~ Happy Birthday Dear Brent ~

Or is that Dear Brent, Happy Birthday!!! But then it wouldn't sound like a song.....

50 Years Ago With Baby Sister, Trudy. . .

Even More of a Faded Photograph 34ish years ago...
But Not Memory :)

39 Years Ago With A Baby of His Own!
(Photo compliments of Katie, "The Scrapbook Lady" Also pictured below... )

Last Year.. We were in Las Vegas at the Same Time. . .

Another "Stolen" Blog Picture That Has Become One of my Favorites!!!

And ANOTHER Stolen Picture. . . I'm REALLY Busted Now!!!
Thank You Katie and Kathy?

Another year has flown by and time is speeding up!! What a year it's been! I can't let the day get away from me without total and complete recognition of this 62nd birthday.

His daughter, Katie, (Pictured above) put together a beautiful scrapbook for the Jones Family and asked each of us to write something about each member of our family. I would love to share this with you again today in honor of my brother and friend, Brent.

Excerpt from the "Book of Joneses"

"I remember thinking as a little kid that when I heard the phrase "tall dark and handsome" that was my big brother Brent. When he got married and moved to California I was sad. I remember getting letters in the mail that just said "Hi". It made me feel so important! One of his letters came when I was about 11. It was a fun little letter on the importance of becoming an Aunt. I strutted for weeks!

He has accomplished much in his life and has such a beautiful family. Mom and Dad were always very proud. I have admired that his faith and accomplishments were from his own hard work and study. He never believed anything just on faith. He worked to understand; something I never did enough of. "

I wrote this 6 years ago and it still applies today. Brent, Happy Birthday!!! You are STILL one of my heroes!!

Love Forever,

Trudy

~ Father's Day, 2008 ~

OK... the day is getting by me here and it's taking way too long to get this posted. Anyone that knows me knows that when it comes to Fathers I was blessed with simply the best. That's my view and I'm sure it's correct. I was also blessed to marry a pretty amazing guy that turned out to be "another one of the best".

The first Father's Day after my Dad passed away was probably the hardest one I ever faced. I remember wanting to crawl into a hole, but that couldn't happen. There are still fathers to be honored and celebrated, especially Gary. Each Father's day I stop and reflect again what a great man Dad was.

This past year my kids (almost young adults.... but not yet) have wanted different privileges that we have had to have family discussions about. I was touched and appreciative when Gary used my father as an example of honor and what is "right". Gary's response on some questionable requests has been "Would you think Grandpa would approve of that? If he were sitting right here, what do you think he would say?" And to me it's, "Would this pass the Merlin test?" It is my dear husband, the father of my kids, that uses my Dad as his compass example. For that I am so grateful....


So here's to the fathers in our lives and all that they stand for. It's a hard world right now to raise kids in. It's an honor to know that there are those that will stand up for what's right.

Happy Father's Day......

~And.... Here Comes the Bride - Three of Three ~

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Drew and Julie Visser !

May 31st, 2008

Julie And Drew's First Dance

Julie and her Dad, Dean

Our Good Friends, Dean and Vicki Hess... Parents of the Bride...

Whew..... 3 weddings in three weeks..... young love.... it must be spring ~

Here Comes the Bride - Two of Three!!! ~

Princess Brandie...... Mrs. Stephen Hill...

And what can I say about such a pretty picture? Dear Brandie made Aunt Trudy cry just a little bit. I returned from Georgia Monday afternoon..... it was a very good experience for me to share with my young adult children. I truly found out how amazing they were by watching from the sidelines how they interacted with family that they, in the beginning, didn't really know very well, Although, Stephanie came to Georgia with me in March of 2004 for a previous wedding. She was merely 13 then. This was different. Ryan is 19 and Stephanie is 17. They are the youngest of the Jones family that was there from this generation. Hmmm......

OK there had to be one in here with the three of us....

The wedding was, beautiful!!!! In perfect Jones style. Stephen and Brandie honored their families as well as their friends.

Yeah.... this is the one..... this was part of the candle-lighting ceremony...... It was beautiful.

There was a pause when the DJ announced "the father's dance". Stephen's Dad stepped out and took Brandie's hand. There weren't many dry eyes.

Stephen with his Mom

Anna Marie and Brandie

There was a true blending of families that would take many blogs to document and understand. Just know that this was a marriage that was awesome and weirdly Karmic...... Stephen's family is a joy, as is Stephen. And God is still smiling..... I wish I'd actually taken more pictures..... From left to right is Stephen's Mom and his three Aunts. This was taken at the bridal tea.

Alyssa is almost a professional flower girl... and Natalie is Dave and Cindy's Granddaughter :) ....Beautiful Young Ladies....

