Two wonderful weeks

Our trip to Texas was wonderful. The wedding was so beautiful and it was wonderful to see my family. Last Sunday night we stayed with Carianne and Carl. It is such a joy to be with their wonderful family. I love them so much and am so proud of them.

Before we left San Antonio, Annie was worried because we hadn't brought any blankets in the car and she said she NEEDS to have blankets when she is riding a long time in the car. She was so happy when Carianne gave her and Tina Christmas blankets. Carianne also gave them some other fun things, including Pepperidge Farm cookies to eat in the car. (They loved them, but they didn't share with me.)

It was also fun to see my sister, Beckie and Uncle Clyde. The pictures Clyde took at the wedding added so much to our memories of that day. These were some of Julianna's favorite pictures.

I have decided that I really missed all of the busy things that go along with Christmas. I have missed making candy and cookies. I have missed taking goodies to neighbors. I have missed taking time to decorate, etc. I have decided to do some of those things this week. We will make gingerbread houses tomorrow night for Family Home Evening. We will make goodies and take to neighbors and we will open presents as a family on New Years. I will send out "Christmas cards" in January. And I will look forward to next year being a normal Christmas.

I love you all and miss you.

Our Plans

I thought you might like to know our agenda for the next few days. Tina, Frank and I are driving to San Antonio. We are in Fort Stockton tonight and should be in San Antonio by e arly afternoon tomorrow. Sara, Dallin, Annemarie, Julianna, and Jared will fly in on Thursday night. Fortunately it looks like the weather will be good.
Friday Julianna and Jared will go get their marriage license signed by Bert Richardson. Annie will get the flowers in the morning and she will do the bouquets, etc. at our old house.
The wedding is at noon on Saturday and the reception will be at Susanna Winston's house. I am so thankful to Susanna.
Sunday we will go to church in our old ward in San Antonio. Then Sara and Dallin will head to Dallas for Christmas with his family and Frank, Annie, Tina and I will head to California for a fun Christmas at Disneyland.
It will ge an exciting few days

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I enjoyed so much having all of my daughters here together. I have heard that one of the rewards for being a mother is seeing your grown children all together, loving each other and doing good things. That is really true. I was sad today to see some of my girls leave.

I feel that same joy as I seem my daughters and my nieces show their love for each other through their blogs. Thanks for all of your posts.

By the way-Tina wrote on her blog yesterday but it never updated. It is a fun blog, so go read it.

I love you all.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Popi and Doreen and everyone else is here. Tina is blogging again, so click on her blog again. I love you all.

Thank you, Carianne

On Saturday Frank and I left Austin for our drive back to Utah. We stopped in San Antonio for a while to check on our old house. (Yes, it is still for sale.) I didn't have Carianne's phone number and I needed to call and see if we could spend the night. I called Beckie and Julianna and they both gave me the number. I called all day and I left a few messages. Carianne never called back. When we got to Kerrville I called Beckie back and asked her to see if she could get hold of Carianne. I didn't want to drop in totally unannounced. Frank was convinced Carianne's family was gone somewhere. I was thinking the boys had lost her phone. We stopped at Cracker Barrell to eat and finally Carianne called. She said of course we could spend the night.
It turns out Carianne was jogging on the ranch and a bull chased her and she dropped her phone. She couldn't find it. Carl went out after dark and called it. When it lit up he was able to see it. So happily Carianne has her phone back.
We had a wonderful visit. I love Carianne and Carl and the kids so much and I am so proud of them all.
We are safely back in Provo now.

Dutch

Dutch and the Kitty loved each other. Kitty normally doesn't like little kids and Pammy said Dutch doesn't really like cats, but the two of them really got along. It was so cute! We loved seeing Pamela and Dutch.

Right now a Halloween marathon is running past our house. It's random, but fun to watch all the people running in costumes!

Church at Snow

We went to church with Christina today at the Snow College Institute. All three meetings were wonderful. Snow is a really great place. It is a blessing to see your kids in their own adult environment.

