Watching Old Home Movies

Yesterday while ironing, I put on a home movie DVD that Annie had given me and had just a fun time watching Jeffrey and Lynda Ann when they were little.  I had to call Annie once because there is picture of her trying to blow out her birthday candles when she was three years old and she just couldn't do it.  It was so dang funny.  What cute kids.  This first picture is Annie with her grandmother Grace Hintze.

 This picture shows how I did her hair every Saturday night for Sunday.  Piled it up on top her head and put rollers in her hair.  That way she didn't have to sleep on them.

 cute picture of Jeffrey at Christmas time.  This is when he got his first snowmobile suit.

So fun walking down memory lane.  Loved every moment of it.  Love these two kids.  Miss one of them a lot.

Cleaning

I spent the day that I was sent home cleaning.  I couldn't stand to just sit and do nothing and got anxious listening to the news and all the damage that happened to the town of Magna.  Mallory had been picked up by Annie who was on her way home from work.  I know that Mallory was totally freaked out by the earthquake.  She shared with me that earthquakes have been the fear of life ever since she was little.  She needed to be home.  There is a feeling of 'safety' in home.  I was glad she was with her mom.

So back to my day.  I decided to do some cleaning.  I got the vacuum out and noticed that it wasn't really picking up very good.  So I tipped it upside down and this is what I pulled out of the rollers.  I literally had to use some scissors to cut some of it out.  Disgusting.  That is literally a huge ball of hair!!!

The vacuum worked like a charm after that!

Then to bring some laughter to my day, Annie sent me this.  Great comic relief.  Thanks Annie.

Earthquake 5.7

Amazingly, Salt Lake experienced an earthquake at 7:09 on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.  It was a 5.7.  I was on my way to work.  Had stopped at Walgreens to pick up some candy for my candy dish on my desk at work.  I was standing at the check out area and all of a sudden heard a loud noise and the whole building began to shake.  It literally took me almost until the earthquake was over to realize that I was experiencing an actual earthquake.  I paid for the candy (after the quake) walked out of the store and realized I was a little bit sick to my stomach.  I got in the car and looked up at the Heaven's and said, "We are in the middle of this stupid COVID-19 virus and now we have an earthquake!"  And then I started to cry.  It was all so overwhelming and scary.  So surreal.  Of course the county buildings all closed down for the day and sent us all home.  About 1:09 that afternoon I was down in the kitchen preparing lunch for Neal and I went we had a 4.7 after shock.  We have had over 100 after shocks since then.  Just today Mallory and I were in the kitchen talking and there was another 4.1 aftershock.

Interesting side note is that Angel Moroni lost his trumpet.  Crazy, huh!

The yellow on the map is the EPA Center in Magna and the red dots are the after shocks.  Remember this picture is from the actual day it happened.  The map would now show hundreds of  red dots for the after shocks.

Thank goodness all the family are safe.  So thankful for that.  Maren mentioned that Greg was in the tower at the airport.  I will be anxious to hear his story of his experience.  The airport was actually shut down for about half the day and planes all diverted to other airports.

COVID-19

We are in the throws of COVID-19.  Every single day we get notice of something else has been shut down because of this virus.  There is so much fear in the United States and the world right now.  The lines in the grocery stores are long and the shelves are bare.  This is what I ran into at Costco.  I stood in line for nearly 45 minutes.

Its mayhem and it is scary.  I believe the devil uses fear as a weaponin the hearts of men because he knows it stops the work of God from progressing.  There is a scripture that I keep repeating in my mind:  "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear"  (D&C 38:30)
We have been counselled by prophets and church leaders to be prepared physically and spiritually.  Remember the quote by Gordon B. Hinckley:  "I have faith that the Lord will bless us, and watch over us, and assist us if we walk in obedience to His light.  His gospel, and His commandments.  He is our Father and our God, and we are His children, and we must be in every way deserving of His love and concern."

This message was from Russell M. Nelson:  "We live in a time of turmoil.  earthquakes and tsunamis wreak devastation, governments collapse, economic stresses are severe, the family is under aattack, and divorce rates are rising.  We have great cause for concern.  But we do not need to let our fears displace our faith  We can combat those fears by strengthening our faith.  Start with your children.  You parents bear the primary responsibility to strengthen their faith.  Let them feel your faith, even when sore trials come upon you.  Let your faith be focused on our loving Heavenly Father and His beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Teach that faith with deep conviction.  How you deal with life's trials is part of the development of your faith.  Strength comes when you remember that you have a divine nature, an inheritance of infinite worth.  President Thomas S. Monson has given us his prophetic witness.  He said:  "I testify to you that our promised blessings are beyond measure.  Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments."  Be of good cheer.  The future is as bright as your faith."

