Finding more fun stuff while cleaning Neal's office

I came across a journal with a few short notes in it.  Nothing lengthy, just very short notes on each day.  They start on June 18 of 2000.  I think the idea was to write down something you are thankful for each day.

June 18:  Two sons, Derek and Spencer who all to wish their dad a Happy Father's Day.
A sister I can pour my heart out to.  A safe trip home from Oregon.

June 19:  A lunch hour to sit in the park and read a good book.  A quiet Monday evening at home.  Good health that allows me freedom to come and go.

June 20:  A quiet house.  Beating Neal at Cribbage.  Old Carey Grant movies.  Counted cross stitch.  Emmi Julia Gertson.

June 21:  Spending a moment each morning reading the scriptures.  Morning prayer with Neal.  The feeling of safety - Heavenly Father watching over me and mine.

June 22:  Coming home early from work - very nice.  Playing cribbage with Neal.  Time alone - undisturbed with Neal.

June 23:  Temple - quiet, soft, non hurried, beauty, solace.  The majestic multi colored green mountains.  Friends

June 24:  Missionary Farewells.  Family gatherings to play games.  Abundance of food.  Summer with its warmth and beauty.

June 25:  A job with the Olympics.  Mount Olympus.  A picture of Joseph Smith holding his little girl which reminded me of Jeff H. holding Maddie.

June 26:  Little Ryan has no medical problems with reflex.  Peach of mind.  A happy personality - good feelings about each day.

June 27:  Good friends.  Mahjong with Camilla and Bobby.  Talking with emmi girl, Mis Mallory Sue and Maddie Maddie Mo on the phone.

June 28:  Getting lost in a good book.  The warmth of the sun.  Summer days.  Reading on a bench in the shade.

June 29:  Remembering Saturday talks with mother.  A happy childhood.  Growing up with Lila Mae close by.

June 30:  I miss kitchen table talks with my other.  I miss playing cribbage with her.  I miss calling her on the phone each day.

July 1:  Lila Mae was and is a great influence in my life.  the good that I am today is because of Lila Mae and Max.

July 2:  A grandchild's hand in my hand.  The greeting "Gam" as I come through the door.  Precious moments with all my grandchildren.

July 3:  Emmi girl reminding me that I am her best friend.  An extra day off work.  Lynda Ann's continual help and support.

July 4:  Freedoms, worship, beliefs, moving about the country, to think and speak freely.  I love the American flag.  I am thankful for our fore fathers.  I love America.

July 5:  Neal gave me a beautiful Mother's ring for our 10 year anniversary on July 17th of 2000.

July 6:  I am thankful for pay checks that allow me to pay my tithing and my bills.

July 7:  Our view of Mt. Olympus is beautiful!  Quietly sitting on the patio watching Emmi and Mallory swim and play.

July 8:  It was fun golfing with Tucker and Neal.  I like beating Neal at putting.

July 9:  Thankful for primary children.  Grateful for music and leading in primary.  I like setting a large table for dinner.

July 10:  E-mail is nice.  Keeps me in touch with many.  I have become closer to Sandy (cousin) and Aunt Edith thru e-mail.

July 11:  Glad to spend a lunch hour with Jeff and Mindy.  Thankful that my life has order to it.  Thankful for an abundant crop.

July 12:  Lynda Ann's creative talents are so useful.  she is a helpful, loving and very caring daughter.  I love her deeply.

July 13:  We are able to help Annie and the two little girls until Jeff graduates in December.  I am grateful for eye sight and good books to enjoy.

July 14:  Life without children and grandchildren?  A sad existence.

July 15:  Driving around in a nice new SLOC car.  My friends at work and Judy Stanfield for getting me this job at the Olympics.

July 16:  Love doing counted cross stitch birth announcements.  With each stitch it is an expression of my love to my grandchildren:  Emmi, Mallory, Maddie and Jaden.

July 17:  My love for C. J. and Justin.

July 18:  I love doing counted cross stitch, watching a good movie, working a cryptogram and reading a good book.

Skipped a few days here . . . .

July 22:  Tending Emmi girl, Mallory Sue and Jaden.  What a blessing they are in my life.  All so different in personality and looks.

July 25:  Neighborhood children riding their bikes up and down the sidewalks, dogs barking, adults visiting and waving.  I love summer.

July 26:  I love organization in my life.  Happy we are selling our house on Lynwood.

