Creshes & Carols

Creshes & Carols was yesterday at our little branch.  We spent 10-11 hours/day for four days putting it together.  Whew, were we ever tired!!  Then yesterday was the display.  We collected nativity sets from a number of friends and family and set them up (artistically displayed) and invited the public to attend.  We didn't get as many in attendance as we had hoped, but the ones who did come were impressed with the spirit that was there.  That was our main goal.  Hopefully the word will get around and more will come next year if we have enough energy to do it again.  Enjoy a few pictures from our "baby".

New Stake Presidency

As we had suspected we got a new stake presidency at St. Robert stake conference today.  We drove to Lebanon, MO on Saturday and attended the evening session there.  It was broadcasted in Rolla but we get so much more out of it if we attend the actual meeting.  We spent the night there and attended the Sunday session.  That is when we found out that Luke Nigliazzo is our new stake president.  He has been a counselor for the past 10 years.  That has helped prepare him for this calling, but he sure has been and will be kept busy.  Robert Jones is the new 1st C, and Herman Blau is the new 2nd C. 

I have no pictures to go with this.  I really had intended to take a picture of the motel where we stayed.  It has been around a long time.  It was in good shape and was very clean, but the furniture and fixtures were very "60's".  I meant to take a picture of our turquoise tub, sink and toilet.  Very interesting.

Happy Santa

 

Santa admires his new boots.

 He went through so many years with the toe gone from one of them.  Doesn't he look great?  

By the way, which one of you was it that repainted his face?  Good job.

Thanksgiving 2011

I took some pictures this Thanksgiving when we all gathered at Amy & Mike's house.  They aren't great, but they will give you an idea of our day.  I did get some cute ones of Amy's twins but we're not allowed to put them on the internet.  Too bad.  It's hard to take pictures and then not share them.  Sometimes I just get too busy and don't take pictures when I could get the best ones, but sometimes you just have to live life rather than trying to report it.  Here are some of the scenes of our day:

We put the men to work.

 

Danny & Zach really enjoyed their turkey legs.

"And it's a good thing," thought Mike.

 

Dominic has 'way outgrown me.

 

Noah wasn't too sure about all the activity going on.

His family is sooo noisy.

 

Emily didn't want to look at the camera this time.

 

Sierra is such a cutie.

Laura, Jeanette & Noah come to visit

 

 When Jeanette and Laura came to visit us in Salem, Noah enjoyed taking a bath in Grandma's kitchen sink.  They were able to stay with us for about four days.  It all went much too fast.

Bad dog . . . .

Well, Bumper is a very loving dog . . . . BUT . . . . he can be sooooo naughty!!

Does this look like a bad dog??

We had a couple of trees cut down.  The city was going to cut away half of each tree so they wouldn't come in contact with electric wires, leaving them looking ridiculous.  Since we had already had two trees die and we had to pay big bucks to have them cut down, we just asked them to do these two.  It was free.  Then they came back a month or so later and ground the stumps down into the ground free.  That left us with two big piles of sawdust.  Bumper thinks that this is a wonderful playground.  He goes out and digs his way to China.

This morning as I opened the front door I was met with his latest fun activity.  He had found a phone book somewhere and totally shredded it.  When I started to pick it up and put it into a bag to throw away, he thought I was playing so he grabbed a big piece of it and started shaking it and rolling around.  I had to put him into the house to finish cleaning it up.  He's a sweet dog, but can be so very frustrating.  At least he has stopped chewing up things inside the house.  But he thinks the outdoors is a free-for-all.

It truly did look a lot worse than this picture shows.  Sigh!!

Autumn Soup

 

Well, Fall is definitely here so I made a big pot of bean soup.  Yes, Karen, this is the one that you made and didn't think was any good.  It turned out pretty good here.  I took some of it to the Salem Jacobs and they liked it.  I wonder what was different? We'll have to compare what we did and see why yours didn't come out like you wanted it.  By the way, does it look like my little Pilgrims need some googly eyes?

A Worthy Blog

This will be short, but I have discovered a blog that everyone should read during the month of October.  It's all about the importance of having Christ in your life.  LDS ladies have been adding to it daily; you can do that too if you want.  It builds you up spiritually to read what is there.  Take a look:
http://beinglds.blogspot.com/
(If you save it as a favorite, you may need to click on the "home" button each day to get the new post.)

My Conversion Story

As requested by Timpani, here is my conversion story:

When we got married in 1967 I was a Methodist and Alan was a Baptist.  This wasn’t a problem, however we needed to make a decision sometime about what church we wanted to attend.  He was in the Navy when we got married and he left for a duty station in Guam right after our honeymoon.  About two months later I flew over to Guam to join him.  We didn’t live on base since he ranked too low at that time to qualify for married housing.  The only churches near us were Catholic which we hadn’t really considered joining, so we didn’t really go to any church while on Guam. 

