Austin - San Antonio Temple

We got up Tuesday morning and kissed Grandma Bea good bye and headed to the city offices to pick out the grave sites we wanted. We then stopped at Kevin's station and gave him a check to go in and buy the sites. (It is only $300 per plot instead of $600 per plot for out of towners!!) We picked out some plots just about four or five rows East of Grandpa Cecil's spot.

We headed North and stopped for a fun quick visit with Emma and Kecia and got lunch which was a pleasant surprise. Nummy too. Then we headed on North to Lehi and stopped at Benji's house. Da told us that she was waiting for a call from Dirk and we might get to see him on the web cam. Sadly enough it didn't go through and we had to head on North to catch our plane. But we got to hug Da, play with Benji and cuddle Simon so it wasn't a total loss. We got to the airport just two hours prior to the flight and Ed dropped me off in front with all the luggage and then went and parked the car. We got into Austin about 9 pm Texas time and headed to our hotel.

Ed has us in a lovely Homewood Suites and it is so comfortable. The bed is about four feet off the ground and I wasn't sure that we could climb up into it but it hasn't been a problem.

Wednesday morning we decided that since it was supposed to rain it would be a good day to head to the temple. We had a marvelous day!!
This is the San Antonio temple. It was dedicated in 2005...when we lived in San Marcos they were just talking about the need for a temple in this area and President Hinckley even came down trying to locate and decide upon a spot. I remember sitting in a special meeting watching the prophet speak to all the saints through satellite download saying that they hadn't found the right location yet but they would and in the meantime the Saints in the area needed to get their lives in order to have a temple of God in their midst.

It is one of the smaller temples and is simply gorgeous. They have stained glass windows throughout the temple and have gorgeous wood that was imported from all over the world just for this temple.

We found a couple from San Marcos that we had known and learned some interesting facts about this temple. They said it was the second choice as far as location was but the first piece of property had a cavern under it and was deemed not safe to build such a large building on. Then as they started driving the pilons for this location they discovered it also sat on a cavern (this whole area is riddled with them, thus the caves and caverns advertised all over Central Texas ...and their aquifers are actually large caverns way under ground that collects the water and so as you are driving through the area you will see "such and such aquifer - do not pollute". So they had to drive pilons way deeper than they planned on - in fact they go as deep in the ground as the whole temple is above the ground.

We had called the temple for a reservation but were told that the day's sessions were already full. They explained however that there was usually a no show rate of 20% and if we were to be at the temple about 35 minutes prior to the session we could get on the waiting list and probably get to do a session. If not we could do sealings or initiatories with no problem. So we headed South to San Antonio with our Tom Tom telling us how to get there and I am glad we had it because we couldn't see it until we got within 1/2 mile of it. As we came over the final hill there it was - Angel Moroni and all. It was so beautiful. It is made out of a grey stone - I felt bad that it wasn't whiter but amazingly after I came back out I thought it was just perfect.

The temple had a wonderful spirit in it. I felt it before the session even started. Such a beautiful warm loving spirit. I can't understand how other religions think the temple is evil - you can feel the perfect love of God there and all it does it make you try harder to live righteously.

As we completed the session and entered the Celestial room I was in awe. Talk about gorgeous!! Three sides of it were 30 foot tall stained glass windows. The room was done in cream and golds and had wonderful pillars holding up the domed ceiling that looked to be decorated in cream paint and gold leafing.

I was shown the stained glass windows with the sheaves of wheat making a beautiful border. The wheat itself was of amber that was mined from below the temple itself. It ranged in color from a deep deep brown to almost white and each window started out with the bottom and lower sides in the deep brown and then getting lighter and lighter in color until it was almost a white amber across the top. I was told that when they found the mineral in the ground as they excavated the artist that designed the stained glass windows asked to be given the stone and he would incorporate it into the glass windows which he did.

Also, our friends from San Marcos told us of the local seminary teacher that painted the murals in the earth room - how he was painting one day and had brought his three year old daughter with him and she was busy with her toys. When he next looked to check on her, he found that she had taken one of his paintbrushes and had proceeded to paint some flowers on the wall!!! He cleaned up and painted over most of them but left three of the flowers as she painted them. SWEET!

We got to do a session in a new temple, we fell in love with the beauty and the spirit of the San Antonio temple, we ran into old friends and we got to hear fun stories about the building and decorating of the temple! What a marvelous day.

Memorial Day 2008

Grandma Bea had a rough weekend emotionally but was doing much better Tuesday morning.
















The kids had this poem sitting on the bench by the headstone. Talk about a tear jerker!













