Winter Yet Again in Tooele

For some reason, winter is hesitant to leave this year. We had several nice days of beautiful, spring weather - even temperature approaching 70 F - and then today I wake up to another blizzard. It has been snowing all day and we have over 6 inches on the ground right now. It is wet snow and sticking to everything. Sherrie and I went to the gym and is was miserable just walking from the car into the building. I know it is good for the gardens and lawns because it is providing much needed moisture, but it might be a little less intrusive as rain.

Jonathan's New Suit

From 2010-03-21 001

From 2010-03-21 001

Jonathan out grew his church suit (height not girth). I took him for a true suit buying experience (the first didn't count since it was from Walmart). We went to Mr. Mac's. He and I both got new suits. His is a beautiful black with a pinstripe. I had to admit that he looks pretty dashing in it. I went with a conservative navy blue with faint green and blue pinstripes. He was able to work with the salesman to pick out his suit and then have it fitted for him. He even got a very nice (expensive) red, silk tie to go with it.

Sarah's Birthday

I am such a bad dad. It has taken me this long to blog about my daughter's birthday which was over a week ago. I can't believe how grown up all my children are. She had a nice birthday with her mom and I, her brother and her Grandma and Grandpa Gibby that came up for it. Her presents were mainly accessories for her laptop computer and a George Forman Grill. Nothing too exciting, but as she told me, she got the things she asked for. It was kind of different celebrating a birthday without both the older boys here. But I guess it was the same for Jonathan's last birthday.

Elder Jordan Gibby - March 30, 2010 Update

From Jordan

From Jordan

Elder Jordan Gibby working on a service project.

From Jordan

Elder Gibby's dream car.

From Jordan

Elder Gibby's true love - the guitar!

Elder Jared Gibby - March 24, 2010

Some pictures of Sister Brown's baptism. She is such a spiritual lady.

Elder Jared Gibby - March 17, 2010

From Jared Mission

Nelson picked up his fancy suites from Chicago a couple of weeks ago. He was sporting it one day and I had to get a pick with him. yea, I've been working out a little bit. haha. Nelson is a stud!! He's 51 years old and lookin pretty good. (I think the suit looks pretty nice!)

From Jared Mission

Here we all are for Jeanette, "Sweetie's," baptism. 'Grandma,' her mother is standing next to her. Nelson, her brother, is next to me. Her other brother is on the far right. Leon is down below. It was probably the best baptism of my mission. (What beautiful family.)

From Jared Mission

Here is a pic of Nina's baptism. Nelson was excited to perform the baptism. He's only held the Aaronic Priesthood for a little over a month and as a Priest this is his second baptism. He's awesome. (What great people Jared has been able to meet in Alabama.)

From Jared Mission

This is Breon and I. He's flashin his gang sign. haha He's three years old. Breon is like their nephew or something.

Elder Jordan Gibby - March 15, 2010

From Jordan Mission

Elder Jordan Gibby and his new companion, Elder Rodgiques.

From Jordan Mission

A special care package from Mom. Yumm.

From Jordan Mission

Elder Gibby's Grape (Uva) Festival Shirt

Resilient Spring

From 2010-03-16 001

From 2010-03-16 001

From 2010-03-16 001

From 2010-03-16 001

From 2010-03-16 001

With spring officially scheduled to begin this weekend, my gardens on right on schedule. A little blizzard dumping 8 inches of snow seems to have only encouraged them to press forward with more vigor. We had our first daffodils bloom today. The others are budded and won't be far behind.

Winter Wonderland in March

From 2010-03-14 001

From 2010-03-14 001

From 2010-03-14 001

From 2010-03-14 001

We got a little snow yesterday in Tooele. It snowed most of the day. I was supposed to change out the fuel pump in my Subaru. After several hours of trying to work in blizzard like conditions, I gave up. A week of nice sunny weather and then a blizzard on the weekend. We had plans to go to dinner with Sherrie's best friend from high school, Julene Helean and her husband Mark. We weren't sure we would be able to make it to Lehi. We decided to go for it and went the southern route through Cedar Fort. The roads were pretty bad until we reached Cedar Fort. I kept wondering if we had made the right decision. When we arrived we had a great time visiting and enjoyed a good dinner at Chili's. We came back through Salt Lake City which was a longer drive, but the roads were mainly just wet until we started up the incline to Tooele. Tooele City roads were almost impassable last night.But we made it okay, had a great time and were able to wake up to a winter wonderland this morning.

