Amanda is Engaged!!!

Well, this is the most current photo I have of Amanda and James. James proposed to Amanda at the Salt Lake Temple on February 12th with her ring at the bottom of one of her favorite mini cupcakes. They have set the date of August 6th of this year to get sealed in the Oakland Temple. James has grown up in Salt Lake and is a security guard and is thinking of pursuing the career of a peace officer. James met Amanda over a year ago when he would come into Rite-Aid and purchase items while on break or lunch when he was doing security at the building site next door. James' family lives in Salt Lake and his father is a partner in a law firm and his mother is a stay at home mom. There are 5 children in his family. His older sister got married near the end of last year and currently lives in New York, his oldest brother returned from his mission in August and is attending BYU Provo, his younger brother is attending BYU Provo and is currently waiting for his mission call. His younger sister is still in High School and lives at home. James lives in Murray. Amanda is still currently working for Rite-Aid and has finished her schooling for Pharmacy Technician and is studying to take her license so she can move into the Pharmacy. We are excited for James and Amanda and look forward to many hours of planning to make this day special for them.

Going to be Grandparents Again!

We just received a phone call from Mel, Will and Rachel. Rachel had news for us. She informed us that she is going to be a Big Sister! They found out last Friday Sept. 25th that Melissa was expecting. The baby is due the 1st part of May. They are hoping to find out a week before Christmas what the sex is so they can plan. We are so happy for them and for us also. Another Grandchild to spoil. Well, it's a Girl!!!! She is due to arrive on May 20th. Melissa has chosen to name her "Bailey" which was my mothers maiden name. Melissa & Will are still trying to figure out a middle name. They are looking at naming her after either Will's Grandmother or Dennis' mother I believe. We will have to wait and see when time gets closer.

Birthday Visit to Utah

Well I turned 50 this year and to try and make a smooth transition, I chose to spend it in Utah and help celebrate Rachel's 3rd Birthday. Might as well celebrate a young Birthday instead of an old one. I even received an application to join AARP. I thought they only sent that to people 55 and over. I really enjoyed my time visiting with Amanda, Will, Melissa and Rachel. I also got to meet James' (Amanda's boyfriend) parents. We met them in Salt Lake on Wednesday evening before they have YM/YW's. His dad is a new Bishop and mom is the 2nd counselor in the YW's. I had lots of questions asked of me about me & Dennis and what we did for work and callings. They even questioned Mel and Will. I hope we made a good impression. They loved Rachel. She was sooo good. I invited Chris and Don Billingsley over for dinner. They lived in our ward about 10 years ago or so and moved to Utah. We had a great time reminiscing. Don taught Rachel a song about Jack and Jill two little birds. He had Jack and Jill on his fingers and then they flew away, Rachel trying to figure out where Jack went. Jill was still there. Rachel loved her Birthday party. It was an all girls party with the theme being Dora the Explorer. There was a craft to do, pinata, cake & ice cream, game and presents. All the girls behaved very well and parents did also. Rachel loved her presents and loved dressing up as a ballerina(like her Aunt Heather). We went one day to Thanksgiving Park to the petting zoo and saw and fed the animals and took a tractor ride. We had lunch first since before that we went to the Jump On It place where they had lots of trampolines to jump on. I saw a friend there who I haven't seen since Melissa was probably 4 years old. They were in line ahead of us and I heard her voice. We happen to sit down next to them at one of the trampolines and I asked her if she ever lived in California. She said yes and we started talking and I told her I didn't remember her name, but I knew her. She is the wife of a guy I went to church with before I got married. They now live in another state and she just happened to be there helping her daughter out with a new baby. For my B-Day, I was taken out to The Mayan Restaurant I believe it's in Sandy. I've only been to it once before and really liked it. I was going to suggest going there while I was visiting, but they beat me to it. Melissa also surprised me by taking me to go see Tracy Lawrence(country singer). When she had asked me if I liked him, I thought maybe I would receive a CD, I didn't think we would be seeing him. Were we went to see him, we were standing right up front. Melissa even was close enough to touch him arm as he walked by.(have you washed that hand yet Mel?) All in all, I had a great vacation and didn't want it to end. Here are a few pictures from my trip.