By the way-did you know that if you graduated from Snow your kids can go there and pay in-state tuition, even if you are out-of-state? If that had been available to my older girls I probably would have made them all go to Snow. (Not really-I know for sure that Annie needed to go to BYU-I and Sara needed to go to LDSBC.) But it is a good option to know about.

Christina went to Homecoming last night. She said she had a lot of fun. Hopefully she will blog about it and send us a few pictures.

Happy Birthday Carianne

Happy Birthday Carianne. I love you so much. It was so fun to see you last Friday. I have too many favorite memories to have just one-but I am still laughing over the most recent story you told us. God has held you in His hand and protected you and blessed you. I know He has a great work for you to do. I love you.

Elizabeth Smart

Sara and I went to the Salt Lake Temple this morning. Dallin surprised us by joining us at the temple, too. As we waited for the session to start, Sara whispered to me "That's Elizabeth Smart." It was. She was there to receive her endowment. For those of you who don't know she has been called to a mission in France. It made the session so much more special to watch her and think about how wonderful it must be for her and her family to be there together in the Temple. I am so thankful for the blessings of the temple and for the peace and joy those covenants bring to my life. I am especially thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and for His atoning sacrifice. I am thankful that I can attend the temple frequently with my daughters and look forward anxiously to the day when I can go to the temple with Christina. I am thankful that all of my extended family are living such good and Christlike lives.

Darrin (for Heather, Heidi, Pam and Beckie)

Over the weekend one of my daughters (I won't mention her name) dyed her hair. It turned out kind of orange and looked awful. We tried to fix it, but it still didn't look right. I called Cliff last night and he said he wouldn't be at work today, but if we went into the shop first thing this morning Darrin could fix it. I had never met Darrin before (even though he has done Annie and Julianna's hair in the past.) So, we went into the shop first thing this morning and Darrin spent an hour and a half on her hair. We had such a nice visit. He asked all about Beckie and all of her girls, including Carianne. I am sure he already knew everything, but he was just so nice. When he was done, her hair looked beautiful and then he only charged $35. I was very grateful to him.

This blog won't mean anything to those of you who have never been to Sharp Image, but I am sure the Baileys will understand.

Bobby and Danny

Uncle Bob and Dena and Bobby and Danny are visiting us today. The boys are so cute. Bobby has brown hair and Danny has curly blonde hair.

Canning

I can't stand to let free food go to waste, so I have been canning like crazy. On Friday we went to Manti and got a large box of apples from Popi's tree and a large box of tomatoes from his garden. I spent most of the day yesterday making apple sauce and tomato sauce. I got 36 pints of applesauce and 14 quarts of tomato sauce. I had never made tomato sauce before-it is really a messy job.

Other stuff I've canned:

50 pints green beans

90 pints pickled beets (I know that sounds like a lot, but Tina and I LOVE them)

28 quarts peaches (so far-I plan to do more. The peaches are the only thing I didn't get from Popi)

9 half pints pickled jalapenos

5 half pints cucumber catsup

many jars of claussen-type pickles (I will do lots more. They are EASY to make and taste great. If anyone is interested I will copy the recipe.)

Lots of people were giving me zucchini and it drove me nuts to just throw it away, but there was just too much for me to use. Then I heard that I could dehydrate it. I did this with one very large zucchini. It dehydrated down to about 1/2 cup. To use it you just rehydrate it in boiling water and use it in breads, cookies, quiches, etc. It tastes great. The problem is I didn't get this hint until I had thrown most of the zucchini away, and no one has given me any more.

Anyway, I actually love canning-except for tomatoes-and I am truly thankful to my earthly father and to my Heavenly Father for all of this good food.

Maid Service

I have never had someone come clean my house before. It is not something I have ever wanted, but I was looking forward to having it done this week. The maid service was supposed to come on Monday at 4pm, but they cancelled and rescheduled for Tues at 9am. At 9:30 on Tues the manager of the service called and said the maid was lost. My house is not that hard to find, but I gave her directions-and waited. At 12 no one had showed up yet so I called the manager. She was surprised, but said she would call back in a few minutes. She called back and said the maid had been lost, but was close to my house so would be there soon. I waited. Around 1:30 someone called who didn't speak english. I asked if she spoke spanish and she said "yes, please." So I put Julianna on the phone. It was the maid, she was in Orem and she was lost. Julianna gave her directions. An hour later the maid called again. Julianna gave her directions again and I waited some more. At about 4 the manager of the maid service showed up with the maid in her car. The maid came in and spent 2 hours cleaning the new (clean) bathroom and the bedroom. At 6 the manager came back to pick the maid up and she said I still had 2 hours of cleaning, so I scheduled for 10am today. This morning I waited until 11am and then I just gave up and went to the MTC. I have spent many more hours waiting than it actually took me to clean the house myself today. So, I am NOT thankful for maid service.

