Easter Sunday Services

 Mallory told me that she had been asked to speak in church this Sunday so I went down after attending my meeting at MBK.  Jeff, Lynda Ann, Andrew and Hayley went down and I met them there.  The funny part of this story is that I got to the church and was sitting in the parking lot waiting for Jeff and Annie to get there and I get a call from Lynda telling me that Mallory said I was at the wrong building!  Mallory tracks me and knew I wasn't where I was supposed to be.  I was on 100 North and 1100 West and needed to be on 100 North and 900 West.  I was just a few blocks off.  I laughed that there are LDS chapels on just about every corner in Utah.  But I made it to the right building.  Annie was standing out on the front lawn watching for me.  Glad my family take care of me.  Mallory's talk was absolutely fabulous.  She gave a beautiful Easter message.  This is a quote from a talk by Elder Wirthlin that she used in her talk:

"Each of us will have our own Fridays - those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces.  We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again.  We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death - Sunday will come.  In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come.  In this life or the next, Sunday will come.

I testify to you that the Resurrection is not a fable."  - Elder Wirthlin's talk "Sunday Will Come."  

Everyone should look up this talk and read it.  It is beautiful.  Mallory bore her testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the resurrection and atonement of our Savior.  

Thank you, Mallory, for inviting me down to hear your talk and for filling my spiritual well to overflowing on the Easter Sunday.

After sacrament meeting we all drove to Chili's where Jeff and Annie treated us to dinner.  It was pretty quiet in the restaurant which made it nice to eat and visit.  We all left with our tummies full and extra to take home with us.

When we were leaving, Annie gave Mallory her 'adult' Easter basket full of all kinds of essentials for apartment living.  What a great idea.  She also gave her some Easter candy.

Loving hug from my daughter to send me on my way.

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Gathering

 We had a little smaller than usual family gathering for our annual Easter dinner and egg contest.  Of course we always miss our Tucker Maxfield family, Spencer and Derek.  But this year we had Maddie and Grayson representing the Hintze group, Maren, Brock and Boston for the Cutler group, the Gertson group minus Emmi, Abby and Antonio (Abby was in Hawaii celebrating Easter with Emmi), and Lyndsy.  

Neal and I set up the tables and had everything decorated the night before.  Neal bought an Easter cake and some cute sugar cookie lambs at Granite Bakery.  That added a festive look to the table.  

The sugar cookies went on each person plate.  I also ordered enough to give out to our MBK rest home people on Sunday with a scripture attached.  "I am the good Shepherd:  the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. " John 10:11

We had prime rib and ham along with funeral potatoes and strawberry pies (brought by Annie) carrots, rolls and a green salad (brought by Maren.  After the dinner and the first load of dishes in the dish washer we had Jeff make up the bracket order for the egg contest.  

Showing off their chosen egg for the contest.  

The egg contests begins between Maren and Brock.

I won the first hit but it was downhill after that.

It finally came down to Jeff and Lyndsy.  Jeff has never won in all the years we've been doing this contest and so we were all kind of hoping her would come out a victor this year.  But as fate would have it the winner for 2024 is . . . . 

Lyndsy

After the egg contest we had pie, cake and ice cream and cookies.  And then we played the dump on your neighbor game and then everyone headed home.  It was a fun afternoon and always fun times when the family gathers.  

Birthday for Susan

 It was Susan's birthday on the 14th so Mallory and I met Susan for lunch at PF Chang.  We were also surprised to have Sara, Susan's daughter, and a friend, Anna show up.  We had a delicious lunch while sharing stories about family memories and some work drama from the girls.  Lynda Ann was going to come but ended up getting in her car with Andrew and driving to California to spend birthday time with Abby - whose birthday is today.  Happy birthday Abby!

Some rare pictures of Susan!

Left to right:  Mallory, me, Susan, Sara and Anna

Temple Day with Mallory

 I love that I can attend the temple often with Mallory.  I love that she is always willing to set the times up for us to go and always, always willing to go with me.  She doesn't mind hanging out with her, soon to be, 80 year old grandmother.  As I was driving down from Salt Lake to pick her up and attend the Provo City Center Temple I thought about all the temples that we have surrounding us in this valley.  What a blessing that we actually have so many that we can choose which one we want to go to with very little difference in the distance.  The thought then came to mind that not everyone has access to temples like we do but we all have access to the "spirit" of the temple because it is the same spirit of the Lord that dwells within us.  I felt so blessed this morning and so very thankful to live in a valley surrounded by these gorgeous temples.  .

"The temple is a sacred place.  A place of love and beauty."

Colonoscopy

 This past Wednesday I had my 80 year colonoscopy.  I was hoping at 75 that would be my last one but they felt like they wanted to do one more at 80.  This was the year.  Lynda Ann took care of me and was with me when I was waking up.  Apparently I'm rather funny and loopy when coming out of the anesthetic that they give you.  But all was well and hopefully the biopsies will all come back benign.  

I had an interesting and happy experience the next day.  I wanted to take something to the people who took care of me at the Endo Center.  So Thursday afternoon, I purchased a one pound box of Nuts and Chews from Sees, signed a thank you card and drove up to the Endo Center to give it to the receptionist who could then pass it on to the people on the card.  It was about 1:30 in the afternoon and I figured they would probably be done and close to the end of their day.  As I walked into the reception area I saw about 20 people sitting around in their hospital garb.  They were having a staff meeting!  I apologized for interrupting them and Heidi, the prep nurse, said, "Oh Jeannine."  She got up and came over and gave me a hug and said "How are you feeling?"  I told her that I was doing great and then turned to the group and told them what an amazing group of care givers they were and that my experience had been perfect.  They all smiled and clapped and I quickly excused myself.  What a good feeling to have them all there in a meeting and be able to thank them personally.  I'm not sure health people get enough accolades for the amazing work they do for those of us who need their expertise and encouraging and comforting words.  It was such a good feeling when I walked out of the building and I was so happy that it worked out the way it did.  

The most comforting thing, however, was having Annie with me when I was ready to go home.  She helped me wake up, got me dressed and brought me home and stayed for a little bit and checked up on me often during the day.  We did stop at McDonalds on the way home.  I was starving!!  

Pride and Prejudice

 Neal and I along with Nancy and Ashley, got tickets to see Pride and Prejudice at the Parker Theatre.  Never been to that theatre before.  David (our hair dresser) had a small part in the play and we all wanted to see him.  It is always fun when there is someone in a play or musical that you know personally.  The stage play was excellent.  I've only seen the movie so it was fun to compare the difference from stage to screen.  Very well done.  We did stop at Costa Vida and had a salad before going to the theatre.  

We had such a fun evening and David was amazing!