Quotes of the Week

One way to "always remember him" would be to join the Great Physician in His never-ending task of lifting the load from those who are burdened and relieving the pain to those who are distraught.
--Jeffrey R. Holland

When even one disciple reaches out to a friend, one can become two. Two can become four. Four can become eight And eight can become twelve. Branches can become wards.
--Carl B. Cook

All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God.
--Orson F. Whitney

Quotes of the Week

Know that the Lord will be with you as you summon your courage to be on His side. "If God be with us, who can be against us?" He can open doors and help us find strengths and abilities we never knew we had.
--Gary E. Stevenson

Beloved friends, ... may we bring to the sacramental alter "more tears for his sorrows and more pain at his grief." And then, as we reflect, pray, and covenant anew, may we take from that sacred moment "more patience in suffering, ... more praise for relief."
--Jeffrey R. Holland

Line upon line and precept upon precept, gradually and almost imperceptibly, our motives, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds become aligned with the will of God. Conversion unto the Lord requires both persistence and patience.
--David A. Bednar

Quotes of the Week

Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.
--Joseph Smith

You know what temptations you are most vulnerable to, and you can predict how the adversary will try to derail and dishearten you. Have you created a personal game plan and playbook so that you will know how to respond when faced with opposition?
--Gary E. Stevenson

It is clear that we have not properly understood repentance. There are too many hesitant and negative responses... we should feel no hesitation and no discomfort. This fresh and much brighter understanding of repentance will be vital on our path to discipleship.
--Patrick Kearon

Quotes of the Week

In times of distress, let your covenants be paramount and let your obedience be exact. Then you can ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and God will answer... In His own time and way He will stretch forth his hand to you, saying, "Here am I."
--D. Todd Christofferson

If you trust God enough to listen for His message in every sermon, song and prayer you will find it. And if you then go and do what He would have you do, your power to trust Him will grow and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that He has come to trust you.
--Henry B. Eyring

We watch. We wait. We listen for that still, small voice. When it speaks, wise men and women obey.
--Thomas S. Monson

After-Christmas Weddings--Including Preston's Wedding

Christmas break. 'Tis the season for weddings. Two days after Christmas we attended the wedding reception of Ben's friend Chase Elwood and his new wife Melissa.

The next day we attended the wedding of two of our missionaries, Garrett Sanders and Silvia Nieto, in the Provo City Center Temple.

We had enjoyed visiting with a former missionary, Kenna Pierce, in the heated rotunda while waiting for the bride and groom to emerge from the temple.

I was elated when Glen let me pick the restaurant for our after-wedding meal. I have enjoyed our dining experiences two other times at La Jolla Groves and was eager to dine there again. It did not disappoint. I loved everything about the time we spent there.

The atmosphere makes you feel like you are in a grove of lemon trees. You could reach up and pick a lemon if you wanted to do so (provided you want a plastic lemon, but you get the picture).

We had a doting waiter. We had delicious food. We had a great dining experience. But, I must say the crowning point of the meal was at the very end when the waiter placed a very small ceramic white dish in the middle of the table. In the dish were two lemon drops. Those two candies just made my day!!!!

Love has been in the air for bridal couples, as well as this couple who both served in our mission, Ethan Murdock and Madeline Moore. She was at the airport waiting for him when he very recently returned home from his mission.

We do so much enjoy the romances that blossom from serving in the same mission.

The next day we attended a wedding reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and saw two of our former missionaries there. They are the BEST of friends. Ever since the mission.

A man has now come between them...but, Braden Shill promises to share his wife Miah Froisland with Ciera Bradley even after their marriage. Lasting friendships are so dear.

The reception room they were in was on the top floor, so we were able to look down over Temple Square and see the festive Christmas lights from that viewpoint.

In the lobby we spied the Light the World Giving Machines. This is when there was a line and Glen didn't want to wait. Scrooge!!

On Sunday we had a visit from one of our former assistants, Trae Jordan. It is very nice when we are able to stay in touch with some of the missionaries. They don't all reach out to us, but for the ones that do, it is nice to get caught up on what they are doing in their lives.

One week following surgery, on New Year's Eve day, we were back in the cardiology office at University of Utah getting my stitch(es) removed. The wound is right where the pacemaker is located. 

The bandage got removed along with two of the steri-strips used to hold the wound together. Then the medical assistant gave a long, continuous pull on the end of the thread and that thing was the length of the wound and came out all in one piece. ICK!! I had never had stitches (or should I say a stitch) like that before!