And then there are those Joneses..... near and dear to my heart:

Here's to "Happily Ever After"...

And they drove off into the night.....

~ Here Comes The Bride - One of Three!!! ~

What a BUSY three weeks I'm having! What a BLAST!!! I LOVE weddings!!!

Weekend One of Three.......

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Joseph and Mahlia Goldstein....

And this would be the "bride to be", Mahlia Beal with Mom, Sheila.....

Married by the Rabbi, Dan Fink.... On May 17th, 2008....


Joe with his Mom..... watching the license being signed....


Mahlia's Mom, Sheila, and Grandma Rose (A Holocaust survivor and the most fascinating lady I've ever met) with her son, Danny looking on....

And also Grandma Mary.... Making sure that the T's are crossed and they dotted the I's...

Yup.... the picture is fuzzy..... but this is the "chuppot" that I helped to assemble with Sheila that Saturday afternoon. :)

I wish I'd gotten a better picture that afternoon..... Oh well....

Mazel Tov!

..................... More to Come.............. Next Saturday in Georgia............

~ Prom - One More Picture ~

And One More Picture - - -

~ Junior Prom ~

Stephanie and Johnny .....

Still sly but not as.....

But First.......

Rahel and Sheila (the hair magician.. )

Rahel and Graham

Anna playing beautiful classical music ....
She's also wearing her Mom's Prom dress from 1976! :)

Anna, Leeann, Lynlee, and Kat

Graham, Rahel, Anna, Leeann, Kat, Stephanie, and Johnny

What a night!! I'm still just in awe. Or maybe that's just exhaustion. :) And yes, that devilish little smile is "attitude".

Stephanie had the girls meet here at 3:30 for the make-up and hair creations. Then the guys came here and they all left for dinner at Davinci's. Prom was not as fun as they thought it could be but they all made up for it before and after! Whew!!!

~ Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother ~

Today is a good day to do just that. February was Mom and Dad's month. They celebrated their birthdays, anniversary, and Valentine's Day all in one month. I always thought that was just completely romantic.

On this 27th day of February Dad would have been 94. I knew my Dad well enough to know that he would think that was just poppycock. (I never knew what that meant but it tickled me when Dad said the word) And Mom would have been 88 on the 8th. I think I know what she would have thought. Her twin sister's eyes had the answer for me a few months ago. Dad always said that gettin' old ain't for sissies. They weren't!

This was the last family reunion we were together. This was June, 1997. Mom passed away in 1998. It's hard to believe that 10 years have passed! It seems like 100 years ago and sometimes it seems like yesterday. Now I have a daughter that is almost 17. I want SO badly just to go back and give Mom a big hug and say I'm sorry. Mother-daughter relationships are interesting and humbling. I wasn't always very easy.

Dad has been gone for 6 years. The last 4 years with my Dad were even more precious to me. I learned about strength, courage, spirituality, and love from his example. I saw our family come together in ways I'd never seen. The opportunity that we had to spend time with him individually as well as together was humbling.

After Dad passed away in January of 2002, we continued to honor them by having Jones reunions for the 3 of us. This is something we'd never done before! The next 3 years took us to the ski hills of Utah.....

.... and the Museums of Santa Fe. I am SOOOO glad we did this. Who knew that then there would be two?

It's not the best picture we've had taken... the sun was in our eyes, etc. but it's the one that depicts the weekend best. It was good. Jeff passed away less than a month later. The times we had together were precious.

So in honoring our Father and Mother, I will honor the past AND the present. This is not to be a sad and melancholy blog. It is meant to share the memories and the blessings of the past that we had together. I will love them forever.

And to the future...... in honor of "Jonesness" ....


February reunions were nice but now we grab those moments whenever they present themselves. It's all good. I Love Ya Big Brother :)

~ And Happy New Year!!!

So I'm a day late....

I added a tidbit to my title. This was something that I touched on in my first blog. When it asked me for a name this was the first thing that came to mind. On icky days I think back to this title and ponder (a weird word that I use rarely) Then I come back to this. "But who else would I be?"

New Years Day is always interesting. Every year I take the old wall calendar down and put a new one up, but first I go through and transfer birthdays. Each month I turn over the page and look at the picture.. (this year they're all roosters instead of cottages..) and wonder what the month will really look like. On New Year's Day next year will I look back and go "whew, I wouldn't want to do that year again!" ? This year I'm saying "Thank God it's over!" Please don't get me wrong. There were some good times.... most of them are documented on this blog. But then there was some bad times that I would never want to re-live again.

I remember all those fun little story books when I was a little kid. They all ended in happily ever after. Hmmm..... I'm still working on it. I'm going to look forward to 2008 with some optimism and faith.

To my friends and family ~ Have a Happy, Healthy, Happily Ever After New Year!!