Quotes of the Week

 The Savior loves to restore what you cannot restore; He loves to heal wounds you cannot heal; He loves to fix what has been irreparably broken; He compensates for any unfairness inflicted on you; and He loves to permanently mend even shattered hearts.
--Dale G. Renlund

We need not walk by the shores of Galilee... to walk where Jesus walked. In a very real sense, all can walk where Jesus walked when, with his words on our lips, his spirit in our hearts, and his teachings in our lives, we journey through mortality.
--Thomas S. Monson

Knowing that the gospel is true is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion.
--David A. Bednar

Stone Mountain; New Rain Gutters; Rebecca's Basement Finished; Setting Apart For New Callings; Jury Duty

 Abe sent this photo asking the family to guess where they are. I guessed right--Stone Mountain in Georgia.

Abe had a good time walking down memory lane as he reflected back on how our family would go to Stone Mountain every year and feel so patriotic with the laser show going and the music playing and the fireworks going off at the end of the show.

And now here Abe is with his own family doing the same thing. Too fun!!

A few days ago Abe and Klarissa celebrated their anniversary. This was a sweet post of Klarissa's commemorating the event.

Another home renovation project was underway--new rain gutters were being installed. Unfortunately, the day turned rainy and the worker had to sit it out for a couple of hours which delayed the job from getting completed by a few days.

Speaking of home renovation projects... Dallas and Rebecca's basement is FINALLY finished. HURRAH!!! That took much longer than expected and gave them way too many headaches and worries before it met with their final approval.

The carpet was so cushy as we stepped on it that Glen had to spread out and see how it would feel to sleep on the carpet. Sarah's family will be sleeping there when they come to town, so he was giving it a try. 

Spencer and Madison also thought it would be fun to give the soft floor a try and had a sleepover down there. So cute. Everyone is very excited to have this project completed. 

Glen started his birthday out on Saturday by taking me to the Murray Utah Stake's Share-a-thon. He went to support the efforts of that stake to try and help people out--targeting refugees who live in the area.

It had a massive amount of furniture and clothing that people had donated to the cause. Everything there was free for the taking.

The stake Relief Society president who was in charge of the event told us about a person who asked her if there were any temple dresses. She had not seen any, but they went to look anyway. They saw one white dress that had been put out at the right moment that was the exact size the woman was looking for.

The Relief Society president considered that a huge tender mercy and was so touched by the experience she came right over to share with us what had happened. 

From there we went to the conference center for our training/luncheon/setting apart for our new callings at the prison. 

When we walked into the room and saw the tables set up with the couples' name tags, it was a flash-back to our mission president training days.

The meeting was very spiritual. Emeritus general authority Elder Don R. Clarke is the District President over all the prison branches. I was touched by the following scripture he shared as he had us insert our names in place of "Sidney and Joseph." He also changed the words "in this place" in verse 3 to "in this correctional facility."

I also felt the words to the closing hymn pierce my heart as I am nervously anticipating what the future holds for us.

We got to meet the branch president we will be working closely with. I was sad his wife could not be there. We learned of our specific assignment--the Olympus District, which is a men's unit housing the old, ill, and the prisoners who need to be protected from other prisoners.

I neglected to take a photo of the delicious meal which was chicken, pasta with cream sauce and asparagus.

It always makes my heart (or is it my stomach?) happy when a dessert is served that isn't chocolate!!

I had to laugh when we got home and the first photo that popped up on the computer was the dapper, younger version of Glen, the birthday boy. 

We really enjoyed seeing how Natalie is featured in her high school's yearbook as publishing a book. What an accomplishment for her to do while still in high school.

Because of being summoned to jury duty, we had to call off our trip to Omaha for Natalie's graduation. We were so happy Jacob sent us a link to be able to watch the graduation. It almost felt like we were there. It sure felt like we had front-row seats to the event. We were so happy to be in a temperature-controlled environment after Jacob reported it was so hot sitting out in the sun.

Sunday evening we attended a meeting that was the kickoff to get all the youth excited to attend stake youth conference. We have been asked to help with those three days which will be happening a few days after our family finishes up with our family reunion.

We have had a problem for the past 20 years--ever since we moved into this house--with the 4-way electrical switch in our house. It has been so frustrating to not have the light switches working correctly upstairs in the loft and hallway area. 

So, what did we do???? We called in a master electrician who is the best of the best!!!! Glen was his able assistant. 

It took one run to Home Depot for them to get the job completed. 

