Happy Birthday Scott!

 It has been awhile since I updated this little family scrapbook on the internet. I like to pop over here from time to time and look at our family adventures and I think in these unprecedented (ha!) times I should be keeping track of the Gale story again. 

So I will start today with Scott's birthday. Here are some past posts celebrating the birthday boy.

And a some fun photos to add to the scrapbook: 

Baby Scott helping Dad build the deck. 

Scott was a good sport. Playing Pretty Pretty Princess with his sisters.

Big brother and baby brother. 

A favorite picture of mine--Scott fresh off his mission 

when we picked him up at the Portland Airport.

That time we took him to New York City.

Oh the 90s artistic photography! 

But Scott looks adorable.

Scott and sisters Siara and Shanna all spiffed up for a school dance--waiting for their dates to arrive. They were all in high school together and this was a moment when they were all in the same

place at the same time. 

This is out of focus but it's a rare shot of the first three Gale kids in their early days.

Happy Birthday Scott! We love you!

Happy Birthday Scott!

I found this forgotten memento today as I was searching for a cute picture of Scott to insta for his birthday. I thought that tiny newborn picture of him was long lost. It is the only picture we have of him brand-new. As we have often told, we were poor students when he was born and we couldn't afford to buy the hospital pictures that were offered. This was the thumbnail pic that was stapled to the order form. I managed to save it and keep it in his baby book. 

I wrote that little poem for him in the early weeks of his life on earth. I was smitten with this little bundle of joy who made me a mother. I typed it up on a real typewriter...Andy had to have it for his BYU classes so it was a fancy bit of technology in our little chicken coop. It looks like I illustrated it as well. I am certainly not a poet or an artist, but that was the expression of my overflowing mother heart. Somehow it survived all of the moves and the chaos of a big, busy family. 

And, yes our joy has grown with this son. 

Today I can say again, thank you, thank you for 

this (not so) little son.

How we love him so.

Our son, Scott.

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Mom

P.S. Seeing this picture today, I am struck by how much Porter looks like him! 

It's Birthday Time for Shane

This cutie is celebrating a Birthday today!

The baby of the family is turning 17!

SEVENTEEN!

We had cake and ice cream Sunday while Dad was here and the missionaries were over to join in--we need some extras around here now that we are down to the last of the Mohicans.

Here are some places to look at cute pictures and to read about  our Shane.

When he was a little preschooler, we had a lot of time together when the older seven were all in school. That was our warm up for this phase of life.

Here is Baby Shane with Big Brother Scott:

 Back then, we played a game called "I Love You More Than..."

I would say, "I love you more than all of the stars in the sky." and he would try to beat that with

"I love you more than all the sand on the beach."

We would go back and forth until he declared himself the winner and ran off to play. One morning when we were snuggled up together he came up with "I love you more than all of the pyramids in ancient Egypt!" It was hard to top that one for creativity.

The toughest thing about being Shane right now is being the last one at home. The other siblings think it would have been fun to try out being an "only child" for awhile, but Shane claims it's not all it's cracked up to be. 

Here's a little gem from the back of my journal:

"Shane was having a melt-down because I wouldn't let him have something that belonged to one of the older kids. As he kicked and yelled on the floor, I said

 'Shane, you don't always get everything you want.'

 He wailed back, 'YES... I.... DO!!!!"

Well Shane, I guess you know by now that you don't get everything you want--otherwise you would have a few more siblings so you wouldn't have to be the baby.

I'm sorry that didn't work out the way you wanted.

But hey! We can play a fun round of "I Love You More Than"!

Bonus Pictures:

His scrapbook page from a Father's Day gift we made for Dad many years ago.

Sleeping in a Russian Dance pose in his beloved car bed.

Happy Birthday Shane!

I love you more than all of the pyramids in ancient Egypt!

(I know, I totally copied you. I just can't top that!)

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Seth!

Today we celebrate our "Middle Child". 

 Actually, I purposely had an even number of children so no one could claim to be the middle child.

 But Seth happens to be the middle boy.

 Born smack dab in the middle of the five brothers Gale. 

There was hardly a dull moment from the moment he was born.

Born with a head of thick dark hair (you can see his birth story here) and a bright, cheerful, adventurous spirit!

(cute  pictures here...)

So much energy packed into one little boy!

He was relentless when he got an idea and wanted to create/build something. 

Our yard was his flight experiment lab and the neighbors were patient

with the many rockets and various balloons that flew out of our air space. He  learned to fly and eventually flew way out of our air space!

