Utah Memories

Well I have been home from Utah for a few days...all I have now are the memories and some pictures. Chelsea called the other day and said she was going to the temple with a friend and I must say I did feel somewhat envious and wished I could be going too.
Temple Square is an amazing place...with a wonderful spirit. I never went there as a non-member and as I sat there and watched tour groups going through....I wondered what do they think? How do they feel? One day I said to Chelsea I couldn't be a non-member and live in Salt Lake...I think I would find it too confusing....and she agreed with me.
The blessings of the gospel are everywhere...it doesn't matter where you live...I know that. The Lord blesses according to how not where we live....but I would be lying if I said this week didn't have me wishing to live there.... or at least someday serve a mission there. Chelsea told me if she meets someone from there she would like to get married in the Salt Lake Temple and I can't think of anything nicer than having my whole family there for a few days to attend a wedding.
I am grateful to have had this experience, for my testimony of the restored gospel, for special feelings and whisperings of the spirit that once again testified of Christ and His love and concern for us as His brothers and sisters. I am grateful for my husband and children and grandchildren that have chosen( so far) the better path....that someday we may all dwell with the Savior once again....


Here is a little video of my experience in Utah I hope you enjoy it. I sure did!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Well I am writing on my last night in Utah., I took a tour of welfare square today and the sister missionary who took us....told us we should write down our feelings about being there today. For me it was awesome. I had been to Deseret Industries there before but had never taken the tour, I think all members should do it once to really know where your fast dollars go to. How much good is done and how many lives are changed just by donating that little money from two meals a month. There is a special spirit on Welfare Square and I truly know that the Lord has his hand in what goes on and is accomplished there. I took the tour with young man,his sister and grandparents,. he is entering the MTC tomorrow to go serve a mission in Montreal, Quebec and very excited to get started. They were a lovely family and we enjoyed our time together. Imagine my surprise when I saw them again at the temple this evening.
Being a ten minute walk from the temple is definitely something I will miss when I go home. It has been nice to just go whenever I felt like it or when Chelsea was in class or working. Tonight I feel very grateful to have had this time here., To spend time with her and really see some of the workings of the church, to deepen my testimony and feel the spirit that abides here., I love how the church takes care of this place...temple suare and the surrounding area is so clean.
I spent several minutes yesterday just watching a young girl "vacuming" the reflecting pond i never knew you could vacum a pond but I do now...today when I got to temple square there was a man in a bucket putting christmas lights on a tree.....when I got backfrom welfare square some three hours later ...he was still in the same tree.....so when you watch the christmas devotional and see all the lights on temple square think of all the man hours it took to do that! I know I will.
I have always loved to watch people and temple square it a great place to see people from every where. There are all languages being spoken .....it is fascinating to just sit and watch.,
So it will be hard for me to leave tomorrow....especially leaving chelsea I have enjoyed being here with her,,.,although she is very busy....the time spent together has been precious to me...but I do miss alan and I know he needs me to come home....back to reality...but I hope someday we can serve a mission here or just spend a season being here ......I am grateful.

The Most Amazing Sabbath Morning Ever!

The Most Amazing Sabbath Morning Ever!

This morning Chelsea, Myself and her room mate Jessie got up and got ready to go to the tabernacle to see Music and The Spoken Word....the tabernacle is like a ten min walk from their apt. As we were walking over and passing the conference center we noticed that every one was going into the conference center. So we asked and sure enough the program was being broadcast from there this morning.

So we went inside and found pretty good seats and realized that the dress rehearsal was already going. Very quickly we realized that this wasn't just an ordinary broadcast. For the past two nights there was a concert at the conference center featuring..metz0 soprano Denyce Graves and baritone Brian Stokes Mitchell....and they were special guests at this broadcast. We were pretty stoked as we listened to the dress rehearsal and realized that we would get to hear them twice.,.,.can I say amazing...just doesn't cover the incredible performance. As I was watching and listening to Brian Stokes Mitchell...I kept thinking I have seen and heard him before but where? It isn't like I attend operatic performances on a regular basis if ever.The last song they performed was from the musical Ragtime...and Like a bolt of lightening it hit me!

A number of years ago our son Craig and his wife Shelley had treated us to tickets for a performance of Ragtime in Vancouver BC and he was the main lead....I was so excited to hear him again.

