Journal Catch Up May 2nd through September 19, 2010

Journal Catch Up for summer of 2010 by Louise Gent
I have lapsed into procrastination on journal keeping and we have had a fabulous summer. So here are some quick notes to catch things up a bit. I should explain that I keep a few notes for each Saturday through Friday period. That explains the weird grouping of dates. A very sensitive member of our family has asked not to have their family mentioned by name nor pictured in my blog entries; but you should be able to figure out references.

May 2-7, 2010
2nd Daddy B.J. and I headed to Utah to pick up Benjamin from the Box Elder County Jail.
3rd After looking around Brigham City we went to Jernon and David Kelley’s home in Salt Lake City where we enjoyed visiting with their family. At Family Home Evening they supervised their family members in putting together 72-hour preparedness kits.
4th We had a delightful visit with the Relief Society president of the branch that served the jail while we waited for Benjamin’s release. I took Benjamin to his first AA meeting and then we spent the evening with Jernon and David’s family. We watched the true “Forever Story” about a truly outstanding rugby coach from right in the Salt Lake Valley. Adam brought Maile to meet us.
5th We went to Mindie’s home in Pleasant Grove. Ashton was running a high temperature but Allyssa, Travis, Jordan, and Kevin enjoyed seeing Uncle Ben-Ben again.
6th B.J. and I drove to St. George (LaVerkin) to BJ’s brother’s home. Buck has opened his home for Will to stay there since he left Bremerton last spring. Benjamin drove down with Kevin and Jordan. Buck took B.J. and me into Zion’s National Park that evening and we took a tour bus through the beautiful canyon.
7th We went to Nathan’s college convocation for the Boyd School of law at UNLV. Ruth and Tim and Debbie came in from Pahrump. Jernon and David drove down with their children and he watched them at Ruth’s while she joined us at the ceremony.

May 8-14, 2010
8th I went into Las Vegas with Nathan for the UNLV commencement exercises. Beverly (formerly Carrera) Besand recognized me and waved. Afterwards we bumped into her again with her daughter Ericka (Besand) and Jon Huff, who both graduated with Nathan. We knew Jon parents when he was born and Ericka and her sister Cassandra both knew our sons Nathan and Adam when they investigated and joined the church. I was Beverly’s visiting teacher at one time. Small World, huh?
9th Mother’s Day was wonderful with so many of our children, grandchildren and loved ones. We attended both Joseph and Ruth’s wards.
10th Everyone still in Pahrump shared a Family Home Evening at Joseph and Kathryn’s home.
11th Benjamin, B.J. and I arrived safely home in Bremerton
12th Though Nathan graduated he still had one paper to turn in. It determined the grade for that course and I helped by proofreading the paper.

May 15-21, 2010
15th I had to choose between going to the Armed Forces Day parade in Bremerton and the Stake Relief Society activity in Port Orchard. It was tough since I was recently sustained as a Relief Society teacher. I felt I had to support the Relief Society. Kathy Anderson recommended the true story of “Gifted Handed” about a pediatric neurosurgeon. We bought the movie and watched it lots.
19th I decided to be the ”designated” signer from cub scout registrations and signed up the first of three new boys for out Pack - David Norton today, Steven Malone on June 1st, and Aeirieck Cornwell on July 8th. Daddy B.J. and I went to Our second son and his wife’s to take pictures for Monica’s Flat Stanley school project.
21st Our local granddaughters had a field trip to Belfair to the elementary school classroom they had been pen pals with all year and a hike through the Belfair Wetlands wild life preserve. I went as a chaperone. That night was our ward temple night in conjunction with our Bremerton Ward conference. B.J. spoke in the assembly room and he and I were the witness couple, which is always a thrill.

May 22-28th, 2010
22nd The Gill family, who are new to our ward and whom we had over for Family Home Evening last Monday, returned to plant our garden. They live on a boat in the Bremerton Marina.
23rd BJ spoke in Ward Conference. He shared the story about the horse Snowman, which Joseph B. Wirthlin used in his “The Abundant Life” general conference address in April 2006.
24th We had another new family in our ward over for Family Home Evening. Kevin and Kathie Spenser were called to be our ward nursery leaders even before their records arrived. They have a baby Cora.
25th I am teaching a new song to the cubs both at every den meeting and pack meetings. Through the weeks ahead we included: Alice the Camel, I Like Bananas Coconuts and Grapes, The Bear Went over the Mountain, She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain, I’m Taking Home a Baby Bumblebee, BINGO, Three Jolly Fishermen, My Hat it Has Three Corners. I love it and so do the boys
26th BJ and I served at the Kent wet pack cannery to fill a ward assignment. We took Johnny Palmer and Benjamin.
27th A Tender Mercy – B.J. took his VW into the dealership for servicing. It was determined that it needed a new catalytic converter. That particular part costs $1000 but if covered under warranty would be free. The purchase records were looked up and it was covered for one more day. Another customer had ordered one but didn’t come in to have it installed, so they put it in for B.J. immediately.

May 29th – June 4th 2010
29th I went with our cub scout group to Miller Woodlawn cemetery to place US flags by the headstones of graves that declared military service. Though my father’s and mother’s headstone doesn’t mention it, I put one there.
30th When I visit taught Debbie Burge, who is the funeral home manager, she handed me an invitation to the Memorial Day program with fireworks to be held at the cemetery. I went and it was grand. The high school NJROTC drill team, a bagpipe ensemble, and flag posting for each branch of the service really touched me. The fireworks was a fifteen minute display and I asked Debbie later the cost. It was $10,000. No wonder it was spectacular.
June 2nd – It was our 44th wedding anniversary. B.J. took me out to lunch at the China buffet.
4th We took milk and orange juice and cooked pancakes with syrup and sausage for the Bishop’s seminary breakfast.

June 5-11, 2010
5th At 9:45 AM weighing 7lb 5oz and measuring 21 inches, Isaac Scott Gent was born to Jenna and Michael and joined his sister Anna Kate. The Primary’s quarterly activity was a temple trip for the children to visit the temple grounds and be instructed in several mini-classes about temple work. We joined Our local granddaughters’s birthday party when we returned home. They had a man hired to do Karaoke. It was a thrill to hear our son David sing to his daughters and wife.
6th We attended Seminary Graduation. Jordan Geier sang a solo and also in a group. He has a tremendous voice.
8th Benjamin traveled with my sister to Utah where he will assist Jernon and David in packing and tending the children – especially Kaden – till they initiate their move to Friday Harbor at the end of the month. Knowing I would never get them done later, I made birthday cards for Emily, Amy, and Monica. It probably takes me two hours for each and then there is the McDonald’s $5 gift certificates to buy.
11th Joshua Marcus Gent was born to Joseph and Kathryn Gent. He weighed seven pounds and twelve ounces Adam took Maile Pomaika'ikalani Yuzon on a hike in the Olympic Mountains and proposed. She said, “Yes.”

June 12-18th, 2010
13th We held our first ward choir practice at BJ’s business building at 800 11th St. Tina Portune let the elders quorum move her piano from her house so the choir could practice.
16th Filling our second ward assignment to the Kent wet pack cannery, I took Michael Pierson, Sidi Diallo, and Ken Timmons. B.J. was holding the 2nd of three consecutive nights of business seminars at the Red Lobster restaurant in Silverdale.
17th and 18th BJ is now the transient bishop rather than the agent bishop for our meetinghouse. Molina Love was the first member he served in this capacity. I went with him to interview her. He determined it would be best for her to move to her sister’s in Idaho. We brought her home with us for one night. The next day I helped her box her belongings and drove her to the bus depot in Tacoma.
June 19-25, 2010
19th Our ward had a youth temple trip. I finished the day scrapping paint from the bathroom door at the edge where it stuck and the doorframe till it became possible to close it easily. It took several hours. I went to the trouble because it was annoying but also Benjamin complained about it.
21st through 25th BJ. made multiple trips taking boys to and from Helaman’s Camp and visiting the camp as a bishop.

June 26-July2, 2010
26th We drove a carload of YW to Sequim to go on the Dungeness Spit hike, which was organized by Tina Portune. It was five miles each way and tough because the rocky shoreline and drifted debris could easily twist an ankle if one didn’t watch every step.
28th – July 1st B.J. attended an Atlanta, GA seminar. I did a session at the Seattle Temple before picking up B.J. at the airport on his return
30th Benjamin helped David Kelly drive a moving van to Friday Harbor and unload it. Then David drove him to Edmonds to catch the ferry and I picked Benjamin up in Kingston. I should explain that David Kelly had temporary housing provided for him till his family could join him. Jernon and the children rented their house and moved in with Sis and Cliff so Dorian could get established in first grade before moving to Washington.

