Sisters Week

Dear Sisters,
     One of my assignments for the writing class I am taking is to write 2 times on our blog before my next lesson. I was going over the notes I wrote while at the ranch last week for Sisters Week and thought I would write about a few things that we did, especially for Our Sweet Donna, who could not be there with us.
     The first weekend we spent time with Uncle Bart,  Cathrine and Ben and their families. Valeria, Ben's wife, taught the little girls how to make ribbon head bands. She had boxes of yarn and ribbon spend out around her on the ground under the shade of the awning of her trailer. She and Catherine and the girls sat there for hours making beautiful headbands, with ribbon streamer, some even had flowers. The girls were so excited.
     The Children had so much fun feeding, holding and loving the baby goats. There were new ones born everyday. We stood just off the back porch and watched Mother Nature bring two sets of twins into the world.  Of course there were two or three babies who couldn't get attached to their mommy's, so Ruth started teaching the children how to feed them with a bottle. Uncle Lee warned her that if she started feeding them, she would have to take them home with her.
     Saturday night, we had hamburgers and hotdogs and some yummy salads.  When it got dark we built a fire out by Brad and Lilly's camper and they brought out their radio and turned the wild music up loud. (Mother would not have approved!)  Lilly did a strip-tease for us. (Mother would not have approved!) Even Janice was shaking her stuff.  In the morning, she said that the dancing made her feel better.
     Monday morning, we set up the quilt, passed everyone a notebook and started telling stories. We did some timed writing, giving everyone a beginning sentence and then timing them for fifteen minutes.   The first one was, " The first time I saw Penny......"and then they would each write about Penny and father and mother and the time she drove the car off the road, because she was so mad at father.  We got quite a few stories written this way. And we quilted some more and only gossiped a little. We finished the quilt on Wednesday and wished it had lasted a little longer, it was so fun.
     On Wednesday, I decided I was tired of the boxes of food stacked in front of mothers china chest, so we brought in a wheel barrel and started chucking everything out of the pantry. The only thing we saved were some big plastic containers of Spices. We moved everything that was related to baking over to the baking cupboard by the door. We cleaned and painted the pantry and the next morning moved all of the food we brought into the new clean pantry. Wow!! That looked good. The girls kept commenting on their total Surprise! that Jelene had so much energy and was in a cleaning frenzy.... I said. "Well, since I have a maid at home, I guess I've been storing up cleaning minutes and didn't even realize it."
     We only had one real good fight with Janice the whole week. Helen informed her that we were going to go through the upstairs sheet and blanket shelves and she told Helen that the second shelf was hers and not to touch it. And Helen kindly said, "Yes, we will go through the second shelf too."  Janice got mad and would not back down.  We could hear her upstairs later, moving everything from the second shelf into her room.
    Thursday I made it up to the middle bedroom to clean off the shelves that held some of Mother's school papers. I wanted to go through them, to see if there was anything we might need for our book. I found twelve large manila envelopes stuffed with decorations for each month of the year. Each envelope had a month written across the top , January, Snowflakes, February, Valentines and so on down the year. They each held pictures and cut outs from coloring books and magazines,  to be copied or traced, then colored and glittered and cut out to hang in the window and on the door, to bring each season around in it's proper turn.
     The second shelf was devoted to Cheerios boxes that were cut up and saved, just in case Mother needed to send pictures between two pieces of cardboard to protect them. This shelf also held every eight by ten manilla envelope anyone had ever sent her, to be reused again, with a new label taped over the old one. (I have a bunch of those in my cupboard, as we speak!)
     On the bottom shelf I found two rolls of butcher paper rolled up with two big elastics holding it tight. Unrolling them, I found the words to all the songs we sang at Christmas and Thanksgiving, when we all gathered at the ranch in years past. Mother had them all printed out in her neat handwriting, so the grandchildren could read and sing along with us as we sang our favorite holiday songs.  As I looked at the words, I could here the clear sounds of us singing, "Ding, Dong, Ding, Fa, La La La La La... all of us gathered around mother at the piano.
    I rolled the songs back up and fastened the elastics to the ends, and placed the rolls back on the top shelf. Beautiful memories. Beautiful Mother.
    My sweet sister Kay, loves to talk before she goes to sleep. So, as we lay in Mother's bed each night, we talked about the things that happened that day. Then when she was ready to go to sleep, she would say, "Goodnight, sis." And I would say, "Night, Love." One night as I was falling a sleep I realized that I have shared a bed with her more than anyone else beside my husband.  She was always a nice bed partner.  We were sharing a bed the night Mother woke us to watch Lilly make her grand entrance into the world. And now every time we go to the ranch we get to share Mother's bed. Because we are the oldest. We're old now. We deserve the best bed. We're old. And I am the bossiest. And I'm old.
     Mother's bed is soft. You just kind of sink into it and let out a big sigh and relax and sleep. As I lay there I wondered how many nights she wept in this bed for her children, the way I have in mine. As we grew older and told her of the sad times we had as children, things she didn't even know were going on in our little lives, did she weep for us, and wish she could have protected us from all the bad in the world? I'm sure she did.  Did we make her sad by some of the things we said? I'm sure we did. Watching her great big family grow brought her joy and pain. It's called Life.  And She Marched On! Mother was a wonderful woman. She taught us to march on too. 
      Loves and Kisses, Jelene
    

