Adventures in St. George

Once a year we travel to St. George, Utah to visit our good friends, Bill and Trudy Ostler.  Last week we made the trip.  This time we flew into Las Vegas, on the advice of Bill and Trudy who said it was cheaper than flying into St. George.  They met us at the Los Vegas airport and we began our adventure with them by touring the National Atomic Testing Museum featuring bomb testing in the Nevada desert and other places that took place in the 1940s and 50s.  I had no idea the extent of the testing, both above and below ground that was done during that time.

Over the three or so days that we spent with Bill and Trudy we drove for hours to various places of interest.  We loved seeing the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  The extremely rocky roads insured that not many people ventured to that part of the Canyon.  We weren't quite alone there, but there wasn't much company.  The dirt road that led us there passed by some interesting sights, among them an abandoned school that educated the children of the the local land owners, when there were enough of them to justify a school.  I love seeing abandoned places.  It is such fun to imagine what went on there.  The countryside boasts red dirt part of the time, which is my all-time favorite kind of dirt.  I love the shades of orange and red that color the views!

                                                        Here's the school I mentioned.

The north rim of the Grand Canyon.

On one of our days we returned to Las Vegas, where we toured the Hoover Dam.  I've been there before, but this time there was much more infrastructure to support tourists.  We went inside the Dam and learned more about its creation than I ever imagined.  It was built to last 2000 years, or so we were told.  That's quite an accomplishment when you consider that most of the workers were unskilled.  It is an amazing structure that dwarfs we mere mortals.  In case you didn't know this, there are quite a few dams that have been built along the Colorado River, but Hoover Dam is the largest.  One of its most important purposes is to control flooding in the Central Valley of California, where so much of our food is grown.  We were properly impressed.

                      Here's Bill and Trudy, along with us in a photo taken by photographers there.

This is a view of the Dam from a nearby bridge.

This picture was taken from the top of the dam looking down.  Looks a bit scary!

There is a park not far from Hoover Dam called the Valley of Fire that attracted us with the advertising claim that, when the sun is shining just right, the cliffs and rocks in the Valley look like they are on fire.  We didn't see anything that looked like fire as we drove through, but stopped to find the petroglyphs that were hidden behind some of the red cliffs that filled the Valley. You know I loved seeing more of the red stuff.  We hiked behind some of the hills and found them, petroglyphs that were scattered on the face of some of the cliffs, arranged like a message board.  I imaged that, perhaps, ancient travelers left messages for those following.  Since the carvings were not arranged into any sort of artistic display, I determined in my own mind that they must have been some sort of communication.  Look at one of the pictures and see what you think.

Trudy and I in a "cave" at the Valley of Fire.

Layne looking for petroglyphs in the Valley of Fire.

We enjoyed a musical evening during one of our nights, viewing a play about a group called the "Plaids" who sang 1950s vintage music.  The performers were full of fun and so good.  We rarely go to such things as that, so it's nice to experience it once and awhile.  It is such a pleasure to enjoy interesting adventures with people that you also enjoy.  Bill and Trudy are good people, through and through.  Being with them is a pleasure.  We don't really communicate with them much in between visits, but when we are together it is easy to pick up as if we hadn't been apart for months and months.

Our trip home took us from Las Vegas to San Francisco and then to Boise.  Both flights were delayed hours and hours.  "It's the weather in San Francisco" we were told over and over again.  But, having lots of time to wait, we got acquainted with a security lady at San Francisco who told us that the real reason for the delays was that President Obama flew into the airport earlier in the day.  I was disgusted.  Why not just say so?  Especially since he was long gone by the time we got there.  Despite that,  multiple delays continued making our arrival in Boise extremely late.  We didn't make it to bed until 2:30 AM!  So hundreds of people experienced multiple delays and missed flights because of one guy.  Ok, so he is the President.  I'm still disgusted by the whole deal.

But we are home now and finally caught up on the missed sleep.  It takes us older kids longer to recover from such happenings, you know.  It has been a sweet, mostly open week since our return.  That will end next week when we begin our marathon singing with my Treble Clef group. as we serenade the many senior centers and assisted living places on our schedule for the next three weeks.
Gotta gear up for it!

Easter and Such

Having a grandson for a month is a special blessing.  Isaiah spent almost all of March with us, cleaning up the yard, doing school work and just hanging out.  We so enjoyed him.  One of the good things about being away from family is this kind on one-on-one blessing.  We loved spending time with Isaiah.  He will soon be leaving for his mission, then off to school when he returns.  This has been a lovely window of time that will probably not come again.

