Soft Launch

Tonight was the soft launch of the new company Duff is involved in.  It was a great evennig at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Newport Beach.  We had wonderful appetizers and beverages and lots of mingling followed by a program with several presentations and lots more mingling.

All in all a fabulous night right on the water at sunset.  But the most exciting part of the evening was the message.  WOW! It is for anyone and everyone.  Here is the website for Family IQ and if you have any other questions leave me a comment or send me an email.

Carpet Cleaning

Natalie, Rob, and the baby are coming later this week.

That meant the carpets needed to get cleaned.  I'm not gonna have Johnny boy crawling around on the dirty carpet I've been procrastinating getting cleaned because we keep saying we are going to remodel and get new....Hurry up and get over recession!  Haha.

It is always a bigger task than I realize.  The getting ready, having them here, and then the putting it all back most often with some rearranging and purging.

But they look and feel great.

Oh and I had the family room and bonus room couches cleaned too.

Christine had a lacrosse game in Newport.  It was the last game of summer ball.  A month off and then fall ball starts.

Today was a long day.

Air Travel

Christine and Darla and I flew home today.  We drove the truck down to the airport and got on the same plane Shaun got off of on his return to school.  We met at the top of the escalator past security and I handed him the keys and the parking ticket for level one parking.  That worked out really well.  He came back and we left and made the exchange right there in the airport!

Lately I always marvel at air travel.  How do those things get up in the air and stay in the air?  There are PEOPLE in them.  And we go fast--really fast--turning 10 hour driving trips into 90 minute trips.  It really is amazing.  I never get tired of the thrill of it. (I just don't do well with turbulence so I take a Dramamine.)

The cabin is so wonderful, but it is always so good to come home.  Oh, was my hubby a sight for sore eyes!  When he drove up to the curb I just sighed.  Love that guy!

Bugs and Bites

Bug bites and I don't get along.  I've always been highly allergic.  They love my blood.  What more can I say?  The only preventative I have ever used that has helped is a Bounce dryer sheet rubbed over my exposed skin and then tucked into a pocket or in my b-ra.

I got bit one evening as I was out on the front porch and then on the back deck drinking in the sunset.

They swell, itch, puff up even more, itch even more and make me miserable. They can get as big as the diameter of a tennis ball sometimes. I'm not kidding.

So a friend told me to use Preparation H.  I was very skeptical.  But so miserable and I didn't want to get all groggy from the Benadryl, that I was willing to try it.  I went and got some.

You know what?

IT WORKS!

Swelling shrunk.  Itching gone.

Who would have known?

Now we do!

Another Pioneer Day Post

I love this pioneer picture too.  It is also by Clark Kelley Price.

"Trail Of Sacrifice-Valley Of Promise"

To me it says:  I did it.  I made it.  It was hard, harder than I ever imagined, but I made it.  With the Lord's help, I made it.

When I served on the stake YW board several years ago, we did a youth conference trek.  It was not as accurate as treks done elsewhere because we are in the city and finding areas like that to replicate a pioneer trek are very hard to find, but trek we did with handcarts that we built ourselves and all the clothing.

It was a great experience.

Always after Youth Conference, we had a combined stake YW/YM leader party to celebrate the end of summer it also being the end of our activity year.  We kind of calendered from September to September.  Most of the time we held it at the 'Ponderosa' (Hal and Peggy's place).  I don't know how or when this started, but the stake YM board always gave us sisters a gift as a token of their appreciation for all our help during the year.  Each time they were personal and well thought out.

This particular year, they gave each of us the print above and on the back each board member wrote a personal message to us of our strengths and character as a modern pioneer woman.  It was a very unique gift.  I had mine framed with glass on the back so I can take it off the wall and read it when I need a little uplift.

It is one of my most treasured things.

When The Angels Come

Saturday was Pioneer Day.

It is much bigger here in Utah (obviously), than in California.  But it holds a dear spot in most of our hearts whether we have a calendared holiday to celebrate it or not.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

It's title is:  When The Angels Come

By Clark Kelley Price.

I love it so much that I have it framed in my home with the scripture engraved in brass on the matting:

"...For I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels will be around you to bear you up."

