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.

I

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

Happy Fall everyone!

The Temple

Mallory and I are going to do a session in the Salt Lake Temple in a couple of weeks.  We were going this next Tuesday but work has made us have to post pone for a week.  I have two ancestors that need their endowment work done and Mallory wants to go through the Salt Lake Temple before it closes.  The following is a quote that I have love about the temple.

"The Temple is the most sacred place of worship in the world - a place where Heaven touches the earth, a place where marvelous blessings are bestowed, and a place where we can feel closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and strive to become more like them."

My thoughts.  The temple is gorgeous and the inside of every temple that I've been in is stunning.  As I walk the halls of those beautiful edifices, I feel truth confirmed to me that the temple is a symbol of forever families, hopeful futures, endless peace and joy, and eternal life with loved ones.  I've thought about my children who have been married in the temple and hope they honor their covenants made there and realize and remember that  for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the temple is where all of those goals and dreams of endless peace and joy happen.

One of my favorite things is to drive into the Salt Lake Valley after the sun goes down and see the Jordan River, the Oquirrh Hills and the Corner Canyon Temple all at the same time.  What an amazing sight.  My chest fills with pride and my eyes water as I view a beautiful American Flag waving in the breeze.  My heart fills with joy and my eyes fill with tears as I view these beautiful edifices.

Tucker talks Mallory and I into . . . . . .

Have you ever had an oyster?  Well, Mallory and I have not, nor did we plan on ever eating one.  We got home from shopping today and Tucker had saved four oysters on a shell.  He was so excited to have us try them.  Neither Mallory or I were interested but he finally talked me into trying one. So I did.  Surprisingly enough Mallory gave in and tried one as well.  I couldn't believe it.  Mallory's comment was, "What is in the ocean, should stay in the ocean."  When it come to oysters, I would agree 100 per cent with Mallory.  Here are some pictures of our adventure.

 The black spot in the shell is where the oyster used to be.  Mallory and I think it should have still been there!!!!!

Annie Saving Me Again

Neal and I are in charge of a ward Night of Thanksgiving for the adults in our ward.  I wanted to do something really nice and unusual for the table decorations, so of course, I called Lynda Ann for some ideas.  Her mind starts working and she comes up with the most creative and gorgeous center pieces.  We will use the big round tables with a white table cloth for each table and a square blue cloth in the center with the center piece on top.  Here are some pictures of what she has put together.  They are gorgeous!  Lynda Ann comes through and saves me yet again!

 Notice that some of the small pumpkins are made of cloth.  Amazing!

 This one has little lights around it.

Hosting a Dinner

We have a little bridge group that we get together with about every other month.  It was my turn to host the dinner.  The Fall is a perfect time to set a beautiful table.  I was able to use a very colorful fall looking table cloth and use my brown and white dishes.

I bought some cute little fall dessert dishes.  I served ice cream and cake.  

Time for a Laugh

When Mallory left on her mission I decided to do a counted cross of her mission field.  Of course I couldn't completely finish it until she was released so that we could be sure that all the areas she served in were recorded and that we had the exact date of her release.

It was finally finished and Neal and I took her to the framing place so that she could see what went into getting these projects framed.  She was able to pick out her own colors and the frame.  It was fun to watch her go through the process of making the decisions of how she wanted this to turn out.  You can see we had her missionary tag framed with the state she served in.  Neal brought it home yesterday and Mallory was very excited to get it.

Below a picture of her with her framed missionary service.

Time for Jam

It is that time of year when the berries are ready to be put into jam.  I decided to take a day off of work and stay home and do some raspberry, strawberry and peach jam.  I spent the morning getting ready, making sure I had all the bottles cleaned and equipment ready to go.  I went to Costco the minute it opened and bought sugar, all the berries and then to Macey's to get the pectin.  Annie was coming in at 2:00.  I wanted to get as much done by 2:00 as possible.  I was able to finish the peach jam and the raspberry jam and got all the strawberries destemmed and smashed.  Ran errands with Annie and then drove to the Front Runner to pick up Neal from school.

