Released From Primary

Shortly after Alan and I were called last June to be Church Service Missionaries with the BYU-I Pathway Program, I was released as 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. A couple of weeks later, I was called as a Primary teacher to the 4-5 year olds. I have to admit, it has been a struggle to keep up with those little ones. I averaged about 8 children in my class each Sunday, which is a lot. They really kept me going. Although the class was difficult, I really did enjoy the children. They are so precious. They have divinity within their little souls. 

Because of my calling as a missionary, it was difficult to hold this additional calling so I was released last Sunday (on my Dad's birthday - Dec. 29th). This release comes with mixed feelings. I am going to miss meeting with the children each Sunday, but I am also glad that I can attend Sunday School and Relief Society again. I have missed doing that for the past 6 months.

Tonight is New Years Eve. We don't have any major plans. All of our family who were here for the Christmas holiday have left.  I think Alan and I are going to go to a movie.  We will see if we make it to midnight tonight or not. I hope that 2014 will be a good year for our family and for anyone reading this. 

38th Anniversary

Alan and I got married 2 days after Christmas (Dec. 27, 1975), so our anniversary is usually eclipsed by the festivities of Christmas. Not the best time of year to get married, but it was the only time we could do it while Alan was on his Christmas break from dental school. Since we generally overeat during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, we don't always have a huge desire to celebrate our anniversary by eating out, but we do manage to celebrate it somehow. One good thing about having it around Christmas, however, is that we generally have family visiting and they can help us celebrate. This year, I invited Eric's family, Ryan, Jared, and Cheryl (Alan was at work) to go with me to Mulligan's in Palmdale to play some miniature golf. This is something I had been wanting to do for quite a while so I captured the opportunity to do it with family and had a blast.

Because of the large size of our group, we had to
divide up into two teams. Team #1 consisted of
 Cheryl, Ethan, Ella, and Livi, and me.

Team 2: Ryan, Eric, Nicole, & Jared

After playing golf, the kids wanted to drive the go-carts again (they did it in October). Since Olivia is too young to drive by herself, she picked Cheryl to enjoy the experience with her.

I mentioned already that Alan and I have been married for 38 years. For the past few years, I have had a desire to "upgrade" my wedding ring. I like my original ring, but wanted a different style so I "sweet talked" Alan into letting me shop for a new setting. I shopped at the Mall and found a couple rings that I liked, but thought were too expensive. I decided to look online and I found one I absolutely loved at beverlydiamonds.com. I was a little nervous ordering online, but found it fun to pick the color, cut, clarity, etc. according to how much we wanted to spend. I figure I got twice the ring for the same price as the mall...and I like the style better.  A win-win situation. It even came with a certificate of authenticity and a guarantee. 

On my finger

 (I know, I have very old looking hands)

 This stock picture from the catalog gives 

a better view of the ring.

Waiting for three weeks to wear the ring after it arrived was hard, but I opened it on Christmas day and I love wearing it. Happy Anniversary, Alan. I love you!

A Mesa Thanksgiving

About 6 months ago Jared moved to Mesa, Arizona pretty much on a whim. However, he said he felt impressed that he was supposed to move there even though he didn't have a job nor have any friends there.  As it turns out, he really likes living in Mesa and he was anxious for us to come for a visit. Therefore, we decided to use the Thanksgiving weekend to make that trek. It is about a 7 hr. drive for us, which isn't too bad. Cheryl joined us for the drive, which made the trip even that much more fun.

Although we didn't know it before we checked in, the hotel we booked was less than a block from the Mesa Temple. I couldn't have been more pleased. Fortunately, the Christmas lights we shining brightly as we drove past the temple on the way to the hotel. After checking in, we walked over to the temple. The lights were beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around just soaking in the spirit of that holy ground.

We had some time to kill on Thanksgiving morning, so we went hiking at a place called the Riparian Preserve.  Jared rides his bike there about every day. It was a very nice walk, which allowed us to burn a few calories before gorging ourselves later. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures during the hike, but I did take a picture of these ducks swimming happily in the lake. I couldn't help be think that they were probably happy that they were ducks instead of turkeys.

Since I didn't have access to a kitchen to prepare a Thanksgiving meal, Jared got us a reservation at Black Angus. Surprisingly, they were extremely busy. I guess I wasn't the only one who wasn't cooking that day.  We were glad that Jared's girlfriend, Alisa Ashcroft, was able to join us for our meal after she and Jared had attended her family's Thanksgiving get-together. Alisa is a lot of fun to be around and it is easy to see that she is very good for Jared. I have never seen him happier.  It is apparent to me that the reason Jared felt inspired to go to Arizona was to meet Alisa.