D & C 84:88

The story behind this painting is referenced from the Relief Society Magazine "Pioneer Women" pg. 8 January 1948. See also the devotional address given in the de Jong Concert Hall at Brigham Young University on 11 August, 1981 by Vaughn J. Featherstone, "Go and Bring In Those People Now on the Plains" (We Are Our Brother's Keepers).

"The Cart Began Pushing Me"

President David O. McKay, in an address given at an annual Relief Society Conference in 1947, the centennial year of the Saints' arrival in the valley, talked of the criticism given by a teacher conducting a class, who commented that it was very unwise to have even permitted the Saints to cross the plains under such circumstances, and they were talking about the Willie and Martin handcart companies who left later then they should have. President McKay said:


Some sharp criticism of the Church and its leaders was being indulged in for permitting any company of converts to venture across the plains with no more supplies of protection than a handcart caravan afforded. An old man in the corner [and this was written by President William Palmer, who was present] sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it, then he arose and said things that no person who heard him will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spike calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity.


In substance the father above mentioned said, "I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there, too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostatized of left the Church, because everyone of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities."


"I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it." [And a wife with a baby in her arms by his side]. "I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there."


"Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then no any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company."

The fireworks were pretty off the deck.  I think of the pioneers in my life.  Both sets of grandparents recognizing the gospel being baptized.  My mother's parents leaving everything in Germany to come to America so their posterity could have the gospel in it's fullness.  I would like to think I would be so brave and have that kind of courage.  My other grandmother introducing the gospel to her boyfriend (my grandfather) and he studying it out and gaining his own testimony of the truth of it and never turning back.  There are modern pioneers all around me.  My children being some of them.  When I see their  quiet sacrifices and unspoken courage it strengthens me.

French Toast

I headed down the canyon early yesterday to pick up Christine from EFY by 7am.  You know me--not a morning person, so this was quite the doing.  I had to be up by 6ish in order to throw myself together and leave by 6:30.  She was so excited and the place was alive with everyone hugging and saying good-bye and exchanging phone numbers, email addresses, and facebook whatevers.  I still don't facebook.  And some of my kids have forbidden me to sign up!

By the time she was loaded up it was already close to 8, and we were hungry so we decided to get some breakfast at Kneaders.  Luckily for us they open for breakfast at 7.  It is all you can eat Chunky French Toast or Sourdough Pancakes with a buttermilk/caramel syrup that is heavenly.  If I have a choice I'm more of a sweet breakfast person rather than savory and so is Christine, so this fit us perfectly.

We both decided on the French Toast.  Huge thick slices of their homemade chunky cinnamon bread, dipped and griddled to perfection served with whipped cream and fresh strawberries and their signature syrup. Oh WOW.  It was goooooood.  She had been almost a week without driving so she was more than willing to make the drive 'home'.  She did a good job up that canyon with all the road construction.  They are adding two more lanes, one in each direction past the dam to Wallsburg right now.  It is going to be nice and alleviate some of the accidents with a divided road.

Rest and a long shower were next.  Until that was interrupted by an itty-bitty mouse that ran out from under the family room sofa into the bathroom!  She was screaming and standing up on the couch wrapped in a quilt.  I calmly shut the door, went upstairs and got a trap with a piece of apple for it.  I opened the door and set it just inside and another for good measure along the tv cabinet.  Yup.  Got two of them, one in each.  I love a victory!

Yard Work

I have been working in the 'yard' here.  Two acres is a lot to do, so I have just been focusing on the front and sides.  Here's a peek.

The front porch dinner bell.

I would like to plant a perennial garden here.  There is a lot of space and it would look pretty and welcoming.

We can't figure out what kind of pine this is, but it is different than all the others.  The branches and needles kind of droop downish. After I cut all the deadish branches out, I was so excited to see all the new growth that had started without us being able to see it.  You go Piney!

I love this sage.  I believe it is Russian Sage.  It gets pretty lavender flowers on long stems in the spring.

Some of the scrub oak we left as bushes and others we trimmed up like little trees, with clean trunks and a tuft of leaves at the top.