Working in the yard is addictive.  It is nurturing to be surrounded by emerging life.  Our yard is exploding with new growth.  It is inspiring and I find myself dreaming of all we could do to "improve" our large yard by adding a few more plants.  "Nah," says Layne to my every suggestion.  "Too much pruning."  But it occurs to me that it was he who wanted "land."  He had his eye on acquiring much more than our meager one acre.  Now, what would he do with all that land but work in it?  And would that not involve a great deal more "pruning" than what we have now?  I'm thinking "yes."  So I mentioned that to him as part of my argument for planting more trees and flowers.  And besides, I tell him, we will be dead and gone before new plants will require much in the way of pruning.  And besides also, I would help him.  He remained unimpressed....but I had Isaiah.  So together he and I bought a couple of trees and he planted them for me.  And I bought some more flowers and planted them.  So, in spite of a reluctant husband, we have a few new things.  I'm excited.  He's resigned.  Well, maybe he even likes the new plant babies.

Here is one of the new trees that Isaiah planted for us.

Isaiah was with us for Eater so we had the pleasure of making an Easter basket for him.  I've not done Easter baskets for awhile so it was fun to do one for him.  Included were little gifts for his mission.  I so enjoyed sneaking into his room and placing the basket there for him to discover.  I like my life now, but I also miss those sweet times with my little ones, when such things as Easter baskets provide such excitement.  We had a lovely Easter dinner with Isaiah and our neighbors, the Wintersteen's.  I'm grateful to know of the Christ and the hope He represents for everyone.  At this time we are surrounded by such advantages and blessings.  I don't want to forget that for a moment.

                                                     Isaiah's Easter Basket.

Our Easter Table

One of those blessings is the ability to enjoy our General Conference from home.  I did so last weekend, when I listened to the Women's Session.  I keep thinking of Linda Burton's counsel to help the immigrants.  There is quite a conversation about immigrants here.  There seems to be a combination of compassion and fear, fear that some immigrants mean us harm.  How do we sort out the good from the bad?  I'm thinking of getting involved in helping our local immigrants and abandoning worry concerning them.  It would be a leap of faith that I think I'm willing to take.  It seems better than the alternative of fostering hatred and resentment.  I think I'd like to help teach English to those immigrants that desire it.  Now I just need to press myself into service.

Today we are full of Church Conference.  The choir is dressed in red, my favorite color.  The talks are great.  The sun is shining through our windows.  How lovely.

 Isaiah's departure, dressed in a jacket made of his favorite color, orange.

Men at Home

"Are you home?", JL Greenwood asked when he called us last Sunday.  JL, a good friend from our Fremont days, happened to be here in Idaho and came to visit us.  His wife, Janice, recently died and he is redefining his life without her.  How hard it must be to lose an eternal partner.  JL is a dear man and one we love having in our lives.  Our Sunday visit was sweet.  Here's JL with Layne.

Isaiah is into his third week with us.  He carefully paces himself to balance out his days between school work and yard work.  Oh yes, and naps.  I find him to be hard working, organized, helpful and generally fun to have around.  On Monday his older brother, Chase, came to visit for 5 days.  He and Chase did just about everything together during his visit.  They studied, worked out, gamed, worked and talked the days away.  Together.  Brothers in spirit and in fact.  Chase is into family, so we spent some sweet time with him as well.  We were sad to see him go on Saturday.

Here's Chase doing school work, or so he claims.  Perhaps there is a game or two sandwiched in between!

Brothers Isaiah and Chase.

Friday night my nephew, Brent Berrett, stopped by on his way to Oregon.  We talked until midnight. Having him to myself Friday night reminds me of how lovely it is to have one-on-one time, without interruptions.  Much good conversation resulted.  Brent is at least 20 pounds skinnier and he looks quite handsome.  Love that man.  He left Saturday morning.

Here's a skinnier Brent with me on Saturday morning.  Notice the abundance of beards with these men?  It seems to be the thing to do for lots of men these days.

So our week has been full of men.  I liked it!

We are about to get into our new Church assignment as Addiction Coordinators for the Church program here.  My limited exposure to what we are supposed to do has me less than excited.  I have an absolute passion, after working with pornography addiction, to concentrate on preventative measures ahead of treatment but our calling is strictly recovery.  Bummer.  There appears to be no organized approach to preventing addiction, which almost always begins in childhood.  I want so much to do something about that!  Perhaps a window of opportunity will open.  Perhaps it is not as grim as it now appears.  Meetings and assignments are cropping up.  I guess our Church calling vacation is about over.  The good news is that we are doing something that we haven't done before, and that is stimulating and challenging.  I'm happy to be an older woman with a Church purpose that is not a retread of something I have done so often before.  This is new ground.