July 27:  Cold freshly cut watermelon is wonderful on a hot summer evening.  No clutter.

July 28:  I like my life organized.  I like my home organized.  When I was a teenager my room was always in order and immaculate.

July 29:  Annie unending help with mother.  She is a good caregiver to her grandmother.

August 1:  Annie is pregnant with her third.  Grateful for grandchildren.

August 3:  56 healthy years.  Mother will be 94 this year.

August 8:  Love hugs from my Jeffrey!

A quote: Let us be grateful to people who make us happy - they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Remember not to be happy is not to be grateful.  :-)

That was where the journal ended.

Saturday evening

I left Annie, Jeff, Mallory and Emmi and headed back home.  I was supposed to take dinner up to Ron and Judy's that evening.  Judy had her knee operated on and I wanted to do something for her.  Neal and I picked up a Papa Murphy's pizza, I made a salad to go with it and we stopped and bought some chocolates for dessert.  We had a very fun evening.  Had dinner and then played bridge.

A Busy Saturday

I left for Provo to meet Susan and Lila Mae for lunch and shopping.  Lynda Ann, Emmi, Jeff and Mallory were also on their way to Provo to get Emmi settled in her new apartment for the beginning of her 2nd year at BYU.  After lunch, Lila discovered that she had left her keys in her car so Annie called Triple A and they came and got her car opened.  We said our goodbyes and then we drove up to Emmi's new place to see where she would be living this school year.

Triple A only took about 20 minutes to come and rescue the keys.  It was a hot day so standing out there waiting wasn't the most pleasant moment of the day.
I had to take a picture of Emmi at her new place.

It was fun to see Emmi's new place, meet one of her roommates and the roommates mom.  Emmi has a bedroom to herself this year so hopefully the year will be better for her.  I am such a BYU loyal fan and always will be.  It makes me smile and proud to have at least one of my grandchildren going to the Y.  Emmi will end up graduating from BYU, which is more than I did.  I'm so proud of you Emmi and excited for your second year at the Y.  Make the most of it!

Cleaning the bookcase and finding a treasure!

Neal and I have decided to have his office and the walk in closet redone with wood flooring.  I am in the process of cleaning out the bookcase in Neal's office.  (And weeding out books that I know will never be read again).  As I pulled out books this card fell on the floor.  It has been nestled between to church books and I feel like I've found a long buried treasure.  There is no date on the card so I don't know when Jeffrey gave it to me but I love it as much now as I did when I first read it.

Thank you Jeff!  I love you too!

It's that time of year!

I don't like to admit it now anymore than I did when the kids were younger.  I did not like the fact that it was time for the children to go back to school.  I always dreaded the daily lunches, running kids everywhere before and after and then the homework that needed to be done.  I was the mother who wanted summer to continue forever.  Just a great big long recess!  But, I realized the importance of an education and the social life that comes with it.  I hadn't thought much about school starting until I got these two cute pictures from Jamie and Maren.

Great picture of Brock beginning his 3rd grade year.  Good looking young man!

It was right after I got these pictures that I talked with Annie who was out shopping getting her girls and Andrew ready for their first days of school.  Emmi in her second year at BYU, Mallory and Abby in High School, Hayley in Jr. High and Andrew in 5th.

Annie's Relief Society Lesson on the elderly

Tough assignment to teach a lesson on the elderly to a very young aged ward.  She did a beautiful job and was obviously directed by the Spirit.  She had on display two quilts that her grandmother Ross made for her.  One when she was about 9 or 10 and another just before she got married.  She talked about her memories of her grandmother and the wisdom she gained from her.  She mentioned that mother's greatest attribute was her ability to always be positive even though her life was a hard one.  She also talked about her ability to make something out of very little.  She told the stories of the bears with crossed eyes, bears that mooed instead of growling.  Mother stuffing them with every thing she cleaned off the sewing room floor!  She talked about the ties mother made for the son-in-laws without a pattern and ended up putting two fronts together so it was impossible to tie them so that the back side didn't show.  She mentioned how she cooked with whatever she had and that we never asked what was in the dish she was serving.  We just ate it.  Annie also paid tribute to me, which touched me deeply.  I feel very blessed to be her mother and to have been able to hear her lesson.

This is a picture we took right after her RS lesson and we were all getting ready to go home.

