August 15, 2021
Hi Kids,
We came home after our Sac. mtg. in order to hear Jared and Rick speak in Sacrament mtg. ZOOM makes it nice to be able to do that. They both did a great job!
And last weekend or the week before (time flies!), we were able to hear Wendy speak at the Sat. night Stake Conference mtg. and she did a wonderful job also.
Our Sacrament meeting was good. The Mendenhall family that is moving, after living in our ward for 3 years. It is their house, across from Craig and Joan Anderson, that Shane's high school friends, Megan and Nate Woodward have purchased. They have been attended our ward, even though they haven't moved in yet.
The Mendenhalls have 3 children. Their oldest son Quin (around age 14) said how sad he was about moving and leaving this ward and neighborhood. Then his mom Erin cried all the way through her talk, saying how hard it is to leave. She has her Ph.D. in physical therapy. She is very attractive and will likely stay that way, with a plastic surgeon for a husband. Shaun, the dad, said he had a dream offer he just couldn't pass up. They are moving back to Philadelphia, where they moved from when they came here.
Jase and Ellen and Kellen: He said it had been 16 years to get through college, medical school, surgical training, etc. when they finally moved back to Utah. They had enjoyed living just blocks away from Erin's mom for a year, when her mom died unexpectedly in her sleep. They were glad they had that year together. They love the ward and neighborhood and had planned on staying here to raise their family. He works with the U. of U. system.
His life is interesting. He was baptized as a child, but had not been active. He had a very wild youth and in his first 2 years of college. Then he was "converted" and repented and did a complete turnaround in his life. He took out all his piercings, but couldn't get rid of his tattoos. He served a mission. Then became a hand surgeon/plastic surgeon. He said a tenth of the U.S. send their hardest cases to the U. of U. group.
He told of one difficult case when he was new here in his practice. A young woman had a terrible accident at work, cutting off 3 of her fingers and mangling her hand. He said he kneels and prays every morning before going to work, asking the Lord to help him help his patients. When he operated on this young woman, the surgery took 16 hours. He said he was so exhausted. His eyes were tired and hurting, looking through the microscope all that time, and his back and neck (he is very tall) and wrists hurt so bad. He prayed for strength to get through it and he said he felt angels in the room strengthening him.
The woman was in such bad shape, she was in the ICU for 2 or 3 weeks. She got so down and discouraged that she didn't think she could go on. Then she said she heard voices (& she was not on meds) encouraging her and telling her she could make it. She opened her eyes, but no one was there.
He said this woman and her husband were coming to his home today and were investigating the Church and would probably be baptized.
Chris and Kim came for dinner and games last night and to return our truck, which they had borrowed til they got their car repaired.
Last Sun. we had dinner at their house, and dinner at Derek & Danielle's the Sunday before. So nice to be with family!
A lot more masks at church today!
Wendy's 3 youngest started school this past week, and the rest of our grandkids start this week. Cayson and Rella start High School (9th), but are going to different High Schools. Colton and Josh start H.S. also. That was the year we had 4 new grandbabies in 8 months!
Only 4 grandkids left in Elementary School---Calder and Derek & Danielle's 3. Our youngest grandchild (Noelle) starts kindergarten.
Have a great week!
love, Grandma
August 19, 2021
I didn't know about this situation in our subdivision until I just saw this picture on Facebook. This is New Haven Drive, from Vine Street, just in front of Cartwright's and Carter's! Just below Player's.
Kristen Lambert, who lives on the corner, two houses above Lis Long, posted the picture. She said the storm drains were clogged and it popped off the manhole covers on the street and made mini-geysers. I guess this is the Fire Dept. Captain clearing a handful of debris from the drain. Kristen said the mini-lake lasted about 3 hours.
We really got a lot of heavy rain Tues. night and Wed. Some hail, but tiny. Our home is fine, but but neighbors on both sides of us got flooding in their basements, and several others. The big house across the street used a sump pump to pump out their window wells before it got into their basement.
August 26, 2021
Derek, we didn't receive your update again, even though I see you sent it to our xmission address. We didn't get your last one either and I don't know why. You could try adding our westra8@gmail.com address to your family group address. It is set to automatically forward to our xmission address, but sometimes we still don't get it. I need to check gmail more. So I am glad when Wendy comments and leaves your letter on. And Chris is good to tell me when family writes and ask if I got it. It was fun to read and know what is happening.
We have a lot of peaches, though most are blemished this year and most are small---but come get some if you want!
