Sleepover

We had a sleepover with Taylor and Easton. We had loads of fun making gingerbread Christmas trees. Here are a few pictures from the night.

UTAH RANKED MOST DEPRESSED

That makes me so sad.....I saw a report by a psychiatrist that states it is from High expectations and lots of guilt because of organized religion. Wow, are we good at "should'ing on ourselves. I should do this. I should do that, I should have done this....Many years ago I heard a phrase "I shall not should on myself today." I am trying to use that in my life. I try not to use should in my vocabulary. I can use the word could, because that allows for choice.

I thought I would take the time while Larry is out of town to do an update. If I did it each time he was out of town, our entries would be much more often. It has been a busy last 6 weeks for Larry. He has been to Germany twice, Brasil twice and to Minneapolis sometime in between. He also got his million mile status notification and is very tired of the travel. His back is still very sore and we hope that it will get some rest while he is home for the month of December.

I am sitting in my basement, while up above me my living room floor is being installed finally. Hopefully my hardware will be next and then the trim and finding someone to do the backsplash. My living room furniture will be delivered somewhere around the 12th of December. I'm not sure how the furniture wil look with the paint and so may end up doing some type of treatment over the yellow paint. The temple has been closed for the last two weeks and so I have been busy cleaning out closets and drawers, going through the last 5 or 6 boxes in the basement that are left from the kitchen. I really need to decide what in those boxes will be going up into the kitchen.

I loved our Thanksgiving Holiday. It was wonderful to spend time with my extended family. I think that my daughters gained some very valuable insights into family dynamics.

Our first Christmas party is coming up on Saturday. The ward is having its party the first Saturday of the month to avoid all the other conflicts. It will be a very pain free party. We have divided things and each of us have a fairly short list of things to do for it. We hope to set a wonderful tone for the Christmas season.

I have Christmas cards to get out. I think I will do some type of photo montage of what we have done throughout the year. However, since my computer crashed, I have very few of the addresses of friends that I used to send cards to every year. I keep hoping that somehow I can get them all back, but some only send cards every other year. And since they haven't heard from me for a few years, they may not send them at all. I miss my friendships that I ahve formed over the years, but am grateful for those who keep in touch. I told my kids that all I want for Christmas is a work day where they can all be here to work on things in the basement room. I have a ton of books that we will need to go through.

Our Hawaii Vacation, Part II

The second part of our vacation was the "working" part of the vacation. Our hotel and most meals were paid for at the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel and Spa( http://www.grandwailea.com/). It was a beautiful and relaxing place to spend a few days. We arrived on a Wednesday Morning and Larry's scheduled shift was Wednesday from 1 to 5 p.m. for registration. I was there to help. It felt strange NOT to. We met some wonderful people as we worked the registration desk. Each meal we shared tables with different people from different areas of the world who are successfully improving their lives with their careers with Tahitian Noni International. It was wonderful to see the business from that end. All I ever see is the view from corporate HQ and manufacturing.
That evening they had an opening reception down close to the beach. The next morning we went to the general session and then spent the afternoon at the beach. The water was wonderful. It wa even warmer than the water at Tahiti, at least as far as I could remember. We spent an hour in the water and actually spent time talking to some distributors from Atlanta, Houston and Florida. The water was very clear.
I loved the grounds of the Hotel. I wish that I could grow Hibiscus at my home. I love the beauty of the flowers and they come in such vibrant tropical colors.
On Friday we had a "free" day (as compared to having to go to lunch on Thursday) and so we rented a car and went to the top of Haleakala Volcano. This is a dead volcano and the crater reminds me of Craters of the Moon on a larger scale. So we went from sea level to 10, 023 feet in a period of 3 hours. We also went through clouds into a beautiful blue sky, the only time we saw a truly clear blue sky the whole time we were onMaui. You could never tell from looking at the surroundings that this area of the island gets 35 inches of rain a year. Can you imagine what we could do with 35 " of rain in a year?
From the top of the volcano, it was so cloudy below us that all we could see was the crater and above. It almost floated. As we came back down the very windy highway, we crossed into a heavy rainstorm. From there we went to 'Iao valley, which gets 435 inches of water a year. It was like a jungle and as we were at the end of our day(there was a dinner we had to be back for at 5:30), we didn't have time to explore it. What we did see was quite lush.
It was a great day and there is so much to see that we didn't get the chance to see. HOWEVER, I think the big draw for me on Maui was the beach and the relaxation that it afforded us. I think that this is the first vacation Larry has really spent time on the beach relaxing. It was very nice. And that is how we spent our Saturday was once again on the beach.

