Fall fun

Just a few things from the last few days...Kitty surprise I made for Candice...turned out pretty cute!

Went to the famers market ( last day today!) with Candice and Aaron. It was a real nice day and we had a good time taking in all the sights, sounds and smells.

Always good dog watching (poor thing)

Piano guy playing scary Halloween music

I came across this booth and had to stop and talk to them. Found out they were from Willard and had a big farm there. I figured they must be from Willard...there are a lot of Braeggers up there...we are all related...probably second or third cousins. We tried to figure out relatives that we would both know and he said his grampa was related to the old mayor of providence...hey that's my uncle Clyde! Small world. He was really nice and sold Candice and Aaron pumpkins for a good price. Lots of squash, pumpkins, peppers, and tomatos.

A guy approached Candice and asked her about her tattoo. Then he wanted her to read his book about spiritual enlightenment...she was like.....uh, no thank you.. but he wouldn't leave her alone till she took it. We were looking at it on the way home...pretty crazy stuff. I think she liked some of the ideas though because they think in the next life all the people who kill animals will be killed by the animals that they killed. Very strange ideas about the food chain. Creepy pictures. I think they are krishna believers.

Oh well, I guess it takes all kinds...and the farmers market is just the place to find them.

Huge labradoodle



Yesterday we went up fishing for the afternoon with Dan and Brenda. It was sure a beautiful day! They decided to try the new technique the guide had told them about and it worked!
I think Brenda ended up catching the most!

We had a real nice time....hate for fishing season to be over!

Boy as soon as the sun went down, it got cold! We got the boat all tidied up then Brenda and I headed for their truck and turned on the heater!

We stopped at Cafe Rio in American fork on the way home for dinner. While we were standing in line, I started having a terrible hot flash. I had never had one like that before and it kind of scared me. I got all shaky and the sweat was just pouring off me. What the heck?

Since I've been taking this amberin stuff I have felt a lot better and haven't had hardly any hot flashes or night sweats, but that was a doozy.

Getting older stinks....but then I guess it's better than the alternative!

Kelley decided that today was the day to clean out the pond....It was clogged up with so much moss the water wasn't even flowing anymore. It was really wierd wavy thick moss that had grown right into the rocks. I held the net while he scraped it off the best he could, then he used the power washer.

Then he cleaned out the pump and worked some magic on it so now it runs like a champ.

So this was a pretty cool thing that happened. In K.C. 's email yesterday, he talked about this program they showed between the conference sessions about Russia. He told us about his first companion who was featured in the program...Timur Kodirov.
Anyway, I watched the show at mom's but didn't know at the time that they were talking about K.C.'s first branch.
Well today when I was looking through the "Mormon Times" section of the newspaper, there was this big article about some members from Russia and how they joined the church. I was reading along and all the sudden there is the picture of Timur Kodirov. Kelley was like...isn't that the same guy K.C. talked about in his letter? And sure enough it was. They told about how he had had a desire to pray to God but didn't really feel any connection when he said the Orthodox prayers. He wanted to say his own prayers. Then it told how he came to read the book of Mormon and knew of the truth of it. Anyway, I thought it was pretty amazing and just shows what a small world it really is.
K.C's email was sweet. Always makes me re-evaluate myself. If he feels like he needs to work on pride...where does that leave me? He's about the least prideful person I know. Once again...makes me want to try a little harder to do a little better.

p.s. I was pretty much bawling when I heard Elder Hollands talk about what his parents did to support him on his mission. Made me realize what an amazing privilege it is to have this opportunity to support K.C. for this short time while he is serving the Lord. What a blessing it has been to our family...we have seen it over and over again.




