One Holiday down, two to go...

Well, Halloween is over and we have Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to. I really enjoy the holidays and the holiday spirit, and hopefully this year I'll stay on top of all of it!

Last month seemed just as busy as always, but it seems like there's not as much to write about - I don't know why. Anyway, General Conference was great as usual and I can't wait to get the Conference edition of the Ensign so that I can go over all the talks. I realize that they are published on the internet already, but I'm old, so I don't like to read online! I like to be able to highlight and mark them.

I finished my CERT class and got my certificate in the mail. I can now legally assist emergency personnel during an emergency - in fact, I'm expected to. We are to take care of things at home first, though.

We attended our nephew Jacob's wedding and luncheon one Saturday, which were very nice. That night Randy played at an arts festival with his blues band.

We attended a dinner for the High Priests in our Stake and the speaker that they had afterwards was great. He is one of the counselors at the new temple, and he was so funny. He could have been a professional comedian if he had chosen another route in life. Funny, yet spiritual - wonderful qualities.

I took a tour of the new hospital that is about 5-10 minutes from our house. It is beautiful. It opens for public use tomorrow. That's where we will go now for emergencies - although, hopefully we won't have any!

Randy attended our Stake Conference Priesthood session downtown in the Conference Center. Our Stake was invited to attend there at the Conference Center for our Sunday morning meeting, but we elected to just go to a meeting house broadcast near here instead of fight the crowds. It was enjoyable. That afternoon Randy and I drove up the canyon to see the changing fall colors and I snapped a few pictures.

Guess that's all for now. Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have SO much to be thankful for that it is hard to know where to begin counting blessings.

Aaahhh. . . Autumn

Well, the last day of September brought us only the 4th measureable snowfall in that month since records have been kept here in Utah. It stayed mostly in the mountains, although it snowed at our house but didn’t stick. The weather is supposed to warm up a bit again after today, but we are definitely into Fall.

At the beginning of the month we celebrated Dylan’s 18th birthday! I have no more children – they’re all adults now. That must be some kind of milestone.













Then we celebrated Mom’s 91st birthday in the middle of the month.















Randy has completed his sculpture-mold class and has cast 2 statues of Christ from his mold. He painted one white and the other has a bronze-look. He will take them to display at an art festival on Oct 10th where his blues band is playing. Hopefully he will be able to start selling them. He’s doing one of Joseph Smith, and he already has George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John Lennon. He wanted to do a whole line of music icons, but they have to have been dead over 75 years or so in order to not have to pay exorbitant fees for making a profit on their ‘likeness’.

I have been attending a CERT (community emergency response team) class that is taught by representatives of the fire department. It lasts for 7 weeks and upon completion I will be certified to assist emergency personnel in an emergency. So far, we have had an overview of the CERT program, learned fire safety, and had 2 classes on medical operations. Over the next 3 weeks we will cover light search and rescue operations, disaster and terrorism psychology, and have a disaster simulation where we will use all the skills that we have learned.

I helped Randy build a brick mailbox to replace our old one (green - on left). Neither of us are brick masons, but I think it turned out pretty good. I didn’t protect my fingers at first, though, so I have raw skin on a few of them – ouch.
The capstone was so heavy that it took Randy, Dylan, and two of his friends to move it and place it on top.

My clothes dryer has stopped heating and the heating element and thermostat are both good – so we may have to call in a repairman – ugh.

Jesse has started working at a downtown restaurant called “Row House” that is the nicest restaurant in Topeka, along with his other job. We hope this goes well for him. Tyler is still plugging away at work and school. Heidi moved into an apartment that is halfway between our house and the University of Utah to cut down on her drive-time. She will get a roommate down the line, but is enjoying all the space for now. Ingrid and Jeff are doing the same except that Ingrid got a raise - YEA! Dylan is still trying to find work – he thought he was going to do painting here in town, but he may end up moving to Topeka and doing roofing for his uncle for awhile.

During the last month I also cleaned the church building, cleaned the temple, attended 3 wedding receptions, weeded a few yards for friends, gave Mom a perm, took part in an emergency drill for our city, had the sister missionaries over for dinner, attended the temple several times, and watched the General Relief Society broadcast.

I am excited to watch the General Conference broadcast this weekend. I am always thrilled to listen to the inspired words of our prophet and other leaders, and I feel that there is nothing else in the world that I could be doing during the Conference broadcast that would be better for me or is more important. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I am so thankful for the restoration! (PS - after Sunday - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk will blow you away!!)

Happy Birthday this month to Jacob, Zach, Adam, Paige, Ethan, Becky Parry, Jared and Jason! Happy Halloween to all!!

The end of summer. . .

Well, I can tell it’s the end of summer because so many things have been accomplished and now I find myself digging my heels into the ground and not wanting Fall to arrive. It’s not that I don’t like that season, but I love Summer and I hate what comes after Fall – Winter. Oh, well . . .

