Helping the poor (link to great message)

This photo is of the Rexburg, Idaho Temple.

We took this picture a few months back while visiting our family there.  Rexburg is built against a hill in a rural area of Idaho. 

Rexburg is also the home of the BYU-Idaho campus.

The temple is a beautiful structure high on the hill.

The day we were there was cloudy and threatening rain, but the sky was so vibrant and a gorgeous shade of blue.

Right across the street from the temple you see acres and acres of grain fields.  Stunning in a very simple way.

This weekend we participated in the semi-annual General Conference for our church.

There was beautiful weather, inspirational messages, and thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathering together to strengthen testimonies in Jesus Christ.  Conference weekend has been uplifting and rewarding once again. 

One of my favorite messages was given by Jeffery R. Holland and you can watch it by clicking here. 

He teaches us that we should look beyond the reasons why people might need help, not judging if they have created their own troubles or not, and reach out to them with compassion.

It was a message that made me stop and think about my own actions and maybe change my attitude a bit.

Aren’t we all poor in some way-at some time?

This world could use more charity and love.

If each one of us did just a little more to make things better, imagine the changes we could make.

I’m going to try.

JoAnn

P.S. It was fun having a sleep-over with you Maddie, Brooklyn, Joshua, and Olivia! 

Sorry you have been sick, Zachary!  I missed you, Aubrey, and little Paul.

Humble beginnings…..

I just came across this picture of our very first apartment as a married couple.

As newly married BYU students (we got married during the Christmas break), housing was scarce and expensive.

We still didn’t have housing as we left school for Christmas and the preparation for our upcoming wedding.

Miraculously, we soon received a phone call from the owner of this little house in south Provo saying we could rent the basement apartment.

Our house had a bright orange bathroom that was really a long hallway with a toilet and a shower curtain at the end of it.  The shower had a cement lip to keep the water inside.  We were lucky enough to have a small bedroom, kitchen, and living room.

We have some good memories of living there.

We became good friends with the owners, the Pectols.

We would eat together once a week, bringing all our leftovers to share.  We enjoyed their food and they enjoyed ours.

It was a good beginning.

 

We moved to West Valley and lived in another apartment before buying our first house.  (I need to get a picture of it.)

This was our first house.

After having six children, we were mighty packed inside our starter home, but we decided we could get more house if we used Ken’s building skills and added on rather than move to a more expensive neighborhood.

Our house now looks like this.

We have spent many years working on it and changing out the “ugly” for more modern finishes.

We feel so blessed to have a comfortable home that meets our family’s needs.

There is always a project waiting to be worked on, but we count our blessings every day for the space to entertain our growing family and our friends.

Life is good!

JoAnn

 

Geraniums, bamboo, rain, and a winning ticket…life is good!

As you can tell from my heading, this post is going to cover some random material.  I’m not even sure if it will connect together at all.

(Pretty sure it will take some imagination.)

Here goes.

Geraniums:  One of my favorite flowers has got to be red geraniums.

I plant them in my yard.

The window sills of my classroom are full of  many colorful pots of geraniums.

I’m drawn to gardens and planters lined with their color.

I love how they bloom all summer (and all winter in my sunny windows).

These beautiful blossoms were from our visit to Snowbird last weekend.

Bamboo:  We have some new flooring in our house.  My husband has been really busy.  The air around here is still tinged with the vapors of the hard wood from all the sawing.  We have a few moldings to finish up, but things are almost finished.  Yeah!

Rain:  Utah has been pelted with rain all weekend.

Thunder, lightning, and rain-the good old kind of storm that makes you want to curl up with a book, or bake chocolate chip cookies. 

(We may have become a little nervous during the night when the flash and the rumble were only a few seconds apart!) but, we live in a desert and rain is always welcomed.

There were places that couldn’t handle all the water and unfortunately, some flooding occurred.  Our hearts go out to those who suffered from the flooding.

The photo below was taken earlier in the summer by my daughter, Liz, but it was that kind of rainy weather.

She sent me this photo of a park near their home.  The water is covering a grassy park.  We had about one and a quarter inch of rain on Saturday.

Winning ticket:  I am the lucky winner of a free 16 by 20 inch Easy Canvas sponsored by my blogging friend, Pat,

at

 Mille Fiore Favoriti. (Go visit her blog and see the beautiful fall colors in the mountains of Colorado.  She is a wonderful photographer and always fills her posts with interesting facts and information.)

Now, to pick a favorite photo….

Well, my rambling is almost complete.  I hope this weekend finds you rested and ready for another busy week.

JoAnn

P.S.  Don’t you love this time of year?

 

Connect Pass Number #5

We have had a hard time getting together to enjoy our Salt Lake Connect passes.  (It’s a good thing we have a whole year to use them!)  Life doesn’t seem to slow down very often, and there are a lot of us to coordinate schedules with, including work schedules, trainings, lessons, church callings, and  so on. 