Oct 13, 2010

Hey Mom and Dad,
Sounds like you guys enjoyed a nice trip to Arizona. Hope it was hot there. Its turned cold here too, it’s snowing today. That’s way cool that you guys are going to Mexico, you will have to send some pics of the fish you catch so I can show them to people. And could you send in the next package a picture of me with a marlin? I want to show some people, they will love it. Also in the package, my sweaters are kinda ratty, maybe another grey and a black one would be nice too, and maybe some hand warmers, and socks. That’s all I want for Christmas. Did you guys watch the conference world report on Saturday session? It was about my old branch! If you watch it you will see a bunch of the branch members, including Timur Kodirov my old comp who finished his mission and came back and is the Elders Q Pres. They do a whole section on him. Anyway, its cool. Try to find it. President Uchtdorfs talk on pride was awesome, I think it got to every person that watched it is some way, I know it got me to think about how I need to change. We had a good meeting with Alexander this week, I asked him if he felt like what we were teaching him was true, and he said yes. He is just trying to figure out for sure whether he wants to join the church. But of course if we do things right, the spirit will tell him he should. At the end of the meeting he gave us a really sincere thanks and said” I feel close to God". YES! That’s just what I wanted to hear. So things are going well with him, although he couldn’t make it to conference this week. Dad, I got to go to a hockey game this week for our culture evening. It was way cool. I had never been remotely interested in hockey, but it was way exciting. It’s a way rough game, they fight and smash each other against the wall and stuff. It was cool. I am actually not getting transferred, I am staying with Elder White and I will still be district leader, so it’s like nothing will change in 4.5 months. This is the longest that I have been with one comp, but its good that it’s with him because I like him, he's way goofy. We are going to try to build really good relationships with members here this transfer and get them to do missionary work and introduce us to their friends. We are having more success with this "Muslim" kid that we met, at the last meeting he prayed in the name of Jesus Christ and is reading the Book of Mormon, he wants to take us to his house and introduce us to his family and he invites his friends to English club, so things are going good with him. His name is Dian. After watching Elder Holland’s talk about how his parents sacrificed a lot to keep him on his mission, I wanted to thank you for supporting me. The money and the sacrifices couldn’t be devoted to anything greater than supporting the Lords work. Thanks a ton. Love you!
KC

We sure had a wonderful trip to visit Camille, Kellen and Olivia in Arizona! I think what I liked about it the most was that it was very laid back and unscheduled....not in any sort of a hurry so we could take as long as we wanted to get there and sleep in if we wanted (not something Kelley does) or stay an extra day or two if we felt like it....very relaxing!

This first picture was taken from Gordon's front yard. They have a beautiful home there in Coral Canyon and were kind enough to let us stay there on the way to Arizona. This is the "scenic" outlook we stopped at to stretch our legs...quite scenic if you enjoy the vast wilderness.

Some Navajo ladies selling their jewelry. Man these people live in some sad situations here. Old houses and trailers that you shouldn't really even call a house...more like a shack.

But then a lot of them have real fancy trucks parked in front of them. Kelley said they talked about it in their priesthood meeting he went to at Camille's church Sunday. Said the worst thing the government ever did for the Indians was not the wars and taking their land, but the fact that they took away any incentive for them to try to do anything with their lives. They all get a check every month, just because they are Indians. They make their truck payment and buy alcohol. Very sad.Camille took such good care of us...had stocked her fridge and cupboards with all our favorite foods and treats! So thoughtful! (p.s...I've just about finished off the ten pound bag of m and m's...thanks so much for that!) You know what I like!

Saturday Camille had a Tinkerbell birthday party planned for Olivia. She had invited some cute little friends from the ward. They were good kids and the party was a lot of fun! We went to Peter Piper Pizza and the kids played games and ate pizza.

So glad Kate could come this weekend too! She's been having a pretty rough time lately so it was good therapy for all of us to be together.

Gary took Kelley and Kellen golfing on Friday. I think Kelley is being converted! He had a lot of fun!

All of us girls met up with Bev at the nail shop and got a pedicure...then over to Paradise bakery for lunch. Went into Scottsdale for a little shopping... there is a HUGE mall there...didn't even have time to make a dent in it. I got a cute little outfit for the new baby.

Friday night we went to dinner with Bev and Gary at Maria Maria...really good food! Then we walked around the outdoor shopping center ...really nice evening.

More pictures from the birthday party...nice face Kellen!

