In like a lion?

The weather on this first day of March is wonderful and spring-like. Doesn't that mean that the end of the month will be horrible?

I’ve had a cold since Tuesday. It started out with a sore throat for a couple of days, then I got really congested. I had a really hard time breathing a couple of nights – even with Nyquil. But, I got to lay in bed most of Saturday and I took it easy Sunday, so I think I’m on the downhill side of it. I’m still coughing, I might be developing a sinus infection, and my voice is an octave lower than normal, but I’m starting to feel better! I shouldn’t complain, though, because I’m healthy most of the time.

I mailed our tax returns in 3 weeks ago – next year I think I’ll send them online – I’m just a little slow with new technology! But, we will be getting refunds on both federal and state (if I did it right!) and we’ll put the money in the bank for Dylan’s mission fund. I’m finally paying my monthly bills online, although I don’t have them automatically deducted from our bank account – I have to keep SOME control!

We had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and both Randy and Tyler got me flowers – Yea! I love having fresh flowers around the house. When I get them in February, it helps me look towards spring.

Saturday night we went to see a 4-piece group (violin, guitar, clarinet and accordian) playing tango and opera pieces. They were all really good musicians. There were also 4 dancers that did the tango on about 5 or 6 songs. I’m sorry – but I think Randy and I could have done it. They were just really dramatic and the women kicked their legs sometimes – But, the music was great.

I made a doctor’s appointment for last week to get my hand-trembling looked at, but they had a problem with our insurance, so I had to cancel and I’ll have to find another doctor that accepts our insurance. It’s been trembling for the last couple of years whenever I try to write (seriously, you’d think I was 100 years old to look at my writing!), so I’ve finally gotten fed up with it and I hope there is something that can be done.

The kids are all doing good – Jesse is kept pretty busy with work, in fact he’s probably going to quit the job at Bosco’s because it’s interfering with his other work, and he thinks he can easily get 40 hours a week between Ramada Inn and The Row House restaurant. Ingrid has not been feeling well lately, but has still been able to go to work. She went to the doctor today and will get results from all the tests, but she DID find out she has an umbilical hernia from lifting one of the kids at the daycare last week! We're talking surgery within the next 3 weeks. Tyler, Heidi and Dylan have gotten together several times to watch the Jazz games on TV. I love that my kids are such good friends as adults!! Tyler and Heidi keep busy with work and school and Dylan has been getting more hours at work, although he’s talking about finding a second job. I got him some beginner piano books at the D.I. and he’s been reviewing what he learned in band about music theory and teaching himself some piano. Heidi got her foot run over and had to deal with a crazy lady at work – read about it on her blog. www.adelheide414.blogspot.com Tyler has been checking out reports about the earthquake in Chile – he filled a mission in Santiago, so he’s familiar with a lot of the areas that got damaged. I hear the temple in Santiago is OK, but the angel Moroni lost his trumpet! www.kcsg.com/news/local/85731387.html

I haven’t started a master’s program yet because I need to use federal funds and the program I was interested in is too new – it takes about 2 years for a new program to get FAFSA approval. So, I have switched to an MBA with emphasis in marketing. Not exactly what I wanted, but hopefully I can learn how to market Randy’s sculptures so that he can actually make money from them. (He's currently in the process of making a mold for his George Washington.) I start April 4 and it’s all online so I can do it from home.

Guess that’s it for this month – hope you all enjoy St. Patrick’s Day – if that’s even a holiday that you celebrate!

Six more weeks of winter?

So, I heard something about PETA wanting to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robot for Groundhog Day – amazing.

We’ve had snow on the ground all winter, but it doesn’t seem to be as overwhelming as it was last year. Maybe it’s just that the sun has been out a lot more, but I seem to be surviving so far. Only 6 more weeks of winter – Yea!

