Families Can Be Together Forever

Sometimes you get a spiritual insight at just the oddest places and times and one of those happened to me at the San Francisco zoo. Since some of you were there, but all of you can relate to it, I thought I would share. We had stopped for lunch at a big cafeteria. As it was lunch time, the place was packed with families and kids. I finished eating and went to the restroom. As I returned, I stood on the edge of the giant room filled with talking people (and some unhappy little ones) and looked for my family. I found them and stood for just a moment watching them. They were all laughing at something and looked to very happy to be together. At that moment, it came to me that that is just like it will be when we cross over the veil. We, too, will look for our family and we can all be together, talking and laughing. I have been so struck with that wonderful image, I wanted you all to share. How blessed we are to know the way that families can be together forever!

I've Been Tagged

Aranne has tagged me for my favorite "Eights." So here goes:

(This picture has nothing to do with this, but it is a scrapbook store in Salisbury, England)






* Eight Things I am Passionate About:
The Gospel
My Husband
My wonderful children and their phenomenal spouses
My cutie-pie grandchildren
Scrapbooking
The Beach (OK, I really like it)
Shopping (not passionate, but I do like to!)

*Eight Things Words or Phrases I Say Way Too Often
A-MAZE-ING!
Everyone sit down so we can get started.
In the News today...
Oh, my!
Oh, really????
No way!!!!!
Cool!
OK, get your things together and you may go.
(Yes, these are pretty much my "teacher words")

*Eight Things I Want to Do Before I Die:
Go to Europe again (and again!)
Sit at the Beach for lots of days
Work in the Temple
Be a better friend
Be a better cook
Get back into sewing
Clean my closets
See New England in the fall

*Eight Things I Have Learned from my Past:
Patience with children of all ages
How to forgive
Not to judge people so much by appearance
Laughter is the best thing in so many situations
Childhood goes way too fast
Age really is just a number
There is a lesson to learn in every situation
Adversity comes to us all, just in different ways

*Eight Places I Would Love to See:
The British Museum
The Louvre
The Pyramids and Sphinx
The Holy Land
Southwestern England and Wales
New York City
Prague and more of Eastern Europe
The Netherlands and Belgium

*Eight Things I Currently Need or Want:
A day off work to scrapbook
More bookshelves
A new stove
A new microwave
A backrub
More time in the day
More ideas for my school classes
Flowers to plant

*Eight people I tag:
OK, I can't think of 8 so how about:
Maile
Dan
Amy
Steve

California Details

OK, Dad wrote for the family blog, so I thought I would add a few details to his narrative. First of all, Ellie has the most VIVID imagination I have ever encountered. Spending a lot of time with her meant that one moment I was the circus announcer and then I was Megan AND Max (in Ellie's world you can be many people all at once.) We had a great time stamping and doing art together, and constantly imagining.

Now, a detail Dad did not share with everyone else: on the other blog, the photo that shows us on the beach near the Golden Gate Bridge, the beach doesn't look too crowded. Well, there is a reason! We were walking along on the wet sand to get closer to the bridge, when we suddenly realized that there were a number of naked men there...WHOA! Time to turn around and walk the other way! No warnings and no signs. A slice of life I (fortunately) am unfamiliar with!

Fun on Jet Skis

Yes, that’s us on one of Dan and Aranne’s jet skis, right under Hoover Dam. What a FUN time! Holly even drove the jet ski for awhile. The water was choppy due to some wind, which also provided us at one point to become officially “initiated” when we leaned just a little too much and both of us ended up in the water. (Good thing for the attached power plug pulling out to stop the motor.)
A great weekend was had by all with the girls doing some afternoon shopping, while the boys did guy stuff. We also went to a baseball game Saturday evening as part of their adoption group activity to see the Las Vegas 51s. (can you guess where they got their name?)
Mike can’t wait to get back on the lake. Fun to spend time with Dan and Aranne.

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse Fan!

Yes, I have joined the club and today finished Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. I am with Maile. Although I cannot see allowing yourself to be almost swallowed up by another and I cannot see giving up the opportunity to be a mother, I do have to say her writing is beyond compelling and I had to make myself not pick up her books just so I could get something else done. I even had dreams about running through green wet forests. So, yup, I too will be waiting for #4 with big excitement, too!

Yellowstone

As you all know, we went to Yellowstone for five days with Grandma and Grandpa. They were so excited about going! We headed out, towing their little car behind. We stopped in to see John and Elaine Wilker and told Steve it was the primo opportunity to gossip all about him (not really, but it was fun to catch up with them.) Yellowstone itself was gorgeous. Since we were there so early in the season there were many animals, most memorably a buffalo who jumped right up on the boardwalk and briefly trapped about ten tourists along with us there at a dead end over a boiling pool of water. Fortunately, he didn't feel like charging us, so after a bit, he jumped off and headed away from us. We were there so early in the season that the Canyonlands visitor center had been open for exactly 10 minutes into the year when we arrived! After a stop at the Grand Tetons, we headed home. In all a great trip and a fine time had by all.

Emily and the Book of Mormon

Several of you know of Emily, a very sweet, but very needy girl in my homeroom this year. She does love history and so aced my class and also worked as my self-appointed teacher assistant. For some months I have been worried about her; her family loves her and seems very wonderful, but yet she is often lonely and seems to just have a hole in her life. Over a month ago the thought came to me that I should give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. I really debated this as I felt like her parents might be angry and certainly I would not do that while she was my student. Well, I had a copy of the Doubleday version of the Book of Mormon here which doesn't have all the references at the bottom. I felt that since that was a version sold in bookstores, if here parents happened on it, it would seem less offensive. I wrote her a message inside and gave it to her this week after the last day. She seemed very touched and even stopped by this week to let me know she has begun reading it. I gave her the lds.org website to go to if she has questions that she wants answered besides asking me. I hold great hope that somewhere, somehow, this will make a difference in her life.