So the FamilySearch genealogy site of the Church is doing a Meet my Grandma campaign. It encourages people to share stories about their grandmothers. This caught my eye because I love my grandmother so deeply and she's always in my thoughts but especially lately. Here is My Grandma.
Grandma is waging a battle with dementia. It is heartbreaking. She's not the same Gram I grew up with, yet she is still sweet, meek and long-suffering. It has taken many of her memories, she doesn't have much to say, but the most telling thing to me is Gram hasn't forgotten her children, grandkids and great-grandkids. The reason this is telling is because that has ALWAYS been the most important thing to her. Let me tell you about my Grandma!
Gram was born on October 19, 1919. I think that's a cool birthday. She belongs to the greatest generation. She has great moral values and her family was everything. I was taking with my aunt and we were saying Gram never had many hobbies. She didn't read, sew, or golf. Her hobby was her family. I think that's the most important one, and I'll tell you some stories about how she exemplified everything good about being a wife, mother, grandmother, and daughter of God.
My earliest memories include Gram. She lived in a condo with a pool and I think we spent more hours there than can be counted. Our hair even turned green every summer from the chlorine. Swimming at Gram's was the best especially when followed up by the graham crackers and milk or Chips Ahoy cookies she ALWAYS had in her cookie jar.
Gram and Gramps (I intend to post about this Celestial man in a later post) stayed with us when our parents went out of town. My Dad's company used to do a Getaway Days every year for about a week and Gram and Gramps always took care of us. When I was in 3rd grade I broke my arm while Mom and Dad were gone. Gram came and got me at school. I remember I didn't cry when I broke it - I think I was in shock. The first time tears came was when Gram walked into that school and I was so happy to see her the tears flowed. I even remember riding in her huge car - a Ford Elite to the ER. It was an ugly break and tender Gram couldn't watch when they set it so in came Grampa and he held my hand. I still choke up when I think of what a comfort that was to have him there. Gram was up several times that night and the night following, dissolving pain pills on a spoon in water (I still hadn't mastering swallowing pills at that point). She took such tender care of me.
One time they were staying with us and I had an early morning basketball tryout. I must have been really anxious because I remember going to bed early as I had to be at the school at 6:30am. I woke up got dressed and came upstairs to have Gramps drive me to the Jr. High and I could hear Johnny Carson on. I thought, "what the heck is Johnny Carson doing on in the morning?" Well, apparently I dreamed my alarm went off and I got up and ready for school at about 11pm. I'll never forget how funny Gram looked at me when I appeared fully clothed ready for the day.
Her house was always welcoming. You could show up any time and she was thrilled to see you. She always had your favorite pop in the fridge and a candy dish of M&M's out at all times. She always listened. I remember one time Gramps was taking to her and she was looking right at him listening! She wasn't multi-tasking, she was listening and that always stayed with me.
She wrote and sent packages to me on my mission, she came to our school functions, and she always made each grandchild feel as if they were her favorite.
When my mom, Gram's daughter passed away, my sweet little Jordan was 3 1/2 months old. I thought Gram might follow her to the grave with a broken heart. But a love affair began. Don traveled a lot so I would spend a lot of time at Gram's with Jordie. I'd call her to ask what to do for colic, how can I get Jordie to sleep, and various other questions new moms have. We'd go over and spend many hours with Gram. It's hard not to appreciate someone who loves your kids about as much as you do. She was a huge blessing to Jordan and me and Jordan was a blessing to her. She'd walk around the condo complex pushing Jordie in a stroller and tell everyone that Jordan was her lifesaver. It gave Gram great joy to spend time with Jordie and it helped soothe her broken heart. She was every bit as helpful with Jacie. When Jordan was 2, I got a nasty stomach bug. Don was traveling. I called Gram and told her I was so sick. She said, "Daddy (she always called Grampa Daddy) will be right over to pick up Jordan." Within 10 minutes he was there to get her. They took Jordan for the whole day. They took her to K-Mart, fixed her lunch, got out her toys that we kept at their house, and Gram even missed her soap operas so Jordie could watch Teletubbies. What a tender mercy that was to me. Purely Christlike service. Even now that Gram's memory is fading she still asks me how the girls are. She can still remember they are mine.
