Monday, May 27, 2013
The Scoreboard
Happy Birthday, Jessica---the BIG 30 years old!!!!!!
Jessica's birthday is actually on May 15th. However she wanted to go bowling together and Ben was out of town for a couple of days when we originally had it planned so the date got bounced back to May 23rd. It was so fun! All of the kids were able to attend (which in itself is a record of some sort. Their work schedules are crazy.) Her Utah Aunt Valerie and Uncle Allan came. In addition, one of her cousins, Chris, his wife and their two kids came. Then later, her Grandma Hall dropped in. We bowled and then ate pizza and cupcakes in the party room at the bowling alley. Fun times.
It was one of those sweet Mom moments. Seeing my kids in the same place playing games is just one of those times for me. It was especially great that Ben was able to be there. Public is not always easy for him but he wanted to do it for Jessica and he had a good time. One time when I was getting ready to bowl, Ben got a strike in a nearby lane. I heard each of the kids graduating him--"Way to go, Ben." "Sweet" "High Five"--it brought tears to my eyes. A simple moment, but sweet!
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| Eating pizza in the "Party room" designed for 8 year olds. Perfect for your 30rd Birthday |
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| Ben (above) and Ben, Jena, and Gary trying out the arcade games. |
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| Scott's fake smile and Chantel's cute one |
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| Cute girls! Chantel and Tosha |
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| Elessia, Jessica, Jena with Ben in the back Also cute--and handsome! |
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| The birthday cake which is really cupcakes! Jessica likes owls! |
Treats for the Laurels
May is a crazy time for YW especially for all of the Laurels. They had a week of AP testing so they decided that they would just have a "Treat Open House" so the Laurels could just drop by and grab a bag of treats to sustain them in their studies. Jena and I decided since she wasn't busy studying that we would provide a treat for her friends.
Instead of just designing something on the computer like I thought, Jena choose to write a note for each snack (a bag of chips of course. That is Jena's trade mark.) They turned out cute.
The Laurels loved them! Great job, Jena.
Instead of just designing something on the computer like I thought, Jena choose to write a note for each snack (a bag of chips of course. That is Jena's trade mark.) They turned out cute.
The Laurels loved them! Great job, Jena.
Comet Fundraiser
Although I dislike yard sales, I will have to say we had a fun time with our (somewhat) annual Comets Yard Sale in Layton in May. It was nice to clean out some stuff from our house and donate it to a good cause--either as it sold and raised money for Special Olympics or later as we hauled the remains to the DI. It was a beautiful day and fun to be with the great families involved in our team. That was one of the best decisions we made for Jena was to get involved in Special Olympics.
Jena and her friend Kaitlyn spent about 4 hours folding and refolding the piles of clothes. They worked hard....and really enjoyed the free ribs from Famous Daves where we held the event. Great times.
Jena is just about done with track and will be starting golf on the first part of June.
Jena is just about done with track and will be starting golf on the first part of June.
Traces of Mom
I know it is no longer Mother's Day. Although my plan for this post pre-dated Mother's Day this year, timing never worked for me to actually sit down and write it. It takes a quiet time with a few less demands pulling on me from my house, my life, and even my computer. Memorial Day this year turned out to be the moment (for at least right now). Now this is actually just a post for me and my mom. You are welcome to read it but it is long and specific for her.
After spending some time at the cemetery yesterday with Gary and his family, I am also in that mood of gratitude for those who had gone before--certainty my mom and others that I know but also for all those who have served and died for our country to provide and protect those precious freedoms we enjoy. Our neighborhood is filled today with flags flying in tribute to those men and women.
