Unexpected

 Every Tuesday morning I get up at 3:15 a.m. and get myself out the door by 3:50 heading to the Jordan River Temple.  I need to be, dressed and in (what we call the Prep Meeting) the meeting at 4:20.  Thus starts my service at the temple until 10:00 a.m.  I have come to look forward to being there each week serving the patrons who come to do the ordinance work for their ancestors.  I have a tendency to think that Spiritual moments usually come while you are in the temple but as I look back at many different tender moments in my life, many of them have not been while I was in the temple.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  I've come to realize that it is up to me to be open to seeing, feeling, recognizing and acknowledging these tender moments when they happen.  

Yesterday morning was one of those mornings when, after many days of gray skies and cold weather, the skies were a bright blue, the sun was shining and the temple grounds were bursting with the colors of Spring.  Daffodiles, Tulips and Crocuses were dancing in the warm breeze.  As I was leaving the temple and heading to my car and thinking about how much I loved the world around me a little older sister past by and as we past each other she said, "Good morning" and smiled.  I was deep in thought but looked up and responded to her.  For a brief moment she totally reminded me of Lila Mae.  The tears came flooding in my eyes.  Did that just happen?  Or didn't it.  I cried all the way to my car.  And as I sat in my car and thought about it, I couldn't deny what I had just experienced.  I wanted to go find that sweet sister and hug her.  What a beautiful gift she gave me that morning.  I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that I know that the veil is thin and our loved ones are always there watching over us.  How I miss Lila Mae and how I love her.  

Jesus Comes to Visit

 Little surprises are always welcome.  I certainly got one the other morning.  It was a typical morning.  Annie had been to the house the day before.  She and I were going to meet Mindy for her birthday.  Lynda had brought some flowers for Mindy and some for herself.  She left her flowers at the house while we went to lunch.  It was a nice lunch with Mindy, Ryan and Izzy.  Izzy is Ryan's girl friend and they announced that Izzy was due to have a baby in the Fall.  It was fun to meet her and get acquainted.  We didn't take a picture, which was dumb.  I wish we had.  But, we did have a nice lunch and a nice visit and wished Mindy a very happy birthday.   Love you Mindy and hope you had a very happy birthday!

After lunch, Annie and I ran to JoAnn's to get some material for some quilts and then Annie headed home.  When I came in the house, there were her flowers!  Lucky me because I got to enjoy them for the rest of the week.

The next morning I was working in the kitchen.  As I was putting dishes away I happened to glance up at the cupboard above the sink and there was Jesus smiling down on me.  It totally surprised me.  I had not expected that.  But there he was standing atop Annette's sugar bowl!  The sign on his sash says, Jesus loves you.  I couldn't help but smile and think how appropriate it was to have him there.  It made my heart smile.  What a great way to start a morning thinking about Lynda Ann sneaking it there, Mallory who had put her up to it, Annette, who I love and miss and my Savior!  It made my whole day happy.  If you notice, the sugar bowl lid has a crack in it that has been mended.   Kind of a symbolic of life.  We all have cracks but we can, with the Savior's help, mend and put them back together.  The Atonement.  What a wonderful gift from our Savior.  To be able to repent and mend the cracks in our lives.  

Sunday and Thurl!

 Maren invited Tucker and Neal and I out to her home for dinner on Sunday afternoon.  She had a delicious dinner of steak and chicken.  They were grilled by Greg and done to perfection!  She also had broccoli, carrots, cheese sauce and funeral potatoes.  Delicious dinner.  After dinner, we play a three rounds of Fruit Salad.  A very fun card game.  And I will add here that I won twice!  

Maren told Tucker that he could bring dessert so Saturday night he was busy in the kitchen making 3 different kinds of cookies.  OMGOSH!  They were delicious.  

 

These were butterscotch and white chocolate.

These were the traditional chocolate chip.

And he also made chocolate chip mint.  Hard to know which one to taste so ended up eating one of each.  

Tucker is a good cook.  Every Sunday night he makes his meals for the week ahead.  He has been watching his diet and working out.  It's been such fun to have him living with us.  He just adds a spark of energy and fun to our rather quiet retired lives.  Plus he is an expert on technology and soooo very helpful to Neal and I (especially Neal) when it comes to fixing computer and phone issues.  Thanks Tucker for being so patient and kind with your parents.  

I have to add here that he was given tickets to the Jazz game last night.  Tickets on the 3rd row!!!  And who should he run into but Thurl Bailey.  He asked if he could have a picture taken with him and Thurl was happy to pose with him.  

Quick and Quack

Quick and Quack have returned which means that Spring is definitely here.  They come around every morning about 9:00 and every evening about 6:00 expecting to be fed.  I know I probably shouldn't encourage them but I love most of God's creatures and ducks are kind of cute.  I love watching them waddle.  They very noisy when they come up to the fence, making sure that I hear them and they are ready to be fed.  Quack eats right out of my hand.  But Quick is very unsure about humans and is always a ducks length behind Quack.  I have to throw her bites.  She just won't quite come up to my hand.  