I AM thankful for the MTC, 2 daughters who speak spanish, rainbows (again-there is one on the mountain in front of our house right now), paint and windows.

A Rainbow In Our Backyard

Today it was raining really hard at our house. While it was still raining the sun began to shine. I said to Annemarie that there was probably a rainbow somewhere. It was about noon here so the sun was high in the sky. Annie looked out the window and said "It's in our backyard." I looked and sure enough there was a rainbow right in our backyard. It was the size of rainbows you see in sprinklers. It only lasted a few seconds so we couldn't take a picture, but it made me happy.

Today I am thankful for rainbows, a new bathroom, maids (I think-I have NEVER had maids clean my house before and it might be a little akward), peaches and mainly I am thankful that Christina is learning to love life and Snow College.

My New Bathroom

I have lived in this house for over a year. I LOVE this house, but the biggest problem with it was there were only 2 bathrooms and there was no master bathroom. So we added one. The workers started on Tuesday and on Friday we had a beautiful new master bath. It was added into an alcove in the biggest bedroom. It fits perfectly. As part of the contract for building the bathroom, a maid service will come on Monday and clean our house from top to bottom. So, of course, I have been busy cleaning up for the maid.

Now we will also have a nice guest bedroom-so you all have to come visit us. (There is a bathroom that has two doors-one to the guest bedroom-one to the hall. So it makes a perfect guest suite.)

So come see us soon!!!

By the way I LOVE reading everyone's blogs. It makes me feel so connected to my nieces, especially. And I do feel guilty when I go weeks or months at a time without posting. But at least I am better about blogging than I have ever been about keeping a journal. I love you all.

Bridesmaid dress

I know Sara told you that Dallin's grandmother died this week. Today Sara was visiting her mother-in-law while they were going through her mother's things. They were making a box of stuff to send to DI. Sara saw one dress and said "Why do you have my mother's bridesmaids dress?" I guess it turns out that that pattern was a really popular bridesmaid dress. Sara's mother-in-law, Karol, also had the same pattern for her bridesmaids dresses except a little darker pink. Karol and I continue to find that we have many things in common.

Here is a picture of Julianna wearing the dress.

Education week

I have loved attending education week. The most amazing experience was hearing Michael Ballam speak. He testified of the reality of Satan. He testified that one way to protect your home and family from Satan is to always play good music. Satan does not like to be in an environment where the Spirit is present and music invites the Spirit. I know this is true.

So far Tina loves it.

I talked to Tina last night and she was still missing me, but she was having fun. Then she went to the Institiute dance last night and to church today and I doubt she is missing me at all anymore. That makes me happy.

I loved what a friend said about Tina living in the same apartment Beckie lived it. She said it is "good karma." Of course I don't believe in karma, but it still just feels right.

I abandoned my baby today:(

I left Christina at Snow College today. She moved into the same apartment in the dorm that Beckie lived in when she was there. It was like dejavu all over again. We had a fun day getting her settled and then "pushed her out of the nest" at about 4pm. She cried a little when we left, but quickly made friends with her roommates. She seems to have really nice roommates and they seem to be good girls. Snow College is a wonderful place.

I will miss my baby, but it is time for her to go.

