SHE DID IT!!!!!

We are so excited tonight. Calley received a scholarship from UVSC today for full tuition. We are so grateful. She also qualified for the presidential scholarship, which is tuition, books, fees, etc., but they ran out of money before they got to her. This is the way it works, I think. Calley has a 3.97 GPA and a 28 on the ACT. In order to qualify for the presidential, students had to have at least a 3.7 GPA and a 27 on the ACT. So I think they just rank the scholarship applications according to highest GPA and highest ACT and then move down the list awarding the money until it runs out. Now, here is the good part. Students have to respond and accept their scholarships within 2 weeks. Any leftover scholarships that are not claimed will then be awarded to the waiting list presidential scholars. Calley is on that list. So even though she will accept her merit scholarship of full tuition, she is still in the running for the presidential scholarship. The one she got is for 8 semesters. Cool, huh!

She has been accepted to Utah State, which offered her a half-tuition scholarship for two years, and to the University of Utah, which will respond with scholarship offers within the next couple of months. Hopefully she will receive a scholarship offer from the U too.

How do you spell ADVENTURE?? REVISED

Well shoot! I just spent 40 minutes typing up a new blog, and it just disappeared. It didn't automatically save or anything. I guess I'll just go to bed.

If you read Laurel's blog from yesterday, it will explain what I wrote yesterday that was lost. So go read about the doorbell ringing at 3 AM and also about the police stopping us because Brady was not buckled in his seatbelt.

From Laurel's Home

This is my second night at Laurel's home. It has been a lot of fun to be here with her family.

This is what happened Tuesday. I got up at 5:30 AM and was sitting at the phones in the Provo Temple by 7 AM. I worked there until 11 AM and then took off for my Book of Mormon class at the stake center, to which I was late by 15 minutes. What an absolutely fabulous class it was. I learn so much every time I attend. I then ran home, threw my stuff in my suitcase, and ran by Mawmaw's house to tell her g'by since I was leaving for the airport. She had forgotten that I was going to Laurel's for a few days. Larry dropped me off at the airport, and I had a little over an hour to wait. After sitting for 45 minutes at the wrong gate, I finally wised up and moved over to the correct one just as boarding was announced. The plane left the ground at 4 PM and we were back on the ground in Albuquerque at 5:05 PM. Now, this still just blows my mind -- I wake up before daylight in Provo, complete a day's worth of stuff, and then find myself in Albuquerque, NM, 650 miles away before dark. I still love to look out the airplane window and marvel at everything I see. Somebody (:)) sure did know what He was doing when He created this earth.

On the plane I chose my customary seat by the window. Shortly thereafter a lady asked to sit by me, and of course I told her to go ahead. As soon as she sat down I got a whiff of her perfume. Now perfume and I just do not agree. I developed a huge headache immediately and really was not looking forward to sitting by her during the flight. But everything turned out OK after we started to chat. She was on the way to Albuquerque to visit her married daughter too. She is scheduled to return on the same flight on Saturday on which I am scheduled to return. And her name is Pam, my sister's name. She lives in Layton, which is where Chris lives. I went so far as to ask her if she had been born in Louisiana, but she hadn't. She was a really nice lady and I enjoyed talking with her. We're going to find each other on the return trip home on Saturday.

Jim and the kids picked me up. Nothing eventful happened except for the fact that Jessie and Brady were at each others' throats the entire evening. Laurel was doing OK, mostly just sore. Wednesday morning was pretty bad after Jessie and Brady woke up. I think they both vie for their mom's attention so they pick on each other constantly. Now, they were going to be in school for only a half day, and I decided that I really wasn't going to listen to all that hubbub all Wednesday afternoon after we picked them up. So I took control immediately after school. Laurel just kind of sat off to the side and hid her giggles as I tried to control the sibling rivalry situations. And ya know what? I won. It was a very peaceful afternoon and evening. I made the kids help me do a few things at the house before they did their homework and before they turned on the TV or computer. They cooperated beautifully. Brady said he obeyed only three rules, and doing woman's work was not in any of his rules to obey. I told him differently, and before I knew it, he was helping do woman's work, but I don't think he even knew that's what he was doing. I did have a little trouble with him when he got mouthy and wanted to give him a time out. He ran and locked himself in the bathroom. I patiently waited and let him know that I was in control and he WAS going to go into timeout. When he finally came out of the bathroom with a water bottle sprayer, I turned it on him and sprayed him, which he wasn't expecting. I managed to get him into the middle of the kitchen floor for his time-out. I won, but not before Brady shed some tears because the water got into his eyes and felt "like swimming pool water." He milked that one for a while, but he was really good the rest of the day. I was very proud of Jessie and Brady for their good behavior this afternoon, even if it took a little water fight. I'M SUPER NANNY!!