July 3-9, 2010
3rd Leah Pierson and I cleaned the main floor of our meetinghouse as a member custodial assignment.
4th We try to have the missionaries to our home to eat one day a month. The second Sundays have worked for us since my call to work with the cub scouts because the cub committee meeting is every third Sunday.
5th – 8th Tricia Sandbeck-Marshall’s father died unexpectedly. She is one of the sisters, whom I visit teach. I met at her home to help plan a memorial service. Prepared a handout and printed, cut and folded fifty copies and prepared food that I dropped off along with the handouts.
9th I drove to Bellingham where I visited with Mike and Jenna and Anna Kate and got to hold baby Isaac for the first time. Then Michael took me to the airport to fly to Las Vegas, where Ruth picked me up.

July 10-16, 2010
10th This is the 3rd year Joseph has done guard duty for Camp Stimson during the time before his stake’s girls’ camp started and after the camping gear for each ward and the food for the upcoming week was dropped off. He said that he enjoyed the service so much the first two years that he actively sought the chance to do it again. He and friends arranged for Kathryn and their children to make the drive in while he and the guys biked the last 23 miles over the top of the mountain. He invited Ruth and Tim’s family to join his family for an overnight campout. Two other families were invited to spend Saturday afternoon and evening and it was great fun for all. Ruth and Tim went up Saturday morning. They left me with their van and the children to make the drive to the camp by mid-afternoon. This gave them time to set things up. Here is a little camp information:
In 1970 the J.C. Stimson family, who owned and operated the Craig Ranch Golf Course, offered to grant the
Las Vegas Stake a long-time exclusive right to use a large parcel of property in the Mt. Charleston forested area.
A generous charitable agreement was finalized with the J.C. Stimson family and members of the stake went to work and eventually transformed the wooded area into beautiful camping facilities with an outdoor amphitheater, a water system, showers, picnic tables, rest rooms and hiking trails. It is used only by the Young Women for girl’s camps. The camp was fondly named “Camp Stimson” and for decades countless cherished memories have been created in the woods at summer camp. The camp has been shared with several other stakes over the years and is still used to capacity. http://www.desertsaintsmagazine.com/magazine_articles/Sep2004/DSM%20Sept%2004.pdf p. 23
It was my first opportunity to hold baby Joshua and I enjoyed doing that as often as possible throughout the campout. The adults gave the kids rides on the four-wheeler ATVs up and down the main trails. They loved it. Will and Mindie’s son Justin was visiting with Ruth and Tim. He loved the zip line at the camp and went down it many times both by himself and carrying younger children. Joseph told me that Will accompanied him to the camp one year, saw the saggy condition of the zip line, and made permanent improvement by winching the cable tight and cutting it off. I shared that information with Justin and he was delighted to hear that about his father. That prompted me to tell him about his father’s initiating the set up of the tire swing in our yard – though Will did have Daddy B.J. do the dare-devil climb to actually secure the rope to the tree limb. Justin had no idea about that either. By dark only Joe’s and Ruth’s families and I remained, but Nathan arrived later with a date and stayed till about midnight sharing stories and visiting around a campfire.
11th Arising after our night in tents, we enjoyed showers to prepare for the Sabbath Day. Since Joseph was there on assignment from the stake, the stake president gave him permission to hold Sunday sacrament meeting for us. After a super family buffet lunch we gathered up for our drive back to Pahrump.
12th Justin acted as my navigator as I drove Ruth and Tim’s van with Taylor, Makayla, Ellie, Gent, and Zion to Debbie’s home in Laguna Nigel, California. Debbie’s family greeted us with open arms and took us to their housing development’s recreational facility which included playground, clubhouse and three pools: wadding, middle-sized play pool, and lane swimming pool. Oh, how those children love the water!
13th Justin enjoyed one morning with T.J. before T.J. left for two weeks with a friend’s family to New York City and Chicago. The rest of the week Justin hung out with Nathan and/or Nick or read the volume of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Times series, which he is diligently working his way through. Taylor, Makayla, Ellie, and Gent joined Amy and Monica at Vacation Bible Camp each morning for the rest of the week. They learned some great songs ( with a CD which we played in the car and sang along with), made art projects, played games, had story-times, etc. Debbie and Zion and I walked around the lake, which we could see from her home that Tuesday. After picking up the other kids and a friend Madeline, we returned to the pools in the afternoon and then headed to the Ocean beach that evening.
14th During Bible camp Debbie and Zion and I drove to the Orange Co. Court house to turn in some paperwork. We picked up the kids and their “special” friend ,Guy, who has volunteered at Amy’s school for several years and we went to another ocean beach. Taylor did some conservative surfing and the other kids enjoyed float toys and just playing in the sand. That night we had “Taylor’s dinner”, for which Debbie allowed him to plan and purchase all desired ingredients. After taco salad and banana splits we took Guy home. Then Taylor "MC"ed and the girls did a karaoke show for us.
15th Debbie and I returned to the county court house for more paperwork requirements. When we gathered the kids Jay took us out on his boat. We made an afternoon pool trip and then Jay took us to Souplantation for buffet soup and salad and then the store for everyone to pick a toy. Gent chose a whoopee cushion and laughed non-stop at it’s embarrassing noises the rest of the evening.
16th That morning Debbie took Zion and me to Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, California, with it’s seven acres and many buildings of flowers, plants and yard ornaments. It was gorgeous. Debbie had heard of a $2 movie house in Irvine, CA. So she treated us to “Marmelduke” with talking dogs. To her delight we drove by a lake she had jogged around daily many years ago during one of her sojourns in California. She was happy to find its location again. On the way home we shopped for the “Girls’ Dinner” and inadvertently left Amy, which led to a few moments of worry and drama with Jay calling the police. Amy was calmly waiting when Debbie hastened to find her. The girls bought roses for a centerpiece and we ate their elegant dinner on Debbie’s patio. We sang “happy birthday” several times to Emily during the day.

June 17-23, 2010
17th I thought the air-conditioning was broken in Ruth and Tim’s van so to avoid driving through the heat of the day we headed back to Pahrump at 2:30 AM with Justin again riding shotgun and navigating from our Map quest directions. The other children slept all the way. We arrived to enjoy Emily’s birthday party at Joseph and Kathryn’s. Then Ruth and Tim drove me to Las Vegas to catch my flight home.
18th We called Allyssa to wish her a happy birthday. I had traded Relief Society teaching assignments with Nada Meikel and had about half of the lesson prepared before I realized I was one lesson behind. However my desperate prayer was answered and every thing turned out fine. That evening was a preparedness fireside for our ward and just because we felt an obligation to support the guest speaker and those who planned it, B.J. and I went. I was so tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Indeed the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.
19th-20th I did some visiting teaching both days and played catch up with errands and book work to compensate for my week away and to prepare for our trip to Adam’s wedding. I worked on pictures I took and made a Kodak gallery to share. Sis and Cliff helped Benjamin pay off a fine while he was in Utah and with commission he earned from his father he paid off the one he owed here in Washington and picked up a Driver’s manual to prepare for his test. We sang “Happy Birthday” to Monica.
21st We packed and gathered food for our trip to Utah and Adam’s wedding. B.J., Benjamin, and I left about 6:00 PM. I should explain that throughout the summer Adam lived with Mindie and her children after Will and Mindie’s divorce was final. Mindie was contacted by a childhood friend Rob Winfield through face book, I think. He had six children, some of whom he has with him some of the time. Mindie married him at the end of June and moved to Hyrum, Utah. Kevin found a better job in the Provo area and moved in with his sister Tiffany, her husband and our darling three great-grandchildren. Justin is also a permanent guest there. Jordan spent some time with friends in Idaho and the younger children spent most of the summer with Will at Uncle Buck’s in St. George.
22nd Sis had offered Korb and Camera’s home at 11317 Blue Brook Cove in South Jordan, Utah, as a place for us to stay. Camera was back from England and staying with their sons at her parents home. Korb actually flew in that weekend but they had some remodeling they wanted to do, so the house was vacant and available to us. Debbie drove in with her girls and joined us there. Ruth and Tim’s family stayed with Tim’s sister and her husband, David, Michael, Our local granddaughters drove down also. Will and Uncle Buck came up from St. George. Joseph and Kathryn’s family stayed with the mother of an old friend. Tiffany’s family lives in Pleasant Grove. That night was a fabulous Hawaiian luau reception at the Highland Gardens reception center in Highland, Utah – a community south and east of the point of the mountain. The flowers, food, family, friends, and entertainment made it a night to remember for all of us. We had the first family picture in years taken with all our children.
23rd Ruth had planned the “Groom’s luncheon”. Thank you Ruth! We prepared salads at Jamine’s, picked up makings: cakes, and meat and cheese platters, and rolls plus paper goods from Costco and Wal-Mart. David and Michael set up the tables at the stake center on Proctor Ln. the road named after Maile’s grandparents. The marriage was at the Mount Timpanogos Temple. Benjamin and Nathan and Uncle Nick Goodman watched all the little ones during the marriage. Sis, Mindie, Korb, Camera and their boys joined us there as did many other family and friends. Will left the temple as soon as the marriage was concluded so he could set up his sound system with slide show in the cultural hall. We took pictures of children and grandchildren at the temple. Those who attended the groom’s luncheon raved about the wonderful variety of salads. Joseph had arranged before this trip to bless Joshua Marcus Gent Saturday in one of the classrooms so his father and many of his brothers could assist.
That night Debbie held a sleepover at Korb and Camera’s for Korb’s boys, David’s girls, Jernon’s girls, her own daughters and Ellie. She makes fun happen! So B.J., Benjamin, and I slept at Sis and Cliff’s condo.