After about 1 ½ years we were transferred to Okinawa.  We really liked it there.  Again we were not in military housing, but this time there was a Church of Christ nearby so we gave it a try.  Everyone was very nice there, but it didn’t feel quite right so we didn’t go back.  After we had been in Okinawa for a year they decided to send Alan to Viet Nam.  I was 8 months pregnant with our first child.  Luckily they allowed us to take a military plane back to the States.  It was pretty uneventful except for some long layovers along the way.  My ankles were about as big as my calves by the time we arrived home.

Alan was sent out to California for a training school prior to being shipped out to Viet Nam.  Michael was born shortly thereafter. (I was staying with my parents while he was gone.)  While he was in California Alan was able to visit some with his brother David who had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a few years before.  Alan began discussing the church with him and then with some buddies and realized that he believed the things he was telling them about the church.

He was allowed to return to Illinois before leaving for Viet Nam.  That was great since he hadn’t be able to be there when his son was born; at least he would be able to see him before going overseas for 13 months.  About 2 A.M. the night before he left, I was up feeding the baby and he began talking to me about the church.  I was about half conscious and said something to the effect, “How about if we talk about this when you get back and we will look into what this church has to offer.”  He said “Okay” and that was that.

When he got to Viet Nam he met up with some military men who were returned missionaries.  They began to teach him.  The next month I got a letter from him saying that he hoped that I understood but that he had been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – that he knew that the gospel was true and that it would not be right to know it and not act upon it.  He said that if I wanted to look into it myself that there were missionaries in my area (and he gave me the information to contact them) that would be happy to teach me.  Meanwhile he contacted his brother & sister-in-law, who immediately sent me a big box of  books about the church.  I started reading the books and then called the elders at the number I was given.  I asked them if they would mind teaching me about their church.  Not too surprisingly, they were happy to do so.

As I read about the church I found that much of what I was reading, was what I had already believed.  The elders didn’t have to do a lot of teaching before I was ready to commit to baptism.  Luckily I didn’t smoke or drink tea, coffee or alcohol so there wasn’t any problem with having to give up any of that.  Tithing was not a problem.  I already believed that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost were individual beings that were one in purpose and that Jesus was my Savior.  I believed from the time I was a child that absolute truth existed but didn’t think that it had yet been revealed by God to man.  The idea that there was a prophet on Earth that made that possible sounded very good to me.  Alan was baptized in August and I followed him into the waters of baptism in October of 1970.  It has been the best decision we could have ever made, especially now that the world has become so polarized in their feelings about what is right and wrong.  To know that our children and our grandchildren have the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide them through life gives me such peace.

My game of solitaire was not so solitary.

I took a few minutes before bed the other night to play spider solitaire and this crazy fly kept flying into my face and then onto the screen of my laptop.  You know how annoying flies get when the weather turns cooler.  I thought you might like to see him.

My Anniversary

I forgot to mention in my last post that today (October 3) is the anniversary of my baptism.  It has been 41 years (Can it really be that long?) since I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Sorry I don't have any pictures to go along with it.  That would have been good.  Here is a picture of a chapel instead.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Home

On our way home from Branson we stopped off at the Mansfield, Mo. exit to see the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The white one was the one that she and Almonzo built when they moved to Missouri with their daughter Rose.  They named it Rocky Ridge.

The Rock House was one that Rose had built for Laura & Almonzo when they were in their 60's.  She wanted them to be more comfortable in their old age.  Laura wrote all of her Little House books in this home.  They lived there eight years and then moved back to the white frame home.  They said that they appreciated what Rose had done but the rock house just never did feel like home.

Here is Pa's actual fiddle.  They have a Little House pageant yearly during which a professional gets it out and plays it.

The museum was really interesting.  It was amazing how much of Laura's belongings were there for us to see.  There were pictures of the girls and one of Ma & Pa when they got married too.  We were able to tour both homes; they are furnished with the actual things that the Wilders owned rather than just period items.  Stop by there if you are in the area.  You'd enjoy it.

Mural of Shame

Okay, I don't want anyone to think that I'm being irreverent.  This ties in with a joke that some of my kids started several years ago based on a Christmas ornament we own.  It is an angel that they think is so ugly that it must hang with its face in the corner of the room. They gave it the name "ornament of shame".  When we were in Branson we went to a craft mall that had this picture for sale.  It is basically a small mural of shame.  We didn't buy it but I did take a picture of it so my kids could see it.  It's really too bad that they did this to the Last Supper.  I like the original picture.

2nd Post from our Branson Trip

We went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede.  We never really considered going there before -- after all who wants to eat dinner while horses and cows are running around in front of you?  But so many people recommended it so we thought, "Why not give it a try?"  It was really a great show.  You're up and away from the animals yet the seats are good, the food is good too and the animals are really beautiful and perfectly trained.  We saw horses, long horn cattle, baby pigs, trick riders, bison, miniature ponies, etc.  They even came by and asked Alan to participate in a "horse shoe pitch".  When it was time for him to enter the arena, he found that the horse shoes were actually toilet seats.   We were told not to take pictures of the show, but I tried to sneak a few of Alan.  They are a bit fuzzy but here he is.