    

News Flash

"Amazing Things Happening in Lexington KY"
Troy hasn't had any restless leg syndrome in the two weeks that I have been religiously rubbing oregano essential oils on his feet each night. If I forget and say goodnight, he will get this sad look on his face and say, "Aren't you going to rub my feet first?"  Then, even though I wash my hands afterwards, I can still smell Oregano in the morning when I wake.

Thank you Lilly for sending me what I need to help Troy. You are so sweet to me.

Love you all,
Donna

Mother in Vegas

I remember when we moved to Las Vegas and Mother got a job at Wenchell's Donuts. I don't really remember how much she worked. I think she worked while we were at school because she was home most of the time with us.
Then I remember when she changed to Arby's. I didn't really like that so much, because I thought it was beneath her and I wished she could do something better.

Then at Cannon Jr High, she volunteered to accompany everyone on their Solo and Emsemble music because everyone had heard her practice with me and knew immediately that she was good. From that point on, she did things for the band director and it wasn't long before they asked her if she would accept a full time positoin with the school. I think she really enjoyed those years at the middle school. I know that I felt fortunate to have her accompany me whenever I needed her to. I took her for granted a lot.

Anyway, she worked there until she decided to retire. I'm not even sure how old she was when she stopped working. It had to have been close to 70.

Our Mother surely taught us all to have a good work ethic in life. She always led by example and very rarely asked us to do something that she hadn't done a million times her self.

I didn't ever really try to get a way with anything in high school. I knew deep down that she would find out and I wouldn't have her trust and I'd be screwed for sure. But, on graduation night I couldn't resist so I lied and begged and she VERY hesitantly let me go do what I had planned. But, of course she managed to call the hotel room just when I was getting sort of drunk, and a boy answered the phone at the party that was supposed to be just me and my best girl friends. She had inpecable timing.
So, she said that I should stay and just come home in the morning as soon as I woke up. I had a terrible time the rest of the night and got up earlier then anyone else and went straight home. She never said a word to me about it. That was my punishment I guess. She definitely had her way of making me feel like I had just broken her heart.

So, Sisters, I know that you are all experiencing these fun things with your daughters as they grow. I'm enjoying mine so far, but it gets more spicey as they mature. I see a horror story in my future...lol.
Love you
Donna

Best Friends

In 1976 Biccentenial Year, the Pearson Sisters were all growing, and believe me it was in more ways then one. Oh well, we were all beautiful. Helen, our big sister that we looked up to, had her nose into her school books like a good girls, but don't look too close, there was usually a romance novel tucked in that history book. She paved the way for all of us at Lincoln High School, and that was a tough job.
I would have to say that some of our teachers, being upstanding good Mormons in their community were prejudice towards folks that were rumored to be pligs.
Since Mother home schooled us, our education was monitored by Lincoln Co. School District and we took tests twice a year to make sure we were on target.
So winter came on and we had all taken such growth spurts that we found ourselves out of boots and into the boys old snowmobile boots trudging along in the snow doing chores everyday.