July 24-30, 2010
24th Aunt Linda Goodman asked for a family reunion that Saturday since so many of had gathered for the wedding. Her son Jorgen with his wife and baby daughter joined the rest of us up Provo Canyon at Mt. Timpanogos Park. Jernon and David Kelly’s daughter Justine was able to join us from BYU Idaho. Joseph and Nathan both asked for a father's blessing. To do that Daddy B.J. and I and those two walked off to a quiet picnic table with no one else around. Nathan was facing the Nevada Bar Exam Tuesday-Thursday the next week.
B.J. Ben and I headed home in the early afternoon. We drove Justin and Jordan as far as Brigham City where Mindie and Rob picked them up.
25th We were tired but happy to arrive home at 7:30 AM in time for Daddy B.J. to attend to his many church responsibilities as bishop. Debbie and Ruth had determined to come up to Bremerton for the three weeks between Adam’s wedding and BYU Education week. They stayed in Salt Lake City till after church on Sunday.
Starrin Schippers brought his tent and came to camp out at our place while his mother and all three sisters went to our stake girl’s camp.
26th Fatima made the day special by inviting the cousins to join Our local granddaughters at their riding lesson. She paid for the little ones to all have a horse ride. The Timmon’s family, who had been living in our basement for a couple of months began their move to John Mann’s house at 2000 11th St. We enjoyed lasagna and compliments with everyone at Family Home Evening. 27th Debbie and Ruth found the least expensive open swim time at the Bremerton pool and declared the pool water was too cool for their Nevada/California bodies and once was enough. I went to the cub pack meeting.
28th Just having loads going on in my life led to confusion and stress. I put one of Mr. Rostad’s deposit slips into my wallet preparing to pay our rent. I accidentally grabbed it by mistake when I made a $2200.00 deposit. Fortunately I discovered that the credit didn’t appear on our account the next morning. At the bank we checked the deposit slip (which I always keep) and discovered that the ending digits, which are the only ones to print on those receipts, were “3011” instead of “0011”. It came to me what I had done. We phoned Mr. Rostad and tender mercy of the Lord he actually answered! The bank clerk and I explained what I had done and Mr. Rostad Oked reversing the $2200.00 deposit. Whew! What a relief. I posted Adam and Maile’s reception pictures to a Kodak gallery
Benjamin passed the written portion of his driving test and scheduled the road test.
29th I made enchiladas and froze one pan. I baked cookies – chewy chocolate peanut butter and oatmeal-nut-chocolate chip. We all went to the Bremerton Marina to go out on the sailboat, which Brother and Sister Gill and their children live on. They took us for a short sail.
30th Another potential banking disaster – I paid our house rent but was all the way to the Red Apple grocery store headed home before remembering to make the deposit to cover that payment. Thank goodness for the prompting of the Holy Ghost. I turned around and drove back to the nearest branch of our Kitsap Bank and made the deposit. I should explain that I was spending extra time working to keep things straight on our banking records because Debbie misplaced her own debit card, which Jernon discovered a couple of weeks later in her purse. Anyway we loaned Debbie one of our debit cards between the time we left Utah and her return to California after Education Week. During that time I totaled up her expenditures every few days and she reimbursed me with cash after Jay made deposits in California.
It was bishop’s night at girls’ camp. B.J. and I picked up two new converts to our ward. Georgia and Olivia Popham, who were eager to visit. Olivia is a sophomore and hopefully will be a camper next year.

July 31st – August 6, 2010
July 31st I prepared girls’ camp pictures for the church bulletin board and made a Kodak gallery to share. Michael and Jenna and their children came to visit. Isaac being to young, Anna Kate and their mom Jenna didn’t join Adam and Maile’s wedding events. It was Debbie, Ruth, and Fatima’s first chance to see Isaac. David and his family invited Ruth and Deb and their kids to join them at their friends’ Barbeque that evening. The father a fellow doctor. His wife is from Brazil, like Fatima. It was a spectacular party with unlimited food and lots of water play. I mowed the lawn. Daddy B.J. and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home getting ready for Sunday. We called and sang “Happy Birthday” to Jordan.
August 1st Isaac Scott Gent was blessed in Jenna’s parents’ home ward in Puyallup, Washington. It was Daddy B.J.’s monthly priesthood leadership meeting in Port Orchard at our stake center at 6:00 AM. I drove with him, waited and then we headed to Puyallup. Ruth, Deb and David’s group drove separately but arrived just minutes to late for David to join in the blessing. They all stayed to attend church there while B.J. and I hustled back to our ward meetings. When Mike and Jenna were here Saturday I took some pictures and I remembered hanging the camera in his bag on the closet doorknob by the pencil sharpener. Sunday I looked for it but couldn’t find it. I mentioned the missing camera to everyone wondering if they had seen it. No one had. Tender mercy of the Lord – late that evening a woman, who knew Benjamin and who had come swimming here a couple of times on the hottest days brought the camera to us. She had noticed it at her home. Someone, who was visiting her, had stolen it while I was mowing the lawn. I had prayed about finding the camera since it is priceless for capturing and sharing family and ward memories. I was also grateful our name was on the shoulder strap and inside the lens cover and on the inside of the battery compartment lid.
2nd I made a birthday card for Jenna. As soon as Monica turned eight she asked her mother if Granddad Gent could baptize her so from then on the plans were laid. Our full-time missionaries joined us for dinner and Family Home Evening. They started teaching Monica about Jesus Christ’s doctrine: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Though Amy’s Down Syndrome makes it so that she would never need baptism, she very much wants to do everything that Monica does. Debbie’s home ward bishop told her that even though it was unnecessary, Amy might be baptized just to make her happy. Since Amy is over nine-years-old, that counted as a convert baptism for our elders. They were extra willing to teach them.
3rd The other regular cub leaders were on vacation so I directed the den meeting .We did a nature walk and made pseudo-leather pouches.
4th B.J. and I made a trip to the Children’s hospital in Seattle to visit 8-year-old Aeirieck (that spelling is unique but absolutely correct) Cornwell who is the son of Ruth Jernigan. He was in the psychiatric ward for becoming violent – cutting himself. Since it was my sister Lavina’s and my 65th birthday, Daddy B.J. and I went to the temple
5th I bought a Grandparents pass to the zoo. Ruth, Debbie and I took their children to Pt. Defiance in Tacoma. That evening Daddy B.J. built a fire in our fire-pit and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. / Jenna’s birthday - so we sang.
5th Rheanna Cornwell and Heaven Jernigan, who are Ruth Jernigan’s daughters, stayed with us Sat. –Monday so their mother could visit Aeirieck at the Seattle hospital. Our Ruth headed to Bellingham to pick Tim up from the airport. Unfortunately Mike and Jenna were away. Well, not unfortunate for Michael and Jenna and their kids. They are at Disneyland.