They were all really cute well behaved kids and Olivia was sweet and grateful for all she got.

Kate gave her the cutest little magic wand that came with this little bag of fairy sparkles. The girls all went crazy over it and before you knew it we were all super sparkly!

Unicorn pillow pet from Bev and Gary.

Kelley and Kate playing basketball.. Kate wins first game...Kelley second.We went to Camilles' church Sunday. They were having fast and testimony meeting and it was really good. Everyone talked about what they learned from conference...It's kind of funny how now matter where you go in the church, people are all the same.

Gary and Bev had us over for dinner Sunday night. Had a really nice dinner. We had made some pumpkin pies and took them over there for dessert. We sat around and talked for a while outside on their patio. This is sure a nice time of year there. Don't think I could handle the summer, but fall and winter are wonderful! We went swimming at Camille's pool on Monday morning. We gave her a swimming Nemo fish for her birthday and she wanted to try it out.

She is such a good little swimmer!

We were going to go home after lunch on Monday, but decided what the heck...lets stay another day!

So we got cleaned up and went to a place called Oregeno's for lunch. Really good food! Then we drove out to this old west ranch-ghost town, but it was closed because it was Columbus day.

So we went to a big mall by Chandler and shopped around a bit. Before too long, it was time to take Kate to the airport.

Decided to go for ice cream, then after some good pillow fights with Liv, called it a day.

We got up pretty early the next morning and got on our way home. Listened to Doctrine and Covenants on K.C.'s ipod all the way home...it made the time go pretty fast. It's great how you always hear new things and get to understand better what Joseph Smith was going through every time you hear it.
We made good time and were home by about 5:30.

Pretty hard to say good bye to this little bug.

She is such a joy to me!
When we were over to Gary and Bev's, he said Olivia is pretty much the queen of their house. They really adore her too.

As we were leaving Sunday night Gary said something really sweet. He said "Thank you for Camille!" I think they have gotten a lot closer with her than they used to be and have gotten to know the"real Camille." Then he said jokingly, but I think he was serious..."Don't go planning on Kellen getting a job anywhere in Utah...they are staying right here by us!" I was like "Oh great! ...We want them too!"

It kind of stuck in my head though, and I didn't get much sleep that night thinking about it.

Good times.

Conference Weekend!

We were having a bit of trouble deciding who would go when to mom's for this month. I chose this weekend because I love to be with mom to watch conference and Kelley was free to come with me!

I had to get up there early though because mom had a doctors appointment at 10:00. When I got there she was just finishing her cup of Pero and was all ready to go! Hurray for the home health care ladies!
I threw the wheel chair in the back of the car and we were on our way. It sure made it a lot easier with the wheel chair! We just rolled right in to the Dr.s office without a hitch. She hadn't had her Pro-time checked for a while, so they did that first thing and said it was too high. Then Dr. Stones came in and checked her out. He surely is a kind man....will take all the time we want to chat with her and then with me to see if there are any problems. I mentioned that she wasn't hearing very well and maybe needed her ears cleaned out. He looked in them and said yes they did need to be irrigated. So the nurse came in and had me help her...they squirt this warm water into her ear, then let it run out into a cup. It took quite a few tries, but finally got them all cleaned out. I know mom doesn't like it...can't blame her, but she was real grateful after cause she could hear so much better! Then she gave her her flu shot.
Dr. Stone's asked if we still had the Health Alert System. I told him that she doesn't remember to push the button when she is in trouble, so we decided to send it back to the company.
He was concerned about that until I told him that we have someone there morning noon and night to be with her. He said as long as she is happy and can get along this way, then we should continue.
Friday afternoon, Kelley came up. Got going on the bathroom walls. It's a lot of work...lot's of holes to patch up and the door frame is really a mess..not really square and it's got big gaping spaces that he doesn't know what to do with. He's kind of a perfectionist like that and doesn't like doing the job crappy....I'm sure he will figure someway to make it work...he always does.

