Great News, and sad news....

Great News... Baby Boy born to Jennifer and Mike this morning at 5:06 AM. Austin Ryder Maughan, 9 lb and 8 oz. at St. Marks Hospt. in Salt Lake City. Mike was so excited that the baby was finaley here. Mike even wrote "Mine" on the baby's foot, so he wouldn't get lost in the nursery or taken by another parent. So Funny! He is a beautiful baby boy.

This week I have had to take Jenny Bird to the vets. Sunday we took her to the emergentcy vets, she seemed so sick. I thought she might be egg bound, like Baby was when we almost lost her. How ever after the exray, and a shot for pain, and anti-inflamition shot, and a shot to give water. They also did a swave for bacteria and found nothing. They said to take Jenny to our regular vet the next day.

Visiting Dr. Clark, he took a blood sample, and said he wanted to put Jenny in the Hospital, as he could see she was a very sick bird. They kept her in a inkabater, gave her tube feedings, and started her on a atabotic

The Muddy Whirlpool...

I look across the way and see a whirlpool, dirty and thick as mud. slowly churning pulling everything downward. Its almost impossible to get out of, like quicksand, Every thing it touches is to be destroyed.
It turns and turns, pulling at everything, pulling downward to a bottomless pit of hate and greed, with no escape.

The best thing to do, is to turn away from it. Trying to help only brings one closer to drowning in the mud themselves.

As much as it hurts, sometimes you have to let others work their own way out of trouble.

Time often moves slowly, more so than what we want it to be.
There will be a time where everyone will answer for their actions.

Righteous Fathers, being the head of their families, have the right for us to account to them, for what we have done in this life...

A Family Shredded...

Bernard, Lynn's father has been gone for four months now. I am still in a unbelievable state. Some how his family has been shredded in half because of greed. There is a fast moving under current like jet streams, to destroy, accuse falsely, and to acquire every thing...
I almost feel like standing still with my mouth hanging open in disbelief.

The family home has mostly been cleaned out and ready for sale.... Edith, who will be 89 this month, believes that all her money has been stolen, and she has nothing. And yet she has more money coming to her each month, more than Lynn and I do together to live on. (About $5000, free of ties, to start with.) Edith also has a huge amount of hate built, and being built up inside her.

Some how family members have been turned against each other, and there is a tearing apart of family ties. One was being taken to court for extortion, and possible more charges. (that has been dropped, for now.)

Lynn comes home from Orem, where his family lives, totally exhausted just from emotions. Its hard to keep a level heart with all this going on.

Thank Heavens for a God who loves us. And teaches us Truth about this life, and that life continues past this world. And the way we live here will tell how we will live there...

Note:
Bernard and Edith have been well to do as for as money goes, owning  a business of their own for most of their lives.  Bernard had every thing set up to protect Edith and look after her while she was still living, In case he should die first, which he did. Edith would not be in want for anything.

So how was this family destroyed, right before our eyes???

I question how to protect my own family when Lynn and I die. We have very little, but I have seen families fight over nothing too.
Worldly things last only a moment of time, and then we are separated from them. They stay on this world, and we go to face Our Father in Heaven, the Creator of this World.

But a Family is Eternal, always lasting. And More Important...

Smart Youth...

Sitting in the row in front of me at Church was a very cute little girl with a big imagination. I was impress with her and how she could entertain herself.

She had been given a sandwich bag which had some snacks in it for her to eat. As she was almost finished eating, she kept one of the Gold fish crackers in her bag, sealed the plastic bag and blew at one corner, blowing up the bag. She now had a make believe aquarium, with a little fish inside.

This little fish became her friend and the two played together quietly, reading books and coloring, racing around the bag, and jumping inside the bag, and teasing her big brother.

My kids didn't have snakes during Church time, It was frowned on to have food in the Chapel during this time. That came latter on when young children had to be good for the three hours. Sometimes that is hard for little ones to do.

I had made a "Quiet Book" which had pages of activities which kept my kids busy. They seemed to like working with it. We had it for many years, and parts would have to be replaced as they would fall out and get lost.

If you make a Quiet Book it would be a good idea to make the pages so they could be removed from the book, so more than one child could use it.