Back to my mom (or Grandma Giberson to my children):
Like all moms, my mom worked hard for our family, She cooked (which she didn't like), she cleaned (which was a huge undertaking with 8 kids), she sewed most of our clothes when I was young, and she managed the organization of 8 kids, one husband, and demanding Church assignments for both of them. She was extraordinary as a woman. She made life happy for us, she loved flowers, she loved books and music, she kept a journal. She was a friend to all and I never remember her saying bad things about anyone. She was always willing to extend the benefit of the doubt. Most of all she loved God and understood her place with him. I remember six months after she had a life saving heart transplant hearing her stand and bear her testimony and saying, "I have been so blessed in my life. I have not had many of the difficult trials which others deal with." I actually didn't think anything about it until the next sister stood up and said something to the affect that if Eileen didn't think 10 years of congestive heart failure and being away from her family for four months for a heart transplant was a trial, we all better stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get busy. That was my mom. Her impact on all who knew her was upbeat, positive, and loving. I saw a quote which fit her recently. It goes something like this: Don't lead your life so that everyone knows you're here. Live it so that they will miss you when you are gone. That fits her well. She is missed, in some ways more now than right after she died. It has been over 18 years.
But this post isn't really about my mom (although it is good to put some pictures of her in here for future generations), but it is about the "traces of her" which I have found physically within my own house. I have noticed over the years how many of the things I choose for my house are related in some way to my mother. They remind me of her, they remind me of home, and they remind me of mothering and love. Some are possessions of hers, some are things I did on purpose because of her and others were just accidents.................but whatever the reasons I found her touch throughout my house where she has never been and it is a reflection of the major influence she had as my mom in making me who I am today (even though in many ways I am included in the group of siblings who "take after my dad the most).
Traces----
I love my mom and just like my home, my heart and mind are filled with her memory. I so wish that my children could have known her and loved her personally, too. She loved them so much and prayed for them. She died before Jena was born, but I feel a calm peace that she knew and loved Jena before we did.
After spending some time at the cemetery yesterday with Gary and his family, I am also in that mood of gratitude for those who had gone before--certainty my mom and others that I know but also for all those who have served and died for our country to provide and protect those precious freedoms we enjoy. Our neighborhood is filled today with flags flying in tribute to those men and women.
Back to my mom (or Grandma Giberson to my children):
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| Eileen Jane Own Giberson My mom at our first house in Richland @1962 |
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| My mom and dad This was taken in Amarillo Texas @1972 |
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| My mom and dad sporting our Giberson reunion t-shirts from 1994 That was the last reunion my mother attended. |
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| I had to put this picture in for my kids. My mom liked "pigs" and it started as a cute little quirky thing, but it exploded into a huge collection. Not only did we as children find pigs for her but friends and ward members did as well. She also had several "pig" books. She loved to read and she loved to read to her grandchildren and my kids loved it too. |
Like all moms, my mom worked hard for our family, She cooked (which she didn't like), she cleaned (which was a huge undertaking with 8 kids), she sewed most of our clothes when I was young, and she managed the organization of 8 kids, one husband, and demanding Church assignments for both of them. She was extraordinary as a woman. She made life happy for us, she loved flowers, she loved books and music, she kept a journal. She was a friend to all and I never remember her saying bad things about anyone. She was always willing to extend the benefit of the doubt. Most of all she loved God and understood her place with him. I remember six months after she had a life saving heart transplant hearing her stand and bear her testimony and saying, "I have been so blessed in my life. I have not had many of the difficult trials which others deal with." I actually didn't think anything about it until the next sister stood up and said something to the affect that if Eileen didn't think 10 years of congestive heart failure and being away from her family for four months for a heart transplant was a trial, we all better stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get busy. That was my mom. Her impact on all who knew her was upbeat, positive, and loving. I saw a quote which fit her recently. It goes something like this: Don't lead your life so that everyone knows you're here. Live it so that they will miss you when you are gone. That fits her well. She is missed, in some ways more now than right after she died. It has been over 18 years.
But this post isn't really about my mom (although it is good to put some pictures of her in here for future generations), but it is about the "traces of her" which I have found physically within my own house. I have noticed over the years how many of the things I choose for my house are related in some way to my mother. They remind me of her, they remind me of home, and they remind me of mothering and love. Some are possessions of hers, some are things I did on purpose because of her and others were just accidents.................but whatever the reasons I found her touch throughout my house where she has never been and it is a reflection of the major influence she had as my mom in making me who I am today (even though in many ways I am included in the group of siblings who "take after my dad the most).
