Family Happenings

Julianna performs in Utah Youth Symphony Concert

2011-05-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

They performed Mahler's First Symphony (all 4 movements) in Abravanel Hall on May 14, 2011. It was a wonderful concert.

Lee's Rollover

2011-03-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

In February, Lee went to California to do a job for Desktop Visuals. On the way home when they were about to Beaver, Utah the roads were bad because of weather. Tiffany was driving and lost control of the van. It began to fishtail and she started to yell or scream. This woke up Lee, who was sleeping in the passenger seat.

Lee woke up just in time to see the road coming toward him from the right front part of the van. The van was rolling. It broke the windshield and the passenger window. The van rolled onto it's top and slid through the median and ended up in the lane of oncoming traffic with Lee outside the van in his Tshirt and stocking feet. He hurried to the driver side of the van to help Tiffany out of the van but by then, she had unbuckled and got out of the van through the passenger window.

A car came by and called 911. Another car came and asked if they needed anything. Lee said he was cold (imagine standing in the snow in a T shirt and stocking feet). They let him sit in their car with a towel wrapped around him until the ambulance came. When the ambulance got there, Lee got out of the car and walked over to them and showed them his left hand that was injured. They had him lay down on the board etc. and transported him to the hospital where his hand was treated.

While at the hospital Lee met a group of young people who were driving from California and had also had a similar accident. They gave him a sweat shirt (one of the ones they had intended to sell at their destination). It says Liberty in North Korea.

We are grateful that Lee was not injured more than he was.

Don't Try This at Home ...

2010-08-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

Unless you are neighbors with Erectors West.
The concrete floor of the garage will be poured on top of B Deck which is 3 foot wide sheets of galvanized steel that are corregated and are connected together to cover the whole ceiling of the room below. The B Decking is supported near the house by a piece of 3 inch Angle Iron that is fastened to the existing house wall. It sits on the top of the other walls of the room.
We bought the B Decking and the Angle Iron. Rick needed to put holes in the Angle Iron so he could screw through it to connect it to the house. With the Drill Press and a brand new, high quality bit and cutting oil, he started to drill his first hole. He figured he would need to drill about 60 holes. After about a half hour, he almost had 1 hole drilled. Thank Goodness that our neighbors across the street had suggested earlier that they had a machine that could punch holes through angle iron. When Rick realized how impossible it was to drill through the angle iron, he asked Nick for help. Within an hour Nick was able to punch (like a giant hydrolic paper punch) the necessary holes in the Angle Iron. Then Rick and Lee held the HEAVY piece of Angle Iron in place as I marked where the first 2 holes would be drilled. Before long, Lee and Rick had the first piece of Angle Iron in place.

Tar Baby

2010-08-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Before we backfil around the new rooms,

we needed to put a tar waterproof surface on any of the concrete that would be burried.

Its a messy job,

so I put on the polyester suit and gloves and shower cap

so I wouldn't get it all over me.

But it was a pretty tough job...

and it was hot

and before I knew it, I was asking Rick for help.

I would roll the paint roller in the tar....

.... and hand it to Rick so he could roll it on.

He just tried to be careful to not get in all over his clothes and arms.

Boy it was messy and sticky.

James in Music Man at Rodgers Memorial Theater

2010-08-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

James is in Music Man at Rodgers Memorial Theater. The show runs from July to Aug 28 but was extended because of sell out audiences to Aug 31st.

James was rehearsing almost every night through June and July and loving every minute of it.

James' character's name is Marcus and he is in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday cast.

One of the fun things about the show is the costuming. At the beginning of the show, all the costumes are black and white. As Harold Hill casts his spell on the "Stubborn Iowans" in River City, the costumes become more and more colorful. In the finale, the band costumes and all the colorful costumes prove that Harold Hill really did change the "River City-iziens' " lives.

When we watched the show, Rick said that the band uniforms that the boys' band wears are the same uniforms that he wore when he marched with the University of Utah Band back in his college days.

On the first day of the show, James did the suggested hairstyle (slicked back tight on top and curled up on the sides). We did the hairstyle, but were unsure if we had the right look. When the director saw his hair on the first night, she (as well as other cast members) said that they loved it and he would have to wear it that way every night! His head is getting tougher as I style it with gel and other products and blowdry it with a round brush every other day.

The Davis County Clipper published an article about the show and talked about James' cast.

Pouring Storage room floors

2010-08-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Pouring the floor under the garage....

Mike and Lee floated the big room.

....And in the storage room under the front porch.

(This one is a bit more crowded)

Ron did the small room mostly by himself.

Thanks a lot for your help. We couldn't have done it alone.

Stripping the Forms off the Garage Walls

2010-07-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

The North Wall with forms...

... and, at the end of the day, without.

The West Wall

with outside forms stripped off and inside forms still there.

Star (with his duct tape collar made by Angela)

and the west wall after the forms were all stripped off.

The South Wall

looking east, with most forms still in place.

Dad had already dug the concrete away from one of the 5 foot forms

and took it out.

Lee cleaning up the bottom of the hold outside the south wall.

(after all the forms had been removed)

Lee, using a grubbing hoe to break up the concrete
that had flowed around to the back of the form.
This was a 5 foot form but the bottom foot has concrete setting up.
If Lee doesn't break up the concrete, the form will be here permanently.

Lee is standing where the form was that Dad dug out.

Lee dug on the outside form while Rick and Mike stripped the inside forms.

Lee took a much needed "texting break".

The hole Lee is standing in and digging in was dug by Mike a few minutes earlier.

(before, the dirt went from the back door almost all the way to the forms)

Lee has got some big chunks of concrete out

and we think the form is almost ready to come out...

...so we called Mike over to help remove the form.

Mike knew just how to remove a stuck form...

You need to hit it with a sledge hammer

and work some 2 x 4's down in.

So you can pry the form off with the leveredge from the 2 x 4.

The concrete is still holding the bottom of the form in place from the outside of the form.

But Lee and Mike working together got it pulled away.

The sledge hammer moved it the last bit.

Now, they have to lift the 5 foot form

with the bottom foot of it filled with concrete
out of the hole.

This is a picture of the bottom of the back of the form.

They took it out the back door

and knocked the concrete out of the form

before it finished hardening.

Then Mike started trying to get the next form off.

After the other forms were off,

Lee went back and cleaned the plywood and wood braces out of the hole.

(the plywood was supposed to keep the concrete from getting behind the form)

(we don't know how it actually got back there)

Mike said that he was amazed at how fast the concrete hardened.

He had seen concrete walls that had sat 12 more hours that were less cured than this was.

They removed the pieces of 2 x 4 that were screwed down to the footing

which held the bottom of the forms in place.

There was enough pressure on the bottom of the forms to bend the bolts.

They removed all the braces and waylers and started removing the forms.

It is getting to be the end of the day. See how sweaty Mike is.

He worked so hard all day long.

Mike was there to help in every tough situation.

Mike always seemed to know what to do to get the tough forms off.

It was cooling off...

... the sun was going down.

We were so happy to be getting the last forms off.

Tomorrow they will haul most of the forms away and ...

...then it won't look like such a construction zone.

Pouring the Garage Walls (in 3 parts)

2010-07-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

The Cement truck drove in as close to the garage door as possible

and extended his chutes as far into the garage as possible.

The cement would go into the wall midway

between the front and the back corner.

It should flow toward both the front and the back and fill the walls.

Lee called his friend Josh to help because Ron and Mike had not arrived yet.

(Josh came even though he "doesn't even like the smell of projects")

The concrete flowed to the front of the Garage very well....

but not toward the back of the garage.