On September 11, 2001, one of the darkest days in our history, Jacie turned 7 weeks old on the day. Don was in Chicago on business and we had no idea how long he might be stuck there. I immediately packed up my angels and went to my safe place - Gram's. We spent the whole day watching the news. I remember how safe I felt there. With the evil of that day, there was still the goodness of family and love.
She played a huge role in my life just simply by unconditionally loving me and my girls. She adopted Don as her very own grandson and welcomed him in with open arms. I've always said that is the kind of grandparent I want to be. I want to show up to the programs, sporting events, and graduations. I want to write letters to my missionary grandkids. I want to be someone my daughters and granddaughters can feel welcome in coming to for advice and counsel. I want to serve in the Church. Gram and Gramps were home teaching partners and they never missed a month. They served in the Temple. They exemplified everything good about strengthening families and putting family first.
How I love Gram and Gramps. Gram is now in a Nursing home. I've had a sweet opportunity to pick up her laundry and wash it as Jane is out of town for a few weeks. It has been very tender for me to do for Gram a little thing to show my gratitude for ALL she's done for me. I love her so dearly. I could never pay her back for all she's done for me. But knowing Gram she wouldn't expect me to. She was always just happy to be there to help out.
Unless I write 1000 pages it would be very hard to #MeetMyGrandma, but these are memories that stand out. I could go on about the back rubs she gave us, sleepovers at her house with the cousins, and her threatenings to spank us with the wooden spoon. I have tons of great memories. I have tons of gratitude for the wonderful woman who showed me by example what really matters most.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
LOTOJA Ride Review - Part 2
So two days ago September 6 was the big ride! I was a nervous wreck the week before. I had butterflies in anticipation and I was so desirous to accomplish our goal. I had worries of what if one of us got sick, what if our bike had mechanical issues, what if the weather was bad, what if, what if, what if. If you know me you know that sometimes if I don't have something to worry about I'll make something up. I was doing a little (or a lot) of that!
On Thursday night I slept about 4 hours - waking up every so often to have a worry spell. On Friday night I slept for about an hour and a half. I had so much adrenaline surging I knew I would be okay on that little amount of sleep. (But still worried about it.)
So at 4am Don, Jordan, Jacie and I left our house to pick up my aunt Jane who was our support driver and get to Logan by our 6:03am start time. I was a complete wreck by this time and was really trying to calm myself down. We got to the start line in plenty of time, got geared up, got the bike ready and headed to the start line. We saw our friends Rock and LaNett Draper and Darci Strong at the start. We've done the relay ride with them the last 3 years. I told LaNett and Darci that I was a nervous wreck. Darci said just get on and start pedaling. So I kissed the girls and Don and I maneuvered to the start line and just like that they started us off. I did what Darci said and just started pedaling. Soon I calmed down.
They do a neutral rollout for the first 3 miles and then everyone is free to go at their own pace. One the neutral zone ended all the tandems took off except for two of us and we only saw one of them the rest of the day. Some of them are wicked fast. Don and I weren't racing, just riding so we didn't want to burn all our matches at the start of a very long day.
We rode on the way to Preston with the other tandem that didn't take off like a rocket and visited back and forth then they peeled off to the side of the road and Don and I were mostly alone except for getting passed like we were standing still by the race groups going by. We made good time to Preston and had our own water bottle refill/bum rest session and headed on to the next leg which was to Montepelier, Idaho.
This section has a 20 mile climb. It isn't the steepest climb in the world, but it's long and on a tandem it's a slow grind up the hill. We did really well. We were slow but we chugged right up the hill and the beauty of all the uphill is a nice descent into Montpelier. We saw the most inspiring thing while riding up the climb. A man passed by us with one leg! He was as fast as many two-legged riders. I said to Don, boy that is inspiring. I thought of him throughout the day and admired his strength. Some guy rode by him and said, "Dude, you are a rock star!" He sure is. People are amazing. After we crested the top and started down we really flew. One nice thing about a tandem is descending is very fast. Don is a great driver and sometimes I just close my eyes and hang on! We heard thunder rumbling as we crested the hill, but we lucked out and missed getting rained on.