Bump in the Road to Spring

All the 50+ degree days has me overly anxious for spring. Well, I awoke to find about 4 inches of new snow. This wasn't unexpected, however, as it was blizzarding when I left the plant yesterday afternoon. I don't count on seeing any snow when I get home this afternoon, as we are expecting warmer temps again today. These spring snows are really good for the gardens and lawn. The cold, very wet, snow seems to vitalize the emerging plants. It just adds a little irritation in having to clear off the windshield before driving the car.

Planning Commission Meeting

We had a really long planning commission meeting last night. We started at 7 pm and ended about 11:30 pm. This was a big issue for a relatively small (population) valley. Rocky Mountain Power wants to run a high-voltage transmission line, to provide power to the west side of the Salt Lake Valley, through Tooele and along our picturesque east bench. The people on the east side of the Oquirrh Mountains seem to forget that there are people living on the west side of the range. It was amazing how the time really seemed to go by quickly as we listened to input from so many citizens. The Tooele Transcript Bulletin carried an article about the meeting.

Elder Jared Gibby - March 3, 2010 Update

Snow in Alabama

From Jared Jan 2010

Good Southern BBQ (I'm going to have to get a smoker)

From Jared Jan 2010

From Jared Jan 2010

Another Baptism (Nelson a convert baptizes Leon)

From Jared Jan 2010

Elder Jordan Gibby Birthday

Some more birthday pictures I received this morning.

From Jordan

From Jordan

From Jordan

Translated (using my Spanish to try and understand Portuguese):

Happy Birthday to me. I am 20 years old. Wow! I am becoming an old man. How crazy. I love you. I am well. It has been fun translating what I write. Also give Ruby a hug from me.

Affirmations of Spring

From 2010-03-02 001

Pulsatilla Blooms

From 2010-03-02 001

From 2010-03-02 001

Primose Blossoms

From 2010-03-02 001

Daffodils enjoying the warmer days

I see the gardens starting to awake with the few warmer days that we've had recently. I am ready for spring and tired of winter.

Elder Jordan Gibby - March 2, 2010

From Jordan Mission

Elders with the festival princesses

From Jordan Mission

The Grape Festival

From Jordan Mission

Jordan commented that they seem to really like dinosaurs in Brazil

From Jordan Mission

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Jordan Gibby!

Elder Gibby celebrated his 20th birthday this past Saturday. Wow, I can't believe that I have two children in their 20's now. I can remember celebrating my 20th birthday in Tiquisate, Guatemala when I was serving a mission just like it was yesterday. On the other hand, I have a hard time remember what happened yesterday. Well, Elder Gibby didn't get much of a birthday celebration. He writes, "I didn't have a birthday party cause my birthday was on transfers. However, a lady in one of our wards made me a cake regradless if I stayed in this area or left. I stayed because my companion's escape plan worked for him." Hopefully, this will be the last transfer that Elder Gibby spends in his current area - after a few months he is feeling the need for change. This will be his third companion in this area. He has a new companion that he really likes.

It sounds as if they experience some of the same problems there that we have here from time to time. "I am focusing on getting to our lunches everyday. I had to make our lunch calendar because the lady that has the calling for making our lunch calendar decided she didn't want to do it anymore."

"We went to festa da uva a week ago for pday and got a lot of cool pics and I got some pictures with what they call the pricesses of the grapes. Kinda interesting. They are pretty but were using way too much makeup haha."

"I'm not sure what's up with these people and dinasours, they always include dinasour statues in various events haha, I thought it was pretty funny."