Saturday, we got up...well we were already pretty much up all night, (we started out downstairs in the room I had cleaned up, then about 2:00, I woke up and didn't want to turn on the light to read, so I went upstairs into the bouncy bed. About 5:30, I'm ready to sleep. Not working!)
I got mom in the shower. I cut and styled her hair while we listened to conference. It was so good!
Brenda came down and said she wanted to help with the pond! Super! So we went out and started cleaning out the plants that had overgrown the rocks and filled up the pond. There was these tall bull rushes on the one side that had filled up the whole area. The fish really didn't have anyplace to swim! The lily pads were huge and covered the whole top of the pond.
I started cutting back the lily's...mostly the dead ugly ones and Brenda went to work on the bull rushes. It was super slimy and gross, but we got it done! It was nice to have a chance to visit while we were working.
Then Dennis came over and we asked him if he could get the rest of the reeds out of the back of the pond. He started pulling on them and there was this huge root ball down there. I bet it weighed at least 100 pounds!
He was wishing Kelley was there to help him pull it out...Kelley in the mean time had gone to go get some corner pieces for the bathroom and his truck wouldn't start. Great. He fiddled with it for a while, then decided it was the battery... or in his case batteries. One was still working a little, but the other one was dead. They had never been replaced, so I guess that's pretty good! So anyway, he had taken my car and gone to get new batteries when Dennis was pulling the root ball out.

Happy fish...

When he got that out, it opened up a whole part of the pond we haven't seen for years! I didn't realize that the pond is actually in the shape of a fish!

When Kelley got back, he hooked up his new batteries and it started right up! Hurray! I am so paranoid of the vehicles breaking down...seems like we've had to sink a lot of money into them lately.

We were trying to get the flow of the water going in the pond adjusted. Dennis cleaned out the drain a little bit and that seemed to help. Then Kelley came and found the pump...I didn't even know where it was, and saw that it was all clogged up. He cleaned it up and the water started pumping like a champ! Good work all!

Leslie came a little later and we worked cleaning up the rock garden...cutting back old ferns and dead plants. It looked a lot better! Then we went in and had some lunch and watched conference. Such good talks! Elder Quentin Cook told about when the war was on, the people would have to leave their lights out so they wouldn't get bombed. All the sudden, Mom started singing this song about when the lights come on...I guess it was a popular one back then... and told us how happy they were when they could turn the lights back on. I thought it was pretty cool that she remembered that song. Another talked I really liked was one Richard G. Scott gave on character. Brother Holland gave a really good one too on faith...then there was Pres. Monson's on gratitude. Loved the whole conference.

Kelley left so he could go to the Priesthood meeting with our ward.

I went and picked up a few prescriptions for mom and some groceries.
Made us some dinner and not too long after that, mom is ready for bed.
I had lots of time to work on these slippers for K.C....Oh man I undid them a lot of times! This was after trying and trying to make him a pair of knitted ones like Leslie makes. They just looked crappy! I finally gave up on the knitting ...decided I should maybe start with a hot pad or something. I found this crochet pattern that has a foam pad crocheted into it so they are nice and cushy. I hope he likes them.

I was planning to leave after conference, but then there was a program on about the new Kiev temple, so I stayed and watched that and had some lunch with mom. It was really good...I could just picture K.C. in some of the area's they showed there. Man those people have had a real hard life! It's hard to believe how cruel the leaders were over there and what they put those people through. It helped me understand a little better why they are the way they are.

It sure is hard to tell mom I'm leaving. She get's so sad...."What am I going to do without my Paula?" That about breaks my heart. I just want to bring her home with me! I tell her that and she says "oh you would be so tired of me ... I'm just a bother. Now I really wanted to cry. I told her I would never get tired of her and would love to have her at my house, and that Kelley felt the same way! She said "Oh I could never do that to you!"

So I get her to the bathroom one last time, try to make her as comfortable as possible, finish up some things around the house and get on my way.

Felt uneasy when I left so I called her when I got home. She didn't answer. I figured she must have been sleeping...she does that a lot of the time now.
I know this is just part of life, but it sure makes my heart ache.