We heard cracking and popping noises.

Mike went down to see what was happening.

What do you think, Mike?

The Braces were sinking into the soft clay dirt.

We needed more braces to hold the wall upright.

We should pour concrete directly into the front wall.

Lee and Josh worked on the front wall while.....

everyone else discussed what to do with the side wall that was leaning over.

Rick and Glen wondered if it was safe to continue to add concrete ...

...to a wall that is already leaning and ....

...we don't know if the additional bracing will be enough to hold it upright.

They decided to try again.

But the concrete would not flow around this back corner.

They would have to drag the concrete around the corner to the back wall.

Dragging concrete is so much work.

With a little creativity (and using our plank to the front door)

we could send the concrete directly to the back wall.

They braced the end of the plank and the end of the chute.

Yes, that is the tow rope holding the whole thing together.

The long chute and plank was not very sloped ...

and the sides were not very high so they had to drag the concrete into the wall.

So they added 2 x 4 sides to funnel the concrete to the wall.

We got Glen off the ladder and had Mike tend the chute.

They were able to pour all the walls full.

There was barely enough concrete to finish the walls.

We did not have a disaster.

The walls did not come tumbling down.

Forming the Walls

2010-07-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

Looking down into the porch room from the plank.
We have the first wall completed and many more forms to set.

The rebar is in between the forms.

The outside forms don't go down to the footing.

They are suspended next to the wall of dirt

When we put the outside forms up, we knocked dirt off the bank and onto the footing.

We had to vacume the dirt up with a used shop Vac that we bought

We are progressing.

It is kind of crowded inside the room with the forms, the people and the tools.

We got the inside forms all in place.

The outside forms will "hang" from the ties that go through the concrete walls.

Dad is inspecting our work.

This is what he sees.

Mom had to lay in the dirt to put in the hardware that would hold the forms together.

Now this is the only way to get in and out of the front porch room.

Preparing the Steel

2010-07-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

Dad drilled holes into the wall of the house and put rebar in the holes

to hook the new concrete walls to the house

He would hit the rebar and it would vibrate and move.

This made it hard to hit it each time.

James helped wire the upright rebar to the J bars that they put into the footing.

Inside the room with all the forms that will form up the walls.

We put steel in the walls for the garage room too.

First Pour Continued

2010-06-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

The footings for the Front Porch room.
See the plank that we walk across to get in and out of the house.

JP's brother Matthew helped us.

Most important is to stay out of the way of the cascading and splashing concrete.

The finished footing with J bar coming out of the footing.

They also put bolts in the footing to hold the bottom of the forms in place when they pour the concrete walls. There is nothing to hold the inside concrete form close to the outside dirt wall.

It is kind of hard to get out of the front porch room.

See the finished footing on the west end of the porch and, over the small wall,

the finished footing on the front of the garage

First Concrete Pour

2010-06-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday Morning.... Show Time.

The concrete truck was supposed to arrive at 10:00 am.

Just like Dad predicted. He showed up at 9:45am. We were almost ready for him.

The Whole Family Helps

2010-06-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Angela helped point the laser to determine the correct depth of footings.
Lee helped dig footings for kitchen add on.
JP helped dig too.

Jules drove grade stakes to show the level of the concrete in the footing, and James held the board for the laser to shine on.

(We think it is funny how James jumps every time Jules hits the rebar)

Lee and Dad worked together to cut the rebar to go in the concrete.

The footings under the front porch are dug and are ready for the rebar.

A couple of days ago, Dad saw a rodent digging in the side of the wall from the footing to under the eventual floor. Then, when we were all working to make the footing deeper, the rodent apparently decided that we were too close of neighbors and he was leaving. But we didn't know how he could get out of the hole. We could not agree on what to do with the rodent (probably a pocket gopher). Finally James got a big empty box (for a case of canned food) and brought it to catch the gopher. Dad caught it in the box. James taped the box closed and Mom said to go throw it away. Julianna informed James that, "No, you cannot recycle a gopher in a box."

Week Three ...Maybe?

2010-06-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

the footings for the kitchen add on.

again

the footing holes

mom holding up the board to measure the depth

Jules pointing the laser at the board.

Cutting Doors from the Basement to the New Rooms

2010-06-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

Its a good thing Dad checked now to see when we needed to cut the doorways through the concrete walls.
We had the doors cut out.

Digging the Holes continued

2010-06-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

The hole under the garage is getting bigger.

The bobcat drives in and digs and drives back out.

He has cut a ramp going up (or down) the driveway to get from the room to the dump truck.

The hole is mostly done.

We have to dig the footings and straighten the dirt walls by hand.

JP is holding the stick that the laser level shines on to show us if our floor is low enough.

We put a string to show us a straight line for the outside of the wall.

We also hung a plumb string to get our walls vertical.

The many different layers of dirt are interesting.

The walls are starting to look pretty good.

Digging the Holes

2010-06-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

The equipment is here and ready.
The dump truck will haul the dirt to a vacant lot that needs fill.
It is only a few blocks away from our house.

The bobcat is going to start the digging show.

Even though it is muddy, we will still dig.

The front porch room will be dug first.

About now is when they discovered the hidden footing.

He started to dig for the "under the garage room".

When he discovered that there was only this way out of the house and the front door,

he said he would try to leave some dirt by the door for a while longer.
Mom moved the Trampoline close to the kitchen window and took out the window screen.

Everyone was given permission to exit the house by jumping out the kitchen window onto the trampoline. It was kind of hard to get back in that way.

The bobcat dug down a ways and then ....

...left the rest of the digging under the front porch to the backhoe.

Then he started in the garage.

Notice it is not muddy in here.

After a day or two, the mud dried out.

We finished digging the garage on a sunny day.

The bobcat dug a ramp down the middle of the previous driveway.

He went in and out the ramp, taking dirt to the dump truck.

Things Start to get Messy

2010-06-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

It started to rain.

When clay gets wet it sticks to everything.

It gets slippery.

As they started to dig the front porch, (which was covered by the roof),

they discovered another footing that was burried a foot or 2 below the porch.

It was too big to be broken up with a hammer drill,

so we had to rent another jackhammer.

This time, a 60 pound electric jackhammer.

The footing had to be broken up because it was too big to move out of there.

HOW BIG WAS IT?

It was SO big that it took a couple more hours of jackhammering to break it into pieces.

While removing the pieces of foundation,

the side of the bobcat scraped the aluminum siding off the front of the house.

This exposed where carpenter ants had eaten part of the house.

They scooped part of the foundation out of place and put it into the garage...

so they could break it up.

In the process of trying to break it into smaller pieces,

the bobcat scoop came up and smashed the garage door opener.

Out with the Old Garage

2010-06-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

First Dad had to remove the fireplace surround so we could get to the concrete below it.

What is in there?

Dad cut the sheetrock away.

Lots of stuff had rolled under the sheetrock when the floor settled an inch.

Knock those studs out of the way.

This is the step from the kitchen.
See how it is not touching the garage floor because the floor settled?

We wonder why the floor didn't settle another 4 inches like the dirt settled.

There is a big space under the garage floor

It extends for many feet in both directions.

The garage floor was already suspended in mid air.

The bobcat lifted the concrete starting at the garage door and worked its way into the garage.

The bobcat came right into the garage.
Lee tried to break the concrete while the scoop held it off the ground.

Eventually it broke.

Dad and Lee loaded the concrete into the bobcat scoop.

Dad used the sledge hammer from Uncle Donny to...