Sunday was the long flight home. After arriving in Salt Lake, we found that our luggage didn't make it on the Delta flight, as the belt at the Seattle airport had broken and the bags weren't transferred. So much for the end of our dream vacation.

So, Oahu: busy, touristy and crowded; avoid it after you have seen the obligatory sights.

Maui: beautiful, not so crowded and lots of natural beauty to see. I do hope to return there to see all I have missed, especially the whales in the winter.

This moment in Time

Today I remove the link to the Camile Cleverly web site. Thanks to all of you who helped with the search, helped the family or Sarah and Jessica or passed on emails and flyers while the search was in progress.

Our Hawaii Vacation, Part one

Our trip was great. In fact, it was really a vacation. Have you had that discussion before? What constitutes a trip to you and what constitutes a vacation? A trip has a list of things to do and see and if you don't get there the 'trip' is ruined. A vacation has a list of things we would like to see but if we don't get there, it is alright and we don't get out of joint about it. A trip you come back more tired than when you left.Travelling for business is usually a trip, travelling for relaxation is usually a vacation. A vacation finds you relaxed and rejuvenated at the end. Hawaii was beautiful. I saw Larry relax in a way that I have never seen him relax on any other trip while in Maui. But I must say I will probably not return unless it is again paid for by the business. At least , not to Oahu and Honolulu. It was much too crowded and much too commercial. Even the Polynesian Cultural Center was too commercial for us. Wait, am I becoming jaded to my travel experiences? I think not, because I would love to continue to travel with Larry as much as possible. In fact, he is now talking in terms of 'our next trip to Europe will be Eastern Europe' for just the two of us.But let's start at the beginning...

Our first full day there was a Sunday. Our first stop was the Punchbowl National Cemetery. It is a cemetery honoring all those who died in the Pacific Corridor during WWII. However, it was unusual as it had no headstones, but plaques flat in the ground. It is a beautiful setting in the crater of a dead volcano. A very peaceful and respectful place with a great spirit and wonderful place to contemplate our freedoms.
After this nice stop, we went to Sacrament meeting in a chapel in eastern Honolulu. We were sitting in that meeting when we got a call from Heather saying that Camille's body had been found. We immediately left the meeting so we could call Sarah and give her all our love and support as she dealt with the news. She called just as we were leaving the church and was devastated. We talked to her for a few minutes and then I called Denise so that she could tell Jessica and then lend support to Sarah as we were so far away. Thanks Denise and Dave for your love and support!

As Larry and I were both too devastated to continue in our meetings, we decided to drive around the island as far as we could for the day. We saw some wonderful things. the scenery was beautiful, but the traffic was bumper to bumper.

We saw some great shore line and lots of people on the beaches. I also tried, unsuccessfully, to do the 'snap ourselves in the picture' at a place where the waves of a tsunami had broken through the only sandstone formation on the island. Thanks to the other tourists who were there and willing to take a shot for us. The waves were awesome and were breaking behind us as we hiked down to the beach. We just couldn't get a shot of that.

This is a rock where everyone jumps into the ocean( I hope the tide is in!)

We also went to Turtle beach where we saw people swimming with the turtles. We just took pictures of them.

On our way back through the center of the island, we stopped at another cemetery. This one had a Buddhist temple shrine in it that was just beautiful. There were many other shrines in the cemetery also. However we got there just 30 minutes before they closed and so had the opportunity to visit only the largest one at the back of the cemetery. It was very quiet as we got there when no one else was visible and the last of the artists and vendors were walking out as we were walking in.