Randy has been attending a class on Saturday mornings to learn to make molds for his sculptures. This is one of Christ after it has several layers of purple plastic– I know it looks like he has a Mohawk, but that’s where he will cut it apart!

















When it’s done, he can then either pour a finished sculpture out of resin, bronze, or other materials. Bronze is very expensive, so he will do the first one, at least, out of resin. It can always be painted to look like bronze! He is also working on a website where he can sell his recordings.

Not much has changed in Jesse’s life – we talked to him for a long time this last week, but I can’t remember a lot of news. He’s enjoying his work at the restaurant and he really likes the owner/manager. But the manager is going to be gone (he’s in the service) and Jesse’s not sure he will like the manager that will replace him. Jesse’s got a puppy now – the dog and the cat basically stay away from each other – a mutual toleration. Tyler is back at school along with working, so he’s pretty busy. He’s taking 12 hours this semester on 2 long days, and works the other 3. Since he has moved, he is in a different ward and his new bishop is Bishop Michael Parry – one of Dave’s brothers - small world. Heidi celebrated her 25th birthday and Dylan wrote her a great poem!

She had a “gang” conference in St. George, so she also got to visit with friends down there and had a good time. She got braces on her teeth AGAIN – which is NOT such a good time. She has started back at school – 11 hours. Ingrid and Jeff are doing well. Ingrid is sick of her job at the daycare because she is always having to do the work of the people that are being paid a lot more, while they just do nothing. But, she will hang onto it until she finds something else. Dylan still hasn’t found a job. He and his friend were supposed to go to Idaho and do scaffolding, but he found out he has to be 18 years old, and his birthday isn’t for another eight days. So, he’s been filling out applications, but is still hoping to go up there in a few weeks. Randy thinks he can get him a job doing roofing as a laborer, also, once he turns 18 – but that would be a terrible environment. I don’t know if the surroundings at the scaffolding job will be much better…

Tyler helped Randy build a shed for us and Dylan also helped a bit. We moved a lot of garden and lawn stuff out there, along with a bunch of tools.

Now we can actually get around the universal gym and weight bench in our garage and maybe they will get some use!

We have several hummingbirds that visit our nectar-feeder each day. It's just off our front porch, so I can see it from the desk in the office. I took some still shots, and then I actually took some video of one. (This was accidental because I had my camera set wrong - but oh, well...!!)

Randy got me a laptop last month. My desktop computer is real old and SO slow! But, I still use it some because I haven’t got Word on the laptop yet. I started to download some free word programs from the web, but either they aren’t actually free (yearly and monthly fees) or they try to add-on all kinds of things to your computer. But, I should be set soon.

I admit it - I am an organization-freak. I put organizers in my bathroom drawers and the excitement took days to wear off! Pretty sad.

I also re-painted the front door and front light fixtures because they were looking pretty bad. Please ignore the big dents in the door – they were here when we moved in!

I got some frozen

strawberries to make smoothies and some frozen cherries for pies. These were from a special order that a lady in our Stake organized. I also got ¾ bushel of peaches from another woman in the Stake that I have since canned, along with about 11 quarts of tomatoes – with more growing outside on my plants.

I am trying to perfect my homemade wheat bread so that I can use up some of my stored wheat. I’m afraid I’m turning domesticated!

We attended the Oquirrh Mountain temple dedication. It was wonderful. I’m so excited to start attending there. Our Stake is now on the New Family Search and we have found a lot of names on Randy’s line that need work done. My brother will also let us know when he has more work for us to do on my side of the family. This is certainly a wonderful time to be alive!

We also attended our nephew, Richie Preece’s homecoming talk. He just completed a mission to Oklahoma. It was great. And Dylan and I attended a fireside for all those who went on Trek this summer. They filmed the experience and made a wonderful DVD and each participant got a copy.

Happy Birthday this month to Dylan and Mom! And Happy Labor Day to all!

Summer Activities Galore!

Here we are at the end of the summer! It seems to go faster every year. Last month Randy flew back to Topeka for his brother’s baptism. He said it was a really spiritual meeting and it was good to see his family again. Here's a picture of Dan and his daughter, Shiloh, who lives here in SLC.

Jesse got a job serving lunch at another restaurant. He’s still looking for something to do in the evenings. Randy got to visit with him when he was in Topeka. Tyler went river rafting with his roommate, Luke, and had fun, but was extremely tired because of all the unexpected events in their adventure. They went dressed as Indians – need I say more?
He has spent this last week moving into a new place. Heidi has been able to return to work now that her thumb is mostly healed. It still hurts sometimes, depending on what she has to use it for. She is looking for a house to buy before the end of November so that she can take advantage of the government’s $8000 incentive. Ingrid and Jeff got to come up to visit and attend the family reunion.