...break the big pieces of concrete floor

Lee and Dad load up the Big pieces....

...while we pick up the small pieces.

The floor is all lifted except for 3 feet in front of the workbench.

Now it is time to clean up all the pieces.

Good friends are glad to help.

James and Josh work together.

Star wonders what is happening out there.

The step from the kitchen has been removed.

The concrete step was held on with a few nails.

Ahh, A Job Well Done.

Removing the Front Porch Phase 2

2010-06-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

It is finally time to dig!

When we started to dig the deep hole with the backhoe,

we found another footing burried a foot or 2 below the front porch.

How do we break that up?

A Hammer Drill?

No, a 60 pound electric Jack Hammer.

Now Break it into 4 BIG pieces....

And then haul it all away

If you want to visit us, You have to walk the plank.

Many people choose not to come to the door.

Removing the Front Porch

2010-06-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

JP helped Jackhammer. There is a first time for everything.

As we broke up the front porch concrete, the backhoe scooped it away.

But, at this rate, this will take forever.

Our neighbors, Erectors West can fix this situation.

They can just LIFT that out of there.

Ahh. Now that piece is gone.

But, Now what will we do with it?

Lisa says that Tim LOVES to do this kind of stuff.

Seeing the look on his face, I think she is right

Lee and Dad Jack Hammering the porch away from the house.

Lee and Nick (from across the street) working together with the 90 pound Jack Hammer to break the BIG front porch into a smaller piece.

Now that looks like a managable size piece.

Now they can LIFT those pieces right out of there.

Nick and Tim were a great team. They lifted out the porch without hurting the house.

Lisa told them to be careful of the plants

Our Front Porch moved across the street.

The dump truck will come tomorrow and take it away.

Thanks to the neighbors, there was still time to play that day.

If we had used only our jackhammer, we would still be trying to get the front porch out.

Now, after some rest, we will be ready to continue our project.

Remove the Driveway; Piece of Cake

2010-06-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Before we started to tear out the driveway.
Big equipment can do a big job.

Just pick it up and drop it.

The driveway broke up like cardboard.

Loading it into the scoop was hard work.

The flowers were not even disturbed.

Neither were the sprinklers.

Just break it into pieces....

.... and load them up.

Everything looks so neat.

We'll get this done.

The Front Porch: From recognizable to Unrecognizable

2010-06-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

Marie on the Front Porch... Most of the flowers and bulbs are gone.
Dad will remove that railing.
We'll put it over there by the fence.
James will hold the air hose out of the way while Dad breaks the concrete up.
Well, that was taking longer than James expected.

Dad will continue to break up the concrete.

The top is thick. Maybe we'll work in another spot.

About now is when Rick started wondering if we were crazy to try this project.

Now, Rick is sure we're crazy.

But we are committed. There is no turning back.

What a loud and dusty mess. We had better call Lee and ask for help.

Just keep working.

Rick will break up the porch while the Excavator removes the driveway.

Lee to the rescue. Now Lee will get shook up by the Jackhammer.

We need more help. JP is just getting started.
Can you see how exhausted Rick is?

"Lee, How deep is it?"

JP will have to use the Jackhammer for a while to give Lee and Dad a break.

Out with the Old Stuff

2010-06-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

We had to move a lot of stuff out.

2. Then (as i mentioned before) we had to dig out the garden next the porch. (and i really liked the photo so i had to add it in)

We moved our couch out of the basement

We will put it in Marie's Basement Family Room.

We had to move our new dryer in.
We moved our Stuff out of the garage and on to the back patio under a portable garage.

The freezer will go....

.... in the back of the house where the recycle can went. All the tools and skis are out on the back patio.

We will have to move those bikes....

....out to the back patio.

Introducing the Remodel

2010-06-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

We have decided to remodel our house instead of move. The things we are going to do are:

Enlarge the kitchen 6 feet into the backyard
Remove the pantry and move the fridge there, build a new pantry
New stove, dishwasher, and microwave
New cabinets and countertops
Repair kitchen table and chairs
Create a door from kitchen to backyard
Build a patio, maybe a pergola (whatever that is)
Move the back door that goes to the garage
Redo bathrooms
New hard wood floors throughout the upstairs
New rugs for the Living room
New brown leather couch set for the basement
New clothes dryer
Replace the cracked cement of the driveway
Extend the front porch, so it is wider with new railing
Create a cold storage room underneath the porch, like Marie's house
Fix the sinking cement of the garage
Build a storage room under the garage
Build a backyard shed
Possibly new windows and shutters in the front

It's going to be a long project. But it's quite exciting!

THANKFULNESS

2009-11-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

I am going to start writing something everyday that I'm thankful until thanksgiving so that I will think about it. There are only eight days till Thanksgiving so I will count up each day, so today is number one.

FRIENDS

My Friends are so fun! Every day at school we always have fun. When ever I'm with my firends I always forget everything I was worrying about earlier. My friends always make me Smile. If I could get everyone to do one thing each day it would be to Smile. :D

More Unemployment

2009-08-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

During the past year, our family has experienced more unemployment.
Lee and JP are the only people who are employed.
Lee quit assisting our neighbor installing blinds. Soon he started working with another man in the ward settting up audio visual equipment for short term meetings.
That started as a 1 time trip to California, and then another 1 time trip. Eventually, they had him working nearly full time, but Lee was still working for the wheat shop. He did not want to quit either job, so he found friends who would work part time and job share with him. Lee's job sharing has been a blessing to both of those boys. Now not only is Lee a granola bagger, but also a baker and eventually has become the manager over all the granola. He is also still doing the audio visual job.
JP's job has not changed, however he would really like to be working in downtown Salt Lake instead of up the canyon at the Vault. If he worked downtown, he could ride the bus to work and Marie would not have to be home without a car.
At the end of the school year, Marie decided that she did not want to continue teaching the orchestra at the charter school. She is now teaching many violin students.
John came back from BYU Idaho in December and since he was "off track", he went back to work at Robinson Armament. Things were going great. He was made the shift supervisor and he was very happy until his supervisor decided to take a job elsewhere. They hired a new foreman and things went downhill from there until John (as well as most of his co-workers) was let go in June. He didn't mind too much since he wanted to finish working on his porsche before he left on his mission.
Emily finished at BYU Idaho in April and went on tour with the Jazz band and Jazz choir to Southern California. Immediately upon returning, she started working as a flower girl for Bountiful City (again). She was very appreciative of that job. She was glad that they were willing to hire her immediately when she wanted to start and give her full time hours and allow her to leave when it was time for her mission. But all good things must make way for other good things.
Rick is still unemployed. He has tried a few non engineering enterprises but none have paid much money. We are still trying to figure out what is the right thing to do for him and for our family.

passports

2009-04-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Our family will be doing a lot of traveling this year, so we needed to get our passports in order.
Julianna and Angela are going to visit their cousins in Canada this summer. They have been very excited ever since we booked their flights. So in January, they started getting interested in getting their passports. Since it had been only about a year since I had helped Lee renew his passport, I remembered most of the information about where to get photos and the application. We took the girls to Inkley's to get their passport photos. That was done in a flash. Then we went to the post office to turn in the application. Woops, you need an appointment to turn it in at the post office. But we could do it at the county without an appointment and the office would be open for another hour. We were able to get the girls passports ordered in one afternoon. It felt so good. And their passports came back in about a month.
Emily had a current passport, so we didn't need to worry about getting her a passport.
Then John found out he would be needing a passport this year also.
Now, since we will have 2 children out of the country, Rick and I are considering renewing our passports since they have both expired. It seems that a passport is a pretty important thing.

