Basement Updates; Lagoon; School Starts; Carol Thomas' Funeral

Remember when I had Glen remove the California Carlsbad Mission map (one of two in the mission office) from the wall and took it with us when all the office stuff was being transferred up to the Irvine Mission Office during the dissolving and realignment of our mission?

I had envisioned it in our basement--a memorial of our mission hanging on the wall by the pool table. I knew it would look great there and I was right!!

(Notice the big screen TV on the far wall. And I mean BIG black box big screen TV. I will refer to that later.)

It turned out we had just the right amount of things to hang up by the map to make a great mission memorial. The "Called to Serve" frame had been gifted to us by Lynn Maughan, our mission nurse. We inserted our mission photograph.

Below that is a pencil drawing of the San Diego Temple given to us by Morgan Clawson, one of our Spanish-speaking missionaries.

The framed definition of a missionary was given to us by Andy and Amanda's family when they came to stay with us the first Christmas we were in California.

The picture of California below it with Glen's daily greeting to everybody, "It's another great day in Paradise" was drawn by another of our sister missionaries, Cassie Davis Peel.

As I was attempting to get the collage laid out before hanging all the pictures on the wall, Sarah said something else needed to hang by the small picture. She then got the inspired idea to frame our missionary name tags.

Unfortunately, Glen was unable to find his English name tag in the midst of our move, so I got out our Spanish name tags and we framed those. It is in honor of being called to a Spanish-speaking mission (and I am still giving thanks I did not need to know Spanish to survive in our mission).

I am definitely not fluent in Spanish. Nothing close to it. But, I learned enough to be able to give a talk in Spanish. And I learned enough to be able to understand enough Spanish to know when people are talking about me. Like the several times I was sitting in a Spanish meeting and I would be able to understand the bishop calling upon me to say the closing prayer in sacrament meeting or to share my testimony at a baptism.

I could never figure out why he would call on me when there was a perfectly proficient Spanish-speaker sitting right next to me!! Ahhhh!! See what memories those Spanish name tags evoke from me!?!?

Now back to the TV...

After many years of the boys in the family urging the father in the family to get rid of the eyesore in the basement and buy a new flat screen TV, Glen finally did it. He pulled that monstrosity out and got busy replacing it with something more modern.

I was impressed he read the directions before just getting at it. I love the insert that assures him "This is going to be easy!"

Glen listed the old TV on KLS.com for FREE and he got a couple of phone calls about it, but nobody showed up in person to get it. SAD!! I mean, who wouldn't want this gargantuan TV in their home??

Glen worked hard to get the new TV, the sound bar and the woofer (where did that word come from???) all set up in the empty space.

We got a little creative about the bottom portion of the setup and now feel good about how it looks.

Sarah's little boys were all ready to head off to their first day of school in Las Vegas. I just love back-to-school photos!!

Lincoln is giving the thumbs up that he's going to preschool this year and so happy to be wearing a backpack just like his older brothers Carson and Eli.

Jonah wanted in on the backpack action as well--looking so grown up with his hair combed over to the side.

Jacob and Laurie's children post a great back-to-school photo each year as they begin school in Omaha.

Abe and Klarissa's children got in their last hurrahs of fun and adventure before they settled back down in San Francisco for their school year to begin.

Wynne is all ready for her first day of pre-school.

Glen and I tried to go to as many free summer concerts as we could. We love them so much!! It is so relaxing sitting outside in nature enjoying the musical talents of the performers.

One of the free concert nights was when the Tour of Utah was happening.

We had to wait extra long to cross the street to get to the Brigham Young Historic Park, but it felt like we were watching a parade as the bikers raced by us.

 The racers were soon followed by cars transporting bikes atop their roofs.

The parade continued...

Sometimes the free concerts are held in the Assembly Hall instead of the park.

The temple looked so beautiful against the darkening sky when we walked out of the Assembly Hall.

Rebecca invited us to go to Lagoon with her and her children. They were trying to get in as much time at Lagoon before their school started. 
Couldn't pass up that offer. Especially when it meant being able to wear our matching Lagoon t-shirts once again. Makes us feel unified as a family and it also makes it so much easier to keep track of each other when we all dress alike.

Caroline and I were the only ones who chose Fritos as our chip choice for lunch.

I can't ever eat a small bag of Fritos without thinking of Grandpa and Grandma Malan offering us Fritos and a can of soda each time we went to visit them. 

I have never liked carbonation, so the fizzy cans of soda never appealed to me. Because of that, my grandparents would make sure to have some Orange Hi-C in their refrigerator for me to drink while my siblings guzzled the carbonated stuff.

We attended the evening viewing and the funeral the next day of Glen's sister-in-law Carol, who is the wife of his brother Chuck who preceded her in death on July 8, 2015.

Karla and Rodger had asked Glen to officiate at their mother's funeral. He did such an excellent job!

Just like what happened so many times while serving on our mission, Glen had been praying for inspiration as to what to say during his closing remarks. Then he woke up with the idea and delivered his message masterfully!

Divinely inspired personal revelation is always amazing!

Glen is with his sisters Joann, Barbara, Maurine and Bonnie.

Spouses of the siblings: Dave and Joann Rees, Rich and Barbara Dunn, Ray and Maurine Hull, Dave and Bonnie Ziemski with us on the end.

We had been invited to the home of Karla's daughter Julene for a family luncheon after the funeral. Their back yard was a beautiful place for the family to gather together.

As we were departing, Karla made sure every family took home a box of Twinkies in memory of her father who had worked at Hostess Bakery for many years.

We started out that particular day attending a funeral and ended the day attending a wedding reception of our former missionary Madeline Jorgensen.

We had a very enjoyable time visiting with three other former sister missionaries while we were eating our refreshments: Olivia Rigby, Kaytlin Porter and Ashley Blair.

Of course Glen couldn't resist having a teaching moment with the sisters as they pulled out their phones to follow along in their scriptures with him.

They love any chance they get to see us (especially him). There's something special about a Mission President. I feel the same way. He was my Mission President, too, and I think there is something special about him as well.