Grandma funeral

The funeral for my grandma was really nice. I spoke about her life story and shared some fun stories about her growing up. My cousin did a tribute to her sharing memories from all the grand/ great-grand kids. All the men sang a song "Each Life that Touches ours for Good". Grandma always loved the guys anyway so it was perfect. After a couple of speakers from the ward, the great-grand kids sang a medley of primary songs. Grandma was burried next to grandpa and next to their son Robert (he died on his mission). Close to them was my other uncle Bruce who did shortly after the birth of their first child in a car accident. It was nice to be with family. That night we played card games which is what grandma loved to do when we were all together.




We missed you Nathan!

Obituary

Ordella Violet Ord Mathews "Grandma Gum" Our loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, Ordella Violet Ord Mathews, age 80, passed away July 25, 2010, following complications from surgery. She was born September 23, 1929 in Nampa, Idaho, to Robert Lewis and Violet Anderson Ord. She graduated from Nampa High School and attended BYU. Ordella married Donald Arthur Mathews on Nov. 23, 1948 later solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple Aug. 4, 1976. Together they raised 4 children and faced the hardship of losing two sons in separate tragic accidents. She was employed by Fernwood Candy Co. and later General Electric. Some of her happiest times were spent "post-officing" around the country with her husband. She enjoyed traveling, reading, gardening, crafting and spending lots of time with her children and grandchildren. She took pleasure in creating scrapbook vacations with her grandchildren. Family was important to her and she brought the family together with reunion vacations for the past 5 years. Holidays were special and she took great delight in sending out cards with gum enclosed to every child. She was "Grandma Gum" to 16 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren. Her infectious laugh was as original as her name. She took great delight in being unique. She was the "dessert lady" of her neighborhood. Her life was dedicated to serving others. She was an active member of the LDS Church and loved serving in Primary and Relief Society. Her selfless example and firm testimony of the Savior were her greatest contributions to her children. Ordella was preceded in death by her husband and best friend Don, sons Robert Jay and Bruce Donald, parents and her sister Vanita Rummler. She is survived by her sisters Roberta Anderson and Evona Buckley, daughters Gerri (Jerry) Alldredge, and Terri (Duane) Mortensen, grand and great grandchildren. The family wishes to thank the great ICU staff at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center for providing compassionate care. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. in the Mt. Olympus 1st/9th Ward 4635 South Lanark (3285 East). Friends may call of Friday at Russon Brothers Salt Lake Mortuary, 255 South 200 East from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and prior to services at the ward from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, 3401 S. Highland Dr. Online guestbook available at www.russonmortuary.com

What's in a name??

The name "Ord" traces back as far as the 11th or 12th century when the ords of Ords were Lords of the Township of Ord. In it's early days "Ord" was a salmon 'weir' or fishery on the Tweed River which flows into the North Sea.

My Grandma "Ordella Ord Mathews" has loved her unique name. She was the 3rd girl and her dad was afraid that the "Ord" name was going to be lost so he took the Ord name and combined it with his sister's name "Ella". Grandma has begged all of us grandkids to name someone after her but hasn't had any takers. Before we found out we were pregnant with our 4th child, we came up with the name "Cord" to honor her and to carry on the Ord name. We were pleasently surprised with not only another child, but a boy. Grandma was very pleased. We added the middle name "Mathew" to honor both her and my grandpa. I asked grandma to write a letter to Cord so he could know how important his name was. She shared this information and the following story.

"I have always like my name, because it's different, and so am I. I loved to climb trees. I could climb this one tree and climb onto the garage and then jump to the ground. We had this other tree where I would climb up and dream. The thing I would dream the most of was that I could fly. I wanted to fly so bad it would hurt. I was always dreaming I could fly, why couldn't I fly for real?

My two wicked (well not really) sisters knew of my great obsessions about flying, so they came to me one day and told me they knew how I could fly. Can you imagine what happiness this brought me? I asked them how. They told me to stand out in the backyard (we wouldn't want the neighbors to see what an idion their sister was out there flapping her arms). 'Just keep flapping your arms until you feel like you are ready to fly'. 'How will I land?' i asked. I was worried about hurting myself. They said they would stand out there with a blanket and hold it out and catch me. I really believed this would work. So the big day came and I went outside and started to flap my arms. It was on a Monday, because my mother always washed dthe clothes on Monday. Everytime she came out to hang up the clothes there I was flapping my arms. She would give me a queer look and go to get more clothes. (She was used to me doing queer things). But after about the third time she asked me what in the world I was doing?. She was so upset when I told her. She told me "you can't fly." And then she went in to deal with my sisters.

