The Lines Are Drawn.......

and we are separated from all the rest of our ward. A familiar feeling as it has happened before. The news came down at stake conference this morning. Larry was released last Sunday and so we knew that we wouldn't be with the east side of our ward anymore( with a lot of confidence). However, we didn't expect to be separated from everyone west of us also. Yup, that's right . Out of all the plans we had thought of that one didn't even enter our radar. So there are 10 homes from our old ward that have been put into this already well established ward. They lost about 30 homes. But still have alot of people. I know that it was inspiration(in fact it was signed off by President Hinckley) and so we will make the best of it, as we will probably be in this ward for many years to come. I hope that we are better about retaining friendships than we were with the last boundary change. It seems that once those lines are drawn, you become so involved in your new ward that you lose the connections that you have. That is something I will have to work on. I think that we are much more open to inviting people over to spend time together now than we were then. And we have some great friends in the neighborhood. So onward and upward!We will grow together.

Surgery

Larry is now counting the hours until his surgery which will be sometime on Thursday, the 21st. He is in severe pain. Every Sunday, people come up to me after church and say "Larry is really hurting isn't he?" I admit that he is. The strain shows on his face, especially as he sits on the stand. but that shouldn't be a problem, because he will hopefully be relieved of the pain and the bishopric! Not that we are celebrating that fact, we have loved this ward and the people we are surrounded by, but it was announced in church on Sunday that our stake is once again being shuffled. It was done approx. 5 years ago and our ward was left untouched at that time. However, the bishop has said there will be big changes. So, I'm thinking new callings. Larry is hoping for the library! Me? I just got a new calling, but we will probabaly be in a different ward, so I am up to anything(except choir director, the only calling that made me physically ill for the 2 1/2 years I had it).

2 old posts and one new one.....

I had two drafts listed that I had started and not finished. I decided that it wasn't how wonderful the blog was but that it was done so you all knew what was going on. So there you are!

Christmas and the New Year have to this point flown by with hardly a chance to enjoy them. I took off for Pocatello shortly after Christmas to spend some time with Mom and Dad as Mom recovered from an unexplained(to this point) illness. I had a terrifying adventure on the way home and am not thrilled about going back up until the roads are clear. I think that I knocked my muffler or something loose in my spin and am checking it out tomorrow after going visiting teaching at 7:30 AM!!!! There should be a law against that! But I got a new companion and the sister who used to visit her is who we now visit and they did it at 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning! I am barely functioning to tie Larry's shoes(which I have been doing for the last 6 weeks) at that time of the morning.

Speaking of Larry, he will be having surgery at the end of this month. His back is bad, he's taking Lortab to survive and the doctor has finally decided to do something about it. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that when the nurse called to change his appointment, I let her know not only how miserable he is, but how miserable I AM!!! Lack of sleep, being the main problem. Poor Larry doesn't sleep well and so neither do I. He can not get comfortable and is trying a new combination of blankets, foam pads, golf balls, pillow forms, back stretchers, leg stretchers, etc...each night.

I read on Jeremy's blog the idea of 52 books in 52 weeks. That is a great idea and corresponds with one of my Christmas gifts. Amy gave me a cool journal that I will be using as my book journal for listing the books I read and my reaction to them. It's a beautiful book and I have already made some entries into it. I will be going in a few weeks to my favorite of my three book groups and getting a whole list of books to read. Each year at our after Christmas meeting, we do a gift exchange(of books, of course!). This year three people gave Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I was one of the three. I LOVED this book. The subtitle is "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Tome". From the back of the jacket, a short synopsis..

"In 1993 a mountaineer named Greg Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants kindness, he promised to return to build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade mortenson built not just one but 55 schools- especially for girls- in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit."

This was a fascinating book from the historical view and from the informational view of the country and also Mortensons's efforts to build his school. How easy it would have been to give up, but he didn't and his perseverence can teach us all something. Anything worth doing is worth doing well....and something that is very lacking in our society a Promise made is a Promise Kept! I learned more about that as we talked in Sunday School about the Oath made to Zoram by Nephi and the knowledge that they would die before breaking an oath. And yet how easily we see promises, oaths and covenants made and broken.

To go along with this book I read an article from the September 2007 National Geographic on Pakistan. And wasn't it interesting that the week after Bhutto was killed, her struggle was highlighted in Parade Magazine for all to see who don't read a paper on a regular basis.

I worry for my grandchildren.

Not Blog Savvy!

Boy oh boy what a huge mess. We set up this blog, hoping to update at least every few weeks(if not every week) and then couldn't get the access to it. I still am confused. so to play a little catch up...

March was warmer than it should have been and we had the chance to take our cute grandsons out to the 'ranch' and spend the afternoon. They wore us and themselves out. I will try and post some pictures of that. This one is from last year.

Larry had another steroid injection for his back. It never worked and so he has had an uneventful month in terms of progress with his back. His pain is quite severe, insomuch that his scheduled trip to Berlin at the end of March was cancelled. His boss was worried that something might happen while he was overseas. Larry hates driving any distance because the pain is too great.
At the beginning of the month, we helped Jim(Larry's brother) and Liz move to a small town outside of Shelley, Idaho, a small town in and of itself. They have themselves a beautiful home that is only a few years old with a VERY large kitchen that I would give my eye teeth to have. We will miss them and hope to see them soon. But we will for sure see them in July as their son, Scott, received his LDS Mission call to the England, Leeds mission and will be going directly to the Preston England MTC(Mission Training Center) on July 18th. We currently have a Sister from our ward who is serving in that mission and is having great success with immigrants from Zimbabwe. We are excited for him and for his family.
On the 16th of March I had my first NIA(Neighborhood In Action) meeting at my home. I was appointed by the committees and approved by the city council to take the place of the past chair who is fulfilling the seat of a city council member who was elected to the state as a Representative for our area. NIA is a city wide program that is charged with keeping our city's neighborhoods livable, clean, safe and friendly. We are planning our neighborhood service day for June 2nd and started the planning for that activity. Last year we gave over 600 hours of service and served over 400 hot dogs at the barbecue following the service. I'm nervous as I have some very great shoes to fill.
I also had my 6 month dentist check up.......I had a cavity!!! I was so upset...it's been 5 years. I know, it's a small thing, as is the cavity, but I was disappointed.
During March, we also

• Bought our Chunnel Tickets


• bought our train tickets for Rome to Florence


• Reserved our rental car for Florence to Venice to Milan


• Firmed up our hotels for all the places but Berlin


• got Larry a portable bicycle to take in case he can't easily walk


• finally got the last two passports for the group that is travelling with us.

We are becoming more and more excited about this trip! It is going to be so fun to have us all together for what is probably the last time as a family on a great big vacation like this. Jeff and Larry's 'vacation' will both be a week longer as Jeff has a conference for the full week before the trip and , because of the cancelled trip, Larry may extend for a week in Berlin.

So , I think that about covers March. Oh! Except I signed the contract for my kitchen remodel and will be started on that before our trip, I hope!

Introduction

We are Larry and Diane. We are from Utah county, Utah. We are empty nesters but have our children and grandchildren nearby. We are active in our church, active in our neighborhood, and fairly active in our community. Diane loves to travel. Larry travels for work and, therefore, doesn't love to travel. Round Table Ranch is the nickname we have given some recreational property that we have near a reservoir in eastern Utah.