January 9th through January 15th

January 9^th through January 15^th: Thursday, Mom substituted and I got serious about finishing everything at Charlotte’s house.  I finished hanging the cabinets and adding shelving in her laundry room, nothing very pretty, but functional.  In the evening we went with Wally and Martha Cooper to listen to a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Christianity.  They have found every book of the Old Testament, except Esther, in the Scrolls. There are several different versions of Isaiah that the community accepted.  It was interesting, but I did fall asleep.  Friday, we were both free so we went to the temple early and then worked on Charlotte’s stuff.  We started painting the last piece of furniture for the kitchen and I worked on the punch list for the kitchen.  The back door got its first coat of paint.   We took Jake for his birthday celebration to Chucky Cheese.  He invited his cousin Luke.  So we had a nice afternoon with a 4 and 3 year old at Chucky Cheese.  After Chucky Cheese we took them for yogurt.

Luke and Jake playing air hockey.

 

Luke and Jake throwing footballs.

I look like I had a good time right?

Yogurt stop.

We celebrated Charlotte’s birthday in the evening with a cake that everyone helped Chris make.  

Happy Birthday Charlotte.

Saturday , Alex and Charlotte took us to Little America for their breakfast buffet to celebrate the almost completion of their remolding and to thank us for all the work we have done on their house.  I really like good food and I assure you I got Alex’s monies worth. 

Thanks for the great breakfast.

In the afternoon I worked on the last of the punch list.  I only have one thing left to do and that is repainting the ceiling in the front room.   I can see light at the end of the tunnel.  It has been a huge project and I am glad it is coming to an end.  I got to watch a little football in the evening.  There were some really good games. We had really nice meetings in church on Sunday but after church I had to go to work.  It was only for 4 hours so I made it home in time for dinner.  Monday, mom substituted and I worked at Home Depot.  Mom had an interview with a student in China who had applied to the CAPA program.  Tuesday I got all my tools cleaned up and moved to John’s house.  Next week I will start his downstairs bathroom.  Mom substituted at the same class as Monday.  I picked her up and we met James, Kirstin, Rigby and Emme at P.F. Changs for dinner.  We tried to go the children’s museum but it was closed.  

Dinner with James' family.

Wednesday mom substituted for a science teacher and used a smart board for the whole day.   She only lost all the videos she was suppose to show once. I had a shift at Home Depot.  We are still waiting for our call.  I am going to write about “I Believe in Patience” or not for my other blog this week.     

January 2nd through January 8th

January 2^nd through January 8^th: This has been a hard week for me.  I have been fighting a very bad cough and cold.  Chris had it during December and it lasted weeks.  She is finally feeling a bit better, but now I have it and it is a “doosey”.  I end up coughing all night long and don’t get a good night’s sleep. Thursday we went to the genealogy building in Salt Lake.  We split up, Chris went downstairs to the Irish records and I stayed on the main floor for some help with trying to learn how to find source documents to prove the information that has been submitted.  I learned a lot, but Chris had no luck trying to find the information she was looking for.  Friday we worked on moving me out of the second bedroom we were using as an office/ dressing room for me.  I did a little remolding in a storage room, an unfinished room, and now I have a man cave. 

The man cave.

We started painting the room we moved out of so that Evan, Charlotte’s oldest son, can move in.  Before we started painting, I had to add jamb and casing around a window.  I also started hanging some of the old cabinets we tore out of the kitchen in the laundry room.  After we get Evan moved, Charlotte can start making his old room upstairs into the nursery for the arrival of the yet unnamed baby daughter that will be here in early March.  In the evening, we went to dinner at Judy and Mike Nelson’s home.  Judy and Mike are dear friends.  Judy served with us in the Ecuador mission many many years ago.  Judy made an Ecuadorian dish, but served the cilantro on the side.  She knows how I hate it.  It was such a nice evening and fun to see them.  Saturday I worked an 8 hour shift at Home Depot.  I have to say that by the end of 8 hours of being on my feet, my feet are screaming at me to sit down.  Mom continued to help get the new bedroom painted.  Sunday I went to work early but was able to leave in time to make it to our Sunday school class and Sacrament meeting.  Sunday evening we, along with Charlotte’s family, went up to Kaysville to celebrate with Abbie, our youngest granddaughter who turned 1.  We gave her a box of tissues that she enjoyed pulling out of the box.  Thanks Kate for the idea.  She remembered that Ginny had given her daughter this same gift for her 1^st birthday.

Abbie's birthday cake.

Do you think she liked her birthday cake?

Abbie enjoying her birthday present.

Monday was the early shift, 5am, and mom finished painting.  I got home and hung the door and changed all 5 electrical plugs and a switch to white ones.   We watched the premier of season 4 of Downton Abby in the evening. 

Downton Abby is back.

Tuesday mom got a teaching job at Ensign, where Ginny and James went to school.  She saw a few old friends from the high avenues where we lived before going to China.  I worked till 6 pm.  Evan slept in his new room for the first night.  We now have a very close neighbor.  

Evan in his new bedroom.

Wednesday mom got another teaching job.  It started snowing so I drove her to Salt Lake and then I went straight to work.  I only worked 5 hours so I had time to get back to Salt Lake to pick her up.  In the evening, we met old friends, Wally and Martha Cooper and Martin and Magali, a couple from Ecuador who are here visiting, at Crown Burger for dinner.  We first met Martin and Magali when we went with Wally and Martha to Ecuador in Feb. of 2009.  We had a great evening talking and getting caught up on the last 5 years. 

