hat model

1.

Our friend, Mike Hewitt, asked Brianna to be a model

2.

for his amateur photography hobby.

3.

My blog doesn’t show the pictures nearly as well as this link.

4. 

I think his work is FaBuLouS!

5.

It was so very interesting watching him create a picture.

6.

He would tell her to hold her head a certain way and look a certain direction and after a minute or two of instruction, he would take A picture…not 3o, hoping for a good one…A picture. And then he would move on with his next idea.

7.

Meanwhile, his wife and I were busy discussing herbs and only occasionally, lending a hand.

8.

I love them all…for different reasons.

9.

I am trying to pick a favorite…what’s your vote?

missionary memoirs

 

My  missionary phone calls the past couple of days have come from the following area codes:

 

 

435 – N. Utah

808 – Hawaii

208 – Idaho

614 – Ohio

435

503 – Oregon

801 – Utah

520 – Arizona

801

435

602 – Arizona

573 – Missouri

61 – Australia

That last call today was from Sister Boylan. She is a new member of the church and was absolutely panicked that she personally had ruined new FamilySearch. “Don’t tell the prophet!” she said. “He’ll take away my membership.” It was a pleasure helping her because she was so funny and entertaining. She lives in a branch in Burnett Downs, Queensland. She had inadvertently combined her great-grandmother with her mother thereby doing what we call “hijacking a record.” I spared her the grim details.

Last night she had been at the church trying to get help from her local family history consultant. She said that they couldn’t help her and she told them, never mind. “I am just going to go home and call America!” At their horrified response, she replied…it’s an 800 number, you know.

We have 800 numbers for most places in the world. In fact, there are 6 numbers for African nations, 23 for Asia Pacific, including Sister Boylan’s from Australia. Even Cherylyn has a number she can call from Indonesia. There are 30 for Europe. I once had a caller from Italy. There are 28 numbers for Latin America and of course, two for North America. The one for Canada and the one for the United States. Actually, they are exactly the same number, 1-866-406-1830. I cannot tell you how many times I looked that number up before I realized…Duh!

April 6, 1830.

Many of the European numbers follow the same logic, with numbers like 800-1830-1830.

Sister Boylan was not able to talk on the phone and work on the internet at the same time, but she kept me laughing for 35 minutes while I removed the dozen disputes she had put up trying to proclaim to all the world that she had made a mistake and please don’t take this information seriously.

She asked me where I was located and was quite surprised and then mortified to realize she was talking to Florida at 5:00 pm. “What are you doing about dinner?” she asked. I told her not to worry because my husband was heating up the barbeque. That delighted her and of course, she told me to have him put some snags on the barbie for her! (I called my BIL and found out later that they are sausage like and eaten with most everything.)

After removing the disputes, I separated the incorrectly combined records. This is all pretty novice new FamilySearch stuff. For  my efforts though, she hailed me as an angel.

And that ended a pretty nice day on the phones.

light my fire

I was a freshman in 1967 when the Doors’ famous song hit the charts. I purchased the LP. My friend, Jill Jones, would come over and we would play it on the record player in my parents living room and dance around the floor. I doubt that my  parents knew, and I certainly didn’t know about the drug innuendos in the song. Nor did I notice that Ed Sullivan refused to shake the band members’ hands after they played the song on his show. Mr. Sullivan was annoyed because  they had broken the terms of their contract by not singing an edited version. Let’s just say that the song wouldn’t pass the lyric scrutiny for Brianna’s Ipod today.

Nevertheless, I was thinking about the song as we woke early this morning to light our own fire. The Berge’s showed up to help us load, transport and burn the limbs that Doug had prepared from our fallen tree at the lake.

A fire is not very welcome this time of year when the temperatures  already stretched into the ‘80s by 8:00 this morning.

Gratefully, with so many hands, we were able to make quick work of it.

Brianna had chosen the ‘60s as her decade for the stake dance tonight.

We had a relaxing time with the girls on the lake this afternoon and enjoyed the hype as they got ready for the dance this evening.

Try not to set the night on fire.

second favorite sunday school teacher

You have to love a teacher that comes prepared not only with her lesson, but prepared to meet the needs of the students in her classroom. Brianna loves her Sunday School teacher. She is excited on Sunday afternoons to tell me about the things that she learned and furthermore, I see her trying to implement the principles that she is being taught. I would love to think that she was learning all these wonderful lessons at home and even though her father and I spend a fair amount of time teaching her, lets just say that she is in “receptive mode” on Sunday with Suzy Toronto.

Today “Miss Suzy,” because it was an outing of friends and not a church outing,  took the available class members to the beach, further endearing herself in the heart of Brianna. Henceforth, they want  to be known as

The Sandy Bottom Girls.

So, you may wonder why Sister Toronto is the second favorite Sunday School teacher, and I will answer that family loyalty comes into play here. Tanner was the other wonderful teacher.

great was the fall of it

After all the time that we spent at the lake last week, imagine my surprise when my husband walked me down to the lake today and showed me this:

Parts of the tree were embedded about a foot and a half into the ground.

The sixty foot tree fell across much of our “play area.”

I feel very blessed that we were not around.

Looks like a big job…

for tomorrow.

half a world away

Clark will remember our time together…

Andrew will remember our time together…

And we will remember our time with them

and our  time with baby “Audi”.

We all enjoyed our final hugs.

Brianna made her a stock pile of  adorable bows.

 

But today,

I am not thinking those happy thoughts.

In fact,

I am feeling literally sick to my stomach thinking of them all,

wending their way to Jakarta, Indonesia,

so far away from home…

from me.

 

How did my ancestors take it when their loved ones sailed away…never to be seen again???

Thank heaven

for Skype,  and air travel

that makes it possible for me to look forward to

seeing these cute faces

again and again.

taking out the ski

 

Chezzie’s in.

She’s up.

  

She’s making a beautiful spray!

 

We bought our first jet skis when we moved to south Florida in 1995. It was then that I resurrected a sport that I had learned one summer almost twenty years earlier while visiting my Oregon cousins. I learned, but never had a chance to practice, however, I did not forget the thrill.

Before buying the waverunners, I made sure that they would pull a skier. Then, I asked for my own ski and taught my girls. They loved it too and we have been loving it ever since. Once, I asked my husband if he thought I would still be skiing at 50 and he unhesitatingly said, “yes.” The follow-up question, will I still be skiing at 60, was a marginal, “maybe.”

Tomorrow I’ll be 57 and I am still at it.

   

*smile*

audrey smiles and coos

  

Let it here be recorded that she gave her first

Four

on Demand

smiles and coos to me…

her Nanamoo

disney day

 

the boys take out the carter cruiser

 

ready, set, jump!

 

 

 

Go Andrew!

 

 

 

 

 

Go Clark!