57 things

My girls tell me I have to list 57 things I love about Frank before I can read their blogs. So here they are:
1. He loves me.
2. He loved me enough to marry me 29 years ago.
3. He married me in the Temple.
4. He still takes me to the Temple.
5. We have 4 wonderful daughters.
6. He is a loving father.
7. He let me live in San Antonio after we were married.
8. He let me move to Provo last year.
9. He let us spend a lot of time in Manti every summer when the girls were growing up.
10. He is a good money manager.
11. He has always been a good provider.
12. He honors and magnifies his Priesthood.
13. He can answer any gospel question I ask and he knows exactly where the reference is.
14. We went to Germany and Switzerland last year and plan to go again next year.
15. He has a wonderful mother. She is the best mother-in-law and granny.
16. He has a wonderful sister and she really loves my daughters.
17. He is a great professor and his students really like him.
18. He likes Kitty.
19. He likes leftovers and will eat the same thing everyday until it is all gone.
20. He will eat cereal for dinner if I don't want to cook.
21. I like his hair so much.
22. He always thinks I am beautiful-even now as I get older.
23. He likes the old TV show The Paper Chase.
24. He likes I Love Lucy.
25. He likes the old TV show Mission Impossible.
26. He introduced me to the movie Casablanca.
27. He likes the move National Treasure.
28. He is a really good teacher and speaker at church. When he was Stake President everyone like his talks because he could say so much without taking a long time.
29. He likes to shop at Walmart-I figure if I can't buy it at Walmart I don't need it.
30. He likes to watch Perry Mason at night, but he almost always falls asleep just before the end so he doesn't know what happened.
31. He fixes the computer for me whenever something goes wrong.
32. He loved me when I had bad eyes, but then he let me get them fixed.
33. He is letting me get a new bathroom.
34. He always drove the girls to seminary so I didn't have to get up and do it.
35. We never fight.
36. We have never fought.
37. We have always talked about moving to St George, but probably never will.
38. He likes planning for things like vacations.
39. He has the ablility to really listen to people.
40. He never brags about himself.
41. When I look at him I feel all fluttery inside-I love him so much more now than I did when we were first married.
42. During the first year of our marriage he always could figure out exactly how many minutes we had been married.
43. I am more likely to forget our anniversary than he is.
44. He loves my cooking.
45. It is fun to go for walks with him.
46. It is fun to sit at home with him and be quiet.
47. It is fun to go to church with him and have everyone tell me how much they admire him.
48. He joined the church because of a rattlesnake.
49. He was a percussionist in High School and played in the Longhorn Band at UT.
50. He is tall.
51. He plays the piano and the organ.
52. Sometimes he says funny things and I laugh.
53. He took me to Uruguay.
54. We are so similar in every way.
55. My hand fits perfectly in his.
56. I love holding his hand.
57. I am convinced that there is no one else I could be so perfectly happy and content with.

This is a picture of Frank's parents on their wedding day. In honor of Frank's father, I want to write a little about them. They met at a skating rink when Betty was 15. Junior was 4 year older than Betty. They got married 4 years later.

Junior was not a man to express his emotions much. Towards the end of his life his was an invalid. Betty took care of even his most basic needs. She did this for many years. One day she walked into his bedroom. It was shortly before his last serious setback. As she walked into his room, he opened his eyes and said. "Betty, I have always loved you."

This simple statement meant so much to her and made everything she did for him worth it. She does not regret one minute of the care she gave him.

I think this is a beautiful story and I hope we all remember to tell our loved ones how much they mean to us.

I am thankful my husband had a good father. I am thankful he is a good father. And I am thankful for my wonderful father.

Our Day in Minas (by Julianna)

Wow we had quite a day. We went and saw a zillion people and did some great sightseeing. Daddy is the best driver in the whole world. First we drove down to Punta del Este just to see it. Thats where that picture of just daddy and me is from. Then we went to Minas to the Crums house. It was wonderful. We had a good lunch and then we talked for awhile. I sure love them. Then we started visiting people. I sure love all these wonderful Uruguayans that I have met. They are so special, so humble. It was wonderful to see that the people I left 3 months ago are still strong in the faith. Alejandra, one of the people baptized while I was there is still strong and going. That makes me so happy! Blanquita is a very dear friend. She is 22 years old and in a wheel chair, very disabled. She lives with her mother and they are very poor, they hardly live from day to day. They have no electricity in their house. When we got to their house she had a present for me. She had crocheted a doily for me. It was so sweet and kind and a big sacrifice for them. We saw many other people. We also went out to the statue of General Artigas. He is like the George Washington of Uruguay. When we got there the bugs were so thick and hitting us. We had to like swim through them. It gave mommy and daddy good experience. :) We took some pictures and then got on our way. We stopped and got gas and I totally could speak Spanish with the guy. That was my first time ever filling a car with gas in Spanish! Then we drove a long way and finally got back. It was a really good day. I love being a missionary. It really was a good day. I cant believe I only have one more whole day in this beautiful country. I feel so blessed that the Lord called me to serve Him here in Uruguay. I have been so happy here. I love you all!!!