Hair Cuts

2008-10-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

This has been the year of hair cuts.
I went from long hair to short hair.
Marie followed suit.... but she wanted to be sure that we didn't have the same hair cut.
Julianna donated hair to Locks of Love and got her hair shaped. Now she straightens her hair and it looks very grown up and modern.
Angie wanted bangs. She got cute bangs and then when it was time for her next bangs trim, she decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love also. She got a really cute really short haircut.
John didn't want a hair cut, but he got a minor trim before Summer Semester and a major cut before Fall Semester. When he saw a high school friend at BYU Idaho in the fall, the friend did not recognize him. When John told him they were in the house construction class, the boy said "Oh, what happened to your hair?"
Lee's hair cut came at the end of last year.... and now it is long again. When I ask him if he wants me to cut it, he says no.
James has been taught by Lee the not cut your hair until you turn 19. He tried to stay true to what he had been taught.... but eventually Mom convinced him to let it get cut.
Dad is the only one who keeps his hair consistently the same.
Emily is out of step with the rest of the family. She has decided to grow her hair out. She chose to change her hair by getting rid of the blonde highlights.
Hair is one thing in life that doesn't stay the same.

Feinauers Move

2008-10-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

Feinauers now live at Fourth South and First East in a Fine apartment in Bountiful.

Summer is Over

2008-09-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well, Summer is officially over.
We took John and Emily up to college.
Emily and John are in the same American Heritage class.

Angie started Jr high. She is taking band and art.
Angela joined the Tuesday Salt Lake Children's Choir

Julianna is back to Jr High band + 9th grade Seminary and Theater.
Julianna is starting in the Friday Utah Youth Symphony.

Marie is teaching orchestra at a Private school in North Salt Lake.

The Roof

2008-09-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years we have said we needed to replace the shingles on our roof, but until this year we just said we will, but maybe next year. We realized that if we didn't fix the roof this summer before John went back to BYU Idaho, it would be many years before we had Dad, Lee, John and James here and available to work on the roof.

When we realized that we only had 2 weeks before John would go up to college, we decided that now was the time. First, (on Monday August 25th) Rick, Lee and John bought a sheet of sheetrock to fix the ceiling in the kitchen where the water from the swamp cooler had saturated the insulation in the atic and fell onto the kitchen table and floor.

Then we quickly ordered the materials for shingling the roof. Later that day, (August 26th), they delivered the big dumpster that we would scrape all the old shingles into. That evening and on the 27th, Dad, John, Lee and James started to scrape off the old shingles. As they scraped off the old shingles and exposed the plywood, they could see the places where the plywood had started to rot.

They cut a foot and a half of plywood off the south edge of the roof and replaced that as well as a large area where the swamp cooler had let water run down the roof. They finished scraping them on the 28th and started to do some repairs on the ply wood below.

On Friday evening, we again looked at the weather forcast. It said that we were in for "Big Changes" in the weather. It had been dry all the month of Auugust. Now a storm was coming Saturday evening and we could expect rain, heavy in spots on Sunday. Rick began to make calls asking for any assistance that was available.

In the morning of Saturday, the 30th, Mike and Brandon and Isaac showed up at 6:30 am to work. By 8:00, Tom Lindhart, a Neighbor/Johns young mens Leader, came and gave us some professional instruction. At about 10:00 I showed up and they were 1/2 done with the front side, then Mike and Isaac had to leave as well as our Neighbor. We had 2 nail guns, Brandon and John took turns using one and Lee used the other, Marie and I would lay shingles for Lee, and whoever wasn't using the other nail gun was laying shingles for whoever was using it. When Brandon had to leave (at 1:00) John used the nail gun and Marie laid shingles for him. During this time Dad was cutting shingles for the edges. Eventually JP and his friend Clark came up on the roof to help. We worked till about 5:00 about then I got ready to leave and Mike Isaac and Gordon showed up with James to help.

Everyone worked all day Saturday as much as they could. The wind started blowing lightly in the early afternoon. A few times it caught the roofing felt and tore it. About 10:00 at night they finished putting the last shingles on and carried the supplies off the roof.

The next day, just as forcasted, it rained hard. We were very grateful for all the people who helped us reshingle our roof.

Unemployment and Employment

2008-06-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

Our family has had a lot of changes in our employment situations. Rick's job at Groen Brothers Aviation finally came to an end. He watched the company struggle to cover the payroll for about 5 months and wondered if they would make it through this tight financial squeeze. Finally at the end of May, they had to decide to lay off almost all of their employees. They were not able to find financing to cover payroll for April or May. They hope to not have to go completely out of business, but they are very close.

Emily came home from her semester in Jerusalem and had to decide if she was going to go down to work at Philmont Scout Camp for the summer. She had a very hard time making the decision. After arriving home after being away for 4 months, she was not anxious to leave home again one month later. She was also anxious to play her violin more and could not take her nice violin to the primitive living conditions at Philmont. She e-mailed them and said she was not coming. Then she started working planting flowers for Bountiful City, and remembered how hot and tiring that work was and so she e-mailed back and said she was coming. Then she looked at pictures of the tent she would be living in for 3 months and got another job as an assistant server at the Garden Restaurant and so she e-mailed again and said she wasn't coming.

In January, Lee started working at Gregory's Wheat Shop packaging granola to be shipped to grocery stores. It was to be part time and temporary until he went on his mission. He also got a job as a package handler at Fed Ex part time from 10pm to 2am. He is still working both jobs and in between, he is pursuing his first love of playing the guitar.

John had worked at El Matador restaurant bussing dishes for almost 2 years. Also during that time he had worked assisting a neighbor installing window blinds in homes. As he got close to High School graduation and planning to go to Idaho for college, he was offered a job in a machine shop that manufactures asault rifles for the military and police. They said he was most highly recommended by his high school machine shop teacher. They wanted him to start then and get trained part time after school and move to full time in the summer. He told them he would be in college during the summer and so he did not take the job. After we analyzed it, he called them back and told them the exact dates when he would be away at college and when he would be home and available to work. They were happy to hire him.

After a week of Rick being unemployed, he suggested that I look for a full time job, and he would stay home and care for the children and home. I have attended training classes for preparing resumes and searching for employment. I have learned that any experience older than about 10 years is considered unimportant and out of date. My bachelors degree is even considered insignificant. When I talk to people about employment, they suggest entry level jobs which require no skills or education. My brother suggested I go back to school and get a masters degree. He said that the investment in education would be worth it since I have potentially 20 more years in the workforce.
I considered taking a job, but I had no intention of giving up my God given job of being a mother. Rick believed that as long as someone is staying home being parent to the children it doesn't matter who does it. He says that "father as provider and mother as nurturer" are rigid roles. I believe that "father as provider, mother as nurturer" is ideal and while I know that in certain situations, adjustments must be made, this is not a serious enough situation to warrant throwing out the ideal.

Since Rick has been home, I have found that more of our needs are being met. Things are getting repaired that have been waiting for a quite a while. And I have confidence that our needs will continue to be met. We will find a way to meet the family's needs that fulfills us. Maybe that will be a good job for Rick where he is happy, or maybe it will be self employment where the family works together. I think we were put on this earth to be happy, not to suffer it out until we die.