This is a good view of the headstone on Colleen and Randy's graves. Its hard to see with the raindrops but it lists Colleen's name and birthdate and then Randy's name and birthdate and then in the middle one line down it says "
Returned to HeavenTogether
Jan 28, 2008












It's not JUST that they love grandma Bea but it was warmer and drier next to her!! :-)











This is the writing on the edge of the bench on Colleen's side of the headstone
















This is the writing on Randy's side!













This was what it looked like by 9:30 am on Memorial Day - more was added later!!

Friday Flashback

nuff said!

This is Shawn's kick in the butt!!

Okay Shawn - this is your mother speaking....you moved out of your office a YEAR ago and you still haven't had time to clean it up???? For shame!!!

BEFORE

I think we have a little teenage (middle age??) angst going on here - knowing your mind and how it works you have probably just said to yourself I will clean that up when I am good and ready and not one minute before then, I don't care who nags at me!!


so, I cleaned it up for you!! HAH! That'll have you worried. I didn't touch your office, though it needs to be cleaned up too, but I did organize the old office. I figured that if you haven't needed the item in the last six months you just plain don't need it.

AFTER

However, nothing was thrown away and I have just organized everything into piles. With all that Kris has to worry about right now, she doesn't need mad shawn!!

Either Shawn will never allow me in his house again or he will invite me back to clean up his office ....hmmmm, wonder which it will be.

I am Ariel!

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I took the morning off!

Ed and I made a quick dash to Boise on Friday, coming home on Sunday afternoon. As you know we have gone up to the mtns outside of Boise the last couple of summers with friends and have thoroughly enjoyed the private campground there on Robie Creek. We plan on going again in July but this weekend they were 'opening up the mountain' and so we went up and helped. We didn't camp thank goodness - too far to drag our trailer for two nights. Ed just traded in his Hilton Honors points from all his traveling with MTC and we camped out at a nice Hampton Inn on the East side of Boise near the airport. (The soft beds and nice bathtub really felt good after a day of hard work Saturday night!) From the hotel it was about a 30 minute drive up the mtn to the campground. So I spent about four hours on Saturday and about two hours on Sunday raking pine needles off the mtn side behind the clubhouse. It was hard work but what was nice was that I could do it without feeling like I was being stabbed by my mesh insides!! I guess where I was moving in several directions it kept it from hurting me - just good hard sweat and sore muscles. I can see why the insurance companies like mtn homes to be cleared of burnables ... the pine needles were 9 inches deep in most of the area that I was raking!! It hadn't been raked that well before - That would make fantastic fuel for any forest fire!

There were a couple dozen people there clearing mountain sides and brush and old pine needles and burning all the trash. Ed cut down dead trees near where I was working and then went up and helped with the swimming pool - they have a nice solar panel system set up to warm up the water that comes right out of the mtn - good COLD spring water. They also had a propane heating system donated to the club to help warm it up even more. Ed and Gary and Larry worked for hours on that system.

We all broke for potluck lunch and then went back to work until about 2 - and then we all went out and layed out around the pool just visiting with one another. It was a lot of fun and Saturday was a beautiful warm day. We all dared each other to jump in the water but the propane system wasn't hooked up yet and they had just barely got the solar panels set up so it was pretty cold water - bunch of sissies - no one took the dare!

That night we walked across the street from the hotel to a brand new Applebees and had a nummy dinner.

Sunday we got up there and I went back to finish my mtn side while Ed went to help the guys with some other chores. We had talked about staying longer so we could enjoy the poolside with the others (we were going to call Jamie and Kelly and offer them 'big bucks' to babysit at South Weber) but it was a cooler day and a storm was moving in, so we headed for home about 1:30. It was the same cold front that hit here in the middle of the night last night.

So I spent my mother's day hard at work with a rake in hand but it was a nice day anyway. I got home and dumped out the dirty clothes and repacked my suitcase, took a quick bath. I got a beautiful Mother's Day card from Ed and one in the mail from Melinda. I told Ed we had a break in cause there was a card from Kelly and Jamie sitting on the table along with my movie "Enchanted" that I had loaned to Jamie. Then I headed up to Shawn and Kris's house. Kris had sent me a Mother's Day card earlier in the month with some $$ that I used to buy me some comfy "Mushrooms" (sandals) at Mervyns with. When I got to their house there sits a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for ME!! from Shawn and Kris and kids!! Bless you Kristanne!

