What We Do On Wednesday Evenings....

...for a few weeks at least......

Keep your eye on #23.  Quinn Marchant; he's the Bishop's son.  He's the son in a family RAH ministers to.

It's been fun to watch him play some basketball games.

Brings back memories of the year that Landon played for Hurricane.

Just an hour of fun and excitement.

What I Do Most Friday Mornings!

Loretta before class starts.

Once class has begun.

IT's fun and it's really great exercise.

So, I'm happy about exercise on Friday mornings.

Memories Are Made of This

Eli was ordained to be a Priest on Sunday.

Look at this picture of the wonderful family.

Amy made a delicious dinner on Saturday night and Landon and Halsey joined us.  Justin made a delicious breakfast on Sunday morning.

And Miles made a wonderful contraption!

Miles made this little box with movable arms and an LCD screen.  he was pretty proud of it and rightly so.  I wish we could see the inside because it is FILLED with all sorts of wires...it's actually very complicated, so it was amazing to me that it actually worked when he closed it all in.

Perfect Weekend, I'd say.

And, as a side bar, here's a picture taken from one year ago when Eli was ordained to be a Teacher:

Cousins Coincidence

Dixie texted; she wanted to meet us for lunch.

Dixie is Allen's 2 or 3 COUSIN; who knows, but anyway, they are related.  She is wonderful.

When we arrived, Dixie and Reed introduced us to their friends from Holladay, Utah.  They asked how long we had lived here....13 years or so.

And, then Gaylen asked what a lot of people ask when you live in St George.  Do YOU KNOW....
And, the answer is 99.9%, No, we don't know.......

But incredibly, he asked if we knew Linda Asay.  I just burst out laughing.  Because just the minute before we were leaving for the restaurant, I HAD BEEN TALKING TO LINDA ASAY!

Oh, yes, we know the Asay.  We have been on trips with them, live right thru the block from them...oh yes, we know them.

Then, he said, Linda is my COUSIN!

Allen, Loni, Dixie, Reed, Brenda, Gaylen, who just happens to be Linda Asay's first cousin...such a small world!

We had such a delightful afternoon sitting there talking and getting acquainted.  It was a fun time.

But, the best part was, as we were leaving the restaurant, Gaylen leaned his ear down to mine and whispered, "I hope you won't be offended by this, but you have beautiful legs!"

I'm still laughing over this.  NO ONE IN MY LIFETIME HAS EVER SAID I HAVE BEAUTIFUL LEGS.  Yes, I'm well aware that it is inappropriate in this day and age.  I get it, but i have to say, I LOVED IT!

74 9/12 and an old man said I had good-looking legs.

I'll take it.

Hooray for COUSIN COINCIDENCES!!!!!!

I Know This Sounds Ridiculous......

But, I want to be a mother of small children again.

Yesterday, while walking thru the aisles of the supermarket, I watched young mothers interact with their small children.

And, oh, how I wanted to be part of that again.

Because, you see, I would be:

SO MUCH MORE PATIENT!

SO MUCH MORE ENGAGED!

SO WILLING TO ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS!

SO EAGER TO LISTEN WHOLE HEARTEDLY!

SO MUCH MORE NURTURING!

MORE DILIGENT ABOUT TEACHING THE GOSPEL, MANNERS, CULTURAL AWARENESS, SERVICE, KINDNESS TO OTHERS.....

Oh, yes, for sure, I would do all that.

In other words, IF I could go back, I would be the

PERFECT MOTHER!

YIKES, I think I just came very close to describing my Own Dear Mother!

But, in spite of all my wishes and mistakes, I adore our five children and think they turned out pretty good, in spite of moi!

Four docs and one Professional Photographer...Amazing and good Folk right here!

Feeling COMFORTABLE

SURPRISE!

A visit from Lilly.

She's a step-granddaughter from Virginia.  And came for a visit.  And to leave her car here for awhile.

So, we went to ZION IN WINTER!

Lilly is so easy to be around; she's soft-spoken, gentle, flexible.  She's a wonderful person.

She's an atheist.

That's what this post is about.

She is a wonderful young lady who has worked hard, graduated from college, had several jobs, is going to get another job soon.  She's just a marvelous person and we have loved having her around.

So, here's the deal.  I need to be around people of different religious faiths, beliefs, ideals, so that I can truly learn to love all people and to feel comfortable.

Because the truth is, there are a lot of wonderful people out there, who
DO NOT BELIEVE THE WAY I DO!

And, it is good to learn to love ALL people.

A Night to Remember

So, last night I did something I've never done, nor will probably never do again.

And, it was awesome.  I wish I had taken a couple of pictures, but then maybe that would not have been allowed.

Because you see, I went to A JEWISH worship service.

23 people were in attendance about equally men and women.

There was a woman in her 40's with her 10 year old daughter.  And the rest were in my age category.

The Rabbi is the Rabbi Helene Ainbinder and I took a class from her last semester.  I had previously asked her if I could attend a worship service and she said, Of course.  Then at exercise class yesterday, I met Penny, who told me the service was last night.

They meet once a month at the Presbyterian Church since they don't have a large enough congregation to build their own synagogue.

The Rabbi had a beautiful Torah, but she didn't unscroll it and read from it;
I'm not sure why...maybe I'll ask Penny next week at aerobics.

Because this is a reformed Jewish congregation, they have a woman rabbi, which would never be allowed in the Orthodox church.

It is mainly singing, reading from the Torah, and a very brief message from the Rabbi Helene.  There was a paper to follow along, so we knew at all times exactly where we were.  We each had a copy of the prayer book from which the readings are taken.

Rabbi Ainbinder speaks and reads Hebrew which is amazing as it looks very difficult.

I loved the verses we read about our loyalty to one God.  But, I'm so very grateful that I know about the Messiah, Jesus.

They are good people, concerned about the members of their congregation, generous and devout, but they are missing the most essential ingredient of all; the SAVIOUR.

Starting the New Year RIGHT!

Once a month, we get together for lunch with some friends from our ward.

We've done it for awhile now, so it's good.  We take turns choosing the restaurant and just laugh and talk and laugh some more.

Mike and Loretta; Donna and Stan; RAH and MOI.

It is such a blessing to have good friends.  And, it's so fun to just laugh.

Here we are on January 3, eating at PEPPERS CANTINA.  Good food, good times.

Happy New Year, Resolutions, and All That Jazz!

Time for those pesky New Year's Resolutions....

1.  Keep the gas tank at 1/2 or above.  I've done this for several years now, and it's a great goal.  If I'm in charge of the car, I keep this resolution about 99% of the time.

2. NO PLASTIC DRINKING STRAWS!  RAH and I are both doing this.

3.  SCRIPTURES every day.  Another one I have done for several years.

4.  One gratitude letter a week...YIKES, this will be a challenge, but I'll give it a try.

I'm so grateful for life, for health, for the Gospel, and for the chance to try again this year to be and do better!