We did get together yesterday (minus Robbie and Brittany who had other commitments, and whom we really missed) to use our Snowbird passes.

Snowbird is about ten miles up beautiful Little Cottonwood Canyon, and is a winter ski resort-summer sports venue. 

The drive there was so pretty with some of the leaves already starting to change color.

With our passes, we had the option of riding in the enclosed tram or the open ski lift to the top of the mountain and then back down(normal value $17 each).

With six children under the age of eight, we opted for the security of the enclosed tram.  It was quite thrilling to watch the resort, cars, and people get smaller and smaller as we ascended the mountain.

The tram let us out at the top, at 11,000 feet.

We felt like we really were on top of the world!

The views were astonishing.

The air was a little smoky, probably due to fires in California, but you could see for miles, in every direction.  It kind of took your breath away (especially if one wasn’t used to the altitude here)!

Katie, Andrew, Irene, and I decided to hike to the ski lift for the ride back down.  We felt rewarded for our hiking efforts, because it was much more exciting being in the fresh air, feeling the wind against our faces and smelling the fragrance of the pines, as we descended back to the resort.

Michelle, our family coordinating-event pusher, planned this outing to coincide with Snowbird’s Oktoberfest celebration.

THANK YOU, MICHELLE!

After our scenic ride to the top of the mountain, we enjoyed the festivities of the German festival, down on the plaza.  There was beer drinking (which we DIDN’T participate in), polka dancing, juggling, German food, entertainment, and people watching to be had.

Oktoberfest 2014

Little Zach even had a nap while his daddy was busy dancing with his sisters!

This activity  will certainly become a yearly tradition for our family!

We loved it!

Don’t you love cultural festivities?

JoAnn

P.S.  Too bad I outgrew my dirndl!

Give me some country…..

The picture below is where I got my start in this earthly life,

the center of my Universe.

I am a daughter of a dairy farmer who loved working the land and creating a living by the sweat of his brow,  preceded by his father working the very same land. 

I don’t live on a farm now, but I sure am thankful for my beginnings. 

I have to get a little “country fix” every so often to keep myself happy.  Living in the city has some advantages and perks, but those country roots do run deep. 

I don’t miss some things about living on a farm (barn yard smells can be pretty strong),

but I sure do miss the wide open spaces, the acres of green fields, the smell of freshly cut alfalfa, ripening wheat fields waiting for harvest time, and the few remaining old barns scattered around.

Last weekend we headed north to spend the day celebrating Aunt Mardene’s ninety-first birthday.  Like last year, everyone came prepared for a day of service, helping with yard work and heavy cleaning.

Mardene still gets around quite well, but climbing ladders to wash windows and digging up gardens is getting too dangerous for her.   We had a fun day working together and enjoyed some delicious Dutch oven potatoes and chicken.  Yum!

Happy Birthday, Mardene!

(I borrowed this picture from my niece Jenni.  Well, I didn’t really ask, but I hope Jenni won’t mind.)

A few weeks earlier, I had stayed over night and spent a fun day  with Mardene and my sister Diane, driving around the valley checking out all the changes to the neighboring farms. 

(It’s a rural thing-don’t ask me why.) 

We drove by this restored barn and I had to stop and take pictures.  I have always wanted a big old barn of my own, and this one looked perfect.  Everything was as neat as a pin and tidy, too.

I love the flower beds by this old building.

Yes, I do love those country barns!

(I even have a board of barns on my Pinterest account.)

I wonder if we could fit a big barn in our small back yard?

Sigh…

Guess I’ll just have to keep making little visits to the farm.

JoAnn

Link for 9-11

I’m a bit technology challenged today and I can’t figure out how to embed the link, but this YouTube video by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, narrated by Tom Brokaw is quite powerful.  The music and photography are stunning, and the message is positive.  It is a time in history that I will never forget, and it makes me proud to be an American.  We live in a beautiful country!

JoAnn

P.S.  It is a bit long, but some of the best video and music is at the end!

 

Saturday morning in the playhouse

Last Saturday I escaped from the real world.

Well, maybe it wasn’t a real escape, and maybe it wasn’t for very long, but I did get in on some good pretending and make believe.

I spent some relaxing time in the playhouse loft with Joshua and Olivia, while their parents attended a wedding.

The best part of the deal was trading our identities for awhile.

I was the mother, Joshua was the dad, and Olivia was our sweet child.

We had a splendid tea party with the three bears (and a few extra bear friends).

We enjoyed a little quiet reading time.

And we hung out with some really interesting people.

The pleasant temperature outside only added to the enjoyment of the day. 

Don’t you agree that everyone needs a little magic and escape time once in a while?

JoAnn