"Old" Friend

This is a bit out of order and still a developing story, but I FOUND my old friend, Lorna, from Sunset/Clearfield days.  She and her first husband were some of our dear friends from our Sunset Ward who built a house next to our first house in Clearfield--that was back in 1979-1980 time frame.  

The story:

Last Sunday, our Relief Society passed out a photo sheet of all of the sisters in our branch.

Later that evening, I was casually glancing through in no particular order to see if I knew the names of the sisters.  Then I saw a face I recognized and saw that her name was Lorna.  I showed it to Gary and he also immediately recognized her face, although neither of us remembered her married name.  (She and her first husband had divorced and she had remarried years ago, but we had lost track of her and didn't remember her last name.)

I was sure that I hadn't seen her in our branch, so we looked her up on the missionary data base.  She and her husband are full-time missionaries but they are living in their home in Sandy, Utah and attending Church there to be near grandchildren.  They both serve in the missionary department, doing psychological support.  The data base had a home email so I emailed her that night.

The next day, she emailed back and we have exchanged some phone messages as we try to find a time we both are free to talk.  We are hoping to have lunch next time they have meetings at the COB.

Isn't that amazing?  Someone we knew and loved is serving in our same mission.  I haven't talked to her since right after we moved back to Utah in 1998. It will be so exciting when we finally see each other again after all of these years.  Her kids were "ours" during those years before we had our own kids.  Lori, Mandy, and Scott--I can't wait to see them again as well.  We moved into the ward right at the time that Mandy was born.

Like I said, the good..and the hard.. intertwined in our lives in a state of heavenly balance!

Happy Halloween--Grandchilden in Syracuse

About a month ago, Jena decided to be a pirate for Halloween and found this costume on Amazon.  She is a cute missionary pirate or is that a pirate missionary!

Liam was our Batman--His great grandma Giberson would be so proud.

The twins---rocking their VERY different styles this year--

I ended up not getting a picture of Zander by himself but here is the line up..

Have you seen a cuter fireman!

Or a sassy and beautiful princess@

This is Jena's pirate pose....

Jena with her sweet friend, Sage, who was visiting for the day.

Cute porch at the Jensen's house--

Liam and Erzi by the dragon at Johnson's house...

Five kids--one photo???!!!

But sometimes it works----

and even when it doesn't, it can be darling!

 

One last one--

It was a perfect evening for treat n treating and we loved seeing our friends as well.

Happy Halloween!!!

A Surprise Package From The Russells

It was a birthday package from Tosha and family which included this cute thank you note from Niki for his birthday gift.

And birthday cards and treats for Gary, Ben, and Jena!  We shared some of the cake pops with the Utah grandchildren.  They were very excited.

It was a fun surprise after a busy day.
 

The Flip Side Of Life

I think I have mentioned before the concept that good and hard experiences travel together in this mortal life.  This past week has been an example of that.  While we were enjoying our day at the temple and the Hale Theatre on October 22, our brother-in-law Allan was not doing well.  His decline has been significant in the past several months and the days prior to October 22, he had not eaten and has drank very little.  Since he has diabetes, this is very problematic to manage his blood sugars.  The hospice nurse was concerned that he would pass away any time.  We headed up there on October 22 and have made other trips there as well, including yesterday (October 30) where he was asleep.  He has managed to eat a bit more in the past week and so keeps hanging in there.  He was able to have a short Facetime visit with his two children who live out of state on that Friday and was able to share some brief conversations with us.  It doesn't seem possible that he can continue to hang on, but he is.  Despite how difficult his diabetes has been to manage almost his entire life, he has a strong heart and it is helping him now.  He can barely move his body due to his dementia type and sleeps most of the time.  He could still sing along softly to one of his favorite songs "Stairway to Heaven". 

Life is full of comings and goings, but some seem to be harder than others.  All he wants is to be back with his wife, Valerie, and to go fishing again with Wayne (Gary's dad.)  It will be soon.  Gary reminded him that everyone is getting ready to greet him there.