You can see that she always stays comfortably behind Quack.  

My Mother

I was thinking a lot about my mother in the temple.  About her influence on me and my influence on Lynda Ann.   

The influence of my mother is really beyond words.  So hard to describe the way one person has impacted me in such a way that it has shaped my whole life.  I wonder if I will have the same impact on my girls and granddaughters as my mother has had on me.  I loved our chats around the kitchen table.  Her thoughts about life hereafter, forgiveness and such.  she was faithful, strong and valiant.  Her example and teachings are always with me.  I love her and miss her.

Temple Day with Mallory

I love that the Gertson girls refer to me as their Pocket Sized Gam.  Not sure who started that.  I'm thinking it was Mallory but I could be wrong.  Doesn't really matter.  I just love that special name they've come up for me.  Being their Pocket Sized Gam is one of life's greatest blessings.  Being a grandmother, know matter the name, means the world to me.  Each granddaughter has their own way of greeting me, expressing love and filling a piece of my heart.  I am grateful for every moment with them.  One of my more special and tender moments is when I am in the temple with one of them.  Mallory and I try and go to the temple once a month.  We try and choose a different temple each time we go.  This month we did a session at the Taylorsville Temple.  We each took a name from my mother's ancestry.  It was a spiritual and tender time.  I love being in the temple with any of my children or grandchildren. 

I am grateful for every moment with Mallory and feel the love, so strongly, that she has for me, her Pocket Sized Gam, that she so fondly calls me.  Thanks Mallory, for helping me stay true to my covenants and experiencing the blessing of the temple.

The temple is a map for our lives and learning.  

After the session Mallory and I met Tucker and Neal for lunch.  So much fun.  We came back to the house and play games for a few hours until Mallory had to head home and Tucker had some work he had to get done.  What a great day!!

 

Red Rock Temple - St. George

 While we were in St. George we drove out to Washington area to find the new temple.  It was cloudy and raining so I couldn't get out and take really good pictures but I did step out of the car really quick and snapped a couple pictures.

I love the temples and love that the church is building them all over the world.  We are so blessed to live in Utah where we have so many temples.  I'm grateful that I don't have to just see them from the outside.  So thankful that I can go in and as an ordinance worker and as a patron and do the work for my ancestors and others.

New Look

 After 22 years we finally decided that it was time to get our house painted.  Huge decision and a huge project.  We wanted the main floor done and the whole upstairs done.  We got a bid from our painter for $10,850.00.  There was a lot of taping and plastic to cover all the furniture that we couldn't move along with all the railings.  Neal and I, along with Ron and Judy left for St. George so that Taylor could have the house to himself.  We left on Monday morning and came back on Friday.  It took Taylor the whole week to get everything done and it looks beautiful!  Here are a few pictures that Taylor sent us as he was painting and preparing.  

Our next step now is to have Kent Swan (our decorator) come over this next week and give us ideas on how to arrange the furniture and if we need to buy some new stuff and/or get rid of what we have, etc.  He will also help us decide what pictures to hang and where to hang them.  I'm so excited to have a fresh new look.  I'll update as things go along.

St. George

 We are spending a week in St. George while the house is getting painted.  Roa and Judy came with.  We rented an Airbnb&b for the week.  $290 for our half of the cost.  It is a nice two bedroom apartment.  We arrived Monday and just checked in and played bridge for the evening.  Tuesday we sent the boys off to play golf and Judy and I went shopping at Dillards.  Judy bought a couple tops and I got some make up.  We picked up the boys about 4:30 and went to the Pizza Factory for dinner.  Had a delicious dinner and brought home left overs that were eaten on Wednesday, for lunch.  Today, Wednesday, the boys are off golfing for the afternoon and Judy and I are just hanging out at the condo.  Judy is playing bridge with her friend Rod, and I'm working on my blog and actually took about a 45 minute nap.  I've had a cold all week so the nap felt good.  Woke myself up because I was snoring!  That is embarrassing.  :-)

Fun time at the Pizza Factory.  

We are staying until Friday and then will head home.  Supposed to be stormy all the way home.  Sprout is staying at Dogtopia.  Miss the little guy.  Hope he is doing okay.

Dinner Invite

 Maren dropped by our home on Saturday.  She brought Boston with her to help Neal take down the Christmas lights.  It was such a gorgeous day that Tucker, Maren and me went outside to help as well.  I ended climbing up in the tree to help unwind lights.  Tucker and Maren started laughing and saying they should write a book about "Gam is up in the tree".  We got the lights down and put away in record time with the help of Maren and Tucker and me up in the tree.

When we were finished Maren invited to their home for dinner the next day.  I was thrilled as our house was pretty torn apart.  We went out to Maren's and she had a delicious dinner.  Chicken, baked potatoes, broccoli fruit and a delicious cake for dessert.  Maren was celebrating her 20 years in nursing.  What a great accomplishment.  So proud of you Maren.  She is also going back to school to get her masters and then she will be able to teach.  

