Lynda's projects

Annie is busy creating Christmas decorations for her home.  It seems that every year she finds something new to make to add to the festivity of her home.  Here is her latest creation.  Felt Christmas trees to put on her book case.  Can't wait to see them when they are all done and displayed in her home.

First Snow of the Season

We were hit with our first snow storm on Sunday morning.  Still October.  It has to be an early storm and we are having record cold weather to go along with it.  I have to admit it was beautiful and I took a couple pictures and sent them to Emmi who is living in Florida right now.

I have to admit that it is kind of exciting and very pretty.  Every season has it's own unique beauty to it.

House lights going up

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  We had our people come and put up the house lights for Christmas.  No, we haven't plugged them in yet but they are up there on the roof waiting for November 1st.  I can't quite make myself get fully into the Christmas spirit until after Halloween is over.

Our Christmas Tree will be going up shortly!

Juanita Ross Zenger

The oldest sibling in our family passed away on October 21, 2019.  She was 94.  She was my father's daughter and step-daughter to my mother.  She was 19 years older than I was and I had no idea who she was until I was about 9 years old.  I remember walking home from church with my mother and asking her, "Now how is Nita related to me?"  Mother was shocked.  She didn't know that I had no idea that Nita was my sister.  We were never allowed to use the word step-mother or step-sister.  She was a sister and mother was her mother.  She came to our family when she was about 8 years old.  About the time that my father and mother married.  Nita had been raised by both sets of grandparents.  Her mother died 10 days after Nita was born.

Nita and I shared the same birthday of August 3rd.

Her daughters, Barbara Kay, Shirlee Rae and Charlene had a viewing in Midway and after the viewing we went to the cemetery for the dedication of the grave.  It was a sad time.  Lila Mae and I realized that we are the last two remaining of this generation.  Lila is 88 and I am 75.

One of life's unavoidable experiences is to lose someone we love.  We will all lose a cherished family or friend through death.  When it comes for a loved one, our whole world can change in an instant.  Because we know heartache and pain, we also know love and joy.  Such love never dies, it goes on and on until we meet again.

Nita was a good sister and I did love her and she will be missed.

Fun Package

Emmi surprised Mallory and I with new shirts from the navy.  We got them the same day and had to put them right on and take a picture.  We love them Emmi and they came at the perfect time as the weather is getting colder and we are moving into winter weather and winter clothing!

We will wear them with pride because our sister and granddaughter is serving our country.  We love you and miss you!

Projects

I've been busy and Lynda Ann has been busy creating.  Annie has been making cloth pumpkins that are absolutely darling.  She makes three different sizes and has been giving them away as "thank you" gifts for all the people who have brought in dinner and helped her during her last blood patch procedure.  She made a set for Stanfields.  Neal and I went up to Stanfields last night and I gave them the pumpkins.  Judy was almost in tears.  she was thrilled with them and even more touched that Annie would surprise her with them.  I took a picture of them after she had set them on her counter.  If you notice, the orange in the pumpkin matches the orange in her granite.

I wish the colors really showed how vibrant and beautiful they are.  Judy absolutely loved them!!

In the mean time, I've started another project of my own.  I had Mallory choose which stitching project I was going to do next.  She chose this one.

 Just started!

The Temple

Mallory has never been to the Salt Lake Temple or seen a live session.  Because the Salt Lake Temple will be closing the end of December for 5 years, Mallory wanted to attend a session.  Lynda Ann wanted to come along with us so we set a day and off we went.  I have to say here that I'm not a lover of live sessions.  For some reason they always make me giggle at one point or another.  This time was no exception.  Taking that aside, we had a wonderful time there and I felt the spirit very strongly as I was going through the veil.  Lynda Ann also walked into the celestial room with many tears.  As we were leaving a kind brother took a picture of the three of us.

"When we gather our family histories and go to the temple on behalf of our ancestors, God fulfills promised blessings simultaneously on both sides of the veil.  As church members, we do have a divinely appointed responsibility to seek out our ancestors and compile family histories. "

After the temple we met up with Hayley who had been wandering around temple square and watched some of the church movies in the visitors center.  We stopped for a bite to eat on the way home.  It was a wonderful day and certainly should happen often.  Well, maybe not the Salt Lake Temple.  Let's pick another temple with a movie, please.

