Beauty...

Beauty is watching my very beautiful 16 year old girl, with golden hair, playing her viola. Such serious studying and concentration. I watch her fingers fly ever so fast and lightly over the strings. Her hand seems to have a dance of its own. Giving, coaxing, such beautiful sounds from the wonders of the singing wood.

She is sitting at the piano while playing the viola this evening, sitting so tall and graceful. Her graceful golden hair moving with her body movements, as the viola bow races back and forth across the strings.

She loves to play fast. The wonderful mastered sounds, are heard, as she allows the instrument to sing in beautiful rich slow movements of the music. Yes,Beauty is watching her grow, and seeing her as she becomes a wonderful young lady. Glowingly--she turns her head, and smiles.


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It's not how brilliant the chords sound,
Or how fast your fingers run.
It's not the grandness of the stage,
Or the large number of people who listen.
It's not how much more impressive you play,
or the greatness of the sound.
But it's the heart's desire to sing and play
What one has to give to another....Jen

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You are a Pegasus...

You are a perfectionist, with an eye for beauty. You know how to live a good life...and you rarely deviate from your good taste. While you aren't outgoing, you have excellent social skills. People both admire you...and feel very comfortable around you.

You Are Sunrise...

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Never Forgotten...

Beautiful pictures flash across my computer screen of my son's 3 children. Its been a few years since I've seen them. Because of a messy divorce David has limited time with them, mostly 1, 2, hours a month. This month is special, Bryce, his oldest just turned 13, and being my husband and I have moved to Utah, David asked for extra time and brought the kids to our home for a birthday party for all the kids.

This Saturday was extra busy, Lynn and I work with the Stake Single Program, and it was the Thanksgiving dinner for the 50+ group. We had to be at the Church at 2:00pm to help set up tables, work with the food, and help with meals to go out to the housebound folks. Sense there was enough help, Lynn and I were able to go home around 4pm and be there when David arrived. Jennifer my daughter was also visiting from Ariz. with her daughter, Sarah, who is 2 and a half years.
David would be able to stay with the kids for about a hour or little more, then comes the long drive back home... Lynn and I would return to Church at 6pm to help serve the meal for the evening.

The request for strawberry cheesecake, and vanilla ice cream, was changed a little, as I found a cheesecake that had multi flavors, and we got two different kinds of ice cream. that seemed to please everybody. So we had pink candles on cheesecake, all the kids help blow them out. And had fun opening their small presents, with "Heavy, heavy, hangover, thy poor head...What do you wish this person???"
A tradition in our family for years, to which the Birthday person, not knowing who the giver is, would express a special gift, or wish to go to the person who has given the gift. Sometimes this can be quite funny.

Over the years I have sent to each of my Grandchildren, Holiday cards with a stick of Juicy fruit Gum inside. I hoped that somehow they would remember that their grandparents were the ones who sent the cards and the gum, with a reminder that we love them. (Taste buds have a way of remembering good things).
I also included a small package of Juicy Fruit gum with their birthday gifts.

Time flew by, and they were gone.....Bryce 13, had gotten so tall. Darren who is 7 is about the same height as his little sister Melody, who is 5, almost 6. The last time I had seen Melody, she was about a year and a half. I know she didn't remember me. However Sarah and Melody had a great time playing together, and Melody was all smiles before she left to go home.

I watch the pictures, over and over, of that day, time was too short to remember.
David brought someone with him, and paid him to take alot of photos. Then he made a CD, with a slide show on it, for me to see my grandchildren.

Finding a True Gold Mine...

One night while I was sleeping, a thought came to me that I needed Jennifer, my daughter, to look at some letters that belonged to my Dad. After a couple of days, I remembered Dad's old worn out suit case that was down stairs. It was brown, medium size, and looked like it might have been made mainly out of a thick cardboard, with a little leather here and there, and a thick leather handle. It was falling apart,after all it was somewhere around 86 years old.

Jennifer came here to do some Genealogy, before going home to Arizona.
I asked her if she would like to find a gold mine? Not realizing what a true statement that was. We took the suit case out of plastic bags, where it had been placed to protect it while moving. We carefully opened it. Seeing with in it, unorganized papers, letters, and pictures.

Sorting, and organizing, mostly letters, we found these letters were written during my Fathers, Cecil Smith Brimhall, mission to the Central States Mission, back in 1921.