Waiting outside the restaurant for our turn to eat.

Inside waiting for our meal!

After our meal, we had some time to kill before going to go see a Disney movie called "Frozen" so we went on another stroll at a place called Tempe Town Lake, which is another beautiful spot to walk around.

The sun was setting, so these pics are a little dark but they do give you an indication of what the area looks like.

Friday morning, Alan, Jared, Cheryl, and I were able to visit the almost completed Gilbert Temple. The Open House will start in Mid January.  This temple is beautiful and big.  My brother-in-law, Scott Bleak, was the architect who designed this temple.  I must say, he did a wonderful job. I hope to be able to go inside some day.  We kind of had to sneak onto the grounds...a gate was left open and we slipped in. 

[On a side note, our niece Katelyn Bleak has been called to serve mission in the Gilbert Arizona mission in January and she will most likely be involved with the Open House.]

After this, we met up with Alisa and drove to Superstition Mountain where everyone but me went on a hike.  Considering the state of my back and hips lately, it was the right decision for me to stay behind and read my book. I really enjoyed the beautiful scenery (sorry, no pics). The weather was perfect - sunny and about 73 degrees. Not bad for late November!

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at a ghost town. It reminded me of Calico Ghost Town, which is about 1.5 hours from our home.  We didn't stay long, but we enjoyed our visit there.  Best thing about it?...it was free!

The "girls" under a Saguaro Cactus

Later that evening, we were able to eat dinner with Alisa and her mother and brother at Texas Roadhouse. It was very fun to be able to meet Alisa's family and spend some time with them. After the dinner, they invited us over to their home for dessert...yummy apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. We reluctantly left Arizona on Saturday morning, hoping to avoid the holiday traffic problems that Sunday would most likely have.  And besides, I had to get back to teach my little 5 year olds in Primary.

When It Rains, It Pours (or- Really, Again????)

I am not one to complain and complain when things seem to be going wrong or when the stars appear to be aligned against me, but it seems that I have been having more than my fair share of trials and adversity lately. This string of unfortunate events started in early October with having to seek treatment for my bad back, which is, thankfully, feeling better each week because of weekly treatments. Then, two weeks ago I started having problems with my digestive system - (See my post on Nov. 12th). Because of my diagnosis, I was issued two prescriptions for antibiotics to combat my diverticulitis.  It turns out these medications led to complications...keeping my string of bad luck continuing - a domino effect of sorts. First, I started having lots of upper stomach pain and, for me, that always means gastritis. Because of that, I have an endoscopy scheduled for this Monday morning (Nov. 25th). Oh joy! Then, the 2nd complication was that I woke up this morning (after seeing previous signs of a possible allergic reaction for 2 days) with welts all over my body, my eye lids swollen and droopy, and my face looked and felt like it was on fire. Very flattering picture, I know.

 (Definitely not my finest moment)

Welts on my leg

Sitting in Urgent Care (Couldn't wear makeup

because my eyes and face were so swollen)

This allergic reaction to my medications landed me in Urgent Care, where I spent 5 hours, most of it sitting around reading while waiting, but part was spent with two nurses struggling to find a vein for my IV injection of a steroid. I have a long history of trouble finding my veins so I was expecting that things would not go well, However, I wasn't expecting to feel like a pin cushion when it was all over. Finally, after the 1st nurse gave up after blowing out two veins, the 2nd nurse found a vein on her second try. Although it was extremely painful because of its location, I was super elated that she finally found my elusive vein. A prayer of gratitude from me quickly ascended to heaven.

Well, this saga continues...but not without having to back up a day. We live in the desert and seldom get rain, but sometimes when it rains, it really pours and flooding can occur. Yesterday was one of those days. At one point in the late afternoon/early evening, the skies opened up and dumped lots of rain in our area.  Right before Alan and I had to leave for our Pathway Gathering, I went to our room to change into my "missionary" clothes and discovered that the bottom of our bed was soaking wet and there was a stream of water flowing from the ceiling around the ceiling fan. Bad timing! Since we had to rush off, we stripped the bed of its freshly laundered sheets and blankets  (I had just made the bed 1 hour before we discovered this) and put down a plastic cloth and some buckets to catch any drips while we were away. Unfortunately, that bed was not in any condition to sleep in last night, but fortunately we have several empty beds to choose from when this one is out of commission.

Well, so far, that is it for my recent trials. It may sound like I am complaining, but I write these things as a history of mine for future reference. This is my journal for now and I publish all of my blog entries into a book at the end of each year for future reference and review by my posterity.