Traces----
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| Logo from our last reunion--designed by my nephew Niles Giberson Mom came up with the name "Giberiginal" with some help from siblings and she used it as a trademark on the back of her homemade birthday cards and other cards she made---long before card making became a "thing". It was fun to use it again for our logos for the reunion. |
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| This is our last Giberson family photo which was taken in Austin, Texas, in 2003 (I think). The little pig represents Mom. Family photographs and family reunions were two very important things to my mom and my dad. |
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| These are some mystery books of my Mom's. She and I both loved mystery books as young girls and I love have these treasured books of hers. |
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| My mom's streamer chest which she took her stuff to BYU. (I didn't take my stuff to BYU in it.) |
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| My mom loved flowers and she was known for stopping the car while on vacations to go look at flowers. I loved that now and have done the same to my children. Not sure if I loved it as a child. We had irises in our Richland house and here are ours in Syracuse. |
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| In Richland, we had tiger lilies out our kitchen door. Here are some I planted in Syracuse as a reminder of that. |
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| My mom did love pigs and upon her death we each took a couple of pigs. These are from her collection. She painted the white piggy bank. |
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| I am not a personal fan of pigs. I am more of an elephant person. However I saw this once at RC Willeys and felt drawn to it. After going back and forth, I finally got it. Odd tribute to my mom, but it still makes me smile each time I see it. (And now everyone will know why that pig is in my dining room floor. I actually have a few other pigs scatter around my house as well.) My mom would laugh! |
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| When Gary and I moved into our first house, my mom sent us a package with something for each of the main rooms of our new house. This was a needle point she made for our yellow bathroom. This has hung in every house since then. It currently is in our laundry room. |
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| In that same package came four wooden letters spelling "Hall" for the hall, of course. She thought she was so clever. We used those for years as well but they have been recycled many years ago. However I did my own version for this house---- |
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| The Piano-- My mom played the piano and organ. Many of the classic music pieces I recognize because my mother would play them at night as we were falling asleep. I loved having a mom who could play, but steadfastly refused to learn how to play myself as a child. (And as an adult with some piano lesson experience, it was probably a wise choice as I do not have the "piano/music" gene possessed by my mother and many of the "Owen" family tree.) Gary "fell in love" with my family as my mom played the piano and we all sang after a Thanksgiving dinner. That event led him to consider that he would have to marry me to be a part of that so the rest is history. All of that is a side note to the piano. After we got married, I immediately noticed a piano missing from our home. It was just a part of my life that I couldn't imagine building a home without one. It was an exciting day when we bought our first piano which we had in West Jordan and sold when we moved to Hong Kong and since then we have had electronic pianos. Luckily God blessed us with Tosha who was a music soul like my mom so we have had piano music. Except for Scott, all of my kids have enjoyed the piano from time to time. As for me, I try to play on Sunday each week. Thank, Mom, for music. |
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| My mom had this quote on her wall, long before quotes were fashionable. It is a take off of a scripture. It says "Sufficient each day is the mess therein." For me, it serves to remind myself that I might want to take care of today's messes today (rather than piling the laundry to be folded....later!) This hangs in my kitchen which incidentally is painted yellow. My mom always wanted a yellow kitchen. Me, too. Yellow is a bright and wonderful color. |
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| I had bought a Thanksgiving rabbit and my mom, after seeing that, made me that rabbit for my birthday complete with hearts--it works for both valentines and my birthday, although now it sits year around in our bedroom. |
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| My mom taught me to love to swing. And so we must have swings. Jena loves to swing as well. |
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| This is my grandmother's treadle sewing machine. I can remember my mom sewing clothes on this machine for us. Crazy! That was seriously hard work to sew and work the pedal. My mom said years later that sewing was a great pleasure and stress reliever for her. I can't imagine it as the thought of sewing can make me break out into a cold sweat. My cousins just recently brought this to me from Oregon. My parents had returned it to Grandma when they finally got an electric sewing machine. However, Grandma wanted my mom to have it when she died but they never got it to Texas. After my mom died my aunt was determined that I have it. So they brought it when they came to attend a wedding of a nephew. I was so excited and grateful for their sacrifice to bring it. And it still works so if I need to sew after an earthquake, I am prepared!????? |
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| My quilt-- My Mom made this for me for Christmas of my freshman year at BYU. This was a ton of work. It included scraps of material from dresses and clothes she had made me throughout my life. Circles--can you imagine sewing that? It was on my bed throughout college and until I got married. And then on extra beds for years. Then one day I noticed it was getting worn so I took it "out of commission" and it sit on a shelf in our bedroom. As I type this I realize that I am wrapped up with the quilt my mom made for Gary and I when we got married. It is a blue tied quilt that continues to keep us warm years after it no longer was our bedspread. If we can find it as Ben and Tosha have used it over the years. Quilting is one part of sewing that I am trying to add to my life. I apparently love material and a beautiful quilt is such an amazing treasure. |
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| My mom and dad loved maps and taught us to use them. My brother took it a step further and majored in geography in college. I was actually one class short of a minor in geography myself. This hangs in our living room but I (and my brother Todd) both have map collections as well. |
I love my mom and just like my home, my heart and mind are filled with her memory. I so wish that my children could have known her and loved her personally, too. She loved them so much and prayed for them. She died before Jena was born, but I feel a calm peace that she knew and loved Jena before we did.
