Michael's Art Show

My youngest brother Michael has lived on the east coast for about 20 years, first in New York and now in Connecticut.  He is an artist and adjunct professor at three different colleges, one in Connecticut and the other two in Providence, Rhode Island.

Since I have been living in Florida, I have wanted to visit Michael.  I thought it would be a lot easier (and cheaper) to visit while here than back in Utah.  So when he told me about the opening of his art show I thought it would be the perfect time.


I'm so glad I did!  The art show turned out to be wonderful and well attended.  The event was held at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, Connecticut in their art gallery.  Everyone was so complimentary and

He has two wonderful friends who provided the food for the event.

Here are some of the pictures from the event:  Enjoy.

 After the event was over, and everything cleaned up, a group of us went to Chapple's, a restaurant owned by Michael's friend, Jack, who also provided most of the food for his event.  Non gratis.  Jack is a wonderful, generous man!  It was a pleasure to meet him.  The food at Chapple's is excellent!

Jack Chapple and Michael

Michael was so wonderful to introduce me to all of his friends.  Everyone was so friendly and gracious!  I enjoyed myself immensely and I'm so glad I got to go.  I am so proud of him.

Everyone seemed to have a great time.  Michael was very happy with how everything went.

This and below are the rest of the paintings Michael did.  Enjoy.

Just When I Thought

Mark was out of town last week--preliminary work on the Cedar City temple.  He worked out of Salt Lake and I stayed home.  Silly me, thinking I could eat a little bit of ice cream and stay on my program.  (It was Rocky Road, by the way, not even my most favorite).  I bought it for Mark, but he didn't have any.

About 1/2 way through the half-gallon carton, while watching TV (always a big mistake!), I decided enough was enough.  I threw the rest away (it was mostly marshmallow anyway, ugh).

So, when we went out to dinner last night and he expressed his desire for some of his Rocky Road ice cream, I had to confess that there wasn't any left. (sigh)

I'm happy to say I ate much better for the rest of the week.

I continue to work on Grandma Bartholomew and Great Grandma Riley’s history.  I’m learning a few things I didn’t know before, which makes this journey interesting.  I also decided to pull out a book I wrote and finished in 2000, while taking a class with the Institute of Children’s Literature.  It was fun reading it again.  I’ve become interested in polishing it for publication.  However, it will need some updating.  It’s amazing the technology even in 13 years. 

So I’ve learned how to get to and from the Ft. Lauderdale airport.  It’s a lot easier than I thought it would be.

It’s been interesting trying to find places to eat out that offer gluten free choices.  Last night we went to Pei Wei.  They had a sweet and sour that was gluten free.  It was pretty good.

Friday when I went out to the car to pick Mark from the airport, I happened to notice a baby duck near the back of my car, just sitting there.  When I went around the back to take a look, there was a whole group of them plus the mother under the back end of my car.  I had to start it up to get them to move, but I’m so grateful I saw that baby!  Had I pulled out with them all under there I’m sure I would have killed some of them and I would have been devastated.  That was a tender mercy.

We see those duck “families” everywhere.  It doesn’t matter how often I see them, they are still absolutely adorable.  It has been raining so much here that there are many puddles close to the road where they go to swim each day.  And when they go anywhere, they are all lined up in a straight line, following their mama.  Too cute!

Can you see the iguana?

That mother has a HUGE family!  I counted 17 little ducklings!

Aren't they adorable?

Music Calling

It's been interesting the past couple of weeks.  The Relief Society presidency was changed and a new music leader in Primary was called.  This left the Relief Society with no one to play the piano.  So...since I am the Ward Music Chairman, I am doing it.

So church is a musical experience for me and I have to say that I'm rather enjoying it.  I lead the music in Sacrament Meeting, then play in Primary, (prelude, opening, singing time) then go to Relief Society for prelude and opening hymn, then back to Primary for opening and singing time, then back to Relief Society for final part of lesson and closing hymn.  I have to say that I'm noticing an improvement in my playing and that's a good thing. 

It's interesting because every person who plays has been called to other organizations.  In September I'll be starting up choir again!  It's kind of comical, but for now, this is where I'm needed and that's just fine with me.  It feels so good to be needed. 

Jimmy

Jimmy, our neighbor downstairs, is just the nicest guy.  He's a single dad with two grown kids.  He's always been so friendly and such a good neighbor.  I baked chocolate chip cookies one time and took him some to thank him for being such a good neighbor.  On another day, he mentioned that he loved brownies, so the next time I fed the missionaries, I made a big pan of brownies so I could share some with him.

For some reason, I got it in my head that I had somehow offended him.  I happened to mention when I brought him the brownies that I had also made them for the missionaries.  After that, it seemed to me that he pulled away a bit.  I got it in my head that he felt that I was only doing those nice things so he would meet with the missionaries.  It's funny how I started reading into his actions to justify my belief.  It finally bothered me so badly I wrote him a note to let him know that we weren't being nice to him so he would see the missionaries.  (I worded it much better than that).  I was trying to apologize for offending him.