Abby turns 19!

Wow.  Abby turns 19?  Where does the time go.  Neal and I were invited out to Annie's for games and dinner to celebrate Abby's birthday.  We had a delicious dinner of baked potatoes, marinated chicken breasts, salad and corn.  For dessert we have strawberry pies.  We also played a new game called Fruit Salad or Green 2, played with Rook cards.  We also played Shanghi.  After dinner and the games we had Mallory give us a lesson on Joseph Smith's First Vision.  She did an excellent job.  The spirit was certainly felt in that little meeting in the Gertson front room.  Thank you Mallory for filling my well and I'm sure your parents and siblings.  So thankful for the gospel!  Certainly thankful for my grandchildren.

Happy birthday Abby!!

Maren Walking Down Memory Lane

Maren has been going through all the pictures she has collected over the years.  She is sorting them and organizing them into different boxes.  She sent a couple pictures to Neal and I that were certainly fun to look at and take us back in time.  I'm not sure my memory can give an accurate place and time.  Hopefully Maren and Lynda Ann can put a date on them if needed.
Thanks Maren for sharing your finds with us.

 Lynda Ann, Maren, Edwinna and I.  What a fun picture.

 Ahhh.  What a cute couple :-)

Carving Finished

Neal finally finished his goal of getting all the neckerchief scout slides done for the boys receiving their Eagle.  The boys seemed pleased with slides and Neal certainly should have felt proud of what he accomplished.  Below is the pictures of the slides:

 The frying pan is my personal favorite.

 Scouts with their slides on and taking their Eagle Scout Oath.

A job well done Neal.  I think these boys will appreciate the hours and hours of work that went into making these slides for them.

Thinking about my mom.

I've been going through papers of my mothers and found this poem that she wrote.  Oh, how I miss her.  I'm so glad I have her journal and things she wrote.  I hope my journal will be a blessing to my posterity some day as my mothers has become a priceless treasure to me.

"You never know when someone
  May catch a dream from you.
  You never know when a little word
  Or something you may do
  May open up the windows
  Of a mind that seeks the light .
  The way you live may not matter at all,
  But you never know, it might.

  And just in case it could be
  That another's life, through you,
  Might possibly change for the better
  With a broader and brighter view,
  It seems it might be worth a try
  At pointing the way to the right . .
  Of course, it may not matter at all,
  But then again . . . it might."

Sunday thoughts

In the scriptures, there are very few sacred instances in which the voice of God the Father has been heard.  So, when He says something we really need to listen.  Repeatedly, He has personally introduced His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, with a specific charge to "hear Him!"

Have you ever stopped to ask, "Why?"  Why is our Heavenly Father so insistent - and consistent - in His plea that we should hear His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ?

Jesus answered this question Himself.  He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no man cometh unto the Father, but by me".

Our father love us and yearns for each one of us to choose to return to His holy presence.  He pleads with us to listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, whom the Father anointed and appointed as our Mediator, Savior, and Redeemer.

In this special year, as we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first vision, I invite you to think deeply and often about this key question:  How do you hear Him?  I also invite you to take steps to hear Him better and more often.  Throughout this year, we will focus in a special way on the historic event that took place in the Sacred Grove.

I invite you to be proactive and look for opportunities to share your feelings about the Lord Jesus Christ with your family and friends, including inviting your friends to join you in worshipping Him on Easter Sunday.

Now, as one of the Lord's special witnesses, I bless you in your efforts to get on and stay on His covenant path, and strive with all your heart, might, mind, and soul to hear him!"

President Russell Nelsen

Susan's Birthday

Right after Emmi's birthday comes Susan's.  Lynda Ann, Mallory, Abby, LIghtyear, Hayley and I drove up to Midway to celebrate Susan's birthday.  Actually her birthday isn't until next Saturday but this Saturday worked the best for all of us to get together.  We drove to a hamburger place and had a delicious lunch.  After, we went back to Lila Mae's and visited, reminisced, laughed and then had some delicious cake (made by Annie) and ice cream.  We had a wonderful afternoon and headed home about 4:00.  This was better than shopping because we spent a lot more time just visiting.  It was great.

 Delicious birthday cake with a surprise candle on top.  It was like the fourth of July on top of a birthday cake!  Amazing.  I'm seriously going to have to invest in some of those candles.

