Class of 1971 - 50th Reunion!

 I find it hard to believe that I graduated from High School 50 years ago. It seems like yesterday! Now that I live in Utah, I didn't have an excuse to not attend the reunion, so I did. Boy, am I glad I attended! I had to talk Jane into going with me, but she's glad she attended also. We took pictures at my home before we drove with our husbands down to Spanish Fork High School where the reunion was held.

It's kind of funny that we both purchased a pair of white jeans to wear to the reunion on the exact same day. Great minds think alike, I guess. Haha!

It had been 50 years since I set foot inside Spanish Fork High School. It brought back so many good memories. Things have obviously changed, but the layout was pretty much the same. From what I understand, another High School is being built to take it's place so this school will be torn down soon. That thought makes me kind of sad.

The couples sitting at our table were (from left to right) Craig & Carrie Davidson (Carrie was a classmate and she and Jane were good friends); Jane & Ken Aird; Larraine & Dennis Rosenbaum (both are classmates and we were good friends with Larraine); Alan & I. Alan took the photo, so he isn't in the picture.

The meal was very good and was catered by a classmate named Blake Hawkins who owns a small chain of restaurants.

The program was very nice. One thing they did was honor the many classmates who have passed away - about 50 of them! Gone, but not forgotten!

It was a blast being able to see friends from the past that I hadn't seen in so many years. I learned a couple of interesting things from classmates. One classmate, Paula Darling, told me that when she was in 1st grade her mom gave her a couple of matching dolls and she wrote the name Jane on one and Joan on the other because she thought we were so cute. She has kept them all these years, but one was recently destroyed by one of her grandchildren. So funny! I had no idea she had done that! Another classmate, Kurt Nield, told me that he and Earl Taylor had a crush on me in the third grade. Haha! That one made me laugh.

At the end of the reunion dinner, all class members in attendance gathered outside to take a group photo. The reunion was well attended and I had a lot of fun.

I wish I could name them all. Thank goodness for name tags! 

Hell Froze Over Today

 I've been trying for years to talk Alan into getting rid of our 2002 Lexus RX 300, but he would never give in. He tends to drive cars to the grave. I always said he wouldn't get a new car until Hell froze over. Well, Hell froze over today.

The Lexus. 

We called her Ralph because anyone prone to motion sickness would get car-sick while riding in this car. She has been a good car for us for the past...oh, I don't know...maybe 15-17 years, but it was time for her to go bye bye.

We knew we wanted an SUV that would handle well on snowy roads during the winters here. Alan did a thorough research of what our options were and he zeroed in on the Honda (we like Honda's) CRV, which is AWD (all wheel drive). We are hoping that it will be a nice, safe car.

We usually go to many dealerships and try out a lot of different cars, but since Alan knew what he wanted, we only test drove one car and bought it. Actually, we test drove a black version because the silver one had just arrived on the lot and hadn't been inspected yet. I wanted the silver color, but they are very hard to find. Fortunately, we were able to nab this one today before someone else could buy it.

I think it is very pretty! 

I love it when Hell freezes over!!!

New Calling

 On Sunday, June 13th, I received a calling in our new ward here in Riverton. I will be teaching the 12-13 year old's in Sunday School. This is a calling I've never had before, so it should be interesting! 

Last Sunday I taught my first lesson and it went real well. I hope that continues! Wish me luck!

Alan's new calling is Sunday School President. So far he's doing a great job. He has good leadership skills.

Give Up Those CD's

 The main speaker at Sundan Bradbury's funeral was his uncle Todd Merrill. I thought it was weird that his uncle was giving the "remembrances" talk instead of one of Sundan's brothers, parents, or someone from Heather's family. As it turns out, he was the perfect person to give that talk. Evidently, Sundan was very close to his uncle and his uncle knew him well.

It's been a week since I heard Todd Merrill speak at the funeral, but I'm going to try to recall a story that he shared during his talk because it had a big impact on me. As it turns out, Sundan had been involved in a couple of other motorcycle accidents besides the one that took his life. Todd jokingly said that sometimes Sundan would take the top of his skull off, remove his brain and place it on a table, then do wild and crazy things without fear or abandon. 

When Sundan was about 18 years old, he and his Uncle Todd were riding their dirt bikes somewhere (I can't remember where it was - at some dunes, I think). Evidently, the frozen ground was unforgiving when Sundan tried to climb a hill and he was thrown from the bike breaking his neck in three places. As Sundan was lying on the ground waiting to be taken to a hospital, he was given a blessing by his uncle. In that blessing, his Uncle Todd basically told him that this was a wake-up call and that the Lord was telling him that he needed to change the course of his life (I'm paraphrasing). After the blessing, Sundan looked at his uncle and said "I think God just broke my neck." 

After the accident, Sundan went to live with his Uncle Todd and his wife while he recovered from the accident, which would take a few months. Todd is a Seminary teacher so he teaches 5 days a week during school hours. Sundan was bored, so he asked his uncle if he could attend seminary with him, which Sundan did every day all day for four months. He even attended classes from other seminary teachers in the building. Because of this, Sundan gained a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel.

