Firsts

Today was a first for Joseph . . . he decided to have hot lunch at school.  Not impressive, you say?  Well, then you don't know Joseph very well.  He is extremely cautious about food and has happily taken the exact same lunch to school every day since the beginning of 1st grade:

Danimal yogurt

Raw almonds or sunflower seeds or peanuts

5 slices of red pepper

chocolate milk or pineapple juice

That's it - he doesn't ever want a treat in his lunch, and he definitely wouldn't want a sandwich (that would involve bread).  We've tried to expand his culinary horizons, but he has insisted on this consistently boring yet admittedly healthy lunch every day.

But recently a few of the hot lunches have caught his eye.  Today he made the exciting announcement that he wanted to try hot lunch today:  Chicken Tenders, Baby Carrots, Delicious Apple Wedges.

Because he had never had hot lunch, he had no money in his account and had no idea how to work the passcode entry system, so I stuck around after helping with reading groups to make sure the money I sent had been deposited correctly.  As we walked from his classroom, he quietly repeated his lunch code over and over, worried that he would mess it up.  I hung back and watched as he successfully punched in the code and headed off toward the lunch trays, skipping the whole way.  It was clear that he was excited to be "one of the guys," eating just like his buddies.  And I did a happy dance on the way out of the school, grateful for miniscule signs of progress. 

Speaking of which, we have a new plan to motivate Joseph to complete a food challenge every week. After we finished occupational therapy last year, the idea was that we would continue to do a food challenge each week. The real truth is that life gets in the way and it was just plain HARD to remember to do this.  We were always struggling to think of a suitable incentive for each new food challenge.

Enter . . . the lure of the ipod touch.  He has watched enviously as his sisters have played with their ipod touches.  And he loves to commandeer my iphone to play games.  He knows that it won't do him any good to ask for the gift of an ipod touch for a few years.

Then I had a brainstorm.  We have an unused ipod touch right now - it was Bailey's before she got her new ipod touch a few years ago. I think it is a 3rd generation model, which means that it doesn't have a camera. But, it does have lots of other cool capabilities.

Dan and I explained to Joseph that we now own this ipod touch, but that we would rent it to him as a reward for completing food challenges.  Each time he successfully tries three bites of a new food - something we are all eating for dinner -  he "rents" the ipod touch from us for the next week.

This has worked like a charm!  He tried several new recipes of chicken and discovered that he liked them.  He also tried a few things he didn't end up liking, but at least he tried them. He polices himself and brings us the ipod at the end of his week of rental.  Right now he is working up the courage for another food challenge so he can earn it again for a week.

And, the last first for today . . . this is the first day in weeks that no one has been home sick.  Well, I'm not feeling the greatest and I'm home right now, but I won't count that.  We were hit by a nasty virus which is working its way inexorably through the schools and neighborhoods around here.  Sore throat, low-grade fever, achiness, cough, stuffy nose, and a persistence of symptoms for 1-2 weeks! I helped in the classroom today and was not surprised to see that every kid in the class was coughing and had a running nose.  No wonder we're all passing around such lovely germs - the schools are petri dishes of germiness.  I'm thinking we should all be quarantined to our homes until our illnesses run their courses ......

I've been reading research lately about some natural remedies which have shown clinical success in helping to boost the immune system.  I am undoubtedly a fan of western conventional medicine, but I'm beginning to see that there are some elements of "eastern" medicine and natural cures which work well in conjunction with westernized remedies.  So, these are the things I added to our arsenal the last two weeks:  echinacia herbal tea, Airborne effervescent tabs or Emergen-C, black elderberry syrup, astragalus, turmeric, and 1,000 mg. of Vitamin D per day (2,000 units per day for me and Dan).  Has my concoction worked?  I don't know.  I don't think it's hurt, at least. We have all still dealt with some illness, but for the most part the illness has been fairly mild.  I know that I feel better about things when I'm at least trying to do something proactive about attacking the viral enemies!

Memory Lane

Did I mention how much I enjoyed spending time with family while in Moses Lake for Grandpa's funeral?  It was like a mini family reunion.
 We stayed up late laughing and talking and reveled in every minute we were able to spend together as an immediate and extended family.  Hollis and Barry and Brent and Lora were especially kind to open their homes to family for several gatherings.  We ate delicious Chico's pizza (the best pizza on earth - I promise) one of the nights.  Scott, Ali, Kara, and I had a sibling getaway to get hot chocolate and Starbucks and we laughed so much that we couldn't even talk.  
I love my family and it was so much fun to be with them for a few precious days.

On the day most of us left to drive or fly home, we met in the morning for a whirlwind tour of Moses Lake (except for Kara and Lauren, who had left for home early that morning with Uncle Nyle).  The ML tour was mostly for Ali's benefit, as she hadn't been back since my wedding reception in 1989.  I have toured all my old stomping grounds a number of times over the years, but this time was especially meaningful, as we were able to talk about the places and events as a family.  Oh, memories . . .