 What a fun day.  The only little oops was that Abby forgot her jacket that had her car keys and her wallet in the pocket.  It wasn't discovered until we got out of the canyon in Salt Lake.  Annie, Hayley and Abby drove back up the canyon to Midway to get Abby's jacket.

Emmi's birthday

Emmi celebrated her birthday all by herself.  I'm sure it was a birthday she loved but it will be a birthday she will probably remember for a long time.  The fun thing about Emmi is that she didn't let the fact that she was thousands of miles away from home with no family around and no friends stop her from making the most out of her special day.  Neal and I called her that evening and she was at a steak house.  She said she walked in and said, "I would like a table for one and I'm celebrating my birthday!"  She also ordered herself a birthday cake that said, "Happy birthday to me!"  Way got go Emmi.  Happy birthday!  We love you!!!

Sunday Thoughts

"Each one of us, regardless of age or circumstance, can strive to seek, receive, and act . . . You will draw nearer to Jesus Christ - His love, His light, His direction, His peace and His healing and enabling power.  And you will increase your spiritual capacity to become an everyday instrument of His hands in accomplishing His great work."

Taught my gospel doctrine lesson this morning.   This is my take away:

"One is converted when he sees with his eyes what he ought to see, when he hears with his ears what he ought to hear and when he understands with his heart what he ought to understand.  And what he ought to see, hear and understand is truth - eternal truth - and then practice it.  That is conversion.

The central purpose of the Book of Mormon is its testament of Jesus Christ.  Of more than 6,000 verses in the Book of Mormon, far more than half, refer directly to Him.

And last - We know that Satan will rage in the hearts of men in the last days.  He will carefully lead people by pacifying or appeasing them, misleading or deceiving by trickery, flattering, complimenting.  In other words Satan customizes his dishonesty to the person. His favorite approach is:  WHATEVER WORKS!

I love the Book of Mormon and I love discussing my lessons and the gospel with Mallory!  She is one awesome granddaughter.  thanks Mallory for all your spiritual advise.

Valentine Cards

Every year I send a valentine with a $2.00 bill in it.  I thought the grandchildren would get tired of it as they got older but not so.  Apparently they look forward to it every year.  Doesn't matter the age.  Maren sent me a picture of Brock and Boston with their $2.00 bills.  Happy Valentines!

Post from Emmi Girl

I love this post from Emmi.  This is the picture she sent followed by what she had to say:

"This is why I'll never not be able to call myself a Mormon.  The military doesn't really know what that means and even in all their systems they enter that in because it's the identifiable part.  But when people ask I say the whole name, they look confused, then I say Mormon.

Old Age

I honestly can't complain.  I've been really, really healthy my whole life.  So when I went to the hearing doctor to have my ears checked I was surprised and wasn't too surprised.  Let me explain.  Years ago I fell hard on my left ear while water skiing.  I knew I had damaged the ear but didn't know how extensive.  The tests showed that I've lost about 80 per cent of the hearing in my left ear and much to my surprise about 40 per cent in my right ear.  I have noticed that past year or two that I had a hard time hearing comments that were made in class and some times couldn't hear completely a speaker in sacrament meeting.  It is really hard to teach gospel doctrine and not be able to hear comments from class members.  Hard to comment on what they've said if you can't hear everything!  So this coming Thursday Neal and I are going to Price to get aids for our ears.  Yes, Neal needs them too but he is still struggling with the idea.  Whether he actually gets them is yet to be seen.  I have a feeling that he won't.  A little bit of pride?  Maybe.  I will just be happy to get them and hopefully they will help me hear better.  Hearing clearly over weighs pride!

Here are my hearing tests:

The blue is my left ear.  The numbers on the left side of the chart show how much hearing I have left.  You can see how little there is.  The chart below shows a test he did on my left ear and then my right.  The left is the first one.  Those two lines should come up together and touch at the top.  The sound in my left ear goes to the ear drum and is transferred to two tiny bones.  In my left ear, the sound goes to the ear drum and just goes no where.  The two tiny bones behind the ear drum have been damaged because of the waterskiing accident.  Thus the loss of hearing.  The bottom shows the right ear hearing, as it should be.

Am I excited to have hearing aids?  NO  Am I excited to be able to hear better?  YES
I'll update on how it goes.  I don't love wearing glasses either, but they help me see.  I guess we just need a little more help as we get older.  :-)

Stitching Progress

Remember I started a project the first of February.  It has been a really, really hard one, mostly because I have to change threads so dang many times and I have to pencil out each square as I do it so that I can keep track of where I am.  Here is a picture of what I have accomplished in a month.  Those two trees are my headache!  There is another tree on the other side of the truck.