Miracle #2

 We were traveling along I-15 outside of Barstow going in a lot of traffic and traveling at the speed of about 80 mph.  Judy and I were sitting in the front.  Judy was driving and we were talking about every subject from A-Z.  We can always find lots to talk about!  We both noticed something coming right at us.  It was large and black.  She thought it was a huge rock, I thought it was some kind of tool or piece of metal.  It hit the front windshield with so much force that it made a huge noise.  Ron and Neal who were sleeping in the back seat, woke up with a start.  They thought a balloon had exploded in the car.  It was that loud.  We have no idea if it hit another car or where it flew to and landed but we felt very blessed when we got out of the car and looked at the damage it did to the windshield and the car.  If you touch the center of the damaged windshield, you could easily push your fist through.  So many things could have happened but, thanks again to prayer, it didn't.

I took this picture when we changed drivers in Primm.

Two miracles. Miracle #1

There were two things that happened on Saturday as we left Mexico and headed home.  Neal and I always insist on having prayer before we leave on a road trip.  I don't think Ron and Judy do that as a rule of thumb but they know that when they travel with us prayer is part of our 'have to' list.  Ron asked me to say the prayer.  There wasn't anything particularly unusual about my prayer except that I specifically felt to ask for our safety on the road as we traveled home.

We decided that we all wanted to see the Tijuana temple on our way out of Mexico.  We knew, it was centered in Tijuana somewhere but had no idea where.  We can't use our phones because we are not set up for out of country use so we were pretty much on our own.  Ron and Judy knew how to get to the road that would take us along outskirts of Tijuana.  It would be like taking 215 and going around the city of Salt Lake.  So off we went.  As we got closer and closer to Tijuana we decided it might be a good idea to stop at service stations along the way and ask if anyone knew where the Mormon temple was.  Amazingly enough but also discouragingly enough every stop we made and everyone we asked who could speak a little English knew about the big new white building that was called the Mormon temple but no one knew how to direct us to it.  As we got closer and closer to the border with no success we decided that maybe we should just head on home and try and find it the next time we came down.  We were all discouraged because even Ron and Judy were excited to see it.  I finally said a prayer between me and my Heavenly Father asking that if He could, would He somehow direct us to the temple.  As I finished, Ron said, "Let's make just one more stop right here at this little convenience store.  The border is about 2 miles away so let's give it one last chance that someone might know."  Ron and Neal got out of the car and started asking and got the very same response.  Yes, they had seen the big white Mormon building but couldn't direct us to it in English.  Just as they were turning to come back to the car, a lady drove in, got out of her car and Neal noticed that she had garments on!  The sleeve of her garment was showing below her blouse sleeve just a little bit.  Neal walked over to her and asked her if she were LDS at which she replied, "Si!"  He then told her that we were looking for the temple and could she tell us where it was.  She said she knew just where it was but couldn't explain how to get there in her limited English.  She must have felt our need and desire because she said, "Follow me."  Interesting she would use those words.  She had people in her car and I'm sure had her on schedule and places to be but she insisted that we follow her.  She led us through the streets of Tijuana and right to the temple.  She even got out of her car and somehow convinced the guard to let us drive through the gates so that we could get closer!  With a few tears in her eyes and ours, we bid her Adios Amigo and slipped some money in her hands for gas.  Now, you tell me that was nothing short of a miracle that we happened to stop and she just happened to drive in at the very same time.  The church is true.  Heavenly Father is there and He does hear and answer prayers.  Even one as simple as "help us find the temple."

What a beautiful temple.  I was teary thinking about all the members in Mexico who will now have the opportunity to attend the temple as often as they wish.  We are so blessed to live in a city surrounded by temples.
A P.S.  I LOVED the bell tower and the Spanish look.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday we golfed, played bridge and watched a good movie.  Friday we all went into town and had a pedicure and Judy and I had a manicure.

No, I did not do my toes blue.  That would be Judy's!

Wednesday

Judy and I went golfing with the men on Wednesday.  We had a bit of competition.  The men had to give us a stroke a hole.  Of course we won!  The evening was beautiful wo we had dinner on the patio.

 Picture of the inside of the home and Ron and Neal helping get dinner put together.

Tuesday

The men headed to the golf course and Judy and I stayed back at the house.  Did some cleaning, stitching, sun bathing and swimming.  The men got home about 5:00.  We had dinner on the deck and then played some bridge and visited.  Very fun day.  Just had to take a picture of the statue.  If you look at the size of the houses beneath it you will get an idea of how dang huge this thing is!

