A few things from the past few days...

Kelley and I have been playing racquetball on Monday nights for a while now.  I was nervous about playing against men....they hit the ball really hard and I end up cowering in the corner!    But most everyone has been nice and gentlemanly. 

 This guy Kelley is playing, I played the first week we went and I beat him!  Ha!  Well then I had to play him a few weeks later and he was not as nice.  I mean no mercy...he was hitting the ball so hard, it was scaring me.  Needless to say, I got 0 points that game. 

Guys are pretty competitive ( most of them....there are a few in this league that are more easy going and just a lot of fun to play)

Anyway,  I like racquetball...it's the funnest way I've found to exercise, and it's nice to have something that Kelley and I both enjoy doing together!

The sister missionaries asked me if I would take them to the temple yesterday.  I thought I might as well do a session while I was there.  I had the missionaries do some family names for me too so that was good!  What was really cool though was that it was the day all the missionaries in the area were going to the temple.  They had a meeting in the chapel before the session with all the missionaries and had the Temple president and mission president speak.

I was going to go to a different session cause I thought it was just for the missionaries, but the sisters I brought wanted me to join them so I did.  I'm so glad I did!  It was very cool to be with this group (400+missionaries) and feel the power and spirit that was in the room.

After the session, all of these missionaries were in the celestial room together.  There was a great feeling in the room as they greeted each other.  Their mission president went around and talked with all of them and you could tell there was a great love between them. The spirit in the room was  amazing as all the missionaries had come to the temple fasting. It was pretty touching to look around the room at these young men and women...heads bowed in suplication to our Heavenly Father for help and guidance in the task before them.

It was great to see some of the sister missionaries we have had serving in our stake that had moved to different areas.  Being able to work a little bit with them, I've sure grown to love them. 

 (Oh and what made it and even more special session...JoAnn was the ordinance worker who helped me though!  She is such a special lady.  I watched her helping the sister missionary who was going through before me  who was having quite a bit of trouble and she was so sweet and kind with her.  She truly is an angel.  

After our fishing expedition with the YW and YM, ( where Kelley brought his homemade salsa for everyone) they asked if he would come teach the YW how to make salsa.

He did a great job and got all the girls involved.  

He even showed them how to make chips out of corn tortillas and then his famous nachos.(One of the girls had a big bite of jalapeno pepper and was afraid she wouldn't be able to play the trumpet the next day for her program cause her lips were on fire...oh dear)

Word got out on what was going on and soon the kitchen was full of people enjoying the salsa, chips and nachos. 

 The Young women President, Colleen, made this cute blanket for Kelley for taking them ice fishing.   So Nice!

Good times, heart and lip burn had by all.

An update on the remodeling...

This last week was a process of taking out the walls, tub, toilet, vanity and shower.  Rick came over and helped Kelley figure out what all the wires that were left hanging out of the walls and ceiling went to.  I don't know what we would have done with out him!  He has a machine that tells which wires are "hot" so Kelley was in the back room with the breaker box flipping each switch, then Rick would holler downstairs  if that  wire was hot or not.  So they figured out which wires we needed and labeled them all.  It was nice to get to sit and visit with Stacey while they worked the wiring out.

Kelley was cussing the guy that put the tile in..."he really installed this like he wanted it to stay there forever!"   hmmmm... that would be him.

Glad KC was here to help Kelley get the tub out.  Kelley said it was not nearly as heavy as mums old cast iron tub...now that took some doing.

Then Kelley had to saw the tile in that bathroom (very loud!!! and dusty!)  It amazes me to watch him work.  He has the saw in one hand and the shop vac in the other so the dust doesn't fly everywhere. Talk about a multi-tasker!

So that's whats under the tub....

 Temporary wall so we can use that bathroom...

This is what our master bathroom looked like when I left to go to Logan Saturday...

And when I got home that night...ahhhhhhhh!

Ok...now we can start rebuilding!  This will be the fun part!  (well for me...I'm not sure Kelley is having fun yet.)

