Christmas in Utah

Look at our cute Travis and Becky with their wedding quilt! I had to have a photo of them with it. Their apartment looks darling, and the quilt is hanging in the wall in the living room. I am glad they like it!

Look how much our little Isaac is growing! He is wrapped in his daddy's arms here. So sweet!

Renn is loving every minute of this baby! Sorry about the red-eye. My photo shop is on my computer and I am on Dad's laptop.

Sweet Baby Isaac with his mommy, Keira!

And with Becky! 

Happy Daddy!

Grandma and Grandpa and Isaac!

And finally, look at these beautiful snow covered mountains!

We go home tomorrow and life will go back to some semblance of normal. But it has been so much fun being here for Christmas and spending time with Renn, Keira, Isaac and Becky and Travis! 

It's a Wonderful Life!

ONE WEEK OLD

Little Isaac is growing already! This is the latest picture from Renn.

NEW ARRIVAL

Welcome to our world little Isaac Michael Patch. He was born December 2, 2009, weighing 8 pounds and 2 ounces. Keira and Renn are thrilled with their new little boy. Through the miracle of cell phones Renn send us pictures immediately. Then Becky rushed to the hospital and took more for us! Read Becky's sweet blog  for her take on the whole scene. Then she also posted on the Froelich Family blog as well. Great pics! Thank you Becky.

We are all very excited for this new little arrival! For one thing, we have another grandson to carry on the Patch name! We keep trying to buy Jack off to change his name to Patch, but so far his father is very opposed. Go figure.

Keira and Renn, congratulations and we can't wait to be with you! Send more photos and I will be happy to show them off here for all to see!

Bye Bye Birdie

I just stripped the rest of the meat from our Thanksgiving bird. Tomorrow it will be a week. Better use that meat up! I will throw the bones in the crock pot tomorrow for soup. It can simmer away while I am busy outside the kitchen. Tonight I made turkey pie and that is in the oven. Won't Dad be happy? I haven't cooked since Thanksgiving. Seriously, I guess it is time. So here is my super simple recipe for Chicken or Turkey Pie:

Prepare a pie crust or purchase one

Two cups of cooked, cut up chicken/turkey or 3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 can (16 oz) Veg-All (mixed vegetables)

2 cans soup, Cream of Chicken and Cream of Potato

Bake in a pie crust for one hour at 350 degrees.

Easy as pie!

Dad always wishes this was apple pie, but he does like it.

We are still waiting to hear from Renn and Keira. They went to the hospital this morning for the baby to be induced. Come on baby boy, we are waiting for you!

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS

Rain, rain, go away! I would rather have sun on Thanksgiving Day!

Yes, it is raining here once again. Sigh. But not freezing rain! Smile!

When Thanksgiving rolls around I find myself thinking of years ago when we were all much younger. (And our children were children and our grandchildren had not yet come to life.) Dad and I both wanted our own mother's Thanksgiving dinner, so we went to Patch's at noon, and Winspear's at 3:00. Talk about gluttons!But it was wonderful to have all our family close by so that we could enjoy being together. You all really were lucky to have so many cousins on both sides of the family to play with. And you had wonderful grandparents that loved you as well.

What really comes to mind for me, is standing at the sink in Grandma Patch's kitchen and looking out the window at the driveway, wondering when the rest of the family would arrive while snow flakes peacefully fluttering to the ground. She commented that the snow in Minnesota often seems to arrive right around Thanksgiving. I don't know why that little scene is so memorable to me. It is odd, the little things that stick in our minds.

So here it is, Thanksgiving again, and all thoughts turn to home and family. It has been many years since our family was all together for Thanksgiving. The past couple of years Dad and I have spent the day alone. This year we found out that my cousin Mark's son Daniel lives three hours away in Manassas, Virginia, so we have invited him and his wife and 18 month old daughter to join us. Dad will be happy, he will have a little blond girl on his knee again!
Dinner will be the same, of course, with all the old standbys, as mentioned in my other blog. We got all the chestnuts cleaned for the chestnut dressing! It took years for your dad to decide that he liked it, so now we have to include that as our specialty!

As usual, you will each be having your own celebration in a different location, and in a different state!
Jennie will be driving with Cousin Laura to the Armbruster home in South Carolina.
Matt and Anna Marie will be having her family over to their new home as they now have their oven working.
Polly and Chris will have a full house with their family and more! Plus, Becky and Travis are driving up and bringing friends from Buffalo.
Renn and Keira...I don't know for sure, but I assume they will be with her family somewhere, and most likely at Renn's house.
Grampa Jim will be at Linda's, I am sure, as all her kids are there this year.

Amidst all the food and fun, I hope you will have some Thanksgiving memories of your own to savor. And always bear in mind how much we love you all and we are so thankful to have such great kids and grandkids!

LIFE'S A BEACH

It has been raining here for the past three days, and the first came with 60 MPH winds. We really took a beating. They schools were closed, as was Dad's work. Streets were flooded, including ours. Today I decided to see what the beach looked like. I walked out the boardwalk where there are usually stairs. But look! The stairs have been washed away! The tides have been really high and damaging.