Helen, Beth and I milked a cow every morning and night. You know what that does to a girl? Well, it makes them hungry, and you know what happens when you get hungry...well, you eat.
We had 3 milk cows and 150 range cattle to feed each day. The snow got too deep at the house, so we herded them down to the 160 acres that we owned 3 miles down the canyon. That was all well and dandy, but then they still had to be fed every day. We hurried everyday to get out school work done and then tramped down the road 3 miles in boots that were 4 sizes too big. We thought nothing of it, but everyday when we got back, we were starving and guess what we did...Eat...  Peanut butter and honey sandwiches, with a large cup of whole milk. And that's all fine and dandy until you turn that age that your body revolts and starts packing on the pounds.

We didn't know what was going on, we just kept packing those boots 6 miles a day, every day. One day as we were on our way home, with about a mile left I looked across the road to Beth and I realized that she was my best friend. Now anyone who has a little sister knows that they can be such a test. But Beth wasn't just my best friend, she was my only friend. I ran over to her and gave her a hug and said, "Do you know you are my best friend?" She replied in her best comedic voice, "Who's kidding who, I'm your only friend. "

Anyway, that winter was a turning point in our lives in more ways then one. We went from 125 lb girls to 145 lb girls.

Mother taught us so many songs, she had such vision for us. It's amazing how much we want out of our children and basically we can only influence them for so many years and then they grow up and do their own thing and there is nothing you can do about it.

That is the sad and happy part of the story. We all have control of our own lives and can lead them where ever we please...

Love you Ruth.

Mother's Gift to Janice

You know it hit me the other day, while talking about Mother and Janice and Jeremy, that we don't always know how the decisions that we make will affect everyone like they do. We live one day at a time and make choices each day that affect everything down the road.

Do you realize that Mother gave Janice an amazing opportunity of growth to have Jeremy? We all wanted a family and were pretty determined when it came time go out and find love. Janice was protected, but boy when she saw an opportunity for love from a man, she took it. And from then on each day, because of love and devotion, Mother helped Janice be a Mother.

Janice had been Mother's helper for 40 years. I remember Mother saying, "I don't know how we would have done it with out Janice. " So she gave back to Janice when the opportunity came. At some point, Mother decided she wanted to give Jeremy the opportunity to be raised like her other children had been. It was her upbringing, her heritage, that made her have these values and depth of love in her.

She knew that Jeremy would need special attention and her values put her making the next step that she felt would be good for them.

I was explaining how Janice was part of our lives to my friend and then found myself going into how Mother lived with them and all the years of devotion to them. Then realized that Mother was unknowingly giving back to Janice after all that she had done for all of us.

We all have this loving heritage and need to praise God for it. When you look out into the world and see peoples empty lives, fretting about their lawsuits and fussing about their perscriptions, you just have to realize what God blessed us all with coming from hard working, deeply loving, independent, courageous people. We have good blood running thru our viens. Lets keep working on these values.

Love Ruth

"Oh Divine Redeemer"