August 7-13, 2010
7th Nathan arrived to spend a few days at our home relaxing after the stress of the bar exam. Ruth brought Tim down from Bellingham.
8th It was a great sacrament meeting. President Mikel Anderson was visiting and the main speaker. Our choir (me) sang “Miracles” by Sally Deford. President Anderson had visited in Ruth and Tim’s home on a couple of occasions while attending conventions in Las Vegas. He called on them extemporaneously to bear their testimonies. It is our custom on 2nd Sunday to have the missionaries as out guests to eat. They asked if they could bring new members or investigators. Besides Ruth and Deb’s families we had the DeWitts, the Pophams, Brenda K. Homes, Mike Bjerke, and Joe Azevedo.
9th It was the 99¢ tag sale at Value Village. Ruth, Debbie found some great finds for themselves and their children. I found a light gray hooded, pullover sweatshirt for Daddy B.J. and used a coupon to buy it. We baked a “baptism” cake, which Debbie decorated, six dozen cupcakes, soup and chili. Our Family Home Evening was the baptism. In addition to Daddy B.J.’s baptizing Amy and Monica, Jim Portune baptized his granddaughter Bryanna Kamerer – for whom the Portunes are the legal guardians. Brother King baptized his daughter Emily, who is special like Amy is specially-abled. There were about thirty people here and the lake was not terribly cold. I was invited at the last minute to give a talk on baptism, so I used my “Question-Words” talk and carried down the tripod and display board with newsprint and marking pen.
10th I went visiting teaching with LaVon Willey/ Later at Cub Scouts I helped the boys made caterpillars from egg carton strips and pipe cleaners / Home yet later I watched the DVD “Gifted Hands” with Debbie
11th Ben took the road test for his driver’s license and will retake it on the 26th. Debbie and I shopped at the goodwill store while our tire store fixed the flat on the Chevy for free. / We made “no-bake” cookies.
12th I baked small birthday cakes for Mike Christensen and Lea Euzarraga. At Nathan’s request I made chili and bought tortillas for him. Debbie and the little ones and I went to the Cub Scout roundtable annual picnic and Debbie pushed all the kids at the swings.
13th Once a year I defrost our chest freezer. I am delighted with all the good things to eat that I have forgotten. I needed to locate the lunchmeats before our Ed Week trip. Mama Cida, Fatima’s mother shipped me a box of lovely tablecloths and table scarves, so I made a Thank you card with help from the English to Portuguese translation website.

August 14-20, 2010
14th Nathan brought down all his stuff from the attic and I added to it his missionary journals and high school yearbooks. He is planning to make a home for himself and was ready to claim his memorabilia. He also brought down David’s stuff to take to him and Ruth’s stuff to transport to Pahrump. He will be staying with Ruth and Tim and paying them rent till he gets a job. Hurrah for Nathan for clearing valuables from my attic!
Ruth took Tim up to Bellingham to fly home. They had a delightful visit with Michael and Jenna and their little ones.
Debbie drove Benjamin in his car – the little red convertible Mazda Miatta – to Sequim to a single adult picnic. They arrived as it was breaking up, and then drove on to Port Angeles, where she took him to dinner. On the way home they missed a turn, which added long mileage but it was a beautiful day and Debbie said she definitely will have a convertible of her own again someday.
There was a baptism and barbeque here for Jenna Popham After the baptism I typed up Nathan’s father's blessing, which he received on July 24th and which I had completely forgotten.
15th Our second son and his wife brought their girls to our ward and joined Ruth, Debbie, their children and Daddy B.J. and me at church. / Last Friday we traded our Chevy for the Ford Windstar. We have been loaning the van to Amy Anderson for about a year. Whenever we need it for temple trips or whatever we make a temporary trade. After church Daddy B.J., Benjamin, and I packed for the BYU Ed Week trip. Daniel’s Meyer’s father dropped him off and we went to Dakota Pophams house to pick him up. Then all of us headed to Utah.
16th We arrived in Salt Lake City at 11:00 AM and drove to a parking spot a little northeast of the temple so we could take out our cold chests and have lunch. Remember that I bumped into old friends after Nathan’s law degree graduation. Another tender mercy! Cassandra (Besand) Judd hurried across the street waving and calling a greeting. She and her husband manage apartments directly across the street from our parking spot, which had a two-hour limit. She invited us to park our van in a covered space at her apartments. That left us free to visit Temple Square and not worry about a parking ticket. We went first to the Conference Center and took a tour. There are marvelous art displays throughout the building. These include the original Arnold Freiberg paintings, which are reproduced in the Book of Mormon. Then we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the movie about Joseph Smith. We finished our sightseeing with the visitor’s centers on Temple Square.
That evening drove to Adam and Maile’s home in Spanish Fork, UT, where we were home based for the week. In the night Debbie and Ruth and their carload also arrived.
17th From campus Daddy B.J. called Deb and Ruth to meet him in front of the Marriott Center He took over caring for the children while they went to classes. I spent the entire day with Daniel and Dakota as their guide attending youth classes. We all met at the Marriott Center for the devotional with Elder Steven E. Snow, who is one of the seven presidents of the Seventy. We saw Aunt Linda Goodman and Will Gent there. Ben went to a lot of the classes with the boys. At 9:20 PM when the last class ended we met by the Spencer W. Kimball tower, walked down over the hill, and looked and looked and looked for our van. We tried calling B.J. and Adam with no luck. We finally stopped for a group prayer Ruth interrupted it by yelling that she had found it after asking her own prayer.
18th I volunteered to baby-sit so Ruth and Debbie could attend classes again. Daddy B.J. had spent 5 ½ hours at the swimming pool with the kids the day before and knew better than to let me take on that task alone. He was so right. We started at Deseret Industries where we found white shirts and ties for Dakota and Daniel so they could attend the youth dance Thursday night. We also found a pair of shoes for Amy, since we had left without a pair she could tolerate. She has very strict personal tastes in all she wears. Next we went to Costco to pick up t-shirts for Justin. Mindie had phoned to ask us to buy these for him because he has very strict personal tastes in all he wears. See Amy isn’t that unusual. We also bought Costco hot dogs and a pizza. We drove Justin’s t-shirts to Tiffany and Chris’ house for Justin and then headed to Salt Lake City where we visited briefly with Jan and Wayne Bales. Then we headed north to Brigham City, turned east and passed through the mountain pass to Hyrum, Utah, for a visit with Mindie, her husband and our grandkids. Actually Rob was sick but he did take out his keyboard and played some lovely music. He is a composer as well as pianist. Mindie has just started part-time work at the hospital in Logan as a Certified Nursing Assistant. The kids all start school next week.
Maile brought home sleep apnea evaluation equipment so we could set B.J. up with a test that night. / Deb and Ruth packed and left for Pahrump at the end of classes.
19th One of Benjamin’s old friends from years ago in Provo met him on campus and bought him a sweatshirt. / I enjoyed classes till it was time to drive the boys home to change into their dance clothes and drop them off. I picked up B.J. at the end of his classes. Nathan, who drove down from Bremerton a day behind Ruth and Debbie, volunteered to pick up our young men at the end of the dance and bring them to Adam and Maile’s. / Maile said we needed to redo the sleep test.
20th We all enjoyed our final day of classes. We had packed early that morning so we hit the road for home about 10:00 PM

August 21-27, 2010
21st We arrived home at mid-day. After dropping off B.J. I took the boys to their homes and stopped to say hi to Sis. Grace and Dorian were staying with her and Cliff till the beginning of September when Jernon will arrive from Utah. They had walked to Evergreen City Park with Our local granddaughters to play.
I picked up the audio book “Petey” from the Library. I offered it to Diana Purdy, a visiting teaching companion, a couple of months ago because her service as an ombudsman reminded me of the story. I couldn’t find our copy so I put it on hold at the library.
22nd Today I taught Relief Society. It was Dallin Oakes talk “Healing the Sick”
23rd Our local granddaughters, Sis and Cliff, Grace and Dorian and I went to the splash park by the ferry terminal and I took some great pictures / I made birthday cards for Taylor and Gent and prepared an Eagle Recommendation for B.J. for Jordan Geier. / We had Family Home Evening with Sis, Cliff, and their granddaughters.
24th Linda Goodman’s birthday / Sis and Cliff, their granddaughters, and Our local granddaughters came to our home to swim / Pack Meeting – with the Manette Ward Picnic at the Manette Playfield
25th Tacoma Pt. Defiance Zoo with Sis, her granddaughters, and Our local granddaughters
26th Benjamin passed his driver’s license road test, got auto insurance, and transferred the title of the Mazda into his name. / Jerry Matosich, his wife Barbara, and youngest daughter Adrian were here for lunch. He and his wife teach institute in The Dalles, OR. I asked if he knew Linda and Dave Terry. He said he and Linda served in the same mission together. I told him they are now temple missionaries in the Kiev Ukraine Temple, the 1st temple in Russia. I am receiving her emails and will forward them to Jerry.
27th Sang “Happy Birthday” to Taylor and Gent. / I drove the sleep apnea test results from Maile to Dr. Frandsen’s office. / I came home and weeded the strawberries and garden.