My arms were so tired.

But you know Cord, Heavenly Father gave a little blond haired, flue eyed, naive girl a miracle. One day i was sitting up in the tree by the house. I could climb quite high up into the tree and I could even jump onto the house, but had no way to get down. i couldn't get back to the tree and it was too far to jump down. There i wasw day dreaming about how wonderful it would be if I could fly, when i felt impressed to spread my arms and jump down, but something wonderful happened, I FLEW DOWN TO THE GROUND!

I can still remember what if felt like, it was the most wonderful feeling I have ever known and I will never forget it. I was ecstatiic; I went running into the house shouting I CAN FLY, I CAN FLY. (It's a wonder they didn't lock me up). Come see! Come see! I shouted. My mother and sister came outside ad watched me climb the tree. This was my great moment; I held my breath, spread my arms, and jumped. You know what happened? Nothing, I climb up the tree again only to just jump to the ground. My flying days were over.

Cord, what a bunddle of joy you are. The first time Iheld you I felt so much love. I also felt the presence of your great grandfather Mathews. You are the lucky one. The one to carry the ORD name plus the MATHEWS name. So carry them proudly and remember if anyone asks about your name, don't say you were named after a crazy old grandmother who thought she could fly, but a sweet young at heart grandmother who was proud of her name."

The Great Grandma Mathews

Today, Sunday July 25th, 2010, around 8:00 am, the greatest grandma EVER returned to her Heavenly Father. I take comfort in knowing that she is rejoined with my grandpa and her two sons and to know that she is no longer in constant pain. She has been a big part of my life and she will be missed dearly. I'm so grateful that we went up to the reunion in Park City so we could spend time with her. She went in for surgery a couple weeks later and never recovered. The first week of July her condition was critical, so I rushed up to Salt Lake to see her. In the past, she would always call me with medical questions and 90% of the time I couldn't answer them. She would say, "well, what good are you?". It's ironic that the one time she was going through something that I knew a lot about - she wasn't even alert enough to know that I could finally answer her questions. Even though she was lethargic most of the time, there were a couple of times that she would open her eyes and look at me. I believe that she knew that I was there and I was able to tell her that I loved her one more time!

Here's a few photo memories from last summer when she came to spend some time with us....

Hanging out on a Sunday

Man, do we have to take them back???? I guess their mother will eventually miss them. But we have enjoyed the weekend with Riker and True. The boys enjoyed playing video games and made some cool things with the dominos. The girls enjoyed watching movies and made us some cupcakes this evening (I think they enjoyed licking the bowl even more!).

Girls night on the town

Living in Vegas, we forget the fun things that are here until we have guests. We took True out on the town tonight and hit the volcano at the Mirage, the moving statues at Ceasers, and the water show at the Belligio. We didn't think we would be gone long, but we were out for 3 1/2 hours. Our feet hurt so bad from walking all over by the time we got back to the car. But I think they had a good time!

MM world

In the past we have had a lot of fun browsing M&M world so we headed down there. Unfortunately, the little "tour" and short 3D movie was closed. So it didn't take long to walk through the store (it's not fun when you don't have any money to spend). It took us longer to park and walk to the store than it did for us to go through the store. But we did get some fun pics though. I learned to call before we go next time :)

A Vegas Stay-cation

This weekend we invited a couple of cousins to come to vegas and spend some time with us. True and Riker Mckelleb joined us on friday afternoon and we get to keep them until monday morning. Its the best we could with Mason still in school. We are glad they are here. We did a lot of fun things today. We starated the day at Lowes with their free workshop. We went because Mason needed to build something for scouts, but the projects are actually pretty cute. The boys built a UFO. Cord loved using a hammer and looked so cute in his safety goggles. Then we went swimming down at the city pool to cool off. We are working on getting Cord into the water because he really doesn't like it but he did great. After swimming we stopped to get some of the best snowcones on earth at the "purple penguin"