Dear Sisters,
      Did everyone notice....Ruth Blogged! I'm about to fall off my chair. How Exciting!!  You go girl.. I am so happy to hear from you. I still don't know how you found the time, with everything else you are doing.  But, now we will expect you to write at least once a week! Please keep writing.
    Every Sunday morning at 9:30 sharp, Linton turns on the tv to 'The Spoken Word' and listens to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing their Sunday morning program.  We call it, 'Grandpa's Church'.  I ask Janae, who lives in Salt Lake, if she ever watched it and she said, "Yes, we watch it every Sunday morning, before we go to church and Boston points to the tv and says, "Grandpa's Church."
     Last Sunday the choir sang, "Oh, Divine Redeemer" and I could hear Father and Mothers voices singing, their sweet harmony blending together. Especially at the end, when Mother took the lead and Father sang the harmony part. How I loved it when they sang that song together.  Then, I remembered way back when was about 6, we went to Grandma's house to see mother on the tv.  The Singing Mother's from her stake got to go to Salt Lake and sing in the Tabernacle during Conference. She was wearing her beautiful, beaded, turquoise dress she bought for this special occasion. The camera's scanned the singing ladies and sure enough, there was my very own mother, singing so beautifully with all those other mothers. I can still see the image of her singing there, in my mind today. I remember feeling so special, because, My Mother was one of the singers on the tv that day. I'm so glad she took that opportunity to do something for herself. We were so proud of her.
     Isn't it funny, how we don't think our mother's are neat, until they do something for themselves. We are not cool when we are sacrificing our lives for our children every day, bending over backwards to make their lives easy and pleasant. They don't respect us then. It is only when we do something for ourselves that they respect us and say, "Wow, look at my mom! She loves herself. So I will love and admire her, too."
     My sweet Janae, is going to a counselor, to help her with her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Her counselor told her that mothers do the same things over and over everyday.  So she asked her, " How can you make the things you do everyday a little different so you can bring more Joy into your life."  She is going to have a shower everyday. How can she bring joy to  her shower? Maybe turn on her favorite cd. Use a beautiful, smelling soap.  She has to do the dishes everyday. How can she bring Joy into doing the dishes? Sing while you do the dishes. Listen to Mozart.  If your children see you happy, they will be happier. If your children see you being joyful, they will be joyful. Everything you do becomes an example to them of how to live their lives. You can't tell them anything, you must show them, by your example.  Such a great idea. Young mother's feel so trapped sometimes. They need to take care of themselves, too.
     I love you all and hope you will take some time to spoil yourselves with something new that you love.  Love yourselves, I know I sure do love you.           Kisses, Jelene

Our Talented Days of the 1970's

Do you all remember the Gene Gelznick Talent Show? I remember wanting to be cool and somedays really thinking that I was. We went shopping with Father and Mother in Salt Lake and bought "brand new" shoes (You know the kind that have never been worn before). They were black, cute, high heels. Do any of you remember? We bought 4 white shirts, which were something special because white shirts didn't fare well in our rough lives, and we had already made 4 black skirts and 4 red plaid vests. O Boy, did they look cute.
I remember thinking Father was so nice to buy  us all new shoes. I was sixteen and I think that was my third or fourth new pair that Father had bought me in my life.

So, we sang "Sweet Gypsy Rose" or "Bumble Bee" and won 2nd or 3rd place. We won a camera and that was my introduction to photography. I took so many great pictures with that camera.

I thought we were pretty good back then. I wish we would have been able to comprehend how good we were and put more into finding our niche and learned how to personify every song we sang like the group "Ambiance".We would have gone off the charts somewhere I'm sure. Maybe....

Love Ruth

My Rooster Problem

So just last week I looked at my chickens and thought, "Those hens are getting really big, they should start laying eggs soon." Then a few days later, I was out there with Reagan and she said, "Mom, Layla just jumped on Maggie." I turned around and I took one look at her and I knew she was a he. Then within seconds Helen (my favorite chicken) jumped on Blair. Needless to say that those big hens are now known to be Roosters and I am shocked. So Layla is now Linny and Helen is now Henry.
These are sad days. Now we have to decide which we are going to let Dad eat.
Reagan is finally coming to terms with it though. I told her we will get some more chicks for her to raise and she is warming up to the idea. I've never met such a chicken lover.