We started the day with breakfast at our hotel where we did our best to not talk about politics. At least I did.

Any tour of Moses Lake must include the public library, where we spent a lot of our time as kids.  It still looks and smells identical to how it looked and smelled in 1970, and that isn't necessarily a good thing!

This little building used to be a drive-in shop where we bought milk in glass bottles.  Scott, Ali, and I remember that they always gave all the kids in the car a sucker, so we were always happy to go along on this errand.

This is Frank's Market, which looks exactly like it looked in the 1970s.  We would stop here every Wednesday afternoon after school to buy penny candy, as we walked from school to the church for Primary (which was held during the week until 1980).  We felt so delightedly independent as we spent our pennies and savored our candy on the way to the church.
 
This is, apparently, the first house I lived in as as baby.  I don't actually remember this, but my parents said that my Uncle Stan lived with us and he would lay on the floor and let me practice crawling over him repeatedly.

Next we lived in a house on the base, but we didn't take the time to drive all the way out there. After that we moved to this home on Cascade Avenue. We moved here in about 1975 (I think).  This is where Ali and Scott were both babies, I believe. This is also a home I remember very vividly - running around the back yard, storing my bike on the left of the house and grabbing it each summer morning to ride for hours around the neighborhood.  This is also where Kara and I began our illustrious musical career, as we sang along to our record of Neil Sedaka while singing into the handle of a hairbrush.  Lots of good memories here!  The house seemed so much bigger when I was little.

 

My Dad was Bishop of our ward just about the entire time we lived in this house.  We took a picture of him in front of the churchhouse, which is a few blocks over.

In 1978, we moved from this home and rented "the yellow house" in the country, not far from the home we were building. We lived there for a year. We stopped to take a picture of the house, which is still yellow, and Dad knocked on the door to let the nice couple know what we were doing. They invited us inside to look around but we were in a hurry to get Ali to the airport (which is two hours away in Spokane.) 

 
Once we moved to the yellow house we were in a new ward - Moses Lake 4th Ward. This is the ward I remember the best, as I attended from age 8 until almost 16 (when we moved to Utah).  It is a huge building.  Kara, Ali, and I attended an 11 a.m. Sacrament Meeting in this building on Sunday morning, and it was fun to look around the congregation to see if we recognized anyone at all.  For the record, I recognized exactly two people, but there were probably lots more people I should have recognized.

Finally, we spent quite awhile at the house that my parents built in the country. I am amazed every time I think about how brave they were. As a young and less-than-wealthy couple they bought the land at an auction and then planned and built the house all by themselves. And they had never done anything like this before!  My mom always likes to say that prior to building the house, the only fix-it thing my Dad had done was replace a toilet seat. They did an amazing job - my parents have great vision and an incredible belief in their ability to learn how to do just about anything.

This is the front of the house.  The window in the basement just to the left of the hose box (behind Mom) was my bedroom.  I helped my Dad finish it - at least I pounded quite a few nails.

This is the back of the house, but we always used it as the main door.  The house is at the end of a long lane off the main road, and the only way we got this close to it was that we totally trespassed. Luckily, the family wasn't home as we drove right up to their home and walked around the yard.

 

 These are the fruit trees we planted.  They were still tiny when we moved in 1986.

This is the view of pasture in front of the house (taken from the vantage point of Potato Hill Road) where our cows grazed.  It's also where I moved big irrigation pipes every day when I was 10 years old and where we sledded in the winter (with the sled tied to the back of the car).  The ride got extra bumpy when we hit frozen cow patties.  What country bumpkins we all were!

Ali took this great picture of the intersection closest to our house - these streets are loaded with memories for us.
 

Now the land surrounding our previous home is filled with nice houses on acre lots.  But, when we were kids most of the area nearby looked like this - very open and with fields of corn.

 It was great to visit the house with my parents, and they told us many stories we had forgotten. They got emotional talking about how hard it was to leave the home to move to Utah (where they both eventually attended graduate school).  They were ready to move from the small town of Moses Lake, but it was hard to leave something they had poured their whole hearts into.

Grandpa John

This is going to be kind of long, but it is an important post and one I've been thinking about for awhile.  I wanted to gather a few pictures to go with my thoughts.  Earlier today my sister Ali forwarded me some of the pictures she took from November 17-19, 2012, when we all gathered in Moses Lake for the funeral of my Grandpa (I forgot my camera, and my iphone pictures aren't very good).  I'm glad to take a moment to write about Grandpa John.