His love of the outdoors began at an early age with many nights camping under the stars in our back yard. He dreamed up fun adventures with his siblings and built forts and a tepee out there to feed their imagination. He went on to many Scouting adventures and hiked over fifty miles (fifty-FOUR miles to be exact!) along the Olympic Peninsula. And became an Eagle Scout. 

Reading wasn't his favorite but he was always up for listening to a good story and built an astonishing vocabulary with his good memory. We spent many pleasant evenings reading and discussing the scriptures as a family and delved into the deeper questions of life with Spencer and Seth often leading the discussions. I learned to check his pants pockets before washing and often found bits and pieces of his projects along with the odd rocket engine or firecracker. But one time I found his carefully written notes on string theory. He has a great mind for memorization and amazed us all with his 

command of Shakespeare passages. He was amazed to find out that his Shakespeare skills were actually needed one time in the grocery store for someone's video project. 

"To be or not to be, that is the question..."

He met his match, the talented and amazing, Taylor Marie, while we were living in California and here you see them at the San Diego temple on their wedding day: 

It makes my Mother Heart happy to see the love they have for each other and the precious family they are building with their sweet baby Mabel.

Here he is with their bright, cheerful adventurer with her

own head of thick dark hair:

Happy Birthday, Son! Now the adventure really begins!

Celebrating Our Siara

Some fun girl time in North Carolina!

Today is Siara's birthday! I am so blessed to be the mother to some really amazing people. Each came with their own unique personalities and talents and qualities. I have loved every stage of their lives but I feel like the real reward for motherhood is moving into the friendship stage with them when they become adults. 

So here are some Birthday thoughts (and awesome childhood pictures!) of my daughter who is also my dear friend...

Some birthday posts for Siara's past birthdays:

click on this and this and go here.

If you are still interested, here is the story of the day of her birth.

And, the frosting on the cake--a  funny story about our spunky gal.

Mission Birthday

One of our missionaries celebrates a birthday today:

Elder Gale turns 19!

Here he is with his current companion and a young man they recently

prepared for baptism:

And here they are at the Los Angeles Temple last week: 

These two remind me of Elder Kessler and Elder Green 

from Saturday's Warrior...

In his email this week, he told us about a new exhibit at the visitor's center

there at the LA Temple. It is all about missionary work and they

have all the name tags of the missionaries currently serving in the area.

Here is an experience he shared this week as well:

"We got  a phone call from Julio saying that he was taking us out to eat, and that he was there! We got ready super fast and went out to Pollo Inka with him, a Peruvian restaurant. It was such a cool dinner. Julio was telling us about how he heard stories of missionaries who would go to poor members' homes in Guatemala (where he's from) and give everything they had to the missionaries and not eat themselves. He said that he always wanted to give his all like that, and that even though he always gave us the same stuff to eat whenever we came over to his house, that today was a special day because we were eating good food in a restaurant and that he was finally sharing his best with the missionaries. I seriously just looked at him and his wife across the able and cried. I am so blessed to know as good a man as Julio. He is such an example to me of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. As we were walking out of the restaurant, the sun was starting to set and it was raining, and there was a beautiful rainbow across the whole sky, and we all looked up at it in amazement, it was seriously incredible...

We got home and grabbed our bikes and went to visit the Reyes' family since we couldn't last week. We watched "The Restoration" with Juan and at the end he looked at us and said "now I finally understand who Joseph Smith was, he was just an honest man looking for truth from God" and it was awesome. He said he was learning slowly, but that little by little he's beginning to understand our message. We answered a lot of his questions and he's coming along! He also said to me "What part of Argentina are you from? You're from Argentina, right?" Always an awesome compliment to get when you're trying to learn someone else's language! "

It makes my Mother Heart happy to know that my son is serving among such amazing, loving people there--and that he is learning and growing in that service. 

I still can't believe how fast time flies--I'm pretty sure our little Sammy was 

picnicking in the park with his sister just yesterday:

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday to the Hubs!

Let's take a little walk down memory lane in celebration...
well at his age, it's a LONG walk :)

This was actually just a random group of pictures hanging out in my blog archive.
His complete picture history is stored on the laptop that melted down.
Shayla assures me she will rescue all the pictures on it when she gets home.
So, in the meantime  enjoy...

Cutie!

Prom Date!
Rocking the quintessential 70's powder-blue Tux...



Handsome Scholarship Recipient!

Missionary!

Missionary on P-day!

Missionary serving as best man at a wedding!





Engaged to the woman of his dreams!
(Right honey?)

BYU Graduate!


MBA Graduate!





