St. George and One More Thing

My mother had a thing about red dirt.  Perhaps it was because she grew up in Lisbon Valley, very near Moab, where red dirt abounds.  Maybe it is my mother's influence, but I find that I also like it.  There is something about it that fascinates and delights me.  Visiting our friends, Bill and Trudy Ostler, offered us plenty of these red sightings.  They live in St. George and we spent most of last week with them there.  Trudy is one of my "kindred spirits".  She and I move our thought processes along many of the same roads so spending time with her is particularly delightful.  Of course we also had our men along, so our girl to girl conversations were very limited this time around.  But it was fun nonetheless.

Bill and Trudy Ostler with me at Mountain Meadows,
near St. George.  There are several monuments there
which retell and memorialize the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Layne and me at Mountain Meadows.  We discussed once again,
why did this happen?

We saw a live show in Cedar City at the Shakespeare theater and another at the Tuacahn outdoor theater in St. George.  Fun for sure.  But the best for me was our hike in Snow canyon, near Bill and Trudy's home. Named for Church President Snow, it is not filled with white structures, but almost all red ones.  It is a canyon full of the results of early volcanic activity; there are black volcanic rocks strewn around and giant piles of red rock and dirt that look like mighty helpings of red pudding.  I have come to think of them as "The Puddings".  Climbing among them is absolutely joyful.

Trudy and me in one of the many caves among "the puddings"
in Snow Canyon.

Layne in Snow canyon, surrounded by beautiful red mounds, hills and mountains.

Layne climbing in Snow Canyon.

As with all good things (and sometimes even bad) the time passed quickly and Friday night found us at home.  It is so good to be home.  We have been gone so much lately that the cats have almost forgotten us.  But now that we are here we have given some of our attention to our neighbor, Jim Wilkey, who is struggling with cancer.  We offered him a blessing from Layne and he accepted.  Layne fasted today to prepare for the blessing and felt, during the blessing, a strong feeling that Jim would be healed.  I'm so excited about that.  He is a fine man and I'm hoping that this experience with the Priesthood might warm him to some gospel discussions.  We'll see.  Now to pray that the blessing will be honored by the Lord.

Today we had an interesting presentation at Church by a couple who are local missionaries in charge of the addiction recovery program sponsored by the Church.  They mostly discussed the problem of pornography and how to address it.  Here is the amazing part.  The stake president asked us to meet with him after Church and....called us to replace them!  He wants us to be in charge of the recovery program for all of Treasure Valley (that's the Boise Basin area), and organize programs to address all sorts of addictions but especially porn and homosexuality.  It is a mission call.  Local.  We have been praying about a mission and what we should do.  The President made it very clear that this assignment is an answer to our prayers and is what the Lord wants us to do.  He is in charge of the addiction recovery program for this whole area so we will be working closely with him.

Hum.  That is a life changing call.  President Firmage promises that we will love it and that we will be able to make a dramatic contribution.  Hum again.  I'm excited and scared.  I've never felt confident about addressing either of the categories he mentioned.  We will have to do a lot of studying, talking, observing and praying to get this right.  So I guess we will begin.

Here is one last, unrelated thought:  our plum tree is ready to harvest.
I did so on Saturday but found I had to be very careful as the tree
was full of bees, munching in the partially eaten plums.  It was
tricky picking only the uneaten plums.  Monday will find
me processing them, in some way I have yet to decide.

Draper

Our son Gerald lives in Taiwan.  He and his wife Frances own two homes in Draper, Utah.  They rent one and have the other all set up for living for them when they come to the states.  Or they did until recent months.  They have decided to rent out this second home as well.  That meant that the place had to be emptied.  Imagine a completely furnished and equipped home and what it would take to empty it to rent.  And they are in Taiwan.  The job has fallen to family here, and, this past week, it fell to Layne and me to complete the emptying job.

So, after a couple of days recovery time at home from our Branson trip, we spent Wednesday morning canning peaches at the Church cannery and drove to Draper in the afternoon.  We spent all day Thursday packing things up with the help of friend Beth Hutchings and finished up Friday morning.  What a marathon!  We spent our nights at my sister's.  It was a brief time together but enjoyable.  One of the nice things about living in Idaho is that we are closer to her and her family.  One of the sweet perks of the trip was time at the Berretts and the pile of clothes in my size that Maryanne gave me.  She had quite a collection of them, which she can no longer wear.  So now I have the sweet pleasure of going through all of them and adding to my wardrobe collection.  What girl doesn't love that!