This afternoon we drove past the home that will be on Extreme Home Make-Over sometime in March. It was in a really, really bad run down part of town. Laurel was able to participate as a volunteer on that project. It was fun to see, and I'm looking forward to watching the episode. BTW, everything you see on that show is not spontaneous. Laurel said that they even filmed the family walking into the house three or four times until they got what they wanted. So much for surprise spontaneity.

Laurel has had no appetite. She lost 6 pounds since yesterday. Today I made a meatball soup, strained the vegetables out of some of it, and fed her the broth. I think she swallowed about 3 tablespoons of the stuff. Before bed she ate a half popsicle, and that's all she had today. She was feeling quite a bit better today, so she went with me to take the kids to school, pick them up, drive past the home makeover house, and then went to Girl Scouts. She is a leader in Jessie's troop. I felt proud as I sat there and watched her leadership skills blossom as she did her Girl Scout thing.

Now I'm in the process of doing a mountain of laundry for Laurel. I think it will probably take 10 or 12 loads to get everything done.

I'm married to the most wonderful man on the planet. Since we bought the Blackberry phones a few weeks ago, we have so much fun texting back and forth to each other. It's more fun than talking. He stayed home to work and take care of Calley. If he and I had driven down here, it would have cost as much as for me to fly here by myself. So there really was no choice to be made there.

I know these things I write about are so boring to my readers. But, oh well. And since most of you who go to my blog won't sign a comment for me even when I remind you to, I'm not going to remind you any more. But I sure wish I knew who went to my blog from India.

Visiting Suey and Abby

We didn't do much on this Presidents' Day holiday. I stayed in the bed as long as I could. Calley feels much, much better and will go back to school tomorrow. She will have a lot of work to make up from her full week's absences last week. Larry and I ran a couple of errands this morning and then went to visit Suey and Abby. I'll be leaving for Laurel's tomorrow and I wanted to see them again before I left. Anne and Chris were just leaving Suey's when we got there. Chris had scheduled a dental appointment so they drove back down from Layton to take care of that and visited at the Pitts household.

Abby was eating lunch when we arrived. She wasn't in too good a mood, I think because she was tired and needed and nap, and also because she hadn't wanted Chris and Anne to leave. She really likes to have company. We visited and played with her a little while, and since she was so tired and ready for a nap, we left. I shot some photos while we were there. Isn't she a cutie? And isn't my husband so handsome?

Chris and Anne spent the afternoon and night with us again. We love having our kids come stay with us. Calley made dinner for all of us. It was so good -- stake sandwiches on cibata (sp?) bread with rice pilaf. Hmmmmm.

Well, gotta go pack for Albuquerque.

Hmmmmm What to say, what to say, what to say!

Here is another update of nothing.

Nothing much has happened this weekend. I stayed by the phone waiting for Jim to update me about Laurel's condition on Friday. I'm so glad that surgery is done.

Larry and I spent all day together Saturday running errands, going out to lunch, etc. I so enjoy being with him. He's the best husband I've ever had :) Saturday night we went to the adult session of Stake Conference. Man, oh man, oh man! What a great session. I enjoyed every minute of it. It was fabulous. Have I told you lately that the church is true? Well, it definitely is. And I even got to sit with Larry. He didn't have any High Council responsiblities that evening. I was sad to see that out of about 2000 adult members in the stake, only about 500 attended the meeting. Our stake presidency members are a bunch of characters. That's not a negative statement. They can be so funny when they give talks at church meetings. They tell great stories to make their points. The two counselors say something at every conference session to rag on the other one and I just cackle at how funny they are. They meeting started at 5 PM and was over by 6:15 PM. There was a BYU basketball game scheduled at 7 PM, so we had to get out early. I find it absolutely fascinating that stake meetings are scheduled around BYU sports. I think that is so dang funny.

After the meeting Larry and I were invited to dinner at the home of a couple in our ward. He serves as the stake clerk and she serves with me in Relief Society. Linda had made a vegetable with curry sauce crock pot dish that we ate over rice. She also fixed raisin bran muffins that were so good. And I don't like cooked raisins. We really enjoyed being with them. Right about the time we finished dinner, Larry's phone rang. It was Chris, and he and Anne were at our house. We had not expected them to stop by our house on their way home from their California week with Anne's family at Disneyland. But they did. So we said goodbye to the Martins and ran home to visit with them a few minutes. However, they decided to stay the night when Chris found out he didn't have to go into work at 5 AM Sunday morning. It was fun to have them here. Even though we dropped Chris off at the airport on Tuesday evening, we hadn't seen Anne since the New Year's holiday.