It was wonderful to see them – I wish they lived closer. Jeff’s back is really bothering him, so he’d gotten it checked out and will probably have surgery soon. Sitting in a truck for long hours only exasperates the problem. Dylan enjoyed the Utah trek in Wyoming, but not as much as the one in Kansas. They didn’t have any rain and it was extremely hot. One night they slept among the cow pies –YUK. He was asked to give a 5 minute talk on a gospel principle that he learned there, and he spoke on service and did a great job.

I got to see my friend from Nashville, Lisa Larsson, a few weeks back. Her family was in our branch the last 3 years before we moved to Kansas. Her husband is from Sweden, and that is where they live now. They are going to the temple next month to be sealed as a family – I’m so excited for her!

Connie earned a free dinner at Tucano’s restaurant because she tutored some associates at work (from Africa and the Philippines) in English. So, Randy and I took her there for dinner a few weeks back. It was yummy!

I went on a “fieldtrip” to the Church Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake. I went with my missionary partner Jill, Natalie- the lady from the ward that we are teaching, and Esther- from the ward that is her good friend. (Esther also happens to be the granddaughter of Rhea and Eldon Gale from the ward we grew up in). It was wonderful to see how the Church blesses the lives of so many people throughout the world.

Dylan and Randy got to supervise parking at the new temple for the Open House a few weeks ago. Then they went through the temple for the Open House. I got to serve again last Friday – this time in Hospitality, serving cookies and bottled water. The gentleman that was in charge of our group (Bro. Wayne, I think) told us a few interesting stories. First, he talked about the day that lightening struck (the last time I was serving). He said that the Angel Moroni is supposed to be a lightning rod (see last month’s picture) and that there is metal going all the way from his head down into the basement of the temple. This statue saved many lives that day, because otherwise anyone in the temple touching metal (stairway railings, for example) probably would have gotten zapped. On August 10 they will have 2 cranes there – one to take the old Angel Moroni down, and one to put a new one up (it is not quite finished, but should be by that date). The old one will have to be refurbished (he said there is really quite a lot of damage to it) and then will end up on another temple somewhere in the world. Another story he told was about a group of Hindu’s that went through a few weeks ago. They were at Temple Square in Salt Lake and were very disappointed that they could not go into that temple. They were told that they could tour the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, however. So, arrangements were made even though all the tours were full. They were taken into the General Authorities room instead of an outdoor tent to see the 10 minute temple movie at the beginning of the tour. They were visibly moved and some had tears in their eyes. He led them through the various rooms and had to explain some of it to them, although they understood a lot. When they got to the Celestial Room, he told them that this is God’s Living Room and he just allowed them to meditate there for awhile. Then he showed them one of the sealing rooms just off the Celestial Room and he said that not one of them had a dry eye. The head Hindu asked him to explain about forever families and then Bro. Wayne promised to have the missionaries visit him. He received an email the next day asking if he had made a request for missionaries yet because the Hindu was so anxious, said it was the most spiritual experience he had ever had, and he was excited that he had been able to experience it with his whole family. Bro. Wayne also told about the head Catholic bishop in this area going through and being so impressed that he has had most of the Catholic leaders from Utah go through it now. We’re excited to attend the dedication of the Oquirrh Mountain temple at the end of this month.

We had our extended Otis Preece family reunion last weekend. Thursday night there was a dinner at my cousin Pat’s house and a great-great-great-grandson of Joseph Smith and his wife were speakers. It was very interesting and we received a free book about Emma Smith from a name drawing, and then purchased the DVD “Emma Smith – My Story”. My mother actually got to attend that evening and I think she had an enjoyable time seeing everyone, although she had a hard time hearing. Then there was another adult dinner on Friday night with a slide show of pictures from everyone’s lives – aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

On Saturday there was an all-day picnic at

my cousin’s house again. There was food, volleyball, tennis, swimming pool, etc.

We didn’t get there until after lunchtime, but we stayed for several hours. It was a lot of fun. Dylan had his friend, Ashton, with him and they played tennis against each other and also played doubles with a few of my cousins. They did some pretty crazy dives into the pool.

The most exciting thing to happen lately is that we have put sprinklers in! When I say we, I mean mostly Randy. It has taken us over 2 weeks and we have had a little help from some guys in the ward, but Randy has done the majority of the work. Tyler came over one Saturday and helped Randy dig trenches with a trench-digger.

We had to dig them by hand (using shovels, of course!) when the trench was within 2 feet of any gas lines or underground cable, which seemed to be everywhere. Dylan also helped some and they are finally in.

We still need to finish filling up some of the trenches with dirt and planting new grass seed in the back. I am SO looking forward to not having to drag the sprinklers around the yard for a couple hours each day.

Finally - my tomato plants are growing like crazy! I will need to start doing some canning next week.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. Happy Birthday to Jerry, Heidi, Richie, Wendy, Dustin and Lex!! We’re excited to hear Richie talk the last week of this month after he comes home from his 2-year mission in Oklahoma.