Mother's Day Without

This was my first Mother's Day without my mother. I always loved mother's day! Not because I was a mother, but because I had a mother. For a good 40+ years I have enjoyed the hunt for a perfect mother's day gift for my mom. This year I kept seeing advertisements on TV and thinking Oh my mother would like that! Then

my mind would come to reality and understand that there would be no buying mother's day gifts for my mother this year.

So My personal gift was to talk to her. I thanked her for everything she gave me. I thanked her at this time more then anything for giving me my sister's. Because without them her loss would be unbearable without their friendship.

It was also my first year away from my children on Mother's Day. I did have James and Britt thankfully. James always puts forth is full effort in making Mother's Day a wonderful event. Even when he is headed out the door again for travel. Which was the case on this Mother's Day. You're a good man James!

Two gift packages came to the door that weekend. And one on it's way. I really thought they would forget. But Thank you kids for being fabulous!

But the greatest gift they gave me was one I will never forget. It brought powerful emotions to my very soul. It took me an hour to compose myself. Each of my dear children went to Payson and took flowers and placed them on my mother's grave. My mother's grave looked more like Memorial Day then Mother's Day. We love our mother.

Then to deepen the gift they visited with Grandpa Wilson. He had prepared food thinking he would have a lot of company for Mother's Day. Most kids had come early that week. So having my kids stop by and visit him, and eat his food was a blessing. I couldn't bare thinking of him waiting for company and no one showing up! My kids saved him and me from feeling that sadness. Thank you kids. In one act you showed a mother everything she hopes her children will become, giving, thoughtful, caring, good people.

Yeah! My sisters came to check-out my life and home here in HMB. I have been so excited for this day to come. I kept looking at Google to check the weather. It changes on a dime here on the coast. I wanted to pray for good weather. And then I reconsidered and thought perhaps I should pray for something a little more important. Being with my sisters will bring me the sunshine I need.

Lisa and Diana flew in with James, Britt and I on Sunday evening the tenth

of April. We had just spent that Saturday together at my nephew Adam's

wedding. We arrived to clear skies. I was able to share the beauty of HMB with them. Including a sunset at the Ritz.

I consider myself a BRAVE women! I drove the Wilson sisters two times into San Francisco. And ended up with only one parking ticket! Actually I must plead Innocent and blame it on the dysfunctional parking

meter!! My first parking ticket ever!

Hanging with my sisters is better than chocolate Cinnamon bears, or chocolate and caramel Macadamia nuts. Hanging with them made my world just plain yummy!

We drove and drove, ate, walked and shopped, and

LAUGHED! The below picture is a winner. It gave Lisa a good 10 minute laugh. We just had to join in with her.

Girls night out? Or should I say girls night in?

Seriously, these are three amazing women! How they decided to pull me in to be there friend I have no idea. But it has saved me from utter, bleak loneliness.

Right is Karen Kirby the Young Women's President whom I work with. She is also a Lawyer for the city of San Francisco. A degree she received while being a single mother of 4 small children on welfare! Next is Caroline Larsen. She is also a single sister who has never been married. She served a spanish speaking mission and is forever helping fellowship the Hispanic community helping bring them into the gospel. She has taken one Mexican boy in at the age of 16 and helped him to serve a mission as well as attend college in Utah. Not to mention she is musically talented up to the wazoo!

The dear friend cooking up dinner is Susan Putnam. AKA my visiting teacher. This is the V.T. that never officially visits. But sweeps me off to lunch, theater performances, adventures etc.. She was from Utah where she married and had children. She is now remarried to a non-member who has blessed the lives of her and her children.

The good was amazingly flavorful and original. She is known for her cooking skills. And she lived up to her reputation. Susan took all this on after putting her dear doggie down earlier that day. Her husband loved that dog like a child. Since Bo has never had children of his own.

She still pulled the night off beautifully.

Young Women Driving hard for Food Drive!

Our Young Women helping with The Second Harvest food drive. Young Women helping included Britt Whitchurch, Aria Chee and Colleen Coberly. It was an early Saturday Morning at the Pacifica Safeway. Where courage and bravery were at the forefront. We had a little taste of missionary rejection syndrome. Asking people to donate was not an easy thing for the girls. And lucky me had to set the example of how do it. Not just once, but over and over again when the girls courage faltered. My eyes were open to the total disinterest in giving shown by the people that came to Safeway's this day was shocking! Was it because people are having hard times themselves? Or possibly they have been asked one to many times. Or simply was it that the Girl Scout girls selling Girl Scout cookies out yelled us at the front doors?

You thought loosing your homework came with excuses! I thing the reasons people couldn't donate won the wacko excuses, excuses of all time. But thankfully for humanity we filled several buckets of food for the needy. And girls including you Britt were fabulous! I was worn to shreds, and Audrie and the girls kept going and going. Great experience

Yes Virginia it does snow in California!

Ahhh the power of “I love you” I’m so far away from home and kids. At times I feel lost on foreign soil. And then the phone rings, a child’s voice (a grown child) and a I love you

a lot mom resonates from the cellular lines. I’m filled for the day, grateful and content.

Flavors of HMB

Sincerely, I wish I had pictures to help describe the people and area in which I live.

On countless occasions I have wanted to scream stop! Could I please take your picture? Knowing that my friends from Utah would be totally enthralled with the unique, strange and quirky, eclectic human side of Northern California. I wish I could give you an accurate view of HMB. It would leave you with a smile on your face. It's like going to the Jelly Belly factory and sampling colorful jelly beans of flavors unrecognizable. Then going over and buying a bag of the misfit jelly beans that were discarded in the discounted grab bags. And all the while loving each and every flavor! That's my Half Moon Bay!

Rain, Rain Rain! This is coastal rain wet, windy and wild. As it rains and I drive soundless in my

BMW X5. I drive a bit grumpy wishing this dark rain pattern would disperse. My perspective then changed. I saw two Hispanic men wearing barely a rain jacket to shield them from the rain. They were pedaling down the coastal highway against the whipping cold wind and lashing rain. They were peddling with all their might and barely going anywhere. The looks of their faces were stressed and distorted. Further down the street several more Hispanic men traveling on bikes early this cold morning to get to work. the majority of immigrant workers are illegal and don't have the documentation or the money to afford cars or gas.

I felt grateful, yet a bit selfish for driving past them in my car.

Later that morning I had to drive up to Stanford Medical Center. Again I found a sight that although similar from the Hispanic men on the bikes, this time it made me smile. Young Students from Stanford University were also riding their bikes in the rain against the wind. This time though they did it with a yuppie flare. A flare that comes from a Liberal  minded, environmentalist crowd. Yes they rode their bikes, but the look was  distinctly different. These students had on stylish rain coats, packs of different sorts and they were sporting umbrellas as they rode. Yes against the wind they carried their umbrellas. they pulled and struggled against the wind to peddle. And I pondered with a smile and saw humor in this attempt to beat the laws of mother nature. Ahhh You've got to love it