Levi's Baby Blessing; My Schoolteacher Mrs. Shurtliff's Viewing; Stye in My Eye

 Our little Levi is getting bigger and learning how to smile. He hadn't had his baby blessing yet.

Ben and Haley had planned to do his baby blessing when Haley's parents were in town. Her mother was here for several weeks, but then with Covid-19 going crazy, her dad decided not to travel here from New York.

That meant no blessing happened at that time.

Since I figured Haley's parents would not be here anytime soon, and since I figured baby blessings are probably occurring in homes now, and since we had already invited Ben's family and Rebecca's family here for Sunday dinner, I suggested we do the baby blessing then.

Ben got permission to do it here with one of the bishopric members joining in on the zoom call to witness the blessing.

Ben gave a beautiful blessing and was looking like the proud papa of the newly-blessed Levi Robert Thomas.

I think Levi looks like a little, mini temple worker in his white suit and tie. SO CUTE all dressed up for this special occasion!!!!

Haley stepped in for a photo with Ben and Levi.

It wasn't long until Kade decided he needed to join the photo. He was so funny positioning himself right between his parents without anyone asking him since he had been occupied playing with toys. He knows he belongs in the family!!

Later in the day, I picked up Levi when he was fussing and that just made him more unhappy. I was having no success calming him down. 

Caroline, the baby whisperer, came over and said she would take him. He immediately calmed down and fell asleep on her shoulder. So CUTE!!! Both of them!!!

That Sunday also happened to be Dallas's birthday. When asked what he wanted for his birthday treat, he requested homemade ice cream. 

I am sad I didn't get a photo of the birthday boy eating his birthday ice cream. There was no blowing out of candles on the ice cream. In Dallas's honor, I had been waiting for the next birthday person so I could post this:

I learned one of my favorite Ogden High School business teachers passed away from pneumonia. She had just gotten re-elected to her seat in the Utah House of Representatives shortly before her passing.

My memories of her also include another high school business teacher, Mrs. Gillespie. Both these teachers helped me learn to love typing and shorthand, which helped me know the direction I wanted to go--working as a secretary.

These two teachers prepared me to become Ogden High School's 1977 Business Sterling Scholar. In the years leading up to this, they had given me the encouragement I needed to have confidence in myself to compete in several state typing and shorthand competitions. I won the National Typing Competition, which was held in Denver Colorado, that same year, 

While in high school, Mrs. Shurtliff had arranged for me to start working at her brother Parley Baldwin's law office: Browning, Blackburn and Baldwin. It was my one and only job (aside from working a few months at G&K Services helping with the Kennecott account). 

Glen's friend, Randy Brambrough, met us at the mortuary for her viewing.

It was good to see Parley Baldwin once again. Mrs. Shurtliff was not only his sister, but she raised him and was like a mother to him. He told us how healthy she had been right up until the pneumonia illness set in that took her life. 

Randy and Glen were in the same ward as Parley Baldwin when they were growing up. Parley had been their young men leader and was their bishop when they returned from their missions.

I was happy to have the chance to tell Parley how much I loved his sister and what a positive influence she had on my life. 

He reminisced about all those years ago how I came to be working at his law office. He also told me how much he enjoyed working with my parents in the Ogden Temple.

Meanwhile, back in Florida, Jacob's family was experiencing long delays at the airport and then on the plane before they finally got to take-off from Orlando to make their trip home to Omaha.

From the photos we saw of their trip, it sure looked like they had a good time.

Not only did we have a ruined ceiling tile in the basement bathroom from our recent water leak, but we had previous water-stained tiles in another part of the basement in the area that is below the kitchen sink. Those stains in the tile have been there for years. 

Glen decided since he was getting out the new ceiling tiles to replace the one in the bathroom, he would go ahead and replace the other ones as well. HURRAH!!! That made me so happy as those spots have bothered me for so long.

It was nice to get that basement home improvement project completed. I want to make some home decorating improvements on the main floor because I ALWAYS feel this way in January when the house feels so bare.

Something else, besides all the water problem issues and the many fans blowing incessantly on all three levels of the house trying to make sure all the leaking water is dried up, is my eye has also been driving me crazy!!

Yes--I have had a stye in my eye and it has been a bugger!! I consulted the girls to get their opinion on my appearance.

Then I decided to consult a professional--my Doctor of Optometry brother, Dr. Mark Ward--and this was his response.

