365 Days - Day 66 - Soft

Since I have been down for awhile and can't always get out to take photos I am going to do this challenge with memories and sometimes old photos. I was getting so far behind and then I realized how silly I was being. I have lots of thoughts on the assigned subjects and lots of old photos to share. So what if they aren't current! Sometimes I'm a bit slow.

When I think of the word soft I think of babies and everything that we surround them with. Their skin, hair and smell right after a bath.

I think of my Great-Grandmother Hixson and how I could just lean against her (she didn't have much of a lap) and feel at peace. As she got older her eyesight got worse so I would take her for walks. I remember taking this responsibility so seriously because I loved her so much and she was very fragile. One day we went for a short walk and she tripped over a curb. I tried so hard to keep her upright without dislocating her arm. She did skin her knee a bit but laughed it off and we continued our walk. I was so traumatized by that experience. Her skin had gotten so soft and fragile that you could feel her bones right through her skin.

This picture is of myself, GG Hixson and Ryan on the day he was blessed, Jan 7, 1979

I love the feel of chenille and other yarns that are so luxurious and expensive! How about an old quilt or pair of sheets that has been washed hundreds of times. I love just laying there and enjoying the softness. Strangly I'm not a big fan of silk or some of those fabrics that snag so easily. Since I don't like to wear shoes my feet are a bit calloused and I'm always snagging fabrics like that so I pretty much avoid them on bedding. Clothing is fine but I'm more comfortable in a warm cozy sweater or soft cotton blouse and jeans.

Soft also reminds me of tender words spoken to our drowsy children or our sweethearts. Soft means so many different things.

Soft was the word I used to help my children learn how to handle their baby brothers or animals. I would tell them that we need to be soft with them, take their little hand and help them softly stroke the puppy or baby. I would then praise them a lot. Eventually they learned and then they unlearned it as they wrestled with their brothers and played sports! Fortunately they remembered this lesson in situations that require it. Parenthood can be so hard to try to figure out!

Here is Ryan SOFTLY rolling over his brother Nathan.

Soft is also a word that brings back the smell of my Grandma Sorensen's perfume. When she would hug me or was near I loved that smell. It was so femanine and soft. I think she wore Tigress, which has been discontinued for years. Too bad, it smelled so good.

I was curious so I searched for this cologne on the internet. The originals are being sold on vintage websites! There is a new version but people say it isn't the same at all. Here is a description of the origional. Tigress Cologne was originally released by Fabergé in 1938. It is a deliciously warm vanilla and amber fragrance with a floral heart – musky and animalic. I think it was discontinued in the late 70's. I wonder if these origional perfumes still smell the same? When I was young my Grandmother worked in a high-end Clothing store and always had the most fashionable clothes, hair do (she got it done weekly) and perfume. Now I find out that she had floral and animal side to her. Go Grandma!

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!

I feel so bad because through a communication problem two of our kids thought that I had died! Obviously I'm fine but let me explain.

As you may have read in my previous post my laptop died and Bob and I went down to Costco to check out their computer sale. While we were there Bob received a text from Tyler. As some of you may know Bob is a slow typer and even slower at texting. In fact if you get a text from Bob consider yourself important because he hates to text. This is a problem when it comes to keeping up with Tyler. Bob will IM (Instant Message) Tyler on the computer but he hates to text. He loves talking to Tyler and really misses him so he tries to text when he isn't around a computer. I am always amazed at how brillient Bob is on anything that has to do with computers but how slow he types. Oh well, he seems to have made do over his long and successful career.

As we were asking questions of the salesman, Bob got a text from Tyler. He stepped aside and tried to answer him. This happened several times and I was impressed that Bob was actually texting Tyler. This went on for quite a while. Finally Bob got a phone call and stepped aside to take it. It was Brian inquiring if I was OK. I guess Bob tried to tell Tyler that we were at the store because Tammy's laptop died. I don't know the whole story but Tyler thought that Bob said that I was dead. Tyler kept texting Bob to try to clarify and wasn't getting a clear answer.