Why I love Wednesday

Mostly because I get to hear from this guy!

We always wake up early to read his email...

His testimony and attitude inspire me and make want to try to do better.

But then he is still just his same funny, humble, loving self.

Kelley told me a story Saturday about him that made proud to be his mom.

He said when they went fishing in Mexico, Grampa caught a big Dorado and after struggling for quite a while to bring it in, had it hauled up onto the deck of the boat. The other fish they had caught, they threw back, but I guess you keep these if you catch them and eat them.

He had not seen before that you have to wack them over the head to kill them and was pretty sad about it. He asked Kelley quietly, "can't you just throw it back?"
He has such a tender heart...not your regular guy. His wife is going to be a lucky woman.

Here's his last two email's

Hey Mom and Dad,
Thanks for the pictures I really enjoyed them, that one of Grandpa and I is really great. Nice to hear about the fishing adventures too, I can just imagine Mom up there trying to handle all the pole getting bites at once. Nice job Mom. Nice to hear about Nick going on his mission and the other missionaries from the ward. I will keep them in my prayers. We had a rather challenging week, but now that I look back I realize that it was way good. Maybe I mentioned in my last letter that we had some success with one of our investigators praying in a meeting with us( sometimes its hard for people to pray in front of us, but it really helps them start praying on their own). This week we talked to him on the phone and he told us that he had been praying on his own and said " I learned how to do it", we were way glad to hear this because that means that he probably wasn’t praying before and that our efforts to help him pray with us started him on the path to gaining a personal relationship with Heavenly Father through prayer. We also had some success giving a Book of Mormon to Alekcandp, the guy from Kyrgistan, who was worried about taking it home because he has a cousin that doesn’t support his relationship with the church. For a couple weeks he didn’t want to take one home, but last Wednesday he told us he could take it home and was excited to read it. He asked us to write in the cover and so we wrote our testimonies, it was really nice experience. Unfortunately, when we called Valeri on Monday, he told us that he wouldn’t be able to meet with us anymore, or read the Book of Mormon. We were way surprised because just talked to him on the phone on Friday and he said we could meet this week. So we asked him what happened, and he said that he had been thinking a lot and that he just isn’t ready and doesn’t have time, but those both sounded like big excuses so we asked about his wife, because he had been out to visit here at their summer house on the weekend, and he said he wife isn’t very supportive. So that was a big bummer, but he said we could still talk on the phone, just can’t meet. So we will keep in touch with him. I remembered when Marilee Forsyths cousin, President Pearson came and talked to us almost a year ago, he told us that when that happens you should get on your knees and ask the Lord to send you someone else who is ready. So Elder White and I did that and have spent the last couple days basically just talking to people trying to find the ones the Lord is preparing. Everything will work out, Im sure we will find some one. Dad, I loved your story about Bishop, my companion is a way paranoid guy too. So if something looks weird, he usually won’t touch it and is way worried about it. So the other day we were just contacting on the street and we got way hungry, so we came up to this little stand and he ordered some weird toast thing and I got a super snickers, so his toast thing was with bacon and cheese and we watched them get out the raw bacon and put it on the grill, but they didn’t even cook it, they left it on the grill for like 20 seconds and then put it in the sandwich all pink and raw. Then he started freaking out and he telling me to tell the woman to put it back on, but I had a huge mouthful of snickers and was laughing way hard so I couldn’t in time. So she gave it to him all raw and stuff. It was WAY funny. But he ate it anyway and just had a noisy gurgly stomach, nothing worse. He’s a funny guy. Any way, I love you guys, thanks for your prayers.
KC

