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. 

Logan's Stitches; Karate Kids and Mom; Javelin-Throwing Spencer; Lagoon With Ben's Family; Mother's Day

The fathers and sons outing for Jacob, Luke and Logan took a little detour from the campground to a medical facility. Logan got injured when he was playing on a playground when he jumped and hit his head.

The gash was deep enough to need four stitches.

Poor boy!! They hadn't planned to spend the night camping, so at least this didn't mess up any sleepover plans.

Sarah's boys are now in karate classes. They got a family deal so I am anxious to see Sarah in a karate robe and belt...

In the meantime, let's just enjoy these adorable photos of Lincoln and Jonah in their karate uniforms. It appears Lincoln is taking this quite seriously.

I loved it when Sarah finally posted a photo of her in her martial arts uniform and belt. She will surely become a black belt because she loves to excel (pun on her last name intended) in everything she does. 

I had mentioned Rebecca doing the book fair at the elementary school. She has been in charge of it for several years now. The book fairs are held several times throughout the year and she organizes the volunteers and heads it all up. It was fun to see this post pop up on FaceBook. 

Spencer has been giving track and field a try. He ran the 100-yard dash and had an impressively long javelin throw.

That called for an ice cream treat!

These are a few photos of Spencer at another track meet.

Look at that boy run!!! Leading the pack!! 

I got a good chuckle over the story behind this photo from Abe. Magnus had gotten into the diaper cream and did a great job avoiding the eyes as he rubbed the cream all over Monty's face.

It was wonderful to get together for dinner with Glen's sisters once again after such a long time of Covid restrictions. It was soooo windy when we walked out of the restaurant. Ray and Maurine were hurrying to their car and didn't want to come back for a photo.

I can't blame them. Blowing hair is not my best look.

We went with Rich and Barbara to a cemetery so Glen could help Barbara find one of their relatives. Glen and Rich were walking around trying to find the headstone, and they soon found it, so that made Barbara happy.

Barbara is an avid quilter and made me a beautiful patriotic pillow. I love it!!

At home, I had more time to look at and admire my pillow gift. I love all the detail work. She even put in a zipper in the back panel so I can take the pillow out and wash the cover if necessary.

Two of our former sister missionaries were in town and wanted to come see us. We fed them a French toast breakfast on Saturday morning.

It was nice to get caught up on Morgan Olsen and Amber Kovach's lives.

After they left, I tuned into our online Stake Relief Society Women's Conference. LaVona Lewis is the Stake Relief Society President and she did a fabulous job organizing and carrying out the conference.

I enjoyed the pre-recorded video of Colleen Kossin teaching about making dinners for storage using freeze-dried foods, rice and beans. She is so cute and did such a great job. She's been our ward's emergency preparation specialist for years and she has learned a lot and does an excellent job sharing her knowledge with others.

My favorite was how LaVona introduced Colleen as not only her sister in the gospel, but also her sister in real life. Love these two sisters (and their husbands) who just happen to be some of our dear friends.

The talks were very spiritual and well done. What was extremely impressive is anyone who signed up for the conference had a lunch delivered to them the night before so we could eat our lunch following the conference. WOW!!! 

My box lunch showed up on my porch the evening before as was promised and I enjoyed it for lunch while Glen ate buffalo wings. We were both thrilled with our individually different lunches that day.

As we were eating our lunch, Ben and Haley texted to see if we wanted to join their family at Lagoon. We had our season passes that we hadn't been able to use last year, so we decided to go ahead and join them there.

The place was PACKED!!!! The parking lot was so full it took a while to find a parking spot. The lines were soooo long! But at least it was a cool day and we were not roasting in the long wait lines. 

After waiting for what felt like forever to get on the dinosaur egg drop ride, Kade had a very scary experience. I was surprised they even had him go on that ride. It scares me! He cried with every drop. Poor boy being scared to death at an amusement park where everything should be fun.

He was much, much happier on all the other rides.

Levi was my little buddy at Lagoon. I helped take care of him to free up Ben and Haley so they could enjoy being with Kade. The lines for the roller coasters and other rides for bigger people were so long that Ben and Haley didn't even want to go off by themselves to ride those rides.

I can no longer find my favorite sunscreen for sensitive skin--not even on the internet. I bought two other kinds to try out. I was so worried these different ones will give me an allergic reaction as others have in the past.

Sure enough, I woke up Sunday (Mother's Day) with burning, rashy skin. It was very uncomfortable all day long. Surprisingly my face wasn't too bad. It was probably because I had put the sunscreen over my make-up.

We had visitors on Mother's Day. Our former missionary Gwendolynn McCray brought her soon-to-be husband Caden with her so we could meet him. 

It made me happy to see the photo Natalie posted of her with her mother on Mother's Day.

I also enjoyed another photo of Laurie with all her children.

I was surprised to see a flower bouquet and Mother's Day card on the porch a couple of days before Mother's Day. It was from one our missionaries, Nate Wilson. He so thoughtfully delivered a plant and a card to me last Mother's Day. What a sweet guy!!!

The message on the card from Abe made me laugh.

The inside of the card said, "From birth to present." Let's just say it is the perfect card from that child, and he knows it!! Oh how I love him!!!

I love all the other children as well. I appreciated the cards, phone calls, texts and other expressions of love and gratitude I received for Mother's Day.

I love my mother and am thankful to her for raising me during my difficult years from birth to present as well!