Happy Belated Mother's Day 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Another round of catch-up
Life has been so crazy that it has been awhile since I have written, so in the last week I have tried to get these posts and pictures put together and I am finally caught up. Life is constantly in motion and it takes time to stop and record it. However I do love having this blog for the history and memories it contains. Too bad that I didn't do it for the whole of my life. I have had some many great adventures and opportunities. It has been and is a great life!
If you really want to read on the nitty-grity of the past month, head back to "Highland High School and then on to Texas" and read from there. There are 13 posts. Good luck.
One other thing that has occurred in the past couple of weeks is that the president of the UDSF has resigned as he took a new job in Seattle and is already there working. That has left us without a president and not a clear person to take the position. So currently I am acting as the interim president as we look at the overall structure of the foundation and how best to organize it for the future. Not really in my plans as I really wanted to focus on other things at the moment and then work on the conference for next year, but life is ever changing (I think I have mentioned that.) and we sometimes just do what we can do.
My list of things is: work in the back yard to finish several projects including making a dog path along the back of the yard, adding some more garden boxes and plant them with vegetables; clean out our storage room and pantry and reorganize to get my 3 month supply of food completed; and third repaint Jena's room. Those are my May goals. However I am stuck indoors today as my allergies have been terrible the past few days. Gary "grounded me" to the house today, so no yard work. We will see how my list progress.
My dad and I are making some progress in family history to get some names prepared for Jena to take to youth conference where they will do baptisms for the dead in Manti. They are going in June. I enjoy our monthly day we work together on it. This past Monday we went to the nearby family history library to get some hints on problems we had been having with the new family tree. That helps us and I can see that "Family Tree" will be great when it is completely up and running (and I have a hundred years to add pictures and life histories for my ancestors).
Ben was released from the CRU on April 19 and has been living in his studio apartment since then on his own. He is doing better each day which is great to see. Unfortunately he had to go back on clozaril which has a number of problems for him but it does stabilize the paranoia. We are hoping that he can manage the side effects okay this time. He (and we) is hoping that he can get back into DBH housing with a roommate. No luck yet, but we are hopeful something will work out. That will help him and expand his life, I think.
If you really want to read on the nitty-grity of the past month, head back to "Highland High School and then on to Texas" and read from there. There are 13 posts. Good luck.
One other thing that has occurred in the past couple of weeks is that the president of the UDSF has resigned as he took a new job in Seattle and is already there working. That has left us without a president and not a clear person to take the position. So currently I am acting as the interim president as we look at the overall structure of the foundation and how best to organize it for the future. Not really in my plans as I really wanted to focus on other things at the moment and then work on the conference for next year, but life is ever changing (I think I have mentioned that.) and we sometimes just do what we can do.
My list of things is: work in the back yard to finish several projects including making a dog path along the back of the yard, adding some more garden boxes and plant them with vegetables; clean out our storage room and pantry and reorganize to get my 3 month supply of food completed; and third repaint Jena's room. Those are my May goals. However I am stuck indoors today as my allergies have been terrible the past few days. Gary "grounded me" to the house today, so no yard work. We will see how my list progress.
