Two Visits

My daughter Audrey and her family have lived with us for a number of years.  So we have grown close and used to being in one another's company.  Perhaps for that reason Audrey feels the need for regular visits.  I love her pursuit of continuing closeness, so when she said she was going to drive here from her home in Mountain House, I was excited.  Two weeks ago, she drove the 10 or so hours by herself and arrived on that Monday afternoon.  She stayed for five days.  We had such fun together.   We saw some of the local sights, went to the temple and exchanged thoughts and ideas.  It was a sweet time.

Audrey with a new hair style from my favorite local
hair stylist, Danea Villa.

She introduced me to a journaling system that includes long range planning and I'm hooked.  At least for now.  I've made all sorts of charts of potential accomplishments, in various categories.  It is a pretty structured system.  I admire structure.  I'm in the habit of setting up all sorts of versions of it for myself, with grand plans for accomplishment.  After all, I only have so many years left to do whatever I want to get done before leaving this mortal place.  But while I admire all things organized, and goals set, I am, by nature, a free spirit.  So I quite often sabotage my own good intentions.  Sooner or later, something inside of me often rebels and I lapse back into my free-spirit mentality.  I forget my carefully ordered systems and lapse back into relative chaos.  But perhaps if I persist in my efforts, I will eventually win in my war for accomplishment.

My first accomplishment under my new system was to get all of my father's memorabilia organized into one binder.  Wow.  I'm so proud.  And I so enjoyed reviewing my father's life once again.  He really was quite wonderful.

Audrey's sons Chase and Isaiah and Chase's wife Morgan joined us on Friday of two weeks ago.  Isaiah was visiting Chase, so they brought him back to our house, for the drive back to California.  California is where Ben and Jessica's newest baby girl was just born.  The thought came to me that I could ride there with them and see my newest little granddaughter.  Audrey planned to begin the drive back at 1 am Saturday morning so as to get Isaiah back to California in time to go to work for the afternoon.  You may imagine how we looked forward to that!  Then Layne suggested that we leave after dinner on Friday night instead, spend the night in Winnemucca, and finish the drive on Saturday morning.  He made all the arrangements for us, and we took his advice.  It made the trip so pleasant!  Perhaps that is how we should proceed from now on.

We celebrated Morgan's birthday Friday afternoon,
with strawberry pie for dessert.  She loved it.

I spent the time in California with family mostly, getting a good bond in with just about everyone.  I spent last Sunday with Ben and Jes and our new little Olivia.  And all the other, very busy children.  I had such fun with all of them.  Olivia is almost two months old now and, with a little encouragement, she "talked" to me and even gave a little smile.  I was charmed.  Audrey and I had a very pleasant lunch and bond with Reed several days later.  Cliff drove me to the airport early last Wednesday morning and we talked all the way.  I loved that too.  So, in spite of catching a cold from someone there, I had a wonderful time and it was very worth the effort to make the trip.

Olivia in a serious moment.

After some encouragement on my part,
here is a hint of a smile from Olivia.

Ben and me in his kitchen.

I've been nursing my cold, and passing it on to Layne, ever since returning home.  We are both staying home from Church today to nurse our ailments.  Next Tuesday we begin our concert series with my singing group.  I hope we can squeak out some singing.  Layne and I are supposed to sing a duet.  This is new territory for me.  I'll let you know how that turns out next week.    

Easter

I have happy memories of Easter that flow back to my childhood.  We had Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets and seemed usually to find a Church to attend on Easter.  I remember dressing up in a new dress, shoes, gloves and hat for Easter.  There was no other event that produced such finery.  Easter services always seemed especially spectacular too.  Special flowers and music usually filled the chapels we attended over the years.  I longed for more of Church in those days.  But my family only attended Church on special occasions.

Of course joining the LDS Church changed all of that rather dramatically.  Church is part of my everyday life now.  I like it that way.  But memories of sweet Easter celebrations has made me a little sad when Easter falls on General Conference Sunday.  Easter services are often not celebrated in the ward when that happens.  I love General Conference and I love Easter.  But I wish they fell on different weekends.  Somehow it doesn't feel quite right to sit at home, in casual clothes, on Easter and watch the TV.  Perhaps that is just the Protestant in me.  Plus there is no family to enjoy a celebration with.  BUT I did enjoy Conference and there were plenty of talks about the Savior and Easter.