So our "man week" is past and a new week



awaits.

Isaiah

I opened my phone a couple of days ago and found this happy image on the screen.  Isaiah's selfie is worth keeping, don't you think?  It makes me smile.  He is here with us for the month, working in our yard for mission money.  He graduates from high school this year and plans to go soon after that.  He is so easy to have around; he is pleasant, picks up after himself and is a self-starter.  I could keep him forever!  But he probably wouldn't go for that.

Layne and I are singing and singing some more these days.  My community group is practicing a fun collection of songs, which includes a duet by Layne and me.  We'll do, "Singing in the Rain" and add some moves to make it fun.  At least I hope it'll be fun.  I'm assigned by our leader to do the group's blog and to do the choreography so It is quite demanding at the moment.  I am sort of a "jack of all trades" so I'm not too confident about my abilities, especially in the music department.  Layne and I are singing with several others at Church today.  That scares me much more than the community singing.  I'll be glad when today is over.

I recently listened to one of President Benson's talks about the troubles that are coming in the future.  He makes it sound pretty alarming and scary.  I'm trying to balance that out with President Hinckley's frequent comments about the wonders of the future and the optimism we should have.  Hum.  I wonder if both can co-exist.  Perhaps we are in the best and worst of times, depending upon our place and personal condition in the world.

Our addiction calling is ramping up.  We continue to give talks about it and the meetings involved with our new assignment are picking up.  So I guess we need to gear up.  Layne is tired of addiction, but the Lord must want us here so we will give it our best shot.

Spring is in the air.  I worked with Isaiah in the yard on Saturday and it was pleasant and fun.  Nature is nurturing; I suppose I should spend more time in it.  

Eight Kids for Ten Days

Remember you are 73, my sister told me when I announced that I was going to babysit son Ben's 8 children for 10 days.  His Jessica flew to Taiwan to check out the possibility of taking the whole family there for the summer.  Jessica is a very high energy girl.  I"m not.  So I determined that it would be necessary for Layne to accompany me on this babysitting adventure.  Perhaps the two of us older kids could cover for one very energetic daughter-in-law.  We headed to California on Tuesday the 16th, arriving that evening.  It was a pleasant flight and offered a dazzling view of the San Francisco Bay Area as we flew in for a landing.  The whole area glowed in amber light, looking something like a treasure chest filled with gold jewels.

Everyone was awake when we arrived and greeted us with great enthusiasm.  Jessica left the next day and, suddenly, we were in charge of 8 children, ranging in age from 13 down to almost 1.  Three of the children were pre-school; the rest were school bound every weekday morning.  Afternoons were filled with lessons of all sorts for all the school kids.  There was soccer, tennis, basketball, drums, piano, violin, art.  With all of that going on I think it was smart of me to suggest to Layne that he be the delivery guy.  He filled every afternoon with driving the various kids to their various lessons.  They were hardly home!  The pre-schoolers, on the other hand, were always home.  With me.  And they all wanted me, just about all of the time.  So while Layne was on the road, I was home, hardly leaving the house.  Sigh.  It was a very demanding 10 days!

Here's one of my preschool playmates, Jonathan, in the back yard.  He was jumping his energy back so we could continue our game of super heroes.

I planned meals and snacks, washed clothes and organized various places to make my job a little easier.  Ben and Jessica had cleaners come in every week day, which helped.  I found myself on my feet all day long.  Bedtime every night found us falling into bed and sleeping soundly in spite of a less than ideal bed.  In spite of all the demands and work, I loved being with the children.  Spending time with them was so rewarding.  The baby, still nursing, bonded with me from the start.  In fact she wanted me to hold her just about every waking hour.  I sang her to sleep for her naps and at night time.  She loved it.  She became my baby.  In fact, when Jessica returned home, the baby, Olivia, wasn't at all sure she wanted to go to her.  But once the opportunity to nurse presented itself, she was all about her mommy.

Here's Olivia playing in the family room and looking at me hoping for a lift onto my lap.  

Victoria (Tia) is my spark plug girl, always running around full of giggles, and tears when things didn't quite go her way.  "Grandma, I don't sleep when the sun is up," she told me.  So, no naps for this girl. 

