Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Leslie's New Home






As most of you know, we just had a great new event occur in our family. Leslie moved into a group home in Mesquite. We feel so blessed to have this opportunity open up for her. The group home she is living in is very clean and nice. She has her own room and there are only two other guys who live there. There is staff there for 24 hours per day to assist her with her needs. They drive her to places she needs to go to. They do volunteer work around town and go to the movies and other activities. She lives with Glen who is in a wheel chair because he was hit by a car at age 3 by a drunk driver. She also lives with Daniel who is autistic and a little lower functioning but very nice. They are both LDS. One of the neatest parts of this home is that it is in Mesquite where Jay's business is and we are close to her.

This is Leslie in her new bedroom. She is very happy because she has cable TV and her own TV in her room. Spoiled!
So far she wants to come home a lot. I believe it is just normal homesickness. I guess whe really does love us. I think she even is appreciating us more. That's a good think.

Leslie

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Erin at Prom! OOOOh! So much Fun!

Erin's growing up. She blossomed into a beautiful princess last night. We had so much fun. For the last two weeks we have been so busy getting ready for her big date. She told me she was going to prom with John. John is Victoria's little brother. Victoria is Erin's viola teacher and great mentor. We love Victoria so we felt quite sure that John must be okay too. And besides that, he is cute and plays the Cello. Sounded like a good date to me. We dug in with only two weeks to prepare. She started out by telling me she wanted to keep things simple. No prom dress, makeup, pictures, anything. Does that sound like our simple Erin. She had it all planned out. She was going to wear her orchestra dress. Then she went shopping with Suzy and Shelby and decided maybe a prom dress would be ok. Of we headed to Walmart to find some bargain fabric. We were in luck. We found just the right piece at a great price. Only $6. Can't beat that. Now I just had to try to figure out how to build this dress with only a drawing and a small cell phone picture. Scary! We did it though and she was thrilled and looked like a princess. She even let Victoria put some make up on her. And of course Cami came and worked like a pro on her hair. Such talent. She even let me put some jewlery on her. She refused get her ears pierced though. I guess that is ok. I didn't get mine done until I was 30. I had so much fun sewing and sewing. I love to sew. It brought back lots of great memories for me. I made all but one of my High School dance and prom dresses. It was fun to pull out all the old pictures and look at them with the girls. Erin was surprised to see how much she looks like her Dad. Well, yesterday started of with a hot four wheeler ride around the resevoir. It was fun. Then we had a picnic lunch. That was followed by a little lounging around by all but Cami the hair dresser, Mom the cook, and Victoria the makeup pro. I was hustling in the kitchen preparing their evening feast. It turned out delicious. We served them Salad, Ham, Yummy Potatoes, garden corn, homemade wheat rolls and Strawberry cheesecake all on Grandma's fine china. Dad was their waiter and taught them all about how to use proper manners and etiquite thoughout the meal. He even sprayed their mouths out at the end of the meal with breath freshner and gave John some gum to slip in his pocket in case they needed it later. It was quite funny I thought. They didn't know that isn't really what it is all like in the real world. Who knows, we may have started a new tradition for formal dinners. We drove them to the dance in our fancy truck. We stopped for pictures by a pretty waterfall but we couldnt get the Stop sign out of the picture and the beautiful full moon just looked like a photographer error or poor quality camera. At least they will forever remember it's beauty in their hearts. It was a great event for us all. Our baby is getting all grown up.