Gordon B. Hinckley

President Gordon B. Hinckley

June 23, 1910-January 27, 2008 The First Presidency prior to Presidency Hinckley's death.
I would be totally remiss if I didn't add my thoughts on our beloved Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. He was truly a prophet of God. He has done so much for the church in these latter days. The world's eyes have been opened as to what a Latter-Day Saint really is. With President Hinckley's wit, humor, and wisdom, he has let the world know that we really aren't that different from other people. We love God, we worship Jesus Christ, we believe in helping our fellow man. I love him so much. He will always hold a special place in my heart.

Can you imagine the sweet reunion with his dear sweet wife? He has missed her so badly. I am happy for him--I am sad for us. I pray that we can take just part of what he was and institute it in our own lives. We love you, President Hinckley!

The Lady with the Pink Gun

This weekend I was looking out my kitchen window and was watching a stare down. Lucky was tied up to her doghouse when this deer came around the corner of the shed. Then it noticed Lucky. They looked at each other for about five minutes. Then Lucky started to get up and run toward the deer, and it bounded off. They have been loving our front yard eating berries that have fallen off the trees. Okay, here is the pink gun--I didn't get a picture of Lacey with it though. Landon bought Lacey a pink .22 this weekend. They came up to let us see it, and we went shooting down by the river bridge. This is Landon shooting Lacey's gun and Curt shooting his. It was so cold we couldn't stay long.
Here is Curt with the pink special. Doesn't he look cute with a pink gun? Right after this picture was taken, Curt found a thistle across the river with the head still on it. He said, "Let's try to shoot it." So he, Landon, and Lacey took turns trying to hit it. It wasn't very big. Then Curt wanted me to take a shot at it. Guess what? I was the winner!!! I shot it off! Landon started laughing, and Curt just couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't know he had a trigger-happy wife!

Tagged!

I was tagged by my daughter, Cashelle.

Here goes!

1. Ten years ago I was 43. All of my kids were at home and I had no grandchildren or kids married. I had 22 years of teaching under my belt (yep, I'm working on 32 this year!!!). I had two teenagers and one who thought she should be.

2. Five things on my to do list 1. REALLY clean my house (walls, woodwork, closets, etc.). 2. Work on genealogy. 3. Backup all my pictures on my computer to CDs (hopefully before something happens to my computer). 4. Clean out my filing cabinet to get ready to organize my taxes (yuck!). 5. Organize all the stuff I have kept from my kids when they were in school.

3. Snacks I enjoy: homemade cookies, fresh fruit, cashews, brown sugar and cinnamon poptarts, and movie theater popcorn.

4. 3 bad habits: 1) eating too much too late at night (ditto to Cashelle--did she learn that from me or did I learn that from her?!?). 2) staying up too late on weeknights. 3) spending too much time on the computer--especially at night. (Don't worry, I don't look at porn. I could spend HOURS exploring with Google Earth and playing Pogo games.)

5. If I suddenly became a billionaire I would build a lovely, nice home for all my kids (Cashelle and A.J. already have a nice one--maybe we could add on!), build an addition onto our home so everyone would have their own bedroom when they come to stay, and give ten thousand dollars (or more--hey, I could splurge) to each of my kids, to each of my brothers/sisters, Curt's brothers/sisters, and our moms.

6. Places I've lived: Manti, Logan, Gunnison. (Wow, I just realized I've REALLY been around--NOT!)

7. Jobs I've had: topstitching in a coat factory, secretary for the experiment station at Snow College, typing a few books for Mr. Antrei that he wrote and published, high school teacher (for 32 years), and a mother.

8. Things people don't know about me: I love movies that have happy endings, my favorite season is SPRING (right around the corner!), I like to play detective (I've done it a couple of times), I wish I could bring peace to the world, and my favorite color is green.

I tag: Lacey, Amanda, and Amy Robinson

Audrey's B'day Weekend

I can't believe I only have one picture I can add to my blog from this weekend. My battery died right after I took pictures of Thomas and Cody--so I missed Audrey's birthday party. We had a fun time, though. This picture below is Thomas and Cody who were busy hugging and kissing each other. I thought this was a cute picture of Thomas letting Cody sit on his lap.