August 28- September 3, 2010
28th The Primary Children’s quarterly activity at our meetinghouse was about service. Grace and Dorian participated. On a poster of Jesus feeding the 5,000 they drew in B.J. and me and labeled us Uncle B.J. and Aunt Louise. We were surprised and pleased to see it on the primary wall on Sunday. The children also washed the bishop’s car as an actual act of service. I mowed the yard.
Tim was appointed to the Pahrump school board. Joseph told him a member of the board was retiring and encouraged Tim to run for the office. Tim put his name on the ballot and then realized he should also apply for interim appointment till election time. He asked Joseph not to attend the school board meeting where he was presenting himself as a candidate because he said it would make him more nervous to have Joseph there. He did a terrific job and was appointed unanimously. Of course, the election will still go forward but he starts in that position now.
29th Ruth and Tim’s 8th wedding anniversary / The Gill family spoke in sacrament meeting about standards. / The Relief Society and priesthood met together since it was a 5th Sunday and Bishop B.J. challenged each of us to participate in either the YW’s recognition program or the YM’s Duty to God program. President Anderson asked us to do this at the last stake conference. / It was a ward linger-longer and I had prepared an Armor of God activity for the children’s table / The Stake Youth fireside was a marriage know-your-spouse game with bishops and their wives as the panel members.
30th Michael Gent gave us a set of portable phones several weeks ago and I finally set them up because Benjamin said our old phone wouldn’t hold a charge. / B.J. and I hauled the food dehydrator up from the basement and I started apples.
31st Kevin Gent’s birthday - We called and sang to him / dehydrate more apples / cub scouts – Jessie Carson decided it would be good for the cubs to sit in on a Scout Court of Honor, which was happening in the gym. B.J. was home and I noticed his name as a speaker on the program. So I notified Graham Hall, who was conducting. He immediately asked me to take B.J. place to talk about how scouting blesses families. I loved the opportunity.
September 1st David phoned to say Our local granddaughters’s teacher had asked for a picture of the girls doing something from the summer. I printed up a sheet of pictures from the Splash Park with Grace and Dorian and he came by and picked it up. / I had ordered picture copies from Adam and Maile’s reception of B.J. and me with our nine children. I framed our copy for above our fireplace in the living room and mailed copies off to our children.
2nd During the wee hours B.J. and I walked around the lake and found it very peaceful. Not one car passed us. / There was a Relief Society dinner. I took Carol Wamsley and LaVon Willey That was possible because B.J. stayed with Kjar Willey.
3rd This weekend Debbie is going up to stay with Ruth while Tim, Nathan, Joseph, and Kathyrn’s brother and nephew drive up to stay at Adam’s and attend the BYU vs. Univ. of WA football game. I prepared the maps for our trip to Cascade Locks, OR: getting to the airport to pick-up and drop-off Linda, our Bridge of the Gods hotel, and getting to Gramma Toni’s.

September 4-10, 2010
4th Drove to Portland and picked up Linda at the airport. We drove to Cascade Locks and our cabin at Bridge of the Gods motel. We went to Buck’s 50th high school reunion dinner at the Marina. Buck drove in with his high school coach Wayne Sabin, with whom he had spent the night. Nametags helped tremendously.
At the dinner a man walked up to B.J. and said you don’t remember me but I remember you. You were a big high school kid and I was only in the second grade but you let me sit by you every day on the bus to school. Daddy B.J. greatest attribute in my opinion is his love of children. It isn’t a new thing with him, is it?
There was a raffle to raise money for education scholarships for Cascade Locks high school graduates. As a charitable donation Linda bought three tickets for $5 and believe it or not two of her tickets won. She won a cruise for two on a Portland steamboat (She can use the prize anytime within a year and she said she will come back to do that) and a matching necklace and earrings set of turquoise and white.
5th We drove up to the Hood River Ward where Buck, Linda, and B.J. attended church for several years. Bishop Gary Hornbeck rushed right up to us and recognized them. He called us into his office afterwards and told us we never know whom we were influencing. He was a classmate of Buck’s at Easter Oregon University before he was a member of the church. When he started investigating the church people threw all kinds of anti-Mormon stuff at him like “they participate in devil worship”. He said he knew Buck Gent wouldn’t do that kind of thing. So he investigated more and joined the church. We complimented him on how friendly his ward was. He said that a few years ago he and his wife were in Mesa Arizona and stopped at a church building to catch a sacrament meeting. No one person said hello or shook their hand or even seemed to notice they were there. They left without going to another meeting. He said he found out he mailing information for the stake president and wrote him a letter asking how that kind of treatment would affect an investigator. Some time later a friend from down that way had been at a stake conference where the stake president read a letter ….(guess who’s) and challenged his saints to be a lot more saintly. Interesting, huh?
Chris Finauer was another old friend there with us but there were others, whose names I don’t remember. / We were delighted to find a large wall display showing a world map with locations of service for all the missionaries who went out from Hood River. There was also a little plaque for each missionary with their name and the year they began their missions. There were little plaques for Buck to Peru and also B.J. to the Eastern States Mission.
The fast and testimony meeting was phenomenal. A sister was released after three years of service as a seminary teacher and sustained as the new YW’s stake president. She was the first to bear her testimony. She said how grateful she was for the seven young men who had gone out to serve missions whom she had the privilege of teaching. She had just returned from a trip to Washington D.C. to the rally that Glenn Beck organized. Five other women from their stake and two daughters of Cleon Skousen, all went together for the trip. The women from her stake had been studying principles of freedom and the American constitution throughout the past year. This sister said a wonderful spirit accompanied the rally. She said the most impressive thing was how they left the rally site immaculately clean.
The next to bear her testimony was a sister from Chile. She spoke broken English and apologized for not being able to do it better. She said she had watched the TV coverage of the Beck rally and then heard a commentator say that Mr. Beck was a Mormon, who do not believe in Jesus Christ. It really upset the sister and she found mailing addresses and wrote the commentator a letter telling her how incorrect her information was and she defended the Mormon church as THE Church of Jesus Christ. You could just feel her love of the gospel and determination to stand for truth and righteousness.
Buck bore his testimony and I have never felt better represented by a member of our family. It was a simple and beautiful declaration of faith. He quoted President Monson as saying testimonies that followed were just as moving.
After church we went to the Cascade Locks Marine Park again. We saw folks we met the evening before but also others from the community who knew nothing about the class reunion but just came to an annual “old-timers community potluck picnic”. It was a potluck and the food was delicious. A woman came to our table because she saw Gent on the nametags. She asked specifically for Lynn, which was the name Lynda went by through school. She wanted to share how much she appreciated Mom and Dad Gent. She said she was fourteen when her father died unexpectedly and her family was left in dire circumstances. Mom Gent worked at the fish cannery with the woman and simply offered her a ride to work. The daughter said her mother was in tears that night at the generosity. She wanted to express her appreciation for that long ago kindness.
Later B.J.’s and Buck’s high school coach Wayne Sabin led the way to the school. It was K-12 in the past but has been K-8 the past few years. Some people were there getting ready to start school the next morning. We walked through the gym and they all reminisced. They especially ribbed Buck about block tackling an opponent on the basketball floor and getting ejected from the game. B.J. showed me the stage where he acted in the senior play. His gun didn’t fire a blank when it was supposed to so after another failed try he simply said, “Bang.”
While some of us visited the bathrooms others struck up a conversation with the janitor and he offered to unlock the main hallway. More memories of pranks were shared and we took a long look at the “Class” pictures that hung in the hallways. I thought it would be like the pictures of the students knighted that hang at Bremerton High School. No. They meant an arrangement of every individual in a particular graduating year. There were about a dozen in Buck’s class and fifteen in B.J.’s. Linda crossed the Columbia River to go to high school in Stevens, Washington, so she wasn’t there.
Coach Sabin took Buck and Linda down to the playing field and they threw a discus. In fact the coach thought Linda had real potential so he gave her a woman’s discus.
6th We drove to three fish hatcheries: Ox Bow, where their family lived for four years, Cascade Locks Hatchery and then the Bonneville Hatchery where B.J.’s parents lived when he proposed to me and we became engaged. The house is gone now.
During the afternoon we hiked a couple of miles up to the Punch Bowl from the Columbia River Gorge. Linda is a hiker and she had to stop frequently for us to catch up. We saw dozens of pet dogs on this hike and scores of hikers including families with babies.
We ate a simple dinner at the cabin and later B.J., Linda and I walked down to an ice cream/caf. B.J. commented on the long lines of customers we saw every time we drove past. The lady said it was the only fast food establishment in about thirty miles either direction.
7th We arose early, loaded the car, and drove to visit Gramma Toni in Canby, Oregon. It was fun seeing her. She is so busy! / We dropped Buck and Linda at the airport in Portland and drove on home.
We had some wonderful phone calls that evening. Jordan is turning in his papers to go on a mission. I said calls because Jordan insisted on telling his grandfather himself. Hurrah!
8th Time to start playing catch up again. We gave each other haircuts. I worked on our business spreadsheets and even was motivated by reading again the account of Nephi’s efforts to keep a record. I know a work processor is a lot easier than engraving in metal so I felt without an excuse.
9th Cub Scout roundtable – I took Leah Pierson and Michelle Stoddard.
10th We gathered email addresses for shut-ins or others whom we felt would not hear stake conference otherwise. The stake clerk then sent them a link so they could watch the Sunday morning session on their computers at home. What a remarkable age we live in and we are surely blessed to have folks in our stake with computer savvy.
Brother Michael Bjerke picked up one of our full-time missionaries, Elder Anderson, and us to accompany him as he went to the temple to take out his own endowment. We were the witness couple in his session and then we caught an extra session before the meeting in the assembly hall for our stake conference. On the way home Bro. Bjerke took us to dinner at the Jasmine Mongolia Grill in Federal Way. When you select you food it is either frozen meat or chilled vegetables. They cook it all in front of you on a huge grill. It was very tasty.

