Neal decided it was time to get the purchases made in Mexico hung and placed. He started at 9:00 p.m. at night and hung the moon that now completes set with the sun and the wind. He also hung the hummingbirds and placed the animals in the garden. What do you think?
Tucker called each member of the family to let us know that Jamie’s little brother, Ryan, was killed in a car accident. No one likes to hear sad news and tragic news, such as this, is always the hardest to have to hear. I have learned some lessons from my own experience with dealing with the loss of a loved one: First, life is short. Whether we die at 17 or 90 – life is short and saying “goodbye” is deeply felt and goes right to the core of your feelings. Second: I believe in eternal families and that life continues on. Third: That there is a purpose of life. We are not just randomly here. We each individually made a choice to come to this earth for a short time. And fourth: We are all dependent on the miracle of Christ’s atonement.
It is all of the above that gives me the courage to carry on each day, to feel deeply the loss of a loved one but to feel deeply the joy that comes from knowing that this is just a short moment in our progression back to our Heavenly Home.
I have no words that will take the pain away from Jamie. I can only say how much I love her and tell her to lean heavily on her Father In Heaven for the comfort that she will so desperately need for the next while.
I love you Jamie!
Derek, how in the world do you dive in that? Can you see that the picture is a little bit crooked? That might drive me nuts every time I look at it. I want to straighten it!
Yes, football is in full swing at all the colleges and, of course, my sons never miss a chance to say or send something negative about BYU. I got this cartoon from Jeff H. and have to admit that I laughed and laughed. The rivalry is fun and light hearted. Yes, we are a family divided! Just so you know, Jeff, I have a few tricks up my sleeve!
Labor Day weekend is just around the corner so Jeff, Mindy, Maddie and Grayson came by for one last swim in the pool. The pool will be officially closed next weekend for the winter. It is so hard to believe that the month of August has only one week left and we will be into September! I have to admit that I’m already loving the cool mornings and the cools nights. It is so nice to have the bedroom windows open and feel the cool breeze coming through.
Mindy was showing me a feature on my phone while Maddie and Grayson were posing. One just has to snap the silliness!
When Tucker sent this picture to me, I laughed and laughed. This picture would make a great advertisement picture for any store trying to promote back to school shopping! I just had to post it. We have the funny and then the more serious. Tucker and Jamie, your flowers are gorgeous.
For a long time I’ve wanted to put glass in a couple of the kitchen cupboard doors. The thought has been swirling around in my mind for months. I hadn’t shared my idea with Neal because I wanted to make sure this was really something I wanted to do. Finally I threw out the idea to Neal. He thought it was a fun idea and worth looking into. One Saturday we wandered down to Chris and Dick’s to find out that they don’t do anything with already installed cupboards, but they gave us the name of their woodworking guy. I gave him a call and we talked about the cost and when he could do it. It is interesting to me how an idea kind of snowballs and before you know it decisions have been made and you are on your way! After I talked to him, Neal and I talked more and he said call him back and arrange a time for him to come and get the doors. So a call back and a time arranged. All this as we were driving back from Chris and Dick’s. Our next stop was Beehive Glass to pick out the glass for the doors and find out the cost. Actually, the cost of the glass and the installation is the most expensive and, of course, Neal and I settled on the most expensive glass! Our story has a happy ending and we are thrilled with the outcome. Now that we have lived with it, we want to do two more doors.
What do you think? Like it? I have to add here, that when the doors were off the cupboard, every single time I went by and my peripheral vision caught the cupboard I would instantly go to close it and then realize that there weren’t door on the cupboard to close! It just about drove me nuts. Tucker, you would have loved it! Now with the doors back on and the frame around the glass I don’t get that sensation that the door are open.
We decided at the last minute to leave Friday night at 9 p.m. and drive as far as St. George. That way we would have a head start on the trip to Rosarito. Of course the car was packed tightly and off we went. We arrived in St. George about 1:30. We didn’t unpack anything, just went in and flopped on our beds and slept until about 9:00 Saturday morning. We cleaned up, piled back in the car, made a couple stops and were on our way again.
We always shop at the Las Vegas outlets and stop again at the Primm outlets. Then when we get to the border we run in Costco to buy necessities that we may have a hard time getting in Mexico. We laughed when we piled in the car after Costco. I think this is the fullest this car has ever been. The picture doesn’t really do it justice because it doesn’t show everything piled and stacked between our feet and legs both front and back! You will also notice that we can’t even see out the back window! Scarey picture of my eye, don’t you think. I’m sure the look was “how are we ever going to shut the doors!”
Ron took the picture below from outside the car.
We crossed the border into Mexico without any incident. Sometimes they will pull you over just to (I think) harass you but thank goodness we didn’t get pulled over and they didn’t go through our stuff or open the back hatch. That could have been disaster! Something like opening up Dagwood’s closet!
Saturday we just relaxed, sunned, played bridge, read books, sewed, took naps and just enjoyed not having a schedule to go anywhere or do anything. Sunday morning we went to sacrament meeting. How wonderful it is that our church is world wide and no matter where you go you can find saints gathered together to partake of the sacrament. Of course we don’t understand anything that is going on but we do get bits and pieces of the talks and prayers. After the meeting we went to our usual taco place for a little Sunday brunch and then home to relax and enjoy the Sabbath. Oh yes, Tucker, another great picture of dad relaxing!!
