New Toy

We're just full of it today. This just arrived about half an hour ago. Dad's been waiting for this little Smartie for a LONG time!  It's pretty cute and he's pretty happy!  You can't beat 60 miles to the gallon! Are we green or what?

Merry Christmas!

Well it's back to winter. It's been snowing for two days straight!  It's supposed to be cold all week and we've got to get a missionary reunion into Baliwood on Friday night.  What's up with this!  Grrrrr

70 Year Old Furniture

 

You won't believe what Saren and Jonah did to Grandma and Grampa J's old dresser and dressing table!  I forgot to get pictures of the dressing table down in Ashton and Isaac's room, but here is the dresser, completely refinished with lots of TLC.  My mom and dad were proud owners of this about seventy years ago!  On the back is says "Montgomery Ward Catalogue".

 

How many times their hands (and other's hands ie Trina and family) opened this dresser, who knows!  So glad to have it back to "better than new"! Hooray for Jonah and Saren!

Happys and Sads

We had such a spectacular time this week with our two St.George families...one that is staying and one that is going!  Before the grand departure to New Zealand, we LOVED being with Ana for her last horse riding lesson and getting to know her teacher and the other cute kids in her class, not to mention Smoothie, her "little gray mare" with whom she won all the prizes a few weeks ago.  It was fun to meet her great teacher Rosemary too!  By the end of the lesson, we were all  fast friends!

 

Isaac and Eliza got to come too, which made it extra fun!

Ana just grabbed ahold of those hooves and cleaned them out like a pro!

She even did some tricks for us!

A great time was had by all!

Saren and Jared arranged a little farewell party at the clubhouse and friends had a chance to say what they would miss most about not having Jonah and Aja around.  Contributions included everything from ski trips to the lake to not smelling french fries when their kids were picked up by Aja.  It was fun to see Spencer Swift and his wife come. Spencer, who moved to St. George just after Jonah and Aja were welcomed and treated to dinner and given lots of TLC from Jonah and Aja.

There were even more kids than adults!  Everybody will miss J&A and fam!

So these are the last pictures on the steps in front of Saren and Jared's house.  How we will miss this adorable family! Isn't Elsie just the cutest little pumpkin you've ever seen?

Camden was just too sad to come.....until

His best empty lot buddy showed up!

So sad to see them go...but so happy to think of the adventures ahead!

Good luck with that 500 pounds of luggage and 5 carry-ons...visas, car sale, long drive to LA for Aja, Tyler and the kids and quick trip to AZ for Jonah.

WE LOVE YOU! 

Julie's Birthday!

I went down to Provo on Sunday night and was treated to the BEST birthday dinner, compliments of Eli and Julie.  Eli made the best fajitas (Julie's traditonal birthday dinner) I've ever tasted  and Julie made a Stawberry Pie (her traditional birthday cake) to die for!  It was nice to spend the day before her birthday with she and Eli in their fabulous apartment, complete with their new wedding canvas and wedding album that is incredible!

Sounds like Julie had a spectacular "actual birthday" too complete with a surprise party.  Eli, you take pretty good care of that girl!

Mmmm!  Good enough to eat!

 

Then on our way to St. George to say good bye to Jonah and Aja and crew, we stopped to have another little birthday dinner (since Rick was gone for the first one) with Eli and Julie at McGraths. They had a pretty fancy birthday hat for her!  What a woman!

Fish, Flour and FUN

Deep sea fishing in Florida..pelicans waiting for fish too!

Fun

Didn't catch a thing...in fact this is the biggest fish anyone caught!

We had fun for a few hours with the Pothiers who came for the Pothier Reunion at Deer Valley

Treasure Chest Time!

And sweet Claire sitting on our new Balinese "Dog"!

Of course, no visit to G & G's is complete without a visit to the zoo

The Pothiers are always coming up with new games! You cannot wait to try this "Flour Game" at the reunion this summer!

Cool Max is doing a great job of taking care of all these girls! He's 5'5", taller than Tal at his age by quite a bit!

Florida Week

Dad and I had so much fun in Florida! We went to the YPO GLC (Global Leadership Conference) so we found friends from all over the world there. Here is a quick synopsis of what we did:

We've finished our three days of hard work and "appearances" and "moving around" amongst 2000 YPOers at the GLC (Global Leadership Conference) and have gone from the YPO paying for a fabulous modern chic/slick hotel with a huge balcony overlooking the ocean and lovely beach chairs, fabulous food complete with steel band and incredible singer serenading us all afternoon yesterday at the pool to a totally hilarious...us paying... walls-paper-thin, noisy refrigerator and blasting air-conditioner duct tapped to the wall, pink-plastic-roses-on-the-table-slumdog hotel where you have to run a mile to find any kind of food at a Walgreens...BUT with a gorgeous beach about 30 yards away.