Larry and I went to the Sunday morning session of Stake Conference and had to leave the house shortly before Chris and Anne went home. Calley stayed home from Conference because I didn't want her out among people after being so sick. We went to the overflow area at the stake center instead of to the Provo Tabernacle. The meeting was broadcast over cable TV somehow or other to our stake center so we watched it on the big screen. Larry was in charge of the audio/visual part of receiving the broadcast, so he spent a lot of time at the stake center getting things set up and taken down after the meeting. What a great meeting it was. I love to go to church meetings. I love to feel the spirit. I love the feelings of confirmation of truth I receive as I listen to the speakers. Have I mentioned that this church is the true church?

Larry and I watched Return to Me, which I had borrowed from Anne, on Sunday afternoon. That is a cool movie. We don't go to the movies hardly ever and rarely watch one at home, so this was a special treat for us. A couple of weeks ago we watched Chocolat on Comcast On Demand. Both those movies are so good. Larry has a very tender heart and he likes movies like that, whereas some of my sons-in-law won't be caught dead at a chick flick.

I read a book Friday night entitled The Gift by Richard Paul Evans. That was a good book. If you haven't read it, I recomment it. I also read the book A Stranger for Christmas by Carol Lynne Pearson, I think, last week. It was OK.

Oh, I was going to mention in my Valentine's Day post that I saw a guy walking out of Costco with a bouquet of 2 dozen roses and all three hard-bound books in the Twilight series. Some very lucky lady was going to get all three books at the same time. I'm anxious for the next book to come out.

Oh, and I've been reading Sherie Dew's God Wants a Powerful People. I love this part where she says, "When the missionaries knocked on the door of a European professor, she invited them in, pointed to her various Ph.D. diplomas hanging on the wall, one of which was in theology, then began to talk to the two young men (who hadn't even a fraction of the knowledge she had) about thes study of religion. But she accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and a couple of months later was baptized. She told those attending her baptism that the missionaries who had taught her were wonderful, but they hadn't converted her. Since the day she had met them, she had read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, all of James E. Talmage's writings, and several other volumes of Church doctrine. Then she said, in words to this effect, 'After years of studying philosophy, I picked up the D & C and read a few verses that answered some of the greatest questions of Aristotle and Socrates. When I read thoses verses, I wept.' She concluded, 'I don't think you know what you have. The world is starving for what you have. I am like a starving person being led to a feast. And over these eight and a half weeks I have been able to feast in a way I have never known possible."

She continues, "Do we know what we believe? Do we know there is power in the doctrine of Christ to change and overcome weakness? Do we realize that the scriptures contain the answer to every life dilemma? . . . A casual understanding of the gospel will not sustain us through the days ahead, which is why it is imperative that we immerse ourselves in the word of God."

Ya know, my testimony has grown so much within the past ten years. I wish I hadn't been so stupid as a young person and wasted all that done and made all the mistakes I made. I love my family so much. I am so grateful for them and for my wonderful husband. My greatest desire is to be with all of them in the celestial kingdom as one big family. There is no greater desire in my life, not even having the gutters fixed on my house ( which in the back of the house over the bedroom and computer room windows the ice is six inches thick with another foot of snow on top of that ice.) I remember a letter Chris wrote to me when he was on his mission. His testimony had grown so much and he had grown so close to HeavenlyFather by the time he wrote that letter. He said something to the effect that he'd like to just slap all those people in Chicago (those he was trying to teach) and tell them to wake up! I feel that way a lot of the time. The gospel is so clear and simple and true. It just makes sense. Have I mentioned that the Church is true?

Enough rambling for tonight. Please leave me a post so I will know you were here.

Something Funny

Oh, I forgot to mention this. I went to Costco to drop off Calley's prescription on Valentine's Day about noon. As I walked from my car to the entrance, I counted 12 bouquets of flowers going out the door. As I walked under the canopy, or whatever you call it, there were about six more people leaving with bouquets of flowers. In the store there were several flower stations set up and tons of people milling around them making a selection. I went to WalMart a little later in the day and the same thing was going on. Tons of people leaving with flower bouquets and at least two flower stations right inside the store. One of the flower stations was completely empty - all flowers gone. I just think it's interesting to see how successful commercialism is when it comes to special days. Oh well.

Catch Up Day

It has been several days since my last post, so I guess it's time to catch up. Oh, my. It looks like it's been a week since I last posted. Can't wait that long cuz I forget too much of what happens.

