READ MY WORDS

On Monday I was at Trent and Michelle's house, supposedly helping her, but really just cooking dinner, telling her to sleep when the baby did, and loving those kids.

All morning I told Enoch to find me a story book and I would read to him. He had other ideas. So, when Levi came home from kindergarten, and after he had eaten lunch, I told him I would read to him if he could bring me some books.

"I'm going to write some words," he said, getting a small notebook. Then we had a half hour of, "how do you spell this, Grandma?"

Periodically I would say, "If you get me some books I'll read to you and Enoch."

Finally he had had enough. "Grandma," he said, with his hands on his hips. "When I get finished you can read my words."

And so it was.

In his story there was a king and all manner of excitement, with words all run together and letters pointing backwards.

A five year old author. I'm expecting great things from Levi.

PS Baby Hyrum is number eight!

MORMON FAMILY KEEPS IT CLEAN WITH PIONEER SOAP

This is Michelle, our daughter-in-law, married to our oldest child, Trent. She is an amazing woman. She does everything, and I mean everything. She sews, she cooks, she cleans, she belongs to a book club, she belongs to a card making group--usually meetings are held at her house. She keeps track of which child has which assignment and who needs money for school lunch. She was the Primary President for about five years. She is currently the Relief Society President. For those who are not Mormon, those are church callings and are HUGE. She makes jewelry--beautiful and unique items. And...she makes soap--liquid and bar soap. She makes wonderful lotions and bath bombs.

She has one customer who drives miles and miles, dashes in, grabs an armload of soap, practically throws the money at you and dashes out. All this dashing is because she is so busy and she drives miles and miles because Michelle's soap is the only soap that doesn't make her skin break out. And the throwing money thing? Really she does, I was there, tending the kids when this customer dashed, grabbed and threw. Then she opened the door again and whispered, "Thanks." then she dashed some more and drove off in a cloud of exhaust.Michelle has been featured in two newspapers. The Daily Herald, article here. And the Dessert News, article here. That is where the title for this post came from: Mormon Family Keeps It Clean With Pioneer Soap.

Phil's favorite is Rosemary Mint--it's a manly scent and I'm quite in love with it too. I love anything with citrus. She has several--Fruit Slices, Grapefruit, Citrus and Sage, Red Current and Grapefruit, Bitter Orange Orchid and she has a tangerine something--maybe with mango--that I love but I can't find it on her website.All of her children help. This is Levi, her four year old.

She sells at boutiques--the Holy Cow Boutique was this weekend and is again on November 17-20 in Pleasant Grove, Utah. She sells at Farmer's Markets type things and just today she was a guest at Young Living Essential Oils where she taught a class on soap making using $130 worth of Young Living essential oils. Later in the day she had to "break down" her booth at the Holy Cow Boutique, clean everything up and put it away. Then she came to a family dinner that Taylor and Sharee hosted for Phil--yesterday was Phil's birthday! She brought me some of her lavender lotion--I call it Sleepytime lotion because the lavender scent is so putting-me-to-sleep-ish. I've been out for a long time and can't wait to have it on my face, etc. (never mind) and go to bed and have wonderful dreams.

Here is her Vanilla Lace soap. I haven't tried it yet. Oh, and most important of all, Michelle is a mother. A mother of seven. I told you she was amazing! She has given us half of our grandchildren .

When they were engaged, Trent asked her if she would like to teach for a year or two--she graduated from Brigham Young University with a teaching degree--before they had kids, she said, "Why would I want to do that? I'll teach my own children."

And her first was born eleven months later. They are: Meghan, Mark, Willow, Noah, Joseph, Levi and Enoch. They have been taught well. They are all wonderful. As is Michelle. Long live the Queen--the Soap Queen.

PS Hillary said today in an email that went to both Michelle and me, "PS MICHELLE I read your articles in BOTH papers. You are amazing and for sure I need your autograph."

PPS Which leads me to this thought. We are all amazing. Some have talents that we envy. Some have beautiful bodies that we envy. Some are smart and clever and fill in the blank. But, I think we are all special. The ugly, the uninformed, the not-so-clever, the fill in the blank. All of us. Special.

I remember the story of the Russian child, who was lost. People rallied around, wanting to help. "What does your mother look like," they said.

"She is the most beautiful woman in the world," the child said.

The people scoured the streets for a beautiful woman. "Is this your child?" they asked several beautiful women. "No" each one answered.

Finally the child yelled out, "There she is," pointing to a dowdy woman who was running to pick up her child and twirl her around and around.

When she sat the child back on the ground the child said, "I told you so, I told you she was the most beautiful woman in the world." And hand in hand the lucky child and the beautiful mother went on their way, leaving everyone with a new appreciation of what real beauty is.

Michelle has real beauty. She knows what is the most important, her husband and her children. But first she loves God. Then everything else just seems to fall into place--after all her hard work, that is. This woman is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get to work. Whatever she does, she does well.

THE GRANDCHILDREN DANCE CELTIC

Tonight Trent called and said that Noah, Willow and Meghan were dancing their Celtic dances at the library. We flew and got there too late to see Noah but did see Willow and Meghan dance. I hardly recognized them. They had curly wigs on--well, not Noah. They did a wonderful job. I got a little teary eyed--as I always do when I watch children performing and since they were my grandchildren it was hard not to get emotional. I blinked a lot.

I wasn't up close so these photos are way too dark. When Willow saw us she grinned and waved. I missed it, of course. But I caught Meghan's smile.Getting dressed in regular clothes after they danced.
Their mom, Michelle in the background, making sure all the shoes and dress parts got packed.

Noah gave us a private recital.

He did a great job.

We are so glad we got to see the kids dance. They really put on a good show--in spite of the fact that some youngster pulled the fire alarm and we were told to evacuate the building. It didn't faze their teacher. "Dance on," was her motto. And they did.

NOAH IS BAPTIZED

(I've changed my settings to the "updated editor" and I can't move photos around, they won't stay in the format I want them to and ...AUGH. The only advantage is that you can do a strikethrough without knowing the HTML code, but I know the HTML code and this is frustrating. Trent and Noah's photo is supposed to be first and it's last. Michelle's photo is supposed to be centered and...where is spellcheck? For a creative speller like I am, spellcheck is essential. AUGH. I'm tearing my hair out. Again. As soon as this post is done I'm going back to the normal editor setting.)

Our grandson, Noah has turned eight and was baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Saturday.

This is his darling Mother, who was supposed to have her picture taken with Trent and Noah, but child number seven took that moment to run into the parking lot of the church and...wow! Can Michelle run. And dance. She and her two girls take Celtic dance classes and also compete. She is very graceful and is also all things wonderful. (Number seven child is on the floor, having a meltdown.)

This is Trent, our oldest son, who baptized and confirmed his son a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Noah is very bright and a very good boy. I know he will take his responsibility of being a member of the Church, and taking the name of the Savior, seriously.

And just for the record, I got the very best hug I have ever had from him. Perhaps the best hug I have ever had. Period.

We love you, Noah. Congratulations!