Grandma Got The Book Last Night!

Just wanted to announce that I presented Grandma with her book last night. What a great experience. She of course knew that I had been working on it, but didn't know that it was even close to being finished. She loved it!

The copy of the book she has is just the first draft, and once it is proofread and any errors are corrected, the final draft will be made available to anyone who would like a copy. The purchasing instructions will be on this blog.

So, for our big family reunion next weekend, be sure to be on the lookout for the book if you want a sneak peek! You'll love it!

The stats:

• 160+ writings by Orvetta
• 1100+ images (even some up to 110+ years old)
• 440 pages
• Hardcover
• Book is graphically designed and compiled by Melissa Nickle

The quality is fantastic, and I can't wait for everyone to see it next week.

I won't post many photos now, because I want everyone to see it in person first, but here are just a couple really quick:

Just before Grandma received her surprise:


Right after opening it. She was so nervous when I handed her a package and was shaking while opening it. Yep, once she had the package in her hand, she knew what it was and was too excited!


It was such a great experience last night (Steve, Melanie, Mary, & Melissa all went down). I knew Grandma would be excited, but I didn't know how much. What I had anticipated was that she would glance through some of the pages to get an idea of what had been done. But, what made me feel really good is that she took the time to go through every single page of the book (440 pages in all!) and she had comments to make about every page. And although it took quite a bit of time for her to go through each and every page, I will say this - I wouldn't have had it any other way. She was especially excited when she got to the "heritage" chapter and saw photos of her childhood - photos she had forgotten she'd ever had. It was great to see the memories come flooding back for her. And when seeing all the photos of James in the book, she paused and said multiple times, "My goodness, he looks so real there."

We video-taped a lot of last night, and sometime soon we'll post her receiving the book on video. It was hilarious.

Working on the book and putting in the hours to finish it has been an interesting process. I need some time to think about what I really want to share on the oh-so-public blog, but I will say that I had help beyond this world throughout this process. I know it was a project that needed to happen, and I know that divine help in several ways came during my time working on the book. Like I said, I need to think about what I really want to share on the blog, but I mostly want everyone to know that there was more interest than just ours here in completing this book, and I was guided throughout the process.

Doing this for Grandma and getting to know her on an entirely different level - knowing her whole life, not just her life since I've been in it - has been the privilege of a lifetime.

I love you, Grandma! My famous, published, Grandma!