I told Neal and Mallory that they were on their own for dinner.  I wanted to get the rest of the jam finished.  By 7:30 I had bottled over 130 pints and half pints of jam.  I divided them up and asked Mallory if she wanted to go with me to deliver the jam.  We first drove to Mindy's and from their out to Maren's.  By the time we got home it was nearly 9:30.  I was exhausted and went right to bed.  It was a good feeling to have finished the jam for another year.  Lynda Ann's jam is in the freezer waiting for me to take it out to her on Thursday.

Jam takes tons of sugar!!

 Still using mother's old bent up metal funnel.  I shall use it until I'm too old to do jam.  I hope Lynda Ann hangs on to it for nostalgia sake!

I have to admit that Gam's jam is amazing, especially my peach jam which I did for the very first time this year.  Mallory even said that she thinks it may have just moved up to her favorite!  

Annie Celebrates her 48ish birthday!!

Annie had us out to her house for her 48th birthday celebration.  I bought some candles that said 48ish.  I thought that was really funny.  We had a delicious dinner and ended the day with cake, singing Happy Birthday off key and playing Shanghi.  Fun day, fun times, fun family!  Happy birthday Annie.  We love you!!

Remembering September11, 2001

We will never forget.

"Today, the world remembers the tragic events of September 11, 2001.  we are still shocked and dismayed a the infamy of those cowardly attacks.

During the past year, we have come to know the heroic acts of men and women whose courage and selflessness were manifest on that terrible day.  So many lost their lives.  So many friends and families have been deprived of dear ones.  Today we pause to remember and join in tribute to those whose lives were taken and to those who have carried on so bravely in their absence.

We know that much good has come of these dreadful circumstances.  From the smoke and ashes of New York, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and other areas of the world has arisen a greater sense of unity and purpose in ridding the earth of evil and providing for the freedom and security of all people.  We endorse the righteous efforts of God-fearing people everywhere in this important endeavor.

May our Father in Heaven smile upon us all, comfort those who continue to mourn, and guide the leaders of nations in the quest for justice and liberty, is our sincere prayer."

-Gordon B. Hinckley-

I still remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news come across the airs.  I don't think I will ever forget that day.

A Pedicure for Neal, Mallory and myself.

Neal decided he needed  pedicure so I decided that I wanted to come along and I text Mallory to see if she wanted to join us for a fun evening.  We were delighted when she said she would.  She told me that she had never had a pedicure.  We had a great time and very relaxing.  Mallory got blue toes, I got pink and Neal just plain.  He wasn't brave enough to go with some wild color.

Beautiful people, beautiful toes!  Can I just say that we love having Mallory with us for a few months.  She is delightful.  Love her tons!

A Trip to Scofield

Neal and I were invited to Ron and Judy's cabin in Scofield.  It was over Labor Day weekend.  We had such a great time.  Judy loves to cook and always makes incredible dishes.  This is a picture of just one of our dinners.  She doesn't just make spaghetti, she makes delicious meat balls and garlic bread to go with.  Dinner is always a treat with Judy.

 We don't have any service at the cabin and have to walk up the hill to get service.  I had to take a picture of Neal, Judy and Ron all on their phones, making calls and answer texts.  Judy always claims that rock she is sitting on.  If you look closely you can see the Scofield lake behind them.

Another delicious meal outside on the patio on a Sunday after church.  

 Judy making a delicious dessert.  So typical of the cooking she does on a daily basis.

 When I was out walking I notice this hornets next on one of the cabins.  This is the biggest nest I've ever seen!  Believe me I kept my distance.

 Took this further away so you could see how really big it is.  I feel sorry for the cabin owners who are going to have to deal with this nest when they come up.

We had a great time and came back down the canyon Tuesday mid morning instead of fighting the traffic on Labor Day evening.  We did that once and won't do that again.