Soy la Hermana Dittmar (from Julianna)

Marianne and Marianne

Anita and Julianna

Buen Dia! Como estan todos? Mommy and daddy and I are sitting in our hotel room in beautiful Montevideo. Its called Montevideo because a long time ago a man in a ship was lost and he saw the mountain of Montevideo and in old old Spanish he said Monte veo yo but it came out because it was old Spanish sounding like Monte vid eo and for that they named it Montevideo. We are going to go to Punta del Este today and then to Minas. I am so excited to see the Crums again.

Last night mommy and daddy attended my last baptism as a missionary. It was beautiful. Gaston was so funny, he tried to share his testimony but it didnt work very well. Daddy gave him a tie and showed him how to tie it which was really cute. Hna Blocker, Richard and I did a duet, them singing and me playing the piano. It went over well. Afterwards there was a big dinner where we ate asado. Anita couldnt stand that I didnt have any meat on my plate so she cut off half of hers. The branch gave mommy and daddy a picture of the branch and that was sweet. It was a really great night.

My life feels very surreal right now. I cant describe how I feel. One minute I am crying and the next I am jumping up and down. I love being a missionary. It has been so hard, but so wonderful. Alma 26 perfectly describes my mission. I am thankful for the mercy the Lord has poured out on me. I am so thankful for the baptisms I have seen and the joy I have felt. I am especially thankful to see how the gospel has changed my own life.

I love you all.

Love Hna Dittmar

I will see Julianna in 2 days!!!

Tomorrow Frank and I leave for Montevideo. We will not arrive there until Thursday morning. We will meet Julianna at the mission home at about noon. I am so excited!!!
We will be in Uruguay 4 days and will visit her 4 areas. We will arrive back in SLC on Tues. May 26.
Julianna is coming home to a new town, a new home, a mom with new eyes and a sister who is married and expecting. Lots of changes but I know she will be happy here. We are so proud of her.

Memorial Day 1992

It is time for another of Mom's journal entries. I am going to skip over a bunch of mundane entries that are all quite similar and jump to some entries that will be of interest to all of us because they include us. Memorial day 1992 was a huge day for Mom. All of the Tuttles came and they had a party for Omi.

May 27, 1992

Memorial Day was nice-we served about 140 people. I had 21 stay over at my house. We honored Mother and it was 0k. Lloyd, Vera and Janet were honored also. (Lloyd was Omi's second husband and father to the Tuttle's. Vera was Lloyd's first wife. Both were long deceased at this point. It had always been traditional for the Tuttle's to gather at Omi's house for Memorial Day.) I hope they cut it down some It is really too big to handle.

Alice came and helped and Nancy and Rebecca were here from Sat on so it was nice.

Marianne and Frank come this next month on the 5th or 6th Then Norma on the 20th I don't know when Beckie is coming with her girls its hard to get away when you have teenagers

We have a big day at the temple on the 8th and 9th we will be gone from 7am to 9pm I hope Marianne and Frank will go to SLC then so we can have more time to visit

We have had lots of rain this past week about an inch-Texas had 20 inches in the same time frame. But for us and inch is lots of rain. Everything looks so green and pretty.

I am worn out I need a vacation from everything but I don't see how I can get away with so many people coming to stay. I hope in July we can go someplace fun.

A Mystery Solved

It occurred to me that it was really easy to get an answer about why Sara was blind in her right eye. I called Aunt Norma. Norma said that when Sara was a in college she got a cinder in her eye. As soon as she said that I remembered hearing about the cinder in her eye. Beckie will remember it, too. But I still don't remember ever knowing she was blind in that eye.