We had quite a houseful for Audrey's birthday party. Cashelle had bought a Hannah Montana cake and we had ice cream. Those present were: Curt, me, Cashelle, A. J., Madalynn, Thomas, Chris, Amanda, Cody, Lacey, Landon, Grandma Kjar, Grandma Duncan, Kelly, Athena, Christian and Kaylee. Audrey got some cute presents--and we had a good time together. On Saturday night, everyone from my family stayed at our house. In the morning (Sunday) I made sausage and pancakes on the new grill I got for Christmas from Chris and Amanda. Then Lacey and Landon had to leave. Chris and Amanda left about 2 p.m. Cashelle, A.J., Madalynn, Audrey, I, and Thomas went to sacrament meeting (Curt is a clerk at Snow College 1st ward--so he went there) until Thomas decided to fill his diaper during the sacrament. So A. J. took Thomas home. About 2 p.m. Cashelle and the girls and I left to take Grandma Duncan down to Richfield so she could go to her church--the Good Shepherd Lutheran church.
All in all we had a nice weekend. I love it when the whole family is together. Saturday night, Curt and I tended while the kids and their spouses went out to dinner. It was nice for them to be able to do that.

And I Thought 2007 Was a Busy Year!! . . .

Honestly, with two weddings, a baby, and a funeral last year, I figured it had to be the busiest year. I'm beginning to wonder. In the first nine days of 2008, there has been so much drama in my life and my family's lives--and it hasn't even been two weeks! Check out my previous blog. Also visit Cashelle and A.J.'s blog. I have more to add today . . .

Tuesday night (Jan. 8) around 11:30 p.m., Curt says, "You know, I've been having chest pains, and no matter what I do, they won't go away. They're getting really bad. I think we better go to the hospital." I was in bed, my eyes closed, almost asleep and I sit straight up in bed. "Now?!? Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me sooner?!?!" He had been having pains since the day before! I about freaked out, threw on my clothes, and grabbed the keys. For Curt to say, "Let's go to the hospital" I knew it had to be something bad. He absolutely WILL NOT go to the doctor for anything. You know how men are.

We get down to the hospital and they take his blood pressure. It was 210/120 (or something relatively close). NOT a good sign. He begins to experience pain in his LEFT shoulder (definitely not good). The doctor takes an EKG and sees things that are definitely not normal. He calls Utah Valley to consult with their on-call cardiologist. They decide to keep him in Gunnison until morning so I get home about 3:30 a.m. I sleep for a couple of hours, get up and go back down to Gunnison.

They had checked his vitals all night. Everything except his blood pressure were okay--except for one other little thing. His blood sugar level was 298--normal is from about 80-120. The doctor says "I hate to tell you this, but besides the problems you are experiencing you have diabetes--Type 2. " Great. Something else unexpected.

The doctor in Gunnison decides to call the ambulance to transport Curt to Utah Valley Hospital in Provo. Before the ambulance gets there, Curt's brother, Steve, and Steve's son, Shaun, come down, along with Carol and Grandma Kjar, to see how he is doing and to give him a priesthood blessing. As soon as the blessing was done, Curt said, "Wow, I feel better already." Meanwhile the ambulance people come in and strap him up to the gurny. It had seatbelts and everything! By the time they get him all strapped up he can't even move. Then Curt says, "I feel like I'm going skydiving." We all start to laugh. Definitely, skydiving is out of the question right now.

By the way, it had snowed (A LOT) that night after I got back from the hospital. Going down to Gunnison in the morning was treacherous. Anyway, the ambulance people wouldn't let me ride with them so I plan on following in our Toyota 4 Runner. Grandma Kjar insists on riding with me. The roads were really pretty good except for around Santaquin. We did get there not long behind the ambulance.

So, we get in the hospital and they already have Curt in the room where they are going to do the angiogram. Dr. Frischknecht (a childhood friend of Curt's) was the doctor at Curt's request. He is one of the best cardiologists in the state. After it is over, Dr. Frischknecht ushers me and Grandma in to see the pictures of the procedure. He shows us the arteries--no blockages. They look perfect. He shows us the valves--again perfect, no leaking. He says "There is nothing wrong with this heart. Look how strong it is." And, he was right. Absolutely nothing wrong. So, okay, why the chest pains? By the way, Curt has been carrying on a conversation with all of us, laughing, etc. He mumbles to Dr. Frischknect he needs to come down for some mutton and sour dough. I almost giggle because he sounds like he has been on a big party. Dr. Frischknecht laughs, looks at Grandma and I, and tells us Curt won't remember what he said. "In fact, he won't remember even seeing me." When we got Curt back to his room, he woke up and asked why Dr. Frischknecht hadn't come yet--it was getting late. We all had to chuckle at that one.