Our yard is exploding in blossoms.  Spring is such a beautiful time.  I love walking through the yard and seeing it come alive, a little more each day.  Layne is loving working in the garden.  But our garden experiment with early planting has hit a snag.  Our tomatoes apparently roasted in the plastic covered setting Layne set up for them.  He's decided that they needed more water.  So he's started over, unaffected by the frustration of it all, or so it appears.  He just keeps on trying new approaches until he finds out what works.  He's got a knack for not getting discouraged over things.  I so like that about him.

Part of our front yard.  Love the blossoms!

I have a number of projects started.  I've complained before that I can easily start things but finishing them is, for some reason, a challenge for me.  So I've started a t-shirt quilt.  Its not on my priority list but, somehow, I feel pressed to do it.  So I am.  And I'm happy to say that it is almost finished!  Once it really is finished, completely, I plan to celebrate the completion of something.  Then on to my other uncompleted projects.  I'm hoping that finishing something will spur me on to complete some more.  I'll keep you posted on that!

The t-shirt quilt, almost finished!

I am filled with gratitude for the good things that fill my life.  I realize that we are amazingly blessed and I don't want to take it for granted for a moment.  I wonder what more I should do to share these blessings and show the Lord my gratitude.  I pray to know each day and am trying to tune into the unspoken needs of others.  I'm working on being more service-oriented.  I'm grateful for Easter too, and the chance to review the Lord's grand Atonement and the gifts it brings to us all.  I guess, to sum things up, I'm just plain grateful.  

Happy Easter!

St. George

We have a deal with our friends Bill and Trudy Ostler.  They visit us once a year and we visit them once a year.  Since they live in St. George, this seems like the best way to keep in touch with them.  Our turn to visit them came up last Monday.  So we flew to St. George and joined them in their lovely house at the base of the red rock mountains.  The red dirt of southern Utah is enchanting.  It fills the countryside with amazing mountainous shapes, in red, often ribboned through with white dirt.  It is such a sight!  Imagine growing a garden in red dirt!  People there do.

Bill and Trudy had our days scheduled with visits to Bryce and Zion parks and sights in between. We drove and hiked and took endless pictures.  And we talked and talked.  Trudy and I walk the same mental path in most things, so our conversations flow and build on each other.  In most categories anyhow.  Bill and Layne get along very well too.  So spending time with these friends is a treat.  Bill had our days planned much as Layne likes to do.  By the time we did all that he scheduled us for it was time to go home.

It is interesting to see such varieties of beauty in our world.  If I were to describe a nature scene that is most beautiful in my mind, it would be filled with trees, green grass and flowers, with a bubbling brook nearby.  Southern Utah has none of these things.  Well, very little.  It is filled with desert plants, lots of dirt and rugged mountains.  Many of them red.  In spite of the contrast with my vision of natural beauty, I found the scenes we experienced awesome in their loveliness.

Bryce provided us with quiet pleasures, while Zion was filled with lots and lots of people.  As it turned out, the week we were there was spring break.  So the area was filled with families.  We took a bus through Zion and visited with several strangers.  This may sound to you like an exaggeration, but everyone we actually visited with was from Boise!  Yes, it was actually true.  Crowds filled all the special places in Zion, so it wasn't as much fun for us as our time in Bryce.  But it was all a wonderful adventure.

It all ended early Friday morning when we returned home.  It is so good, always, to be home.  And now everything is pretty much back to normal.  At Church today our stake president told us that he had been notified by Salt Lake that we could be finished with our mission in May!  Or we could continue until November, when our two years would be up.  We have our choice as it turns out.  So now we must make a decision about it.  I'm not sure what the best thing to do is.  We are thinking that we would like to do one more mission but the question is, when?  Our year is filling up, working around a November release.  Perhaps we should keep to that time frame.  I just don't know.

Trudy and me in Devil's Garden, near Escalante, Utah.

Bill "pushing" on a local rock, with Layne, in Devil's Garden.

Our room at a Bed and Breakfast in Escalante, where we spent one night.

Our scary hike along Shakespeare Trail in Kodachrome Park.
If you look closely you can see some of us on the path.