I like to think of trials like these (although minimal in comparison to what many others may have to endure daily) as opportunities for growth. Things happen to us for a reason and that reason is for us to experience both the negative and the positive aspects of life so we can grow and learn and endure to the end, especially when we draw upon the powers of heaven to help us to endure whatever comes our way.

"Like the intense fire that transforms iron into steel, as we remain faithful during the fiery trial of our faith, we are spiritually refined and strengthened." - Neil L. Andersen

Gratitude In Spite of Adversity

Sometimes I feel like I would like to trade my body in for a newer model. I am not a fan of the aging process. I don't recommend it to anyone. However, I am a realist and know that I can't turn back the clock so I must learn to embrace any changes that are on the horizon for me.

My reasons for the title of this post is because yesterday I spent the day (7 hours) sitting in medical waiting rooms. I had been experiencing 4 days of pain in my lower left abdomen along with a low grade fever and suspected that I might have another case of diverticulitis. Having had it before, I kind of recognized the symptoms, but I decided to call Neal (my brother who is a retired physician) to ask his medical opinion and he suggested that I try to get seen by a physician asap. Fortunately, I was able to get in to see my gastroenterologist pretty quickly. After describing my symptoms to Dr. Tyagi, he also suspected diverticulitis so he sent me to an Imaging Center (where I spent 5 hrs.) to have a CT Scan, which confirmed that I did have it and it was, fortunately, in its early stages. I also had blood and urine tests run but haven't gotten the results back yet. I will get the results in a week when I have a follow-up appointment with Dr Tyagi. Until then, I will be downing my miracle cure tablets (antibiotics), resting, and adjusting my diet (no fiber) as per doctors orders.

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I am reminded that I should try to see the good in things, look on the bright side, and to be more thankful for every experience in my life. Sometimes this is hard to do where poor health is concerned. Relating to my experiences yesterday, here is a list of things I can be thankful for:
1)  I am grateful for modern medicine and state-of-the-art equipment that makes it possible to view my lower bowel allowing a clear picture of what was causing all my pain.
2)  I am grateful that I have been blessed to be able to afford medical insurance which will cover some of the costs.
3)  I am grateful that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has not gone into effect yet and that I can still see the doctors of my choice. Had Obamacare gone into effect, chances are that my 7 hours spent seeking medical help yesterday most likely would have been extended many more hours or I may have had to wait weeks to get any medical assistance at all.
4)  I am grateful for antibiotics. Without them, I know that my condition would be life-threatening.
5)  I am grateful that I don't have small children at home to tend to or have a full-time job to report to while I recover. I can truly limit my activities  - exactly what the doctor ordered.
6)  I am grateful that my back hasn't given me any problems for almost a week. This is a real "tender mercy" since having back pain on top of the abdominal pain would have been very difficult, especially since I can't take any pain medications until my colon has healed.

"He who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious" D&C 78:19

"The Lord wants you to have a spirit of gratitude in all you do and say. Live with a spirit of thanksgiving and you will have greater happiness and satisfaction in life. Gratitude will turn your heart to the Lord and help you recognize His influence and blessings in your life. Even in your most difficult times, you can find much to be grateful for. Doing so will strengthen and bless you."  [For the Strength of Youth]

In Good Hands

Besides being a Pathway Missionary and an Ordinance Worker in the L.A. Temple, I also teach the 4-6 year old children in Primary. The Sharing Time theme for October was about being missionaries, but the last week of the month they specifically focused on how sharing the gospel can strengthen your testimony. The children learned about testimonies and how to share them.

Yesterday in Primary after spending almost the whole time practicing for our upcoming Sacrament Meeting Presentation, the Primary president turned the time over to any of the children who wanted to share their testimonies for the last 10 minutes of Primary.  Since it was Fast Sunday, this was a perfect way to reinforce what they had learned the week before. When I was the age of these primary children, I was very shy so I guess I was a little skeptical that any of the children would want to bear their testimony. Boy, was I wrong! I was amazed at the number of children who wanted to do it. Some had to be turned away because of lack of time.  Of those who participated, some needed help, but two eight year old boys blew me away when they essentially gave extemporaneous talks on baptism or being sealed together as families.  I came to the conclusion that since Primary is the training ground for the future leaders of the Church, the Church is in good hands with the likes of these special children.

I believe the Primary Presidency is going to make testimony bearing a part of Primary each Fast Sunday from now on.

"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: 

for of such is the kingdom of God." 