In Montpelier we saw our wonderful support crew of Jane, Jordie, and Jace. Don and I both got a little choked up when we saw them. They were more of a shot in the arm than the energy gels and Cokes they brought us. They were waving cow bells and cheering. It was so great. We needed it because we had another tough section ahead of us.
The next section has two shorter climbs but some good pitches in them so we started off. We did pretty good on these. Again super slow but still kept pumping. One of the tandems that took off at the start appeared again on the second climb. Don got feeling a little sick on that second climb so we pulled of the side for him to recover for a few minutes. Our fellow tandem and a single guy riding with them pulled up and offered encouraging words. It was so nice of them. We were really close to the top - about 300 yards, so we were able to jump back on and get up there! We refilled water bottles, grabbed more energy products, then hit the road for a wonderful descent into Afton.
In Afton we met our support angels again and they stocked us up with more goodies. The fully leaded Coke was the best thing for me. It gives me a nice boost and it tastes so good. It really helped because I didn't feel like eating much, but you need to keep calories coming in and the Coke was a great way to do that. Don laid out on the grass and stretched out and then we jumped on the bike for the 4th leg. This leg is nice. It's relatively flat, with some downhill and we were able to hold a great pace. I looked in my helmet mirror and saw about 10 bikes in a train behind us drafting off our large tandem wake. We pulled two riders for probably 15-20 miles. One of the guys said he was putting us in his will. I was glad to help, but kind of wishing we could take a nice draft off someone for a while. We did good on this leg and pulled into the last Feed Zone where we'd see our support crew. We loaded up and we're getting ready to pull out and Jacie said, "So are you guys going to do this again?" I said, "Jace, that's like asking a woman in labor how many kids she's going to have." Jane laughed at that.
We left for the last leg of the ride - about 47 miles. The views on this leg are gorgeous. The Snake River runs along the side of the road and it was so clear and beautiful. We rode to the neutral feed zone and filled our bottles and grabbed some more energy gels then jumped into the saddle for the last 21 miles or so. It seems like they took a very long time. The finish line closes at 8:30pm and we were feeling pretty good that we should roll across the line within that time. It seems like as we got closer the miles ticked off ever so slowly. We got behind a group of riders that were going as a good rate, then they'd all of a sudden slow way down, then speed up, then slow down - you get the picture. So finally there weren't cars behind us so we were able to go around them and hammer into the finish line. Don said, "Jod, I see the lights at the finish line." I sat up and peeked over his shoulder to see the floodlights and knew we were close and we were going to finish! It was such a great feeling to know we made it and that I could sit on something besides a bike seat! We both imagined our behinds resembled a baboon's!
It was very special to do it with Don. We totally had to rely on each other and it was super wonderful to have a common goal. It reminds me of eternal marriage. I'm grateful mine is and I'm grateful we are able to have this to enjoy together. While I don't have a burning urge to ride 200 miles in one day any time soon, I do look forward to a nice 40-50 mile ride every once in a while with the love of my life. It was so awesome to have the girls at the finish line and be our support staff. And I was glad Jane could help us out. Dad and Danna were out of town and Jane was so excited to step in. She was a very capable support crew member!
It was a good experience and worth the effort! To answer Jacie's question - no I don't think we'll do it again next year - at least not the full distance, but maybe in a relay!
On Thursday night I slept about 4 hours - waking up every so often to have a worry spell. On Friday night I slept for about an hour and a half. I had so much adrenaline surging I knew I would be okay on that little amount of sleep. (But still worried about it.)
So at 4am Don, Jordan, Jacie and I left our house to pick up my aunt Jane who was our support driver and get to Logan by our 6:03am start time. I was a complete wreck by this time and was really trying to calm myself down. We got to the start line in plenty of time, got geared up, got the bike ready and headed to the start line. We saw our friends Rock and LaNett Draper and Darci Strong at the start. We've done the relay ride with them the last 3 years. I told LaNett and Darci that I was a nervous wreck. Darci said just get on and start pedaling. So I kissed the girls and Don and I maneuvered to the start line and just like that they started us off. I did what Darci said and just started pedaling. Soon I calmed down.