I love those kids - they are all such cuties. Cade and Makae met me at the door telling me that their mom didn't care at all if they stayed up till 9:30 each night since it was still light outside. I told them grandma wasn't born yesterday and that sounded like a tall tale to me!! Then Makae and Cade and I had a fun time just talking to each other while Ethan and Jace played outside till almost bedtime. Of course they headed off to bed at 8:30 and I didn't hear another peep out of any of them until the next morning. I tried to go to be at 11 - then 12 and I think I finally fell asleep about 1 am waking up with itchy achy feet at 2 - that lasted till three am and I dreaded 6 am. I woke up at 6:45 and there wasn't any movement going on in the house at all! I woke up all four kids!!!! They actually slept in. Cade and Mickey immediately got dressed, Ethan took a bath and Jace burrowed back under the covers and went back to sleep.

Makae and Cade fixed their breakfast and Ethan came downstairs and gave me a big hug and we talked about his fun field trip on Wednesday. I found out that he DOESN"T like to have his feet tickled...I thought all Willden's did! But he says his Crittendon roots are showing there. All three of them warned me that I would have to drag Jace out of bed and he would really be ornery... when all of a sudden, about 7:15 here he comes, all dressed with his hair combed and a big grin on his face.

So at 8:30 am Jace and Ethan head out the door to catch their bus and Grandma goes BACK TO BED!!! I slept for a couple of hours, read my book and took a bath and another nap!! I took the morning off!!

Jace just came in the door from school and said that he 'forgot his homework' - I am going to go through his backpack and see if there is a book for him to practice reading.

I am looking forward to this week - I've had all my fun visits with Melinda to get to know Benji, now it is time to enjoy Cade, Makae, Ethan and Jace.

Mauri - when are you and Ira going to go on a trip and let me come play with your kids.

By the way Marz, We would love to have cousins over this week - several times if you want, while you sleep. Wednesday for example you could bring the boys over early, and then Adrie and Jerod later that day. Jace will be home (no school for him due to testing week) on Tuesday and Wednesday...Thursday morning he has his test at 8:30 am....but after that we would enjoy the twins. Friday is out, it will be my day to go get my nails done and do some errands as Jace is going on a field trip all day on Friday - but mid week lets get together. I'll call you tonight and we will figure best times out.

Changes

As you all know a few weeks ago Ed and I attended a public hearing telling us about the hospital IHC wants to build just to the NorthWest of our home. We left that meeting feeling pretty good about being able to live with a hospital in our backyard.

Last night we attended another public hearing - this one concerning the Layton Interchange. This will also impact us in several ways - most of them positive: They (UDOT, FHWA, and Layton City, in conjunction with the public (!?) developed a plan to construct a new I-15 interchange at milepost #330 in Layton and a new roadway (called 750 S) from Fort Lane on the East to Flint Street on the West and eliminate the existing partial interchange. The new road will eventually continue West past Flint Street all the way to Bluff Road (and thus to the Legacy Highway) but that is all in the future as funds become available.
This map is probably too small to read but I will try to explain it to you. In the very center of the map you can see a crossroad (outlined in pink). That is the new proposed off ramp coming off the interchange showing a signal intersection at 200 East coming down and connecting into our street. If you look closely you can see where it says "connect 750 S to 200 E and you can see the church across the road from us. Our home is under the south.

Impacts:
1. the overpass from Layton to Kaysville will be torn down SOON so as to allow the freeway widening project now going on at 200 N in Kaysville to continue North. Hopefully they will not tear the bridge out until they have completed the work at 200 North - that is not a given, however.

2. Our main street in Layton will begin to elevate just past the corner of Gentile and Main raising to a 30 foot platform over the present freeway to give us a four way intersection. There will be a signalized intersection at Main and 750 South (yes, I know we are 744 South and this interchange will be a couple of blocks NORTH but that is what they are calling it). All traffic not moving onto the freeway will be shunted West towards Flint street or East to Fort Lane where it will meander back to the old main street by Dansies and proceed to Kaysville. This road will be a five lane highway.

3. 900 South railroad crossing will be removed and the road there will turn into a cul de sac. The new overpass will pass over I-15 and the railroad lines.

4. The 200 E connection to 750 South has us quite concerned as we can envision traffic to and from Blaine Jensen's RV using that road as an easy access to their business bringing large RV's and trucks and trailers - also our quiet little road will become a major entry way into the subdivision for the whole South West portion of Layton.

5. Potential for sound wall to be installed, however, the sound wall that would affect our subdivision would be installed and paid for by the Union Pacific rather than UDOT on the other side of the freeway because the UP has the land and right of way. I am thinking that if we have to depend on the UP for a sound wall, it ain't gonna happen!

5. Time frame. At optimal, if this proposal is accepted this summer by the FHWA (Federal Hwy Admin) they could begin work Fall of 2008 with completion by 2010 or early 2011.