So, Plan 2, they decide to put a scope down his throat and look at his esophogus and stomach since his heart was not the problem. Maybe his esophagus is burned or scarred from too much acid. Nothing (except an acidic stomach--which we already knew). So now we go to Plan 3--a CAT scan. Turns up nothing (they do find a little pleuresy, or inflammation, in his lungs. Curt had been sick a few weeks ago and had a lingering cough). Still, Dr. Frischknecht believes that wouldn't cause the pain that Curt experienced. The only explanation he could come up with was a clot or a piece of plaque had partially blocked an artery and then dissolved itself before the doctor could catch it. I don't buy it. I honestly believe the priesthood blessing took care of the problem. Right after the blessing, Curt said he felt better. He also said he felt something move in his chest and then it was gone. He still can feel where the pain had been but it was gone. So this morning, I picked him up and brought him home. What a blessing it wasn't his heart. Thanks to all of you who prayed for him. Our prayers were answered.

Now, for the rest of my problem, I missed school Wednesday and Thursday. The quarter ends on Friday. Anyone want to come over for a paper-checking party? I think I'll be at it all weekend!

I'm looking forward (NOT!) to our next 2008 challenge . . .

What a weekend--For everybody!

Ever had a bad day? Let's multiply that by four. Curt and I plus all three of our kids and families had bad experiences this weekend.

First of all, Curt and I had to run up to Sam's Friday after school. I had to pick some things up for school plus we had to get the oil changed in our Toyota at Brent Brown's. Anyway, I was to pick up the high school Sam's club credit card from one of the teachers when we got up Provo. So we did. Curt put the credit card in his vest pocket. We continued shopping, getting a few things for ourselves and some T-shirt transfers, flash drives, and computer ink cartridges for the school. We get up to the checkout counter, unload our stuff first, and then the school's stuff after. I said, "OK, Curt. Give me the credit card." He stuck both hands in his vest pockets, all his pants pockets, pulled out his wallet, as I'm saying, "Curt, you're not funny. Give me the card." (If you know Curt, you never know when he is kidding or not.) He got a blank look on his face, looked through all his pockets again, and then said he was certain he had given it to me. Not! So, he started hurrying back the way we came while I'm explaining to the clerk (of course, with a line of people behind me) that these items are for the school and my husband had just lost the high school's Sam's Club credit card. Finally, since Curt hadn't returned, I whipped out my debit card and paid for the school's stuff from our account--$480 worth!!! (Not even counting the $165 we had spent on our own stuff.) I hurried to the customer service desk and told them the situation. We decided we had better cancel the school's credit card so if someone had picked it up they couldn't use it. Curt was so upset--but not as upset as I was. How was I going to explain this to the principal? We get home and I call Mr. Squire telling him he'd never guess what had happened. He was all nice about it and said that Debbie could take care of it on Monday. So now I just need to get $480 from the school. I'm sure they'll reimburse me . . .

Second, A. J. and Cashelle had a terrible wind storm in Tooele and lost their beautiful fence that had enclosed their backyard. They lost the trampoline--for a little while. They eventually found all the parts of it. As A. J. and Cashelle are rounding up the parts of their fence so they won't get covered by the snow and not found until spring, a big gust of wind comes up and A. J. gets struck in the head with one of the panels from their fence. Yep, he got a concussion. At least their family was safe . . .

Third, Chris and Amanda. They live in an apartment building on the ground floor. The apartment above them had a break in their water heater. The water came down the walls of Chris and Amanda's apartment. Now they are going to have to get new carpet plus the landlord will have to fix the walls in their living room. This weekend they had to live with the sound of dehumidifiers trying to get the dampness out of their apartment. Luckily none of their things were ruined thanks to Amanda's quick thinking to move the couch away from the wall . . .

Fourth, Lacey and Landon. Theirs wasn't quite as drastic, but still an inconvenience. They waited all day for the cable guy to come and install their Internet and cable, but they never showed up. They travel to Richfield for the weekend because Landon's buddy had gotten married. They had to travel bad roads to get there and bad roads to get home. Luckily they made it home safely . . .

Saturday Curt had to drive the bus to Delta for the drill team competition. He wanted me to go with him. And miss my Saturday cleaning day? The only day I have to clean the house? I kept making up excuses why I couldn't go but finally relented. I'm glad I did. We left home at 5:30 a.m. and got home at 9:30 at night. We bought ourselves a personal DVD player and took some movies with us. We watched our girls perform, of course, but the rest of the day I checked papers from school and we watched two movies "Disturbia" (which was really a pretty good movie. If you haven't seen it, you ought to check it out." We also watched "Signs"--one of my favorites. Oh, by the way, the girls took 2nd in military and 2nd in dance, and they have nine freshmen on their team! Not a bad showing.

