and got along well. It was a nice, quiet, relaxing get away.

One night at the cabin we watched this movie together. I loved it as a kid. I hadn't seen it in a years, but for some reason I thought of it recently and checked it out from the library. It was just as fun as I remembered. Though the first half is a little slow, we all laughed ourselves silly during the hilarious second half.

Last night we watched "It's a Wonderful Life." When I realized our kids had never seen it, I decided not to wait until Christmas because it's such a great film. So, I picked it from the library too. It's funny though... Jay and I have both seen it many times, but always on TV, so I guess we either always missed the beginning, or it is heavily edited for television, because we both kept saying, "I don't remember this part" during the first third of the movie. It was fun to finally watch the whole thing all the way through.... with no commercial breaks!

Last night we took the kids to dinner at a new local restaurant. I have to say that my kids are pretty darn good ones, and are quite well-behaved in restaurants. Anyway, after we finished our meal, we noticed our server had kind of disappeared, and Jay was getting annoyed because she hadn't brought the check yet. Finally, we saw her across the room and Jay motioned to her that we would like the check. She approached us with a huge smile and said, "Well, actually, some anonymous person has already paid for your meal, and I can't tell you anymore than that. So, have a good evening, and come see us again."

We were quite surprised of course. It drives me crazy to not know who did it, but I can understand their desire for anonymity. It was a good lesson for the kids as we explained on the ride home that there are kind and generous people out there who do things just to be nice, not for recognition. In family prayer that night, Jay made a point of giving thanks for that person.

Whoever you are, thank you!

The Wisdom of Liz

Yesterday I attended a 60th birthday party for a friend. I know it sounds funny to say that I have a friend who is old enough to be my mother, but it's true. We are really just friends from church; it's not like we hang out together. But honestly, I would love to hang out with her. She is a really fun, amazing, talented, and intelligent woman.

She decided to face 60 years head on, and have a big party for herself. There were at least 80 women, of all ages there. We had a nice lunch, and then were entertained by this guy, who even though I have seen him perform 5 or 6 times (and mostly the same stuff) I still enjoy it as much as the first time. It was a blast!

She also sent us home with goody bags filled with all sorts of funny items as reminders about life lessons and such. Very clever. One of the things she gave us was a cute compilation of short thoughts, called, "Some Stuff I Want to Remember" which she put together about 10 years ago for a reunion. I know that some of them aren't original, but I don't know their sources, and some of them may be her own, but thought I would share some of them with you:

SOME STUFF I WANT TO REMEMBER:
Liz Barrett

- No matter how old you are, there's still a lot to learn.
- If you don't take time to sharpen your saw, you'll spend lots more time sawing.
- She that is easily offended, easily offends.
- The older you get, the smarter your parents get.
- Constant complainers are never welcome.

Definitely good things to remember.

Lots more like that. I will share some more later.......

The Lesson of the Lock

Last week, as we prepared for a Primary Quarterly Activity Day, one of my counselors, Catherine, was at the church with the ward librarian making copies for one of the activities. As they were finishing up, the librarian had to be somewhere else, and since Catherine was just finishing cutting and folding some papers, she said she would go ahead and lock up.

The librarian left, and when Catherine finished a few minutes later, she closed up the library, and went to lock the outside door of the church. The key fit in the lock, but it would not turn. After trying for several minutes without success, she called me and asked if the building had been re-keyed. I wasn't aware of that happening, but since I live just across the street, I said I would be right over with my key and maybe we could figure it out together.

I tried my key and the same thing happened... nothing. The key slid into the lock easily, but simply would not budge. I struggled with it until my fingers were sore. We tried our keys in the other doors and they worked just fine. Obviously something wasn't right with the particular lock we needed to lock!

We knew we couldn't leave the church unlocked. I finally suggested we should call one of the counselors in the bishopric and hope someone was around and that they could help us. Since it was the middle of the day in the middle of the week, it wasn't very likely that we would find any men home since they were probably all at work. But what else could we do?

I was about to run home to get the cell phone numbers of the bishopric, when I realized how ridiculous I had been. I had forgotten to do what we teach the Primary children to do. I said to Catherine, "I need to try one more time." As I walked back to the door, I silently pleaded with Heavenly Father for help.

Once again, I put the key into the lock, and just as I expected, it turned smoothly without any effort at all. I was very humbled and grateful. I needed that.

It was such a small and simple thing, but I was anxious to tell my children about the experience later that evening after family prayer. I saw the hand of the Lord in my life, and I needed to share it.

Justice

So, I had JURY DUTY today.... M--- County Superior Court. It was quite an experience. Honestly, I wouldn't mind serving on a jury.... as long as it didn't conflict with the rest of my life. So I was hoping to be excused when I proclaimed that I am the mother of 3 young children and it would be a hardship for me to serve for more than one day... today.

It was nothing like you see on TV, which makes it seem very solemn. Everyone, from the woman handing out paper work and doing the orientation, to the Bailiff and court reporter, to the Judge, was cracking jokes right and left. They all seemed to really enjoy their job.

So, 55 of us sat in the court room answering lots of questions while the attorneys took tons of notes. The defendant, an African American man accused of transporting and selling drugs, looked respectable in his suit.

By lunch time, we still had a ways to go, and I hadn't been dismissed yet, even though I had made my case. I should have just answered yes to the question, "Do you think drugs should be legal for personal recreational use." The handful who did answer yes, were dismissed right after lunch.

When we got back into the courtroom after lunch, the attorneys all took a really long time coming back into the room, so the judge entertained us with stories and answering questions. (Seriously, he loves his job. He took the mandatory retirement at 70, and came back to work the next day at $15/hr. because he loves it!)

Then the attorneys came back into the court room and asked for a side-bar. They all left the room for another 5 minutes, after which the judge came back in and said, "Well, he plead guilty. You can all go home." Whew!

So, I got my "proof of service" paperwork and got on the shuttle to go back to the parking garage, along with the other people from my group.... and the public defender, who was excited to get to go home early too.

During the short ride, he told us that after the lunch break he asked his client if he still wanted to go through with it, and he said, "No way!" The reason? There was not one African American among the prospective jurors.

The judge also told us that the defendant will be sentenced to 5-9 years. He had prior convictions.