Technically, Grandpa John Palmer is my step-Grandpa, but he is the only maternal grandfather I ever knew.  I grew up in the small town of Moses Lake, WA, and we saw Grandma and Grandpa Palmer frequently.

Grandpa was a quiet, self-effacing, giving person.  I didn't know much about his growing up years and I'm embarrassed to admit that I never asked him many questions.  I kind of took for granted his support and good-naturedness.

Grandpa loved to play piano and he played beautifully. When I was ten we got a piano and I started lessons. From that point until we moved from Moses Lake when I was 16, Grandpa loved to hear me play my piano songs for him.  We would frequently visit my grandparent's house on Sunday evenings, and I would usually bring a song to show him.  Several times he bought me some sheet music to learn. I remember that he especially liked the song "The Entertainer" and was thrilled with my less-than-impressive attempts to play it.  In return, he would show me the songs he was working on.  He also would open up the door to their mysterious "junk room" and pull out boxes of treasures he had found while metal detecting.  His favorite place to go was the fairgrounds after the fair. I remember him especially showing me his coin collection. Those are good memories.

After we moved from Moses Lake I didn't see Grandpa as much. He didn't like to travel by plane, so when Grandma came to visit us in Utah he usually stayed home.  We did really enjoy visiting with him and Grandma in Moses Lake over the years, and he was always happy to see me, Dan, and my kids.

In Feb 2008 my sister Kara and I met in ML to interview Grandma and Grandpa about their lives.  It was fantastic to hear more about the stories that shaped their lives.

Here are some pictures of our of our visits to Moses Lake, in August of 2009.  While there, we took Grandma and Grandpa to their favorite place for dinner - Golden Corral.

 

 

  We spent some time visiting with them in their home.  

Fast forward to December of 2011.  Grandpa had been diagnosed with leukemia and a heart condition and was very ill.  My parents, Kara, and I met in Moses Lake for a few days to see Grandpa and help Grandma. I had the chance to talk to Grandpa one on one and express the gratitude that I should have expressed more directly over the years. 

By this point Grandpa was on hospice and very weak and tired.  He wasn't expected to live long at all and he said that he felt peaceful about dying.

He held on longer than expected and passed away on November 15th.  This is the obituary from the local paper:

John Charles Palmer was born on April 18, 1926 in Chelan, Washington to parents John E. and Claudia Beugnot Palmer. He died at home of leukemia November 15, 2012 in Moses Lake.

John graduated from Chelan High School in 1944, then served a three year enlistment in the U.S. Navy. After his Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Navy he attended Perry Institute in Yakima and became certified in auto body and fender repair. He owned a business in Wenatchee, also worked in Ephrata and 24 years in Moses Lake. John and Doyne retired in 1988.

John and Doyne Bailey Infanger married June 18, 1965. The family became a blended family with the addition of Doyne's four children, Craig Infanger of Gilbert, Arizona, Tamara Springer of Draper, Utah, Krista Robinson (deceased), and Hollis Moos (Holly) of Moses Lake. John and Cora Hayes married in 1952 and became parents to Joni Smith of St. Helens, Oregon and Len Templin of Scapoose, Oregon.

John is survived by his wife, five children, 18 grandchildren, 47 great grandchildren with three on the way, and one brother Myron (Bill) Palmer of Moses Lake.

He was preceded in death by two sisters, Clara DeRosa and Anita Mendonca and daughter, Krista Robinson.

John was a man of many and varied interests. He took piano lessons for several years and owned a well-used metal detector. He collected geology books, Lionel trains and visited several ghost towns. The computer was his joy and in his later years he worked on family history research.

At his request, a short Graveside Service will be held at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, November 18, 2012 in Pioneer Memorial Gardens in Moses Lake with military honors.

It was a real tribute to Grandpa that many of his descendants were able to gather for the graveside service, including my parents, myself, and each of my siblings.  It was the first time that the "original" Springer family had been together since 2007, and it was so much fun to spend time with my parents, sisters, and brother.

It was also really great to spend time with and, in some cases, meet my cousin's families.  My extended family is filled with wonderful people.

The family get-togethers before and after the graveside service were joyful and happy, and that is exactly how Grandpa John would have wanted it.  He valued family and must have been thrilled to see all of us together getting to know each other better.  (But, it was SO cold at the cemetery.  I had forgotten how bitter cold a windy winter day can be in Moses Lake.)

 

 

 
 There was a nice gathering of family and friends for the graveside service.  I think Grandma felt very supported and hopefully Grandpa felt loved as he watched us.

 
The gun salute and military honors were very moving.

 Grandpa wasn't a member of any particular church, and so the hospice chaplain gave a message at the service.  It was very nice, but did make me grateful for the true gospel and the understanding of the plan of salvation and plan of happiness.  

It was a privilege to recognize and remember a wonderful man and Grandpa