John is a New College Student

2008-06-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

We moved John up to Rexburg, Idaho yesterday. We found him an apartment in Sunrise Village apartment 47. It is the lower left apartment of a 4 plex. It should be cool during the summer. His roommate's name is Ian (the same name as Lee's roommate during his freshman year). Also, Ian plays the viola (Marie can celebrate about that). And the books on his bookshelf looked like he was studying Construction Management (the same as John). It looked like a magical match. When we met him, he said he was a 2nd semester freshman. He is on Summer/fall track but started last fall.
We helped John get his I card. On his first try, they said his hair was too long over the ears. Although I had thought about bringing hair cut scissors, I had left them at home. The girl at the I card place said his hair was OK except for over the ears so we left trying to figure out where to get a quick hair cut without him needing a car. Then we remembered the tiny surgical scissors in my purse left over from Lee's time in the hospital. They were definitely sharp enough to cut hair, but were they big enough? We took him up the street toward the Rexburg Temple and then turned east by a big water tank, and while he stood in the gutter by the car, I stood on the sidewalk (so I could reach) and with the wind blowing and the rain soon to start, I cut the hair around his ears. No problem with leaving hair around... it all blew away. It was kind of funny to see everyone's reactions as they drove by and stared. After the hair cut, he used water from the water bottle to "comb" his hair. They were very happy with his hair when he came back less than a half hour later. Mission accomplished.
We showed him around campus, and got him some dining dollars, showed him the computers in the library, and where his class would meet the next day. We bought a few things he needed at Wal-Mart and went to Bajio for dinner and then drove home. It was a very late night before we got home, but it was a very successful trip.

John's Eagle Project

2008-05-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

John completed his Eagle project during May. The service he performed was to collect clothing, food, and hygiene items to be sent to help people in the Philippines. About 12 people helped pass out flyers to our neighborhood telling people about his project and asking for donated items or money to help cover shipping costs. One week later he and seven other scouts and leaders collected the donated items. After our family and friends sorted the donated items, we were able to pack 3 boxes, 21" x 22" x 23", with about 125 pounds of supplies per box. We were able to put together over 30 hygiene kits that had a washcloth, toothpaste and toothbrush, and soap as well as shampoos and lotions. For clothing, we sent shoes and light weight clothing. The food that we sent was canned meats. He shipped the 3 boxes which cost $390 to ship all the boxes. They are scheduled to arrive in the port of Manila on June 10th, 2008. Completing this project will not only bless people's lives in the Philippines but also was a good leadership experience for me. It was good to see how willing people are to help others.
Congratulations on completing your project. We are proud of your scouting acheivements.

Sidewalk Chalk

2008-05-27T21:09:00.001-07:00

Main Street has a sidewalk chalk festival every year (or more?) I've noticed it a couple times, but didn't think much about who actually drew/painted them.
This year my mom, Angela, and Julianna went and created two of the pictures. Later in the week (the day before it rained) JP and I went to look at the fun artwork.
Here is a picture of the one Angela and Mom did. It's from a Bill Peet book, "Cock-a-Doodle-Dudley." I think he's pretty cute.

And Julianna took inspiration from Peanuts. Which was also one of my first successful ventures into the world of drawing. Good shapes. Unfortunately she ran out of red chalk. But you get the drift. I think they did a great job!

Visit our Blog for more pictures of the sidewalk chalk on main street!

Marie's fun concert

2008-05-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Marie will be playing a fun concert this weekend. It's movie music! Highly energetic recognizable, and some that's just absolutely gorgeous. For more info including a list of pieces, prices and event time and location go to the Salt Lake Symphony website. I would love to see all of you there. It's going to be a fun time, and it's also my last concert of the season. So let's have a party!

Julianna's Jr. High Band Concert

2008-05-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

Julianna will play in the Junior High's final Band concert of the year this Tuesday Night, May 13th at 7:00 at Woods Cross High. It should be a very enjoyable concert because they will play songs from Movies and very recognizable stuff. Julianna will play in both the 8th and 9th grade bands. We hope you can come.

John's Lacrosse game

2008-05-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last night John played his first Varsity Lacrosse game for Woods Cross High. This year is his first year to play Lacrosse, and he was put on the JV team. He likes the sport, and has always enjoyed going to all the practices. He plays Center Middi. After each team scores a goal, it is Center Middi that faces off at the center of the field to see which team will get possesion of the ball. That part of the game (for those who don't know lacrosse) is like basketball's jump ball, but the players are down in a tripod stance, shoulder to shoulder, with the baseball type ball on the ground between them, fighting to see who can get the ball into their net at the end of their stick. The first time I saw John play, I was surprised to see him playing there but he does it well.
Yesterday's game was the first playoff game of the championship. Woods Cross was the first seed so they were playing at home against the Box Elder Bees.
Not only was it John's first Varsity game, and an exciting first play off game, it was also John's first time to score. He was so happy after scoring that goal. His smile covered his whole face. We were very proud of him and we look forward to watching him play more games during this final tournament.
The next games are Saturday Morning May 9th at home, and Wednesday evening at Mountain Crest High School. If they make it to the finals, the game will be Saturday May 16th at Park City.

Angie's spring concert

2008-04-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

Angela will be singing with the Salt Lake Children's Choir in their spring concert on May 9th and 10th at 7:30 pm. The concert will be held at the First Presbyterian Church on South Temple and C Street. Tickets are $8 or $5 for students, and can be purchased from Angela. If Angela sells 20 tickets then each ticket will only be $5 each. They will be recording this concert, so children under 6 years will not be admitted. We hope you will be able to enjoy their beautiful angelic voices at the concert.

Talks at Church

2008-04-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

On April 13th, both Julianna and James gave talks at church. James was asked to talk in primary about Following the Prophet, and Julianna was asked to talk in Sacrament Meeting about an article in this month's New Era magazine called, "Worthy Thoughts Worthy Music".
James talked about sustaining President Monson as the new President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. And about sustaining the first presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets seers and revelators. Then he focused on the talk in the Sunday Afternoon Session by M. Russell Ballard when he talked to the children about what they could do to help their mothers and families. He told the children that if they helped to put away their toys, and do chores around the house and Hug their Mother and tell her that they love her, they are following the Prophet.
Both Julianna and James did a good job giving their talks.

The Wiz

2008-04-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

Julianna has been taking a theater class at Rodgers Memorial Theater this past school year. They will soon be ready to perform "The Wiz" for audiences at the theater. "The Wiz" is a 1960s play on "The Wizard of OZ" complete with lots of "hippy" expressions. It should be a lot of fun.
Opening night is Friday April 18th. There is a show each night of the week except Sunday, and there are 3 shows on Saturdays (1:00, 4:00 and 7:00). The show closes after Saturday April 26th. Julianna will be in each of the plays but will have a more major roll on Friday the 18th, Wed the 23rd, and the 4:00 show on Saturday the 26th. Tickets are $6. I hope you will get a chance to go.

Marie's Viola Recital

2008-04-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, right after the Priesthood session of General Conference, Marie played a viola recital. She played beautifully.
The Alan Edwards family, in her ward, invited her to play a recital in their home for some of their friends and Marie's family. We are so grateful for their hospitality.
Marie asked Diane Bastian, the best accompanist in all of Bountiful, to accompany her. She also did a wonderful job. It is true what Alan said at the end of the recital, "The best recitals are ones where the soloist and accompanist play duets." We have appreciated Diane's skill and willingness to accompany our daughters for many years. She is such a blessing to us.
Marie played Bach's Concerto No. 1 in a minor on violin so she could use it for an application for Suzuki violin teacher training. She also played 2 movements of a Brahms Sonata (No. 1), 2 movements from Bach's unaccompanied cello suites (on viola), and a movement of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata. And she added for some "easy listening" Schubert's Ave Maria, and an unaccompanied arrangement of the hymn, "Where Can I Turn For Peace" which she arranged when she was in high school for a Seminary assembly.
A lot of our family came to the recital. We were very pleased that they came. After all of her preparation, if there had been little to no audience, it would have been disappointing. As it was, we felt like the recital was a big success.
Thanks Marie, for sharing your talent with us.

