Random pictures

Tosha and Niki

Look at that cute boy!

We had a surprise the other week.  On Saturday night we were watching a movie and in came Jena with her IPad.  She had Face Timed Tosha (she hasn't figured out the time difference thing) and got them at Church as they were just leaving.  It was fun to see them all dressed up.  They all looked darling.  We call them back a few hours later and actually talked to them after they had got settled at home.

Scarlett loves our dogs.  Jena took this picture one day when Scarlett was over.  This is Jasper who decided to hop up and get some pats from Scarlett.

Jena is still busy at the theatre.  As a benefit, she gets to see all of the plays for free and invite a friend.  Meggan came with us to see Aida.  It was enjoyable.


Her duties have been expanded at the theatre as well.  In addition to ushering on Monday nights, she also volunteers for one hour in the costume department where she (and I) put away fabrics and organize the fabric room.  I will take a picture one day.  My mom would have loved it.  A very long and high room with shelves on both sizes with fabrics from floor to ceiling.  They are organized by color and type.  It is a lot of refolding and organizing but Jena loves it.

 Elessia and Jessica had some stuff to do so Jena and I went down to watch Liam for a couple of hours.  We took him Christmas shopping and Jena loved pushing him around in the cart.  He did great.  He loved the music and the bright colors everywhere in the stores and it was still only November.

For some reason today my whole blogspot has been difficult to work with--no captions will stay with their pictures, pictures jumping and around and then disappearing....I think it is almost time to be done with it for the night.  That is why there is blue lettering and underlines and weird spaces.  I was determined to make progress but it is taking twice as long as normal to do a post.  Hopefully I can fix it at a later time.

Have good night.

November and Arizona

This was a very special November as I had the opportunity to go to Arizona to spend time with my sister and her family twice in one month.


My first trip was the first full weekend of the month.  My niece Lisa and her husband were taking out their endowments at the Gilbert Temple.  They have been married about 14 years and this was an awesome event that I did not want to miss.  I flew in on Wednesday and came back on Sunday afternoon.  We had fun times talking and being together and I actually got a lot of homework done as well as her family had a busy Saturday with a Family History Fair.  I used the time to get ahead on assignments and readings plus took a long walk in the wonderful weather.

Valerie and I leaving the Gilbert Temple--Notice the sack in my hand.

About 5:00 pm, I said to my sister-"They do have clothes to rent at the Gilbert Temple.  After all, it is a big temple." I have been there before but only for a wedding, but I had assumed they did. NO! Since we had to be at the temple in 60 minutes, we started scrambling.  Landi had to work so I was able to borrow her temple clothes and we ran to Deseret Book and got a dress and some shoes.  Thankfully while I was checking out the cashier suggested I might want a slip or I would have forgotten that entirely.  It was a wonderful evening to be in the temple with Lisa and Paul (Neerings) and share this special occasion with them.

Saturday, Ben texted me while I was on my walk to ask me what I was doing so I sent him this picture as I was walking by it at that time.  Blue skies, mild temps---beautiful day.

Evanie (Jarom's daughter) LOVES olives as you can see.



It is fun to spend time with Valerie's grandchildren too. I love hearing about them and how they are growing so it is great to hang out with them and grow to love them personally.


Sunday, I attended a regional conference with Valerie, Lance, and Kylie.  They said that this conference was being shown throughout the southwest including Texas and it made me happy to think that my brothers and sisters might have all seen the same conference maybe even at the same time.  There was a great talk by Lynn Robbins about "Simplify".  It impressed me.  My life can be a bit complicated at times although I feel comfortable that I am involved in the things that I should be involved in.  However there are many ways to simplify and ensure that your focus is on the things that Heavenly Father wants you to be focused on.  When I have time, I am planning to implement some of those things....actually I know I will have to make time to implement changes!  More later.


It was a nice break and great to be with family, but as usual it was awesome to see Gary, Jena and Ben again--and later everyone else.  There is no place like home!

Halloween--2015 style!



