Thanks, Daddy!

Yesterday was Veterans Day. I thought about my Dad all day. He is a Veteran of WWII. There really aren't a lot of them left, unfortunately.

He served in Japan. He was a medic and I am sure experienced some horrific things there in the South Pacific. When I was a kid, we would try to get him to talk about the war and what he did and it was like pulling teeth to get him to tell us anything. I guess he didn't want to relive that time.

I am just so grateful for him and countless others like him, who sacrificed so much for this country. (And for all those who are now sacrificing for this country.)

This summer at our family reunion, my Dad sang, "God Bless America" around the campfire. It was heart warming to hear the inspired words of Irving Berlin, sang with the conviction of one who risked his life for the love of his country. The lilting tones of his Irish tenor voice strummed our heart strings and brought tears to our eyes. We felt the depth of his convictions and his love for his country and for us.

Thank you, Daddy!

Emily turns 29

29 years ago today, our beautiful daughter, Emily, joined our family. It was a fun filled day. My sister in law, Cheryl, and her year old son, Keith, and I were hanging out together making cookies and trying to find our errant dog. I was having contractions but didn't really know what to do or if it was serious. I remember my Mother in Law called and I had a contraction right when I answered the phone and she was convinced that I was having the baby right then because of the strain in my voice. She called Scott at work and told him to get home. I called my Mom with updates during the day and when I called to say that the contractions were about 4 minutes apart, she told me to get to the hospital asap. I called Scott and he came and got me and we headed into the hospital. Emily was born shortly after.

I was so thrilled to be a mother. I had looked forward to it for years. During my teens I could almost always be found with a baby in my arms. If it wasn't one of my little sisters, it was one of the babies from the ward. My Dad used to check my Sunday School class every week and make me return whichever baby I had with me. You can imagine my thrill to be a mother!!

Emily was a beautiful baby. The nurse who brought her to me after she was born told me that she was the most beautiful baby that she had ever seen and she was right! She was a good baby too! The night we brought her home, she slept through the night. I woke up in a panic, but she was just slurping away on her thumb sleeping soundly.

I have posted some pictures of Emily. I could not find any of her baby pictures. They are in a box in the garage and I don't want to wait for Scott to come home and find it, but here are some of my favorites. There are a lot of pictures of Emily with other family members. That's what happens when you are the oldest. (The other reason is that last Christmas I gave each of the kids an empty photo album and a packet of pictures of them through the years and I neglected to keep many of them for myself. I am now going to have to raid the kids photo albums and make copies for myself.)

I had a plethora of pictures of Emily and Levi together and I just couldn't resist sharing a few of them. Here is Emily in different family groups. I realized that Luke isn't in any of them. He wasn't around yet!!

Emily was an energetic, creative, out going, talented, loving little girl and has kept those qualities and many more. She lightens up the room when she enters. I feel very blessed to be her mother.

Fitz's morning ritual

If you read my post from yesterday, you know how I feel about our morning walks. I thought it would be fun for you to get Fitzwilliam's point of view. As you can tell, he is an enormous black lab and therefore is very strong. He and I have an ongoing struggle to determine who is actually walking whom. Out of necessity, he has to wear a halter type of lead called the "Easy Leader" which basically has a strap that goes around his muzzle. He really hates it, but it allows me to take him for walks because he can't drag me around. The more he pulls at the leash, the more it pulls his head back. Don't misunderstand me, he still pulls and I am constantly holding him back, but he isn't dragging me.

The pictures below are what Fitz does when I release him after walking. He drops down and rubs his muzzle on the ground. The second picture shows how quickly he moves.

Morning reflections

Yesterday morning as Fitz and I were on the home stretch of our walk, I was reflecting on how blessed I am. As I thought through my life I could really see the hand of our Heavenly Father in just about every little detail. As we continued up the hill, I reflected on the beauty of the morning. The air was crisp and my view was full of riotous colors. My eyes rested on the Temple which was directly ahead of me. The beautiful colors of Autumn stood boldly in stark contrast to the luminescent white of the Temple. I took out my phone and snapped the scene. Isn't it beautiful?
Unable to resist the pull of the Angel Moroni as he stood watch over the trees which exploded in the most vivid shades of Autumn, I lead Fitz into the parking lot and we snapped this picture.

The following picture brought tears to my eyes for some reason. The glorious red leaves against the cold gray of the sky, spoke directly to my soul. The promise of change and renewal and the hope of a glorious future rose up inside me as my heart beat quickened.

Fitz and I made our way through the parking lot and back onto the sidewalk. Birds were flitting all around, resting quickly on fences and then off to continue their morning tasks. Fitz in his single mindedness kept his head directed down the sidewalk, tugging at the leash, urging me to quicken my pace. The glory of the morning would not allow me to hasten. My eye caught the same rose bushes I wrote about in an earlier post; one blossom still fresh in all of its full bloomed glory and wondrously enough, a bud in all of it's promise clung to the vine.