Business Man!

Husband, Dad, PopPop...

We love you!

My Heart Will Go On

I'm sure you have all been waiting on the edge of your seats to get the heart diagnosis and since I am officially an old lady, my birthday is a perfect day to bore you with riveting stories of my health.

So, after an echo-cardiogram and stress test I sat down with my cardiologist to discuss some matters of the heart. Just a side note, watching the live video of my heart beating and the valves opening and closing was pretty fascinating. I wish I could get a copy of the video for my blog. It would make a great anniversary post "My heart beats for you dear..." 

 But I digress. 

Oh wait, one more thing. My cardiologist looks like this guy:

The actor William Daniels  who won two Emmy awards playing Dr. Craig on a series called St. Elsewhere which I used to watch on Tuesdays while I was waiting for the hubs to get home from his MBA night class back in our trailer house/early poverty days. (That show also starred Denzel Washington and Howie Mandel. Oh the early 80's....)

 And I did it again--off on another tangent! That's what happens when you get old. Bear with me here, I will get to the point eventually.

Where was I? Oh! The diagnosis. 

Left Ventricular Hypertrophy

Let's read what the Mayo Clinic has to say about it:

Left ventricular hypertrophy is enlargement (hypertrophy) of the muscle tissue that makes up the wall of your heart's main pumping chamber (left ventricle).

Left ventricular hypertrophy develops in response to some factor, such as high blood pressure, that requires the left ventricle to work harder. As the workload increases, the walls of the chamber grow thicker, lose elasticity and eventually may fail to pump with as much force as that of a healthy heart.

This explains a few things. Such as, why I feel like I am going to suffocate if I try to run uphill. The left ventricle takes the oxygenated blood from the lungs to send it off through the arteries to bring that life-giving oxygen to the rest of the body. So less oxygenated blood moving means less oxygen means suffocation.  I have trained my heart out (bad pun) and still could not build the stamina for a real long-distance or strenuous run. I can walk all day and hike 'til the cows come home. I just can't do that at a running pace. It turns out my body requires large amounts of oxygen to run like that and my poor heart was working hard but falling short in the oxygen delivery department. 

I come by my heart damage through high blood pressure and I come by my high blood pressure thanks to the genetic lottery of having both parents with it. As I have said before, when it comes to genetics, you win some, you lose some. At this point I suppose I would trade a few gray hairs for lower blood pressure. But I didn't get to choose, so with what I am saving on hair dye I can now spend on blood pressure medication.

The good news: it's reversible. I am on blood pressure medication and in a desperate effort to avoid a second medication, I am following this eating plan:

Dr. Gundry's Evolution Diet

 Not that I was a slothful glutton as it was, but there is definitely room for improvement. Here's a good place for a shout-out for the

Word of Wisdom

My cardiologist pointed out that the reason my heart is doing so well under such adverse conditions is because of my lifetime of no smoking, no drinking, no coffee, no caffeine (I KNOW THAT'S NOT IN THE WORD OF WISDOM AND THE BRETHREN OK'd ALL THAT DEVIL DRINK LIKE COKE AND WHAT NOT BUT IT'S IN MY OWN PERSONAL WORD OF WISDOM SO... CARRY ON).
 As for that promise of "Run and not be weary" my promise is really "Run and not drop dead" which, you know, works for me. Or maybe "Walk at a vigorous pace but slow down on the hills and not be weary."
 Hopefully my enlarged, overworked heart will shrink three sizes (a reverse Grinch--ha!) and maybe learn to work smarter not harder. 

In the meantime, I won't be running any marathons and that's fine by me. I think I was meant for walking and hiking at a pace that allows for taking in the vistas and the scenery. It seems my heart is telling me to stop and smell the roses. 

In Which Shayla Goes on a Mission

Just a really cute baby June with her PopPop on the Sunday morning that 

Shayla gave her farewell address in the Newtown Ward.

Miss Norah turned three the day before and blew out her candles. 

She plugged her ears as we sang "Happy Birthday"--can't say as I blame her.

Shayla and her fan club:

Bailey, Mason and Norah

The whole next generation of Gale posterity on one couch.

This is the only picture out of many that didn't have at least one child in motion and blurry.

Oh, but aren't they adorable?!

And off she goes to serve a mission. 

We were held up by traffic on the way to the airport and she had to hurry to make her flight.

 We had most of the summer to say good-bye but the final send-off was short and quick.

There were tears and smiles and hugs.

Our Sister Gale will be a wonderful missionary. 

Her loving heart and obedient spirit will serve her well as she serves the Lord.