Luke 18:16

Good Times with Grandchildren

One good thing about Eric marrying Nicole is that her parents live about 2 miles from us. Because of that, we are able to see Nicole and the kids when she visits her parents, whether Eric is with them or not. Such was the case a couple of weeks ago. They were able to stay for about a week, which was wonderful. I don't get to see my grandchildren very often, so when they are in town I want to be able to have some fun with them while I can.

In this post I will chronicle some of the fun things we were able to do together.

While Ethan and Ella were at the dentist, I was able to take Livi shopping for her birthday present. Since she had never gone anywhere alone with me before, she was a little nervous about it at first, but she warmed up to me quite quickly and we had a great time. On the way home after shopping, we stopped at Lancaster City Park where she played on the playground for a while. 

Ethan and Ella joined us later at my house. One activity they really like to participate in while at the house is riding the electric scooters. Although our driveway is pretty large, it can be somewhat boring to ride around and around in one area so I decided to take them over to our church parking lot where they could have a very open space for riding to their hearts content. This proved to be a very fun event for them. FYI, Livi is too young to ride the scooters, so she ran around or rode the tricycle.  Here is a video of Ethan and Ella riding the scooters.

Trying to not be so conventional, they discovered that they could even ride the scooters while sitting down. Ethan seemed to master it a little better than Ella, but they both did real well.

After Ella tipped over, Ethan kept going, turned around, and came back.

On a separate day from this, I was able to take the kids to a place in Palmdale called Mulligan's where they were able to play lots of different arcade games. But the highlight of the trip was being able to ride the go-carts. Ethan and Ella each drove their own go-cart and Livi and I shared one.  I was able to get a picture of Ethan and Ella in their go-cart before they started their journey, but being in the shade, it didn't turn out great. I also got a "selfie" with Ella and I buckled in and ready to ride, but again, not a great pic.

The worker at Mulligan's took some pics of us going around the track, but did not zoom in so they didn't turn out so good either, but I thought I would include some of them anyway.

I have to say, Ethan and Ella did extremely well.  I thought they would be cautious and drive slowly, but they were driving all out like speed demons. They were going as fast as I was!  I wish I had a video of it so you could see how fast they were going.  Watch out, Eric & Nicole, when they turn 16 and want to drive. Hopefully they will stay within the speed limit.

We still had some time together after we returned from Mulligan's so we played one of our favorite games. Each of the kids took 6 small pieces of paper and wrote down an action that someone else would be required to accomplish (within reason) and then they put each paper inside a balloon, which we blew up and put in a pile.  The kids would then each take turns popping the balloon and had to perform the action written down on the slip of paper.  Here are three samples of the balloon popping game.

The final activity was a dinner at the Beesley's for Livi's 5th birthday. It was a very nice evening ending with Livi opening gifts from grandparents. Of course she already knew what she was getting from us because she picked it out, but she couldn't wait to open it. Here is a video of her opening the gift.

.

We sure do love these grandchildren of ours.

I wanted to spend time with them the day before they flew back to Nebraska, but severe back problems prevented me from being able to do so.  At least they will be back here for Christmas and I will be able to spend more time with them.

Physical Necessity

I was given some hard words to swallow from my chiropractor this week.  I hadn't seen him for about 3 years because he was in an accident and couldn't work so he and his wife decided to serve a mission. They were called to serve in Russia and they LOVED it.  Anyway, back to the hard words I had to hear --- my lower back is basically in the same condition as that of a 95 year old.  Ouch!!!  I knew my back was bad and I am always in pain, but I never knew it was THAT bad.  Four years ago I had to have a CT scan for a stomach problem and found out that I had scoliosis of my lower spine.  With new x-rays this week, my chiropractor discovered that besides the scoliosis, I have major subluxation or deterioration of the lower 4-5 vertebrae as well.  Oh joy!  I have tried to exercise to help take care of my back for many years and I even purchased an inversion table to try to help ease the back pain, but I guess I didn't do enough to slow the aging process of my back.  However, help is on the way.  My chiropractor feels that with consistent therapy and proper care and adjustments over the course of a year, he can improve my condition to be that of a 75 year old, allowing my age to one day catch up with my deteriorated spine.  Happy day!

This is a picture of my spine 4 years ago from the CT Scan. You can see how it curves.  The curve today is much more pronounced than this. I don't have a picture of it though.

I will be visiting the chiropractor 3 times per week for several weeks and then I can taper the visits down as time progresses and improvements are made.  This is something I really need to do, not something I want to do.  However, I am willing to do anything necessary in order to try to improve my health.  A healthy back means a healthier me when it is time to serve a mission once Alan retires -- a major goal of ours.

