Good morning all: Iam finally able to get back to the blog scene and catch up on all the goings on in the family. I have made good friends here in Florida and one lady (Marilyn) and I end up painting together quite a bit. I met her at St. Pete Clay when I took that class with Sassy and she paints and has a simming pool too, and so after work about 2-3 days a week, I get in my ten laps and a couple of hours painting lessons with either me teaching her or her teaching me some technique in painting we have mastered. I am determined to put my work in a juried show come this time next year and have joined the local art guild. Ariana and Sassy, you should do the same and Rachel should put some of her handiwork in too!!!!
HOWEVER, my best news is that I am GOING TO PARIS to meet up with Auntie Chris, Kelly, Rebecca and Erin as they do Italy and Paris. I know! I could not come home for Christmas and now I am off to Paris. I have laughed about that ever since. I will still come see you all in Ohio in the spring, but this is a once in a lifetime chance to visit with A/Chris and the girls. My ticket fare was a bonus they gave me at work for doing well during the year. I thought and thought for about 10 MINUTES and then I decided to use it to go to Paris instead of Ohio...Lets see Paris in Autumn or Ohio in WINTER!!! No contest. Sorry kids. New grandbabies and all!
But I have to say that I have kept up with you all thru your blogs. It has been especially nice to have Rachel and Ari work out how to blog and e-mail me the blog at the same time, this way i can read it thru e-mail at work and download any photos I want instead of waiting until I get to the library to read the blog as they will not let me use the blog site at work. You know, social sites are banned in work places. So Dan if you can work out how to e-mail me your blog, that would be so good. I had a lovely labor day with your cousins Ashley, Austin, Sarah and Darrell at A/Donna's and Uncle Stephen's house (note the correct spelling of Uncle Steph's name...It was a dumb mistake on my part in the last blog - sorry Steph) and anyway all the little kids were there too and I went in the pool and played with the kids and caught lizards etc and enjoyed myself tremendously. Both Austin, Ashley and Sarah and I even think Darrell have been to Paris so they all had advice about buses and trains and sights to see. I am so excited. I cannot wait.
I have not seen A/Chris for 10 years. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. But that is life kids, hang on to the opportunity you all have to see each other every weekend if you are able and make time for each other in your homes. Use the holidays or birthdays as days of celebration to unite the family so that you all grow up knowing each other and each other's children. I love you all dearly, miss you like crazy and can hardly stand the distance some times. I want you to know that you have richly blessed my life and I am so proud of each of you and the choices your are making. Now before i start crying...I am going to sign off until next time. God bless and keep you and the next blog will probably contain a lot of pictures from Paris....so stay tuned......xoxoxoxox Love Mum
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Hello Family: What a year this has been! January winter was sleeping under the stars with the tree frogs for company. February and March whizzed by with me travelling to Denver for a conference and to meet up with old friends... Elaine Bailey whom Rachel's middle name comes from and her family. We had not seen since Rachel was born when she was returning from her mission. We had met at CCNZ and had been room mates during those days, then had moved on into young adulthood and were room mates in Wellington New Zealand when I met your Dad. Needless to say we talked and talked and are still talking via the internet! I also had the opportunity to visit with Becky Queen in Denver and have lunch together and see Uncle Bill and Aunt Delores. Aunt Delores has a room FULL of genealogy and I would love to take a week and just stay with them in Denver and do genealogy. April whizzed by and we were intoMay with Ariana and Derick's wee boy(Ian James) arriving and a trip home to see your lovely faces. I then had a lovely visit with Sariah and we tried to fit in lots of different activities even though I had to work during the day, but we also had a lovely week with Caitlin and Aunt Donna and Uncle Steven and all the family. I got a good dose of the sun and looked like a lobster for about a week or so. Saw Levi and Rebecca and Adelaide, Ali and Ben and baby, and Eliza all of whom I had not seen for some years. Sassy and I did the art museum bit, the beach daily, and even took a clay class to learn to throw a pot. I think Sassy could get used to St. Pete's. I will be up to see you all again now that little Olie has joined the club and I want to hold him so bad. I also need a dose of all your faces again. See you on 24th.......xoxoxoxoxo Mum
Saturday, January 10, 2009
La Rondine by Puccini
A friend gave me the opportunity today to visit the theater that had Live from the MET which was the Metropolitan Opera being broadcast live in HD all over the world (a new thing to expose children all over the world to opera) and the opera today was La Rondine (The Swallow). It was so beautiful. If you ever have the chance to go to see a beautiful opera this would be one that is for the young. It is lighter and a simple, very passionate and very sad love story. I actually cried at the end. Angela Gheorghiu and her husband Roberto Alagna sang/played the parts of the lovers who have to part in the end and I was just thrilled. I have been to live theater and there is nothing like that in the world but this was the next best thing to it. It was like sitting the MET audience. We clapped and stood and did all that in our theater and it was the most thrilling performance I have been to in a long while. I was able to go because the cost was kept very low due to senior citizen status. See there are some really good things to look forward to about getting old (ha ha ha). I so think of Levi and Rebecca being able to go to the real thing there in New York and envy them that chance, but today I had the next best thing.
