Sunday Thought

Elder Holland

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind.  In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face.  Nor will he, so long as time shall last, the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man or woman or child upon the face thereof to be saved.  On occasion, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places.  Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting.  And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal."

What a wonderful message for us all. 

A little humor from Emmi

 Emmi sent me this cartoon and I LOVED it.  So typical of Snoopy and Lucy.

She also sent me a birthday card that I loved.  Thank you Emmi for brightening my life and my 76th birthday.

Pictures from .

 It has been so fun to talk to Derek each month and keep up on what he is up to in China.  I worry about him and always will so the phone calls take a lot off my mind.  He sent me some pictures of him and Margo.  She lives with him.  I think she works at the circus with Derek.

Beautiful pictures.  Thanks for sending them Derek.

Cabin P.S.

I forgot to add the most exciting and rather disgusting part of our cabin trip.  Judy had seen some mouse tracks in the bathroom and under the stove.  So the first evening while we were watching a movie, Ron set two traps.  One by the refrigerator and one by the stove.  The next morning when we got up there were two mice in the traps.  Ron reset them the next night and caught two more.  Set them the third night and caught two more.  The last morning we were there two more mice had met their waterloo!  It was obvious from the sizes that it was a nest of them.  Ron pulled out the frig but couldn't find any the nest and couldn't see where they were coming in.  We all left that day and will have to set more traps the next time we go up.  I told them that my mother always said, "If there is one mouse you can be sure there is a family" and sure enough her words were true!  A whole family and more were caught.

Scofield Cabin

 Another fun trip to the Stanfield's Scofield cabin.  The trip itself was pretty routine.  We had delicious dinners and lots of bridge along with reading and stitching time.  We also walked up the hill once a day to check on things at home.  

One morning Judy made Aebleskivers.  They are a Danish recipe that Ron fell in love with when he was on his mission in Denver.  Judy bought an Aebleskiver pan, found the recipe and made them for us for breakfast.  They are kind of like a pancake shaped in the size of a golf ball or a little bigger.  You can put syrup, powdered sugar, jam all of them at once on your Aebleskiver.  They are so fun to eat and very fun to watch Judy make them.

Picture of Ron doing what we all typically do at the cabin.  Very relaxed, quiet and fun.  We love it up there.

This is the bunny rabbit that lives under Ron and Judy's cabin porch.  He pops in and out at random and if it is quiet.  We always leave him carrots and lettuce.

This was taken as we were on our walk up the hill to check on our homes.  Can you tell who is who?

Judy fixed us shrimp on skewers along with a tomato pie and corn on the cob.  What a delicious dinner.

Emmi's Promotion

 Emmi sent some pictures of the ceremony where she was promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class.  She didn't think they would have a frocking ceremony but they were able to pull it off.

So proud to have a granddaughter representing our family and our country.  We love you and we love America!

Sunday Thoughts

Learn to make others happy.

Think of yourself last of all.

Be gentle and kind, never rough nor rude.

Show a loving heart.

Above all, love God with all the force of your soul and He will be near you.

"After the rain - sun

After the darkness - light

And after the illness - health

We mustn't give up faith."

 

Just Some Fun Pictures

 We were invited up to Ron and Judy's for dinner and bridge.  As we sat out on their patio toward evening, we watched the moon come up over the Wasatch Mountains.  What a beautiful sight.  We had to take a couple snap shots and were amazed at how good the pictures turned out.  We also had to laugh at mine and Neal's outfits.  Believe me, this was not planned.  I had gone to work and got home just in time to pick up Neal.  We didn't realize until we were at Judy's that we were both in blue and white only opposite!  We look like a checker board!  

Lots of fun times with this couple!

Timothy Dale Johnson

 Lila Mae's son, Tim, passed away last week.  He had been fighting cancer for the past few years and finally lost the fight.  I haven't seen Tim for over 10 years.  It was hard on Susan and Lila Mae.  I know what they are feeling having gone through the loss of one of my children.  I had Susan send me the obituary:

Maren and Taylor go Skydiving

 Taylor wanted to go skydiving on her anniversary of her accident, July 17th, but the weather didn't cooperate that day so they went the following day.  Both said it was an incredible experience and would do it again and again.  I, personally, cannot imagine jumping out of an airplane under any circumstances.  That is the adventure gene in them that did not come from me.  Somehow I don't see Neal doing that either.  This must be a Judy gene.  Regardless, they had a fun time and loved it.  I'm just happy that they are back to earth safe and sound.