We had the Hall Family Party of Chili and Scones at our house on Halloween.  I have to say that my nieces and nephews are very dedicated costume designers.  I didn't even get all of the amazing costumes including Hayden Nakae as an awesome Transformer--his dad had designed a costume that would transform.  It was great.

 And this year we celebrated with two of our three grandchildren--Liam (the monkey) and Scarlett (the Strawberry).

Jena's talk

From Facebook on the day of her talk as a missionary: "No pictures but a great day nonetheless. Jena spoke in our ward on service as part of her call to serve her mission. Then we had an open house which we shared food and conversation with family and friends celebrating this moment with us. One sweet moment occurred this morning when I double checked to make sure she had her talk with her. Attached to the printout of her talk which we had done together was a sticky note with a couple of notes which she had added to her beginning. I loved it. She started with "Hi guys, I am Sis. Hall" and flashed a big smile. My tears started then.... love that girl and her desire to serve Heavenly Father."


The week before she spoke I had a little meltdown as I felt bad that she wasn't going to speak in the Walnut Grove Ward (of old) where she had grown up, where people knew and loved her, and could understand her speech.  The place where she knew everyone and everyone knew her.  It didn't seem right that she was "sharing" this special day with our new ward, Barber Acres.  Of course, Jena doesn't seem to worry about such things.  She introduced herself (like all of the talks we have had in our new ward as we try to get to know each other) and said that she loves to read the scriptures every day and then continued with her talk on service.


I was so grateful that the YM Presidency was also speaking on that day and the YM President was Bro. Brad Allen.  He had served in the Bishopric in Walnut Grove during the first four years of Jena's YW experience and they are good friends of ours.  He shared that when he had sat down by Jena before the meeting started he asked her what she was talking about and she said cookies.  He continued, "I thought she was teasing me because she will do that from time to time, but she really did talk about cookies." (Her talk was on service and giving cookies to people was one of her examples.)  He then went on to share some interactions he had had with Jena at Girls Camp and told the congregation that when Jena was speaking about being kind and giving service she was sharing as one who tries to do that every day.  It was very sweet and tender and made me acknowledge how much my Heavenly Father loves and looks after Jena.  She got to sit by this sweet man who loved her and our new ward got to know a little bit more about her.  Did I mention that I cried?


And of course, many many of our Walnut Grove friends attended her talk and then gave over after the block to share treats with us.


And then later in the week, we came home to find a plate of cookies and the sweetest note from one of the families in our old Walnut Grove Ward.  They had attended her talk and decided to bring her cookies to thank her for her sweet example of kindness and service.  Some people really go the extra mile....and I teared up again. 

Her official missionary tag!

"Demo" day

Just because we apparently need a overload of adventure in our lives, we decided to remodel our upstairs main bathroom in October, too.  Five kids have worn it out and it was definitely time to do it.  We had actually asked for bids from a  couple of builders last year but it was such a small job that they weren't really interested.  We decided to try it on our own with hiring someone to help us organize and accomplish some of the main jobs.


So it is still a work in progress but Gary sure loved the first day of knocking down a wall and even Jena knock some of it down.  We hope to be done by the end of January but we will see.  Lots of life going on!

Gary waves a hand.

Aquarium Day



One thing I loved to do with my kids is take them on outings--to zoos, parks and beaches, science and science museums and aquariums.  It is exciting to have a new generation to start those same traditions with.  Jena had a day off of school so we grabbed Scarlett and met Elessia and Liam at the Living Planet Aquarium.  We had a great time checking on the fish and penguins.  We did really miss having Niki with us (and all of the rest of the Halls who were working or in Japan!)

 Liam LOVED the penguins.  For such a tiny guy, I was amazed how intently he watched them and got so excited when they swam nearby.  We were sorry that Jessica and Gary weren't here to watch him have such a great time!



Scarlett did like the penguins, too.