Tucker's birthday present

Tucker had mentioned that he wanted a Utah Trailer Hitch for his car as a prize for our bet of BYU and Utah Football.  Dang if Utah didn't beat BYU yet again and so I had to pay up.  We went to the store where they sell them and they didn't have the exact kind he wanted so he settled on a really good looking Utah shirt instead.  Knowing that his birthday was coming up in a few weeks, I went on line the next day and found exactly what he was looking for and ordered it for him.  He was a happy camper when he got it in the mail.  Happy Birthday Tucker!!!  Your mom must love you a lot to actually buy you two Utah items!!  The best part was that it was a complete surprise until he got it in the mail.  I loved that part!

A Quilt and Salt and Pepper Shakers

Not too long ago, Susan's car broke down in the law office parking lot where she works.  She was waiting to have it towed so that it could be fixed.  She had no idea what was wrong with it or why it wouldn't start or run.  Someone in the law office, without her knowledge figure out that it needed a new alternator, started and battery along with a couple other things.  They replaced everything in the car and got it purring like a kitten.  Of course, they would not let Susan pay for it.  So I offered to make a quilt for her to give the young man as a way to say 'thanks'.

Annie helped me pick out the material and Mallory helped me put it on the frames and even tied a couple rows for me.  Neal and I drove to Midway last Friday afternoon and delivered it to Susan.  We had a nice visit and a good visit!

I also have to post that I found some salt and pepper shakers that I just could not resist!  You will have to admit that they are darling!!  Pig salt and pepper shakers.  You don't run into those very often.  What a find!

Shooting and Fixing Dinner

While Tucker was hear he arranged an evening to go out with Mindy, Robert and Ryan to the shooting range.  He said it was incredibly fun and then after he went to dinner with them.

Fun picture of the four of them.

The Sunday that Tucker left, he fixed dinner for us.  It was delicious!  After we ate and things were cleaned up, I ran Tucker to the airport where the usual teary goodbye happened.  He arrived home safely that even and was probably glad to put his head on his own pillow in his own bed.

 Mallory's friend, Ellie, came over for dinner.

Tucker comes for a visit.

Tucker had a solar convention here in Salt Lake City and so he was able to spend a week with us while at the convention.  We were excited to have him and sad to have to say goodbye.  He arrived on Sunday morning and stayed a full week until the next Sunday.  He said the convention was great and he was able to meet a lot of people and learn good information about solar systems.  He also had an opportunity to see Boston and Brock play football, spend time with Maren and Greg, Lynda Ann and Mindy and her family.  What a delightful week!

I sent this picture to Jamie.  Just wanted her to know that Tucker was already working with his dad on his phone.  Some things just never change.  It's to laugh.

 Neal was able to get tickets to the Utah Football Game at the price of $150.00 a ticket.  But is any price too high for a seat at the game?  Well, I guess it depends on what color you wear!!  Notice Tucker's socks!!  I'm surprised he doesn't have a U sewn on his underwear!!

 You can see the rain coming down on them.  But bad weather or not they had a good time and Utah won the game.

Cute Picture of Boston

I took fresh a bunch of "Gam's Jam" out to Maren and she sent me this picture of Boston the next day.

Happy the families like my jam.

Tucker gets a promotion

We got a very happy and excited call and text from Tucker.  He is now a salaried employee for Golden State Power instead of a commission salary employee.  He was able to negotiate a good base salary along with commission.  He will have a sales group under him that he will need to train.  We are very happy and very proud of Tucker's new assignment.

Way to go Tucker!!!

Fall

Lynda Ann and Susan have always said that Fall is their very favorite time of the year.  I'm totally and completely a summer lover but every year when Fall comes, I marvel at the beauty of this beautiful world that the Lord has created for us and especially this little corner of the world that I live in.  All I have to do is walk to my back door and see the gorgeous and majestic Mt. Olympus.  The colors are breath taking.  This year our leaves began turning just a bit sooner than they usually do.  I can't help but think of the quote by L.M. Montgomery from the wonderful book Anne of Green Gables:  Anne says, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."  I would have to agree whole heartedly.

We had a dinner party at our home a few weeks ago and it was so fun to decorate in Fall fashion.  The table cloth blended to Fall, The brown and white dishes folding right in and the center piece was perfect.  I have to admit it was very festively Fall.

Notice the pumpkin in the background.  It has little lights all over in it.  It is so fun all lit up.  You can't see it very well because it is still too light outside.

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I found these cute little acorn dessert dishes at Spoons 'N Spice and couldn't resist getting them.  

Happy Fall everyone!