My beautiful grandbaby Sophie

Here she is. I had trouble loading pics so I may have double of some. I just wanted to get these on quickly so the great grandma's and Sophie's great, great grandma could see her. I am just loving this little girl!!!

From out of the Valley

By Anita Wahlstrom

My Omi is an optimist.
Brightness, hope, cheerfulness, and joy flow out of her with a kind of confidence and wisdom that I can’t quite describe, except to say that when I sit with her and talk with her this power pours out of her soul and begins to fill me.
Today, I arrived knee deep in the valley of my life. “How are you?” she asks
“How have you been?”
“What you been doin?” Her eyes grab me.
“Oh the usual, work, stuff like that,” I reply.
“Things are pretty good, I guess. I try to raise my voice a little to sound hopeful and happy.
“How have you been?” she asks again. So, I go to the positive. But eventually my voice lowers and softens. I am still there in the valley—trudging through the muck. I stay there for awhile—talking and telling her. She listens. She validates.
Then it happens. She guides me across the valley and guides me up to the highest peak of the mountains surrounding my life, and with a graceful swoop of her outstretched arm, she illuminates everything. She shows me the flowers, the bright grass, the sparkling waters that reside in the valley.
“I admire your courage,” she says. She’s talking about my church lessons, which, for me, are equivalent to jumping out of an airplane.
“My courage?” I answer. “I don’t know about that. I don’t know if I have much courage. I don’t know if I do a good job, you know. I chuckle and laugh. Looking away from the green towards the muck with a comic abandon. Do I feel most comfortable when I am stuck?
“You know you do a good job. You know it Anita. You do.” She doesn’t give up. And I’m here on the mountain top. I see the black spots but from here it is hard to miss the beauty—the fields of flowers, the rows of glittering leaves.
“Well, I guess I do sometimes. I am learning. I know that much”
“You have to tell yourself that you do a good job. You have to think this way.” She says. I smile. I relax. I let her optimism—this power she has—flow into me.
“Yeah, life’s pretty hard.” I say. Why do I like being stuck in the mud?
“That’s’ life” She smiles. She laughs. Her eyes sparkle. “Things could be more worse. They can always be more worse. We have to be grateful. You have to be grateful—Always grateful”
We talk about a lot of things, good and bad. She walks me out today. I hug her ten times. She grabs my face. And now I can’t remember what she said, but I feel her still inside me. And because I am her granddaughter—I have her genes, her blood, part of her being in me—I don’t plod down the mountain and I don’t even skip or slide down. I spread my wings and fly.

I'm still here

Hi everyone or no one that follows my blog. I am wanting to get started again...to get some writing up. I have been inspired by my niece Lindsey. She just started a blog and I really loved what she wrote. SO. I am trying people - person - anyone to get with it and try to do some posts.

Copy this link and see some pictures from my trip to PARIS !!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028399&id=1076142647&l=898dc5303c

Copy this address and view pictures from my trip to Bulgaria

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036542&id=1076142647&l=019930c5fd

Olivia's Recital

Olivia's recital this year was awesome. She is a beautiful dancer - I love watching her dance.


Me, Olivia, and Kevin


Olivia and Jenna


Olivia with Grandpa and Grandma Wahlstrom, Cousins: Kylie and Taylor


Olivia with Grandpa and Galina Nielsen


Me, Kevin and Olivia


Olivia with David and Erica

David has lots of talents

Well I found out something new this weekend about my soon to be son-in-law. Kevin bought a new shirt for our family pictures -- when we brought it home we found that the shirt had long sleeves --not good for the summer family pictures. So we cut the sleeves and David proceeded to set up the sewing machine and hem the new sleeves. WOW the kid can sew. He has lots of other talents - Another one being a "Comedian" He is a great guy and he is really quite funny. Thanks to David I no longer have to sew or mend :)

I miss my brothers.....

Here are a few pictures of Stefan and Valentine. Stefan as I have posted before took sixteenth place in the the World Cup in France just last month. Seeing these pictures makes me think of spending time with my brothers in Bulgaria. This really makes me miss them. Hugs and Kisses to my gorgeous brothers!


Valentine and Stefan in Bulgaria


Stefan at the World Cup February 2009

Movie Reviews for this weekend

So I went to see two movies this weekend. The movie situation has been dry as a bone lately, and I needed a movie fix. The first movie we saw was KnowingThis is a science fiction thriller, starring Nicolas Cage. Cage was great (as usual--I'm a fan)The movie had great intensity, and an eeriness to it that worked. I loved the cinematography/photography. The colors were rich, but muted -it was noticeable - and I am having a hard time describing it. Cage's house was very creepy. I really liked this movie. One disclaimer....the ending is different. At the end, I felt like I missed some important symbolism, which I am sure I could figure out if I took the time. As far as the ending goes, I have to give it up for the writer and his creativity! I give this movie a B or about 2.75 stars.