Our first day in Mexico

We arrived Saturday night about midnight and because Judy wasn't feeling well we didn't make plans for church.  We decided to wait and see how she felt in the morning.  The doctor told her it would take about three days before she actually noticed a difference.  So, Sunday we mostly unpacked, rested, played some bridge, fixed a delicious dinner and just took it easy. These are Neals new shorts.  Yes, he actually paid money for them.  Now, we have Hawaiian shorts!

Monday, we stopped to have a taco and then off to golf and the store for some groceries.

 This is a truck we saw at the grocery store and I had to take a picture of it.  It is barely holding all the junk inside the home made walls!  One has to acknowledge the creativity of this guy.

Fun day and back to the house by 6:00 p.m.and down to the hot tub!

Stopping at Judy's Aunt and Uncle in California - on the way.

Judy's aunt wanted us to stop by her home for dinner and to meet some other people from China.  We had dinner out on the patio and I notice the lemon tree, orange tree and a pomegranate tree.

All three growing right in their back yard.  This is a picture of Judy and her Aunt Madge.  It's her mother's youngest sister.

While we were eating I noticed a rabbit causally grazing in the back yard.  I asked Madge if they had a pet rabbit and she said they didn't and there were a couple rabbits who would come every day and munch grass in their yard.  She has no idea where they live.  She said she gives them fruit and veggies on occasion.

As we were getting ready to leave Judy told me that she thought she had a bladder infection so I insisted that we stop at an insta-care and get her checked out.  Sure enough she had one and we got the necessary pills before going across the border that night.

Friday, the 2nd day in St. George

We got up, had breakfast and the boys decided not to golf because it was raining.  So they decided to go shopping with Judy and I.  We had a great time with them at all the stores we usually visit.

We went home about 1:00 and dropped the boys off at the golf course and Judy and I headed back to the condo to ice Judy's knee and fix dinner and from there to see Sister Act.  Fabulous show and very, very funny!  We had excellent seats.  Right in the middle and about the 15th row up.  Fabulous!

 Neal chatting with one of the actresses.  She played the part of Delores Cartia.

 Excellent show and a very fun evening.  Home about midnight for a good nights sleep and off to Mexico the next morning.

Off to St. George to see two plays at Tuacan.

We left Thursday about 1 p.m. and headed for St. George.  We had a play scheduled for Thursday evening which was Beauty and the Beast and another scheduled for Friday night, which was Sister Act.  We packed the Ron and Judy's car and had a fun drive down, chatting all the way.  We stopped for a quick bite to eat, unpacked the car and then headed over to the Tuacan Theater.  We saw some pretty dark rain clouds off in the distance but we were sure it wouldn't come our way.  WRONG!  Half way through the musical it started sprinkling and by the time the intermission had ended we were getting poured on and they had to call off the second half.  What a disappointment!  I felt bad for all the young children who wouldn't be able to see the second half.  We all went home soaked!

 No surprise here!  Neal runs into someone he knows and has to stop and talk.  I swear, no matter where we go, he always runs into someone from his past.  This was Elaine Rich.  She went to school with Neldon and she and her husband work at the Salt Lake Temple on Tuesday mornings and Neal dated her younger sister in high school.

 This is what we all looked like trying to keep somewhat dry but it didn't work.

We went back to the condo and played a few hands of bridge and then to bed.

Lexi's 'thank you' note found!

Just before we left for Mexico I decided to go downstairs and see how many bottles of liquid shower soap and liquid hand soap I had left in storage.  We always stop in Primm on the way to Mexico and that is where they have a Bath and Body outlet store and I like to stock up on both.  While I was checking on the two items I noticed that the storage room was a bit of a mess so I started cleaning and that is when I found Lexi's thank you note.  I love that the girls always leave me thank you notes around.  Makes me smile from the inside out!

Notice how she signed it.  I always call her La-Lexi-Lay-Lani.  Thanks, Lexi, for the very sweet note.

Birthday continued . . .

We've been in Mexico for the past 12 days so I haven't had a chance to keep my blog updated.  This blog is from last week.  Neal came home from class on Wednesday night and gave me a Talbots gift card (I don't know how much it is worth, but I'm guessing $100.00) and a new Tommy Bahama style sweat shirt.