Five-OH MY GOODNESS!

Gentle Reader,
Hello! How have you been? Just the usual around here...

I got old. 

Well, older.

This was a very thoughtful gift from my husband....

and all of you who contributed to make an old

woman cry at each turn of the page.

Truly, your kind thoughts touched my heart and made me laugh and cry and remember

so many good things about all of the people and places that have been a part of 

these past joyous 50 years of mortal existence.

It makes me truly happy that these associations can be eternal.

And a word to the wise: if the 90's craze of Glamour Shots makes a comeback...

Just say no.

This picture will haunt me unto the end of my days. 

But my sweet husband loves it, so there you have it.

A Birthday for Sam

This kid had a BIRTHDAY!

Remember when he loved to play Pokemon with his siblings?

...and when he entertained us with his crazy antics

And remember when he was a happy little

chub of cute babyness?

These past 17 years have been a joy with this boy!

Life Lately

Here's a quick re-cap of the ongoing adventures of the Gale gang...

First, an adorable picture of that sweet baby June:

Miss June on her Blessing Day

Andy and I celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary--hard to believe it has been that long. We enjoyed some time in New York City--and that deserves a post of it's own...so stay tuned! While we were
there--during the intermission of "Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark" in fact--we found out Sam was accepted to BYU Provo. There was some mad texting going on between Sam--who was at the Manhattan Temple on a youth temple trip (he was actually walking back from Chipotle with the Bishop at the time; so don't worry--no texting was going on IN the temple!) and Shayla and me. Shayla looked it up for us and announced the good news to Sam and he told me. Perfect timing and much rejoicing. Sam applied a year early and without a high school diploma so we were holding our breath and hoping. He will get a year of college at BYU before his mission which will be good preparation for him.

In the meantime, I was surprised to find that my service was requested as president of our Relief Society. The last two times I was called to fulfill that calling, I had a clear forewarning. The Lord used to mercifully prepare me for things that He knew would overwhelm me. I was humming along enjoying my youth Sunday School class and having fun every month as Cubmaster and never even saw it coming. The Lord moves in mysterious ways. I have lived here seven months and felt at a disadvantage in choosing counselors and secretary but thank goodness for inspiration and guidance. Especially since I wasn't even there for my first Sunday on the job. I was in New Jersey...

...for June's baby blessing--rescheduled after the big storm (one of the many big storms!). We packed up the Uncles Sam and  Shane and made the drive to New Jersey. It was a fun weekend with Scott and Nicole and their sweet girls.

The Uncles with baby June

I gave the camera to Bailey and she got some great shots:

Her Mom--the always lovely and amazing Nicole

Little Sis Norah 

A window and wall composition with construction

paper balloon.

She stood up on the couch for this one.

Selfie!!

Shoe shot

Nana and Bailey shoe shot

Baby sister with Nana

That was fun!

I should mention that I have been homeschooling Shane since January. We are starting small with a couple of other kids coming here twice a week for TJYC and some history, math and science.

It was a big decision that I was putting off while I gathered information and resources. It was

hard to start over AGAIN in a new place. But there have been many tender mercies and we

are loving it. Well, I am loving it and Shane is not hating it.

 I take what I can get with the Truthist. 

Shayla has been loving BYU and will be staying for spring term. She has awesome roommates and they are moving into an apartment together after this semester. The big leap from dorm to apartment! In the meantime she has been getting her papers in for a mission. She loves her mission prep class and we talk often

about the many things BYU is doing in their wards and stakes to prepare SO MANY missionaries.

We will be awaiting the news on her call in a couple of weeks. 

And finally, Gentle Reader, 

I am going to be 50 in a couple of weeks. FIFTY YEARS OLD. And as crazy as this sounds, I can only think of the many good things that have come my way in 50 years of earth life. I don't mind the wrinkles and seriously I have only had one grey hair so far. Thank you genetics. (And no thank you genetics for the buck teeth and the greasy hair and huge pores. You win some, you lose some).

So, where was I? I'm getting old and forget what I was saying sometimes. Oh! The wrinkles and the weakening eyesight and the slower metabolism are a small price to pay for the wisdom and experience that I get to take with me For the joys of eternal family ties. The amazing blessings that come with each and every child and grandchild. The peace that comes from knowing my purpose here and having the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to guide my path. I have lived long enough to know that in the tough times, I can find comfort and that it will all work together for my good.  

My annoying optimism wins out and I keep finding Joy in the journey.

And that's why I kept this Christmas decoration up after the holidays.

The view from my window.