Being sick always makes me an emotional sap and I can't sleep because the thunder woke me up so I thought I would share some thoughts. My mom's cousin is sick and she was concerned she had not told us enough about her family.  That is so not true. She has told so many stories about growing up in South Salt Lake with most of her aunts and uncles living on the same street with Grandma and Grandpa Flowers at the head of the it. She has told me numerous times of the trouble they would get into, the time they ditched Primary and hid in the orchard, the rides in the cement mixer, the poor little boy who almost lost an ear to my mother's crazy brother and cousin. The silliness, the friendship and closeness. And a Grandma who could hear trouble at the drop of a hat, wonderful aunts and uncles who stood in for and helped raise her and her brothers when her mom couldn't. And you would think I would tire of the same stories being told the twenty fifth  time but  I dont. The smile on her face, the joy in her eyes as she relives those special memories reminds me how lucky she was to have had that.  And the  joy of family around as they struggled with her Father's death must have been Heaven sent for my Grandma, who had her family to lean on in what was the worst time of her life.

I look forward to hearing all these stories over and over again and am so grateful they had been blessed with the family they had. And I must admit I am  a bit envious of the closeness of the families, although I do see that with my kids and Tami's.

See what I mean about sappy?

 Now I am going to bed with box of Kleenex, blaming my tears on my cold and fever and not my grateful heart.