Exhausted, we drove home on Friday afternoon.  All went well until we were 15 miles outside of Boise.  Then, the sparse traffic came to a complete shut-down.  We sat for two hours.  Finally we inched forward and, eventually, arrived in Boise where the freeway widens and all returned to normal.  What was the cause of the delay you may wonder?  We are wondering still.  There was no sign of trouble that we could see.  But our early evening arrival became a late night one for some unexplainable reason.  Funny how we take comforts and ease for granted.  I felt immediately frustrated at the delay, yet we waited it out in complete comfort.  Layne, always the philosophical one, simply accepted what was and mostly exhibited much more patience than I.  Except for the gasoline part.  As we sat still on the freeway, the gas tank moved ever closer to empty.  But, just in time, we inched toward an exit with a gas station.  Blessed again.  We arrived home late Friday night to a full moon, two cats and a welcoming home.  I invited Layne to come outside on the front porch and kiss me in the moonlight.  He was happy to comply.  A full moon is not to be wasted!

I would love to share some pictures of our most recent adventure but I didn't take a single one. So not like me these days.  But the distraction of our work effort took all thoughts of pictures out of my mind.  So included here are some of our Idaho outdoors at this beautiful coming-of-fall time of year.

Black-eyed susans grow wild all over Idaho and I even saw
them along the roadways in Utah.  I've never noticed them before
and think that they are lovely.  But Layne won't allow them
in the yard.  I think they would make very pretty yard flowers!

Here are more of our black-eyed susans growing beside the corn
that spreads out all over the open fields near our home.  It filled
the fields all along our drive home.  Corn is everywhere!  

Branson, MO

Layne is a "homebody".  When asked for his favorite activity, he will almost always simply choose to be home.  He is also not one to seek out entertainment.  So it came as quite a surprise when he agreed to go on a bus tour to Branson, Missouri.  Have you ever heard of Branson?  It was never mentioned in California, but here in Idaho there much talk of it.  In case you are wondering, Branson is a small town in south-west Missouri that specializes in family entertainment.  It is a place where entertainers stay and visitors travel, to see them.  It is a sort of family-friendly Las Vegas.

We left for our Branson adventure on Saturday, September 7th.  It takes three days by bus to get to Branson.  Three days.  That would lead one to conclude that the bus would have to be pretty comfortable to endure it for that long.  It was a new bus.  No problem with that.  As we arrived, most everyone was already on board.  So we were relegated to the back of the bus.  Every seat but two was full of seniors, enthused about the trip.  The left side of the bus had seats so tightly arranged that they barely allowed for knee space.  The right side of the bus had quite a bit more space.  Of course it filled up quickly.  Of course, we wound up on the left side, in tight quarters.  Not a good beginning.  But the crowd was friendly and we got acquainted all across Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska and, finally, Missouri.
The views were lovely.  But as the trip proceeded the temperature got pretty hot, in the back.  The engine rested in the back and the heat of it permeated our back inside wall.  So at one point the temperature reached 100 degrees, in the back.  It seems that the heat was accompanied by a failure of the air conditioning, in the back.  Then the toilet, located in the back, and used by several passengers, began to emit some rather unpleasant odors...noticed primarily in the back.  Eventually both problems were solved.  In addition, the couple in the very back traded seats with us, which provided us with the best leg space in the whole bus.  It was hot there, but spacious.  There were pit stops, lunch and dinner stops and, thankfully, motel stops each night.  Each stop was accompanied by what seemed like a great deal of thought by those in the front before they decided to finally disembark.  We waited, of course, for what seemed like a very long time before our turn came to finally get off the bus.  This was repeated at each stop.  In summary, sitting in the back of a tour bus is to be avoided, if at all possible.

We finally arrived Monday evening and happily settled into a comfortable motel room.

Our next three days were full of shows of various sorts.  Branson is full of small theaters; some owned by performers and some rented.  The performances are all very professional and all included religious and patriotic pieces.  In many, vets were asked to stand and be honored.  It was very nice.  I loved the wholesome spirit of the place.  Branson appears to be an openly patriotic and religious community.  I would love to bring our whole family here!

Performing for a living appears to be a pretty tough business.  Singers appeared at our continental breakfasts each morning, singing to us and advertising their shows.  They sold CDs and DVDs of their shows at each performance, as well as various other trinkets.  You have to love show business to work that hard at making a living at it, it seems to me.

Layne outside one of the theaters.  There were lots of them,
spread all throughout Branson.  The Duttons at this theater
were a family group that was our favorite show.  As it turns
out, they are LDS.