Beyond Van Gogh--More Photos

Beyond Van Gogh is NOT going to a museum and seeing his masterpieces.  It is a entirely different type of audio and visual experience.  It doesn't replace the museum visit, but it did make me want to see more of his actual paintings in real life.

This is a 360 degree experience where you are "immersed" in his art.  This post really can't give you the experience, but it will help Jena and I remember it so I am posting pictures here.  Skip entirely unless you want to be amazed by art.  Imagine also background music playing throughout this experience.  It lasted about 90 minutes or so.  Although we went as a group, it is really a solo experience--you just have to listen, see, and feel inside of yourself.

The first section told a little about Van Gogh's life and included some of his quotes as well from letters mostly to his brother, Theo.  Within the last year, I had read a brief biography of Van Gogh, so it reminded me of things I had already heard about.

They had big screens with the words and information which often were done with enlarged copies of his brush strokes from his paintings.

You go from the "history" area through this room into--

the immersion room.

Literally, his paintings are surrounding you from the sides and on the floor.  Music is playing but there is no speaking.  Rarely, there was a quote shown but mostly it was just huge visual displays on his paintings.

Sometimes they filled the whole space--

Other times, many pieces were displayed at once.  This one below is a collection of his signatures from a variety of his works.  He only signed Vincent because he felt like Van Gogh was too hard for people to say.

Our selfive--

A collection of his portraits--I hadn't realized that he had done so many portraits--mostly of "every day" people.

Sunflowers, of course!

The scenes would morph from one group of art work to another.  There was a collection of florals which then morphed into flowers everywhere and then it would slowly change again.

This is Sister Twelmeyer watching.....

From the scene above, it started "raining" white blossoms wherewhere on the walls and floor.

Sister Twelmeyer taking a photo...

This one started as a sketch and then the color filled in around the room........

It was quite amazing and I was so glad that I went.  Certainly not the same as seeing Starry Night in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City which maybe I will someday, but a different kind of experience worth having.

People are quite creative--both Van Gogh and those who created this experience of his paintings.

Sister Audenart Is Here!!

Sister Audenart started serving her one-year full-time mission last December and did her MTC training and mission training all on line like we did.  She has been serving from her home since then in ....RED DEER, ALBERTA, CANADA!  She has been unable to move down to Salt Lake due to the Covid restrictions on visa applications.

As she realized that she would not be able to move down prior to the end of her mission, she decided to make a trip down so that she could meet everyone whom she has been working with for the last 10 months.  We were so excited when she told us and have been making plans for the last month on how to spend our time.  Gary called it my "in-mission" vacation.  We did pack a lot of fun into one week.

October 20:  She arrived in the morning and we picked her up for the airport and went straight to the Church History Library.  She attending meetings and met people.  It was a joy to see people create her like a long lost friend  even though their only contact prior had been through zoom and email.  She is warm and loving and you could see that in the friendships she has developed.

That evening, we all headed over to the West Temple Apartments and had a pot luck dinner with about 16 members of our zone.  We ate and talked and talked.  Many people commented that it was one of the first times they had gathered in a social setting since the pandemic started and they loved it.  I did, too.

October 21:  We had prayer meeting and then for the first time, we had an all-in-person" leadership meeting.  We then took these pictures down stairs to mark the occasion.

Gary and I in the back, then Elder and Sister Young, Sister Audenart, Jena, and Sister and Elder Twelmeyer.

I didn't realize that we had posed in the same order in both settings.

Then Jena and I along with Sister Audenart, Sister Twelmeyer, Sister Horrocks, and Elder and Sister Allan went to see Beyond Van Gogh.  I have too many pictures from there for this post, but will include a couple.

Then some of us headed to the Red Iguana on South Temple for lunch which was yummy!

Sister Audenart, Sister Horrocks, me, Sister Twelmeyer and Jena

October 22:

Zone Temple Trip to the Jordan River Temple