Sept 11-19, 2010
11th I baked small birthday cakes for Tricia Sandbeck-Marshall, whom I visit teach, and Kathy Sorensen, who is the wife of B.J.’s 1st counselor (for Kathy it was one day early). I prepared food to get ready for the next day’s dinner with the missionaries after stake conference.
There was a special dinner for the bishops and their wives and the stake presidency and their wives. Our visiting authority, Elder Philip K. Bussey, requested it to get to know us a little and show appreciation for the work the men do and the support their wives give. Unfortunately B.J. had to take home the young people he had taken to the youth session. He didn’t make it back till the adult session at 7:00 PM that night. When the stake executive secretary phoned to remind me of the dinner, I thought he did it at B.J.’s request and that B.J. planned on meeting me there. I sat at the table with Elder Bussey and it was fascinating hearing how he and his wife adopted their son from Russia. Later when he was taking a few minutes addressing the whole group, he made an interesting comment, “Bishops, if you think this job is killing you, realize it will be a suicide not a homicide.” He was encouraging delegation and keeping priorities right – namely wife and family.
12th We enjoyed a wonderful stake conference. Sister Bowen, the mission president’s wife, shared a story about a friend who received help from the atonement of Jesus Christ. Her friend Marie had one child who shared her love of music and was a gifted musician. A drunk driver killed that daughter. A few days later Marie’s husband dropped dead. Alone with three other children to raise, Marie was filled with a lot of bitterness. She overcame it as much as she could by throwing herself into volunteer service with M.A.D.D. Almost two years passed before the trial of the drunk reached court. Marie watched in the courtroom as the young man’s mom and dad entered the courtroom and sat on opposite ends at the back of the spectators’ area. Neither of them communicated any love to their son. Marie felt that he had never felt love. Her anger turned to empathy. When she was asked to make a statement she said, ”He has been punished enough.” Bitterness was replaced with peace. She took over her husband’s business and was very successful. She sold the business and went back to school earning a PhD in music. She composed and philharmonic orchestras have played her music. Jesus Christ’s atonement does provide forgiveness from sins but it also is there to free us from pain and anguish. / The missionaries and Brother Bjerke joined us for dinner.
13th B.J. was 67 years old. We celebrated by going to the Pt. Defiance Zoo. He really got into enjoying the animals. Heavenly Father’s creations are awesome and zookeepers have shown some remarkable creativity in the habitats they have built for His creatures. / Benjamin started his move to 2000 11th Street where we rented a bedroom for him from Ken and Gayle Timmons. / Mr. Rostad dropped off replacement poles for the rotted ones on the big swing set in our circle drive.
14th I went visiting teaching with LaVon Willey and then took her to QFC to do her grocery shopping, which is a simple service I do for her from time to time. / In the afternoon I painted the new poles on the big swing. / I went to cub scouts and helped Leah do the initial measurements for the boys’ physical fitness records.
15th Buck was 69 years old so we phoned and left a singing message on his answering machine. I mowed our lawn.
16th I had my teeth cleaned. I visited Leah Pierson and we talked about integrity.
17th I started this labor of love and duty to catch up my Journal. B.J.’s sister set a wonderful example for me when we were together over the Labor Day weekend. I saw her jotting entries a couple of times into the spiral notebook she kept with her. She explained that she types them up later.
Linda shared a wonderful story with me as we drove to Gramma Toni’s. For the last two years she has been in charge of the 4th year girls’ hike for her stake’s girls camp. The first year it went like clockwork. This year it was awful. They had one other woman leader, twenty-three girls, and five priesthood brethren to assist. Thank goodness one of the men was a podiatrist and was able to help a lot. This hike included spending two nights away from camp. Most of the girls were not physically conditioned to meet the challenges. Several girls were using old backpacks from their fathers that had been decomposing in storage for decades. The packs were not inspected prior to the hike and many were to heavy or badly packed as well as falling apart. The hike went much slower than planned so the day stretched out. One girl only spoke Spanish. At least her branch president was there to translate. She was over-weight and soon literally sick and vomiting along side the trail. That night Linda gave her own sleeping pad to the girl to try to make her more comfortable. Fortunately they were only about one mile from the road, though they had hiked several miles as that days requirement. One of the brethren walked the sick girl out the next day and she returned to camp and the nursing station. Finishing the hike was still difficult. Only the end with a “hero’s welcome”, which is their girls’ camp tradition made it at all bearable. Linda had determined that she would never do it again. Then as she showered (her only one that week) the whisperings of the spirit came to her. She realized that being an older sister with zeal and know-how for hiking was both a terrific inspiration for the girls and a qualification for the task. She said that warm feelings of acceptance and appreciation from Heavenly Father came to her. She was assured that she was gifted with strength for and experience in hiking to benefit others. She went to the stake camp director and told her she would lead the hike again next year. That sister was relieved and delighted with the news.
18th In the wee hours of the morning I finished reading “The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson. At one thousand large pages of rather small print it rates as an epic. The author said it is only the first in a series. I loved it. Bro. Sanderson, who teaches English at BYU, has a fantastic imagination and the ability to write so well that the whole story becomes believable in the reader’s mind.
Michael has a young man from his ward in the Washington Youth Academy, which is sort of an alternative military boarding school for high school students. It is here in Bremerton and only 3.4 miles from our house. There are only two visiting days a year - one of which was Saturday and a service project at Illahee State Park in east Bremerton. Michael needed to meet him by 8:00 AM but he also wanted to bring us some of his company’s exceptionally fine scrap firewood. He borrowed the truck from the man in his ward who runs the car agency, started loading it all by himself after 9:00 PM Friday night and got up early enough to drive all the way from Bellingham and arrive before 7:00AM Saturday morning. He didn’t get much sleep! B.J. and I helped him unload and loaned him the Impala to meet Arik Scott and take him on the service project. Michael brought Arik here to introduce us after taking him to lunch.

A new Great-Grandson & a visit from the Jernon and David Kelly family

March 19, 2010

We have a new great-grandson. Easton Porter Adams was born at 10:15 PM on Tuesday March 16^th in the Utah Valley Medical Center, which is the same hospital where his grandfather Will was born almost forty-three years ago. Easton is six-and-a-half pounds and nineteen inches long

We had a wonderfully exciting weekend with Jernon and David Kelly visiting with their children from Utah. Since their son Steven had part is The Music Man production at his high school they couldn’t leave their home till Saturday morning. They arrived at my sister’s house late that night. They and Will, and David and his girls joined us at our home after church Sunday. Adryann and Brynneé had a grand time playing with Steven, Grace, and Dorian. Kaden is still too young to play very well with the others but he had a dandy time with our outdoor toys and the indoor toy box and leading his mom down to the lake.