Last weekend Larry recorded the Worldwide Leadership Training at the stake center. The only problem was that he had 2 hour VHS tapes with him and the presentation lasted over two hours, plus the fact that the executive secretary wanted him to record the fifteen minutes of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing before the training began. So he came home with two tapes and spent the rest of the weekend copying the two tapes onto DVD so as to splice them together without too much of an interruption. He wanted as perfect a DVD as he could get, so he worked so hard to get a good copy. He then used the DVD to play back at the stake meeting that Sunday evening. I didn't go to the meeting. He left a copy here at home for me to watch.

Larry and I went to Pam's house on Sunday at 4:30 for David's ordination to the Melchizedek priesthood. Larry cracked a real funny to Daddy David. He said, "Well, it looks like David the Younger is going to become David the Elder." Get it? Elder??? It seems almost impossible that the last of Pam's kids is now getting ready for a mission.

We hurried home from the ordination because I had prepared dinner for Josh's family and the Pitts family. It was great to see all those grandchildren again since we hadn't seen them in two weeks. Suey's family stayed after dinner and we watched the Worldwide Leadership training DVD Larry made for us. I thought it was a very informative presentation. Josh's family left and went to their friends' house for a visit. If you go to the Pitts website, you will see the photos of Ryan and Abby coloring in a color book on the family room floor. That little stinker Abby wouldn't have anything to do with her grandma until I offered her some chocolate. Then she became my good buddy. She's such a sweetheart.

Calley got sick that afternoon with what we thought was a cold, so she stayed away from Abby and the rest of us as much as possible. As it turned out, she missed this whole week of school because she was so sick. I took her to the doctor yesterday and she was diagnosed with Type A influenza. We were worried about her attendance, or lack of, at TimpView for the week, but since I got a doctor's excuse for her, she won't have to make up any time, thank goodness. The make-up work is gonna kill her all by itself.

Tuesday Larry and I drove up to Layton. Chris had asked us to come up there, go out to dinner with him, and then drive him to the airport. Anne's family was spending the week in California. Anne drove down on Monday with her twin sister, and Chris was to fly in on Tuesday night. He couldn't miss a week's worth of classes at school - thus the flight. Well, we picked him up and he took us to dinner at Red Robin. We then drove to Bountiful to pick up Anne's twin sister's husband to take both of them to the airport.

Man, oh man, were we glad that we took him to the airport on Tuesday, because Wednesday night a horrible snowstorm blew into the state that affected north Utah County. There was a whiteout with very high winds that affected the northern part of the valley from Thanksgiving Point north to the Point of the Mountain. Traffic came to a standstill for hours. Cars pulled off the highway and got buried by all the snow. The Alpine Highway was shut down completely. And all this occurred at the time Larry and I would have been driving home from the airport.

Thursday I got a bug to rearrange my bedroom. I did it all by myself, and that furniture was so dang heavy to move around. Larry is still recovering from his shoulder surgery, so I certainly would not let him help, except just a little bit. Ya know, I pride myself on being a good housekeeper, so I always surprise myself when I move furniture around and find all the dust under the bed, behind the furniture, and on the blinds. But I got it done - although it took me all afternoon. I think it makes the bedroom look bigger. We put one of the green lounge chairs from the family room into our bedroom when Larry had his surgery because he sat in it to sleep for several days. We had loaned our blue lounge chair that was originally in our bedroom to Josh and Norky for Norky to sleep sitting up in after her surgery in December and haven't gotten it back yet. But Larry had to have something to use in the room, so we moved that huge green chair into there. The blue chair is a little smaller and fits into the room better.

And Thursday was Valentine's Day. I spent all morning in the doctor's office with Calley and all afternoon trying to find a BYU sweatshirt for Larry. He gave me two wonderful cards (one funny and one mushy), a box of candy, and a gorgeous sterling silver locket. I gave him a mushy card and a BYU sweatshirt. It wasn't the kind or color he wanted, so I guess I'll order one for him from the BYU Bookstore.

Now it's Friday. I've been concerned about Laurel since she had her lapband surgery in Lubbock, Texas today. Jimmy finally called me and let me know everything went OK and that she's in the ICU. That's where they put the patients for the first day who undergo that surgery. She called me about 1 PM, groggy as all get out, to let me know she's on a morphine drip but is doing OK. Hopefully they get to go back to Albuquerque on Sunday. I made arrangements to fly down there on Tuesday afternoon and stay with her family until Saturday afternoon. I'm anxious to see all of them. They took Brady to Lubbock with them and Jessie is staying with her grandma and then one of Laurel's friends because of school and Girl Scout activities in which Jessie is involved.