HAHA!! That gave me a good laugh as I was dealing with my insecurities!!! I also consulted the good doctor about the spelling of my eye condition.

There you go, dear readers. You have now learned a new medical term and from the official sound of it, you will never want to have this diagnosis!!

This was me a couple of days later. 

Never been so happy to see wrinkles under both of my eyes. Sure beats stretched tight, swollen skin, that's for sure!!

Quotes of the Week

Only those with firm testimonies and full conversions will be able to remain steadfast prior to the Lord's Second Coming.

--Ezra Taft Benson

Moral agency allows you to choose what you will, but you cannot control the outcome of those choices...Father in Heaven determines the consequences of your choices. Obedience will yield happiness, while violation of His commandments will not.

--Richard G. Scott

We should find great comfort in the fact that ordinary people who faithfully, diligently and consistently do simple things that are right before God will bring forth extraordinary results.

--David A Bednar

Jacob's Family at Disney World; Dinner With the Maughans; Dripping Water Brings In the New Year; Two More Mission Marriages

The day after Christmas was Dallas and Rebecca's 17th wedding anniversary. Rebecca was out shopping with Brooke and they stopped by for a few minutes. 

I asked Brooke why her mom was spending her anniversary with her instead of with her dad. Mother and daughter looked like they were having a fun time together.

Dallas and Rebecca were able to go out together that evening, so that was nice for them. The weather was clear for their date which was the exact opposite of the day they were married.

There had been a gigantic snow storm that caused a day-long power outage and snow falling so much and so steadily that their wedding photographer got in 3 wrecks on his way from Provo trying to get to the Salt Lake Temple. He turned around and went back home before reaching his destination.

Rebecca's children probably didn't even miss their parents as they have so many new toys and crafts that they got for Christmas to play with and work on.

Jacob's family left shortly after Christmas to go to Disney World. They were going to meet up with Abe's family at the beach one day, but those plans ended up not happening. Jacob's family went without them.

Plans had been made for my brother Andy's daughter Rachel to fly to Florida and vacation with Jacob's family since Rachel and Natalie are such good friends. One would think the girls are cousins since they are the same age, but it is really Jacob and Rachel who are the cousins.

There was unusually cold weather going on for a while in Florida. I kept reading about falling iguanas in Florida as I thought of our two sons in that part of the country.

The Disney World fun and adventures had begun!!!

Natalie celebrated her 18th birthday the day before New Year's Eve. 

What a fun way to bring in the New Year--vacationing in Florida!

Our other Floridians--Abe's family--did some New Year's Eve celebrating also. Newland was not feeling well that day. Sadly, he missed out on the holiday fun.

We had a little New Year's celebration a day early when we drove to Mapleton to see Michael and Lynn Maughan's townhouse they are living in until they can buy a lot and start building a home. 

Lynn was one of our faithful, devoted mission nurses. She and Michael had been contemplating leaving Escondido, California for a while and finally made the move. They now live very close to one of their sons.

They had invited us to have dinner with them. Lynn cooked the most delicious salmon.

Turns out the very first person Lynn met upon moving in was the mother of one of our missionaries--Liam Roberts. He was one of our Farsi-speaking elders. 

The Maughans had had him in their home for dinner on the mission. Now they invited him over to see us and he ended up staying for dinner. It was nice to get the update on his life.

With all the Covid scare going on for so many months, the grandchildren have not been to our house as often as they would like. On Christmas Eve, we had dinner and the program and then they left. 

They were sad they didn't have time that evening to go downstairs and play and watch movies like they like to do. Madison was begging to spend the night here.

I decided it would be fun to have them over on New Year's Eve day to spend a while here doing what they love to do. Madison came with her agenda and everything had to be done on her list before she felt the day had gone satisfactorily.

The children were begging to start the day with a French toast breakfast. Check that off the list! They helped take the ornaments off the Christmas tree and helped take down other decorations. They played downstairs for a while as Glen took the lights off the tree and I packed up the Christmas decorations in the many storage boxes that got hauled downstairs.

For lunch they wanted Costa Vida. Works for me!! I enjoy not cooking!! They got to watch movies and eat popcorn and they were in grandchildren heaven!

The night before, I had noticed a brown drip going down the entire length of the wall in the basement bathroom and a water spot on the ceiling tile. NOT GOOD!!!!