One night after getting home from the Family History Center, I felt prompted to go visit Jimmy.  So I went upstairs and dropped my stuff off and then went down and knocked on his door.

I’m so glad I did, because he really had no idea what he had done to prompt my note and apologized all over the place, while I tried to tell him I had misunderstood, and I apologized too. I found out that he had come up to talk to me a couple of times, because he felt bad that I was feeling bad.  We sat on his porch and visited awhile.  I found out he is quite a religious man, although he is not currently affiliated with any religion.  I invited him to see the temple when it’s done, but he said no.  (I hope he will change his mind.)  When he was a teenager, he had attended LDS services because his best friend was a Mormon, but he didn’t seem to know that the church is really The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  And he didn’t know why we are called Mormons, although he did remember about the gold plates and Joseph Smith translating them.

He was so complimentary about Mark and me, saying what good neighbors we were--the best.  So when I apologized, he said “How could you offend me?  You brought me treats?” 

During our visit, the skies opened up with a major downpour, so I just stayed to talk until it was over.  When I finally left, I gave him a hug.  I’m so grateful I was prompted to talk to him and it turned out to be a misunderstanding that we were able to talk out.  I felt really good afterwards and I hope he did too.

One thing I found out about Jimmy was he belonged to a church called the “Foursquare Church.”  Their “pastor” left his congregation to go to Tennessee after claiming he had a vision.  Sadly, this left the congregation without anyone to lead them.  That’s when Jimmy decided not to belong to any church.  Interesting and sad.

Father's Day

Sunday was a happy day.  I remember sitting in the stands looking out over the congregation.  Several people stood out who have touched my life and become special to me.  I have come to love these people.  I enjoyed directing the music.  Brother Biangel was gone, but Sister Frahm played and she always plays very well. 

The Primary children sang their standard “I’m So Glad When Daddy Comes Home,” and “Fathers.”  There weren’t a lot of them there, but they did a good job.  I played with a few mistakes, but not too badly.

There were several men who bore their testimonies or gave talks.  I was particularly touched when Brother Hales reminded us of how Jesus, in his agony in Gethsemane called out to his Father using the term “Abba,” which is like saying Papa or Daddy.  It is an intimate term, he would naturally have used for his Father at such a time.  I wept as I pictured that time for Him.  I weep even now to think of it.

After church all the men got candy a sweet lady in the ward had made.   Mark got three baggies from the young men.

I think Mark had a good day.  Jonathan emailed him a letter and the rest of the kids called him throughout the day.  He talked to his dad and I called mine.  They both seemed to be having a good Father’s Day.

.I made a roast dinner, using the cast iron skillet.  I think I must have burned the bottom because my gravy turned out nasty.  So we just had roast beef, mashed potatoes and salad and it was fine.

It was a pretty quiet day.

I've been reflecting a lot lately on the sacrifices men make for their families.  The money they make at their jobs is what they use to make a good life for us.  For some reason I am appreciating that more and more.  We are so blessed to have the men in our lives.  I'm so grateful for everything I've learned from my dad, my brothers, my sons and sons-in-law, and especially from Mark. Thank you.   I love you all very much.  And I am especially grateful for my Father in Heaven who always loves me and is always there, ready and waiting, willing to bless me and help me whenever I need Him and ask.  I love Him too.  My life is richer because of all the "fathers" in my life.

There is a beautiful Mormon Message about dads. Enjoy.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001#.UcZa2DRzR

Your Amazing Race-Youth Conference

Friday was the Youth Conference:  “Your Amazing Race.”  Mark and I were asked to head one of the teams.  We met everyone Friday evening.  It was a casual evening, at least we were casually dressed.  There was a meeting in the chapel first, with talks and explanations.  Then we went into the cultural hall where the kids were divided into their teams.  We had a few minutes to talk with them- to get to know them a bit and they us.  Before dinner, there had to be a girl and a boy from each team to learn the etiquette challenge and teach it to the rest of the group before we could have dinner.  They all did fine with that.

After dinner, the kids all had to learn three dances, the Virginia Reel, Swing Dance and a Latin dance called the Merengue.  That one looked really fun.  Actually, they were all really fun.  After the kids learned the dances, they had to actually do them with three different partners from different teams.  The partners then had to sign their dance card.  When they got all three signatures, then they would turn in the dance cards to one of their group leaders, who then turned them all in to the stake leaders.  The first group who got their dance cards turned in got a 10 minute head-start.  It ended with a four-way tie.

No, we weren’t one of them.

The kids seemed to have a good time.  It was interesting to me to see how kids dance these days.  There were a few boys, particularly who have some pretty good break dancing moves.  I’ve been out of the loop with the youth for so long, so it was interesting.

We didn’t get home until 11:00!  And frankly, I slept lousy, but I was up around 6:30.  We had been given $5.00 for each person on our team to buy lunch for.  We had decided we would just go to the grocery store and buy the food for our lunch.  I got it cleared, so we knew it was okay.  I had wanted to make the hoagi sandwiches, but, we didn’t have time and it ended up being fine.