Now to Duplicity - First of all I love Clive Owen and I like Julia Roberts. But this movie was not worth the time it took to watch it! I hate to say it, but it was boring, and hard to follow. And Owen's and Robert's chemistry ? Not that great. The end had a twist, but it was LAME. So I give this movie 1.75 stars or a D+ Sorry Clive

I'm a PROUD sister

I'm a proud sister and going to brag for a minute about my gorgeous and talented step brother - Stefan. He is an Olympic skier for the Bulgarian Olympic Ski Team. And...drum roll.... he placed 16th in the world in slalom - just last week. That is out of 200 people!!!

Good job Stefan. I love you and am so proud!

Copy and paste this link to see the official results:
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2009/AL/0569/2009AL0569RLR2.pdf

Christmas 2008 Pictures

I'm A Bella - What are you?

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Happy Birthday Olivia

It was Olivia's seventeenth birthday today. We had a great dinner with our family and as we like to say "the boyfriends," Travis (Olivia's boyfriend) and David (Erica's boyfriend), sadly Travis had to leave before my German Chocolate cake was finished -this is the reason he is not in the pictures. Olivia requested flank steaks, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, garlic bread.... and the cake. It was fun.

I can't believe Olivia is 17 ! Happy Birthday to my sweet little Lilly.

Homecoming 2008

Olivia went to Homecoming this weekend with her boyfriend Travis. Here are the first pictures.

I had a great idea this morning to also post some of my dance pictures - particularly one picture, but I ran into a few problems. First of all I don't have a scanner. And the biggest problem is I can't find the specific picture I wanted. I found two others - but I specifically wanted to show the picture where I was wearing a "Gunnie Sac" dress (Not sure on the spelling of that) I wanted to do that for a lot of reasons. I thought it would be interesting to compare styles, etc and because in 1980 that dress cost $100.00. Gunnie Sacs were all the rage back then. Incidentally, I was able to get Olivia's dress for $114.00 - It was first priced at $358.00 !!! I got a great deal. But all the credit has to go to Kevin.

At the first part of the month I was in school. So I delegated the job of finding Olivia a prom dress to Kevin. We had received an ad that a local dress shop (located in a lady's basement) was having a HUGE sale. This woman however had been gone on a sales trip and her shop had been closed for about a week and a half. The sale was to start when she returned. I told Kevin and Olivia that they needed to get down to the shop the day she returned.

To my great surprise Kevin and Olivia actually arrived about 30 minutes before the shop opened (This NEVER happens, being early that is) The shop owner is also a school teacher and she pulled into her driveway about the same time Kevin and Olivia. She let them in early!!! This gave them time to look over all the sale items before everyone else. At 4:30 (opening time) the shop filled with girls and moms. Olivia was already in the dress - and had her name on it. One of the reasons that the price was going to be so low, was because this dress was going to be rented out a few weeks before Olivia's dance. We got a call the next week saying the girl never picked up the dress - and the owner told us she was still giving us the 70% discount!!!

It was a great deal and Kevin did a great job. I was proud. He was the only dad in the place - He is awesome.

Olivia had a great time. She went with four other couples. They ate at Thaifoon at the Gateway in Salt Lake City and went to someones house after for ice cream and to watch movies. We really like Travis. He is very respectful, caring and very nice to Olivia. And Olivia looked so beautiful!!! As you can see. Travis was speechless.

Now that I have actually posted, I need to find that picture and this pretty much means I need to clean and go through everything in my basement. And that could take months. Please wish me luck. (I hate it when I lose things ) It puts me in a state!!!! (it's very scary)

My Handyman

First of all - it's been a month since I posted!!!! Wow and a lot has happened. I still have lots of things to write about my trip - its just the 1490 pictures I took that are holding me up. "Give me time - just give me time" If anyone knows what movie that quote is from - you are a true movie soul mate. Anyone have any guesses????


So on to this post. I thought this picture was great. Kevin is the ultimate handyman. He can do anything with - what he has - or doesn't have. In this case transporting A LOT of 2 x 4's without a truck. I'm just glad he did not get pulled over, or hit some one with the wood sticking out of the window.

This picture was about two weeks ago. Kevin now has the basement framed and wired. We are ready to sheetrock. YEAH