Friday, January 2, 2009
In Support of Large Families
I have had the opportunity to make many new friends during this move to Florida.
Among them is an Irish girl from Dublin and she is culturally so like me it is not funny. In other words she and I share the same humor.
Anyone who has traveled to another country will understand that statement.
Humor is the one thing that, unlike music, that sometimes gets lost once it crosses borders.
Anyway we were talking about the current statistics in Ireland with every home only having 0.8 children, which means only one household in 8 has a child. This is very different from the 1950’s when there were 8 children to every household!
Humor is the one thing that, unlike music, that sometimes gets lost once it crosses borders.
Anyway we were talking about the current statistics in Ireland with every home only having 0.8 children, which means only one household in 8 has a child. This is very different from the 1950’s when there were 8 children to every household!
It has really become of critical concern in Ireland (and Japan) now.
Anyway where am I going with this thought?
Anyway where am I going with this thought?
I had the opportunity travel home to Ohio December 6th and spend time with my lovely children, be treated like royalty and feel like the gracious
queen and rejoice in the news of new babies to come.
Eli, growing into a lovely little man, was baptized,
Eli, growing into a lovely little man, was baptized,
Lizzy renewed her plea to visit the beach,
Bella assured me that she would come too and
Anna just loved being a princess and fairy.
When I came home I had the opportunity to spend Sunday evening with
When I came home I had the opportunity to spend Sunday evening with
Donna and Stephen and their ever increasing family; with new
babies on the way, Ruby and Rosie playing imaginary games,
Lillie grinning from ear to ear...
and Simone loudly voicing
her opinion in very definite “baby-talk”.
The boys and Stephen had gone fishing and they, the children, came over to cook the catch and serve supper and enjoy the fruits of their labors.
What a joy and how rich are our blessings to have grown up daughters
and sons with families of their own.
I say, bring it on. The Lord knew what he was doing when he said
“Multiply and replenish the earth…”
The boys and Stephen had gone fishing and they, the children, came over to cook the catch and serve supper and enjoy the fruits of their labors.
What a joy and how rich are our blessings to have grown up daughters
and sons with families of their own.
I say, bring it on. The Lord knew what he was doing when he said
“Multiply and replenish the earth…”
SO HAPPY NEW YEAR TO
ALL THIS BIG FAMILY OF MINE!
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
Christmas… was so different this year, and here are my thoughts on the situation…
Christmas… only works when there are people to share it with.
Christmas……… must include family and those you love.
Christmas is only Christmas when there is laughter of children and
shining eyes that go with the ripping of wrapping paper and the rustling of tissue paper.
However,
December 25th, the day representing the birth of Christ,
can be the loveliest day when spent alone.
It can be the most spiritual as you sit in the sun with your feet up and read the story of the Nativity,
contemplate the blessings He has given you,
and the opportunities He has opened up for you.
It can be the most peaceful as there are no phone calls, no television, no deadlines to meet and no hurried places to get to. It can be the most secure as you sit reading all the cards you have received, letting you know that you are loved and thought of and remembered with fondness.
This year was very different, but very satisfying and although I would not want to do this every Christmastime
I was so grateful to have the opportunity to contemplate the security and safety of the family I have and the knowledge that I was born of goodly parents, and
to know that I am loved and have a knowledge of the Lord’s plan,
and a family to love and remember at such a
Joyous Season
May He keep and bless you all!
Christmas… only works when there are people to share it with.
Christmas……… must include family and those you love.
Christmas is only Christmas when there is laughter of children and
shining eyes that go with the ripping of wrapping paper and the rustling of tissue paper.
However,
December 25th, the day representing the birth of Christ,
can be the loveliest day when spent alone.
It can be the most spiritual as you sit in the sun with your feet up and read the story of the Nativity,
contemplate the blessings He has given you,
and the opportunities He has opened up for you.
It can be the most peaceful as there are no phone calls, no television, no deadlines to meet and no hurried places to get to. It can be the most secure as you sit reading all the cards you have received, letting you know that you are loved and thought of and remembered with fondness.
This year was very different, but very satisfying and although I would not want to do this every Christmastime
I was so grateful to have the opportunity to contemplate the security and safety of the family I have and the knowledge that I was born of goodly parents, and
to know that I am loved and have a knowledge of the Lord’s plan,
and a family to love and remember at such a
Joyous Season
May He keep and bless you all!