We also had another problem of our outside outlets not working. We were feeling a little bit ridiculous when Dad pointed out the ground fault outlet button on an outlet we never use in our basement that just needed to be pushed and voila--the outlets worked!!

So glad we didn't have to pay someone to tell us such a simple thing!!

Dad had done such a nice job and we were so very thankful to FINALLY get that switch problem fixed that we treated him to an Arby's lunch.

Andy and Amanda invited us to their home for a graduation celebration dinner for Rachel.

Andy grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and we ate lots of other good food as well.

Amanda had warned us a while ago that their playhouse was falling over and they were going to take it down. Sure enough, I almost cried when I saw the leaning structure that all the young children have absolutely loved playing in.

It hasn't been taken down all the way because Andy wants to preserve the roof part to put on a shed he plans to build.

I noticed the chickens and the chicken coop are no longer in their backyard either. That was always a super fun spot for the little ones to gather around as they fed the chickens.

Here's the guest of honor.

We were excited to see Cheryl's family there because we wanted to see the new baby Haisley.

She is a beautiful little baby doll! Not as much long dark hair as Charlotte had, but still quite a bit of hair for a newborn.

I had jury duty yesterday. I got on the WebEx call right at 8:00 a.m. as instructed. Things didn't even begin until after 8:30. They made sure everyone could see and hear. Around 9:00 the judge made an appearance and thanked us, told us the case, shared with us some Covid guidelines, and then we were broken off into groups. I was in group 5.

In our groups we were shown a Covid precautions video and another video showing what will happen during the court proceedings. 

Then we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and WAITED!!!!!! 

The summons said to plan on approximately 3 hours for jury selection. It was 6 hours and 20 minutes later when the judge finally came to our group and said the jury had been selected from the previous groups and we were excused from jury duty. 

It wasn't so much the length of the wait that drove me nuts because I had a good book to read. It was the many hours of us wondering if everyone else had gone to lunch and wondering why we weren't told to take a lunch break and wondering if we had been forgotten because nobody popped in to let us know what was going on.

Oh well! At least I did my civic duty and no more of my days this week are tied up in a trial. And the bright side is I got paid $18.50 for those 6+ hours of reading a book. 

Quotes of the Week

 God... reserved spirits for this dispensation who would have the courage and determination to face the world, and all the powers of the evil one, and who would build up the Zion of our God, fearless of all consequences.
--George Q. Cannon

Our Heavenly Father wants us to recall His and His Beloved Son's goodness, for the influence such remembrance has on us. By considering Their kindness, our perspective and understanding are enlarged. By reflecting on Their compassion, we become more humble, prayerful, and steadfast.
--Dale G. Renlund

Each faith-filled step will be met with help from heaven. Guidance will come as we pray to our Heavenly Father, rely on our Savior and follow Him, and listen to the Holy Spirit. Strength will come because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Healing and forgiveness will come because of God's grace. Wisdom and patience will come by trusting in the Lord's timing for us. Protection will come by following God's living prophet.
--Randall K. Bennett

Sarah In Town; Dinner at Jan's; New Callings; Solar Panels; Vacation Canceled; Relatives at Maddox

Sarah came to town for a couple of days and requested a family dinner with Rebecca's and Ben's families. 

Rebecca and Madison were snitching pineapple bites as we were preparing dinner and they looked pretty guilty when I noticed the pineapple presentation had some of the top part missing.

Sarah's reason for coming to town was to get together with her college friends, Kenz and Leslie.  

The three friends had a fun time in Salt Lake City. Sarah's favorite thing was riding scooters. 

They spent the night at a hotel wearing their matching pajamas.

They ate a fancy brunch to end their time together. 

We took Sarah to the airport. She had enjoyed her much-needed break from her household of boys. Too much time being cooped up in the house together during this past year plus of Covid lockdown.

While Sarah was off with her friends, Glen and I were invited to go to dinner with our friends at Jan and Bill's home. Jan just loves to throw a dinner party and having guests over makes her happy, so we are very happy to help her be happy by attending.

Me, Jan Evans, Diane Stewart, Colleen Kossin and LaVona Lewis (note the two sisters on the end).

Grant Stewart, Bill Evans, Lane Lewis, Bruno Kossin and Glen.

We ate a delicious grilled chicken, shrimp, baked potato, corn-on-the-cob, green salad and watermelon dinner. Then Grant and Diane pulled out their beautiful dessert presentation of fruit trifle which was the perfect ending to the meal. YUMMY!!!!

