Spring is Here

Isn't it wonderful that spring has come! emily took these pictures of my yard. I do love all that Heavenly Father has made! As I grow older I am really thankful for my sight, i have often taken it for granted but now I am thankful everyday that I can see all the Lord has made.

This has been an eventful week, Floyd is now "middleaged" and Michael is still in the hospital and is doing better but scared everyone last night bya low blood sugar in the middle of the night!
I saw a picture of Chloe on Kim's blog; she is so beautiful! I can't wait until I see her! We hav so much to be thankful for!! I loved being able to see Floys's birthday and Libbi's easter pictures! Modern miracles, my wonderful children, grand and greats, how blest we are! Carolyn, Seth and the twins were so precious in their easter clothes as were Patti, Andrew,Peter and the twins!

Thank you for sharing! i love you each one and all! Momma

My cup runneth over-from the richest granny I know!

What a wonderful 70th birthday I have had. It started on friday when I recieved the wonderful booklet with all of your sayings about this ole granny that Kim had put togather! And a gift to cracker barrel! yum! I cried the whole day as I read and reread the things you said and then I went down memory lane and could see each of you as little children and all the fun I had watching you grow up; then Floyd and Laurel came on Saturday and took us to Mimi's cafe and I had Sole, my very favorite fish! And wonderful presents too! And balloons! And we spent the afternoon with Jean's kids watching U.Floyd and A.Laurel do the WEI! What fun!!

Then yesterday i had phone calls all day from so many of you. I heard from LaNelle in Utah, My sister Debbe in Ms. and Beth in SC and then Jean, Kim and Libbi all called. Then we went to Jean's for supper and received service and a wonderful birthday letter and ate steak and Gramps got me a fruit boquet instead of a cake(it was great) I got an original painting from Lauren and dirt from Emily-yes I requested soil for my container garden and I am so proud! I got phone calls from Pete and Jerry too!(along with Jeff they are the greatest sons in law in the world!)! Katie called from Argentina(I guess I had an international day!)What a thrill and on Saturday we got to see her when we talked to her on the skype! Can you believe it! After I got home last night I was seranaded in spanish by Will and Jakey! Then i went to my email and there was the sweetest beautiful quartet that sang Happy birthday to me; They were all dressed up in their Sunday best I cried as I watched those happy little faces, I wanted to reach out and hug them! And last but not least my David called and saved the best til last he said!

I want each of you to know that i will always treasure this birthday, for seeing your faces and hearing your voices and reading your thoughts made me the richest mother and grandma that I know! Thank you for the gifts I love each one but most of all thank you for sharing your time, it was my best birthday ever and it is not over yet, Libbi and the twins are coming tomorrow! It just goes on, who ever said that getting old is not fun does not have my wonderful family! I love you each one!!

New Beginnings

Kim just called me and told me that Kristin is in the hospital and they will bring Chloe into the world tomorrow! It only seems like yesterday that I was flying in from Chicago to see Jared! (I only have to look in the mirror to see that it wasn't yesterday!ha!) . Jared and Kristin's life will forever be altered once they hold that sweet little angel. What a wonderful new beginning for their home!
And you know I have the deepest love for that little girl, even before she gets here! I remember when my grandparents oldest grandson (Lil Marvin Kees ) first brought his wife and baby to see Mama and Daddy Kees, they ran to the car and just grabbed that little one and loved her and held her and went crazy over her-I was about 10 and could not for the life of me understand why they would love a 6 month old baby so much that they did not even know-for they had not seen Lil Marvin in about 5 years! But today I know and have a full understanding of that wonderful love that burns within me just as it does Kim and Jerry to lay eyes on that precious baby! I am so grateful that families are forever!

I am so glad that Peter is getting along good from his surgery! And it looks like a romance is beginning for he and Ellen! I have met Ellen and think that she is a lovely girl and I look forward to seeing her again soon. Peter is having a new beginning in his life! I believe he is twitterpatted!!

Now in case you have forgotton, the 9th of April will be a new beginning for Floyd! He will begin his second half century on this earth! Floyd, it will be wonderful! You don't look a day over 49! You are embarking on a wonderful time in your life! It does not seem like 50 years ago that they laid that big old boy in my arms! What joy you brought into our life!