21 Day No Junk Food Challenge Update

In my last post, I mentioned that Cheryl and I had started a 21 day no junk food challenge.  I thought it would be harder than it actually was. I know it is much better for my health to refrain from eating chocolate, candy, desserts, chips, fast food, ice cream, etc., but boy are they tempting. After three weeks of not eating these items (except for a couple of cheats), I did feel much better and I lost over 3 lbs.  Not much to speak of, but if I can continue to refrain from eating these things, I know I can lose even more. I like this quote from Tom Stoppard:

"A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier."

My son, Ryan, is a carrier. He is a big advocate of eating healthy and keeping active and has been doing so for a few years. He is down to below his high school weight as a result and he looks great and is fit.

With the holidays approaching, it might be difficult to stick to the challenge, but I am going to make an attempt to do so. Wish me luck!

Cutest Gift Idea ever!

My Visiting Teacher, Barbara Henderson, came to visit me this morning. She brought this gift for me (and it's not even my birthday):

I thought it was one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time.  How do people come up with such creative ideas?  Barbara told me that her daughter made it, so it wasn't her idea, but that doesn't minimize how impressive this cute gift is.

It will be a while before I can eat any of this candy, however, because yesterday Cheryl and I started the 21 Day No Junk Food Challenge.  This is our challenge:

Today is only day two, but I am doing good so far. I hope I can keep it up. Pray for me!!!!!

Night of Nostalgia, Part 2

I will start Part 2 with the memory of our neighbors, the Mendenhalls.  Their son Johnny was one year older than Jane & I, and their daughter Patti was a year younger than us.  They also had identical twins, Tim & Terry; son Brett; daughter Gina; and son Adam.  This is a picture of their house. Johnny and his wife Lenna (who Jane and I went to H.S. with) still live here.

We used to play at the Mendenhall's house all the time and we would "sleep out" at either their house or our house several times during the summer.  The hill you see in this next picture was behind their house and we would sled down it during the winter months.  This was a very fun sledding hill, but a bit dangerous because there wasn't a fence between this hill and the spillway & canal. (See picture of canal in my last post).

This is a picture of the home mom & dad bought in Spanish Fork after dad retired and had to leave the Power Plant.  Dad always said he retired he wanted to get a house that was halfway between the Provo Temple and the BYU football stadium.  Well, that never happened, but my parents both served as Ordinance Workers in the Provo Temple and living here didn't keep Dad from attending several football games.

Pictured here is the house my Dad and his wife Pat lived in after they got married a few years after mom passed away.  This house was located kind of above the Power Plant.

This is a view of part of Spanish Fork from above the Power Plant.  None of these homes existed when I lived up there.  Of course, it has been over 40 years since I left Spanish Fork so one could expect a lot of change during that time.

We used to have so much fun playing on this pond close to our house.  We would build a raft and pretend we were "Huckleberry Finn".  I remember catching many frogs here too.

This is the Icelandic Memorial built in 1938 honoring the Icelanders who settled in Utah. Many of them settled in Spanish Fork.  We saw this lighthouse-type memorial quite often when we visited our friend Christine as it sat right next to her home.

When I was a child, we attended this church. It is actually not a church any longer, but a reception center.  On the outside, it hasn't changed much over the years.  It is a pretty unique building...built to look like an open book cover.  I wish I could go inside once again, but I am sure things on the inside now would not even resemble at all what I remember from my childhood.

Our next stop on this night of nostalgia was the Spanish Fork Cemetery. This was a great experience for me. I had not been able to visit my parent's graves since Dad's funeral in 2007. I was flooded with many wonderful memories of both of my parents as I stood at their graves. I, like Nephi in the Book of Mormon, was born of goodly parents.  I am thrilled with the knowledge that I will be reunited with them when I have completed my mission here on the earth.  I am very grateful for eternal families. 

Our very last stop in Spanish Fork was to visit our best friend growing up - Larraine Gull Rosenbaum. We had seen her briefly on Tuesday afternoon at Education Week, but could not spend much time talking with her because we were all rushing to our next class.  We were able to spend about an hour with Larraine at her house catching up on all of our children and grandchildren.  After we left her house, I mentioned to Jane that we should have taken a picture of the three of us together but neither of us had thought to do so.

I need to thank Jane for her desire to "kidnap" me and provide me with such a memorable evening. It just couldn't have turned out any better.  Actually, what would have made it even more special for me is if Janice and Gayle could have been there with us.  Hopefully we can all do it together sometime soon!