I read letters from my Grandmother and Grandfather Brimhall, Ether Record Brimhall and Sophronia Lydia Smith, whom I have not met, and lately have a deep warm love for them. I saw a scribble drawing that my fathers brother, Henry, sent to him when he was 5 years old. When I met Henry Brimhall, He was a tall good looking Fireman, that had kids older than me... We found letters from other members of his family, but I was touched by the simple encouragement, and love of his mother, as she kept encouraging him to be strong, and in sharing his testimony of Christ. She also tells of events that are happening in the family, and they were working on their Genealogy, having 149 names to submit to the temple. I think Grandma was teaching a Genealogy class once or twice a week, she would refer to them as "Cottage meetings".

And to my surprise we even found a letter written by my mother, Ivie Hartley, just a couple of weeks before their marriage, in the Manti Temple, in 1929.

Working for about 6 to 7 hours, Jennifer and I, have just scratched the surface of whats there.

Wow...What a wonderful, and awesome Goldmine....

One of those funny things...

As I have mentioned before, Moms family were very close to each other. They lived in a modest home, where love and laughter were companions, and the seven siblings grew up being the best of friends.

One of the things I noticed about my mothers family, was if someone did something very nice for another, the one who was the receiver of the gift, sometimes knowing of the expense that was sacrificed, would often try to help with the cost, by donating part of the money involved. To which the giver often would sneak the money back in some way without the receiver knowing about it, like in a pocket, or purse, or perhaps in a bag that was carried, or a book, or shoe. Until later on when they would accidentally find it. Well much to my surprise, that tradition is still in existence. A year ago I was helping my 2nd cousin with pictures for her book. I had a box, and a scrapbook that my mother had kept. My mother was very good at keeping inventions, clippings of newspaper articles about the family, announcements etc.
My Cousin Dorothy, and her daughter, Fran, spent countless hours working on the book about the family, and putting all these extra clippings of mom's into top load sheets and putting them into a binder, so they would be protected. They even bought the binder and the top load sheets. I gave my cousin $10 dollars to help with the cost, that's all I had at the time. Tonight, One year latter, my daughter Jennifer was looking through some things and said "Mom, did you know you have $10 in this box?"
I thought I was the smart one, and had gotten away with it, but you know... you can't out smart a fox!

Update: As of last night, the money is back in their court!

A Group of good friends...

As a freshman at Orem High School, I had two real good friends, Janet and Christine. Both of them were dating guys, who were sort of in a group from their ward, from church. (Larry, Ivan, Lynn, Reed) It was February, and the "City Hawkins Dance", from the cartoon "Little Abner", was being held on the 12th of Feb. It was a girls choice dance. I had recently decided not to like a certain guy anymore, and was enjoying the feeling of being free, and not tied to the emotional up and down feelings, of liking a guy. Janet who was dating Larry wanted me to double date with them for the dance. Double dating was done alot then, and was alot of fun. And because I was not going with anyone at that time, she suggested I ask Lynn, who was dating Christine. Who was asking Larry's brother Loyd to her school dance, which was being held on the same night as ours. Because of her birthday, Christine, was held back a year. Which made us in two different schools. After much coxing from Janet and Larry, I asked Lynn if he would go. We had a great time, and dated after that.

As a group in school, we ran around together, the 4 boys and Janet and myself. We all became good friends. After all the boys came home from their missions, Lynn and I married in the Salt Lake Temple, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona. (about 10 years after meeting each other.) Janet and Larry married other people. Ivan married went to Arizona on a honeymoon, ran out of money and stayed down there. He and his wife had 3 boys. Ivan was working for Ariz Public Service Comp. One of the main Electrical Comp. While at work and getting equipment off the truck, his partner who was in the basket, a top of the long arm, accidentally moved the basket into the power lines, which caused Ivan to be electrocuted because he was on the ground and touching the truck. He was buried in Measa Ariz. Reed married, we lost track of him, but we heard about 2 years ago that he died, in Orem, Utah. Larry has remarried, and at this time of writing, he and his wife are thinking of moving from Orem, to Idaho. Larry has also had a heart attack about three years ago. Lynn and I have moved from Phoenix Ariz, to Grantsville, Utah, two and a half years ago. And love it here. Janet has remarried, and lives in Salt Lake City.