My pacemaker was checked and found all well with it--except for the fact I have no upper lead wire. But, at this point, I guess we give up on having that possibility become a realty. 

I did share with the Medical Assistant in training and her supervisor that I was still having a hard time filling my lungs, but that was the extent of that.

When we got home, we found a bottle of bubbly on our front porch. It was left there by Jan Evans so we could have a rip-snorting, snazzy, exciting New Year's Eve celebration. (Those descriptive words were mine--not hers. She was just being very kind.)

Soon Jan was on our front porch handing me a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers. How doubly kind of her!! The flowers are beautiful and I do so enjoy looking at them every time I go in the kitchen. What a dear friend!!

We had not one thing planned to bring in the New Year, so we were just duds spending that evening at home.

There was one thing that got scheduled on our New Year's Day and that was dinner with Patricia Morgan, our friend from Albuquerque. She was in town for a wedding. Steven was supposed to join her, but his flight out that afternoon got canceled.

There was a big snowstorm that was supposed to come on New Year's Day, all that night and continue into the following morning--on the day of my nephew Preston's wedding.

We awoke to a little bit of snow on New Year's Day and then no more precipitation the rest of that day, none during the night and no moisture on the wedding day. HURRAH!!

We picked up Dallas and Rebecca so they could go with us to the Brigham City Temple. Ben, Haley and Kade were there as well.

I enjoyed the view from the temple looking across the street at the beautiful Brigham City Tabernacle.

The married couple stepped out of the temple to the group of expectant family and friends.

Then it was photo time.

The wedding breakfast was at Jeremiah's Restaurant in Ogden. It was a true breakfast and was so delicious. It had to taste extra delicious to Rebecca who had been saying for 2 hours that she was starving.

The wedding reception was held that evening at a church building in North Ogden. It had a very rustic feel to it and was so beautifully decorated.

Amanda made the beautiful pine cone quilt.

Amanda made the wedding cake. Maggie did all the flowers for the occasion. We were admiring the pine cones worked throughout the bouquets, the boutineers, the cake and the table decorations.

Sam and Kathy were sitting at our table and I was getting a kick out of Kathy getting two chocolate doughnuts. She said one was for Wes. She was taking both of them home to him to see which one he would pick before she ate one. Such a kind mother!!

Since she is such a chocolate lover, I was teasing her about her choice of doughnuts. She pointed out she chose hot chocolate to drink over the hot cider. At the end of the evening, I noticed she had a chocolate mint on her plate. I love her passion for chocolate.

We had earlier been talking about public displays of affection. Kathy said she and Sam don't even like to hold hands in public. Even that's a little too much PDA for her. With a little prodding from Sam, he showed me that he will hold his wife's hand in public. 

It was a fun and beautiful wedding day.

I love my brother Andy and his family. It is a wonderful thing to now have Danielle a part of the family. 

Third Heart Surgery; Home For Christmas; Christmas Photos

The University of Utah Hospital is now becoming familiar to us. It is where my new cardiologist, Dr. Freedman, is located. It is where I have gone for a chest x-ray. It is where I have gone for a lung function test.

It was where I would be having the third attempt at a third doctor trying to get a pacemaker upper lead wire placed in my heart on Christmas Eve morning.

It was quite unsettling to see these stiff legs poking up out of the back of a truck on one of our visits to the hospital.

After an early-morning run to the hospital for an x-ray the Monday before Christmas, we came home and started packing up all our Christmas decorations.

It was a little sad to think the house would be bare on Christmas, but it was going to be the best thing to come home from the hospital Christmas Day and have all that work done.

I was going to have to be careful not to lift my left elbow higher than my shoulder and not lift anything heavier than a milk carton for a month.

Carson Stanford, from Missionary Medical, came to visit us. For three years, while on our mission,  we talked quite regularly with him over the phone.

Carson got off work a little early this particular day and wanted to meet us in person. He particularly wanted Glen to know how much his positivity every single time they talked on the phone meant to Carson. It was fun to put a face to the voice we knew so well.

The big day had arrived. Dr. Freedman gave us every indication that he expected a good outcome of his attempt with my heart and off we went to report for surgery early the morning of Christmas Eve.

We saw a festive, huge, decorated Christmas tree upon arrival. I just had to stand by it to enjoy a tree since ours had been taken down.