This weekend we worked on daddy's den. This is a room full of warm memories and treasures.

We finished going through the rest of the drawers in the dresser. They were full of genealogy and family histories and personal histories. The amount of genealogy work mum and daddy did is amazing! We found pictures and patriaracle blessings, and letters written from ancestors...all helping each other to have a more complete and accurate record of genealogy and temple work. Very cool! It made me feel more connected to them as I looked through old pictures and read personal histories. We all took some books home to peruse for a few weeks. I got a few more of Aunt Pat's books about Providence to go through too. Such fun!

At church Sunday, a friend was telling me how aggravated her and her husband were to have the chore of going through all of his mother's things..."She kept everything!" She said she would never do that to her children. I imagine her situation must be different from mine, because I have found nothing but joy and sweet memories going through our parents things ( and yes, they saved everything too). Maybe she doesn't have three lovely sisters to share the job with...I'm so grateful for that!

Anyway, as we were going through all the things in these drawers, Brenda said " You guys might want to hear this"...and she read to us the journal entries mum had made the day daddy had his heart attack, then, the next few days until his death. I had never seen these before, as they were just handwritten on a sheet of paper...not in her regular journal she so faithfully kept.

It was most tender and sweet as she told of what she was feeling and her love for him. We were all moved to tears. What a precious gift she left for us to find...and a great reminder of how blessed we are to have the wonderful, loving parents we do.

We have been going back and forth and agonizing a bit over what to do with the 9 water shares mum and daddy had.

We knew Boyd would need some to irrigate the yard, so we gave him 4. He has plans of putting in a reservoir so he can get by with that many. We put a little ad in the paper and had several other people ask about them. We wanted them to go to people who needed them the most ( and people we liked). So we decided to give two shares to the Flammers, one to a guy there in Providence...my sisters know him, and one more to Boyd. The water master brought the certificates over while we were there on Saturday so we could give them to them. They were kind of cool to look at. This one from Joseph Keefe was issued in 1939...probably when mum and daddy bought the place from him.

Oh this was neat...It 's a pocket dictionary that must have been given to daddy from his buddies on his mission...they all signed their names and date.

This is the old secretary in daddy's room. I think it was grandma Braeggers. Beautiful! ( we actually cleaned it all off and divided up those things on it. I was so tickled...I got that cool old barometer)

We found several of these kind of books that daddy had kept over the years. He kept account of every dollar he earned. Plus an account of where every cent went! Amazing! I know mum would never write in her check register so I don't know how he ever kept track. But he did! I envy their life style and would love to be able to get to that point someday...They never used a credit card. period. Would save until they had money to buy something.

A few other fun things in the drawers of his desk...

How awesome is this nut cracker?

I got this Know your Gospel game a few weeks ago when we were dividing up all the games...we've played it a few times for FHE and it kicked my butt. I do not know your gospel. Made me realize how dumb I am...want to do better!

(KC put Kelley and I to shame)

We found this seriously old Indian penny...cool.

This dollar was in an envelope that said on it One dollar from world war two with bullet hole. Man I wish we knew the story behind that one!

I brought the Cuckoo clock home since we were taking everything off the walls. My sweet sisters decided I should have it since we sunk about 200 dollars into it to get it fixed about 10 years ago.

Wow that is so special to me and holds a world of memories. The spot where it hung looked very strange and awful with it gone...wanted to put it back!

A neat little coin purse I remember daddy using...

Oh this was a great picture we found in daddy's desk of Camille on her mission.

We all got another book of Clyde's life. I read the book years ago when mum gave us each one. Such a great book! I sat and read a little from it yesterday and was laughing and crying all over again. I'm still amazed at what these two people were able to accomplish in spite of the obstacles they dealt with every day. It's pretty inspirational.

 Pretty cool cigar box full of daddy's beads.

Address book in a cool flip up case! I thought the grand kids would get a kick out of this...I know I did!