Well, I can't think of anything else to write about. You certainly don't have to read this stuff, but I'm writing this for myself. At the end of the month I will copy and paste all the entries into Word, print it off, and put it into a notebook. This is my journal. In upcoming entries I will begin to relate stories from my childhood.

But if you were here, please leave me a note that says, I WAS HERE.

OK, Laurel. Here's my new post.

Laurel says I need to post a new blog. I don't really have anything new to say, but here's a new blog.


I have felt like x$#^% ever since we got back from Texas -- no energy, don't want to do anything, just want to stay in bed all the time. I did get up on Tuesday to go do Relief Society stuff, but that's about all I did this week until today when I got up and cleaned up the house. Then I went back to bed. I don't know why I'm so tired. My wonderful Mawmaw brought dinner over here tonight -- roast, rice, grave, peas, little chocolate pies. It was so good. Being tired certainly didn't hurt my appetite, unfortunately.


I've been worrying all week about our Relief Society Birthday Party in March. The bishop took my Enrichment leader away from me and put her into the Young Women and hasn't replaced her yet. It's getting so close to the birthday that I can't wait any longer for a new Enrichment leader, so I'm going ahead an planning the event myself. I even called Jenni last night to get some RS ideas. Today I was very fortunate to get Gaye Beeson come be our special speaker that evening. She is completely booked for speaking in other Relief Societies in March, so I had to move our meeting from March 4 to March 27 in order to get her. I'm excited about having her. She was in the Tablernacle Choir for several years and just retired in October 2007. She's been a good friend to Mawmaw and has given her the new choir CDs as they have been released. I taught her kids in junior high so I have known her for years. She's mawmaw's visiting teacher right now and Mawmaw just loves having her come. She is also the stake Primary president -- guess she must be kind of busy, huh. She told me tonight that her presentation will be singing and telling stories about Relief Society. She has a relative who was at that very first RS meeting when it was organized. Cool, huh?


Now I have three more weeks added to my stress time to get the remainder of the birthday party organized. That means six more weeks. One other thing we're going to do is to have the sisters sign up to bring quick and easy main dishes, quick and easy salads, and maybe quick and easy desserts. We want to emphasize the quick and easy part because so many of us in the ward use Costco as our basic dinner ingredient. We are lucky enough to have a sister in the ward whose daughter works for Costco, so she's getting us 42 Costco cookbooks to give out. I don't know yet how I'm going to work that into Harmony and Heritage, but I'll figurer it out. We had originally intended to title our evening Thoroughly Modern Molly, in reference to quick and easy everything in our lives.


It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today. A few clouds with blue, blue sky and a little warmer temperature than what we've been having. Timpanogos is completely covered in snow. I love to see it like that -- the crags are invisible beneath the snow.

Now it is Saturday morning. This was supposed to post last night, but something happened to my internet connection and it didn't get posted. So here it is.

Larry is on his way to the stake center to record the Worldwide Leadership Training for our stake. He is so dutiful when it comes to magnifying his priesthood. Dang, I lucked out when I found him. He is such a wonderful man.

Here Are My "TAGGED" Answers

I got tagged too, and I hate to answer these things.

A) Four jobs I have had in my life

1. Discount City in Winnfield, Louisiana

2. BYU Co-Ed Shop

3. 7 -11 Cashier

4. Junior High School English teacher for 28 years


B) Four movies I could watch over and over

1. Sense and Sensibility

2. Howard's End

3. Counte of Monte Cristo

4. anything with Richard Chamberlain -Yes, I know he's gay, and that makes me sick. But he's so pretty to look at.


C) Four Places I have lived

1. Winnfield, La

2. Natchitoches, La.

3. Orem, UT

4. Provo, UT


D) Four shows that I watch

1. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

2. Channel 5 News

3. Grey's Anatomy, but I'm trying to stop

4. Music and the Spoken Word

I quit watching soap operas. YEA ME!!


E) Four places I have been

1. St. Thomas

2. San Francisco, CA

3. Maui

4. Disneyland


F) People who email me regularly

1. Relief Society presidency

2. Suey

3. Anne

4. Publishers Clearing House


G) Four of my favorite foods

1. hot

2. cold

3. hamburgers

4. chicken alfredo


H.)Four places I would rather be right now

1. Disneyland

2. Hawaii

3. Snuggling with Larry in the bed

4. eating Mawmaw's coconut cake that is in my kitchen


I) Four folks that I think will respond

Nobody, I'm the last one to do this.


