Adjustments

Life is very different at our house.  I am working at two schools.  Daughter Liz, retirement specialist (State Office), informs me that my future will be brighter, if I work full time for three or four years before I retire.  I didn't make as much in my full time years as I did in my halftime years with a Masters Degree.  SO, my day starts at five.  I am still adjusting.  I am sure I will be glad.  Stock market not looking too good, so I better have something I can count on.  I also have three darling grandchildren and their cute mom living with me.  Life is different, but all is good.  I have a new project.  It is moving slowly, because it is new to me, but fun and distracting nevertheless.  We are thankful this week for all of our many blessings.  We have many.

Happy Birthday, MOM!

Happy Birthday to the worlds best mom!

I love you and hope you have the most amazing 50th (wink wink) birthday ever! I'm so grateful for your influence in my life. It is an honor to be your daughter and my biggest hope and prayer is that my kids look up to me one day as much as I look up to you. Happy Birthday!!

Tracie Lewis Norton

Happy Birthday Wonderful Daughter, Tracie!! Great shot of our two birthday girls! Hope your day is as amazing as you are! No tending, taking people shopping or to the doctor. Just FUN and Family. You deserve it!! Thanks for being a beautiful example to all of us in so many ways.
                                                               WE LOVE YOU TONS!!

Elizabeth Anne Lewis Horton

Our beautiful daughter is 24 years old today!!  WOW!  Where does the time go?  Happy Birthday to Liz, a wonderful, dedicated, fun loving girl.  We are so grateful to have you in our family.  You add a lot of sparkle to all of our lives.  Thanks for your loving support this last year.  You are a great listener and the best "vault" we have.  We are so happy to have you "so close".  It has been a lot of fun sharing a roof with you.  Hope your day is amazing!  JUST LIKE YOU!  LOVEYOUTONS

Busy Summer

I guess everyone that reads the blog thought that I did nothing this summer because I didn't do much blogging.  Well, not so.  For starters I spent a lot of time in the yard.  "Remember Courtyard" is looking more beautiful than I would ever have imagined.

Tracie and SpencerMan

Serious bonding going on here.

The film that taught us about Gramma's school that was torn down for the temple to be built.

Tyler was definitely not sure about wearing these.

Just chillin' at the temple.

Very special day.

Beautiful fountain and tabernacle to the east.

Let us in!

View from second south.  Five blocks from where I grew up.

As long as there are "city swimming pools", this will still be the land I love.

Dominoes!

Handsome and Smart.  Gotta get this shirt for all the grandkids.

A new favorite hangout.  Station Park in Farmington.

We enjoyed a great two week visit with Tracie and SpencerMan.  We were able to do a lot of fun things!  We did the usual Bananagrams and movies.  We also got to swim at Farmington Pool which was a new event.  We went to the Open House of the Brigham City Temple, Maddox, Johnny Rockets, Station Park, Initiatories for family names at the Salt Lake Temple, and lots of Lego down time.  Thanks for coming Pennsylvania People.  Come on back and stay a while!

Happy Birthday to Dr. Muhlestein

Tracie caught me snoozing as I was trying to finish the binding.

If you look really hard, you can see Gelder William Lewis with a heart.

I love it!  Quilted with overlapping circles to represent Eternity.

Ready to deliver.

I always knew that I would be making a quilt for Dr. M.  Bill and I had even talked about it.  I just couldn't wrap my brain around it for the longest time.  One day I stumbled onto the perfect fabric for Bill.  Moda's "Reunion" featured fabric that looked like checkered flags, and then banners that looked like what you would see at a race.  Perfect for Bill.  Then I added some red to represent "the heart" for Dr. M.  He was Bill's cardiologist.  I finally finished it this morning.  As luck would have it, son-in-law Josh works at IMC on the very same floor as this wonderful man.  He checked his schedule for us, and found out we could come today before 12:30 or tomorrow after 12:30.  We decided today would be best, but I had to hurry.  It was a mad dash, but it all worked out and we were on the road by 11:30.  He was thrilled to get it.  He loved it.  He kept marveling at how perfect the stitches were on the quilting, and so I had to explain it had been machine quilted.  All of the rest was cut, pieced, and bound with love by hand especially for him. We wanted it to represent the great gratitude and appreciation that we have for him as he helped us through this most difficult time.  The word, "gratitude" kept going through my head all morning, and I know it was Bill making sure that was what he wanted expressed.  So I told him how much we loved and appreciated him.  While we were there, someone in his office said, "It's his birthday today!".  We had no idea, but all the more fun.  He said that it was his first present, and he loved it!

Handsome Men

We are enjoying a visit from Spencer and Tracie. 

John Jacob Zundel

This is John Jacob Zundel. John Jacob Zundel was working as a butcher in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania when a Mormon Elder came there and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As soon as he heard the missionary preach, he knew it was the true religion and was baptized in the Ohio River in 1836.