I had no idea what was going on. Tyler left a text for me but I was listening to the salesman, feeling tired and hurting because I haven't been up and around a lot lately. When Bob got off the phone with Brian he explained to me why he had called. He showed me the text from Tyler, asking if I was dead. I immediatelly grabbed Bob's phone and text Tyler that my laptop was dead and that I was fine. I feel so bad that it went on as long as it did.

I was touched though that Tyler called Brian to find out the truth. I would hope that if anything ever happened to either of us the news would be communicated better. So Carla, Jason, Jessica Brian & Gianna, if anything ever happens to me please break the news to Tyler before your Dad does. I don't think that Tyler would believe him now.

Tyler, I'm sorry that I didn't know what was going on sooner. I didn't notice the text from you until later that night and by then it was resolved. I appreciate your concern and regret any distress you went through. Please keep up the texts and if you can't get a clear answer from your Dad, text me again and I'll try to check my messages more often. Your Dad is always so happy to hear from you so please don't let this stop you from talking to him this way. Your Dad will get better at it. I can tryly say that he has never returned a text from me.

We really want to know what is going on with all of you and value any updates on your lives. This is our feeble way of keeping you up on what we are doing.

I haven't posted anything new here for a while for a few reasons. I had surgery at the end of October to fix one problem but now can't sit for more than a few minutes without lots of pain - how embarrasing! So now I am having another surgery on the 24th of this month to fix this problem (fingers and eyes crossed). Not to worry it is just a same-day surgery and hopefully I'll recooperate quickly. I'm soooooooo tired of not being able to do what I love. Being down and inactive has put a kink in my plans (literally in my lower back for two weeks). Now that my back has unfrozen I will try to get some photos taken and update everyone on all the happenings in our lives.

I am so far behind on my blog, Birthdays, Anniversarys and general creative fun. I have been busy though (in bed on my back with my laptop) learning about Digital Scrapbooking. I LOVE the idea and hope to create some fun albums with it.

Those that truly know me know that my life is never boring (understatement) but very blessed (also an understatement) and when it seems like I'm exaggerating I'm really not telling everything because the general public wouldn't believe me if I did. I think it took a few years for my Brother-in-law to really believe some of my stories but now he claims that I am much more interesting than anything he could watch on TV. I'm not sure if that is good or bad but we like to kid each other.

So having said all that....I include the following saga of our electronic problems. Our desktop computer went down (it was networked throughout our house so all of our files are stored there)! I have been soooo spoiled, by Bob who is so talented, to be able to log on wherever I am in the house and access information and print. Poor Bob worked on it for over a month, ordering parts, testing equipment and such. Finally he got all the right parts and got it up and running (not the network yet). While I was doing my happy dance (Ouch!) my new HP All-In-One fancy printer stopped printing with black ink so Bob worked on it for a while but couldn't get it fixed. In the meantime he found the same printer (only one version earlier) at a Deseret Industries for $25. He thought that he could use it for parts but after working on it he has it up and running perfectly while I try to contact HP about my new expensive printer that won't work! At least we now have a decent printer. Whoooo Hoooo...and then my laptop died.

It was actually kind of funny because Bob went to look something up on my laptop (because I was having problems) and it just died. The blue screen of death came up and then it just went black. His hands went up in the air and he had that look in his eyes that said, "It wasn't me!" After spending long hours trying to get it to boot up he finally said let's shop around for laptop prices.

I was so sad because I bought that laptop with money that my Grandfather left me when he died almost seven years ago and it was a big splurge - large screen (15 in.) fast and it had lots of memory (40 GB)... OK, so back then it was a great laptop! I've been having problems with it for awhile but kept hoping that it would get over it...kind of like the flu. Alas, after long faithful years of service, fun and comfort it is gone. SIGH, it will be missed!

OK, so now for some exciting news. After window shopping on the net and going to Costco so we wouldn't miss the laptop sale (painful ride) I have a shiny new laptop with all the bells and whistles. I can even watch BlueRay movies on it. It has a larger screen and weighs a lot less than my old laptop which will really help my back. I have spent time trying to update everything and get acquainted with my new laptop and I think we are going to get along just fine.

Well, to make a long story even longer I thought that I would explain why I haven't posted anything for awhile but I do see a light in the not so distant future and I should be up and around in time to go to Idaho for the birth of Ryan & Christy's twins.