Glen took out the ceiling tile and saw that there was leaking water, but we could not figure out where the leak was coming from. We checked the main floor bathroom and saw nothing. We checked the upstairs bathroom and saw nothing. It was a mystery as to the source of the leak.

In the morning Glen called many plumbers to see if he could get someone out here to fix the leak and he was having a very hard time because it was going into the long holiday weekend. He finally got someone who was willing to come out but was going to charge a LOT of money just for the service call. UGH!!!

Shortly after Glen had arranged for a plumber, I was upstairs in the loft and heard dripping. Lots of dripping. Constant, steady dripping. I opened the door to the furnace closet and what did my eyes behold... A watery mess!!! UGGGGGGGGGH!!!

We discovered the BRAND NEW HUMIDIFIER on the left side of our BRAND NEW FURNACE was leaking--steadily and a lot. 

Glen got a hold of the furnace guy who was in Island Park for the holiday. Oh nooooooo!! He said he could send his son over to check it out. 

We got thinking about how we could turn off the water under the bathroom sink where they had run a water line for the humidifier from there and that stopped the dripping. HURRAH!!! Sure wish we had found the source of the dripping the night before!!

Glen called the furnace guy back to see if it is okay to run the furnace without water going to the humidifier and he said that would be fine. We were so relieved to know the dripping had stopped. 

I took Rebecca upstairs to show her the wet furnace closet so she could see where the water was coming from and I kept thinking that it was sure wet on that level and water had showed up in the basement, so how come we weren't seeing any water on the main floor???

We were investigating where the water might possibly be going and found a water bubble on the ceiling of the main floor bathroom. Another UGGGGGGGHHHHH!! That means water in the walls and the sheetrock. 

Glen used a needle to pop the bubble, and happily we discovered no water came out of it. He was also able to smooth the bubbled ceiling back into place and that was a relief.

We borrowed some fans and a space heater from Rebecca and using them and our fan and two space heaters, we set up our drying out stations on each floor of the house. 

It didn't occur to me to check the bedroom next to the furnace closet...

Or check the carpet in the loft next to the furnace closet... It was very wet there!!!

This was bringing back nightmares of the three water floods we had on our mission where the big heavy-duty dryer fans were brought in and carpets were stripped back and two feet of sheetrock was cut out all along the bottom of the walls. 

And this is how we are bringing in the "Happy" New Year. As one friend told me--it can only go up from here!

I had been so sad to learn Andy had gotten sick with Covid the couple of weeks before Christmas. Thankfully he is recovering and is feeling more like himself once again. 

Then another curveball came our way more recently when we learned my sister Nani now has Covid. She and her friend Jan and Jan's daughters Lindy and Heidi are all sick with it, as well as Jan's son Rich. The four women all spent Christmas Eve together and now they are all sick together. 

Rebecca, Sarah and I have talked about how the vaccine is here now and we have got to keep staying well and not get the dreaded Covid at this stage in the pandemic. Cross our fingers that no other loved ones will get it!!!

Let's end with some good news. This is actually great news. This is actually two great news stories. 

Four of our missionaries got married today: Seth Nance and Laura Johnson and Andrew Jensen and Hallie Merriman. They are our 12th and 13th couples to marry. 

We were only able to attend one wedding as the other one was out of state. 

I loved so much that her bouquet and flower decorations included succulents. Like me, she fell in love with succulents while serving her mission in southern California where succulents abound.

Each departing guest received a little paper basket with some chocolates in it and this tag that has a guitar pick attached to it. 

They had a civil marriage in Kaysville, followed by a lunch and an early afternoon reception. Then they went to the Ogden Temple in the evening to be sealed for time and all eternity. 

It really does make us happy when our missionaries marry each other. I do believe it is a wonderful blessing for those that find their eternal companion through serving a mission.

Quotes of the Week

You can know the mind and will of the Lord for your own life. You do not have to wonder if you are where the Lord needs you to be or if you are doing what He needs you to do. You can know!!! The Holy Ghost "will tell you all things what ye should do".

Russell M. Nelson

The young people of the Church...hold the future in their hands. The Church has always been one generation away from extinction. If a whole generation were lost, which will not happen, we would lose the Church.

--Henry B. Eyring

To Him, our direction is ever more important than our speed.

--Larry R. Lawrence