Spring is almost here, and I am beginning a new garden and i pray it will produce! How I love to put my hands in the earth and plant anything for I know each spring as I do plant something it is a new beginning and new beginnings are wonderful! They renew your faith in life and you feel that much closer to the Saviour as you watch the miracle of birth-even if it is only a seed come to life!

I am thankful for seasons, for new beginnings and for wonderful children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, each one is so important! I love you all!

March is blowing in like a Lion

We have had rain, wind, sleet and snow! What a way to begin March!
so beartiful tho, it was like heavenly Father just painted the trees and srubs and yes, my daffodils too, with a white paint brush! How I wish I could paint!
Now for all the birthdays! Andrew, Jerry, Jared, Melonie, my nephew
Brandon and I hope I have not forgotton any! Happy Birthday to you all!!

Oh yes, my great grandmother, Harriet Morgan Kees, born on March 18th. And I want to talk about her . She was pregnant with her 12th child, having lost 3 as infants and her husband, John Quitman Kees took his boys Gus, Lee and Jesse(Daddy Kees) down to the swimming hole, but before he would let them swim, he dove in to see if it were safe and it wasn't and he broke his neck. So here is this young woman left with 8 living children and expecting another- a widow! did she falter under the task no way!
She held her head high and ran a farm and reared those 9 chidren and lived to be 94. Each of those chidren grew up respectable and made her proud. And they cared for and loved her and praised her all of her life.
I can remember sitting at her feet and thinking she was like a big doll, she had a rocking chair with birds carved out of wood on the arms of the chair, funny what you remember) she weighed about 90 pounds and was tiny, yet her big sons honored her for she was truly a "steel magnolia"! She went on to bury another daughter befor she died. Yet I can always remember her saying what a wonderful life she had and how gratful she was the Lord had allowed her to live so long! What lessons we can learn from her! Happy Birthday, Grandma Kees!!

Spring is coming!

As I walked out in my yard yesterday, I saw my daffodils sticking their heads up trying their best to bloom! this is always the first sign of spring. and I loved seeing them because these past weeks we have had too much excitement!

Now Gramps is my " bionic man" now that he has his new pacemaker! and he is just ticking away! We have thanked Heavenly Father every day for his kidney stones, for without them he could just have stopped ticking altogether, and we would not know that he needed a pacemaker! and who could put up with me but him!!

Happy Birthday to Beth and Kim and Happy Anniversary to Jeff and Jean! It only seems like day before yesterday that I was on an elevator in Manning hospital giving birth to Kim. What a scarey day that was! I tried to tell everyone she was born but they just patted me and said "hold on we will have you in the delivery room and then we'll see" When they pulled back the sheet they saw a beautiful baby girl just looking around! Were they shocked!! and it seems yesterday that I was holding Beth for the first time! Wasn't it only hours ago that Jerry and I were laughing in the Washington DC Temple as Jean and Jeff were about to be sealed, Jerry whispered "Granny, she is holding on to him for dear life" and she was! What beautiful memories! aren't we grateful for such wonderful memeories. And birthdays and anniverseries are great times to remember-I pray I don't lose my memory! It is one of God's greatest gifts!

I am thankful for all your blogs, so that I can feel that I am there watching the babies at Beth's grow up, watching LaNelle work with her 150 kids, watching Jared get ready for parenthood, listening to Jake be Jake(what joy he brings to each of us), seeing Will's room(since I have not seen him yet!)watching Lib's twins grow and sharing in your joys and pains, your sucesses and failures! What a wonderful thing the internet is!

I love you each one!

WHEN I COUNT MY MANY BLESSINGS

Happy new year to all and happy birthday to Pete, Rob, Will, Katlyn and Natalie!
I just want all of you to know that I have now written twice in this blog and both times I have erased it! I had two wonderful thoughts that are floating away in cyberspace! Oh well!
What an exciting time in our family! Lanelle has a wonderful new job and Will is coming home and Katie is leaving for Argentina! Happy and sad times, happy for LaNelle and happy to see Will and sad to see Katie go, but happy for all the fun she will have and the things she will learn. What wonderful blessings I have in my life. As a little girl, I prayed that I would have a big family! and soon it will grow larger when little Chloe arrives! how exciting!