From there we took the Pali Highway back through the center of the island. We stopped at the overlook to take pictures back the way we had come.

The next day was spent also on the North shore at the Laie Hawaii temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The temple was a beautiful site, one that I will always remember. The classical shots of the temple are all taken this way. We also took one from the other view, a straight shot to the ocean. The church maintains the street all the way up to the temple and I wouldn't be surprised if they also care for the small park that leads to the beach.

We then went to the PCC, which we wished we had more time to see. We were told that things really didn't get started until 1:30 so we didn't go until then. We ran out of time before we saw all that we wanted to see. We were really discouraged by the commercialization of it. Upsell when you get your tickets " Oh it is much cheaper to buy a meal now than to just buy snacks inside" If you buy a meal, please go all out and don't be cheap. The cheap meal was awful. As you walk in, cheap shell leis and take your picture( which you can pick up later for $18.00) with the young Hawaiian man and woman. If we sound disillusioned it's because we were. All that aside, the entertainment was awesome! And they supposedly put on the best luau on the island. Some day we will learn that it is worth the money when it is a once in a lifetime experience.

Of course we had to take a picture of DUM-DUM and his siblings for Easton and Taylor(fans of "Night at the Museum").

And we saw our "Hawaii Duck" while we were there. Everywhere we stopped in Europe this summer we saw ducks. The tradition continues. Perhaps Jeff and family will see one at Disneyland this week(besides Donald, of course).

Our last day was spent at the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor- a very moving experience. Before you go out to the memorial( you are shuttled out by small boat 250 people at a time), you see a short film put together with footage from both the American and Japanese governments. It is very moving. They ask you to be respectful of the site as it is the burial grounds for over 2000 men(around 2500, I believe). There were very few words uttered as we contemplated the sight of the gun turrets sticking up out of the sea and the plaque with the names of all those who died there that day. There are also the names of those who have chosen to be interred there after their deaths with their fellow shipmates. These are done as more of the survivors die and elect that option.

It was very interesting to see oil blobs coming up from the engines of the ship after all these years. It tells you just how massive this ship was and what a devastating blow this was to our country and especially to our Navy. I wondered how many more years it would continue as the blobs appeared quite often and were very large. It has been almost 56 years. It is a very sacred place.

Our last evening in Oahu, we had a beautiful sunset. Larry took some great pictures of it. This is one of my favorites. How could we possibly have timed that sailboat better?What a wonderful way to end the first part of our Hawaii vacation. It rally was a vacation, not just a trip!

Our "date" with Taylor and Easton and other events of the week

What a week that I can't wait to end. It started out on a great note. BYU beat Arizona! WooHoo! Fall Football is here again! I love college football and the feel of a stadium full of people...the noise, the food, the game! It's the best! We have had season tickets with Roxanne and Doug for 3 years now. At first I thought it was a great way to spend time with them and visit.. but we all love the game too much so about all the talking we get done is at half time and on the way to and from the games....

Roxanne and Doug were on a cruise to Alaska, so we had their tickets. We took Sarah and her friend Happy. It was a great time. During the game Sarah received a phone call from Camille Cleverly's parents asking if she had seen or heard from her. She hadn't. We would learn the next morning that she had been missing for over 48 hours when they called Sarah.

Over the past week we have spent many hours searching for her...any sign of her. It is a heartbreaking situation for everyone. She seems to have just disappeared. For those of you who don't know, Camille was Sarah's roommate for two and 1/2 years, both before Camille left on her mission and after she came home. She moved out of Sarah's townhouse to move in to her current apartment only a few months ago. We are praying for her safe return and for her family and would appreciate everyone's prayers.

After 6 hours of searching on Sunday, we had to take a happiness break. we got to go on a date with Taylor and Easton. We took them to an inside carnival. They had rides and games and we had lots of fun, although it took quite a while for Easton to try the rides. Even Taylor thought he would be scared by one of the rides and said he was going to 'throw up'. But Easton finally rode a ride(that one) because I rode it too. Taylor soon found that it was a fun ride. It was a miniaturised version of Music Express. It went around and up and down fast and then went in reverse. They had fun on the Rockets and the Safari Jeep Ride also. We then went to a McDonald's just down the street that had a great play area and let them play for as long as they wanted. A great time was had by all.