We did meet lots of old friends from previous YPO events and got some really nice offers (lots from South America and some from Lebanon, Bahrain and Oman), a cruise and a family event in the Bermuda, but who knows what will actually materialize. There's lots of work for Dad to do between invitations and actually showing up at the event. We did get some people excited about Orange Sky and we hope fun things will come of that! We'll just see how it unfolds!
We did get to visit with the wife of the guy who wrote "The Last Lecture", Randy Pausch before he died and the former President of Mexico came for a little chat. Also we heard both in word and song from a famous ragae singer from Haiti, saying that he ate dirt paddies for dinner sometimes and is now working on a foundation for kids in Haiti. Lots of good people with great ambitions. The final speaker was the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and he was animated and taught us a lot, not only about music but about leadership. My favorite speaker was a gorgeous woman who was born without bones in her lower legs so they had to be amputated just below the knee. She then became a champion in the para-olympics with fiberglass legs to help her run. A truly remarkable story! She's about 32 and forging her way forward even though she's not racing anymore. She came out and walked around the stage on perfectly beautiful wooden legs and high heels. Except for the ankle not bending, you would never know that they weren't real if she hadn't told us.

We've found a church to go to a 1 o'clock and I've got to go out for a little jog for my exercise goal before we go. (I forgot to bring the SS lesson reading lesson and the food has been scrumptous and too tempting so my points aren't going to be good this week). We are praying mightily for Jonah and Aja as they clear out their house entirely and go to the closing tomorrow. Let us know when you have that money in your hot little hands Jo and Aj! The Lord is in the details on Lucy...so glad that you found that great guy Shawni and can't wait to talk to you tomorrow night! Eli and Julie are enjoying Orlando together. Eli had work there and Julie had the weekend off so they're loving having some time in the sun, not far away from us. As you know Tal and Anita ended up in the Sports Illustrated box at the game last night in Madison Square Garden with Syracuse and Louisville. We were sorry to see all those overtimes come to an end...especially for the Jazz...with such a sad outcome yesterday. Too bad they couldn't have played that game at home. They'd have won for SURE!

Saren and Jared have the new website for PowerInMoms.com up and running and it looks fabulous! Take a look! This is going to be fantastic! Josh has an incredible post on his blog about the wonders of the heavens that is way past incredible! Saydi is meeting dad to help him with a Father/Daughter retreat in Miami, just down the street from where we were. They're looking forward to that! Noah is making me look happy and he and Kristi have posted the most adorable pictures of McKay sleeping! I missed the one by the gong in our house guys. ADORABLE! And Charity is slogging away with enthusiasm and joy in Reading...."Ah to be in England, now that spring is here!"

Edlers New World!

Our great friends the Edlers are moving to Layton!  The dad Matt has a really good job at Hill Air Force Base and is getting up at 4 a.m. to get to work by 7. He is on the road 4 hours a day.  This new apartment has a bus stop outside the door, is a much better neighborhood and the school is two blocks away, shopping three blocks and the church is about a half a block from the back of the the parking lot. Since they don't have a car, I took Elaine and the kids out to see their new apartment and get the kids registered in school. They are such a darling family!  Little Noah claimed that he would like to stay at the school forever after our tour. Their oldest Ammon, (6th grade) is austistic, Noah is eight and has aspergers and Seth, a 5th grader is a straight A student and a fabulous artist. We ate at Cutlers Sandwich shop and you'd think they'd died and gone to heaven!  It was a fun day! 

 

Elaine, Seth, Noah and Ammon

Tiny but clean and in a great neighborhood!

That day Elaine also got her dentures fixed for the last time and she is so delighted to be able to smile with teeth!  She can eat and now has the confidence to look for a job!  It was a long time coming, but worth it in the end. Thanks to Dr. Ralph Sorbonne who fitted her for them. Matt LOVES his new computer (the old one from our office that Noah and Eli installed for them at Christmastime). They are on the verge of a new life!  So fun to be able to help just a bit!

Poignant Poetry!

One of my goals for the Resolutionary Challenge is to read some great literature every week. This week I read about Wordsworth in one of the precious old books we have.  The front cover is gone but the first page has a handwritten signature that says Constance E. Edwards, September 21st, 1910.  The back padding is beginning to ooze out, but what's inside is so amazing!  William Wordsworth was truly a genius and knew that he was destined to write from the time he was a child. His abilities to observe life around him was remarkable!  The following little poem, which I love, is in a section called Poems Referring to the Period of Childhood

 

To A Butterfly

Stay near me...do not take they flight!

A little longer stay in sight!

Much converse do I find in thee,

Historian of my infancy!

Float near me; do not yet depart!

Dead times revive in thee:

Thou bring'st gay creature as thou art!

A solemr image to my heart,

My father's family!

 

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,

The time, when , in our childish plays

My sister Emmeline and I

Together chased the butterfly!

A very hunter did I rush

Upon the prey:---with leaps and springs

I followed on from brake to bush;

But she, God love her! feared to brush

The dust from off its wings.

 

I love the imagery of wanting the butterfly to stay near to remind him of his childhood.  Thinking back he remembers that his sister was more tender-hearted than he and knew that rubbing the dust off the wings of a butterfly renders them helpless. Such a metaphor for childhood, looking back as well as forward!  So much in those few little lines!  (plus he's the only person I know who uses more exclamation marks than me!

Thanks Saydi!