December 26th through January 1st

December 26^th through January 1^st:  Thursday we packed up and then we drove to St. George in southern Utah.  Before going to the condo we had rented, we stopped at Smiths for groceries.  All of our children, except James and his family, will be together for the next four days.  We had 10 adults and 12 children all together.  That night we fed everyone leftover Chinese from Christmas Eve and still had leftovers.  I have to learn how to cook for less than 50.  Jill, our daughter-in-law’s family, owns a condo, so John and his family and Charlotte and her family stayed in Jill’s condo.  Chris and I and Kate and her family and Ginny and her family stayed in the one we rented.  It was cozy but worked just fine. After dinner, we had a gift exchange for all the cousins. 

Gift exchange.

Our children were so thoughtful and generous with their gifts to us.  I was blown away by the gift we got John and Jill, Kate and Bryce and Charlotte and Alex.  Our daughter-in- law, Jill, had taken my blog of our mission and had it printed in a hard back book.  I cried as I turned the pages, so many memories and good feelings.

My Christmas Gift from the Kidos.

Friday, we took all those who wanted to go to the Johnson farm dinosaur track museum.  John B. and his oldest decided on a bike ride, but everyone else enjoyed the museum. 

Miles, Xela, Moose, and Kimball at the museum.

Willa getting a ride on Papa's shoulders.

Everyone trying to make Origami pterodactyls.

Ginny and Mom

Drawing Dinos.

4 cousins Jake, Xela, Stan and Luke.

After the museum it was lunch time and we made sandwiches.  In the afternoon we took everyone to Frozen.  There was a problem with the projector and they had to restart it twice, so after the movie they gave everyone a free pass.  It was Kate’s birthday and she had chosen to go to “One Hot Grill”.  She had read on a blog that it was the BEST hamburger in St. George.   We located the small restaurant, but it was empty as I entered and some of the chairs were on the tables and it looked like they were ready to close.  After the manager assured me they were open, I said, “Then fire up the grill, you got 22 hungry people to feed.”  On the wall was a sign that read capacity 20 persons.  We filled up the place.  The food was great and the service even better. 

Kate the birthday girl standing up.

Me and my burger.

Badger and Mom

John and Moose, notice the sign.

Saturday everyone had their morning free.  We met at noon at the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center.  We had arranged to have a birthday party there for Xela, Ginny’s daughter who turned 4.  Everyone went swimming and then we had lunch and cake and Xela opened presents.

Don't look at the beached whale in the foreground.

Bathing beauties.

Kate and her family.

Xela's party.

 

 More party fun.

That evening was game night.  Badger was the CEO champ and we all had fun talking and playing games together.  Sunday we filled up 2 rows at church.  It was so fun to have almost all our posterity in church together.  We had a ham and baked potatoes for lunch.  We all drove to Pioneer Park on the bluff above St George.  The kids had a good time hiking and walking on the hills and rocks.

Sam and Xela

Evan climbing the crack.

I did not make it through the crack.

We are pretty happy to be with our kids.

Monday I had to get up at 4:00am and head back to Salt Lake so I could make it to work by 9:30am.  Mom stayed and helped clean up.  It was a wonderful weekend and we loved being with our kids and grandkids.  In the middle of the night I woke up and as I laid in bed trying to go back to sleep, I had the impression that I should start a new blog.  So I got up and made a new blog.  I have been thinking a lot about, how can I bless the lives of my children and grandchildren.  I even pray for inspiration.  I feel I received some as I laid in bed. My new blog is called “This I believe”.  I want my grand children to know me and to know what makes me tick.  So I will be posting short essays on what I believe.  If you are interested, send me an e-mail and I will update you when I post.  Here is the Introduction to the Blog.

 This I Believe:  Introduction

I woke up about an hour ago.  It is 1:26am.  For those of you who know me that is unusual.  I am generally in bed early, last night it was about 9pm, and I get up early about 5 to 6 am.  I have been laying in bed thinking and what came to my mind is the need to write another blog.  A blog about what I believe.  Four years ago, Chris and I went to China with the China Teachers Program at BYU.  We were assigned to teach English at Nankai University in Tianjin China.  We lived there for 2 years.  As part of our classes, we developed lessons based on principles from the stories of people who had submitted their beliefs to the NPR radio program “This I Believe”.  Part of the final exam was for the students to stand in front of the class and give a talk on what they believed in English.  This experience was very rewarding and it started me thinking what do I believe?  This blog is part journal, part family history, and part my attempt to maybe help others to think about what they believe in.  I am inspired by the scripture, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." -- Proverbs, chapter 23, verse 7.  For me this means that what we think about, what we believe in, what motivates us is what we really are or what we will really become.  You can really know what kind of person you are when you look at what you think about when you don’t have anything to do.  Where does your mind go?  What do you think about? Where is your heart?  I have to say that most of the time on our last mission, when I had time on my hands, my thoughts were often about how to return to live with Father in Heaven?  What must I do to lay hold of eternal life?  Since returning home my spare thoughts have been on what do I need to do to finish Charlotte’s kitchen.  I miss thinking about how to get home.  This blog is also an attempt to get me back on track with what is most important and to leave a record for my children and grandchildren and generations to come about what did papa think about and believe in.  I hope they will read this and come to know me and maybe they will believe in what I believe in.

Tuesday I got together for lunch with two good friends and old mission companions, Lee Crayk and Doug Thayne.  It was so fun to talk and be with them.  Mom and I got away in the afternoon and went to the movies with our free passes.  We saw “Saving Mr. Banks”.  I did not ring in the New Year.  I was in bed asleep by 8:30pm.  I worked on New Year’s Day.  I hope everyone that reads this blog will have a great 2014.  3 weeks and waiting.

This is for Alene she wanted to see the chairs.