We all got together again Monday evening for family home evening. There were marshmallows for roasting and hot dogs and cookies and yogurt pie. We enjoyed compliments and then a small memory lesson to help remember the order of the prophets for the verses of the children’s song “Follow the Prophet”.

My children will remember years ago dog-sitting for John and Ruth Copeland’s dogs while they vacationed. Sunday evening John baptized their daughter Porsha. We have been friends for over two decades and it was a thrill for them to reach that benchmark in their family’s growth in the gospel.

My sister and I saw two of our sisters on our visiting teaching route Thursday and Sis packed up a dinner for the third sister to. Sister Lorri Hamilton fell on a neighbor’s driveway and cracked a couple of ribs and wasn’t up to a regular visit but appreciated Sis’ generosity.

That evening I picked up the first counselor and secretary for our ward primary and we attended our stake primary leadership meeting. I visited Sister Bresch earlier in the week. Though she is making consistent slow progress it will still be some time before she is strong enough to return to her duties as our ward primary president. As the tempoary 3^rd counselorI am doing what I can to take up the slack.

Wednesday Daddy B.J. picked up Michael Pierson and he is joining our household for an indefinite period of time. He had become a hermit in his own home. I have taken him to seminary for two mornings and he is at least getting outside to ride his bike around a bit. Actually Daddy B.J. just came in and said he had taken him on a small hike to the top of the woods up the hill from Camp McKean. Hs mother has made arrangements for him to start with an Internet school next August. He has his scout handbook here and is a Life scout now with about ten months left to work toward Eagle, so that’s the plan.

When we go to Utah in May to pick up Benjamin we have been invited to stay at Jernon and David’s home. We are delighted and we know Benjamin will be also since he has learned to love their children through their visits to him in prison.

Will just showed me how to get to a video on the Internet. It was about our son David’s Kitsap Foot and Ankle Clinic and the stars were David, Adryann and Brynneé, Will and office staff. David provided all the dialog describing the care they can provide. It was just another way to advertise but it sort of made me feel like they were movie stars.

I have enjoyed phone calls from several of our children within the last week and it was a thrill to chat for a bit. Michael says that Jenna is doing well in her pregnancy and Anna Kate talks to the baby inside her mommy. Joseph likewise reports that Kathryn is doing well. The only bad part about planning the trip to Nathan’s graduation is that our grandsons won’t have arrived yet - both being about a month short of their delivery dates. So, I don’t know when we will get to see Joseph and Kathryn’s baby in person. Of course, Jenna won’t be up to traveling that far so she and Mike won’t be at Nathan’s Graduation. On the bright side, Michael and Jenna at least live close enough that we can drive up when their new little one is blessed.

Ruth has redecorated her piano room and bathroom with a paint job that involves a couple of colors and a stain that is rubbed off after being applied and highlights the color combinations. I look forward to seeing it.

Debbie spent a night chaperoning young lady participants from T.J.’s group at a theater festival. Three of her girls were up later than hoped as they first bleached their black hair and then dyed it the school mascot’s brightest color.

Adam has been welcomed as a guest in Sis and Cliff’s Salt Lake City condominium “hotel”. He moved up Wednesday. Sis and Cliff will be driving down from here Friday to help him settle in. When they return in a week they will be headed for a stand-by military flight from Fairchild air-force base in Spokane to England to visit Korb and Camera and their boys.

Nathan is moving closer to campus so we will get to visit yet another apartment when we meet him in May. He helped Adam with him move. surely he is gettin plenty of practice.

We love you!

Will and Mama Louise's trip to Utah

One week ago today Will and I visited Benjamin in Brigham City, Utah, He is within two months of being released. He told us that his being moved back to prison from Ogden last summer automatically dropped him from the program for rehabilitation training. He said he would need to reapply and that it could take six months to a year to get approved so that they would pay tutition for barber school for him. Sigh! So he now plans to come home to Bremerton with us right after Nathan’s graduation from Law School in May. Here he will settle whatever needs taking care of with possible past law infractions and apply for rehabilitation support and get on with education for a vocation as soon as possible. He praised Jernon and her family for their visits and letters and is excited that they are considering a move to Bremerton.
I visited with Jernon and David and their sons Steven and Kaden and daughter Dorian on Saturday. David has an interview next Monday in our corner of Washington in Shelton for a county administrative position. He will scout out any other job possibilities in the area also. If he gets hired they will gear up toward a move into the house just north of the one where my sister and I grew up and where Sis and Cliff now live. 628 Washington Ave. needs to be finished but major remodeling was completed a while ago. Steven is in his high school musical presentation Thursday and Friday evenings. Saturday the whole family including Grace will drive up. We are especially eager for Grace and Dorian to get to know our granddaughters Adryann and Brynneé.
After visiting Jernon’s I found Jan and Wayne Bales’ home which is within fifteen miles northeast of Sis and Cliff’s condominium in Salt Lake City. I do a lot of praying as I navigate by google maps or mapquest directions, which sometimes lack accuracy at least according to my interpretations. I found them and enjoyed my visit immensely. I shocked them a bit when they asked about Daddy B.J. and I said he was delivering the funeral sermon for Kristin Atkins Johnson as we spoke. I had forgotten that Kris assisted Jan and Wayne in caring for her father Tom Funk during his final months. Kris stayed with him nights so Jan and Wayne could get some rest. They loved her and had no idea she had passed away. We had known Kris and her family about a dozen years since I was assigned as her visiting teacher. We were at her youngest daughter’s baptism. Kris worked with Daddy B.J. as an office helper and he paid for her to take the test for an insurance license numerous times till she finally passed. Kris invited me to be her escort when she went to the temple for the first time. But, her mom contacted me ahead of time and surprised Kris by meeting us at the temple to escort her. Kris had type I diabetes since early childhood and had suffered greatly this past year. It truly was merciful for her to pass. Jan and Wayne told me about the passing of their daughter-in-law Joel’s wife at the end of December from cancer. Does it seem to you that as we get older we either talk more about death or at least are more aware of it?
Will's and my trip was two-fold in purpose: to celebrate Travis’s 12th birthday with him on the 4th and for Will to confer the Aaronic priesthood on him and ordain him to the office of Deacon on Sunday the 7th. Since Travis was staying home from school celebrating his birthday and Allyssa was home sick with a cold on Thursday, Mindie offered Ashton the chance to stay home too. Will took Travis away quite a while on a father-son date. During that time Ashton and Allyssa and I played four board games. Later I helped Allyssa make a batch of spritz butter cookies. Mindie bought two ice cream cakes and Will went to the China Wok restaurant and bought plenty of Chinese food for the birthday supper. Jordan is awaiting the start of a new job at a restaurant where the waiters deliver orders on roller-blades. He is working out weekdays with his mother at the gym and playing a lot of Internet computer games. Justin arrived home from school. Then Kevin joined the celebration after work. Because Tiffany’s baby is due in less than two weeks she decided her family would stay home away from Allyssa’s germs. I visited in Tiff and Chris’ home one evening and then Tiffany brought the children over to play on Saturday afternoon.
On the way down we took Ruth's four kitchen barstools and her nine volume set of The Work and the Glory series. I left them at Tim’s sister’s house. Ruth will be able to pick them up from there. We also took a baby afghan to Tiffany and dropped off one for Jorgen and Amy Goodman, who are also expecting.
Travis and Justin were given the responsibility of picking up fast offerings right after church. Their ward is so small geographically that they easily fulfilled their assignment on foot and since they started with apartments surrounding their own parking lot I was able to watch from Mindie’s doorway.
Will and I visited with the family the rest of the day Sunday and then headed home to Bremerton on Monday morning. We were privileged to stay in Sis and Cliff’s condo so I washed up our sheets and remade the beds and vacuumed and swept – not that that was needed – while Will dropped off copies of the book he recently put together to two publishers. We listened to Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Shadow” driving down and his “Empire” on the return trip. Will agreed that the books passed time well and he enjoyed the stories too.
The most interesting thing to happen since our return is that Dr. David Gent removed a piece of mechanical pencil lead about 8 mm long from the bottom of Daddy B.J.’s foot. None of us can imagine how that happened!

Birthdays Galore ahead and a Great Week behind

It's birthday time next week for Joe and Mindie on the 1st, Amy on the 2nd and Travis on the 4th. Travis will be twelve, Amy nine, and I'm not telling on the other two.