J) Four things I am looking forward to in the next 12 months

1. Chris graduated with his RN

2. Chris and Anne moving to the Provo/Orem area

3. Jenni and her family moving up here.

4. Jim joining the church and their family being sealed together

5. Calley getting a full-ride 4-year scholarship to college, I WISH


K) Four goals for the New Year

1. gain a stronger testimony

2. be the best person I can be

3. find the needs others have and try to help

4. be a better mom


L) Four gifts I got for Christmas

1. earrings

2. family collage photos framed

3. gift cards

4. food storage


M) Four places I want to visit

1. Mormon historical places

2. Maui again

3. New York's broadway plays

4. Disneyland again


N) Four things you didn't know about me

1. heck if I know

2. I was a bluebell in the 2nd grade play.

3. When I went to my 10-year high school reunion, a boy I went to school with tried to proposition me by saying nobody would find out.

4. I intentionally lost the school spelling bee when I was in 3rd grade because I didn't want to be on television for the state final spelling bee.



O) Four things I wish I was better at

1. cooking spicier foods for Larry

2. reading scriptures every day

3. saying prayers every day

4. staying on a diet and exercising every day


P) Four things I can cook without a recipe

1. Sour Cream Enchiladas casserole

2. Chicken Broccoli Casserole

3. Toast

4. Grits


Q) Four musicians I really love

1. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

2. Michael McLean

3. Mormon Tabernacle Choir

4. Josh Groban.


R) Four of the best books I have ever read

1. To Kill a Mockingbird - my all time favorite

2. any book by Sherie Dew

3. Twilight series

4. everything I read that I finish -- I don't finish books that aren't interesting to me.

It's Travelogue Time

Long time no post. So here we go. I'm writing this blog for my benefit as a journal, so if you get bored, that's OK.

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT THAT YOU WERE HERE!!!

Thursday, Jan. 31

Ty and Jarah Lewis were so generous to use some of Ty's accumulated air miles to fly us down to Lewisville, Texas for the weekend on the occasion of their daughter, Katelyn's, birthday and baptism.

Larry and I left for the airport to fly to Texas about 9:30 AM. We dropped off our luggage at the Sky Cap and then drove to the long-term parking lot to drop off the Expedition and then catch the shuttle back to the terminal. As most of you know, I am never cold because Sister Hot Flash lives in my body. However, although it was about 23 degrees and the wind was blowing, and since I never wear a coat, I didn't want to be bothered with one on the airplane. I just wore a long-sleeve shirt for the flight. We parked the truck and got out to run to the shuttle stop. I froze my rear end off. At least I thought I did. It was so dang cold and the wind was blowing and it was snowing. I just knew my fanny was frozen right off in that mad dash to catch the shuttle before it left us. But when I turned around, no such luck. That big booty was still there, dang it, following along right behind me.

Anyway, boarding the plane started on time. Larry and I showed our boarding passes just as a crew member walked off the plane and said air traffic was grounded at DFW for an hour because of high winds. So we just sat around in the terminal area a little longer instead of getting onto the plane to sit cramped up for a longer time. But it wasn't an hour. Our flight left about 45 minutes lates. Flight to DFW was ok, but Larry got a little stomachy upset with the slightly bumpy flight. It took us 15 minutes to taxi from landing to the terminal gate. Then it took 35 minutes to get our luggage. And I thought SLC was slow.

Jessica, Bailey, and Garret picked us up at curbside. Unfortunately, they waited for about an hour for us because the plane was a little late and the baggage took forever. It was cold in Texas that afternoon and the wind was blowing. I about froze down there that day, I guess because it feels so much colder in that humid climate. Russ and Jessica opened up their home to us while we were there. Jackson was gracious enough to let us sleep in his bedroom and he slept with Garrett, even though Garrett didn't want him to. Jackson is eleven, Bailey will be 8 in September, and Garrett will be 3 on the 18th of February.

Russ took Larry and me over to see Jarah and Ty and their kids (Katelyn, 8; Sabrina, 5; and Jason, 3) that evening. The Lewises and the Cooks live only about a mile apart. Jarah had made banana bread, and boy did it smell good, but Jessica had filled us up with dinner so we had no room for banana bread. Jarah told us that Julia was on her way from San Antonio with her kids Brenden, 4, and Natalee, 1, and would stay with the Lewises. They arrived at Jarah's house later that night after Larry and I had returned to Jessica's home. We enjoyed our first night with the kids and grandkids.

Calley wanted to stay home by herself this time, so we let her do it.