John Jacob Zundel and his wife Sarah joined other Mormons by moving to Nauvoo, Illinois. They bought a farm and built a brick house. They lived comfortably and enjoyed the Gospel. John Jacob worked building the Nauvoo Temple and taught the Prophet Joseph Smith the German language.
John Jacob and his family were forced to leave Nauvoo by mob violence. In doing this he lost all of his property and suffered with the other Mormons, enduring many hardships. They moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. In September of 1847, he wrote: "I dare write to you, though in exile. Myself, my wife and five children are well and hope that this may reach you the same. We live in the main camp at Winter Quarters, west of the Missouri River, surrounded by six different Indian tribes. The land is very good. We have a city consisting of more than a thousand wagons and tents. We had a very hard winter and lost a great number of cattle for lack of food and excessive cold and much was stolen by the Indians."  With a testimony burning within him of the truthfulness of the Gospel, John Jacob and his family in the year of 1852, joined Captain David Wood's company, and with their covered wagon, oxen and two cows started the long journey west. They milked the cows, and what milk was not used was put into a barrel on the back of the wagon, and the roughness of the trail soon churned the milk into butter. Many experiences were witnessed on the plains, but they were blessed exceedingly in their journeyings although progress was slow, sometimes with the loss of a few head of cattle. When they first arrived in the valley, they stayed with John Jacob Zundel's sister, Magdalena, a pioneer of 1847.  I am very proud of my pioneer heritage. I ponder the struggles of these ancestors and feel so grateful that they had the fortitude to endure and do what they needed to do. I often wonder if I could have done the same. So on this the 24th of July, 2012 I exclaim: Blessed Honored, Pioneer!
(This post was stolen word for word from my cousin Lisa's blog, but I wanted all my kids to see and know it)  THANKS LISA!!

The name's Bond .....James Bond.

I have always been such a big fan of 007.  When I was young, I had every one of the books and read them each several times.  July is James Bond month on Encore, and I have so enjoyed watching all of the old ones.  What I remember about the books is lots of underwater fighting and lots of sharks.  The old ones represent this very well.  Of course Sean Connery is James Bond, and he is the favorite.  I have to say that Daniel Craig comes in a close second.  After watching so many with Roger Moore this month, I am willing to give him an honorable mention.  I don't have anything against Pierce Brosnan, but I have no use for the other two.  One of them was in my all time favorite book.  That would be the one where James Bond got married.  It was very disappointing to have such a "non-Bond" for that one.  Anyway.....who is your favorite Bond?

Happy Birthday Lindsay!!

Happy Birthday to Lindsay!!  This is a big birthday for you, darling daughter.  I can't believe that 30 years ago today the doctor said, "Let's go over to that hospital and have a baby!"  You are a wonderful daughter, loving wife, amazing mom, caring sister, and awesome friend.  Hope your day is as great as it can be with a big weekend celebration!!  We love you very much!

St. George

So much fun.  SO MUCH SUN!  We had a great four days swimming, eating, hiking, and chatting.  Going home tomorrow, but so glad we came.

We are going to miss you......

My very wonderful bed partners!

Very brave at the dentist!

Favorite activities...tramp, looking for potato bugs, and picking berries.

Helping Gramma plant flowers.

Popcorn, root beer floats, and cousin sleepovers.

Fun trip to Castle Park with Pilar and Maddox!

"What's on the news today, Gramma?"

Just so you know...

IF your air conditioner breaks down and you spend $700 on it, and IF it breaks down AGAIN  after 33 days, and IF the repair man tells you that it is going to be another $700 including diagnostic because it wasn't within the 30 days, and IF he asks you if you want the part overnighted because they don't have it, and IF you ask if that will cost more instead of a more important question which is, "How much more is it to overnight it?, HAVE THEM OVERNIGHT IT!!  We were without AC for, not a week, BUT SIX days, and the temperature outside was never less than 93 degrees.  I never would have believed that the house temp could get to 92, but it did.  Poor Lindsay had sick kids, but we all made it.  Thanks to ceiling fans and a brand new COOL basement.  Gratefully they called us at 7 AM, and hurried to get it in.  Also I played the "Nice Card", and negotiated on the warranty.  They think Lennox will be kind.

Celebrating Father's Day

We SURE love you!!  We sure love Woodland Park!  Happy Father's Day!

Gratefully Home

We are happily home.  We stopped in Logandale to have a lovely meal provided by Chris and Dena.  Laura and Taylor are on a church history tour, but Ashley and her cute new hubby were on board to celebrate Father's Day.  Awesome trip.

Almost Over

Outside for lunch.  Finally some sun.

Let's go get some sun!

BZ and CZ

CZ, Josh, Max, and KZ

BZ's darling family!