James' Pinewood Derby

2008-03-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was James' Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. James was given the car kit in January. We thought the Derby was going to be held the end of February, so there was no rush to start working on the car. I signed James up for a class at Lowes about how to make a Pinewood Derby car and they mentioned that they would demonstrate how to use a dremmel on the car as part of the class. When Rick took James to the class they learned that it had been held the day before and they had missed it. I tried to sign him up for another class (they had said that they held them every week) but that must have been the last one. Oh well.
Then the ward announced that February pack meeting was the Blue and Gold banquet. So we had either missed the pinewood derby or we had another month to prepare. So we waited longer. The only thing we did to prepare was draw a couple of preliminary designs and borrow Grandpa Simmons' jig saw and dremmel.

Angela was at the Library and found a book about making Pinewood derby cars. It had lots of pictures and instructions. We appreciated that alot. It was our first step in the right direction.

On Saturday before the big race, Rick started to work on the car with James. Forget the fancy shaped vehicles. That is too hard and takes too long. They made a simple wedge shape (cut diagonally from the top back down to the bottom front. Then James started to sand it. John and Dad also drilled holes in the top back to insert the weights to bring it up to the correct weight, and filled in the hole with some body putty that we borrowed from Grandpa. We only had an old postal scale so we were REALLY guessing how much weight to put in. They figured that they could add some "sinkers" into the bottom of the car if it weighed too little and drill holes out of the bottom of the car if it weighed too much. They also prepared the nails so they would be smooth where the plastic wheels would spin on them. Thank goodness we had saved all the left over weights, graphite etc. from making Lee and John's cars about 10 years earlier. That saved a lot of trips to the store.
Mom's job was to take that simple shape and help it turn into a good looking car (which is all Mom really cared about). We got some primer from Grandpa Simmons, and on Wednesday afternoon, Mom and James went to the store to get some fancy pinewood derby stickers. There was one set of stickers that had triangle shaped flames. That was obviously the choice. We got them and chose some spray paint that would make the flames show up (not blend into the background color). Silver!

The car weigh in was Wednesday night at 7:00 at the church. But Dad and John and everyone had other places they had to be so James and Mom gathered up all the pieces and the car with 1 coat of primer and walked with James over to the church.
When we got there, we saw all the completed cars getting weighed and being put in a special box to keep the cars until the big race day. When it was our turn to weigh in, we just set the nondescript wedge shaped piece of wood and the 4 nails and 4 wheels in a pile on the scale. It was too light, so they cut a weight (with 1/4 ounce sections) and gave us 14 grams (1/2 ounce) with sticky tape on the back and said we could stick that much weight onto the car and still be within weight.

On the way walking home, we delivered Scouting for Food grocery bags to the houses on our assigned route. When we got home, we kept painting the wood (setting the timer for 15 minutes so the paint would have time to dry).

Then when John and Dad got home, they helped James apply the graphite in all the places where things rub and they installed the nails into the existing slots for the axles (They made sure to only push the nails in and leave a gap between the car and the wheel the thickness of 3 business cards).

Then we put 2 of the kitchen table legs up on 2x4's to slope the table top, and they checked to see if the car would drive straight. Eventually they got it to go straight and we put hot glue in the slots to hold the nails in that exact position.

Last of all, we used grandpa's dremmel with a felt head to spin the wheels very fast on the axels to work in the graphite. Bed Time!

The next day, we were very careful with the car. We added all the stickers. We loved this part. It started looking very fancy. We also stuck the 1/2 ounce weight they gave us at weigh in on the back of the car. The car was ready by noon. We made sure to eat dinner early enough to get to the race early enough to weigh in.

Everything went smoothly. The track was very sophisticated with a computer to time each run. Each car ran 8 times. There were 26 "heats". James' car took first a few times, 2nd a few times and 3rd a few times. But never 4th. At the end of the race, his car was 4th fastest. The track owner's 2 boys cars took 1st and 2nd, and then hundredths of a second later another boy then thousandths of a second later, James'. James's award was The HOT ROD car. (I think because of all the flames it had on it). It was a fun experience.

Easter Celebration

2008-03-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Our family got together on Easter and really enjoyed ourselves. This is my favorite holiday of the whole year. During the week before, I went to K-mart and bought more than $30 of candy. I was informed that this was too much so I took about half of it back. We still had about 7 bags of candy to hide in many dozens of plastic eggs.

The ward choir had prepared an easter program for church, but one of the songs, "He is Risen!" was too big of a song with too many high soprano parts for our small choir to perform, so the director asked to have violins play the vocal parts and I play the piano part to accompany them. Julianna, Angela, and Lizzy VanDeGraaf got together on Saturday night in the chapel to rehearse. Thanks to Vicki VanDeGraaf's honesty, telling us that the violin parts needed to be embellished, we spent a couple of hours and created a very nice arrangement to go with Sally DeFord's choir arrangement. The whole sacrament meeting program turned out really well. We had never had more than 10 or 15 people to the practices.... and always a different 10 or 15. But when the choir went up to the stage, we had a very full choir. The whole program went very well and was very inspirational. People complimented the director and music chairman for the whole week following the program.

Just before Sacrament meeting, I taught the 8 year olds a lesson about why we celebrate Easter, and about Jesus' resurrection. I felt like they learned alot.

I got out of bed early that morning and put a roast into the crock pot. I had baked an angel food cake the day before, and after church, the kids helped me turn the angel food cake into my favorite spring dessert, flower cake. It is kind of like trifle with broken pieces of cake held together in this case with a bright lemony sauce which is refrigerated to become like a mix of jello and pudding. It is served with whipped cream on the top. Everyone in the family loved it.

After we made the flower cake, and Marie and JP filled the plastic eggs with candy, Rick and I went outside to hide the eggs and the kids set the table (with the blinds closed so they couldn't see us outside.) I love this part. I get so excited looking for good places to hide the eggs. And I anticipate what it will be like for the kids to find the eggs. I just feel so happy. We had more candy than we could find places to hide so I sent some inside for Rick to hide in the living room too.

We let the kids go out and start looking for eggs, youngest first. Considering that people who were looking ranged in age from 8 to 25, the younger ones really needed a head start. Plus, we hadn't had many serious egg hunts for a few years so the younger ones really were also less experienced hunters. After searching the back yard, we let them go to the front yard in order of who had the least eggs in their bucket. JP got to go out near the beginning because he had been distracted by taking pictures in the back yard. In the front yard, he searched much more agressively. James had a tendency to see where others were finding eggs and then go there, but not until the eggs had all been found. I loved seeing the kids find the eggs. Angie found some up high and pointed and yelled "It's mine! It's mine!" and JP came and helped her get them. John found lots of candy, but in a few days, Angie found his bucket of candy by the computer and generously passed it out to herself and her other siblings. Everyone loved the malted milk eggs. Lee ate his candy almost as fast as he found it.

After the egg hunt, we enjoyed our dinner together and had a short hunt in the living room for the rest of the candy. Each went into the living room individually and got to find 4 candies and then the next older one would got to find 4. By the time it got to me, I had a real hard time finding 4 candies.... I only found 3 and someone had to help me find my last. But there were still 3 or 4 candies left for Rick.