We have a sprinkler leak around the faucet by the garage. Dad dug down to expose the problem, but doesn't have the strength to do the repair on his own. He has had to just set sprinklers for a week now, which is a big job for him to do the whole yard and the hoses don't quite reach everyplace. Derek is planning on taking some time off work this afternoon to fix it. Chris is here now and he and Dad will try first. Chris said it is not in his skill set, but if Dad provides the know-how and Chris provides the strength, we'll see if they can do it first, as we hate to put Derek out.
Chris just reported that Dad needs a different size pipe than he bought, so he is going to Home Depot again (he went yesterday). Chris thinks that he and Dad can fix it then.
We tended the girls last weekend while D & D went out to dinner, so it was good to see them.
Wendy, thanks for your nice letter. Maybe you or Rick will run into Dr. Wesley Godfrey at the st. George hospital when you are interpreting for an elderly patient. Karie and Gary's oldest son. He turned down a job offer from Mayo Clinic, where he did the last part of his residency, in order to come back to Utah. They (Christine & 4 kids) bought a home in Hurricane and have moved in. He always wanted to be a Hospitalist (they don't have a private practice, but just work at the hospital). This saves each patient's personal physician from having to make daily hospital visits. The hospitalists handles all patients while they are in the hospital and interacts with the personal physicians. It is the model used in hospitals now. Wesley always wanted to work with older people. I don't know the proper term for him (doctors specializing in aging patients are really needed):
Well, I've got lots to do, so better get moving...........
love, Mom
August 30, 2021
Hi Kids,
Kemery face-timed me Sat. afternoon, inviting us to Letti Rae's baby blessing at their home yesterday at 5 p.m. So we FINALLY got to see her in person and see their home. We drove to Scott's and then went with Scott and Amy. So it was nice to also see Taylee, Alyssa, McKenna and Spencer (before they move Fri. to Seattle) and visit with Kellen about all his plans. They didn't invite Scott and Amy's siblings as they said their house is too small. We took fresh peaches and tomatoes to Scott and to Kemery. Scott's tomatoes haven't done well this year. Ours have done great (thanks Shane!) We took a sack of toys to Letti, that I scrubbed with soap and hot water first. I am starting to clean out our "toy cupboard" now that Noelle is in Kindergarten. I will take some more toys to Evan in Sept.
We had been invited to Chris and Kim's for dinner yesterday. They have us often, about once a month which is nice, and invite early, so they have been sweet to tell us that if we get an invitation from one of our other kids that we don't see as often, we are always free to accept the 2nd invitation and cancel ours with them and their feelings will not be hurt. So we did that yesterday. Letti Rae will be 4 months old a week from today, so we needed to meet her, but Dad never wanted to drive clear to Payson. If this hadn't come up, I told him I wanted to stop in Payson on the way to St. George on Sept. 20.
Wendy and Rick got us tickets to Tuacahn for Tues., Sept. 21 for our Mother's Day and Father's presents. We usually stay 5 nights when we make a trip, but I think we will come home Fri. in order to attend a baby shower at Katie's for Walker and his wife, expecting their first child. I miss seeing Merrill and Lorrie's kids. Merrill has been getting better, but slowly. He lost 25 lbs. while not feeling well these past couple months.
Dale and Stephanie were staying with Nelva and Arnold for a month or so, after they sold their home in Layton and while waiting for their mission call. Their mission call to Texas (where they were moving anyway) came and they did their 2 weeks at the MTC (just during the days). They moved to Texas a couple weeks ago---a small town, I can't remember the name) that is 93% hispanic and very poor. It is about 3 hours from where they want to move after their 12-month mission. I think where they want to move is Brownsville, but not sure. They wish their mission was closer so they could check out the place where they want to move--housing and such.
It turns out that Scott and Amy are going to St. George (their annual work retreat) the same day we are and seeing the same play the same night (their work group is going). I told them they ought to try to stop by Wendy's one of the days they are there to say Hi and see their lovely new kitchen.
We haven't been to St. George since early Nov., 2 years ago when the girls were in Mary Poppins and before the covid pandemic. Good luck with Evan's baby blessing. Wish we could all be there. We do want to see him and their apartment while we are there in Sept. I like to be able to picture people in their various homes.
Derek and Danielle have invited us to dinner this coming Sunday, so that will be fun.
Between Derek, Chris, and Dad, they fixed our leaking faucet by the garage.
Rella, Taylee, and Cooper all just had birthdays and Keaton's will be this Tues. Chris's and Landon's are coming up in early Sept.
Our peaches vary a lot this year. Some are so small and others are good-sized. A lot have a blemished skin this year, even though we hired Stewarts to spray our fruit trees. So we have to give the best ones away because I don't want to give the blemished ones. We have eaten a lot and shared a lot. Not sure whether we will can some or not. At least our trees are not all ripe at once, which spreads out the joy of freshly picked peaches for weeks!
Have a great week! love, Mom
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