6. With IHC also moving forward with plans to build the hospital in the fields West and North of us there is going to be a LOT of mess going on in the next few years! IHC wants the exit off 750 S into their parking lot but they don't want the road connected to 200 E - they want open parking lots there. We will see who wins that battle.

udot.utah.gov/laytoninterchange

Busy Week

What a busy week - lots of weddings and other stuff going on!
Monday I had a dentist appointment in the morning and a Dr. appointment with Jill's doctor in the afternoon. Dad came and picked me up and we went to see Dr. Burtenshaw without Jill so we could discuss the MRI she had plus her prognosis. Basically Dad and I are getting tired of Dr's that can't tell us anything...but I guess there isn't a cut and dried diagnosis and each patient progresses with their dementia a little differently.

There were no noticeable problems with her brain - some shrinkage and a few damaged spots that go along with the dementia but nothing that stands out as far as the tremors are concerned. No strokes, no major damaged areas, no blockages. We went over to Rocky Mtn Care Center afterwards to see Jill and she was sound sound asleep so we left her sleeping and headed home.
Her nurse cornered me and said she needed to talk to me. She wanted me to make an appointment with her neurologist because the tremors are getting so bad that she can't even hold a drink in her hand. They have discontinued the Seraquil thinking that was causing them but they are still there - even when she is sound asleep. She is also awake and wandering all night long and sleeping all day. I told her we had just been in to see the neurologist three weeks ago but I would call and take her back in since they've quit given her Seraquil and she is still having the tremors. She gave me a whole list of problems to tell the Dr. about.

That evening Ed and I went for a free ride on the new frontrunner. It is a beautiful train and hopefully will be very popular with the commuters. It moves fast and stops quickly and is a very smooth ride. I was hoping to see just exactly where the stops are but it was running about an hour late that night and by the time we got on it was dark. It was amazing how many people they can shove onto that train too - lots of standing room!!

Tuesday I went walking with Cheryl and got to see the three new baby swans. There had been five on Monday according to Cheryl but evidently the seagulls got to a couple of them. They are just darling fluffballs of gray feathers. Their parents are the black swans that live there at the park. They will have red beaks. After my walk I headed up to HAFB for my annual diabetes bloodwork - they got enough blood from me to keep the vampires in their basement fed for a few days!! Then I headed South to Lehi to play with Benji, visit with Melinda and cuddle Simon. We had a good visit and I headed back to "Layton about 8 pm that night. I really enjoy being able to go down and help out once a week.

Wednesday I went for my morning walk and then just kind of shuffled the rest of the day. I don't know what was wrong - nothing I could point at and say ...this was bothering me or this hurt ...but I just drug all day long. Little bit of headache, little bit of stomach ache. Jeff emailed me in the afternoon and invited Ed and I to go with them to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate Skye's birthday but I just didn't feel good so we stayed home. You know I have got to be off my feed when I turn down dinner out!

Thursday morning - walked in the park and now there are only two baby swans - DUMB Seagulls! It has been six years today since Merrilee passed away. I drove over to the cemetery and contemplated life for a little bit, then I ran up to dad's house and went to the library and just caught up on house work from the day before. Ed came home and said lets go out to eat so we went to Red Lobster...YUM! That's better than Red Robin anytime! After we ate we ran up to Uinta to Kathy Morgan's house to pick up the stuff for Julie's wedding the next day.

Friday was a busy day right from the get go! I was in to Ogden by 11 am at the Alumni center at Weber State where Julie's wedding reception was going to be. I hauled all the stuff in that I had picked up the night before and started setting things up - decorating the tables as Kathy had requested and unloading all the plates and cups and napkins and forks in the kitchen. Kathy and Julie showed up about 12:30 long enough to answer some of my questions (like where were they going to have the line, where were the presents going to go, etc ect.) and then they headed off to the temple. I continued to set things up and move furniture about and hang the cute paper balls from the wires on the ceiling until about 1:10 when I headed to the temple too. I got to see Andy and Julie married and it was nice to be in the Ogden temple - its been a few months! It has such a beautiful sweet spirit inside. So restful, and so peaceful. It truly is a House of God.

Then I headed back to the Alumni Center. I stopped and got something to eat and sat there at the Alumni center in my car and enjoyed the beautiful spring day while I ate a quick late lunch. I went inside and helped the flower lady set the flowers on the tables and also got the three tables outside all decorated too. They had set them up while I was at the temple. I thought for a bit I was going to have an hour to run over and see Mauri and Ira and the kids about 4-5 but just then Kathy and Dave showed up - I was worrying about that because Kathy is such a perfectionist and I am anything BUT - however, she didn't change a thing. She was happy with it all! I felt really good about my efforts at that point. She and Dave headed home and again I thought I had a bit of time to do what I wanted when in walks the bride and groom - and though they didn't change anything they brought a few things that kept me busy until the family all started arriving at 5:15.