Friday, Feb. 1

Larry got up early, as usual, on Friday, and I slept in. That hour time difference is a killer ya know. I was worried about Calley because it was supposed to snow Thursday night into Friday morning and Victoria (ya know, Nanny's Crown Victoria) does not do well in the snow. I had arranged with Sherie Hislop to take her to school and pick her up on Friday if it snowed. Sherie and Steve are such terrific neighbors. As a sidelight, Sherie and Steve are always there when we need them. Since Larry has had shoulder surgery, Sherie cleans the snow off our driveway and sidewalk every time it snows, which as been a bunch this year. Anyway, another problem was that Calley had to work at Jamba Juice on Friday at 4 PM. She had to go to the business, pick up frozen smoothies, take them to UVSC, set up at some event, sell the smoothies, clean up, take everything down, load up the car with left-over stuff, and cart it all back down to Jamba's about 9 PM that evening. I was so afraid it would snow and she would have to rely on neighbors and good friends to help out again. But thank goodness she was able to drive herself.

Back to the travelogue. Julia and her two kids came over to Jessica's that morning and spent the day. Jarah and Ty took the afternoon off from work because they were going to Katelyn's school that afternoon to give out cookies for her 8th birthday. So while Jackson, Bailey, Katelyn, and Sabrina were in school, we all went to lunch at Grandy's. That is Julia's favorite place to eat. After Grandy's Jessica drove us to Costco to buy some batteries for my camera. All we went in there for was a package of batteries. But since we had left our cell phone chargers at home, we stopped at the cell phone place in Costco to see about buying a charger. And since the charger would have cost as much or more than a new phone, the kiosk salesman sold us a new phone package of three Blackberrys. And all three only cost $25 each. We were astounded at the price. Since our contract with T-Mobile was up , we transferred to A T & T and got a Blackberry for me, a Blackberry for Larry, and a Blackberry for Calley. Are we spoiled or what? We also got a better minutes package and unlimited text messaging. Now, Larry and I didn't know squat about text messaging, but we learned pretty dang fast. I texted my kids that night and had a blast doing it. I definitely have not been technology savvy, so figuring out how to work the Blackberry was a little challenging for me. It does about everything except wipe your nose.

We left Costco and went to WalMart to buy Katelyn a birthday present. We finally made it to Katelyn's birthday party at the roller rink. It was a huge rink, about twice the size as Classic Skating in Orem. Larry and I just sat on the sidelines and helped take care of the little bitty grandkids while some of the adults and the bigger grandkids enjoyed skating. Only once did Natalee escape and run out onto the skating floor where I had to run chase her down. We had pizza and drinks for dinner while there and a big birthday cookie since Katelyn doesn't care for cake. The kids had a great time. It was really fun to watch them and just be with all of them.

Larry playing with his Blackberry at the birthday party.

Saturday, Feb. 2

Again I slept in. (jet lag, ya know) Russ and Jess have BYU-TV on cable so we were able to watch Pres. Hinckley's funeral. It was so interesting and kept me glued to the TV. I don't remember what we did that afternoon except for the fact that Larry and Jessica went to the grocery store to buy fruit to take to a dinner at Jarah's that night. Guess I'm having a senior moment -- I have lots of them.

Kathy Hines and her daughter Sheryl along with two of Kathy's grandchildren drove down from Norman, Oklahoma, to spend some time with us Saturday afternoon before the baptism. Sheryl's new baby girl Logan was born in December and we hadn't seen her yet, so they brought her to meet her new uncle and cousins. She was such a cutie with lots of black hair. Haven was there too. She is just gorgeous. They didn't stay very long, but at least we got to visit for a short while.

Kathy Hines and Baby Logan

Haven Evans

Katelyn's baptism was Saturday evening at 5 PM. We put on our church clothes and off we went. Katelyn looked so pretty all in white. Her dad baptized and confirmed her. Larry stood in the circle at the confirmation. I was able to get some family group shots at the church, and was really glad to get them, especially since we don't see those kids and grandkids very often.

Ty, Sabrina, Katelyn, Jarah, and Jason Lewis

Natalee, Julia, Brenden Callahan

Jackson, Russell, Jessica, Bailey, and Garrett Cook

Larry and his girls -- Julia, Jarah, and Jessica

Katelyn with Granddaddy Larry and Grandma Penny

Something very surprising happened at the church and later that evening at the dinner at Jarah's home. Larry's ex, his children's mom, was at the baptism with her husband. In the past she has avoided Larry like he had the plague when we have all been together at family weddings or grandchildren's baby blessings. A couple of times she has not even shown up at an event where Larry and I were going to be. However, at the baptism she was very pleasant when she and I ran into each other in the hall. She looked very happy.