We had the cutest message on our answering machine Sunday. T.J. was crowned King at his high school Winter Formal Saturday night. He didn’t even plan on going to the dance but his friends talked him into it telling him that he had been nominated for the court. A friend loaned him his tuxedo so he arrived looking great with the girls and boys from the drama group, who form the cluster of his friends.

I didn’t actually get finished but I worked at sorting and cleaning in my office for a couple of hours last week. I came across some starry sticker sheets. I bought them at Vinnie’s sometime and then forgot them. Years ago Michael and Joseph had their college apartment’s bedroom ceiling covered with them. They glow in the dark. Sunday morning about forty-five minutes before I was to leave for choir practice, I received a phone call and was asked to substitute for the sunbeam teacher. “I Am Thankful For The Day And Night” was the title of the lesson. It called for pasting a piece of black construction paper over half a sheet of paper and talking about the creation of the sun, moon, and stars and the things we can see and do in the daytime and night time. It was a tender mercy of the Lord to have the starry stickers. My class was three darling three-year-old boys. I was in the C.W’s home last night to help with preparation for Saturday’s primary activity day. C.W. came in carrying his paper from Sunday’s class. His mom said he has been taking it everywhere – even to his grandmother’s house – and taking it into every dark room to watch the stars and planets glow in the dark. That’s a lot of payback for a little house cleaning. It made me feel like I did an all-star job teaching.

After Joseph recommended the movie “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” Will told me that David and Fatima owned a copy. The boys invited me to watch it in David and Fatima’s home theater. Will showed it for me and it was excellent acting and great historical fiction. I had heard how horrible the seas and storms were sailing around the southern tip of South America. The ice and heavy weather was portrayed vividly. I wonder if they can do that with just the magic of technology or if they do some on-site filming. Burrrr, it looked cold! Then the scenes about the Galapagos Islands were fascinating. What strange animals and birds naturalists found when they first arrived.

Daddy B.J. and I took a car(over)load to our stake conference temple night last Friday evening. We found a request to go from a Johnny Palmer on our answering machine right before we were ready to leave. Of course we couldn’t say no. Daddy B.J. folded up our heavy afgan and stuck a couple of pillows behind the back seat of the van and slept on the way to make seats enough for everyone else. He had already taken his place before we picked up the last sister. She was amazed when we arrived at the temple and Will let the Bishop out the back. There was a little confusion and Will missed our gathering in the assembly room and missed joining our endowment session. The poor fellow then waited for us and not knowing he was behind actually ended up a full hour or two sessions after us. That just gave the rest of us a good long time to talk and visit together afterwards before he exited the temple.

Our stake suffers the unusual challenge of having its stake conference dates assigned when it is impossible to have its temple night together with the conference itself because of a temple closure. A Friday, Saturday, Sunday combination in a row is customary. Lavina and Cliff range frequently back and forth between their two homes and Sis didn’t know last Friday was our temple night since next weekend is conference. She was in town but I didn’t think to tell her. Sad that the people, who are the most important to us, can be the last people we think of sometimes. On the brighter side she will be going to the Saturday night adult session with me in three days.

A Very Special Valentine's Day

Michael, who reads my blog posting has helped me with additional information. Tiffany and Christ Adams' son's middle name is correctly spelled Isaac. Michael and Jenna's daughter's first name is both Anna and Kate, which is Anna Kate. Now for the latest news:

It is President’s Day, the federal holiday, which took the place of our state’s celebration of George Washington’s birthday. That was February 22nd. Since Daddy B.J. and I have always admired President Abraham Lincoln as much as our founding father and this holiday now salutes both of them, I am content. President Lincoln’s birthday was February 12th, but a number of years ago our national government decided to let all nationally observed holidays except Independence Day, Christmas, Veteran’s Day and New Year’s Day fall only on Mondays. That does provide a three-day weekend in most cases and folks generally dislike going to work on Monday more than any other day so it made a lot of people happy.Friday night was our ward activity for February. It was Karaoke. Will brought Adryann and Brynneé. About thirty folks participated. Daddy B.J. was not among them because he has been tortured with sciatica pain and had received a priesthood blessing directing him to take a vacation for a few days. Well he didn’t precisely follow that counsel because he wanted to serve in his usual responsibilities Sunday in particular. He did get some extra rest Friday and Saturday. I am hoping he will take it easier today also.

Sunday was a momentous day for me. Though our bishop had said it wouldn’t happen during his tenure, I was released from the activities committee. I was sustained as the third counselor in the Primary presidency. Our president, who fell ill in November and was hospitalized for almost two months, is recuperating but not ready to resume her duties again yet. The first and second counselors are both tremendous young newly wedded sisters. Angela Rowe is a mechanical engineer in the shipyard and Sherilyn Voss is a nurse, who works in an allergy specialist’s office. When I was set apart my blessing said that I would serve in this new capacity till the president could return, and then be released with another calling awaiting me. I had wondered how it would work and Heavenly Father answered that question.

Early in January Daddy B.J. asked me to speak in sacrament meeting the second Sunday of this month. Of course I accepted the assignment. . The assigned topic was the temple. Will mentioned to me that the Silverdale stake were having stake conference the first weekend in February and that they would have a General Authority since a new stake president was being called. Will and I took advantage of a “party crashing” opportunity to attend the Saturday evening adult session. The evening’s theme was the temple and my notes provided me with an excellent resource. The new stake president is Eric Gillespie. When our daughter Ruth was about six-years-old Eric and his wife were in a play for a youth conference held up at Fort Warden. They invited Ruth to dress in white and go and sing “I Am A Child of God”. I made the white dress and remember the drive up with Ruthie quite well.
It was some time before I realized my talk would be on Valentine’s Day. Talking of Heavenly Father’s love for us and his greatest gift to all his children being the blessings of the gospel and especially the temple with its sealings of families for eternity really fit. Will came to listen to my talk and it was wonderful to look out and see him smiling at us as the meeting began. The bishop invited me to sit right beside him in the chair usually occupied by his first counselor. That felt strange but it was nice to hold hands during a lot of the program. That was a pretty good visual aid for our very romantic love on Valentine’s Day, wasn’t it? I took the liberty of using another visual aid, which is generally discouraged in sacrament meeting talks. Daddy B.J. gave me a dozen red roses Saturday and a red plastic heart with “I love you” written on it and a plastic stick to insert it with the flowers accompanied them. I held up the heart when I made points about things Heavenly Father had given us because of his love and I said I hoped that whenever we saw a heart we would be reminded of his love. By the way, I gave in to the temptation to buy a miniature rose, which was reduced in price at Ralph’s Red Apple market. Of course it is also red. Hopefully it will live longer than the elegant bouquet.

Sometime back in January I bought a cabinet at my favorite store especially to use for keeping my journals. The little shelves I had been using were becoming overburdened. Will provided transportation home, since the cabinet wouldn’t fit in my car. He and Daddy B.J. carried it to the basement and there it sat till I found time to work on the transfer. Actually I took one of the evenings when Daddy B.J. was in Texas between the 3rd and 5th of February and placed all the pictures that had accumulated from ward activities over the past year and a half into a binder. That was the second such picture history. Those two definitely would have over exceeded the old shelf capacity. To tell the truth, I doubt if anyone else will ever care to look through them but the pictures kept our ward bulletin board a lot more interesting and the activities themselves were labors of love. One of the nicest things about my new journal shelf is that there is lots of room for more binders in the future.

Joseph left a really enthusiastic message on our answering machine about a movie his had watched “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”. He said the British accents were so pronounced that he had to read the subtitles to follow the dialogue but that he knew it was the kind of movie I would enjoy. Daddy B.J. says that since he can’t understand English – a foreign language you know- there is no use his watching movies made in England. Perhaps with subtitles he could make it through one.

Debbie is going great guns with her Brownie Girl Scout group. They are involved in their annual cookie sale. Jay is supporting them by preparing gifts for his past and present clients. Debbie and their daughters baked up a storm of homemade cookies for Valentine’s Day. They had a grand time baking and decorating and preparing plates to give to special teachers and helpers at school. Monica is particularly sweet, treating the janitor and crossing guard as deserving of her love and respect as the teachers. Amy found a new tool to be fascinating – the rolling pin. To my great delight they clamored for whipping up “Gramma’s frosting”. Well I learned to make powdered sugar frosting from my mom when I was a girl too. That makes it sort of a tradition, doesn’t it?

David stopped by one evening last week and made a valentine to take to Fatima. He said he had also given her a gift earlier. It does my heart good to see romance flourishing among my children. We love all of you and hope you felt loved indeed on Valentine’s Day.