The capstone for our Easter celebration was listening to Marie recite from memory, "The Living Christ, The Testimony of the Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". She and JP had taken a challenge from their bishop to memorize it before Easter. (see their blog). Marie had gathered pictures to go along with the document. It was very inspiring and a very appropriate ending to our day.

Julianna gets a hair cut

2008-03-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Julianna wanted her hair cut. She decided to donate it to "Locks of Love", so she had to cut 10 inches, which she decided was kind of too short, but she went with it. The cut took 4 hours of Friday afternoon and me and James were singing "it is the cut that never ends yes it goes on until she's bald somebody started cutting it not knowing what it was and they'll continue cutting it forever just because..."

JP's New Job!!

2008-03-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

Jp has now found a job!! He will be working at the Granite Mountain Vaults. You can read more about it on his blog post. We're very excited for the changes and new direction that will be bringing.
Also, last weekend JP and I took James and Angie to see a model train festival in Ogden. You can see pictures on our blog post. I liked seeing all of the models, especially the Hogwarts Express model from Harry Potter, and the little Thomas the tank engine. It was also fun to get to climb inside a real caboose, and get on a new Front Runner Trax train to stay out of the cold and snow.

Upcoming Recital

2008-02-21T11:40:00.001-08:00

Marie has been invited to play a recital in a neighbor's home next month. It is scheduled for Friday evening, March 28th. We should hear some music by Bach, Schubert, and Brahms. Family and friends will be invited (as well as friends of the host family). We look forward to hearing Marie perform again. Mark your calendars!

Angela's concert in the Tabernacle

2008-02-15T10:12:00.000-08:00

Angela sang with the Salt Lake Children's Choir in a concert in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. The concert was given by the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, which was created during the 2002 Winter Olympics to address the spiritual needs of Olympic athletes of many religions. Rick and I attended the Interfaith Concert on Sunday night. It was very inspirational and enjoyable. I read a description in the Deseret News of last year's concert which was held in the Assembly Hall. They were very similar concerts. As we enjoyed the concert, we wished that we had brought our children with us and invited some friends.
In the last couple of weeks I read a talk on that topic given in the 2001 BYU Women's Conference by James A Toronto. You can listen to the talk from this link. In the talk, Brother Toronto quotes Joseph Smith's teachings about our feelings toward other faiths and their beliefs. I found the quotes from Joseph Smith and other prophets that he quoted in the talk to support my good feelings at the concert. The talk also talked about the tensions in the Middle east and thus seemed particularly timely to me with Emily living in Jerusalem right now.
I want to teach my children as Sister Toronto's talk states, to "dismantle the "walls of Partition" -- intolerance, pride, suspicion and rivalry-- by teaching our children to love and learn from our brothers and sisters of different backgrounds, viewing them no more as "strangers and foreigners."
Angela liked singing in the concert. The Japanese drums was the part she liked best of the concert. They were exciting.

Angela in Salt Lake Children's Choir Interfaith Concert

2008-02-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

On Sunday February 10th at 5:00 I will be singing in the Tabernacle on Temple Square with the Salt Lake Children's Choir in a Free concert that is open to all ages.

Angela

2008-02-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

Angie's 12 birthday was in January on the 19th. She just got braces on her teeth and started singing with the Salt Lake Children's Choir. She is going back to violin groups with Jeanne Grover. She will be in the same group as her cousin Savannah. She is reading a lot of books. One of her favorite authors is Patricia Reilly Giff. She also went into the Young Women's organization at church.She said she really likes her leaders,Sheri Winward and Brenda Miner, and she is excited for girls camp in July.

Succession in the Presidency

2008-02-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

Bruce R. McConkie was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 8 January 1974.

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6070

Elder McConkie detailed the process of succession when President Lee died and President Kimball was ordained and set apart as the President of the church. He gave this talk just 10 days after their meeting in the temple.

I invite every member of our family and anyone else to read this talk during this season of transition to re-affirm or establish their testimony that we will always have a living prophet on the earth until the Lord comes.

I imagine they are meeting in the temple even now or have met earlier today to set apart President Thomas S. Monson as President of the Church. I have heard we can look for an anouncement Monday morning around 11:00.

President Hinckley's veiwing

2008-02-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

By JP

I would like to comment for a moment about the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley. On January 31, 2008 I was in Salt Lake for an job interveiw and I decided it was important to me to stop by the veiwing for president Hinckley. I was impressed by the outporing of love and reverence this community showed forth. I wanted to take a picture as I left to remember being there (My camera had no batteries, but thankfully Meridian Magazine took the picture for me, it is part of a wonderful article.) I realized as I was there how memorable his passing will be. I had the thought come to me that when I look back at this time in my life I will remember it not for the job searching, or the stress about which degree to get, I will remember January 2008 as Marie and I with Chris and Cyndi when the Prophet passed away. I will remember being at his veiwing.
I also had a flood of memories come over me about what I had learned from President Hinckley. I thought of his Be's, and his optimism, I remembered him dedicating the building on BYU-I's campus named for him, and singing for him at President Clark's Luncheon. Mostly I remembered a music and the spoken word I attended a month or so after I got home from my Mission. I remembered President Hinckley walked in and sat down only a few rows away, I thought to myself, you just spent two years telling people he was a prophet of God. I felt a rush of testimony and gratitute to be in the same room as he was. In parting I want to give the links to my favorite talks of President Hinckley's.
The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith and his remarks at the Hinckley Building Dedicaton.

Geting South Davis Recreation Center family membership

2008-01-31T15:57:00.000-08:00

We got a family membership to the South Davis Recreation Center on Tuesday January 29th. That day Me, James, Jules, and Mom went swimming. On the 30th Me, James, and Jules went ice skating, we rented skates there. On the 31st we went ice skating again. It is very very fun!!! Jules hit her tail bone hard, but James said''he had a fun time'' Jules said, ''the pool will be fun,'' ''And I think it will be fun to get really GOOD at swiming !,'' James said ''He LIKES the whole Place!!!.''

Lee's Mission Call

2008-01-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

Early in December Lee finished his mission papers and the Bishop and Stake President sent them in. On Dec.19th it showed up in the mail. Lee's mission call came in the mail in the afternoon, but no one was home, so Lee brought the envelope into the house from the mail box and hid it under the couch in the livingroom. Later that evening, he told us that it had come. Marie and JP were at our house because we were planning to play Christmas music as a family that evening. When we learned that Lee's call was here, JP sent Emily to get his camera from Grandma Linda's house. So Grandma came down to see him open his call too.
For the past week or so, everyone had been making guesses for where he would go, James Argentina, Angela Philippines, Me Sweden (i don't have any idea why) Levi Olsen said Russia, Grandma said Denmark she said she had guessed it for all her sons and none had been called there yet so she guessed it again, Lee said he was going to go to some place in South America.

So when he opened up his call, Grandma was on the phone with Gordon and we were on the phone with Wade and afterwards we called Mike and Carrie's family to tell them where he got called to. Lee read the "Dear Elder" and then he went along and it said "you are hereby called to serve in the" and here he stumbled and couldn't pronounce the name of the mission "the Bacolod Pilippines Mission" then Angela was like"yes whoohooo" because she guessed the right place. Then further down it said "report the the MTC in Provo UT on March 26th." I think he was happy to know that he would learn the Tagalog language.
The next Saturday one of Emily's friends who had recently returned from the same mission came over to our house. He showed us some pictures of the mission and said that there is the hot rainy season and the hot hot season. Some time soon after Mike and Carrie's Family called and said that the missionarys had come to their house for dinner one of them was from the Philippines, he talked to Lee for a minute trying to teach him how to pronouce the name of the mission, Lee said he finally stopped trying to help him and just said "yah you'll do great ." On Sunday Night January 27th we went to a family's house in our ward. They invited us to do a family night thing and they also invited a friend of theirs who had just returned from the same mission to show slides and answer any questions Lee might have. The new returned missonary said he was tall at 5' 9" and with red hair. The missionaries advice was to bring a couple of umbrellas and learn to cook before you go there (your companions will love you).
While we were there, we learned that President Hinkley had passed away.