The skies are still gray and the rain keeps coming.

Can you see the Pier Cafe down the way? The pier has sections washed out. Notice how far the water is up. I am sure the sea took back lots of sand with this storm. It also washed boats out that were pulled up by the sand dunes. The neighborhood watch e-mail indicated that several kayaks had washed down the shore and could be retrieved at McDonalds.



The tide is still coming in here. See the people down the beach with kites!


Our house and yard are more than drenched. the yard is so waterlogged that there is water pooling. It is better today and in these pictures than it was yesterday when it was several inches deep.

Here is the side yard, still immersed. The driveway is one big pool of water as well. We can't reach our mailbox, it has a lake around it. Dad goes out in big rubber boots to retrieve the mail.

The first night of the storm we lost power for several hours just after dinner. We watched movies on Dad's laptop that Becky loaded on last summer. Thanks Becky!

Today I finally left the house for the first time in over a week. It was so nasty the past few days I didn't want to go anywhere. Today I went to Sam's Club and the grocery store, then Dad and I went out for Mexican food. The Mexican food here never lives up to my expectations. You think I would learn.

You think I would cook! Hahaha!

A KISS TO BUILD A DREAM ON

Give me a kiss to build a dream on, And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss. Sweetheart, I ask no more than this: A kiss to build a dream on. (Louis Armstrong)

FAMILY

AND FRIENDS

OUR OCTOBER FEST BEGINS

On October tenth, 2009, our darling girl, Rebeccah Louise Froelich, was married to Travis Pitcher of Orem Utah. I left home on October 5^th so I could get there early. After the wedding, I flew to Arizona to spend a week with Matt’s family. I got some flu bug (don’t say Swine Flu) and was down for the count the whole week I was in Arizona. I came home on Tuesday, October 20^th, still feeling kinda crummy. Mostly I am TIRED and still coughing. So that is my excuse for such late reporting of such a monumental event!

Becky and Travis picked me up at the SLC airport on Monday, October 5^th. I had met Travis before at Renn’s wedding, but didn’t really talk to him much. All I knew for sure was that he is very tall and has curly blonde hair. And that my granddaughter Becky is madly in love with him. After an hour long trip back to Provo it became apparent to me why she adores him. Travis is the real deal. In him I see honesty, thoughtfulness, kindness and purity all wrapped up in a big smile. He rather glows with goodness! Becky chose very well, I believe.

Upon arriving in Provo Travis's car broke down and his dad came and delivered us the rest of the way home.

I wish I had a picture of Travis and another young man pushing the vehicle off the road into a parking lot, and of Becky steering and learning for the first time how it feels when there is no power steering. Oh the trials of being young and broke!

We arrived at Becky’s apartment and what was soon to become “the love nest” after the wedding, of course. Polly had been there a few weeks earlier and, with some help from Travis and Becky, painted the whole interior. Everything looked nice and clean. The apartment is a unit in an old home in downtown Provo that has been divided into three or four apartments. It could use some work, to say the least. But for Becky and Travis it will suffice for a while until they feel the need to move on. First apartments are supposed to be memorable so they stand as a point of reference for when you achieve more in life.

Travis rode off on his scooter to go to work and Becky and I were left alone. Becky had been experimenting with cooking and had homemade rolls (she needs more work in that area) and homemade squash soup. The soup may sound a bit odd, but let me tell you, it was fabulous! The squash soup was pureed and then finely chopped ham, apples and pecans was sprinkled on top. Very gourmet. I hope she will serve me that again some day.

OK, I am taking too long on all of this. Let me just say that I was happy to be there a couple days early as it gave me time to spend with Becky before the mad crush.

Aren't they cute! More later...

Photos by Lisa! I swiped them from her blog. (Click there to go to her blog)

LIZZY

Sometimes we see death approaching from afar. It slowly advances at a regulated pace on a person who has lived a long and full life. It may surprise us, but it is not totally unexpected.
Sometimes death calls on someone who has been ill for a while, and we might even consider it a blessing.
Yesterday death swept in and took my sister-in-law, Lizabeth Patch Armbruster. We are stunned at the audacity and shaken by the finality.
Liz was a 51 year old wife of Joe Armbruster, and mother of Eleanor, Laura, Jacob, Mary, Peter and Sam. She also had two grandsons. She actively participated in all things pertaining to her children. Her love for them and pride in them was apparent as you read the blog she kept recording the events in their lives and in her own.
Recently she wrote a couple of posts on her blog regarding memories of home and of growing up. She had a flair for writing, and a gift for displaying good common sense in the thoughts that she expressed. Her pen has now been silenced, and it is our loss.

Always the apple of her mother's eye, Liz was the youngest of the Patch children.

As a child Liz was not easily won over and she could spot a phony a mile away.