OPPORTUNITIES FOR MISSIONARY WORK
Well, I told you that I had a flat tire.
I had to take it to the shop and have 2 new tires placed at the sweet cost of $300.00.
But, bear with me, the real story is coming…
I had to leave my car, have someone take me back to the hospital, and then get a ride back to pick it up later in the day.
Well this nice black man, tall and thin, soft spoken, rides me back 50 blocks to the hospital, about 15 minutes. We talked a little, he asked me to visit his church, I told him I was LDS and he ASKED for a Book of Mormon!
I dropped it off to him with my testimony and the missionaries phone number inside.
Could be a whole lot of reasons I am here in Florida, and could be that this was just one of them…Who Knew!!!!!
I had to take it to the shop and have 2 new tires placed at the sweet cost of $300.00.
But, bear with me, the real story is coming…
I had to leave my car, have someone take me back to the hospital, and then get a ride back to pick it up later in the day.
Well this nice black man, tall and thin, soft spoken, rides me back 50 blocks to the hospital, about 15 minutes. We talked a little, he asked me to visit his church, I told him I was LDS and he ASKED for a Book of Mormon!
I dropped it off to him with my testimony and the missionaries phone number inside.
Could be a whole lot of reasons I am here in Florida, and could be that this was just one of them…Who Knew!!!!!
THE PARABLE OF THE ACRYLIC NAILS.
Sometimes we perceive ourselves as very strong, especially within our comfort zone.
We can take anything the world can throw at us because we have built up our resources around us within easy reach and we can duck, laugh, stand back or come out swinging as the need arises. However, once our façade has been removed, once our familiar walls have been taken down and our familiar resources have changed we can find ourselves somewhat weakened and not as strong as we thought we were.
What brought these deep thoughts on?
Well after 6 years of having acrylic resin painted over my own nails, which gave me incredible strength to do anything with those nails, I went and had them removed.
You see, I want to take a pottery class and I need sensitive fingertips for the making of pots.
So anyway, I had them removed.
And what did I find.
My own nails had been weakened to the point of being paper-thin, like a new-born.
So although the façade looked great, I was really being weakened daily underneath.
But only in the nail department I tell you, because, as has been proven with this move to Florida,
David and Jane (bless their ever-loving souls) Smylie
had taught me not put my strength in anything that is a facade,
but in the Lord and His truths, which do not weaken us
but make us stronger each time.
I had a flat tire! Whom did I call – my home teacher who helped me get help.
I needed help moving in – who came to help me move, family and my Bishop!
I lost my wallet -with green card, social security card, driver’s license
(FOR WHICH I NEED A GREEN CARD TO REPLACE)
and all my other stuff.
I lost it for 2 days and prayed like I had never prayed before and just KNEW as I got ready for work that I would have to call for replacements once I got to work.
I found it as I walked out to my car to go to work, it having slipped down into a little well at the front of the arm rest between the two front seats.
I had looked and looked all over the car for 2 days…but there it was once I had asked in fervent prayer.
NOTHING DOUBTING!!!
Amazing what strength we have when we use the Lord as our constant resource!
We can take anything the world can throw at us because we have built up our resources around us within easy reach and we can duck, laugh, stand back or come out swinging as the need arises. However, once our façade has been removed, once our familiar walls have been taken down and our familiar resources have changed we can find ourselves somewhat weakened and not as strong as we thought we were.
What brought these deep thoughts on?
Well after 6 years of having acrylic resin painted over my own nails, which gave me incredible strength to do anything with those nails, I went and had them removed.
You see, I want to take a pottery class and I need sensitive fingertips for the making of pots.
So anyway, I had them removed.
And what did I find.
My own nails had been weakened to the point of being paper-thin, like a new-born.
So although the façade looked great, I was really being weakened daily underneath.
But only in the nail department I tell you, because, as has been proven with this move to Florida,
David and Jane (bless their ever-loving souls) Smylie
had taught me not put my strength in anything that is a facade,
but in the Lord and His truths, which do not weaken us
but make us stronger each time.
I had a flat tire! Whom did I call – my home teacher who helped me get help.
I needed help moving in – who came to help me move, family and my Bishop!
I lost my wallet -with green card, social security card, driver’s license
(FOR WHICH I NEED A GREEN CARD TO REPLACE)
and all my other stuff.
I lost it for 2 days and prayed like I had never prayed before and just KNEW as I got ready for work that I would have to call for replacements once I got to work.
I found it as I walked out to my car to go to work, it having slipped down into a little well at the front of the arm rest between the two front seats.
I had looked and looked all over the car for 2 days…but there it was once I had asked in fervent prayer.
NOTHING DOUBTING!!!
Amazing what strength we have when we use the Lord as our constant resource!
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