Then it was getting time for the live performance and the usual announcements we being made....the choir was getting back to their seats when everyone in the congregation stood up and we quickly realized that the Prophet Thomas S. Monson and Elder Henry B. Eyring were entering the hall. I was close enough to actually see them and was filled with much emotion. and surprise

The performance got under way and I must say the choir and performers were absolutely outstanding....enough to take your breath away. The orchestra from temple square were also performing.The spirit was incredible and the tears started to flow. And then before you knew it it was done....the cameras turned off and we all stood and applauded those who performed. and yet we were in for more

President Monson and other dignitaries came on to the staging area. President Monson gave a few short words where he talked about Tiny Tim from the novel A Christmas Carol especially where he arrives home on sunday morning after attending church with his dad. His mom asks if he was good and his dad replies he is always good. Then Tiny Tim says he enjoys being where they talk about Him who made the blind man see and the lame man walk( my interpretation) In the end of his short remark...President Monson looked to the audience and with tears in his eyes he said." I say as did Tiny Tim " God bless us everyone" .... I think at that point I lost it. They then presented the performers with teddy bears dressed in tuxedos that when you pressed their paw it played a song from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They had the peformers turn and face the choir ......who then sang to them" God be with you Till we meet again" Did I say I lost it,.,.,..even more then! Then President Monson greeted them ...and hugged Denyce Graves who by this time is in tears trying to maintain composure.

It was pretty much over then...the performers left and President Monson came off the stage greeted a few people, waved and then left the building...Did I say it was the most amazing sabbath ever! Then we walked out into the foyer and a group of sister missionaries were singing hymns and one of them was from my home ward! I walked out into the sunshine thinking I am the luckiest person ever to have been here this day and to have the priviledge of the experience I just had., I have had the best time here in Salt Lake, as I sat in the temple yesterday I felt like if I could be here...live in the housing complex where the missionary couples live ( near chelseas)
attend the temple all the time...I would ask for little more.

Cold Season Already....Come on!!!

I can't believe his third day in kindergarten my grandson Tanner came home with a cold...and guess what? Now I have it! Gratefully it is just a cold not a flu bug or anything....just a stuffy head.but I really don't have time for it. I am leaving in five days on a much deserved( I might add) holiday going to see my daughter in Utah...So I am hoping it goes as fast as it came.

I really do hope this is not a taste of what is to come...

I hate winter...I hate short days and long cold nights.....I AM NOT A WINTER PERSON!!!

Summer Really Is Over!

I am a substitute paraeducator for two school districts ...so I work when school is in session....usually September is a very slow month for work as most educators don't want to start using their personal time right off in September..sooooooo
I thought I had a whole month left to finish doing what I had planned to do all summer ....and didn't get around to...I am the world's worst procrastinator...
Yesterday I got a call from a woman I substitute for quite often....due to a shift in staff and illness...she needs me to work for her starting today till October 3rd at least( with a break in there when I am going to visit my daughter...which I had already planned).....So guess what?
Another summer has truly come and gone without me accomplishing my goals...one would think I would learn from these experiences right? Not this hard headed Newfie.....oh well it was a good day and I did get some really good reading done....

The Last and The First

All my girls and even my daughter in law have started blogging ...after enjoying their blogs for quite some time..I started thinking about creating one of my own. I was still resisting when I had an experience last night that made me feel this was the way I should go. So my title..the last because I am the last to sign on and the first because this is my first blog.

Now for the whole experience.....

A few days ago I signed on to view my youngest daughter Chelsea's blog...in her about me she listed she was the youngest of six. For a brief moment I thought she had made a mistake...for a very brief moment I forgot....for the first time in 27 years.

You see on August 13,1981 our fourth child, a son was born, he lived but a few short eight hours. They never found a reason for his death, his heart stopped shortly after he was born and it took them twenty minutes to start it again, he was rushed to a neonatal unit and passed away six hours later. We had not intended to call him after his father but in his passing felt it appropriate to call him Alan Frederick after his dad.

Needless to say it was a very difficult time for our young family...but back to Chelsea...Chelsea who has never forgotten. Chelsea was born almost four years later and in between our daughter Stephanie( who kept me sane) was born. Chelsea never knew her brother in this life but always talked about him ( once she could talk) and when ever we would visit his grave she would lie herself across his headstone and sob. She did this from the time she was a toddler and before she could talk and was told about him. We always felt that she must have had an incredible association with her brother before she came here. Eventually it became so tramatic for our family that we stopped taking her. I know that when she got older there were times she went there without us...and I know she has never forgotten.

In 1981 it was before the day that they realized it was theraputic for mothers to hold their dying babies... so I never held him...never kissed him,,,just touched him through the opening of his incubator before they took him away. Now they take pictures and keep them on file but they didn't then...no pictures ...just memories.

Back to the experience....last night it occured to me that August 13th had come and gone this year and I had forgotten....now if someone had told me that I would have a year when I would forget..I would have said NOT EVER! but I did. We were getting ready to go on holidays and it came and went without a thought or a tear...which had never happened before. Last night I was thinking about all these things and wanting to write them down in my journal.... I searched and searched and to no avail I could not find my journal...all the time a little voice saying...." you need to blog this" So after a sleepless night of thoughts and many tears....late but tears all the same...for my son who would be 27 this year...I said okay I will blog this...maybe someone who has a fresh loss in their lives needs to know that maybe someday life will take over and for a brief minute you will forget... like I did...but today I remember .