Thanks for the delicious dinner!  

Remodeling

 Finally, after 22 years of living in our town house we are getting it painted.  Picking out the right color is always a challenge so we got Kent Swan to come over and help us with colors.  He spent about an hour in the kitchen just looking at colors and finally came up with three choices for us.  We went with a light cream with brown tones in it.  I'm so happy to get rid of the gold and yellow tones in the old paint.  Here are some pictures of the swatches of paint.  We went with the  color on the left.  The darker one.

The doors and door frames will be a lighter canvas tan color.  All the base boards are the same color as the walls.  We hired Taylor (don't know his last name) to do the painting for us.  He painted the spare bedroom upstairs so we know he is really good.  He told us it would be $10,850 for the whole main floor and the upstairs.  We aren't doing Neal office as he hasn't decided what colors he wants in there.  The two rooms we decided not to do are the guest bathroom and our walk in closet.  Everything else will be newly painted.  Taylor said he thought it would take him the whole week so Neal and I called Ron and Judy to see if they would like to spend a week in St. George.  They did so we left Monday morning for St. George.  Sadly had to drop little Sprout off at Dogtopia for the week.  I already miss the little guy.

Here are some pictures that Taylor sent us getting the house ready to paint.

The contrast will be fun to see.  I'll have Kent Swan come back over and help us rearrange furniture and possible buy some new pieces and where to hang pictures.  I'm so ready for a change.

Monkey Bones

Really cute store on Emmi and Tucker that happened years ago but just came to light.  Yesterday afternoon we were waiting for our dinner to get done.   

These could be monkey bones according to what Tucker told Emmi . . . . Read on . . . .    

Tucker was in the basement, Neal was in his office and I was on the couch.  I get a text on the Gertson family chat from Emmi.  She says:

    "Stupid question time.  Those little crispy bits of noodles or bread or whatever that you can put on salads and various ethnic dishes.  What are those called?  tucker told me when I was like 6 or 7 that they were monkey bones and I've never touched them.  I know they aren't now, but I totally believed him for years."

Well, I was laughing so hard and I knew immediately that they were those chinese noodles that you buy in a can.  So I responded and in the meantime sent Emmi's text to Tucker knowing that he would get a kick out of it.  All of a sudden I hear Tucker laughing from downstairs.  I was still laughing myself when he came upstairs.  Tucker said he absolutely didn't remember doing that but wasn't surprised.  Then we get another text from Emmi and she said,

    "Well, he went to South America on his mission so it was totally believable that he ate monkey     bones.  I can still clearly remember the whole thing.  He was sitting at the end of the tabel by the wall eating some spicy looking thing he made.  He dumped these things on top and I asked what it was and he said, 'monkey bones'.  I said no way and he said 'oh yeah we used to eat these on my mission and they're great.  He then offered me some and I got up and walked away."

Emmi and Tucker text back and forth for a while and it was chow mein noodles that he told her were monkey bones.  Cute story!  

February

 We woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow on the ground.  Seems like January but it is already the middle of February.  Can't believe January is over.  Where did the month go?  Honestly I don't like January and am always pushing January out the door as soon as the month starts.  I guess I do that because in my mind February holds the hope of Spring.  It is kind of fun to think of flowers, buds, blossoms and even the grass getting their beauty sleep before the months ahead of flourishing and coloring the earth.  I'm going to take a picture (hopefully I will remember) at the beginning of each month and see how the earth slowly changes seasons.

This was the first week of January 2025.

Valentine's Day

Neal has never made much of a fuss about Valentine's Day.  Sometimes he will bring me flowers but usually our celebration is to go to Market Street and have a nice lunch.  

 We both love Market Street.  It hold lots of great memories from our dating and the night before we were married.  Good place to be on Valentines.

I did send out the traditional $2.00 bill in a Valentine card for each of the grandchildren.  I heard from Mallory and Emmi that they received there's.  Emmi sent me a picture. 

I also took Sprout up to Dogtopia to play with the other puppies.  They were celebrating Valentines with all the puppies.  This is the picture they took of him with the red back drop.  So cute.

I told Annie a story about my childhood and why I loved Valentine's Day so much.  She said she had never heard that story before so I'm going to put it in my blog.  

I remember as far back as I can that every Valentine Day, sometime toward dusk, the doorbell would ring.  Mother would purposely send me to the door.  I would open it, ready to greet a visitor to find no one standing there, but looking down on the porch would be a chocolate heart with my name across the top.  Wow.  Who could have left me a chocolate heart and how would they know my name, that I lived there and actually spell it right.  Every single year for as long as I can remember, it would be the same scenario with the same thoughts.  I'm sure sometime in junior high I must have finally put things together and figured that mother had a neighbor drop the chocolate heart on the front porch.  I think that is why I love Valentine's Day so much.  It isn't a day of gift giving but of remembering people you love.  I surely felt loved by a mother who had so very little money but always managed to make that day just a little more special.  Thanks, mom, for a wonderful memory.