A little hard to see with the afternoon shadows, but the scrub in the foreground was 1/2 as tall as the pine tree.  I cut it down and shaped it into a large bush.  Now the pine isn't choked with it all around.  Gosh that stuff grows fast.  We had just trimmed it last year too.

I found all these old bricks just thrown in among some thick scrub oak.  They made a nice ring around one of the quakies.  It helps with the watering.

One of the cutting piles that needs to now be chipped.

I love these trees.  Don't they look beautiful?

We got dark bark spread all around the front berm.

I really like how it turned out.  I didn't notice Darla when I took the picture.  She is my shadow.

A grove of volunteer Maples.  We discovered 3 of them.

We didn't realize we had these until about a year ago.

They are one of my favorite trees.  This area is next to be cleard out of all the over-growth of scrub.

One day we would like to cut a pad here and have some grass and swing set, etc.

One day.  Oh, and some fruit trees.

Front side of acre two.

These huge boulders are dotted all over the place. They are very unique and I love the spots and little green stuff that grows on them. I don't know what it is, but it's very interesting to look at.

My favorite by far.

Quaking Aspens.

The leaves flutter this way and that.  The white bark is pretty and when the wind blows they make a rustling sound completely original to them.

Well, there you have my daily doings this week.

Next I'll have to show you my crafting that I do at night while I watch some television.

Anniversary #2!

Happy Anniversary Natalie and Robert!

It's been two years, one baby, and 2 years of law school.

Whew.  You two are amazing and a great compliment to each other.

We wish you a great year ahead and send all our love.

Daily Prompts

Outside My Window:  Morning sun on the golf course with beautiful greens and trees with the mountains as their backdrop.
I Am Thankful For:  the quiet, my doggy, sore muscles (it means I've been working hard in the yard.)
I Am Wearing:  my nightgown!
Noticing That:  I need to dust.
I Am Reading:  Glimpses of Marjorie Pay Hinckley
On My Mind:  Meredith.  Missing Christine and Duff. 
Pondering These Words:  It will all work out.
Around The House:  Fun pillows.
From The Kitchen:  Farm stand fresh corn on the cobb and watermelon.  Ooooh.  Sooooo good!
One Of My Favorite Things:  Bubble baths
I'm Creating:  baby burp cloths to keep on hand for baby showers and on paper, a perennial garden to plant here next year in the planter by the front porch.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:  water, sew, trim some scrub oak into a nice looking bush, pick up Christine and go to breakfast with her, laundry.
From My Lens:  well, haven't taken any pictures this week, but I will later today.

Kristin found this on a site to help you when you're stumped.  It's not that nothing is going on, but it's not very interesting to blog about trimming pine trees and cleaning up scrub oak and spraying for weeds!  I work outside during the day and watch tv and sew at night.  How about that?

How would you fill in the blanks?

Cameron

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAM!

Have a good day.

Where are you today in all your traveling for work?

Cameron is:  fun, kind, loving, hard worker, good friend, neat and tidy.

I remember when you were born and I came to help your mom with you when you came home from the hospital.  It was a joy!

We love you, Cam--

EFY 2010

Chris is having fun at EFY.

This particular group is not in the dorms.  They are in the Riviera Apartments.

I don't know who owns them now, but they have seen better days.  Like when I was a student it was THE place to live.  The 'Riv'.  But she doesn't much care; it's EFY.

Her roommate is a girl from Boise, Idaho.

The other two are from Temecula, CA and Taylorsville, UT.

The company counselors are in their apartment too.

That means a lot of fun!

There was a lot of excitement as everyone got checked in and then moved into their apartments.

Jenna T. is around the corner, Addy is next door to Christine, Ellin is in with Addy, and Sam and Jenni are next door to Addy.  Each year they are in the same session but plan to room separately so they can get to know other people and build strength of their own.  This arrangement was a fun surprise!  Brandon N. and Chelsea B. are there too.  And Erik is at sports camp across the street.

A picture with some 'attitude'.

Go get 'em girls, and have a great time.

Remember, one of the best things you can do is 'feel' and 'listen' to what the Holy Ghost is whispering.

Love You!