And then home! Home in all of it's inviting warmth; both of furnace and of love. Home where my heart is truly entrenched. Where there is family and acceptance and tasks for me to accomplish.

I am truly blessed. My body is healthy and strong and my legs can carry me out into the beauties of nature. Where I can find peace and comfort and confirmation of my worth and value in this world. I am a daughter of Heavenly Parents. They love me and guide me daily!

Hilary's hog

My sweet little Hilary decided to buy a motorcycle when she got back to Utah from Alaska this fall! She has been cruisin' Provo on her sweet ride! One problem. It got cold. Scott and I recently zoomed down to Provo to take Hilary something a wee bit warmer to drive for the next couple of months and before we loaded it into the truck, I took a couple of pictures of her on my phone camera. Isn't she adorable!!?!

Sweet Nothings

Sorry, no pictures for this post. I am feeling a wee bit pensive this morning. I am just finishing the third week of a 4 week walking program. I have been hitching Fitzwilliam up, plugging in the ear buds and heading out to walk for about 40 minutes three times a week. The off days are spent on core strengthening and abs and booty tightening exercises and cross training on Saturdays. It has been great! I don't think I have lost any weight, but I am happier. There is something absolutely wonderful about starting the day with exercise and uplifting music.

The music I listen to is a combination of "up" songs that my friend, Kary, made for me a few years ago. I was having a hard time with things in my life and she, with the help of her Dad, made me a couple of CD's to listen to when I needed a hug. The songs are awesome!

This morning the walk was 3 sets of 10 minutes of power walking (as fast as you can, like you are late for an appointment). I really feel empowered as the first week which was 6 sets of 3 minutes of power walking, just about killed me. Fitz and I just flew down the trail this morning! We were tired and Fitz's tongue was hanging out, but we felt good!

As we walked home; me trying to slow our pace down and Fitz pulling at the leash trying to assert his dominance, my heart was filled with a sense of peace. My eyes and senses were filled with the beauty of the morning. Streaks of the sunrise filtered through the leaves causing them to glow, their deep green sprinkled with yellow and orange. The dew kissed grass twinkled in the flickering sunlight. My eye caught the delicate pink of fully bloomed roses drooping from branches hanging over a fence and farther on, other branches hung over the fence weighed down by rose hips. Birds chirped their good mornings and l heard lazy dogs growl their warnings from behind fences. My heart swelled in gratitude for such a moment. What a precious gift life is! It is hard at times; there are challenges to be faced and the future is uncertain, but what IS certain is that we are beloved children of a Heavenly Father. He is mindful of us and he wants us to return to live with him. He gave us this beautiful world as evidence of that love!

60 years and counting

September 14th was my Mom and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary. My brothers and sisters and I planned a simple family dinner which turned into a big family dinner with extended family members and wedding cake and a special quilt for Mom and Dad. We had the festivities above Paul's pharmacy in what used to be the the Odd Fellow's Hall. I thought that name fit our family perfectly, but some felt that it might be a bit nicer to call it the Falls Reception Center. It was a great place to meet with lots of room for everyone. Many thanks to Paul and Lora for the use of the hall!!
Esther made this beautiful cake and JoAnn provided the statuette of the anniversary couple. We draped the table in one of Mom's prized table cloths from days gone by. The quilt directly behind the cake table is one that I made for Mom and Dad's 50th wedding celebration. The large quilt next to it is the 60th Anniversary quilt that Jo, Esther and I made. The center block is a painting done by Allen of the Salt Lake Temple and Mom and Dad's clasping hands. That block is encircled by hand tracings of every member of the family appliqued onto blocks and embroidered blocks of different events in Mom and Dad's life
Here is Esther posing with her creation.

We thought it would be fun for Mom and Dad to cut the cake and feed it to each other. I had no idea that they never did that at their reception until I had them come up and do it.
Here is Dad waving to the crowd while Mom gets ready to cut the cake. It was really cute because Mom couldn't get the piece of cake to come up. We realized later that it was on two plates and she had the server between the plates.
Here is Dad fixing to feed Mom some cake. He really got into the spirit of things!

Roy and JoAnn standing in front of a few of the quilts that we hung around the room. They were welcoming everyone and explaining the different parts of the evening. Mom made each of us a quilt, a different one each year for 10 years. These are some of them.

Dad and Aunt Thelda are the only ones left of their family. Aunt Thelda is Dad's sister in law, married to his brother, Harl. We were all so excited that she came! Several of our Allen cousins came and it was so fun to get reconnected!
Here is Mom talking to her Aunt Gwen. She is Grandpa Pack's youngest sister and she is 90 years old. Her daughter and husband accompanied her. Aunt Gwen is the last living member of her family. Some of Mom's other cousins came and I think it really meant a lot to Mom to have them come.
Here is a close up of part of the quilt. Esther is sitting there with her hand on her block. It is a beautiful quilt!

It is pretty amazing that Mom and Dad have been married for so many years. Time certainly does fly by! It was fun to get together with our families and to have some of our extended family members there with us. It really is true that family is this earths most treasured gift!!