Speaking of food...I tried a couple more new recipes and they were a smashing success! The first one was slow-cooker pork chops that actually turned out to be very moist. YAY!! 

The other one was chicken tenders with the most delectable honey-mustard sauce. I guess I could technically count this as two new recipes because I had never fixed chicken tenders this way nor have I ever fixed the sauce. I was so pleased it turned out so well!

Glen and I have received new church callings. Here are some hints as to what we will be doing in the near future.

The new prison is under construction west of the airport. The Church is trying to get people in place now to have leadership organized with "volunteers" from our area for when the move is made.

We're sure this is going to be an interesting, unique experience and we're anxious to learn more about what we will be doing. Stay tuned!!

We did have to attend a required training meeting at the prison in Draper. They didn't take us past the metal detectors, so we'll see how that goes when the time comes with all the restrictions so we don't beep.

When I got my pacemaker put in, I was given specific instructions I should never go through a metal detector. I have a medical card that I show at the airport and they have me go through the body scanner machine instead of the metal detector. 

Anywhere else we have gone where there is a metal detector, I have been able to walk around it. I have been very concerned about the prison metal detector, because I had to sign something that says I will go through it every time.

Thankfully, I had a cardiology appointment this past week and talked to the pacemaker technician and the doctor about going through a metal detector. They both assured me I will be fine and that it is fine if I go through it with my pacemaker and it won't change the settings. 

I had been instructed to get a note from my doctor about my pacemaker, so I got that and am now feeling a little more calm about the metal detector part of all of this.

We had more work done on our roof. This time it was installing solar panels.

Our new roof looked so beautiful with the new shingles it seems a shame to cover it all up with solar panels.

I thought this was a sweet picture of Caroline with her dad at the Bountiful Temple. It was the first time Caroline has been in the temple to perform baptisms for the dead.

Caroline, Spencer and Madison participated in the kite flying and other activities the city hosted.

Klarissa sent a photo of Newland at the grocery store with some Checkers fries and said they were thinking of me. When we lived in Georgia and Glen was out of town, I would take the children to Checkers for a burger and fries that they would dip in milkshakes. Fun memory.

They thought of me again when they were at Texas Roadhouse eating the delicious rolls.

This was a cute post Haley shared.

Glen went golfing for the first time since his foot surgery a year ago. He was happy to get invited to go with his friends Randy, Kevin and Kenny to the golf course at Hill Air Force Base. It brought back fond memories when he went there with them as a youth. 

Glen stopped by Chick-fil-A (his favorite restaurant) on his way home.

Glen and I planned a trip to Omaha for Natalie's graduation. We decided to extend our vacation by going to Mt. Rushmore on our way back home. Glen got busy making hotel reservations. We asked Rebecca all her tips about the Mt. Rushmore part of our trip. 

We were ready to go. An 8-day trip sounded so fun and relaxing--May 21-29. What a great thing to look forward to over Glen's birthday.

Then it happened...

I have been summoned to jury duty. And it just happens to be the week we were planning to go out of town. UGH!!!!!! 

Since this trip was planned very recently, I did not write it on my original questionnaire and had been hoping I would get summoned (if I had to get summoned) before the last two weeks of June which is our family reunion (and which I had noted on two different questionnaires). 

So, in essence, I got what I wished for.

I do not understand numbers 1 and 2. Why would my term start on May 24th, but I don't really have to do anything until May 25th??????? 

One thing is for sure--I did understand the meaning of the last line of the summons. I don't want to become that familiar with the penal system!!!!! I'll stick to prison and bypass jail.

Lexi Bradford, one of our missionaries, married Adam Shaw last month in Oregon. We were able to attend their reception last night in Alpine. Her mother made her wedding dress. It was so beautiful! 

Her mother is the one who made the adorable missionary Christmas stockings that we love so much. 

Lexi had three of our sister missionaries as some of her bridesmaids: Kailey Quist Crismon, McKell Childs and Kayla Eyre Rasmussen. These four sisters were powerhouse missionaries. We were so blessed to have them in our mission.

We drove to Logan to pick up the family reunion t-shirts today. Sarah does such a great job getting that organized each time we have a reunion. 

Since we were up north, we decided to stop at Maddox on our way back home to have an afternoon meal.

As I was sitting there, I saw some people being seated and told Glen my relatives had just arrived. It was my Aunt Anna Mae with her son Richard and his wife. 

I found out they were there celebrating Aunt Anna Mae's birthday. What great planning for us both to be there at the same time and we were seated so closely to each other. It was so fun to see her and talk to them for a little bit.