All in all, I think I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow . . .

Christmas holidays--2007

We had a GREAT Christmas season this year--2007. I took a lot of pictures and we made a lot of memories. Curt and I were fortunate to have ALL of our family home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That was a blessing to us. Our house isn't built for that kind of a gathering, but we had a blast. It was hectic at times, but I think we could all say it was one of our favorite Christmases ever. We had sledding episodes, cooking class (don't forget my famous peanut brittle--I baked most of Christmas Eve. We made cookies, almond bark with candy canes, and, yes, peanut brittle that turned out to be peanut taffy. I didn't cook it long enough. It was a dentist's nightmare! Luckily we got rid of it before it pulled out any teeth. We let Lucky, the dog, try some--she was even baffled as to how to get it off her teeth!) Even though our home is smaller than we would like, everyone had their own bed--no one had to sleep on the floor. I did find out later, as I was checking out the Christmas stockings on Christmas Eve when I thought everyone was asleep, Cashelle and A.J. were actually on the couches in the front room. It appears Audrey tried to sleep with them but it didn't work. I was oblivious to their presence. I didn't even know until Christmas morning! Below you will see some of the memories we made together as a family. We also did the traitional Christmas Eve at Grandma Kjar's (it was a little sad this year without Grandpa Ben). We sang songs, ate chile, drank eggnog, and read stories. A. J. read the Christmas story from Luke--we had a wonderful time there. After we got home, everyone had a package to open before bedtime--everyone got pajamas to wear to bed except for Curt. He didn't think he needed any. The girls all had matching blue tops and pink bottoms, and the boys had matching white tops with black bottoms. Notice as you look through the pictures . . . During the holidays Audrey and Madalynn got to go sledding down at the farm with Uncle Chris, Aunt Amanda, Aunt Lacey, and Pompa Kjar. We also went one other day so that Grandma Kjar could watch the kids having fun. It was a fun time.

Here Chris, Amanda, and Lucky are pulling Madalynn and Audrey on the sleds behind the 4-wheeler. They were very good sports and enjoyed every minute of it. They didn't want it to end.

Here is Chris and Amanda opening a gift on Christmas morning in their new jammies!
Lacey and Landon opening their games from mom and dad.
Thomas and Audrey rolling around on the BEAUTIFUL quilts made by Landon's mom, Shelly. They were the cutest pink John Deere quilts I have ever seen. She is so talented--and so selfless. Thanks, Shelly, for being so good to my granddaughters.
Here is Curt opening his new toy. He got a helicopter! He took it up to school one day during the holidays and he and Kendall had a blast flying it down the halls of the school.
Cute little Cody with a Chrismas bow on his head. He was really getting the hang of opening gifts before Christmas day was over!


Just look at the pile (this is the smallest pile) of gifts in our tiny living room. The stockings were full to the brim, too!
This is a better view of the amount of presents under(?) the tree. They wouldn't all fit under the tree. We had them all over the room! With 12 people, you can imagine the stack of gifts! It took quite a while to get them all opened.
A. J. opening their new food processor from us. Notice the pajamas?
Cashelle got a surprise from A. J. He got her a "Studs and Spurs" calendar as a joke. She was saying she would need to trade it in on an "appropriate" calendar to hang in her kitchen. Heck, I'll take it if she doesn't want it!
Chris, Amanda, and Cody opening a present for Cody (a little John Deere tractor from Gammie and Pompa). Notice the matching P.J.s.



Here is Amanda opening her pink and blue jammies.
Lacey opening her jammies.
Thomas in his new Thomas the Train P.J.s.
Madalynn, Audrey, and Cody in their Christmas Eve pajamas.
Another view of the tree with the stack of presents.

Before Christmas, Curt and I saw this amazing sunset. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture of it. We submitted it in the December KSL pictures.
Here is Cody at Lacey and Landon's house. He was trying to make a messy diaper so Amanda thought she'd set him on the potty. Didn't work.
A.J. opening his jammies.
Chris opening his jammies.
Landon opening his way too BIG jammies. When Curt and I picked them up, we thought we had traded for a medium for Landon. Guess what? He got an EXTRA LARGE. If you know Landon, you know he is definitely not an extra large--the crotch hung down to his knees. Oh well, another fun memory!