A Quiver Full: SEPTEMBER 2017

SEPTEMBER 2017
(this blog contains my weekly emails to my precious family)

Week 1 ~ 9/3/2017

Sunday bulletin,

1) I can smile again! I wore these 3 yellow temps for 4 1/2 weeks. Tuesday my smile brightened considerably.

2) My cousins’ daughter had her 2nd child. Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate.

3) I've maintained my 'stepping out' 6 out of 7 days each week for 7 weeks. I get electronic confetti when I get 10K steps.

4) Except last Saturday…I sat too long at the Miami Marlin’s game and fell short of my 10K steps. With 10 minutes before midnight Lane pulled off the freeway enroute home and told me to run .7 miles in my heels. I replied with a dirty look.

5) Actually Lane has been teaching me to find some joy in baseball. He took me to 2 games in 6 days. I can name the first 6 batters in the batting line-up. Gordon is my favorite player to watch. And all eyes have turned to GianCarlo Stanton, 52 HR’s. (The record is 62.) Baseball's greatest players have one thing in common. Each one developed the capacity to persevere in the face of chronic failure, abject criticism and occasional humiliation.

6) If you walk upright YOU also need to develop perseverance to succeed in the face of failure and criticism. The rock of our Redeemer is a stable and permanent foundation of justice and virtue. Christ offers the unchanging law of God rather than being held hostage to the wrath of the unpredictable rules of social media. Christ invites us to repent and rise to the gospel standard rather than to pretend there is no right or wrong.

7) How many of you can enjoy NO LABOR on Labor Day?

Today is Jerry & Erin’s 13th anniversary. CONGRATS!

This coming week!

Tuesday - Greg is FREE!!! Monday his belongings will be inventoried in Gunnison. Tuesday he’ll be transported by prison system to Bluffdale where his momma picks him up. That evening he’ll enjoy a steak dinner at a BBQ hosted by the Hills - everyone else will eat bologna sandwiches. Haha. (Nope, they’ll be fed burgers and dogs. And a tasty sheet cake we’ve arranged to have delivered.)

Friday - Justin will be 16 on the eighth. Watch out

Saturday - RayDean continues to get wiser per the anniversary of her birth on the ninth.

WEEK 2 ~ 9/10/2017

Progenitor Pictorial,

1) News of the week!!!!! Greg is FREE!!!

2) Irma happened. During Greg’s party we were packing up and evacuating to Orlando. On Thursday we headed to ~~DisneyWorld~~, er... SLC (Steph rescued us at a crucial time when flights were hard to come by).

3) Once safely in Utah… I enjoyed treasured time with a mom, a sister, a daughter and g’daughters. (too many photos of me, sorry)

4) Saturday was Raydean’s birthday and a coincidental 9/11 memorial with Maggie-moo.

5) Sept 10th - Sensational Sabbath. The food was first-rate, the family was fabulous, the Sacrament meeting was faith-promoting.

6) Caden shared Elder Hales talk “Meeting the Challenges of Today’s World”. Awesome conference address, Oct 2015. I will remember Caden’s talk for two reasons. First, his goofiest phrase came after he spoke of being shocked that he'd broken his arm. After all, he had NEVER broken anything in his life…except maybe a few hearts. ;o} Second, his obvious enthusiasm for teaching the truths of Christ’s gospel restored. Thank you Caden for being an incredible grandson. I am so proud of you, and your parents.

In the aftermath of Irma I am more certain that in the gathering storms of the last days there is only one person who can pilot me to safety. It is Jesus Christ. I take refuge in the stronghold of His Church. I seek the warning voice of His prophets. I am fortified when I obey His commandments. God is in charge - a comforting realization for me.

7) Tomorrow (Monday night) we return to Florida. We’ll send photos of HaRV. No news yet. It’s been a spectacular weekend. Thanks for all who made time to visit with us in SLC. Let’s stay in touch. Thanksgiving is in only 73 days!

Coming this week…

~ Carrie’s birthday is Tuesday the 12th - fanciful!

~ Lane’s HALF-BIRTHDAY is also Tuesday the 12th - whimsical!

~ Brian’s birthday is Friday the 15th - wacky!

~ Tom & Shalaun will have cute baby #6 in early January 2018 - astounding!

WEEK 3 ~ 9/17/2017

Hello dearest and choicest family,

POST IRMA: (I hope the photos don’t make this email too big to open)

1) Monday - dinner with my siblings in West Valley Utah

We flew away Monday night. And arrived safely home Tuesday afternoon.

2) HaRV was waiting. He must be perturbed with us for abandoning him, as he is withholding AC. We are hot and tired. Power should be back on this Tuesday night.

3) Not all trailers were as fortunate as HaRV.

4) We’ve spent as much time as possible at the stake center or driving the car — two places we have AC and the ability to charge our devices.

5) The Church sent 3 truckloads of relief supplies to help our stake…most particularly the Keys. The missionaries competed in building the wheelbarrows. There must have been 40.

5) Today and yesterday we joined hundreds of our friends to lend a helping hand in Key Largo, Marathon Key, Big Pine Key and Key West.

A senior missionary couple evacuated the home below. We drove them back to find it today. It was decimated. The hurricane shutters tore open allowing seaweed to swirl inside, and spitting out their refrigerator. Pillows and seat cushions decorated the trees. New ’seaweed mulch’ covers their backyard.

Our group of 30 was an efficient source of debris removal. After only clearing his driveway Ed said “This means everything to me!” Erika, a german woman, residing in Big Pine Key 45 years, cried and cried. Maria, thanked us profusely between tears as her husband recovers from chemo treatments.

Over the course of the weekend we were fed 4 free meals by local restaurants. Everywhere, restaurants offered their menu items for free. Free water and ice were handed out roadside. Burgers and dogs were thrust into the windows of moving cars driving on highway 1. Grateful recipients ordered pizza for us.

6) The famous Southern Most Point marker was sandblasted during the 150 mph winds. Robbies Marina was wiped out - where feeding tarpon was always a pleasure. The Post Card Inn (where we rented boats to sit on a sandbar) no longer exists as we knew it. Sombrero Beach and Bahia Honda beaches are shadows of themselves.

6) If ever life doesn’t make sense this is how I get calm.

Please let us know how you are doing.

This coming week:

September 19th - Randi will be 31!

WEEK 4 ~ 9/24/2017

Late night greetings!

1) Today Helping Hands strikes again — but only after the earliest and shortest sacrament mtg ever in my life. No talks, no musical numbers, just the sacrament…because that’s the focus of the meeting.