At 6:15 I started lighting the candles on the tables and had them just about all lit when I noticed that one of Kathy's grandsons (about 2 1/2 years old) was going behind me and blowing them all out!! I relit them several times during the evening and they kept getting blown out even though his mom and dad and grandma all told him DON'T. I know he thought I was relighting them just to entertain him. :-) I had brought my bubble blower and that kept most of the grandkids very well entertained outside until we finally ran out of bubbles. Sad day when the bubbles were gone!

My main job was going to be decorator and then I was to hang around and help oversee the reception itself (but wasn't supposed to be the main help) but I ended up running all evening keeping the cakes set out for the people and slush and ice water poured and all the myriad of little things that needed to be done. They had three or four 8-10 years olds to clean off the table but they ended up being a lot of help serving too. It was funny because I would have to tell them to stop bringing cakes out... and scoot them in the direction of table cleaning and all of a sudden they would be back overloading the tables again. Kathy's caterer brought six different kinds of cake ... all homemade, and all gorgeous. There were three cheesecakes - one a snickers cheesecake, one a strawberry cheesecake, and one an oreo cheesecake. Then there was carrot cake, double chocolate with raspberry filling, and a German Chocolate cake. Kathy had said she didn't think they would have much of a turn out because there was so much going on but they had people coming nonstop all evening long. I told her if this was a light turnout I would hate to see her crowd.

It was such fun to see all of her kids - Johnathon and his wife live in South Weber - in fact I think they are in one of the other wards that share Shawn and Kris's building- they have three or four kids. Jen and her husband flew up from Phoenix with their brand new baby ( in fact they blessed him yesterday while the whole family was together). Justin and his wife have just accepted a job in Idaho Falls and they have a 16 month old little boy with BRIGHT RED hair - its funny - with all the red hair in that family there are a lot of strawberry blonds and then this little guy with gorgeous hair! Geneal and her husband also live in Idaho Falls. They have two daughters that were from his previous marriage - they were the good helpers that night plus Johnathon's oldest son. They also have a little boy about 2 years of age.

Jared flew in from Boston and almost didn't make it. He is still single, still a big kid and he got mugged the day he was supposed to fly home (Wednesday). So of course he had no identification. I guess the family spent Wednesday trying to work with the airport to accept a fax from the DMV after taking his SS card and passport that were still here in Utah down to Farmington. One person had said yeah that will work and then they wouldn't accept it. So then they overnighted the passport to Boston and it got delivered to the wrong address!! So by the time they tracked it down on Thursday he had missed the last flight out to Utah that day. He finally flew out to Phoenix Friday morning and caught a flight from Phoenix to SLC about noon - he missed the wedding but made it in time for the reception. What a wild time he had. If he had made it in time for the temple, then they would have had to hope they could find a member of his bishopric in Boston for the temple to call so he could get in the temple, as his recommend disappeared with everything else!

I got home Friday night exhausted - Kathy invited me over to sit in her hot tub but I knew she had a houseful of family and all she needed was one more person. Besides which your dad had a Jazz game to watch. It was a neat day and fun to think that I can still decorate for weddings !!

Saturday we got up and worked in the yard. I trimmed the rose bushes and dug around in my flower garden a little bit.

That afternoon I received a phone call from Sujei saying "I'm getting married!" Evidently her bishop had talked she and her husband into the fact that they needed to legalize their union. So they got the license on Thursday and got married at the church house on Saturday. I told her I really would have loved to have come but we had Martina's wedding and had RSVP'd a month ago saying we would be there .

I felt so bad that it was the same day - Martina and Jimmy's wedding was one of the fanciest and nicest we have EVER attended. It was held in SL at the Red Butte Garden at the U of U - it warmed up enough that they were able to hold it outside in the gardens. Jimmy and Martina are both in their 30's and both are directors at MTC so money was no object. We were served the most wonderful meal ... for example we had macadamian nut encrusted salmon with a mild curry sauce - to die and go to heaven for and I don't even like fish! The wedding itself was beautiful and the couple are such a choice pair - I overheard one of their guests from Pennsylvania say
"Boy, they DO know how to throw a wedding in Utah!

When we got home there was an email from Sujei saying - I GOT MARRIED!! Evidently his name is Irving but I don't know what his last name is. I told her that we would have a party for her and her new husband so we could get to know him.
So now we get to plan a little get together ...say when!