Randomness

Random things that have made my life interesting lately:

1) I love Riley. I decided to give him a word puzzle to figure out for Valentine's. Each day for 10 days in his lunch I gave him a word on a purple heart. The words were "of," "heart," "my," "only," etc. On the 10th day he had all the words. I had taped a big white paper in his office that said "Dear Riley" at the top and "Love, Kaye" at the bottom. He had to put the purple hearts in the middle and figure it out. After a bit of figuring he got it: "Of all people on earth, only you hold my heart." We also just celebrated our engagement anniversary - 31 years ago on Feb. 7 Riley asked me to marry him. I usually work on Monday nights but I switched so I could fix us a nice dinner which we ate by candlelight in the sunroom. Our tradition is that I hand him my rings, he asks me to marry him, I say yes and he slips my rings back on. Then we watched a movie together. I like keeping our love alive by doing crazy, thoughtful things.

2) My niece Loni and her husband Matt had twins - a boy and a girl - Chase and Chloe. I haven't seen them yet but it starts an adventure for them that I experienced firsthand. I love being a twin. Kelly and I had such a fun childhood - we never lacked for a friend. I hope Chase and Chloe will be as close as we were.

3) My great-aunt Madge died last week. I probably knew her when I was a little kid but I hadn't had any contact with her for years. About four years ago I was interested in hearing stories about my Wheeler grandparents and great-grandparents. My uncle Kent Wheeler, my dad's brother, told me to talk to Bea, Madge and Shirley, my great-aunts. My mom, Kent, Shirley and I drove to Salt Lake and picked up Bea, then drove to Madge's in Ogden where we had a nice lunch and spent the afternoon listening to them talk about childhood memories. I used a recorder to record their stories and took pictures. I've kept in touch with these wonderful ladies and love them dearly. Bea is now 100, almost 101. Madge was 97 and Shirley is about 88. I'm so glad I was able to connect with them, hear stories of my ancestors and have them in my life right now.

4) We have tickets for Hawaii! Riley has meetings on the big island the end of March and I'm going with. We hope to see lava from volcanoes, waterfalls and whales off the coast. It will be a welcome break in the middle of winter, although by then it might even be spring.

5) We have new members of the family - the Smith family. Todd's mom Debby, siblings and others are quickly becoming part of us and we already love them, as we do Todd. Amy picked an amazing guy and he comes with a wonderful family. We were strangers just a few months ago and now we are knitting our families together.

6) Our bishop said something on Sunday that was helpful to me. He said adversity and happiness are not mutually exclusive. We can have both. I have to compartmentalize the things that cause me grief and deal with them when I can, probably because I'd rather focus on what brings happiness to my life. I'm glad the good outweighs the bad.