Opera and Laura

Did I mention that Layne and I are taking singing lessons?  Our teachers are professionals and so very skilled at using the voice in amazing ways.  Susan Patchel Hamilton sang opera in Europe and at the Met for quite a few years.  At 74 she still sings professionally.  We are quite wow'd by her.  Last week, she and her husband invited us to join them for dinner and a replay of a Met opera, "The Lady of the Lake", complete with sub-titles and even some interviews with the performers.  I've only seen one opera in my entire life and didn't like it much.  But this time I found it much more interesting.  Thanks to the sub-titles, I could understand the story for one thing.  As it turns out, very few translations were necessary, as the narrative repeated itself in musical tones over and over again.  The story can be summarized in just a few sentences.  The idea is to enjoy the amazing variety of beautiful sounds the human voice can make.  I can sorta see that.  I actually enjoyed the performance.  Except for one small item.  The love interest of the leading lady was played by another lady!  I found it a bit shocking at first.  Susan's husband, Brett, explained that in early opera (which this is), women sometimes played the part of men, if the composer designed the musical score to be more suited to a woman's voice.  After awhile I got used to it....but I never liked it.  Still, it was a new and interesting experience.  I think we might go again before we call opera a closed activity for us.

Here's the closing scene of "The Lady of the Lake".  Note the
boyfriend on the left is actually a woman!  Personally I'd have
chosen the king, who stands between them.  He's lots cuter.

The end of last week brought us a special treat.  Our first foster daughter, Laura, came to visit for several days.  She lived with us when our two girls were small and no boys yet.  She brought her sister and mom too for a day, to see one of their own perform in a dance competition.  Laura's mom and sister left after the competition but Laura stayed until Sunday.  So we got a good visit in.  It has been sweet to stay in touch with her over the years.  She is in her fifties now and twice divorced.  She is making her own way by running a housecleaning business.  She appears to be doing fine with that.  She has such a sweet way about her.  It was a pleasure to catch up with her life and feel close to her once again.  Truly it is the people in my life that makes me happiest.

Laura White and me.

Laura with Layne.

I got to substitute teach in Relief Society on Sunday.  It was such fun.  I taught a lesson based on the talk by Elder Holland on helping the poor.  I have been bothered for awhile by what I term white-washed lessons in Relief Society.  We talk of the gospel bringing us all stability and happiness while up to half of the women in our group are struggling with some kind of heart ache.  Its not that the gospel can't help with that.  It certainly can, but we never address the downside of life.  And it is all around us.  The gospel has better answers than can be found anywhere else, so why don't we bring up the problems we all deal with and discuss solutions!  We are surrounded by what the Lord calls the "poor in heart", who, with a smile, communicate that all is well and hide their tears.  I think we need to be more in tune with the needs of our own ward family as well as our home family and various others around us.  Too many people bear their pain and loneliness while in the midst of a crowd.  So I taught about the poor in heart.  At least I got it off my chest.

Musings

We seem to be entering an early spring.  One of the ladies in my yoga class is quite the gardener.  She said that she expands the short Idaho growing season by placing clear plastic on the garden ground to warm it up and planting now.  Layne is quite excited about the possibilities, so he has spent the past week or so getting the garden dirt all ready, installing plastic sheets stretched over arched pipes and planting tomatoes.  We are excited to see if they will grow this early.  In the meantime, the trees are budding out and the bulbs springing forth with spring flowers.  I hope they won't be disappointed as the locals say that we are no doubt due for some spring frosts.  Such dramatic changes in season make such a show!  I think I like it better than the more subtle changes of California.

Spring flowers making their show early.

The new housing developments around us are filling up, with new move-ins joining our ward at the rate of two families every week.  I feel overwhelmed by all the people that I don't know.  But there are many in our age bracket and that is a fun prospect.  Perhaps for that reason there seems to be many developing friendships here.  We find ourselves acquiring quite the social life.  Of course with people our age comes problems as well.  I have found myself in the service of a number of people in temporary need.  So much so that there has been very little time at home these past few weeks.  Since we are not among those who are struggling, I feel a very strong obligation to reach out and assist those who are

where I can.  I am finding it quite pleasurable.

One of the quirks of my personality is the need to be always productive.  I seem to measure my very worth by how productive I am.  I know.  I know...that is a silly thing but I can't seem to shake it.  Every day I decide what productive thing I'm going to do and then never quite get it done.  Or sometimes never even get to it.  It's a personal bummer.  Layne reminds me to "just relax" but I have great difficulty doing that.  I wonder how to reasonably create a bit more balance in my life.