With his new strong testimony, Sundan now knew that he needed to serve a mission for the Lord. One day, after Sundan received his mission call, he handed his uncle a box of cd's (Sundan LOVED listening to music) and told him to take these cd's, which were full of unsavory lyrics, nail them to the seminary wall, and tell the students that it is because of that music that he started losing his way and losing his testimony. Uncle Todd said he would do as requested. Because he couldn't just start pounding nails into the walls of the seminary building, he built a special wall and nailed the cd's into that wall while telling his students about Sundan and how his bad music led him away from the gospel. After that, students would show up at class with cd's that they wanted to give up and be nailed into the wall. Pretty soon, the wall was filled 3-deep with cd's. 

Besides teaching seminary, Uncle Todd was a speaker at several EFY (Especially For Youth) activities around the world where he would share Sundan's turn-around story and his forfeiting of his bad cd's. Those young people would then end up turning in their cd's as well. Sundan's one simple act of giving up the music he once loved had made a huge impact on many, many young people in the church.

Sometimes we don't think we can make a difference in the world, but through even simple acts, we can impact many people for good. 

This picture is from a different motorcycle accident that took place in 2014. Sundan had nine lives!

Remembering Sundan

 It was a very sad day the moment I heard from my friend Vicki Lee that her son-in-law, Sundan, had passed away in an accident. Sundan was married to Vicki's daughter Heather, who is a close friend to Cheryl. This was very hard news to hear! Our family and the Lee family are very close. Our children grew up together in Lancaster, CA. The ages of the Lee children matched up with the ages of our children so each of our kids had a friend in the Lee family, although Ryan and Suzanne weren't all that close. 

Ryan & Suzanne (3 months apart in age)

Eric & Ethan (5 months apart in age)

Jared & Brett (1 month apart in age)

Cheryl & Heather (1 month apart in age)

Kyle & Jared (14 months apart in age)

These friends of ours are so close that they are like family instead of friends, so when Sundan passed away, our hearts were broken. We came to find out that Sundan passed away doing something he LOVED to do - ride his motorcycle.

Heather was not in Arizona at the time of the accident. To get away from the hot Arizona summer, she and her three youngest children (Elise, Merrick, & Pyper) were vacationing in Idaho Falls, where her parents live. Sundan and their oldest son, Ryder, stayed in Arizona to work construction. In the evening of June 25th, 3 days after his 40th birthday, Sundan hopped on his motorcycle and headed out to meet up with friends to celebrate turning 40 years old. In a freak accident he lost control of his bike while leaving his neighborhood and was killed instantly.

I had the privilege of attending Sundan's funeral. Jared was visiting us here in Utah so he and I flew to Arizona together. Alan couldn't go because we had committed to taking care of Eric & Nicole's dogs while they were on vacation in Georgia. Of our immediate family, only Jared and Kyle were able to attend the funeral. 

We got Cheryl on the phone as the funeral began so she could listen to the whole thing. She wanted to attend in person, but her family was vacationing in Tennessee with the Stronk's so she couldn't go, but she did make a trip to AZ to support Heather right after Sundan's passing.

Sundan's funeral was one of the most unique and amazing services I have had the privilege of attending. After the family dinner but before the memorial service began, a weather storm warning alarm sounded on our cell phones that a storm was on the way. Arizona, along with other Western states, is in a drought right now, so rain would be a welcome sight, but the timing wasn't great. Right as the service started, the power went out, so the lights were dim and the microphone wasn't working. The speakers had to really speak up in order to be heard. Fortunately, someone produced a portable speaker, which really helped. Fortunately, the power came back on near the end of the service. We were grateful for that because the chapel was getting awfully hot!

I will write about one particular talk that was given in a separate post, but right now I will skip to what took place after the service ended. We were all invited to go outside where an honorary military ceremony would take place. By this time, the storm had mostly passed over but it was still sprinkling a little. As we all silently filed outside, we were greeted by the sound of bagpipes - something Sundan loved! Evidently, calls were made to 30 different bagpipe players to line someone up for the funeral but they were all already booked for the weekend. Thankfully, one guy's booking got cancelled, so he was free to play for Sundan's funeral. That was a miracle.

While the bagpipe player played "Caissons Go Rolling Along" - the Army's song - Sundan's bike buddies did an honorary parade in the parking lot. It was very moving!

While "Taps" was being played on the trumpet, the Army personnel performed a flag ceremony and presented the folded flag to Heather. It was very moving as well.

Next, the song "From Now On" from the movie "The Greatest Showman" was played. Sundan loved the music from that movie and this song was his favorite. I had never really considered before how appropriate the lyrics at the end are for a funeral - ".....and we will come back home, home again". I loved it! At some point, we will all be called back home again. Now was that time for Sundan.

As a grand finale, fireworks were set off as "From Now On" was being played. What a great final tribute to Sundan. The service was held on July 3rd, so fireworks fit right in with Independence Day weekend. It was amazing and I couldn't hold back the tears. By this time, the heavens had opened up again and it was sprinkling harder then before and people were getting wet, but nobody ran for cover. We all just stood there and reverently basked in the moment. I couldn't help but think about how in the movies it is almost always raining when they are having a graveside funeral service. It made me conger up images of the angels in heaven weeping. There were a lot of angels weeping that day.

Sundan served a few years in the Army and was very patriotic. This is one of the displays at the memorial.

Although it was under sad circumstances, it was fun to be reunited with the Lee family. We have seen many of their families separately over the years, but never when all of them were together.

The Stott & Lee boys