Norma said the cinder came from the Bamberger railroad that ran between Salt Lake City and Lagoon. It apparently no longer exists. Norma remembered that Sara put drops in her eye every day, hoping to heal her eye.

Quiet Books

Since Pam wants to make a quiet book and Heidi expressed interest too, I will give a few suggestions. I do have a lot of patterns. The problem is I don't know where they are since we moved. I will keep looking for them. When I find them I will scan and post them.

In the mean time there are some really good ideas on the internet. Google lds quiet book pattern. You will find two links there that will be really helpful. One is at theideadoor.com and the other is at mormonchic.com. Google it first and then click on the link because it is hard to find the quiet books if you go directly to the web site home pages.

The idea door suggests making the quiet books on heavy pellon. I made mine on muslin and I think it is probably more durable. Otherwise she used a lot of the same methods I did. Tracing pictures with a Sharpie and then coloring it with crayons works really well. Be sure to iron over the crayon with a paper towel over it. This sets the color into the fabric. For more intense color you can color it with the crayon again and iron it again.
I also suggest sewing a thin ribbon to each separate piece and attaching it to the page so pieces don't get lost.

An idea for some pages would be to use transfer paper to put photos of family members onto muslin and cut them out. You could do a family tree page. And a page with your immediate family-perhaps with a simple drawing of your house or of your city in the background. (You could do this with photo transfer paper, too.)

Dutch isn't old enough yet, but Heidi could us some of her kids artwork as background for some pages or even have them draw on the muslim pages and add her own elements to it.

I will add more ideas when I find my patterns. Let me know if I can help.

Marshmallow Peeps

I am curious. How many of you who are related to my mother inherited her love for marshmallow? She loved toasted marshmallows, marshmallow cream, mint dreams (with a mint marshmallow filling) and marshmallow peeps. I LOVE marshmallow peeps. Actually, I prefer the bunnies to the peeps and I only like the traditional colors of yellow and pink. I am never tempted to buy marshmallow peeps at other times of the year (ie. halloween peeps or snowman peeps.) Anyway, I always think of my mom at this time of year as I enjoy my marshmallow bunnies.

Another Journal Entry

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted one of Carolyn's journal entries. I will remind you that Sara needed cataract surgery.

April 1, 1992 (she actually wrote 1922, but I am pretty sure she meant 1992)

Time is going too fast. It will soon be a year since we came to Manti.

We have had lots of company again Don and Kathy Lind were here a week ago. (Don Lind was an astronaut and one of Popi's best friends.) They stayed to Mon afternoon. I took Mother to have her eye done on thursday-Then John, Annette and Rebecca came on Sat this week-stayed til Sun night-Monday I tended the little girls (Katherine and Samantha) Then Tue Bill and Polly came It looks like now the weather is nice we will have more company.

Mother had her surgery on Thur-we came on home because we finished by 1:30-We went back the next day all is well now but she was slow to recover-It worried me because by Sunday she still could not see anything She has been blind in her right eye since she was in college. So when we operated on the left eye and took the sight from it with the swelling she was totally blind. Her cataract was so dense it was solid brown- It took 7X as much to get it out as normal so she was more swollen than usual. She is seeng better each day now.


What amazed me about this journal entry was that I never knew my grandmother was blind in her right eye. She NEVER mentioned it. She complianed about her feet-they hurt all the time-but in general she was not a person to complain. I asked Popi how she lost her sight, but he couldn't remember. I just find it ironic that my maternal grandmother was blind in her right eye, my father is blind in his right eye and I am blind in my right eye. I must say that Omi was an amazing and wonderful person.

My Movie Quiz.

Ok. I guess I want to play, too.