Randy got all the tests back that the specialist had done to find out what’s going on with his kidneys. Diagnosis – everything looks OK, but he should see the specialist a couple of times a year just to be sure!! What??!! So, he still doesn’t know why his feet and hands tingle and feel like pins and needles are poking him, but this doctor still wants to see him, just to be sure. Ugh.

Jesse has a new job at a Ramada Inn in downtown Topeka. He’s working the graveyard shift a couple of nights a week. He’s at the front desk running reports as the night auditor. Tyler has started a new semester of school working towards his graphic art degree. His work is the same, and I imagine installing satellite dishes for internet connection is pretty cold this time of year. Heidi has also started a new semester towards her 2^nd degree – this one a Bachelor’s in Exercise Science. This semester she is working the swing shift at the U of U. Dylan just dropped his Badmitten class at SLCC today. There weren’t very many people in the class, and no one near his expertise level, so he wasn’t learning anything and certainly wasn’t being challenged at all. His permanent retainer is giving him some trouble, so he has to see the orthodontist this week.

Ingrid and Jeff just refinanced their duplex in Florida, so they will have much smaller payments and will be able to save a lot of money. Heavenly Father always blesses us when we are doing our best - their interest rate is lower than when they started this long process! We got to visit them last month and it was wonderful. Randy had some safety meetings in Denver, so I went along.

Once we got out of Salt Lake, we left the yucky inversion that was making the valley really smoggy and the view of the mountains was great.

We spent a couple of nights with them at their place and attended their church meetings.

Then we also spent a couple of nights in a downtown hotel, since Randy’s work was paying for it.

It had a great view, except for all the buildings that were in the way!

We spent a lot of time getting to know their dog, Ginger – she’s real cute. OK - she looks like Jar-Jar Binks to me... but cuter.

Their Durango wouldn’t start one day, so Jeff had to take it apart. It started right up when he was finished.

I attended an ICS (Incident Command Sytem) meeting a week ago and there will be one this month, also. These are in preparation for an earthquake disaster drill in March for the City of Herriman (our neighborhood is involved in this even though the city limit is 2 blocks from us). A representative from Utah Task Force One will be coordinating it.

I finally got around to doing something with our bathroom that is on the main floor. I wallpapered the walls and put a border at the top.

Randy put a new towel rack and tp holder on the walls. I hope to replace the faucet sometime in the future. I’m still looking for a picture for one wall, but my Book of Mormon Timeline is there for now. People can read it if they have to spend a long time in there!

I took the Blazer into the shop this morning (Monday). It was squeaking so loud in the front end that people could hear me coming from a block away! They were able to fix it by the time I picked Connie up. I guess they had to replace a ball joint. I’ve had to have a few things fixed lately, but I’m amazed at how well it runs even with all the mileage I put on it.

Lastly - CSU has finally received my college transcripts and graduation information, so I can start graduate classes as soon as I secure a school loan and send them the money! I'm excited.

I guess that’s it for this month. I hope all the sweeties have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

2010 Here We Come.....

I haven't blogged in over 2 months, but now that the holidays are behind us, I guess it's time. Last month was busy, as usual for December. I cleaned the church, gave my Mom a perm, had Randy put some body in my limp hair, attended our ward's Christmas brunch, attended Randy's work Christmas party, sang at our Stake's Christmas Night of Music, had the car worked on, took special treats around to the neighbors, visiting teachees, and home teaching families, attended the temple several times, sent most of our Christmas cards by email and the rest by regular mail, finished Christmas shopping (I had MOST of it done in November!), attended a Christmas party at a friends, and sent birthday, wedding and anniversary greetings to several people! Even with all the busyness, we were able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and we were amazed at all the blessings in our lives. Randy even had several weeks of really bad Meniere's disease symptoms, but was still able to join in most of the festivities.

This Saturday Randy and I are flying to Denver. He has Safety meetings and we will get to visit with Ingrid and Jeff for a few days. My wonderful family members are going to make sure that things go smoothly for my mom and sister while we're gone. I'll try to remember to take lots of pictures!

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.