Donna

Getting Old

Dear Sisters,
     I got an invitation to Joseph Knudson's (an old class mates)  60th Birthday Party, clear back in December. The party was going to be held at his mansion in Centennial Park, Arizona on January 7, 2013. I was really looking forward to seeing some of my old classmates.  I had my hair cut, lost 10 pounds, picked out some cute jeans and jacket and scarf to wear.  I wanted LeAnna to go with me, but at the last minute, her baby got sick so she couldn't go. Helen was going to come up and go with me, but she decided it was too late in the evening and she hadn't been feeling well. So I decided I could be a big girl and go all by myself.
     I found a place to park close by and started walking up to the house with a bunch of other folks. I began to notice that they were all wearing beautiful evening gowns. Oh, well, I had brought a birthday gift for Leann, Joseph's first wife and my long time friend. I thought 'Maybe I will just go in and say Hi, and then bow out.' I went in the majestic pillared entry and ask the greeter if he knew where Leann was. He said he had seen her downstairs. I headed that way.  There she was sitting in a semi-circle with about 4  other women, watching a video of Joseph's life. I went over and said Hi and she was so glad to see me.  We watched the video together and Wow! What a life Joseph has lead.  He owns several hotels around the country,  owns a huge farm west of Delta, that Leann ran for him for several years. Owns a company that makes seals for machinery. I don't know if he still has his Mortgage company. But I think that is where he made his millions. There were 3 plaques on the table, one congratulating him on 46 million dollars in sales, another one for 64 million dollars in sales and yet another one for 224 million dollars in sales.  He owns and flies a small 6 passenger jet all over the country to keep up with all his different businesses.
     Leann took me by the hand and introduced me to everyone. I recognized some people. Jed Hammon and his wife Carol Steed.  I remember in high school how they were so in love. Of course they were breaking all the rules by showing their affection to each other, but no one seemed to care or reprimand them. Everyone knew they were going to get married. And they did. And I heard a few years later after they got married that they had terrible, knock down, drag out fights when he got another wife. I saw Claude Colly, a teacher at the Academy.  Beverly Steed, Marlene and Priscilla Jessop, Melanie Bistline.  Leann's son sang a song, from Les Miserable'  with another really good singer.  She was so proud. They sing a lot at the school there and in her home. It was so fun to hear that they have a lot of music in her house. There were toasts to the birthday boy  and roasts about the birthday boy and then all the men and boys in this huge room full of people,  broke out in song, singing "Give Me Some Men Who are Stout Hearted Men and I soon give you 10,000 more".  It was Awesome. It was like they were one big happy family. They all knew each other and loved each other.
     I was very torn between my hatred for polygamy and the love that I knew these people have for one another.
     I was ready to go, but I wanted to say congratulations to Joseph, so Leann and I went in search of him. When Leann told him who I was he was dumbfounded. He dragged me into the lighted hallway. "What, Jelene, Come into the light, so I can see you better." It was like he was shocked that I was 60 years old. He could be 60, but I shouldn't be 60. Then I ran into 2 other guys I had graduated with and they kept looking at me like I was 100 years old.  I felt like a freak. Of course, they didn't look too bad.  They were still handsome. It was ok for them to be 60. It just wasn't ok for me to be. In their society, women my age are no longer of any use to them, they have moved on to another younger, prettier model.  Of course they were polite and asked how my family was and all but I felt like they wanted me to be 18 still.
      I said my good-byes to Leann and thanked her for taking such good care of me all night, and drove home feeling sad and rejected and old. Some how I have got to be ok with getting old because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it but enjoy it and be gracious about it. I just wish other people could be gracious about it too.  I would have appreciated a "Man, you are looking great. You are still as pretty as ever." That would have been nice and polite.  I will remember that the next time I see someone I haven't seen in a while.  Thanks for listening. Love you all, Jelene

dinner table talk

So after dinner we are sitting around watching Bailey do the dishes (our favorite pass time)
and Bailey says "Remember the time you got a bloody nose in Gwen's car and I stuck a tampon up your nose because it was the only thing that I could find?" The things that come up at the dinner table.
Just had to share...

Hope
Our sweet sister Beth got a couple weeks off for the holidays. She flew from Alaska to Arizona to see her family then came to Las Vegas, to hang out with her sisters. Janice came from Panaca, Jelene from St. George. Helen came over to my home and we hung out. We tied a couple quilts, waxed alot of eye brow hair, laughed, cut hair, drank wine, sang songs, watched a movie, had facials, wondered what the hell happened to the mirros that we look in, laughed some more, and ate way to much yummy food,  It was sooooooooo great to see her.  She looks like a different person that left for Alaska 6 months ago. I am So proud of her. She shared all the stories she has been writing, all the books she has been reading. She has really grown. She gives me Hope that I can change and grow.  Thank you Beth.  I love you all. Love Lilly