They do a neutral rollout for the first 3 miles and then everyone is free to go at their own pace. One the neutral zone ended all the tandems took off except for two of us and we only saw one of them the rest of the day. Some of them are wicked fast. Don and I weren't racing, just riding so we didn't want to burn all our matches at the start of a very long day.
We rode on the way to Preston with the other tandem that didn't take off like a rocket and visited back and forth then they peeled off to the side of the road and Don and I were mostly alone except for getting passed like we were standing still by the race groups going by. We made good time to Preston and had our own water bottle refill/bum rest session and headed on to the next leg which was to Montepelier, Idaho.
This section has a 20 mile climb. It isn't the steepest climb in the world, but it's long and on a tandem it's a slow grind up the hill. We did really well. We were slow but we chugged right up the hill and the beauty of all the uphill is a nice descent into Montpelier. We saw the most inspiring thing while riding up the climb. A man passed by us with one leg! He was as fast as many two-legged riders. I said to Don, boy that is inspiring. I thought of him throughout the day and admired his strength. Some guy rode by him and said, "Dude, you are a rock star!" He sure is. People are amazing. After we crested the top and started down we really flew. One nice thing about a tandem is descending is very fast. Don is a great driver and sometimes I just close my eyes and hang on! We heard thunder rumbling as we crested the hill, but we lucked out and missed getting rained on.
In Montpelier we saw our wonderful support crew of Jane, Jordie, and Jace. Don and I both got a little choked up when we saw them. They were more of a shot in the arm than the energy gels and Cokes they brought us. They were waving cow bells and cheering. It was so great. We needed it because we had another tough section ahead of us.
The next section has two shorter climbs but some good pitches in them so we started off. We did pretty good on these. Again super slow but still kept pumping. One of the tandems that took off at the start appeared again on the second climb. Don got feeling a little sick on that second climb so we pulled of the side for him to recover for a few minutes. Our fellow tandem and a single guy riding with them pulled up and offered encouraging words. It was so nice of them. We were really close to the top - about 300 yards, so we were able to jump back on and get up there! We refilled water bottles, grabbed more energy products, then hit the road for a wonderful descent into Afton.
In Afton we met our support angels again and they stocked us up with more goodies. The fully leaded Coke was the best thing for me. It gives me a nice boost and it tastes so good. It really helped because I didn't feel like eating much, but you need to keep calories coming in and the Coke was a great way to do that. Don laid out on the grass and stretched out and then we jumped on the bike for the 4th leg. This leg is nice. It's relatively flat, with some downhill and we were able to hold a great pace. I looked in my helmet mirror and saw about 10 bikes in a train behind us drafting off our large tandem wake. We pulled two riders for probably 15-20 miles. One of the guys said he was putting us in his will. I was glad to help, but kind of wishing we could take a nice draft off someone for a while. We did good on this leg and pulled into the last Feed Zone where we'd see our support crew. We loaded up and we're getting ready to pull out and Jacie said, "So are you guys going to do this again?" I said, "Jace, that's like asking a woman in labor how many kids she's going to have." Jane laughed at that.
We left for the last leg of the ride - about 47 miles. The views on this leg are gorgeous. The Snake River runs along the side of the road and it was so clear and beautiful. We rode to the neutral feed zone and filled our bottles and grabbed some more energy gels then jumped into the saddle for the last 21 miles or so. It seems like they took a very long time. The finish line closes at 8:30pm and we were feeling pretty good that we should roll across the line within that time. It seems like as we got closer the miles ticked off ever so slowly. We got behind a group of riders that were going as a good rate, then they'd all of a sudden slow way down, then speed up, then slow down - you get the picture. So finally there weren't cars behind us so we were able to go around them and hammer into the finish line. Don said, "Jod, I see the lights at the finish line." I sat up and peeked over his shoulder to see the floodlights and knew we were close and we were going to finish! It was such a great feeling to know we made it and that I could sit on something besides a bike seat! We both imagined our behinds resembled a baboon's!