We got away late because some of our kids got to the church late, but we ended up having everyone.  The race was on.

Some of the challenges included meeting with the missionaries and getting pass-along cards.  We then drove them to a shopping center where they were required to give out their cards to strangers.  This is a sad commentary on me, but I told one of my girls when she completed the challenge:  “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.”  (Rudyard Kipling) I told her how scary it was for me to do what she just did.

At lunch, we spread everything out and the kids made their own sandwiches.  One girl wouldn’t eat anything, no matter what I said.  Finally, I talked to Mindy about it.  She just said, “Oh well.”  I caught her later eating pretzels.  I never really understood what the big deal was.

The service project they did was write to missionaries who are serving from the stake.  Then we went to an equestrian park and cleaned out trash cans.  There ended up being about 10.  One of them had maggots in it!  Ewww!  But we got the job done!

There were games and activities throughout the day, including learning three foreign phrases, one in French, one in Korean and on in Estonian. I think the phrase translated said:  "Stand in holy places."

We learned our Korean phrase.

The other scary thing they had to do was do a one minute commercial with two strangers and talk about modesty.  One of our girls happened upon a former high school teacher and he talked to her for about 30 seconds, but they couldn’t get anyone else to talk to them.

We ended up coming in dead last.  I didn’t care.  In fact, I don’t think we even finished, because everyone was waiting for us at the church. We got a group picture before we went inside.  I knew it would be hard to get us all together with everything going on.

They closed with a testimony meeting.  All of the adult group leaders had an opportunity to talk to the kids.  Mark spoke for us, but I did bear my testimony.

We had dinner after that and ended the evening with a dance.  Mark and I helped clean up.  We stayed for a while, but then went on home.

We stopped on the way home for a roast.  After a shower, I read a bit, but I was really tired and ended up going to bed fairly early.

It was a good experience for me.  These kids are being better prepared than we ever were growing up.  But then, I believe more is expected of them now.  The Lord expects our youth to be ready to serve missions at 18 and 19, and they are stepping up.  I'm really glad we got to participate.  Mark has a good rapport with the youth. I don't always know how to relate.  They're good kids, though. 

Utah

We spent the last nine days in Salt Lake.  Mark went mainly to start his next temple project in Cedar City, working in the Church Office Building most of the time, meeting and talking with those who will be involved in the project.

I went mainly to be with family.  Friday evening, Rebecca was in charge of a girl's camp fundraiser BBQ, so we went to support her in that and ended up also bidding on a couple of desserts for the cause.

We celebrated Mark's birthday by taking the family to Hoagle Zoo.  It was especially great because not only were we with our children who live around the Salt Lake area, but our son, Sean and his family, were there from Texas.  It's the first time since Chris and Charity got married that we've all been together.  It meant a lot.

After the zoo, we stopped by and got six large pizzas and bread sticks, while Chris and Charity got drinks, cupcakes for dessert and napkins, plates, etc.  We met everyone at Sugar House Park, near the playground equipment, which made it perfect for us and the kids.

We ate every last one of those pizzas!!  We all sang to Mark and the grand kids did their rendition of Happy Birthday "We will, we will rock you   Happy birthday.  Grandpa!"  Very cool!

Sunday after church we had everyone over for dinner.  We just had crock pot BBQ chicken and baked potatoes.  Rebecca brought salad and watermelon.  Chris and Charity brought cornbread and Lyndsay brought pop for everyone.

My parents came down from Idaho to see us and that was wonderful because my mom hasn't seen all of my family probably since the last reunion we had.  She was not able to come to Chris and Charity's wedding.

Lyndsay took some wonderful family pictures!  Our last family picture was taken in California at the beach house we rented in May 2007.  We've had several additions since that time.

Our house in Salt Lake is starting to feel like home.  There are some things we will do to update it, but it is a comfortable house and we feel at home in our ward.

Chris came over Monday and throughout the week to build shelves in our garage.  It will enable us to organize camping gear and other things so we can turn one of the basement bedrooms into a  food storage room.  Mark helped, of course, but he did most of the work!

Mark and I drove to Moroni to see the wall mural for the Fort Lauderdale temple.  It is beautiful Florida landscape with native plants and animals.  It was a pleasure to meet the artist.

We drove on down to Cedar City so Mark could meet with people who will be involved in this project and to see and spend time with our partners and dear friends Tom and Brenda Pugh.  The property chosen for the temple site is not very far from where we used to live.  Cedar is a great place for a temple and it's very much needed there.  We're so excited that Mark has been asked to do this project.

One of the benefits of living with our kids is being able to play with Eva.  I got to tend her on Friday so the kids could go to Lagoon.  Mark's dad came down from Idaho and Mark was able to have lunch with him and two of his brothers.  Later, we spent some time outside with Eva, weeding and fixing sprinklers.

We left Saturday morning to come back to Florida.  It was kind of hard to leave, but I have to say that the time in Florida has gone by so quickly.  We still have things to do here.  We found everything fine, except the birds had taken over our porch and there was bird poop everywhere!

Sunday and things are back to normal.