Emily broke her leg

2007-10-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

by Julianna
I assume you all know that over the summer Emily was working down at Bryce Canyon doing a dinner show. During the last week she would be there, on Wednesday, the boys took her to the nearby high school to skateboard. She said, "It was very wobbly, so the boys said try going faster." Then she did but she fell off. Later she told us she thought that it was just hurting and would stop in a minute but it didn’t stop. One of the boys said, " Stay laying there and I’ll Jump over you." The other boy said, "I think she’s hurt, we should take her to the hospital." The doctor said it was broken and showed her the x-ray. He gave her pain stuff and a velcro boot then asked her if she could walk on it. She couldn’t, so he gave her crutches. Later when Emily was talking to Mom she was pretty discouraged because she wouldn’t be able to take her yoga class when she went back to college. The Saturday after, Dad, John, and I went down to see her show, and bring her home, then send her off to college the next day. When Emily was in Idaho she was trying to find an orthopedic doctor because her leg needed to be checked. One of her roommates had grown up in Rexburg and knew all the orthopaedic doctors and told her about the best one around and her roommate's mom took Emily to the doctor. He said she had broken both bones and shouldn’t walk on it for 6 weeks. We also rented her a wheelchair so Lee could push her to classes. Emily's other roommate was a girl from our ward. She is studying peramedicine and is helping Emily to keep the wrap tight enough to keep the swelling down.

Lee’s Travel Study

2007-09-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

This summer, Lee signed up for a BYU Idaho travel study class. They would be going on a tour to the Eastern United States and studying US history, American literature, and Early Mormon history (Doctrine and Covenants). He left August 23rd and the tour lasted 3 weeks. He returned to Rexburg 1 week after the fall semester started. On their way home, they stopped in Salt Lake and we sent a box of stuff to Emily. The teacher said they had enjoyed having Lee on the trip. He said," We couldn’t get Lee to comb his hair, we couldn’t get him to cut his hair and so we just called him "Kramer". (Due to his BYU I standard hair cut that doesn’t touch the ears or collar but Lee wanted it left long and curly on top.)

A Bit About Julianna

2007-09-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

Julianna got braces on July 30th She said ,"at first it was annoying and I was feeling them. I tried to eat ...... not a good idea. I was finally used to them mid way through girls camp (Aug. 6-9). GIRLS CAMP, she said was "Awesome, we had a water day at someone’s cousins house. There was a ledge about 6 ft. tall next to the water. I jumped off of it but they didn’t get a picture. Afterwards I did it over and over making us get back to camp late." She is also in the 9th grade band she said "it’s kind of fun except for I had to go to summer band" Also she is taking a Theater class at Rodgers memorial theater "it is a lot of fun I’m learning a lot about acting next spring we are doing a musical called the wiz.

James' Baptism

2007-09-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

James got baptized on Sept. 1st Thanks to everyone for coming . We had a good dinner afterwards. Thanks to all who came to the confirmation too.

John baptized James. Dad confirmed him and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost.
This was John's first baptism.

2007-09-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

Star Photos

She is such a good looking dog! Late summer 2007

March the first day we had her she chased James around the yard now she's to fast.

star got under the sink and got some rolls of

paper towells while we were at Lake Powell.

Star and James the

first day we had her

she was pretty small

but James isn't very

big so she lookes bigger

than she is there.

James Starts Cub Scouts

2007-08-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

On July 9th James got invited to go to Cub Country a cub scout summer camp. His 8th birthday is August 12th so he didn’t know he could go till the day before. They did Spy Cubs and Jurassic Journey. "It was the best." James said. After his 8th birthday they did a raingutter regatta. He says he had fun. During the last pack meeting he earned 5 patches and a belt loop. They are the Bobcat, the family camping patch, the state fair patch, the train patch, the century of scouting patch, and the badminton belt loop.

Dad and boys go on Trek

2007-07-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

This year our stake decided to go on a trek from Martin’s cove through the sweet water then over rocky ridge and ending soon after. They left on July 11th at 4:30 am and arrived home at 4:00 pm on July 14th. Lee was mid way through his summer semester so he rode down on the shuttle to Ogden and Pres. Manwaring (our stake pres.) picked him up and took him to Wyoming .

Vacation to Lake Powell 2007

2007-06-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

On June 16th we left for Lake Powell for our 2007 family vacation. All of our cousins had left a day earlier but we waited so we could bring Lee who came from Rexburg ID. We packed the Saab to it's fullest. Emily and the girl she was working with at Bryce went to Arizona where her parents live for the week before, then came up to Lake Powell on the Halls Crossing side. While they were in Phoenix, they invited 2 boys to come to Lake Powell with us. Their names were Scott & Jural, and they brought 2 wave runners for us to ride. When we arrived at the lake Emily's group had just gotten off the ferry. The house boat was still at the beach because something was broken. After we had loaded everything on the house boat they got it fixed and we were off. While we were there we rode on the tubes and wake boarded, we ate really good food and had tons of fun. One of the fun things was the floating tramp Wade brought. We all enjoyed riding the wave runners and we loved Lake Powell. Thanks for taking us!

Wanting A Puppy

2007-05-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

By James
James wanted a dog because Julianna & Angela kept leaving him home alone when they went to friends houses. Then James saw the movie old yeller and saw that a dog can be a good friend. James got John to help him look on K S L .com for puppy’s. They sent e-mails to dad and mom about puppies for sale.

Finding a Puppy
One day Mom was driving Julianna to band. They stopped at a stop light behind a truck with a dog in the back. Mom said, “Now that’s a good looking dog.” On the way home from taking Julianna to band at the same intersection, Mom found herself following the same truck with the same dog going the other way towards home so Mom decided to follow the dog and find out what kind of dog it was. At the corner where we turn towards home, the truck went straight so Mom went straight, then Mom started to wonder how far she would have to go. Happily ½ block later the truck turned into our neighborhood! So mom followed it all the way home. When they stopped Mom asked, "What kind of dog is that?", he said “it’s a yellow lab - do you want one - he has puppies that are 3 weeks old.” Mom was not sure if James wanted a big dog so she said “I’ll bring James over to see if he wants a big dog." Dad was home for lunch that day so he, Mom, James and Angela went over to see the dog. The dog's name was Rev(short for Reverend) and he was very friendly. We played fetch with him for a ½ hour.

Why We Like Star
We all like Star a lot. As John said “she's fun to play fetch with” and “I like her because she very very fun to take on walks and she so soft” Marie said “she’s so cute and adorable and she’s a PUUUPPY !” Mom gave me part of the song Edelweiss to describe her. It says “Soft and White Clean and Bright “ it
describes her very well. James said “she’s comforting”! J.P. said “she doesn’t
shed much “ (JP is wrong but we still like her). “She's friendly and loving” said Dad. Jules said, “I love to play with her.” Lee said "she's so cute.”
YES SHE IS! Dad Mom Thank You So Much For Getting Her !!!!!
SHE IS PERFECT FOR US!!!!