Messages from Mom - Sep2015

Sun. Sept. 13, 2015

Hi Kids,

Tomorrow morning I have my 3-month appt. with my diabetes doctor. Then to TOSH to pick up some test for at home to check for sleep apnea, because I have so little energy, which gets worse as the day goes on.

We had dental appts. for cleaning and checkups this coming Wed., but then they called and said Dad should not have it done until 6 months after a heart attack. So we rescheduled for January--Yippee! If it

hadn't been Jason's office that knew about the heart attack, we probably wouldn't have mentioned it and just gone to our appt. When we were at Dad's internist's office, Dad mentioned that he was overdue for a colonoscopy. His doctor said to wait a year after his heart attack, unless it was really necessary. The doctor even called and checked with Dad's colonoscopy doc to check on whether there had been any polyps they were watching, etc. I thought that was nice of him to go the extra mile and check and then call us! I guess both of these "waitings" are because of being on blood thinners.

Last night we went to a wedding at the Wight House Reception Center in Bountiful.

Gray ended up not being able to go hiking with Dad & Chris Friday, so Chris decided not to come in also. Dad and I went to dinner and then did a mini-hike for a half hour. Dad's walking stick made a huge difference for me. I have preferred walked with a groc. cart or stroller or something to hang onto.

Alyssa has been called in her UVU ward to be over how to do missionary work on devices such as our computers, phones, and ipads, etc. (if I understand it right). So Derek, and others if you have any helpful ideas, pass them on. When we were meeting with the High Priest Group Leadership Thurs. night about temple and family history work, Melanie Cannon said something interesting along this line. Her brother is currently serving as a mission president and told her that part of the reason for missionaries getting ipads and being able to share the gospel message through social media is to help the missionaries develop skills and up-to-date knowledge that will help them continue doing these positive things when they get home, so they won't just go back to old pre-mission activities of video games or worse. (Or something like that...). Interesting thought. Derek, have you heard anything like that in your line of work?

Today our Sacrament Meeting was on Missionary Work. We had a returned missionary in our ward speak who just returned from his mission in Finland. Then Steve Nelson (Piano Guys), our ward mission leader spoke. Steve said three of the hardest things in life are: (1) trying to climb a fence that is leaning towards you, (2) trying to kiss a girl who is leaning away from you, and (3) having to speak after a returned missionary! Scott and Derek, maybe you can use that sometime in your HC talks after a returned missionary speaks.

If was nice to have Courtney drive in and spend a couple hours with us yesterday, learning Descendancy Research and adding Sources. We were able to find a lot of "green boxes" on her mother's line, with Kim being a convert and printed off an FOR for her to take to the temple for them to print the cards. Then she went to the Draper Temple. Dad went and picked plums at Sollis's while I taught Courtney. We sent a lot home with her in a cooler.

Wed. we went to our first Ensign Club on the season (Sept. - May), then went downtown Thurs. The program was a descendant of James E. Talmadge telling about his life. A week ago when we went downtown, our "Trails Project" group had a nice lunch together of soup and breadsticks and cookies to celebrate getting the new website finished. Of course, poor Dad couldn't eat any of those!

Corin's mission papers are about ready to go in.........then we'll start the countdown, watching for THE envelope!

Have a great week! love, Mom

From Jen: We did a hike on Labor Day (as did half of Utah, it was SO crowded up at Donut Falls!) and then on Saturday morning with the extended Blackham family (Bells Canyon, we just went to the reservoir). Colton asked "What is up with all this hiking?" Gray picked up some hiking poles for Pam and they helped her out a lot. Kolby and Jami were in town for a wedding, and they were over at our house Friday night. We let the kitties "attack" each other while they were watching and Kolby said they are just playing and such (we've been keeping the kitties separated afraid they would hurt each other) ... so we're letting them "work it out" more.

From Wendy: Thanks for the letter, mom! That is exciting about Corin – keep us posted! We had our regional broadcast today (Provo area on down) and some of you may have had the same one. All very excellent talks!!  I’ve had lots of interpreting jobs lately. I brought Jenna to the eye doctor for a first-time check-up. Everything looks good. Josh had his cub scout day camp Saturday morning and had a good time. The boys had a Cross Country meet Wednesday night and then went to Salt Lake Friday and Saturday for a Cross Country meet at Murray Park. They had a lot of fun – Jared brought our Wii and had a Wii tournament with his friends and Jase stayed up really late playing RISK with his friends.

We sold our big 15 passenger van and Rick bought a used Toyota Corella instead. He had been driving the van back and forth to work, which was a nuisance for only one person and poor gas mileage (except that it was CNG, which helped). So now we will need to take two cars if we go anywhere with the whole family! We usually take two (or three) cars to church anyway since Jase usually has to stay and help deliver the sacrament to home-bound ward members and Rick often has to leave early to interpret at the Deaf Branch. I don’t know what we will do for our trip up North for Christmas, though!

Janika said that their mission president had a “reward” for them for memorizing a bunch of scriptures. She and her companion were hoping it was IPADS – but it was actually permission to watch the BYU/Huskers game at a member’s house. I am sure Janika’s former companion would have loved that but neither Janika or her new companion are into football and so I don’t think they watched it! I guess football is huge there and they were nervous about knocking on people’s doors right after BYU’s win, ha ha!! Wish we could have been there for your monthly get-together!!

From Derek: Thanks for writing Mom (and everyone else). :)  We had the regional broadcast yesterday as well. We weren't feeling 100 percent yesterday, so I actually used my Church connections and got the live stream to our computer so we hooked up the TV and watched it from home. :) It was really good.

Danielle's brother Jake was in town from Nebraska, so he and I and Ron worked all weekend on our basement finishing. We put up all the baseboards, doors, trim, windowsills and then painted the whole thing with primer, and did the final coat on all the trim. Now we just need to roll on the final wall coats, finish our electrical (outlets and lights), and then bring the carpet and tile in. We'll finish the bathroom a month or two later on.

Yes, Mom I know a fair amount about the iPad's working with them at work (and then as well in my calling). They are white-listed machines -- meaning that they only do a certain number of functions (Church apps, and an Area Book planner). They can't use the Internet for games or email or anything. The Church started with a few pilot missions, but they are now rolling them out pretty broadly (except in areas where theft is a major concern).

We have been very busy lately with the basement project and with work, and now with Ani's school. Danielle walks Ani to school (with L in the stroller) every morning with some ladies from the neighborhood and then picks her up in the car at noon. Ani is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to going to school everyday. Some days are better than others, but the excitement and anticipation for school has turned into a realization that it's not as fun as she hoped and is more work, and less play. Ani had her first soccer game this week and lost by a score of about 20 to 1. :) Haha... I don't think anyone cared though. She had fun.

Layla is into everything, but is such a fun girl. She has no fear so she really keeps us on our toes. :) The baby is doing well and Danielle is really showing. :) Halfway there!

Love,

D&D and Ani and Layla and Baby