My dad and I are making some progress in family history to get some names prepared for Jena to take to youth conference where they will do baptisms for the dead in Manti. They are going in June. I enjoy our monthly day we work together on it. This past Monday we went to the nearby family history library to get some hints on problems we had been having with the new family tree. That helps us and I can see that "Family Tree" will be great when it is completely up and running (and I have a hundred years to add pictures and life histories for my ancestors).
Ben was released from the CRU on April 19 and has been living in his studio apartment since then on his own. He is doing better each day which is great to see. Unfortunately he had to go back on clozaril which has a number of problems for him but it does stabilize the paranoia. We are hoping that he can manage the side effects okay this time. He (and we) is hoping that he can get back into DBH housing with a roommate. No luck yet, but we are hopeful something will work out. That will help him and expand his life, I think.
Friends from the past
It all started when one of my BYU roommates from my freshmen and sophomore year called me and said she was going to be in Salt Lake to see her daughter graduate from the U of U. Mary asked if I had some time to get together. As you know, I LOVE getting together with my friends. It was been over 10 years since I had seen her last so I was so excited. She gave me a choice of Tuesday and Wednesday. It turned out that Wednesday became the day as I contacted our roommate Ruth who lives in Logan to come down. In addition, I contacted our other three roommates--Andrea (Houston, TX), Judy (St. Amant, LA) and Jody (Hurricane, UT) and arranged to them to be around as well so that I could surprise Ruth and Mary with phone calls (unfortunately I am not up on Skpe yet, maybe next time.) to our other roommates. I had reached Judy and Andrea but no luck with Jody. I finally left a message on a number that I found on the internet saying that I hoped this was Jody and I would call back that evening.
It went perfectly and we got to talk to our three other roommates. We spent a little over 30 minutes with each one. Time went by so fast as we reported about our lives and families, three different times. Like Mary commented in a text to me today--our lives have taken us many different directions but we all have faced similar trials and we all are still active in the Church. Judy and Andrea both work as temple workers which was a fun connection. We were freshmen roommates almost 40 years ago this fall.
We are a bit older now----
Our husbands were good sports with it all. We had dinner and then we started calling roommates and the husbands headed down to the pool table and played pool for a couple of hours. Gary was gone until the end helping with a bowling league at the bowling alley. Gary knows all of my roommates as we all met him our freshman year and he hung out at our apartment a lot---not with me but that is a different story.
I love these women. I was so lucky to have them with me as I started my adventure at BYU. We have so many fun memories of being together. As Kirk pointed out, none of the memories we shared had anything to do with getting an education----true, but there are lots of types of education and living with roomates for the first time was part of my education. I loved it and love them.
It went perfectly and we got to talk to our three other roommates. We spent a little over 30 minutes with each one. Time went by so fast as we reported about our lives and families, three different times. Like Mary commented in a text to me today--our lives have taken us many different directions but we all have faced similar trials and we all are still active in the Church. Judy and Andrea both work as temple workers which was a fun connection. We were freshmen roommates almost 40 years ago this fall.
We are a bit older now----
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| Ruth, Mary, And me |
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| With our husbands, Gary, Kirk, and Nolan |
Thai New Year
Last year, we held a Chinese New Year Family Night with several families in our neighborhood who have Asian connections. We have about 12 or so. This year we decided to celebrate together again but selected to do Thai New Year. We originally were doing it on April 15 because that showed up on a computer search as being the day it was starting this year. However bad weather made us postpone it twice. Finally Monday was a beautiful day so most of us were able to gather at Jensen Pond Park.
We called it the "miracle of the monks". We had decided not to reserve tables because it seemed silly to pay $50 when we were flexible about what tables we used. When we got to the park to set up, it was busy as the weather was awesome. As we drove around there were two men in orange sitting in the area I had wanted to use, as we drove around we didn't find anything better so we went back and I approached the men and asked them if we could use the tables next to them (I didn't know how to explain that we were going to do our own version of Thai New Year). They said yes and after a few minutes they headed out. We decided they were meant to save us our spot. However my friends asked us why we hadn't made them stay. That would have made some nice pictures with the kids! Oh, well. We didn't think of that.