Hey Mom and Dad!
I hope you guys had a fantastic week. When I first read the title of your email I had no idea what it was talking about, but I got it eventually. If you say vase like your from France, then its right. I cant believe Nick is going on a mission already. I wish I could have heard him talk, I always loved listening to him talk, lots of corny jokes. But they were funny because they’re Nicks corny jokes. That is way cool that you could go to the temple when Kim was doing the session, and especially that you could be the witness couple.
I got your package, thanks so much for all the stuff, this watch is way nicer that the last one I had, you didn’t have to spend lots of money on it. I love it though. Im wearing it right now. Thanks an ton for everything. Could you send me a picture of me and one of the marlin that I caught? I want to show some fishermen around here that I see, I think it would blow their minds. They would get baptized for sure if they knew what a great fisherman I was.
Yesterday we had a meeting with a man that we found in the area book(a book with all the old investigators from the area). The description on the record was that it was a great family and that they had a great discussion but then they got busy and couldn’t meet. So we gave it a try and the husband wanted to meet. So yesterday we met with him and taught the plan of salvation, he accepted it all and said that it all made sense and that it was all "close" to him some how(makes more sense in Russian). His wife wasn’t at the meeting unfortunately, but we taught him to pray and then asked him to pray begin praying with his family and he said that they would start. He prayed at the end of the lesson too. Its a great family, he has two young daughters, about 10 and 8 and they were both very nice and polite. We are excited to teach a whole family, because that doesn’t happen that often here, usually families are split about whether they like what we have to say. We met with a family that lives out in the sticks too, that was nice. Way good family. Ask Candice about their house. Anyway, things are going really well. I have learned that the Lord always blesses us if we stick to doing what we know what is right and not wander off when times get rough. We need to be our strongest when times are rough. Anyway, have a nice week. Love you guys.
KC

So then I get to play racquetball. We have a small group of ladies that play every Wednesday. But they are faithful and always try to get there. I'm not very good at it, but it's the funnest way I have found to get some exercise.

It would be pretty comical to watch us play...not so much to watch, but to hear the things we say.

My favorite there is Susan. She is a lot like me and has become a good friend. She has two daughters...one lives in Arizona so we have that in common. She is very committed to her faith...her husband is a pastor in their church and she does much good service for the people in her area. She always has good to say about LDS people and asks about K.C. and what he does. If I'm sad or worried about him, she tells me she will pray for us....and I know she does.

Anyway, she is fun to play. We are about the same level and have a good game each time. It usually turns out that she will win one time, then I will win the next, then her, then me.

We can be heard saying...'Oh no, you go first, I'm sure it's your turn" and "excuse me...I was totally in your way...I'm sure that's why you didn't get that shot!" "You think your shot was down? it was really close, why don't we just do it again!" "Oh I carried the ball" (something not a lot of people call unless it's really obvious) and "I bet you could have gotten to that if I hadn't been there...lets give you another try" or "Wow! your serves are so good...I just can't get them! There is a lot of positive affirmations and building each other up...not that common to find and I feel real lucky to have these nice ladies to associate with every week.

I would probably run from the court crying if I had to play normal people...but for me be able to play with these ladies...well it's just a lot of fun.

Well that is not all that's wonderful about Wednesday's!...now I get to go listen to Brother Wilcox speak. Every week, I get my bucket refilled as I listen and am taught by him.

The way he presents the scriptures is a way that I can understand! He always relates what we are talking about to our own lives and leaves me with a message that uplifts and moves my heart. I'm so grateful that he will take time out of his busy life...(he's kind of important now...has written lots of books and does church history tours all over the world) to come teach us every week.

This last week he was talking about Rebeka and how she was chosen to be Issac's wife. I loved the part where she did much more than was expected of her...to get water for all these camels...lot's of trips to the well! Anyway, Brother Wilcox said that this was in her nature...that she was a woman of good character and had placed herself on a path of virtue where good things would come along for her...and they did.

I know it doesn't sound possible, but I get to do one more wonderful thing on Wednesday....go spend some time with our Young Women! We are small, but the girls that come are faithful and truly good girls. We played volleyball this week...I asked Gina to come over and work on some things with them. Her and Stephanie and cute little Riley came and did a real good job with the girls. She helped them till they could all serve the ball over the net, then did some other skill building games. Watching Riley dance around the gym and sing funny songs sure made me miss Olivia....just a few more days!

Anyway, that's a pretty good day in my book.