Our children & Us - August 2008

Back row: Dan, Mike, Mal, Russ & Dan

Front row: Amanda, Patsy, Valerie & Amy

45th anniversary

My Blog

I am attempting to make a history of my life, working backwards on the posts. It has been a terrific and exciting voyage from birth to now. I have had many exciting experiences, many opportunities and a great family to share all my joys and sorrows with. For this I am appreciative. I received a great education with Mom and Dad and on to a degree from the University of Alaska and then to California with my companion, Malcolm Weston.
We have had eight children and now twenty five grandchildren as of December 2008

Live Oak Years

Alas, we again decided to move. Amanda and Tyler were transferred up to Live Oak, Ca while Tyler worked in Williams, CA. We both bought homes in the KB Subdivision and have nice new homes with all of our choices of options. It has been very fun and a great way to begin our retirement time. It is wonderful to be next door to Amanda's family and has been a blessing as she has been ill with an immunity disorder and requires infusions every three weeks and has had quite a ride with this serious problem. It has been helpful for us to live near and care for the children at times. Malcolm has driven the boys to school and home. I have been asked to be the Stake RS President and enjoy getting to know a lot of new sisters in the Gridley Stake. This is an old area of the LDS Church (100 years) from old pioneer families who settled the area of orchards (peaches, almonds, prunes, walnuts, etc). We are enjoying all the fresh fruits and veggies. Malcolm has done a marvelous job of creating a beautiful back yard with planters and a circular paving stone area with redwood trees and raised garden beds. We are enjoying the fruits of our labors in the garden. We love the home and have done some painting and decorating inside too.

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Fairfield Years

We finally sold our home in Eureka to Chuck Childers Family and did some house hunting. We could get a new home in Fairfield for the price of a small home in not such a good area in Concord area so we took the plunge and moved our family to Fairfield. We bought a large home with four bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths with lots of room for the children. Our children brought their friends home so it was a busy place with lots of activity for all of our teens. I served as the Relief Society president and was very busy, but loved the opportunity to be of service to my dear sisters. We lived there for 17 years until our children all left home, except Amy. We then sold the home and bought a mobile home for a transition until we retired and remoldeled it. During these years, I worked for the Church Education System and Malcolm worked for Contra Costa County. We had a good opportunity to start saving for our retirement as we only had Amy home going to college and working. Malcolm was serving as a Bishop in our ward part of the time and I taught Institute classes. We had good neighbors and enjoyed the area we lived in very much. Several friends lived in our area as well.

Concord Years

We left Eureka in 1985 when Malcolm took an opportunity to work for Contra Costa Flood Control in Martinez, CA. We found a rented home in Concord on Beegum Ct. We rented our home Eureka and finally after much challenge sold the home to a friend who lived there. We had a lady who did not pay rent so we both had to go to work to manage the payments and Todd had just left for a mission to Montreal, Cananda. We were blessed to have enough work to cover our expenses and our children continued to grow. We began our life of many years of teenagers.

Eureka Years

All Eight Children in Eureka, CA

Back row: Brian, Val, Mike, Mal, Todd

Front row: Amy, Patsy, Amanda Dan, Russell

The Carson Mansion in Eureka - the landmark

Malcolm was transferred to Eureka, CA in 1981. I was expecting our 7th baby during this time. Malcolm stayed for a year with the Kilpatrick Family while we waited for the sale of our home. We had difficulty selling and had a sale fall through and finally sold the home the second time an offer was made. We bought a home in Eureka on R St. which was a large home in the middle of town with wonderful neighbors and a great ward who welcomed us with open arms. We had our two additional daughters while living in Eureka, Amanda, and Amy. We loved the warm and friendly people in Eureka, especially in our neighborhood - people were good to us and the ward members were great too. We felt we belonged as soon as we arrived. Perhaps, this was because Malcolm and the Kilpatricks had prepared the way for us. We developed many great friendships in the few years we lived here and learned to love and pick blackberries and made lots of jam which we shared is all. This was the home where all eight children were together and we had plenty of room. We had children of all ages and our eldest children brought friends home so our home was a social center for goodies and bumper pool and parties. We were pleased to have them in our home. There were many neighbor children about the same ages as our children and lots of interesting and fun people to visit with. We also discovered the ocean and had lots of outings with our family and friends at the many beaches along the Northern coast of California. One of my favorites was moonstone beach were we would lay on our tummy for hours and look for agates. In many ways this was the most peaceful time for a few years. I regret we did not attend the temple often here as we were far away and were not diligent in keeping this up for a time. During these years, Todd went to BYU for college and most of the older children had jobs to help with their expenses.