Judy invited some friends of theirs over for dinner that evening. One of those kind of ‘fellowshipping’ dinners. We had an enjoyable evening with them. Their names are Jack and Judy. Don’t know their last names. He is a preacher of a non-denominational flock. They start out with coffee and doughnuts and then he gives a 20 minute sermon and they are done. Believe it or not Judy is the same age as Judy and I. Quite a difference, don’t you think?
Monday and Tuesday we golfed and had a wonderful time together. Golfing is about $35.00 each for 18 holes and a cart. Pretty cheap. The first picture is Neal and Ron studying their hits on a three par. Just for the record Judy and I both pared this hole and Ron and Neal Boggied it. Of course we always have to stop for a light lunch of Nachos and a Cola LIght as the natives call it. When we got to the golf course we realized that they were having a tournament so they had us join them and I won $10.00 for closest to the hole on a three par.
This picture is how the Mexicans cook their meat and peppers. It is best not to look at sanitation issues when eating there. You just have to enjoy the ambiance and pray the coke you are drinking kills all the germs you may be eating! You don’t want to worry about how long the meat has been sitting out!
The next few days were filled with getting our feet done, golfing more, and street shopping. We bought some really fun stuff for the yard. The third and fourth pictures are of the laundry that was hanging out and around the pots. The lady informed us that it was laundry day. I took a picture but made sure she wasn’t watching. I didn’t want to embarrass her but this is something you would never see in the states! Notice she had actually put some of her laundry in one of the pots to be sold. I guess you use the resources you have available.
One evening we went to a Mexican festival. It was interesting and very lively. The Mexicans know how to throw a party. Of course, we are the odd couples out because we don’t drink. One of the ladies at our table turned to another lady and said, “They aren’t drinking” and the other lady said, “I think they are Mormons, they don’t drink.” Interesting to me that they figured that out just because we weren’t drinking. They didn’t know we heard them. I’m sure they thought we were a bit strange to not get loaded!
Our last day of golf was on Friday. Neal was going after some balls and fell in the muddy water. Ron got into some stinging nettle and they found a rattle snake all coiled up on the 18 hole! Judy and I didn’t get to see it so no picture.
This last picture is of Judy’s golf ball. She was hitting to the green and when we got up there we saw that she had landed in the center of the garden hose on the golf course. We had a good laugh over that. She couldn’t do that again if she tried. It was a great shot. She was out 150 yards and was right to the edge of the green where the hose had been left by a worker.
Our trip home was uneventful. With our Sentry Passes it only took us 10 minutes to get across the border! No longer do we have those three hour waits! We, of course, shopped all the way home. We had a wonderful trip and a memorable one. Always nice to be home!
Emmi came by the house sporting her new class officer sweater. Looks mighty nice on a well deserving granddaughter! Way to go Emmi. She wanted me to go shopping with her so we wandered up to Park City for lunch and some school shopping. With her new job at the theaters and also working at the golf course she has money to buy her school clothes for her senior year. We had a great time together just shopping, talking, wandering and lunching. I loved spending the day with you, Emmi! Thanks for asking your old Gam to tag along.
The Goss family came over last night to deliver my birthday present. Lyndsy couldn’t find any wrapping paper so she had River decorate the box with stickers and tie a ribbon around it. I forgot to take a picture of it but just trust me when I say that it was a work of sticker art! Inside the box was my favorite product that Lyndsy sells. Spa Blends Body Butter. I’m telling you girls, if you want something that is absolutely incredible on your skin and smells out of this world then you need to try it. She also gave me some face scrub and a travel size body cream for me to take on my trip to Mexico. I was so excited for the gift! Thank you Lyndsy! I had just run out of the cream so your timing was perfect.
It was also fun to see Lyndsy and her baby bump which has grown more. She said they baby is very active and she is feeling very pregnant. She looks good and feels good. As a mother, that is what you hope and pray for. It will be fun to have a new born around again. Boston was our last one and he has long past the baby stage. Our family is certainly blessed!
I went to work today and Ashley (who is like a daughter to me) gave me this sign that fits perfectly on the entrance shelf. The interesting thing is that the color matches the vase color almost exactly. What a perfect sign to have for people to see as they enter our home!
Lynda Ann invited Neal and I out to their home for a birthday dinner. She asked me what I wanted and I told her waffles! I love waffles and rarely ever have them, so for me it is a real treat. Because of our own church obligations we didn’t go out to their home until after 5 p.m. We played a game with the kids (waiting for Jeff to get home from work at 6:30) and then Annie served us waffles, omelets made from a special omelet pan that has been in the family for over 30+ years. For dessert she had made her famous strawberry pies. It was a delicious dinner with everything I wanted. The family all sang happy birthday to me as the strawberry pie was served up.
Jeff G. always buys me an action DVD for my birthday and Christmas and this year he came through with Taken 2. I love that movie!! Thanks Jeff for always taking the time to find the action movie that you know I will like! And thank you Gertson family for a wonderful evening of celebration. You brought the weekend to a perfect ending!
A P.S. for Tucker. Andrew isn’t smiling because he wasn’t feeling well and notice my shirt! 