If someone would check my bank account they would probably say "what has she accomplished?"very little by the world's standards! But I have so much! Each day when gramps and i wake up we thank the Lord that He has allowed us to live another day in this wonderful world of ours! We are so gratful that we can be a part of your lives. This past Sunday Emily spoke in "new Beginnings" and I was impressed not only with her talk but by the depth of her testimony! What greater blessing could I have than to know that my grandchildren are living the gospel because of their OWN testimonies!

I wish that I could be there when Kim takes Will in her arms and once more she knows he is here on our soil, what a glorious reunion! What a wonderful blessing!

Yesterday I sat in my car(had been to dr.s) in my driveway and watched the many birds in my backyard, busy scratching working away for their food. What a wonderful blessing just to watch them as they worked. Most of them were little grey birds; there was a beautiful red cardinal and his mate, a brown and orange one(the males have all the bright color)I thought as I sat there that most of us are like the grey birds-but yet our Father in Heaven loves each one of the grey just as much as He does the bright colored ones. Think about it, if it was not for the grey birds, the cardinal would not be as pretty because he would not stand out! So if you think you are a grey bird, just think how good you make the cardinals of this world look!Ha! But in Father's eyes each of us is his special child and has our own purpose and finding joy in that journey is the greatest blessing of all. And each part of our life isunique! When i was younger, I did not have time to sit and watch the birds or listen to the rain or ponder but now I do and I am thankful for that blessing! As I approach 70 I have so much to look forward too! Waking up each day and knowing that I don't have quite as many days left on this earth as I did once is a special blessing in its self for I can take the time to enjoy each moment, i sure wish i had known this at 30!

Thank you for all you posts( see,I am learning the computter language)it is a wonderful blessing to keep up with your lives this way.

And andrew, if you are reading this, you better get busy writing a deep apology on the "myspace" that you set up in your granny's name for I am losing friends because they think i don't want them for a friend on myspace, your days are numbered!

And yes, Andrew you are one of my many blessings too!

lov

A memorable Gift!

It is funny how that when you grow older(all of you are young!)you think back to your most memorable Christmasas and you can't remember what you got! Most of the time you remember what you gave and if they liked it, who you were with and have wonderful memories of the fun you had watching the little ones, ect.

As most of you know and some remember, I worked in Ms. for 5 years for the Dr.s Barnes! One being a surgeon and his wife a physchologist! It was interesting to say the least! We had patients who brought us goodies and presents each year-but there is one present that I shall never forget! We had a patient who had a history of blood clots from time to time and so she saw us on a regular basis. She had medicaid, which meant she had little of this world's goods. Both of her legs were amputated below the knee and she was blind. She was confined to a wheel chair. her husband had been a sharecropper(one who farmed someone else's land and was allowed to live on the property.) Although her husband was dead, she had been able to live in the old shack of a house. She had an appointment with us right before Christmas. As her grandchild pushed her wheelchair into our office, her face was all aglow! In her hand she held four twist tie plactic bags that were full to the brim of mostly leaves and dirt with a few pecans! She handed them to me and said for me to give Dr. Barnes, my self and the others in the office each one. "Merry Christmas," she exclaimed, so proud of her gifts! She went on the say that she had gotton her granddaughter to push her down to the pecan trees and she got on her hands and knees and picked up the pecans; because she was blind, she had picked up dirt, leaves and all! I quickly hugged her frail little body and realized that she had given the greatest gift I would recieve that year and maybe ever. She understood the joy that comes from giving! What a sacrifice she had made to get that gift to us. And as long as I live I will treasure that wonderful memory! For like the Savior she had given all she had to give!

I am so grateful this Christmas to have that wonderful memory, I am thankful that she was my friend and in her glowing face that day I saw and understood the real meaning of Christmas! How I treasured that little bag of pecans, a wonderful memorable Christmas gift!