We flew kites and then shared food which was all great--Asian and American. We then floated ducks down the stream. One Thai holiday the people build little boats out of sticks and place flowers on them. Then they send them down streams and out into the lake to "get rid of their sins for the year". We caught our ducks before they hit the pond however. At the end, we did the water fight and flour custom. On Thai New Year, the people throw cups of water on each other and then throw or slap talc (we used flour) on each other. Now days this includes major water flights and hard slapping of each other with talc covered hands. We did it for about 2 minutes. Here are some of us during and after it was over.
Next year we will do something Japanese, so start thinking of ideas, my dear friends who have lived in Japan!
We called it the "miracle of the monks". We had decided not to reserve tables because it seemed silly to pay $50 when we were flexible about what tables we used. When we got to the park to set up, it was busy as the weather was awesome. As we drove around there were two men in orange sitting in the area I had wanted to use, as we drove around we didn't find anything better so we went back and I approached the men and asked them if we could use the tables next to them (I didn't know how to explain that we were going to do our own version of Thai New Year). They said yes and after a few minutes they headed out. We decided they were meant to save us our spot. However my friends asked us why we hadn't made them stay. That would have made some nice pictures with the kids! Oh, well. We didn't think of that.
We flew kites and then shared food which was all great--Asian and American. We then floated ducks down the stream. One Thai holiday the people build little boats out of sticks and place flowers on them. Then they send them down streams and out into the lake to "get rid of their sins for the year". We caught our ducks before they hit the pond however. At the end, we did the water fight and flour custom. On Thai New Year, the people throw cups of water on each other and then throw or slap talc (we used flour) on each other. Now days this includes major water flights and hard slapping of each other with talc covered hands. We did it for about 2 minutes. Here are some of us during and after it was over.
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| During "Water and Flour" tag |
Next year we will do something Japanese, so start thinking of ideas, my dear friends who have lived in Japan!
Special Olympics--sunshine meet
After being snowed on the past few years at the Area Special Olympics Meet in Logan, we had great weather this year. It was fun to be there and enjoy one of the first really great weather days of the year.
Gary, Jena, and I left Logan in the afternoon after Jena finished the softball throw where she got 2nd place and raced down to Syracuse. As these things often happen she had her first "16 and older" dance in Salt Lake with the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation. We took her friend Kaitlyn down with us to the dinner/dance. They had a wonderful time dancing the night away with about 75 others from UDSF and then 15 young adults from a local YSA Ward. Fun times......
Gary, Jena, and I left Logan in the afternoon after Jena finished the softball throw where she got 2nd place and raced down to Syracuse. As these things often happen she had her first "16 and older" dance in Salt Lake with the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation. We took her friend Kaitlyn down with us to the dinner/dance. They had a wonderful time dancing the night away with about 75 others from UDSF and then 15 young adults from a local YSA Ward. Fun times......
New Church calling for Gary
I am sure I have commented on this before, but we are so blessed to live in a Church which presents us with different opportunities to serve in a wide variety of ways. One Tuesday afternoon, Gary took a phone call and then asked me if we were free for a visit on Wednesday or Thursday. He didn't mention who it was. I proceed to outline those days which included one of the conferences and I truly had little time to meet in the evenings. Gary talked on the phone some more and then told me that they were going to try to have time on Sunday to visit. "Who was it," I asked. Gary then informed me that it was the State President who wanted to meet with us. I don't know about you but I do not do well with waiting to talk to the Bishopric and certainly not the Stake President. Whatever it is about I just want to know and move on.......waiting just breeds uncertainty and wondering. I said call him right back and we will go tonight. Gary laughed. He loves watching me with this type of stuff.
As it turned out, the Stake President wanted to do it before Sunday so we fit a time in between my conference in Ogden and a meeting I had in Salt Lake. Gary was called to be the Ward Clerk in our ward. He has been a financial clerk before but never the ward clerk and he is discovering that it is more than he realized. Part of that is because he is learning all about the Church's computer as he tries to make sure we are using it to it's potential. He will be awesome and the ward will be as organized and up-to-date as possible. He is meeting lots of our neighbors and he is trying to clean up and up-date the records. He is there now cleaning out the clerk's office and trying to figure out what supplies they need and also updating the computer. Apparently the virus software had been turned off and it was a big job to get it working correctly. He is a good man.