At Jarah's home at dinner that evening, Kathy, Larry's ex, was very outgoing. She spoke to me and Larry as if we were all old friends. It was very nice. I was really glad to see that maybe the animosity she had felt for Larry for so many years may be fading into the background of our lives. I certainly hope so. I enjoyed being around her. It was a very pleasant evening. Jonny, Larry's son, and his two children, Hailey and Hayden, came over to visit for a short while. His wife Tiffany was home sick with the stomach flu or something.

Jonny with Hayden. I didn't get a good photo of Hailey.

Ty spent some time showing me his photos from his business trip to Sweden this past December. BTW, the fruit salad we took was so fabulous. Here it is February and the watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, honeydew, blueberries, and strawberries tasted like it was harvest season in late summer. I couldn't get enough of the fruit.


The evening came to an end all too soon. We really had a great time with everybody.

Sunday, Feb. 3


Man, oh man, oh man! I though 9 AM was an early church time, but church started at 8:30 AM in the Lewisville 1st, I think, Ward. Jessica and Jarah are in the same ward. I dragged myself out of bed and we made it to church just a teensy bit late, so we had to sit on the folding chairs in the back. I always like to go to church in different places just to see how they do things. Sacrament Meeting was good, Sunday School was good, and I was definitely interested in Relief Society since I'm 2nd counselor in our ward. I was a little disappointed in the RS. The lesson was great and the testimonies were very spiritual and uplifting. But here's the deal. I got into the RS room when there were just a couple of sisters in there. Jessica had to teach Primary and Jarah had not yet come into RS from the Sunday School class she had to teach. Anyway I sat down on the second row and I decided I would just wait and see if anyone would say anything to me. No one did. People began to file into the room, the presidency was busy getting ready for the meeting to begin, but not one person came over to find out who I was or to just say hi. A young lady sat down beside me and said not a word. But at least somebody sat down beside me. I was still intentionally keeping my mouth shut to see what would happen. Finally when the meeting began the president acknowledged visitors and I introduced myself. Ya know, I have made it a personal mission of mine to go out of my way to talk to both ward members and visitors in our ward. It took me a long time, but I have finally begun to see the importance of getting out of my comfort zone to help others feel welcome and included. So Jessica, when you read this, please don't feel I'm criticizing your ward sisters. It was just an observation. I could have spoken out to others. I just chose to see what would happen.

Sunday afternoon was a very lazy one. We laughed, talked religion, watched a couple of video Russell had about latter day prophecies and the Lehi Cave. Jarah and her family and Julia with her children came over to Jessica's for dinner so we could spend a little while together before Larry and I left for the airport to return to Utah. It actually got hot and muggy that day.
Thank you so much, Jarah and Ty, for flying us to Texas. And thank you so much, Jessica and Russell, for opening your home to us.


Larry and I returned to Utah that evening, leaving DFW at about 10:15 PM. When we got to Utah, it was cold and snowing. We dug ourselves out of the long-term parking lot and finally got home about 1:30 AM. Calley had made us a chocolate welcome home cake. She's such a sweetie and wonderful daughter. Oh, I forgot to say that Larry and I discovered the game called Brickbreaker on our Blackberrys. We played it a lot on the plane ride to Utah. I don't like video games at all, but this one was kind of fun.

I was so tired when we got home that I took a Unisom sleeping pill because I was afraid that even though I was tired, I wouldn't be able to go to sleep. I do that a lot. Well, guess what? I couldn't wake up Monday morning. Not even to go to a RS presidency meeting. I hate feeling drugged like that, but I sure did sleep good. In fact, I only got out of bed for a couple of hours to fix something to eat for Larry and Calley and then I went back to bed and didn't get up until 5:30 AM on Tuesday morning. I wouldn't have gotten up then except for the fact that I had to be at the Provo Temple at 7 AM to work the phones.

Tuesday, Feb. 5

So, now here I am on Tuesday night at about 9 PM finishing up this blog. I'm sure I left out a bunch of stuff that I will remember from our trip and wish I had put into the blog, but those senior moments are killers.

I made plane reservations tonight to fly down to Laurel's house on Feb. 19 for four days to help her out after her surgery. It was cheaper for me to fly than for Larry and me to drive, so he'll just stay here and take care of Calley while I take care of Laurel and her family for a few days. Oh, and I ordered two cases of Girl Scout cookies from Laurel. Anybody want to buy some cookies?

And can anybody explain to me how to get several photos across instead of in a straight line down on this blog?

AND DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT THAT YOU WERE HERE!!!!