Layne and I are taking singing lessons from a pretty well known opera singer in our ward, Susan Patcel Hamilton, and her coach husband.  Wow is it interesting.  I never imagined there was so much to using a voice the right way.  There's breathing from the diaphragm, letting the air escape from the mouth just right, holding the mouth right, etc, etc.  It is a world I never knew before.  This coming week we are actually going to attend a video showing of an opera, complete with interviews of the singers.  I never thought I'd ever be doing something like that.  I don't even like opera.  So it will be interesting to see how that experience turns out.

Here is granddaughter Abigail holding her newest little sister, Olivia.
They are the daughters of son Ben and his Jessica.

I've still not seen my newest little granddaughter.  I can only take that for so long before arranging some sort of trip to California to hold that little one.  This may be our last grandchild.  But then again, you never know!

A New Galbraith

Sometimes I feel a strong desire to capture my life in words and sometimes I just don't.  That explains the last few weeks for me.  But today our Ben's wife Jessica delivered their 8th baby, a beautiful little blond daughter.  I've only seen one picture but she looks perfect to me.  I'm sad not to see her in person but seeing her picture brings out tears and joys.  Another lovely little person to love and treasure; it is life's greatest gift.

Our newest little Galbraith, born February 27th at about 5 PM
in Palo Alto.  She is the daughter of Ben and Jessica.

Lately I've been taken up with gratitude for people in my life.  All sorts of people.  Family certainly.  But there are all kinds of good people that fill my days and my heart.  My heaven is full of them.  Layne and I made a quick trip to Seattle last week to visit Chris and Jessica and to see their youngest, Peyton, perform in a school talent show.  It was such fun to spend a little time with that family.  It felt like we got an especially good visit with them during our very short stay.  It was a marathon trip of sorts, as we spent a day getting there, a day there and another day driving home again.  It seems crazy to make such a trip, but even the drive was enjoyable.  Layne usually doesn't like to be read to while he drives, or talk much for that matter.  He wants to concentrate you see.  But I read to him anyhow during the drive home and I think he liked it.  He wouldn't say so of course but, secretly, I think he did.

Peyton and friend in their performance costumes
for their school talent show.

Peyton with her mom, our Jessica.

We presented a fireside on missionary work the night of our return and enjoyed it much more than I thought we would.  It was designed to inspire adults to serve senior missions.  A strong spirit spread throughout the group as we discussed the blessings of missions and I wound up feeling that Layne and I should go on another mission when our local one is finished.  One of my complaints about being older is that we are less needed in the local Church community.  Less used anyhow.  But on a mission that changes dramatically.  Current talents and skills are used and new ones emerge.  I remember that now.  And it calls to me.

My Treble Clef singing group is rehearsing for a spring concert.  Layne and I are singing a duet.  I never imagined myself doing this, but somehow it isn't as scary as most singing assignments are.  We are singing "Old Black Magic" and I think it'll be a lot of fun.  I feel myself slowly getting over my fear of singing to an audience.  We have a professional singer in our ward who gives singing lessons so I asked if she could teach some older kids with only passable voices to sing better. She said she'd love to.  So Layne and I, along with buddies Carol Wintersteen and Pat Green, are taking lessons from her and her husband.  We had our second lesson today.  Wow.  I had no idea that there was so much involved with good singing.  Our minds are exploding with all the principles we are learning.  What an exceptional blessing it is to learn from these two professional musicians willing to take us on.

We had a surprise visit from Mark Hiatt, a man who lived with us in Fremont years ago.  He now lives in Idaho Fall with his wife, Kathleen.  Mark is a kind-hearted man, willing to sacrifice himself for the good of others.  He was that way when he lived with us too.  Home computers were new at that time.  He had one and shared it with Ben, teaching him all that he knew about them. Ben was hooked from that time on.  Mark left his computer for Ben when he moved out.  That experience with Mark and computers transformed Ben's life.  Blessings often come from unexpected places.

Mark Hiatt and his wife Kathleen.