One benefit was that we decided he needed a tablet. We have had a touch pad by HP which we got cheap when they discontinued them but it doesn't have many Aps for it. The tablet is amazing. He got a keyboard so that he can take notes during meetings and he says it works great. I borrowed it to use with my dad as we did genealogy last Monday and now I want one as well. Like one of my friends said about her Ipad. It is not a smart phone nor a laptop, it is something in the middle and you will wonder how you survived without it. We shall see. I am hoping to move completely to a computer calendar when I start using mine.
And by the way, he is still the Webelo leader and the Stake Employment Specialist although that will change in the near future we assume. It will be really sad for him to not do Webelos. I love having them come each week to our house for Webelos. They have all been great kids. They all try to arrive about 10 minutes early because Gary allows them in and they play pool and air hockey until time to start. One of us has done scouts for most of the past 20 years and some of the years before that. This will be a change for both of us.
Stake Employment specialist has been a good experience too. As we face the real possibility that Gary may be laid off in the coming months, that calling has given him lots of information about handling a job search. We have been so blessed in that Gary has been constantly employed since 1981 and there has been only 3 or 4 months of our entire married life that he didn't have a job (and even then he had part-time work to do). In the computer industry with many ups and downs, that is amazing!
Like I mentioned, callings are such a blessing!
As it turned out, the Stake President wanted to do it before Sunday so we fit a time in between my conference in Ogden and a meeting I had in Salt Lake. Gary was called to be the Ward Clerk in our ward. He has been a financial clerk before but never the ward clerk and he is discovering that it is more than he realized. Part of that is because he is learning all about the Church's computer as he tries to make sure we are using it to it's potential. He will be awesome and the ward will be as organized and up-to-date as possible. He is meeting lots of our neighbors and he is trying to clean up and up-date the records. He is there now cleaning out the clerk's office and trying to figure out what supplies they need and also updating the computer. Apparently the virus software had been turned off and it was a big job to get it working correctly. He is a good man.
One benefit was that we decided he needed a tablet. We have had a touch pad by HP which we got cheap when they discontinued them but it doesn't have many Aps for it. The tablet is amazing. He got a keyboard so that he can take notes during meetings and he says it works great. I borrowed it to use with my dad as we did genealogy last Monday and now I want one as well. Like one of my friends said about her Ipad. It is not a smart phone nor a laptop, it is something in the middle and you will wonder how you survived without it. We shall see. I am hoping to move completely to a computer calendar when I start using mine.
And by the way, he is still the Webelo leader and the Stake Employment Specialist although that will change in the near future we assume. It will be really sad for him to not do Webelos. I love having them come each week to our house for Webelos. They have all been great kids. They all try to arrive about 10 minutes early because Gary allows them in and they play pool and air hockey until time to start. One of us has done scouts for most of the past 20 years and some of the years before that. This will be a change for both of us.
Stake Employment specialist has been a good experience too. As we face the real possibility that Gary may be laid off in the coming months, that calling has given him lots of information about handling a job search. We have been so blessed in that Gary has been constantly employed since 1981 and there has been only 3 or 4 months of our entire married life that he didn't have a job (and even then he had part-time work to do). In the computer industry with many ups and downs, that is amazing!
Like I mentioned, callings are such a blessing!
Conferences
When I mapped out April, I had reserved the two middle weeks of the month for preparing for and attending conferences. As it turned out, that was good because it truly took all of my time to do those things.
April 11 I attended a conference about the Brain and fatigue and stress. It was very interesting and I got lots of information to study and think about. I took this class as part of the 20 CEU hours I must do every 2 years to maintain my license.
April 13, I attended the Utah Emergency Preparation Fair in Salt Lake. There were lots of booths and the classes I attended were very good for the most part. Again lots of information to study and learn from to get more prepared.