Having 8 children is intense!  But we made it through the 10 days and even had some time with Ben, in the evenings.  Jessica enjoyed Taiwan for the most part and thinks it would be a great place to take all the family for some extended time.  She is up for great adventures with their large family.  I so admire it but think myself incapable of such grand adventures with so many children to look out for.  I found the children loving and cooperative though, and under our watch they all seemed to do fine.

On our last day we snapped this picture of Jacqueline (13), me (do I look tired?), Alexis (12), and Abigail (7) in front.

We headed for home on Friday morning and felt so grateful that we got the last two seats on the early flight.  By the time we got home we were exhausted!  We napped the rest of the day away and the next one as well.  This Sunday I'm feeling almost normal again.  It is sweet to be back in our quiet home, with everything just where I want it to be.  The simple life.  I've become used to it.

A Utah Trip

My sister Maryanne has Parkinson's Disease.  It has affected her movements and has provided her with a tremor in her left hand.  It is a disease that progresses although it has been somewhat gentle with her so far.  The medications that treat the symptoms of the disease cause side effects for her that are unacceptable.  That became something of a blessing as it made her a candidate for a brain surgery that has a very high success rate for stopping most of the symptoms of the disease.  She had the first phase of the surgery week before last.  I so wanted to be there for that surgery, so, after 4 days home from our Taiwan trip, I drove to Draper, Utah, to be with her and Bob.

The surgery inserted wires in her head which will be connected to a battery in her chest which will be programmed to stimulate the part of her brain that is needed to stop the tremors and increase her muscle coordination.  It is an amazing procedure.  She will receive a remote, which she can use to turn the battery on and off.  We are so excited to see how it works for her.  The last part of this procedure will take place in March.  I'll have a full report then!

Here's a lovely view of the mountains outside of Maryanne's hospital window.

It was a lovely drive to Draper.  I worried about the weather but, while the roads were surrounded by snow, the roads themselves were clear.  I enjoyed the drive and felt enveloped with peace and safety, driving both directions.  It was so enjoyable to spend time with Bob and Maryanne.  She came through the surgery very well and appears to  be healing quickly.  The front half of her hair was shaved, giving her quite a unique look!  What a blessing that hair grows!

Here's a snap of post-surgery Maryanne with her panama hat to cover her bald top.

While staying with the Berretts, I took a little time to connect with our foster daughters, Laura White and her sister, Lesly Carter. We met for a Jamba Juice and had a fun visit.  Both are currently single, but doing well and seem happy.  Meeting up with people I love is so rewarding.  So I wonder why I don't do more of it.  I think I need to put myself out a bit more in that regard.  So I'm going to try.

Here are my girls, Laura on the left and Lesly on the right.  It's a selfie so its a bit goofy.

On this Valentine's Day I'm so grateful to have a love in my life.  Over the years it seems that Layne and I have worked out most of our angst.  We are both strong-willed and, could I say, stubborn people.  But time softens things and I find myself quite content with this man of mine.  He is strong, intelligent, capable, unselfish, pure-hearted and loving.  I don't know how long it will last, but for now, I'm enjoying this time of my life very much.  

Taiwan

I never imagined that I would have a Chinese family.  But I do, and they all live in Taiwan. So we went there this month.  Son Gerald, his Frances and their two children, Seth and Angelica have been settled there for some 13 years now.  It has been our goal to visit there each year. But we have missed some.  We were overdue for a visit, so we chose the time they suggested for us and left for our journey there on Tuesday, January 19th (the day after my birthday!).  Our flight to San Francisco was cancelled, making our connection to Taiwan impossible to make.  So our trip there was postponed until the following Wednesday.  We flew to Taiwan on standby, making the possibility of traveling first class open to us, if there were any open seats.  There was one!  Layne gave it to me and he took a seat in Business; that's almost as good.  So the 14 hour flight was filled with comforts, movies and delicious food.  But even with the comforts, not much sleep took place.

We had a wonderful time in Taiwan.  Gerald and Frances live in Feng Yuan, about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Taipai.  Feng Yuan was once a country town but is now a city, filled with buildings and people, and noise.  There is no zoning so homes and businesses are all gathered together in the crowded streets.  Sidewalks come and go and when they are present they are often full of parked scooters, the preferred method of transportation for most of the citizens.   The people tend to stare at us lighter-haired visitors, but they are very friendly and helpful.  Gerald and Frances live on what was once the family rice paddy.  It is now filled with homes and businesses, once all belonging to the Chang family.  Their home is one of several built by Frances' father to house his family.  He and his wife live right next to them.  Their homes are lovely even though they stand in very crowded spaces.