It was very special to do it with Don. We totally had to rely on each other and it was super wonderful to have a common goal. It reminds me of eternal marriage. I'm grateful mine is and I'm grateful we are able to have this to enjoy together. While I don't have a burning urge to ride 200 miles in one day any time soon, I do look forward to a nice 40-50 mile ride every once in a while with the love of my life. It was so awesome to have the girls at the finish line and be our support staff. And I was glad Jane could help us out. Dad and Danna were out of town and Jane was so excited to step in. She was a very capable support crew member!
It was a good experience and worth the effort! To answer Jacie's question - no I don't think we'll do it again next year - at least not the full distance, but maybe in a relay!
LOTOJA 2014 Ride Report Part 1
Well, Don and I accomplished a goal we've been working on since March. We rode 202 miles in the Logan to Jackson bike ride aka LOTOJA. We purchased a tandem bike in March and set a goal to complete this ride. I have had the full LOTOJA on my "bucket list" and we've participated on relay teams but never done the whole ride start to finish. Because of my RP I can't see well in the dark and my peripheral vision is limited so I didn't think I could do it on my own because some start times and end times are in the dark.
Don and I talked about this and we came to the conclusion that we could do this ride together on a tandem. So we took the leap, bought a tandem in March and started to ride. I have heard people say that tandems will make or break a marriage so we decided it would make ours and off we went! We took the first ride out to the air traffic control tower at the airport and returned with large grins. We had made the right decision! Next was registering for the big ride - LOTOJA.
LOTOJA has so many people that want to participate they have a lottery. If you join Huntsman Hometown Heroes and raise $1000 for Huntsman Cancer Institute you can have a guaranteed spot. So we began training and raising funds. I was happy to have a cause to ride for. Huntsman is doing some great research and if we can do anything to nip cancer in the bud that's always a good thing.
So training began. We have put about 1800 miles on the tandem, not to mention time spent on individual bike rides and all of my rides to nowhere on the indoor bike trainer. We figure we're well over 2500 miles on the year. Training was fun. We'd have "long ride dates". We rode to Brigham City and back several times, rode to Wellsville, did Big Mountain several times, rode out to Saltair Marina, and did a ride from Morgan to Coalsville. Then lots of shorter rides out in West Kaysville, Layton area and the Legacy Trail. I really enjoyed the time with Don. We solved all of the worlds problems, had some great laughs, and enjoyed being together. On our really long rides to Brigham and Wellsville, we'd leave at 5 in the morning so we could beat the heat, avoid traffic as much as possible and still be home to enjoy time with the girls who were very supportive of us as we worked toward our goal.
Now the big day September 6, 2014 was approaching fast.
Don and I talked about this and we came to the conclusion that we could do this ride together on a tandem. So we took the leap, bought a tandem in March and started to ride. I have heard people say that tandems will make or break a marriage so we decided it would make ours and off we went! We took the first ride out to the air traffic control tower at the airport and returned with large grins. We had made the right decision! Next was registering for the big ride - LOTOJA.
LOTOJA has so many people that want to participate they have a lottery. If you join Huntsman Hometown Heroes and raise $1000 for Huntsman Cancer Institute you can have a guaranteed spot. So we began training and raising funds. I was happy to have a cause to ride for. Huntsman is doing some great research and if we can do anything to nip cancer in the bud that's always a good thing.
So training began. We have put about 1800 miles on the tandem, not to mention time spent on individual bike rides and all of my rides to nowhere on the indoor bike trainer. We figure we're well over 2500 miles on the year. Training was fun. We'd have "long ride dates". We rode to Brigham City and back several times, rode to Wellsville, did Big Mountain several times, rode out to Saltair Marina, and did a ride from Morgan to Coalsville. Then lots of shorter rides out in West Kaysville, Layton area and the Legacy Trail. I really enjoyed the time with Don. We solved all of the worlds problems, had some great laughs, and enjoyed being together. On our really long rides to Brigham and Wellsville, we'd leave at 5 in the morning so we could beat the heat, avoid traffic as much as possible and still be home to enjoy time with the girls who were very supportive of us as we worked toward our goal.
Now the big day September 6, 2014 was approaching fast.
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