I'm Feeling Pretty GREAT!

...as in GREAT GRANDmother again....#2

Olivia Jane Fisher - just hours old in Houston Texas - weighing in at 7/4, 19 inches long

So priceless and so precious.  So tiny, and so teachable.  So new and so perfect.

There's one proud older brother holding little sister - Olivia Jane.  Could anything be sweeter?

Buried Treasure

About a year and a half ago, RAH bought a Jeep.  Used.

He said it has been one of his favorite cars.  IT's pretty fun to take on adventures, that's for sure.

About ten days ago, RAH was going to go on a trip out in the wilderness, and he decided that he wanted to make sure he knew how to change the tire, and where the equipment was, and to see if he had what he needed.

He was with Mike Allam at his home, when he began the process of trying out the changing of a tire.

As he lifted out the jack, there was a very old wrinkled, stained paper....RAH just tossed it aside.

Mike thought it looked like a bank envelope that holds money, so he picked it up and looked in.

INSIDE WERE EIGHT 100 DOLLAR BILLS!

NOT the actual money, which was old and sort of stuck together after being underneath the tire jack for so long -
who knows how long, actually?  But, a fun surprised indeed.

Well, that was certainly a fun surprise to just find $800 in a car we bought well over a year ago.

I called the car dealership and asked for the name of the previous owner; they said they didn't give that information out.  I told the lady on the phone that we had found something VERY VALUABLE and the owner would indeed wish to have it returned.  If she would find out the owner, I would see he got his property.  She said she would check with the manager.  I never heard from her, so we decided it must be ours to keep.

RAH gave Mike a one hundred dollar bill because he rescued the money.  But later that night, Mike and Loretta came over and said it looked like counterfeit money.  Loretta had worked in a bank and it looked very suspicious to her.

RAH and Mike took the money the next day to the bank.....

IT's LEGIT!

RAH gave Mike and Loretta $200, he took $200, and he gave me $400,  I'm not sure why; I didn't do anything to deserve it, but okay, if your force me!  HA HA.

Pretty fun surprise to find buried underneath the tire jack in our new/used JEEP.

What I MISS is....

Flour in all its varieties

Cheese in all its varieties

Cottage Cheese

Pancakes with jam

Yoghurt

Toast every morning

Bagels

Pizza

A good sandwich (with Cheese, of course!)

Harmon's Specialty breads

Pretzels

Because you see...............

Giving up on unhealthy foods is hard.

AH, remembering the good old days when

WHO CARED WHAT I ATE?

Obviously not moi.

Now, I snack on nuts, popcorn, celery with peanut butter, and Carbonated water from a soda fizz stream as a gift from Dr. Rose.  Just plain old H2O with carbon dioxide to give it a kick, since I can't get kicks any more from a giant burrito!

Here's to good health, everyone, or at least to MOI!

Death of a Watch

I LOVE my Apple watch.

But, it died this week.

And, it's been a sorrowful event for me.  Sad to say.

Farewell, beloved expensive watch....

The Scout Bandelo

Look very closely at those merit badges; they were all sewn all by RAH - not his mother, but by himself.

I had three sons; I sewed on every single merit badge!  And, grumbled the entire time I was doing it.  The pesky little buggers.  I always wished they had velcro for those badges!  My sons' bandelos were not neat and tidy like this - that's for sure!

But, look how neat and tidy these all are.  I'm so impressed.

Another thing that is impressive is that RAH did all the merit badge work himself.  He read the manual and learned what had to be done.  He was encouraged a little by Scout leaders, but he NEVER had any encouragement from his parents.

In other words:

HE LITERALLY DID IT ALL HIMSELF!

But, and here's the saddest part of all.  He earned all the badges he needed, but one final badge -
Citizenship in the Home.  His step father refused to sign him off on that one.

And, that breaks my heart.  RAH and his step father clashed from the beginning of his mother's marriage to him.  Who knows why?  What does it matter at this point?  But, HEH would not sign off on this last merit badge...was RAH a bad kid?  No!  Did he get in a lot of trouble?  NO....but he was a normal young teenage BOY.  And, therein lies the reason, I guess.  He was just a normal kid, who had a perfect older sister, so maybe HEH was judging him based on HER good behaviour.

But, RAH never missed a church meeting in about five years; he worked at several jobs, he paid for his own instrument, his car, practiced his music lessons, and he missed EAGLE by one merit badge that is no longer required.

I don't want to sound bitter because I forgave HEH several years ago for his mistreatment of my husband, but it does make me very sad.

Life - ah, what a challenge!
( And coincidentally LIFE (Scout jargon) is where RAH remains - HA HA!)

NEW MISSION RULES!

Holy cow!

It's truly amazing.  What a seismic shift in missionary policy.

CALLING HOME EVERY WEEK!

It's like, can this be legal?  Can this be REAL?  Can this be permitted?

Apparently, it can, and it's wonderful, for sure.

Elder Hackworth celebrating his 20th birthday in the home of his landlords, the Turnbulls, who feed them, and are so good to him (and all the other missionaries also.)

I hope he continues to fulfill this calling; he has opposition from part of his family, so it's a challenge, for sure.

Glad he decided to return; I do plead to God in his behalf for strength to stay strong, in spite of opposition!

Man, I love this kid, Elder Bridger!

March 2019, Elder Bridger Hackworth
West Salt Lake City Mission - Spanish Speaking

A Long Weekend to Remember

Oh, I LOVE these two boys; look how cute they look for St Patrick's Day and going to church.
This just made my heart sing that they would be festive on this day!

Oh, this kid; he loves catching lizards; even tho this one jumped out of the pocket and was in our front room for a few minutes.  It was eventually caught, but in the meantime, what an adorable picture!

UNBELIEVABLE!  Look at the hillsides in Southern California as we drove home on Friday morning.  People were stopped and parking and traffic was totally at a standstill as people wandered the hills.  I loved it, because people were not too busy to stop and smell the flowers.  A picture does not do this justice, but it was totally breathtaking!

Oh, God's world after plenty of rain is a sight to behold!

Sayre was just FABULOUS as Cosmo in Singing in the Rain... Truly, he was the STAR of the show!

We went out to eat after the performance, but dang it, he took off his costume! 

Man, I love this kid; he's got such a delightful, low key personality and he has a great sense of humor.

Playing with Calder on a Sunday morning before church!  What an adorable kid he is!

Personality plus is what I call this kid.....Loved playing this new game with Eli!

When the family gets together.  What do people do who have no family?  What a happy day!

For some of us, we are just heading off to church, for others, they just got home from church, but here we gathered for just a few minutes of food and fun.  Ah, nothing like family!

So, now you can see why it was such a memorable - if short - weekend.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the Gospel which encourages families to be together!