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to review and reorganize myself based on that new information as well as all of the stuff I learned from the Roots Net Conference in March about family history. All my spare time was spent in preparing for the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation Conference which was held on April 20. In February I was asked by the President of the UDSF to take over the organization and planning for this conference. Josh had recently become the President after starting the preparations for the conference back in the fall. He felt it was too much to do both (he was right). So that is how I ended up with a month of conferences!
The UDSF conference went great. This was the first one in many years and people loved it. It was fun to gather and talk about important topics. We had about 160 people plus about 50 kids who were in child care or youth programs during the conference. We even got news coverage on Fox 13 which included an interview with one of our self-advocates, Jared, who is 35 years old.
I am slated to actually be in charge of the conference for next year which I am very excited about. However that might change...more on that later.
Afterwards there were two days where I just recovered--Sunday and Monday and then I started "catching" up with housework, laundry, grocery shopping, all of the stuff that gets put on hold when you are dealing with 50 emails a day and writing a conference booklet of 50 pages, much of which can't be done until the last week in case of changes. In the middle of that time, my lap top finally actually died and Gary couldn't bring it back to life. Luckily we had bought a new desk top for me and had moved much of my stuff over, so it wasn't a total disaster. It was still a busy time to be figuring out a new computer with new software.
April 11 I attended a conference about the Brain and fatigue and stress. It was very interesting and I got lots of information to study and think about. I took this class as part of the 20 CEU hours I must do every 2 years to maintain my license.
April 13, I attended the Utah Emergency Preparation Fair in Salt Lake. There were lots of booths and the classes I attended were very good for the most part. Again lots of information to study and learn from to get more prepared.
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to review and reorganize myself based on that new information as well as all of the stuff I learned from the Roots Net Conference in March about family history. All my spare time was spent in preparing for the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation Conference which was held on April 20. In February I was asked by the President of the UDSF to take over the organization and planning for this conference. Josh had recently become the President after starting the preparations for the conference back in the fall. He felt it was too much to do both (he was right). So that is how I ended up with a month of conferences!
The UDSF conference went great. This was the first one in many years and people loved it. It was fun to gather and talk about important topics. We had about 160 people plus about 50 kids who were in child care or youth programs during the conference. We even got news coverage on Fox 13 which included an interview with one of our self-advocates, Jared, who is 35 years old.
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| Our cute conference bags |
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| Jim Faber from National Down Congress |
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| Cafe Rio for lunch |
I am slated to actually be in charge of the conference for next year which I am very excited about. However that might change...more on that later.
Afterwards there were two days where I just recovered--Sunday and Monday and then I started "catching" up with housework, laundry, grocery shopping, all of the stuff that gets put on hold when you are dealing with 50 emails a day and writing a conference booklet of 50 pages, much of which can't be done until the last week in case of changes. In the middle of that time, my lap top finally actually died and Gary couldn't bring it back to life. Luckily we had bought a new desk top for me and had moved much of my stuff over, so it wasn't a total disaster. It was still a busy time to be figuring out a new computer with new software.
New Carpet
When we were choosing carpet for our new house back in 1998, I choose a berber carpet just for the TV room off the kitchen. We had something simlar in our Texas house and I thought it managed the wear and tear of the kids and dogs well. The sale person told me that I would be able to keep this carpet for 20 years, much longer than other carpets of that time. It was true that in 2998 when we replaced our other carpet upstairs, there was no need to replace the TV room carpet. However the past five years have been hard on it and so we decided it was time for a replacement. It is so much work to change carpet in one room......hopefully we don't have to do it anywhere else for a long time.
This happened just a few days after we returned from our trip with most of the work being done inbetween conference sessions for the Church. Like most projects like this, it is great to have it done.
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| The old carpet It does give you a good reason to spring clean the whole room when you are getting new carpet. |
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| The new carpet |
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| With the furniture back in |
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| As we put the tv on the stand, both Gary and I commented that we liked the clean lines of not having a big entertainment center around it. After thinking about it over night, we decided to go with it. |
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| And there is where we moved the other pieces of the entertainment center, into our bedroom on either side of our existing furniture. It is not a perfect match but very close., I like having book shelves in our bedroom. |
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