I had a large set of tube paints that I used to paint the Quiet Books with. They were in a large can that had a holder for each tube to set in.
We moved from Phoenix six years ago, I don't remember packing the tube paints, or seeing them then. I wonder where they are... I sure enjoyed using them...

Shock...

I am still shaking a little over this last phone call!
Today is Sunday and it was Stake Conference for us. I have been sick for several days with a bad cold. Not the flue that is going around, but a bad cold.
I wanted to go to the Temple Thursday for Stake Temple Day. And to attend the Saturday evening Conference. I so enjoy going to both, but I was sick and couldn't go.

Tonight My Stake President called and wanted to know what happened to me as I was not at Conference....

I was Surprised that a Stake President would be aware of my attendance as I am one in several hundreds in this stake, and not a person of importance.

After catching my breath, and the feeling of Surprise, I began to feel Honored, that my Stake President was aware of me. He cared enough about me to call and see if I was alright.

I was reminded that the Lord is aware of each of us, and we are loved unconditionally. With all the thousands of people that are and have been on earth, the Lord knows each one of us personally.

I was so touched by Pres. Collings concerns for me, that I hope I will be able to do the same for someone elts that might need a spiritual hug...

Falling...Who me?...

I have always wondered why older people could fall out of bed during the night...Well I found the answer this morning as I was having a good dream and found myself falling sidewards off my bed. I was very Surprised! I also found myself in the dark and I was wedge in between the ceder chest and the mattress, as it also came off my bed. Making it impossible for me to move. I screamed for Lynn who was in the next room, but he could not hear me. I felt with my loose right hand for anything that may be on top of the ceder chest that I might use to tap on the wall. I was lucky to find a wooden bunny laying there. I was able to reach over the ceder chest and knocked on the wall which Lynn did hear. Latter I discovered there was a space of about ten inches, that was free of things to reach the wall. Some how I was able to hit that tiny space to knock on the wall. Again I was amazed by it.

Getting to my feet was not that easy either, as both of my knees are in bad shape. I feel blessed, that I had no problem landing on my hip. I am learning interesting things about our bodies and how they react to ageing. I ask myself if this is another thing I have to learn about, here on earth? Some how I wish it could be easier... at least I have a better insight to older folks when bad things happen to them. I am looking for more ways to be helpful when I can.

I feel very blessed, that nothing real bad happened to me this morning...

When I was young I remember my Aunts talking about falling out of bed, and saying how Silly they felt, that it had happened... How ever it could be a serious thing, If you could not move, or get stuck, or broke bones, and no help, one could die there, never being discovered until it was too late...

Jodie came home...

I guess Home is where I happen to be living. I have always considered Utah to be home, even though I spent 39-40 years in Arizona. Jodie, last November, decided to move to Provo Utah.

This week Lynn, David, Jodie, and myself, moved the rest of Jodie things from Lake Havasu City Arizona, to Provo Utah. The weather was extremely cold. David drove his truck,a four seating Avalanche, and had his covered trailer. The weather was snowing more than half the time, and the tempiture was extremely cold. at one time it was -3 below 0.

David drove both ways, from Springville Utah, to Lake Havasue City, and back again. While David got some sleep for driving, Lynn, Jodie, and I packed, and Tom helped. We brought back Jodie's piano, and fireplace. and other things that Jodie boxed up for travel. They also strapped Jodie's two Kiacks on top of the truck.

We left Utah on Monday, packed and left for home on Tuesday. The wind was so strong it rocked the truck. Often David and Jodie would check on the Kiakes to be sure they were secured.

We were reminded several times by Lynn that the coldest spot in Utah was Beaver. Being so cold that day, Lynn would say lets don't gas up in Beaver.
On Davids rear view mirror there is a spot that tells you what the outside tempture was. We watched it go from above 0 to -1 and -3 and back to -1. While Lynn was sleeping, we asked each other if we wanted to gas up in Beaver? as it was coming soon and Lynn had made such a point of not stopping there. We kind of snickered and decided to stop in Beaver, where Lynn would need to get out to gas up the truck.

David also got out to write down the numbers from the gas pump, and quickly jumped back into the truck exclaiming how extremely cold it was outside. Lynn climbed back into the truck and said he figured out we were in "Beaver", because he saw a advertisement paper on the counter indicating that we were in "Beaver"!