Frances' uncle Tony painted this picture of the family rice paddy when they first arrived, 100 years ago.  That rice paddy is now filled with buildings, many belonging to the Chang family.

The open space to the right of the painting above, now holds the home you can see below, where the senior Changs live.  It is lovely inside and even includes an elevator, installed after the Changs visited us in Sunol and saw the elevator we had in that home.

Right next door to the Chang home stands this lovely place, where Frances and Gerald live.  It is four stories high with marble throughout.  The coolness of it is great in the summer but quite chilling in winter!

Just inside Gerald and Frances' home is this living room.  The metal screen you see above the window is lowered at night for security.  Seth is walking toward the camers.

Ger and Fran's kitchen.  In most Taiwanese kitchens there is no oven; everything is cooked on the stove top.  Baking is provided by bakeries.  The Changs, however, have an oven so Gerald and the kids can bake American goodies in their oven.

Gerald and Frances run an English school.  One of their campuses is located directly across from their home; pretty convenient!  They have developed their own program for teaching language which appears to be very successful as they do no advertising; all students find them from word of mouth.  They both love the school and the whole system they have developed for teaching language.  Gerald says. however, that they plan to move to the US sometime soon.  He has been saying that for awhile but it appears that it will actually happen within the next year or two.  Frances says she is willing to make the move.  I have worried that she would not want to leave her parents, but, in Taiwanese culture, it is her two brothers who are responsible for caring for the parents and she is invested in that idea.  Frances was raised by her rather stern and unkind grandmother so she isn't particularly close to her parents.

The senior Changs are a delightful couple however.  We ate dinner with them almost every night and enjoyed the delicious selection of Taiwanese vegetables, fish and meats served over rice and followed by soup.  Dessert is fruit.  They eat nothing raw but cook their vegetables until they are barely done.  It is all very good.  In fact, I've come home with a desire to eat more like them.  Of course Layne is longing for a steak after all that low-flesh food at the Changs.  Affection is mostly hidden in Taiwan, but the senior Changs always embrace us.  Even without a language to share, we manage to communicate some ideas back and forth.  Simple ones.  These lovely people gave us matching gold rings for our 50th anniversary.  We were quite overwhelmed that they would do such a lovely thing for us!  They also treated us to their shoe factory and invited us to choose as many shoes as we wanted.  None were big enough for Layne, but I found four pair!

Here is our Taiwanese family.  From left to right, Gerald, Papa Chang, Mama Chang, Angelica, me, Layne, Seth and Frances.  The picture is taken in the small front yard of Ger and Fran's home, with the Chang home in the background.  Note how tall Papa Chang is; just an inch shorter than Layne.  That's very unusual for a Taiwanese man.

It was cold in Taiwan.  In fact, it was cold enough to break their records for cold.  It even snowed one day.  It fell but didn't stay.  Still, Taiwanese don't know what to do with cold.  They are in their winter jackets when the temperature falls to the 60s.  So you may imagine how hard it was for them to adjust to freezing weather.  It didn't last long however.  It was soon back to the 50s or so.

We managed to get a good visit in with everyone.  Seth and Angelica are lovely kids; very bright and open.  We talked and played games.  We loved hearing about all of Gerald's ideas about education and all sorts of other things.  That man is a thinker!  In all, our trip was quite wonderful.

We returned home on Friday.  No first class this time but the trip was pleasant just the same.  Except that Layne started feeling the symptoms of a cold and was generally a little grumpy.  Of course I may have added to that by a couple of little problems I created.  Taiwanese security wouldn't let me carry the small scissors I always have in my purse so I had to check them.  Picking them up at baggage claim took a very long time as they were the very last thing to appear on the luggage ramp.  Layne and his sniffles waited rather impatiently for that.  Then I got in trouble for including a piece of very unique fruit in my bag.  I was fascinated with it and, since it was not yet ripe for eating, decided to put it in my suitcase.  Mistake!  We had to wait in yet another line for it to be checked, and confiscated!  By this time Layne was totally disgusted.  But we were in plenty of time for our connecting flight to Boise.  Early enough in fact to take an earlier one.  We arrived home on Friday, early in the afternoon.  Layne collapsed in bed. He was in a much better mood when he awoke several hours later.

Here I am with that devil fruit.  You must admit, it is interesting!  I never knew such a thing existed so was fascinated to see how it tasted.  I guess I'll never know.

After a soggy weekend, we spent this sabbath giving two pornography talks and relaxing.  It is so good to be home!