Ella's Exemplary Excellence

 My granddaughter, Ella, has always been a high achiever. She has excelled at dance, piano, and academics, along with many other talents.

Ella is currently in her Senior year at Riverton High School. Several months ago, she got the results from her ACT (college entrance exam) test. She amazingly got a 34! A 36 is a perfect score. An average score for a Utahn is 19.9, so you can get a picture of how outstanding a score of 34 is. She has never gotten any grade below an A in school. This boggles my mind. 

Because of her high grades and superior academics, she has been awarded the Presidential Scholarship at USU (Utah State University) for next fall (2023). This means that she will get full tuition and all of her student fees paid for. She is also one of three Riverton High students who is a finalist for the national merit scholarship. On top of that, she has been officially named as the Sterling scholar for English at Riverton High. I couldn't be more proud of Ella. She is truly a great scholar and a great leader. 

 Ella's leadership skills have come in handy lately at her place of work. She works at Boondocks, which is a place where families go to have fun. They have mini golf, go-karts, bumper boats, video games, etc. Ella was recently promoted to "Supervisor" there. 

 Ella is growing up to one amazing individual. I couldn't be more proud of her and her accomplishments.

Reaping the Harvest

 I've heard a lot of people complain that they can't grow zucchini. Fortunately, we don't have that problem. In fact, we had a plethora of zucchini this year - enough to give away and make loaves and loaves of zucchini bread. 

Our garden turned out kind of iffy this year. We planted things we hadn't planted before, like corn, lettuce, string beans, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, and peas. The biggest disappointments were the watermelon (not seedless), the carrots, the cantaloupe, and the raspberries. We didn't get any raspberries even though the plants looked healthy. They just didn't produce. We got a minimal amount of strawberries.  I was sad about that. Hoping for a better crop next year.

This is one zucchini that was hiding from me. Didn't see it until it was gigantic!

Our fruit trees were disappointing this year. We did get a few pears, which are just now being harvested. They taste delicious!

We didn't get any plums on our tree, but fortunately for us, our back fence neighbor got a ton of them and one or two branches cross over into our yard, so we took advantage of our good luck and we've been eating them. They are so good! This is my favorite type of plum.

 I really missed those delicious peaches we harvested and canned last year. Maybe next summer we will have better luck.

I never knew I would love gardening as much as I do. We didn't have a garden in California, so I didn't know what I was missing.  I sure wish I had paid more attention when my dad planted his fantastic gardens. He was terrific at gardening. He knew exactly what to do. I just plant and hope we get something good out of it.

 Having this year's garden brought me a lot of joy even though it wasn't a super successful year. Gardening is one of my happy places. 😃

Fall Colors at Silver Lake

 Alan and I got up very early last week to meet up with Ryan and drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake. Going up the canyons here in Utah is always pretty, but this time of year, it's spectacular. The fall colors were on full display and we loved it! The sun was just rising at Silver Lake and it really lit up the hillside, especially with the reflection of the lake.

A moose was standing in the water on the other side of the Lake when we arrived. Later, it went up into the trees and sat for a while.

This is the road we traveled on. Ryan took this picture with his drone a week before we went up there. Beautiful red, orange, and yellow leaves.

One cool thing is that we saw this beaver pulling a tree limb to his dam. He was a very busy beaver trying to get ready for winter, I guess.

The Fall here is amazing...but it's also a reminder that winter is just around the corner. I'm bracing myself for cold weather. Not my favorite time of year!

Losing Alisa

 On Friday morning, October 14th, I received a very sad text from Neal that their precious daughter, Alisa, passed away sometime during the night. He said that she most likely had a seizure complicated by her diabetes and various other health concern, including COVID. Her obituary, however, reads "Alisa Burton Curtis of Jensen, Utah, passed away on Friday, October 14, 2022 due to complications with Type 1 Diabetes and Covid." Alisa was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as a child and has had to struggle her whole life with staying on top of her blood sugar levels. I'm glad she is free from all of her earthly health struggles.

From what we heard from Neal, Alisa had contracted covid about 5 days before her passing, but prior to that, for the past little while, her health had been getting weaker and weaker. It affected her walking and she was having difficulty swallowing and was getting pretty frail. On Thursday evening, her husband and their two youngest sons put her to bed and then they left and slept in a different room. At about 5 a.m., Abe got up to check on her and found her on the floor deceased. Neal thinks she probably got up and tried to walk and collapsed on the floor.

Alisa was 50 years old and is a wife to Abraham Curtis and a mother to three sons - Abe Neal - 19, Damon - 15, and Drayden - 13. Their oldest son, Abe Neal, is currently serving a mission in Denmark. He will return home in about 10 months. How sad it must have been for Elder Curtis to lose his mother while serving a mission. My father lost his father while serving his mission in the Northwest States mission. He opted to stay on his mission and not return home for the funeral. Luckily, Abe was able to view and participate in the services through Zoom.

I love what was written about her in her obituary. Here is just a portion of it.

"She was born on May 13, 1972 in Payson, Utah to Neal and Lynda Burton.... Alisa came with a heart full of spiritual gifts. She was a gentle angel in tune to other's needs especially those of the elderly or lonely and often reached out in friendship and love.... Alisa was born with the Savior's countenance and image shining in her eyes. She naturally reflected His love and followed Him by reading her scriptures and praying to know more about Him. She is a student of truth and the Spirit. She is our hero; one of the noble and great spirits God talked about in the book of Abraham."

I can't say I knew Alisa well. She was the second of my 35 nieces and nephews to be born on my side of the family. I have another 15 nieces & nephews on Alan's side of the family. It is difficult to stay on top of the comings and goings of each of them. However, I do remember well the time Jane and I flew to California to watch Melanie and Alisa when Lynda was about to give birth to Jonathan. Melanie was almost 5 so Alisa would have been 3. They were such cute little girls and it was fun to be their aunt. They have both held a very special place in my heart. With us living in California and Alisa living in Utah, we didn't get to see each other much - only on special occasions.

Although Alisa will be missed by all who knew her, I'm very happy for her to have graduated from this mortal existence and I know that she is in a happier place right now.  She is the first of my nieces or nephews to pass away. My heart grieves, but grieving is part of losing someone.

I found these pictures of Alisa yesterday. Memories! [photo quality sure wasn't good back then!]

Alisa, Melanie, and Jeni on the rocking horse. Gayle and Jane in the background

Melanie and Alisa

Alisa is on Lynda's lap

Cousins - Jeni & Alisa, born 2 months apart

Grandpa, Melanie, and Alisa

Melanie shared this most recent picture of Alisa, taken just a couple of weeks before her passing. Alisa was at her parents home watching a BYU football game with some family members.

R.I.P Alisa - Until we meet again! I love you!