Scarlett loved the fish!  She was a bit nervous when we first arrived as there were some scary Halloween displays, but once we started looking at fish in the large aquariums, she was delighted.  When the oldest child is 16 months you travel at her pace which is fun to do again.  If she wanted to watch a certain aquarium for 5 minutes we all were happy to watch with her.  If not, we all moved along.  At least for the moment, as Liam really didn't care too much---except at the penguins where he was totally engrossed.  Next year we might have two wanting to go in different directions.

Elessia took this picture of the rest of us by some big fish.  If you look closely there is a skeleton in the tank with the fish.

Scarlett had just learned to say "Wow" and she said it a lot throughout our visit, especially when we went into the tunnel surrounded by the large shark aquarium.  She loved watching the big fish and sharks swim by.  This big one got a lot of "wows" from Scarlett.

We had a great day together.                   

Sister Hall....

Jena started at the DI on October 14th and then at the Church History Museum on Nov. 2.  For some reason I can't find the pictures from the DI but here are some shots from her first day at the Church History Museum.

Jena is loving both locations and she admits after 6 hours of working with clothing at the DI that she is a "bit tired".  When Gary went to pick her up the first day, a woman approached him and asked if he was Jena's dad.  When he said yes, she told him that she had a 10 year old son with Down syndrome.  She hadn't realized that he would have an opportunity to serve a mission.  She was so excited to go home and tell her family about Jena and to help her son to get ready to serve a mission, too.  Already Jena is making an impact on others as she serves.  She works there on Wednesdays.


At the Church History Museum she serves in the gift shop and is learning some retail skills.  She stocks shelves, dusts, takes out the garbage--she has her own key pad to let her back in the building, and helps bags purchases.  You can see her there on most Tuesdays from 10-2.


In addition to serving at these two locations she also attends monthly zone activities.  She was gone to a zone conference, a fireside with a famous pianist (whose name I am forgetting at the moment) down at the Conference Center for young Church Service Missionaries and their families, and a Christmas Zone Conference and service project. She loves these opportunities to be with other missionaries.
 





For awhile this picture below was the header on the LDS Disabilities Facebook page.

                         

Church History Museum

Setting apart and starting to serve

When Jena got her call, we were surprised that she was starting on October 14th at the DI.  That meant it was just over a week after receiving her call that she was set apart and started serving a few days later.



Setting apart of a missionary is always a sweet experience--it is extra special when it is your daughter or son---but perhaps a tiny bit sweeter when your daughter is Jena.  She had wanted to serve a mission for a long time.  She had to adjust her thinking to stay at home and serve but she did that as well and was willing to serve as Heavenly Father had set up for her to serve.  We are so grateful that Our Heavenly Father through his prophets and the organization of the Church has provided these unique opportunities for Jena and many others to serve.  It is a bonus that Dais County where we live is part of the pilot program which allows her not only to serve but be a part of a zone and have monthly activities and opportunities together.  The time is perfect for her and again I know that this is the time and the places where she is to serve.  AND SHE LOVES IT!



Pres. Brandt asked everyone in attendance to share words of advice with her and she was reminded to smile, work hard, and serve everyone.  Her blessing was amazing and nor only did almost everyone present have tears in their eyes, even Jena did.  I think it was one of the first times I have ever seen her cry in response to the Spirit.

The smile captures it all.

Everyone who attended her setting apart minus Nana (Karla who was taking in the picture) and
Uncle Mike and Aunt Charon
who headed back to their classes.

Jessica and Elessia headed up to our house when she got off work and we had dinner together to celebrate this special day.

Don't know how to rotate this picture
but here is her cake for the day.

It was fun to celebrate with our family.  We missed having Tosha and Austen there (I know I say it every time something happens but you do miss them more when we are together.)

And then she went to work--

Wow....I am way behind...