76 Years of a GREAT Life!

I just celebrated my 76th birthday.  Now I have officially lived over three quarters of a century!  Goodness!!  

It was a fun week of celebrations from going to Provo to spend some time with Susan and Lila, to Scofield with Ron and Judy, a birthday breakfast furnished by Lynda Ann and ward members dropping little gifts on my front porch.  Happy times.

We met at Joe Vera's Mexican Restaurant Saturday at noon for my birthday lunch and then did some shopping after.  One thing Annie wanted to do was top at IKEA to look at some glasses and a table.  We drove up there and it looked just like Disney Land!  You had to follow lines and lines of people through roped off paths to get your turn to go into the store.  We quickly made the decision to high tail it out of there and go back on a week day when it wasn't quite so busy.

Susan gave me this book - that is amazing.  You will probably all get this as our Christmas Book this year.  It really makes you think about love and self worth.  

Susan also gave me these face coverings so that I could coordinate what I was wearing with my masks.  

Gift cards all from Susan!  Roxberry for great smoothies.  Neal and I love this place and often just have a smoothie for dinner.  I often leave work and grab one for lunch.  Soooo delicious!

My favorite place to go for a hot chocolate on my way to work in the winter.  I shall be saving this for the first cold blast of winter.  

What can I say.  Talbots - my favorite place to shop for clothes!  One can never have too many things to wear, right?  

Lila Mae gave me this beautiful little music box with the saying about sisters on the front.

 Lynda Ann made this beautiful wreath for my front door where it is now hanging.  I love it.

Neal gave me this beautiful bouquet of yellow roses and a "large" gift card to Talbots.

Jamie surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers (I can't find that picture yet) and a box of groceries (I always love that gift because I love to go through and see what she picks out for us - she is always right on).  

Maren came by yesterday and brought me a gift card for Sego Lily Spa from the Cutlers and the Tucker Maxfield family.  She said it was Tucker's idea and that they both felt like I needed a day devoted to just me!  I was very excited.  I know, those of you who know me, know that I don't like massages, but the list of things that you can have done at this Spa is amazing.  I will certainly take advantage of it.  My favorite thing is a facial.  I shall do that along with some other choices.  They were very generous with the amount on the card.  They also gave me this gorgeous bouquet of flowers.

Then to top off an already incredible 76th birthday, Abby surprised me with a painting that she had done herself.  This girl has a talent for art and even though she is pursuing a different career in college, I hope that she will take some art classes when she gets home from her mission.

Thank you all for a very happy birthday and for making me feel loved and cared about.  

Salt Lake Temple Time Capsule Found

 The Angel Moroni statue, that has been perched atop the Salt Lake Temple for 128 years was guarding something in the 3,800 pound granite sphere beneath his feet; a time capsule.  The time capsule was sealed on April 6, 1892.

Sadly, most of the items suffered major damage because they were surrounded by cement inside various cavities inside the sphere.  The books were sponges to the the concrete seating and leaching as it got hot and cured over the years.

They did find items placed in various cavities in the north, west, east and south portions of the large sphere capsule.  Coins, medallions and a copper plate found inside, however, are in good condition.

The newspaper reported that 30,000 people were gathered near the temple with another 10,000 packing nearby streets to watch the finishing piece placed atop the temple after 39 years of construction.

Some Funny "Back in time" Pictures

 Every now and then I get some pictures that Lynda Ann or Mindy or the grandkids have come across that they send to me.  They always make me laugh and pause.  Laugh because the pictures are usually kind of funny to look how how we used to dress or the hair styles from long ago, or the funny faces and poses.  Here are a few that were sent to me recently:

Annie on the Olympus High School Track Team - short lived as I remember.  I think the story goes that she knocked herself unconscious while running the hurdles.  She didn't quite tip toe over one of the hurdles.

High School

Olympus Jr. High

It

I look at this picture and only notice the hair do!  It isn't a wig, it's all mine.  Cute Jeffrey.

There was another funny one of CJ, Justin and I that Mindy sent me that I couldn't download for some dumb reason.  I'll try and figure that out and get it on the blog.  It is a winner!!