Thanksgiving in Utah 2009

Well I took a weeks vacation and Dennis took a few days off from work and we went out to Utah for Thanksgiving(Jeff could not get the time off work). We stayed in Orem at Melissa & Wills. The weather wasn't too bad. We were able to visit with Amanda, Heather(Will's Sister), Anthony(Heather's Boyfriend who came out to visit her), James(Amanda's Boyfriend). Lorrie was able to have lunch and visit with two friends(Lori & Jeanette) from High School who she hadn't seen in about 30 years who live in Utah. Melissa, Amanda & Lorrie made the Thanksgiving dinner. They made most everything from scratch. Melissa & Will started a few traditions since this was their 1st Thanksgiving Dinner in their home. They were having us all state what we were Thankful for and making most of the recipes from scratch. One tradition Melissa continued from our family was that the teenagers were responsible for doing the dinner dished. Hence the picture of Anthony and Heather at the sink doing the dishes. Our kids were always happy to pass the teenage years during the Holidays. It was nice to get to know James and Anthony. Anthony came out to visit Heather while he was on school break in Missouri. Anthony was a big help helping us four ladies the next day shopping during Black Friday. He held our place in line, carried packages and got us shopping carts. It was a very early morning. Will and Dennis stayed home with Rachel and thought we were nuts to be going out so early to shop. We also met Amanda's friend, co-worker and roommate Chelsey and her brother Brandon and went bowling with them one night while Anthony & Heather went to a movie. It was a very nice visit and was hard to fly back home and go back to work.

Being Thankful

Well, I just had to stop what I was doing to say how Thankful I am for what I have. I have a house to keep me dry during wet weather, it may not be the warmest right now with the heater broken, but I do have a roof over my head and I can heat some of the house with wood in the stove. I have cars to drive that are paid for and in working condition. I have a job that I go to 5 days a week for 8 hours a day and get paid for it. I have a loving family and loving friends who are there for me when I need a shoulder to cry on, a pat on the back, a few words of encouragement, help doing something that I need help on, being able to go to the church of my choice and worshiping God as I wish to. Part of me thinking this way is finding out about a fellow ward member who doesn't ask for much at all and doesn't have much in the way of material things. This person I will call "Larry" lives in Lompico in a little 1 bedroom cabin that the landlord was going to remodel but has felt he has put too much money in it already and isn't motivated to do much more. Larry only gets less than $900.00 a month in disability because of his back. He was in an accident that was not his fault and has chronic back pain. Larry's vehicle's back window is missing and only has a thin plastic sheet replacing it. In the cabin he rents, he pays about $425.00 a month. He doesn't have running water in it. He has to go to the water heater which has a hose attached and turns on the faucet to fill containers and then turns off the faucet. With these containers of water he is able to pour water into the toilet so it can be flushed since there is no running water in the cabin. Larry goes to a friends a few houses up the road to use the shower. Larry only has a hot plate to cook on. He does not have a stove or oven. He can only cook things that he can cook on the hot plate. Larry's electricity is by a power cord. He has a lamp he uses for light. There was a hole in the roof that he has been able to cover with some wood but only after the rain a few weeks ago got his bed wet(a used full box spring and mattress that was given to us that we gave to him). It took him a little while to get the mattress dry so he could sleep on it. Larry only has a small space heater to use occasionally to try and get warm because if the electricity bill gets to high, the landlord won't pay it. I don't hear Larry complain, he just is grateful he has a place to live and where his son can come over and spend some weekends with him. We had Larry over for lunch on Sunday after church and Dennis was surprised how much he ate. Larry commented that he usually only eats one meal a day but for the past few days had been visiting him mom and she made sure he ate 3 meals a day. Well, I could tell you more, but this is longer than I had planned already. I now think before I complain about it being cold in our house. I at least have a woodstove to heat part of the house and some wood. I have a few space heaters I can use to help keep a room warmer. I have warm clothes to wear and water that works in my house. I can do my laundry at home and can bake cookies if I want. I have light to be able to see properly in the house, I have electricity to run my tv or radio and I can run my dishwasher. My goal this Christmas season is to be a secret Santa to Larry and his son. I want to share a little of what I have to make this mans live a little happier, warmer and not so hard. I will be thinking each day before I complain about something, is it really all that bad? I hope everyone thinks about what they are Thankful for during this Thanksgiving time.