Well the latest on selling the house is not good. I feel like we've take three steps backward. Brenda called Boyd Saturday morning and he told her he had about had it with the bank. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but they wanted him to fix the roof on the house, and the green house...repaint the garage ( because there was lead paint on it) and now they want him to repaint the fence east of the house ( also because of lead paint) really people??? fix the green house? They also are insisting that the old house is a dwelling place so that has to be considered in the repairs being done. This was the real kicker though...the guy at the bank said to him..." don't you just want to find some other place to buy?" Boyd was like "NO!" That is the place I want!

So now he is going to go to a different bank and try to get a conventional loan instead of an FHA. I guess they are a little more lenient. I feel like we are back to square one.

Oh how I wish I wish I wish I had the money to buy it.

This picture just makes me happy!

ooooooo So does this one!

 Super jealous of Kate being able to spend the past few weekends with Camille's family
 ( but so glad she could do it!)

Sorry birdies...this bread is mine!

More envy for the beautiful weather in AZ rignt now...yup this is what we got...

Cutie Pie!

I think Sam's hair is getting a reddish tint!  Liv's hair was like that too when she was younger.

Here he has a sandy tint

Love  and miss these kids so much!

Sunset

Kelley got me this book for Valentines day...I think he's heard me say I wanted to read it.  Wow, what a sweet and tender story.  Brother Wilcox lost his wife to a brain tumor about a year ago.  He was still teaching when they found out she had cancer, so he would share a little with us every week of what they were going through.  Then towards the end of her life, he didn't come anymore and had a substitute there to teach us.  I was glad to see that he had written about their experience...he has a way of putting hard things into perspective....a perspective that gives you hope and peace.

Over the years of his teaching this group of ladies ( and a few men) that would meet out in a Draper chapel ( and usually the whole overflow and gym) every Wednesday, I feel like I have grown to know and love him as an amazing teacher.  He knows the scriptures and can teach what's in them in a way that is interesting and personal and understandable...in a way that lets you see how you can apply them in your own life and makes you want to try to become a better person.

I would leave the class every week with my heart and mind full.

He stopped teaching our class after that...he was just doing it out of the goodness of his heart anyway...he has retired from teaching at the U.    But I guess he hasn't really stopped teaching...now I see him in the paper all the time advertising these tours that he hosts.  He talks in this book about how he is trying to keep busy with these other projects so he won't dwell on missing her so much.

Can you imagine going on one of these tours?  That would be awesome!  Nancy told me last night that her and Dave went on a tour he did not too long after his wife died.  She said it was pretty amazing as she shared her story with him about how her and Dave had gotten together after both of their spouses had passed away. (Theirs is truly a extraordinary example of being guided by our Heavenly Father)

Nancy and I got talking about it on the way home from choir practice...( which is also what got me thinking about this)  We are singing in a choir of ladies from all over the valley called "We Also Sing", being directed by Merrilee Webb.  We will be singing in May at the tabernacle!  It's so fun to sing with these ladies...they sound amazing! Merrilee is indescribable. So very talented and funny and has so much energy, it wears me out just to sit and listen to her.  

They have picked some really cool songs...some I know, and some I've never heard of.  We worked on one last night  from Little Women called "Some things were meant to be"  It's very tender as it talks about these two sisters who love each other so much, but one of them is dying. It tells of all the things they want to do and share together, but then they have to part as Beth dies.  It talks of loving and letting go.   One of my favorite parts  of singing in this choir is that Merrilee takes the time to talk to us about the songs and how we can make them part of us....last night a lot of the ladies there wanted to share their feelings about this subject and experiences they were going through.  There was a sweet spirit there as woman after woman stood and told us why this song meant so much to them. Each one had related it to their experience of losing someone or something they were going through right then.  One lady stood and told us that she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer that day.   I guess we all have felt the pain and fear of death or losing someone we love.

 I just finished this book and was touched by what a sweet love story it was.   Bro. Wilcox used to always talk about his wife and how he adored her and it was very evident in this book.  He not only shared the journey they have been on for the past year, but how important it is to cherish every day that we have with the people we love.
I recommend this book to everyone...especially if your heart is still aching from the loss of someone you love.