I knew I was behind on this blog but I didn't realize HOW far behind I have been.  Part was the fact that usually I only work on it on Sunday.  With Jena's mission call, we had two October Sundays busy with missionary stuff---Oct. 11 when she was set apart and Oct. 25 when she spoke in Church and we had an open house for her after our block of meetings (more details to follow).  Another Sunday (Nov. 1) I was just tired after the Hall Halloween Chili and Scones are our house, two more Sundays in November I was in AZ, and one Sunday I tried but I couldn't get the pictures to upload to my computer as I had recently updated to Windows 10---whew....and there you have my whole pile of excuses for not keeping up.  As you can see there has been a bit of stuff going on and although it won't be a rich (and probably long) and impactful for me to write about them a month or so later, it is better than nothing.  I need to keep up with this because I have a goal to start another blog page (it will be private--no worries you won't have to read it) that will update our family history from 1978 when we got married into blog format books as well.  I like the ability to upload pictures and write the posts and then turn it all into print format.  As you can imagine that this is a task for my next 20 years but I hope in the end that it leaves a history that my children, grandchildren, and etc. will love to share.  Pictures and words together are a great medium for sharing family life and stories.

Brief over view of the Hall Family at this time and place--

Although Gary has applied for a couple of jobs, he has been so busy doing other stuff that it is hard to imagine when he had time to work.  Part of that is running Jena to her mission locations on Tuesdays and Wednesday, doing things around the house, indexing batches for family search, going to the temple, working in his calling for Scouts, running two bowling leagues--one special needs on Monday and a league on Wednesday that our brother-in-law Allan bowls on, helping his mom, to name a few.


Jessica and Elessia are busy with their little son Liam who is now 6 months--Jessica continues to work at Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and Elessia works on the weekends at Michaels.  Although Liam is a frequent and big "smiler", I like this serious picture from Thanksgiving.  His eyes are exactly the same as Jessica--blue with green around the middle.  They are great to make the extra effort to bring him up to us to play with him and often do errands etc. up here so that we can babysit

                                                         

                                                           

                                     

Scott and Chantel still live in Layton about 3 miles away. Chantel continues to work part-time as an exercise therapist at Ogden Regional and Scott is still trying to get some type of job within a hospital as he tries to start a career in hospital administration.  It seems to be one of those fields where you need to know someone to get a job.  He is either overqualified or without the required experience.  Not a fun time of life........With my busy life, I haven't been able to watch Scarlett as often as last year and I really miss that weekly time with her.  When we do have time, it is party time with a toddler.  My mom used to say her favorite age of child was toddlers.  I really settled on the ages 6-11 myself, but toddlers and babies are a lot of fun, too (of course the fact that they are my grandchildren could be a factor.)

Scarlett playing with me!

Ben has been dealing with increasing problems with his illness and side effects which has continued to affect his daily living.  He did manage to come with us to Mesa for Thanksgiving which was good.  However this past Tuesday he asked to be admitted to the hospital due to some concerns symptoms.  He is now in UNI in Salt Lake and has started a new medication which was approved this past summer but they have never used it yet.  At least some thing new has the potential of helping in a different way--perhaps we can hope for a little while at least.  Ben said the first day was okay.

Nikki enjoying a cupcake

Tosha and Austen are adjusting to life in Okinawa.  Like overseas posting in general it is wonderful and exciting and they are making some great friends with children, too, but there are also times when they miss family and friends back in the States.  Thank heavens for messenger and Facetime so that we can keep in touch. 

Jena is busy with life as a missionary plus!  She serves two days a week as a missionary and on Sundays.  She goes to school 3 days a week at a post-secondary school program.  Monday evening she volunteers at a local theatre, Tuesday nights is Institute, Wednesday night is Wonderwood-a reading and speech program for individuals with DS-Thursday evening she works at the bowling alley and every other Friday she goes to Friday Friends, a social activity for teens and adults with Down syndrome.

I try to keep up with all of these people.  I am finishing up my service as the president of UDSF although some things will carry over into the new year. This is my last week of my fourth of nine semesters in my graduate program.  One more major assignment to write and some odds and ends to finish up with to complete this week. 

That wraps up the overview.  Now to try to catch up on the details of the past 6 weeks....