Redding years

Malcolm was transferred to Redding, Ca where we lived for about 6 years and had two more sons, Russell and Daniel while we lived there. We had two homes - one on Merle Drive and One on Branstetter and enjoyed the time spent there and much growth and a few trials. Grandpa and Grandma Eastland came to visit at our home here in Redding. Although this was a very good experience living in Redding, there were many challenges during this time, which I am hopeful strengthened my faith and helped me understand the importance of prayer and hanging in there. I had some serious health problems and had a miscarrage after Dan was born - then found out I was expecting Amanda. Malcolm was living in Eureka for a year while I was trying to sell the home and prepare for another baby. Both our mother's came for different periods of time to help me during my illiness with Pnuemonia. There were many wonderful friends we made while living in Redding and lots of opportunities for service in te Redding 1st ward. I loved teaching Relief Society and Malcolm served in several callings there too.

Sonoma Years

The Golden Gate Bridge - near San Francisco

We began in California in Sonoma where Malcolm went to work for the US Geological Survey. We lived here 8 years and had three more of our children while living here. (Valerie, Michael and Brian. We really enjoyed living in this area of California and were close to Malcolm's parents who enjoyed the children. We spent any holidays there and made many memories for our children. We also had many opportunities for service in the Sonoma Ward. I taught classes in Relief Society, Sunday School and was Primary President just before Brian was born. Malcolm and I also gave the first talks in the newly constructed Sonoma Chapel off Hwy 12. We left Sonoma in 1973

Our Beginnings

We began in Fairbanks, Alaska . We served in the ward there and had made many friends, many newly weds like ourselves and spent some pleasant evenings with many of our friends, the Anderson's, Sherwoods and others. We house sat for a family, then moved to an apartment and eventually to a home of College Rd. Malcolm worked for Griffins picture framing shop and I worked at the University of Alaska vice presidents office until our first son, Todd was born. We then made a decision to move to California after the birth of our first Son, Todd, born July 13, 1964. We drove with Malcolm's parents over the Alcan highway from Alaska through Canada all the way back to Calif. This picture was taken at Whitehorse where there is a post with people's names who have passed through the trip. We left Alaska in 1964.

Wedding Day

Malcolm & were married in the Los Angeles Temple Oct 8, 1963. I first met Malcolm's parents a couple of days before our wedding. I met all of his family during that week. We had fun after the wedding with a day at Disneyland and Marine World. We stayed in a converted barn at an old cemetery and open houses in Atwater, Sonoma and a reception at home in Fairbanks, Alaska at the Traveler's Inn

Engagement

I met Malcolm Weston at the University of Alaska. We enjoyed each other and have similar interests and goals. We became engaged the spring before graduation. This is our engagment picture. Malcolm is from Sonoma, CA.

Dad & I at University of Alaska Graduation

My graduation from the University of Alaska was my Dad's dream. I received a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics with minors in music and science

While attending the University of Alaska I was voted into the court during a dance.

Dog Sled

We spent many hours on a sled with our dog pulling us! Lady was our favorite dog.

Brownies

My sister Valeria and I were in the Brownie scouts for a couple of years and had fun doing projects and going to camp at Harding Lake in the summers.

Hotrods.

One of our favorite pastimes was making hotrods from buggy wheels and old pices of wood. There were more boys in the neighborhood than girls so I loved this activity. The Vandermeer boys and Frankie were in this picture

Old Main

Old Main was the school where I attended Grammar and junior high school. During lunch breaks and recess we all spend our time on figure skates. School was held until it got to 40 below zero. We walked to school across a frozen river. The distance from home to school was 1.7 miles.

There were no buses to take children to school until we entered high school.

Gold Mine

We spend some of our summers at a gold mine of the Davis family in Livengood, Alaska and has some encounters with bears, porcupines, and other animals. We had such a good time and learned the value of hard work.

2nd Grade Class

My second Grade Class. We made a mural on the wall. There were four girls named Patricia in my class. I read the most books in the class and loved school.

Our Early Neighborhood

This is the house I grew up in at 109 Ina Street in Fairbanks, Alaska

This is our first neighborhood in Fairbanks. There were 11 children we played with. This was taken on a warm summer day in July. We all had so much fun on picnics, making toys and organizing parades.

First Bicycle

A shared bicycle with my sister Valerie in 1944 in Salt Lake City.