I sat outside on my front porch swing today, for the first time in awhile. It was warm! I sat surrounded by budding flowers and leaves. Our lawn is turning into a delicious, rich green. What a lovely time of year! Yes, I know, it has been awhile since I have written...again. Somehow this covid season has not inspired me. So, no more apologies.
It has been over a year since our country...and the world...has been in a pandemic lockdown. It seems that folks are beginning to feel like it is time for it all to be over. Indeed, the signs are that it soon will be a bit more under control. I can't help feeling that all our precautions are way over-kill. But what do I know? We have been resisting getting the vaccine due to some material that we have read warning against it. But when the Prophet and apostles got vaccinated it gave me pause. Then the Church donated some 20 million dollars to help spread the use of the vaccine. That is a resounding vote to get it, it seems to me. Add to that some family encouragement to do it and we finally decided to go ahead with it. Layne got the first moderna shot and was sick the first day but fine afterwards. I was a bit late for the appointment for mine by the time I got the directions for getting to the clinic. But, magically, the many traffic signals along my path were all green for me. I never slowed the car down at all! I seemed to feel sweet angels in my car with me, encouraging me along. That sounds strange I know. But to summarize; I felt good about finally getting the first shot. And I made the appointment on time, thanks to my angels.
Seth and Angelica have been singing with the school choir every year they have been at Eagle High. But covid has shut down their usual performances, until now. We were able to see a short performance held in the gym, not the theater. I'm not sure why that location was safer, but many things these days defy logic, including singing with masks on. At any rate here is a picture of each of them. Seth is pretty easy to find. Angelica is in the back row, on the right. Can you find them?
We tried to make Easter a little bit special this year. Angelica helped me prepare a special dinner, with Reed, Dorothy and boys in attendance. It was a Taiwanese dinner and Angelica went way over the top in her preparations. We had food enough for a week. In fact, we ate the leftovers for just about that long. It was so good! Afterwards we had a small Easter Egg hunt in the backyard, mostly for Bruce. But all four kids participated. I don't think they were especially fond of the goodies inside though. Since Seth and Angelica don't eat candy, I filled the eggs with nuts, a little bit of candy and dried fruit. Hum. Not my best effort at treats as it turned out. But the hunting was fun. Here is Bruce on the lookout.
I love having Reed and Dorothy close by. We had such fun several weeks ago piano shopping. One of the local colleges was having a sale on pianos so I talked Reed into going. "I'm just going to look," he assured me. He played quite a few pianos there. Dorothy and I smiled as we looked on. Audrey was with us too. Finally he found one that he fell in love with. He was very low-key in his admiration but we could tell. So we put our heads together and talked him into buying it. It was delivered that very day! So finally this son who is so gifted with music has an instrument worthy of him. It makes my heart glad. Here are Reed and Dorothy in a recent picture.
Last week we were surprised by a visit from Steve and Julie Harris. They are friends from our Fremont days. Steve was part of a quartet that Layne sang in for quite a few years. Steve was the organizer and a very musically gifted fellow. He and Julie moved to Oregon and that was the end of the quartet. We haven't seen them for quite a few years so it was so much fun to take them in again and remember how much we love them and miss having them in our lives. Maybe this sweet meeting will lead to more. We can hope. Here they are.
Friends are one of the great joys of life. It is hard to lose them, whether to distance or death. Our very dear friend, Nora Jacobson, just passed away on Friday past; April 16th. It is that time of life for losing friends. I'm so glad to know that sometime there will be no losses. Sometime we will all share eternity together.
I've been working on putting Layne's life story together. It is taking so much longer than I planned. It has been fun to read through his memories and look at pictures taken through the years. Here is one of Layne and me on our wedding day. We've just been married in the LA Temple and are on our way back home, to San Diego. The year was 1966.
After a winter without yard work, Layne has turned the outside water back on. The grass is a lovely green once again. Today, as we were cleaning up the kitchen, we took in a view of the back yard, with the sprinklers at work and spied these two ducks enjoying the spray. They stayed for quite some time, enjoying the water and picking at the grass...or maybe bugs. The male was continually on the look-out for potential trouble. Perhaps he was protecting his lady. I'd like to think so!
Life moves quickly on. In a couple of weeks I will have cataract surgery. It's finally time. I'm looking forward to good vision; no more contacts and no more glasses. Won't that be a sweet gift to an old lady!