1. Say, that's a cute little dance you got there. It almost looks like you have to...Oh! Monsters Inc. Heidi

2. You are not exactly Superman, but you are awfully available. White Christmas. Annemarie

3. It looks awful.
That's because it's on you dear. Sleeping Beauty. Annemarie

4. I tried to forget you...I thought I had. Persuasion. Heidi

5. I thought you two had eloped. I wouldn't mind but not in my car. Sabrina. (old) Annemarie

6. This ballet has historic significance. It was performed the same day as the funeral of the Tzar. Lenin himself made the arrangement.
Lenin arranged music?
No, funerals. Bye, Bye Birdie. Pam

7. Did the dry cleaners have your car? Sabrina. (new) Heidi

8. Are we there yet?
We get there when we get there. Incredibles. Annemarie

9. Is it not a brother's job to find fault with his sister? Emma

1o. I've learned something from your idiotic notions, I confess that; humbly and gratefully. My Fair Lady. Carianne

11. If you're going to spend the whole evening acting like a scared rabbit, maybe I'd better order some lettuce. Hello Dolly. Carianne

12. I never read Tom Sawyer. Was he... sexy? Thoroughly Modern Millie. Annemarie

13. I can explain in two words: we propose to marry your daughters. Pirates of Penzance. Beckie

14. ...just possibly saving 120 passengers from a tragic firey death. What's up Doc. Annemarie

15. I don't like the way Teddy Roosevelt is looking at me. North by Northwest. Beckie

My 4th Photo

This is at Sara's wedding shower. Carlye is sitting on her lap. We are at Susanna Winston's house. Carlye gave Sara the best gift at her shower. It was red animal scissors for the kitchen (I can't remember what the animal was, but they were from Target and they were really cool.) (I actually think this is a pretty good picture of me-not like usual.)

Family Ties

I loved having Heidi and her family come visit us a few weeks ago. There is something about family that just makes you happy. It is great to reconnect with family you haven't seen in a long time, but the love is the same as if we saw each daily. I loved Heidi's kids immediately and I was so impressed with how well behaved they were. Talking with Heidi made me miss Carianne because their laughs and expressions are so similar. I was surprised at how much Heidi reminded me of Carianne. Heidi's kids did not remind me of Carianne's kids. They are all different and all wonderful. Thank you for coming to see us Heidi.

Last week my cousin Nancy called and invited me to lunch. Nancy is Alice Ann's second daughter. Juliana, her oldest child, is my age and the one I always played with. Nancy lives here in Provo. She also invited my mother's cousin Christine and her daughter Lori to lunch. We had such a fun visit. We talked a lot about family members that are no longer with us. Christine's daugher, Debbie, was my age and we were good friends. Debbie lives in Payson. We all decided we need to have a bigger family reunion soon. Christine and her family lived in Ephraim and we spent a lot of time playing in their house. The house is on main street on the south side of town and is now a Credit Union. My family lived in Ephraim for one year in the late 1960's.

Lori told me that when we moved to Germany we left a lot of toys with her family. She loved all the Barbie dolls and the Creepy Crawler Thingmaker, but her favorite toy was my Troll Doll House. I LOVED that Troll Doll House. I was so happy to find out that it had been loved so much by another little girl. I looked on EBAY and, sure enough, you can still get a Troll Doll House. When you opened it there was a fireplace and furniture inside.

Anyway, I am always so thankful for my wonderful extended family.

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Today in Relief Society the lesson was about how Joseph Smith said we should make peace with those around us. (Yes, even those who would mock our sacred ordinances.) It was a good lesson and for the closing song we sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth." The teacher passed out papers with the words on it. Of course, I didn't need the words. I was sitting next to a young sister in her late 20s. As we were singing she leaned over to me and said "I have never heard this song before." I was shocked! When I was a teenager that was an extremely popular song. I don't often feel so old at church. I have often thought that once you are an adult in the church, age doesn't seem to mean much anymore. Not with this song!
I wondered how many of my daughters and nieces know the song. I would guess that perhaps Carianne does, but probably no one else.
I think it is a great song, but maybe the Miss America pageant has made "world peace" sound trite. Anyway, those are my thoughts-what do you think?
Another great song I heard recently goes, "I want to be happy, but I won't be happy, till I know you're happy, too."

I'm Back!