1st Post from our Latest Branson Trip

 

Anyone who has not seen Yakov Smirnoff but gets a chance to, take advantage of it.  The man is hilarious!  He was a comedian in Russia and came to the United States in the late 70's.  He was naturalized as a US citizen in the 80's which he takes very seriously.  He also paints in his free time.  When the Twin Towers went down on Sept. 11 he painted  this piece.

Notice the little "action figure" of Yakov hanging down from the top of the picture, signing his signature.  he does that on all of his pictures.  How cute is that?  Anyway a huge copy of this picture was done and was put on the side of a building overlooking the area where the twin towers had been.  It was there the next Sept. 11 when people met to commemorate the disaster and pay respects to those who died.  He has sections of the big one hanging in his theater.  There is one brush stroke for each victim.  He asked that his signature be left off the mural; instead it was signed "The human spirit is not measured by the size of the act, but by the size of the heart."

Trip to Columbia

Alan had a VA appointment in Columbia Wednesday so off we went.  These appointments are always a good excuse to fly off to Columbia to spend a little time with Karen, Mike, Andrew, Emily and Aaron.  We spent the night there but had to leave the next morning.  It was sure good to see all of them though.

They seemed to be having the "mechanical curse" that affects us all at one time or another.  They had a dead clothes washer and a dead car at the same time.  How frustrating these things can be in our lives.  Maybe it's good that we don't have more "things" or we would just be having problems with more of them.  I hope it all works out for them soon.  They do have some cute kids.

Oh, what a funny face!!

Then he would stop and laugh at himself.

Emily learns the basics about electronics.

What a pleasant little face!

Time at Jeanette's

I did spend a little over a week at Jeanette's house prior to Michael & family coming down.  She required surgery for a cyst that needed to be removed.  We had hoped that it would shrink and go away on its own, but since that didn't happen it was back to the hospital for Jeanette.  Luckily this surgery was done on an out patient basis and she was able to come home the same day.  She was pretty sore from it for a week and had a pretty bad headache too.  That seems to be under control though.  They were able to get all of the cyst removed and leave the ovary.  That was sure an answer to prayer.  Here are a couple of pictures.  They took one of the cyst but I'll spare you that.

Jeanette with little Noah

Jeanette used this one on her blog but it is so darned cute I had to use it too.

I got a late start heading home but I just couldn't put the little guy down.

Michael & family visit us in Salem

Eddie and Bumper played hard and then snuggled down together.

Michael, Danny & Bumper seemed to have done the same thing.

Our little cutie has a chocolate cake mustache.

Grandma found a fun backpack at Wal-Mart.

Michael drove down right after work on Friday.  He needed to be here to have some dental work done that evening.  But first we took him to Salem City Park for Salem Branch's Sept. Social which was called "Pie and Ice Cream in the Park".  Boy, oh boy, did we ever eat a lot of sweets at that -- and right before seeing the dentist too; how bad is that?  Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera to the branch social.  Laura and the kids came Saturday afternoon; they had a Primary activity in the morning which they wanted to attend.  They also brought along their dog, Eddie.  We wondered how that would go with our somewhat recently acquired blind dog, Bumper.  They had a ball running all over and playing, puppy-like.  Finally they wore themselves out.  I think they wore us out first though.

Grayville High School Reunion

Me with my best friend Marcella from grade school

We shared a house with the Cowlings in Guam.

Got your attention with that first picture, didn't I?  No, he wasn't there physically but he was there via a very interesting story that Marcella shared with us.  She was a model in New York and then decided to go to California to live in Hollywood.  She worked by day in the movie business and by night in a popular restaurant.  That was where she met Fabio.  This is one of the most memorable stories I heard at the reunion.  She dated Fabio.  Can you imagine?  She said that he was a very nice guy but she lost interest because they really had nothing in common.  Marcella, if you are reading this -- you positively made my day with this story.

Setting up some of the rides downtown.

 We didn't stay for the parade or fireworks on Saturday, but here are some of the rides they were setting up along the main street of Grayville.  My "kids" will remember riding the same ones years ago.

Who wants to go back to St. Louis??

My kids will remember this too.  One of the first times we went back to Grayville to visit Grandma & Grandpa Rough someone made a joke about turning here (after our long ride) and heading back toward home.  After we asked if they were ready to head back they all hollered, "No!"  After that we had to make the same joke every time we went to Grayville.  I even found myself saying it in my head when the kids were grown and Alan & I were going there without the kids.

Sad--- the Wabash River changed its course and no longer flows past Grayville.  It now looks more like a mud hole.

The old Grayville High School that I attended has now rotted away and part of it has collapsed.  My old 7th &8th grade science room is gone.  The saddest thing of all may have been when we drove out to the Dairy Queen to get a milk shake.  It had burned down.  When I told Michael, Laura, Amy and Jeanette about it they all had the same reaction that I did:  "Awwww". You've got to get that dip in the awwww when you say it though.