I took neighbors Inez Wilkey and Carol Wintersteen to one of the local hot springs yesterday.  I've never been to one before so it was something of an adventure.  We loved it!  We soaked for about two hours, fitting lunch in between.  It was a sweet experience.  We all emerged feeling a bit soggy but well softened by the minerals in the pool.  I think it is an experience worth repeating.

The hot springs girls, Inez Wilkey, Carol Wintersteen and me.

I'm sitting across from my sad looking husband in the living room by the fire.  He is feeling a bit flu-ish today.  I'm going to fix him some toast and chicken broth for dinner.  Yum.

A Gem Show in Tucson

"You really need to visit us in February for the Gem Show," our Mongolian daughter, Brynn, told me last year.  We agreed to come, and so we made our way to Tucson this past week to visit her and her husband, Roy.  As it turns out, the Gem, Mineral and Fossil show in Tucson is a really big deal.  It is a yearly event that attracts people from all over the world to the small desert town of Tucson.  Motels, hotels, lawns and parking lots fill up with vendors from all over the world, selling their goods to just about all comers.  And come they do.  The show spreads itself all over town, including the town's Conference Center.  Wow.  I had no idea.  Most of the show is open to everyone, but there is a location that only vendors can enter.  Roy got us an identifying tag from his sister-in-law, who has a jewelry business, so that we could see that part of the show.  She gave Roy permission to copy the tag so each of us would have a vendor badge.  Armed with that, and Roy and Brynn for guides, we set off on Thursday for some of the gem sights.  Each location had an overwhelming number of vendors and goods.  It was dizzying.  Much of it was too expensive for my taste but I found a few interesting things.  "Don't buy that," Brynn counseled me.  "Wait until we go to the vendor's show; there are much better prices there."  And so I waited.

Inside one of the gem show tents.

Our last stop was the vendor's show, held inside several huge tents and filled to the brim with vendors selling jewelry and the makings for jewelry.  It was here that we needed our badges.  Brynn and I began to scout out the various vendors while Layne and Roy simply wandered, talking and patiently waiting for us.  We found quite a few good deals and I wound up buying items for just about all the girls in the family.  What fun!  And then we got a message from Layne.  "We've been thrown out of the show," he told us.  We left in search of them and got some more details.  It seems that they were approached by a security woman who asked to see their badges.  "These are fake," she accused them.  "Where did you get these?"  Taking them from the guys, she told them to leave and never come back!  Wow.  So our guys met us in the parking lot outside the tents.  Being sufficiently humbled, we headed for home, our gem shopping over.  After that confrontation, we talked about all the things they could have and perhaps should have said to that security woman.  You know how it is; you can think of the perfect response once the event is over and past.

Roy has some desert property just outside Tucson.  We spent Friday visiting it and wandering over his desert set-up.  He has a trailer there with water and electricity and just about anything you would need to stay there.  The desert there was unlike the deserts I am used to; it was not barren and sandy but rather full of plants and trees of all sorts.  The winter day was warm and pleasant.  There was a hunter nearby that was shooting wild pigs, which roam all through the area.  It was an enchanting place.

Brynn and I in front of an Iron Tree, next to Roy's
desert trailer.  The Iron tree has one of the densest
woods in the world, Roy told us.

Layne and I on Roy's desert property.

Layne, Brynn and Roy in the desert.  The pig hunter is
somewhere behind them, firing away.

Brynn and Roy have a darling little boy named Eric.  We had fun getting acquainted with him and generally enjoyed our visit there.  Winter is definitely the best time to visit Tucson.  Brynn seems happy.  I worried about her choice of husband, as Roy is much older than she and isn't a member of the Church.  It seems that Brynn is not very active in the Church at the present time, as I feared would happen.  But Roy is a good man and is taking good care of her.  Perhaps as time goes by, things will even out to the good of all.  I hope so.

Roy and Brynn's little Eric, 9 months old.  After
seeing us for a day, he managed to smile for us.

A view of Tucson as we flew out on Saturday.

So even though I didn't look forward to leaving home to make yet another trip, we enjoyed it and it was worth going.  Getting closer to people is always rewarding.  We flew back home on Saturday.  It was, all things considered, a perfect trip.  Except for the gem show security guard of course.

On the home front, Allegra is happily settled in the MTC and leaves for Wisconsin this week.  Scott re-entered the MTC on Friday and will continue his MTC training with a new group, still headed for Thailand.  He is thrilled.