Last week we had the chance to go to one of Taylor's soccer games. There is nothing cuter than 4 year olds learning how to play soccer. I think they all spend as much time off the field(unofficially) as they do on the field. They would run off the field when they got hurt or when the other team wouldn't let them score or when they were tired. I just hope they get some of the fundamentals down before the end of the season. The change of goal at half is very confusing to them. Easton loves the treats at half time and Taylor doesn't. Heather took treats to this game and made cute soccer cupcakes for the end of the game.

Progress is slowly being made on my kitchen.

The countertop people surprised me and showed up today without any phone call or anything. Luckily, Amy and Larry had just arrived home from a bike ride as they got there. They are very pretty, but darker than I remember from sample. I went with quartz instead of Granite. I love the look and it is more durable than granite and comes with a guarantee which granite didn't. You all need to come and see it. I promise Renee, it isn't as busy as it looks in this small picture!

This is the cabinets where my stove goes.

This is where my pantry closet was.

This is my raised dishwasher cabinet.

This is my new pantry closet.

So I have cabinets and no shelves, a sink and no faucet, a pantry with no door, cabinets with no trim and no hardware(that one IS my fault) and no light fixtures. I was hoping to have it all done before we leave tomorrow, but it is not going to happen. Maybe the work will all get done while I am gone.....that makes me kind of nervous.

The last note here is for Jeremy.. here is a picture of those bookcases I made from Shopko cheap book cases and some stock trim. Sorry the pictures aren't the best. I bought a new camera and I am not sure I will keep it. Plus, the light in the room is not the best at the present time and it IS midnight. I'm trying it out on our trip and I will decide when I come home whether I will return it.

This was a great and cheap way to get a lot of shelving and dress it up a bit. The shelves are not really heavy duty and I think I may have overloaded some of them.

I put some rope lights on top of them behind the crown molding to give the opportunity for some mood lighting. It is a fun look. You will have to come and see them some time. It's great because they were just tall enough to fit under the slope of the roof in our upstairs rooms.

Oh, I haven't mentioned the trip, you say? We leave in 12 hours for HAIWAII!!!! another WooHoo!!

Funny, Funny Easton

I have to tell about cutie pie Easton who each time he sees me asks "Is your house still messy, grandma?" He came over and played for a few hours during my construction mess and so asks each day and someday soon I hope to be able to answer him "No, Easton. My house isn't still messy!"

This is Easton at Hill Air Force Museum in July.

Four weeks of FRUSTRATION

Well it has been more than four weeks of my "three week kitchen remodel" and I am reaching the frustration saturation point. Here is how it has gone:

Day 1: tear out

Day 2 and 3: electrician and plumber come and do their work.

Day 4 through FOREVER!!!!: sheet rocker comes(usually after 11, works for 1 hour, goes to lunch for 2-3 hours, works for 1 hour leaves for day). Calls contractor(Shawn) on 28th asking for money so he can buy food for scout camp he will be attending starting Monday. He will finish when he returns. Oh boy, did the thunder roll and the lightning strike!!!!!! I hope it rained on him all week!

Day 24: (July 30th)new sheet rocker comes and finishes the job in 2 hours.

Through August 5: New floor is laid in kitchen and I get the painting done.

August 6 through 12: contractor has family reunion planned since January. He will be back Monday to install cabinets. I told him that I will have my granite chosen by then.

So needless to say, I am frustrated! It is a good thing that Larry has been gone the last two weeks as he was looking pretty pathetic when he would say "What's for dinner?" and I would say "well, let's see what's in the freezer that I can microwave." Salads are great, but they get tiring also. I think I have gained 5 pounds because of all the junk I have eaten. I know I am beginning to whine because after church on Sunday I got 2 invitations to dinner this week.