Inside one of the theaters.  Typical arrangement has two big
screens on each side of the stage, offering three views of the
show and providing information about the performers as
we waited for the show to begin.

Here we are in front of that bus I wrote so much about.

Branson is comfortable displaying both spiritual
and patriotic themes.

One of our favorite activities was riding on the Branson Bell,
located on Branson Landing.  The ride was accompanied by
dinner great entertainment.

Here's a scene from one of the closing patriotic songs, performed
on the Branson Bell stage.  

Here's a view of the Missouri countryside.  The green lushness
soon changed to a much more sparse view of green as we
entered Nebraska and moved on through Wyoming and Idaho.

Our trip home was accompanied by lovely rain storms.
The fields were full of corn, mostly.  It was an illustration
of the most grown crop in the world...corn!

Most of our bus tour group.  We liked them all.  The ride,
not so much.

We loved it all.  Yup, even Layne.

Layne got acquainted with just about everyone.  He can be very outgoing.  His friendliness and humor warmed many to him and, I think, everyone knew who he was by the end of our travels.  Getting to know so many people in such a short period of time was great fun.  Everyone's story felt interesting.  There were 4 sets of newlyweds among us!  It is sweet to see how life can bring joys and surprises all along the way.

After another long bus ride, in our usual spot in the back of the bus, we arrived home late Sunday night, surrounded by lightening and rain.  It was beautiful.  And wonderful to be home again.  I like it best of all.

California Open House

I'm not too fond of United Air Lines.  They've taken our retirement away, and our buddy passes, and our seniority; they are threatening to take away our health coverage.  There is almost nothing left for them to take.  In spite of this, there are occasional times when we can actually find seats on one of their planes.  Our trip to California last week was one of those lucky times.  Because there were some empty seats when we wanted to travel, we got flights both going and coming.  It was a lucky break.  So, happily, we flew into San Francisco last Wednesday, rented a car, and spent the next 4 days with friends and family, then flew back home Monday night.

Chase and Morgan had their California open house last Saturday afternoon, at Audrey and Cliff's house in Mountain House.  Lots of people came, including some of our very good friends.  It was so fun!  We spent some happy times reconnecting.  Chase and Morgan spent their nights at the house also.  That's pretty unusual for honey-mooners, it seems to me.  They head for Idaho and their college home sometime this week.

Chase and Morgan, ready for the Open House to...open.

Early arrivals at the Open House.

Byron and Marcia Dansie, old and very dear friends, traveled from
Sonoma to be at the Open House.  It was so great to see them!

Cliff, the weary father of the groom, and his mom, Lottie.

Granddaughter Rayne (sister to Chase) with grandson Scott.

After the Open House, the opening of the gifts begins.

I loved spending time with family!  Our newest granddaughter, Victoria, was blessed by our family men on Sunday. We acknowledged all of our September family birthdays:  Reed, Alexis, Rayne and Jonathan.  It was such fun to spend time with them.  We had an especially great time with Reed.  It seems to me that I need to pursue my sons if I want a close relationship with them.  The girls seek me out but not the guys.  Why is that?  I think they love me.  But bonding is not high on their list.  They do call me for Mother's Day and my birthday but otherwise, usually not.  Except for Gerald.  He does call and write occasionally.

Victoria Grace Galbraith (youngest daughter of  Ben and Jes)
on Sunday, in her blessing outfit.  She wasn't fond of it.

Jonathan (son of Ben and Jes) playing with his
new birthday gift...from us!

We spent Labor Day with Ben and Jes, then flew home.  I sat by a very nice guy from Oregon who is a grass farmer.  We talked all the way, mostly about grass and cattle.  I thought afterwards that I should have brought up the Church somehow.  If I were more missionary minded it would have occurred to me, but it didn't.  Until later.  I want to "minister" to others in a more effective way.  Somehow I've got to learn to recognize opportunities when they come and to notice other people in terms of what I could possibly do for them.  I often wonder what the Lord wants me to do at this time in my life.  I want to be valiant in His cause.

We arrived home after midnight on Monday.  We've spent the week recovering and cleaning up from the California trip and getting ready for our trip to Branson, Missouri.  We leave on Friday, for ten days!  In case you don't know anything about Branson, it is a place dedicated to entertainment.  We will spend a week or so just going to all sorts of shows and such.  Layne is so not into this kind of pleasure trip but our neighbors talked him into going.  We've never done this kind of thing before so I'm excited to see how it turns out.  Imagine:  Layne and me having fun.  What a thought.