It is past time for me to post on my blog. I have especially felt bad that I haven't posted any of Carolyn't journal entries. When I posted in the past it seemed like the journal entries were close to the same date as in her journal. As I read through her journal to decide what to post next, I was all the way to March 18 before I found an entry that anyone would be interested in, so you get May 18, 1992 today. (She only wrote when she got her hair done-usually once a week, sometimes less.)

Mar 18, 1992

Mother has cataracts. We went to provo yesterday and She can't see at all out of her right eye and only minimal out the left-She will be operated on next thurs 24th-I sure hope all goes well. I think if she could see she would feel better. She can't even enjoy reading as it is.

Mark Walton was married last Sat here in the temple-Sharee and Dean-David and Kathy came Fri night we had a real nice Dinner and Visit. Then they stayed with us. I got up on Sat Set out fruit-muffins and cereal so they could eat breakfast. We had to be at the temple at 6AM. It was a busy day so we could not go to the wedding breakfast. When we got home at about 2pm They were all a our house-Sharee Dean-Wendy and Dean-David and Kathy-Raphael and Julia-I put out left overs we all visited and had fun they left about 4:30 we rested then went to orem to the reception. got home about 11pm Sat night We went to Richfield to church on Sunday Troy Brown (a missionary from the Texas San Antonio Mission-Arch and Carolyn knew him when they were serving in the Mission Presidency) was home from his mission-10 of us from the mission were there. It was nice-They had a big dinner after at the senior citizens-after we went to Raphael and Julia's and visited-

Monday we had Bob and Susannah for supper Bob's birthday-Susannah has a job at Snow college-

Spring is about here flowers are up crocuses are blooming-pansy's and daffodils but we had snow yesterday.

annie has a blog and decided that people can go look at it now. it is anniedittmar.blogspot.com. sorry i haven't written for a while, i will resume promtly. i love you all,

Omi's Birthday

Ludeal, Sarah and Carolyn Nielson


I have skipped a couple of journal entries because there is not much of interest in them, but I will summarize. Carolyn and Archie enjoyed working in the Temple together. They were making preparations to come visit Texas-I was expecting Christina and they wanted to be there for the birth. They left on Jan 25, 1992. Carolyn was a little worried about coming because she had a new calling to teach Primary, and she wanted to get to know her kids better. I don't think of my mother as a Primary teacher, so I found that interesting. She was also worried about leaving her mother, Sarah. Sarah did not want to make the trip-she was getting old and it was hard on her-so Carolyn arranged for people to take care of her. They also went to SLC to get glasses for Popi, after his cataract surgery.

Jan 30, 1992

Archie is 20-20 with Glasses.

Sarah Ann Sessions Nielson Tuttle is 89 years old today. I called her and she is fine-She has lots of cards-flowers etc. She loves it. I'm so happy for her. I hated to leave her and come to Texas without her especially be gone on her birthday but it is very hard for her to travel now it upsets her whole system and its months before she is back to normal-So I took a chance and let her stay home and she is doing fine so far.

Marianne is real uncomforable and the baby is over due now-She wants to have it today on Moms birthday but I don't think she will.

We had a real nice time in SLC last week-Tosca (the opera) was good and the hotel fun to stay in We shopped and rested then went to lunch...Then Archie went and had his eyes looked at The Doctor could not believe he could see so well then when he looked at his macula and it was fine only a tiny bit of degeneration it blew him away he threw his hands in the air-He is not LDS and just could not understand it. It is a real miricle because all the Doctors we have been to can not have been wrong.

We had a nice trip down-Its humid and was raining but its pretty today Im still glad we live in Utah-It is fun to see all the people we know

Im at Susans getting my hair done she did it for 15 years when I lived here.


Christina was born the day after this entry on Jan 31, 1992. One day after Omi's birthday.
One reason Popi and Grandma moved to Manti was because Popi had been diagnosed with Macular Degeneration and was going blind. They needed to live in a place where Popi could continue to function after he was blind. There is no cure for this so it truly was a miracle that his sight was 20/20 after the cataract surgery. Any comment on this Popi?

oldsheepherderscamp.blogspot.com

Popi has joined the blogosphere! He spent hours yesterday reading all of your blogs and he would love to hear from you on his new blog. So, check it out at oldsheepherderscamp.blogspot.com.