Larry has been to 3 countries and many cities on his trip and is hoping to be able to cut it a few days short if a Monday meeting can be moved to Friday. He spent last weekend in Copenhagen and will be in Barcelona this weekend (or at least on Friday). He asked me on the 21st of July if I wanted to go with him on this trip and we just couldn't justify paying for the airfare at that short of notice. But we did get notice that we are invited to the vision retreat on Sept. 13-16 in Maui! I'm so excited. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii. We are going over early on the 8th to Oahu and got a priceline car and hotel. I guess we will see what they are like when we get there. The flights between islands are only $45.oo and the company pays for the airfare to the islands. So it won't be too expensive!

I promise my next post will contain some photos and thoughts about our recent trip to Europe. Let me say that it was great to have our family all together while we were there, but there were definitely some challenges too!

On a random Hurray note, Sarah will be graduating from BYU on August 16th with a major in French and a minor in English.

My time without a Kitchen

Well, it has begun..the kitchen redo. We have been without a kitchen for just over a week now. And wouldn't you know it, I didn't take any before pictures. but I do have the pictures of the space just after tear out. It looks much bigger without the closets. And I am excited to see the finished project. But we are already behind as we have ahd to wait for the sheetrocker. He should be done by Saturday and then they will have to wait as I won't be able to paint until the first of the week.The living room is a mess as that is our "storage area" and also our 'cooking' area( what cooking I have done). This spring, when I went out to barbecue, there were birds in our 'barby' so we haven't used it. I just checked and the birds have now flown the coop. We will now be able to do some barbecuing for some of our dinners. Our appliances have been here for 2 weeks and the flooring has been here for 3.

I am so excited. I still have some decisions ahead of me....lighting fixtures, sink and faucet, and hardware......I hope I live through it!

As a side note, Today my nephew Scott left for the Leeds England mission and the Preston England MTC. Good luck Scott. We love you!

Wow, I'm Blown Away

What a voice. I had to share this video with those who may not have seen it. What an incredible talent. I hope we hear from him again.



http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/07061203.html



Paul Potts, contestant on the british equivalent to America's got talent. Thanks to Sarah for sending me the link.

She's gone and done it!

Yes she has! Amy has graduated from Brigham Young University (theY)! We are so excited for her! She is the first member of our family to graduate with a four year degree. It was a great occasion. Vice President Dick Cheney was the commencement speaker and did an admirable job. It was an honor to have the Vice President at the school. I may not agree with his policies, but we honor the office, not the man. President Hinckley was a surprise guest also and we were thrilled to see him. Larry was out of the country and nobody else could take the day off and still take the next day for her Convocation, so it was just me to witness this momentous event. We had to get in line at 2:00 and then sit for 2 hours in the Marriott Center. Overall it was a long, but wonderful, day.

On Friday, April 27th, the whole family of adults (and Amy's Boss, Kim, a great surprise for Amy) attended Amy's convocation for the school of Humanities. She graduated with her degree in Humanities with an Art History Minor. It was fun to all be ther to give her our support and praise. We are proud of you, Amy!

She and Heather found these great 2007 glasses to help us celebrate the great occasion. See the close up of the glasses below. It was a wonderful day!

It's not often that we all get to be together on a special occassion like this. We , as many others around us, all have very busy lives, and often can not celebrate a grand event on the actual date of the event. SO to be able to do so on this day was great! It makes me want to go back to school even more when I see how much she has grown as she has studied the art of the world. They now offer a program especially for people like me who have started a degree and never had the opportunity to finish it. Perhaps this fall when my life has settled down a bit, I will look into it.

I began serving in a new position at the temple this week. I am now assistant coordinator for my shift. That means that we plan the schedule and make sure that things run smoothly during our service at the temple. The time at the temple is a wonderful time. I serve with so many loving and giving sisters. I am humbled by their love and support. They are all so much more worthy and probably more able to do this. right now it is taking us about 5 hours to do the schedule for the following week. Hopefully as we gain experience, it won't take as long. It does mean waking up at 2:15 instead of 3:45 as I have to be at the temple at 4:00 and organize all the paper work before I go in.

We leave in a week for our Europe vacation. I'll post some pictures when we return.