This is the most recent photo I have of Liz taken in July 2009 while I was visiting Jennie in Atlanta. Liz drove three hours from South Carolina to come and see me. Liz went out of her way to be with family and was often the instigator of get togethers.

Liz's mother died of cancer at the age of 53. Liz was 19 at the time and felt her loss throughout the rest of her life. As Liz became an adult I watched her fight through this loss and take her life by the horns. She took on the responsibilities of a family, of church, scouts and even education, as she decided to home-school her children for a time. Not easy, to be sure, but she took action and did what was necessary. Her children will have wonderful memories of a mother who loved them and devoted her life to them.

I am proud to have known her.

FOR BECKY

A young couple got married and went on a cruise for their honeymoon. When they got back from the honeymoon, the bride immediately called her mother, who lived a couple of hours away.

"Well, darling," said her mom, "how was the honeymoon?"

Oh, mother," she replied, "the honeymoon was wonderful! So romantic, we had a terrific time! But, mother, as soon as we returned, Sam began using really horrible language… Stuff I'd never heard before… Really terrible 4-letter words… You've got to come get me and take me home… PLEASE MOTHER!"

And the new bride began to sob over the telephone.

"But honey," the mother countered, "WHAT 4-letter words?"

"I can't tell you, mother," said the daughter, "they're too awful! COME GET ME, P L E A S E !!!"

"Darling daughter, you must tell me what has you so upset… Tell mother the 4-letter words!"

Still sobbing, the bride said, "Mother….words like: DUST…WASH……IRON….COOK"

REST IN PEACE MR. PATCH

Harry Patch, Britain's oldest remaining survivor of World War I, passed away yesterday, Saturday, July 25, 2009. He was 111 years old. Do we know if he was a relative? Well, if he was, he was far removed. But he shares our name, and so it does catch our attention.

Wikipedia shares lots of information about Harry, almost all of it referring to his WWI experience. Apparently he refused to speak about the war for almost 100 years. Seriously, he joined the service in 1917 at the age of 19. He finally broke his silence in the past few years, when it became clear that he was one of the last remaining soldiers of WWI in the world! (Of course my sarcastic husband says that is because there is no one left to dispute him!)

He survived 90 days in the trenches at a battle in Battle of Passchendaele while thousands of soldiers died all around him. One of his final acts was to return to this battlefield and lay a wreath of poppies in memory of all those who died, including the German enemy combatants.

"Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left."
—Commenting on graves at a Flanders war cemetery, July 2007

With all his ribbons and medals, Harry despised war. He took no glory in it. He reflected on a moment when he came face to face with a German soldier in combat and thought of the Ten Commandments as he faced him down. Harry shot him in the shoulder, he shot him in the knee, and in the ankle. To his great relief, he brought him down without killing him.

Recalling the death of another soldier Harry said:

"And when that fellah died, he just said one word: ‘Mother.’ It wasn’t a cry of despair. It was a cry or surprise and joy. I think - although I wasn’t allowed to see her - I am sure his mother was in the next world to welcome him. And he knew it. I was just allowed to see that much and no more. And from that day until today - and now I’m nearly 106 years old - I shall always remember that cry and I shall always remember that death is not the end.

You’ve got a memory. You’ve got a brain about the size of a tea cup. I’ve got a memory that goes back for 80 or 90 years and I think that memory goes on with you when you die. And that’s my opinion. Death is not the end."

These are the few things I have learned about Harry Patch and I feel honored to share his name. He has gone on to join his three wives and two sons who passed away before him. Sounds like a Patch to me!

Also see:

Excellent Obituary http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/army-obituaries/5911814/Private-Harry-Patch.html

ADOBE ABODE

Hi Family, Just got back from Arizona and helping Matt and Anna Marie move to their new house. So, I am sharing a few pics of their new abode. We all love it! Nice big trees in the front of the house and lovely courtyard effect in the front entry. Of course the lovely, big trees are why the plumbing was clogged and the sewer line had to be drilled, but at least that is done now and they can flush again!
Their furniture fits beautifully in the new living room! The previous owners left this lovely big tree in the LR and it really adds. We think it was too heavy to move! Also, notice the plantation shutters. They are beautiful and go through the whole house. Love that they don't have to deal with window treatments!
Here is a corner of the yard with the pool. A darling mural enhances the back wall. I love that potted palm on the right. And cute lampposts! The cool decking is done in blocks, also an attractive feature. There are orange trees on the side of the house along with additional storage sheds.
Kyle, who is almost 18, and his friends moved all the furniture! They were great! Kyle also completed his Eagle Scout project while I was there, along with lots of help from his friends and ward leaders, and especially his MOM! Way to go Kyle! I am so proud of him for that accomplishment!
Darling Danielle sitting in her newly painted bedroom. She is a happy girl! And she is a very good worker! She and her friend Maybry helped pack and clean and carry boxes! They were great! And they never complained!
I was so happy to be able to help out. I love their new house, and you will too! I also loved seeing my relatives while there, going to lunch for Mexican food and visiting!