They were ready and waiting for me in Room 5. The IV line was put in me without any hint of trouble. HURRAH!!!

The last words Dr. Freedman said to me before prepping for surgery was, "If I can't get this wire in, nobody can." That gave us confidence. We were planning on a Christmas miracle; third time's the charm; a positive outcome.

I had been so nervous about this procedure--the part where I was going to be awake for it. I was awake during the pacemaker implantation and can remember the pressure I felt over and over again on my chest. I can remember the frustration of that doctor and later learned it was because he had been unsuccessful in placing that upper lead wire.

I did NOT want to be awake for this surgery. Dr. Freedman said I needed to be awake, but then I heard him tell the anesthesiologist that he wanted me in a deeper state of wakefulness, rather than lighter. Another HURRAH!!!

They wheeled me down to the surgery room and stopped just outside the door. I got off the soft bed and walked over to the hard surgery table. They got everything attached to me and then I felt a little funny. I asked the anesthesiologist if he had just given me something and he said yes.

That's all I remember until I woke up in the recovery room. I was in surgery for 3 hours--an hour longer than anticipated.

As soon as I saw Glen I asked the big question: "Did it work?" He shook his head and answered, "No." I was so sad! Of course going into the surgery we knew we had the two strikes against us, but we were ever so hopeful it was going to work this time.

I was surprised when they brought me a box lunch to eat right there as I was recovering. That has never happened before. They told me I would not have to stay the night as originally planned because there was no need to monitor my heart with no new lead wire.

They had me get dressed and then we waited and waited for someone to bring a wheelchair and wheel me out. No one came. One of the medical staff sitting at the desk asked if we needed help. It was about that time we realized we were on our own to get out of the hospital.

It was so weird to not get wheeled out of there--especially since that hospital is so huge. We stopped to pause for a photo at the big tree once again because I wanted to get a photo of one of the medical people.

 I laughed at his headgear. Now there's a guy with a sense of humor.

This was the first time my medical ID bands were attached to my ankle instead of my wrist. Reminded me a bit of the toe tags they put on dead people in the morgue. Then I thought of the stiff legs in the back of the truck. Those were some morbid thoughts.

I felt pretty good when we got home in the late afternoon. I probably could have gone to the family Christmas Eve party at Mom and Dad's house, but, then again, it was nice to be home where I could doze off several times throughout the evening.

Dallas and Rebecca came by the next day to drop off some leftovers Mom had sent home for us from the party. Dallas gave Glen the Christmas ornaments he had made for him out of G&K rubber stress balls made in the shape of a uniform and a hard hat with the GK logo on them.

We got a good laugh out of those. What a thoughtful gift from Dallas. We will cherish them every year we hang them on our Christmas tree.

I was feeling fine on Christmas (just a sore left shoulder where the incision site is located). We decided to venture down to the Golden home so the children could show us everything they got for Christmas.

They were cute and excited to show us their things. Brooke even did a fashion show with all the clothes she got for Christmas.

They sent us home with leftovers Dallas had brought home from his work party the day before. Between those and the leftovers Mom had sent, that lasted us several meals. How nice!!

Right after we had taken down all our Christmas decorations, Mark and Winnie Rohde had stopped by to give us a gigantic poinsettia plant and wish me well on my upcoming surgery.

Little did I know how much I would enjoy that beautiful red plant and the accompanying Christmas cards that provided our only decorations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I am thankful they acted on that prompting. It really touched my heart.

Kathy Jacketta brought over some stuffed mushrooms that Roger had just made. Glen loves those things. I was still enjoying leftovers for that meal and it was nice Glen got something new to eat.

Glen has been such a good companion to me during the recovery of the horrific surgery and during the recovery of this surgery. This has been nothing compared to that brutal previous surgery.

Nonetheless, I have been tired and it has been nice to sit in the easy chair watching hour after hour of Hallmark Christmas movies.

We had to laugh when we saw this little funny as we had already been commenting about how they use the same actors and the plots are pretty predictable and pretty much the same. But they are feel-good movies and we love them.

Knowing how much Glen loves to watch ball games all through the holidays, I have been very appreciative of him spending so much time watching these movies with me. 

When he feels the need to watch sports, then I blog and we are both happy.

Our children shared some Christmas photos. First up is Jacob's family.

Rebecca's family.

Abe's family.

 Sarah's family.

 Ben's family.