How Fortunate Am I

This has been a zinger of a week and its not over yet. I slipped on the ice and fell flat on my back (and slid an addition 3-4 ft). I've gone to the gym and run on the treadmill until my lungs felt like they would come right out my chest and I gained 2 pounds (obviously water weight and has nothing to do with all the oatmeal cookies I consumed). Neither Sherrie's no my alarm went off one morning (at least she wasn't late, I stayed over an hour). I made a couple of bad cuts and ruined $40 worth of oak.


However, my misfortunes are not the focus of this blog entry. It is really how fortunate I am. I received another wonderful letter from Jared. He loves his mission and is maturing into such a capable, responsible and independent young man. I have Jordan who wants to serve a mission and has been excelling in his scholastic and music endeavors. I have a beautiful daughter pulling straight A's in honors classes and socializing with an exemplary group of kids. I have a youngest son who is a great example for all the children in the neighborhood and takes care of his parents. I have a wonderful wife who is a great teacher and getting perfect scores on her graduate work. I have a great job and a nice, comfortable home. I have good neighbors and flowers blooming in the yard. Life really is good

Elder Gibby - Gadsden - March 11, 2009

I received Jared's Wednesday email. He continues to love life in Alabama. He is staying really busy in Gadsden.
A nice picture of an opposum. We had these in our yard in Tennessee. They have a lot of really sharp teeth. Fortunately, they aren't aggressive (i.e., playing possum). One that came up to our slider door in Tennessee was the size of a medium dog.

I guess they are taking the "Onward Christian Soldiers" literally.

As I always say, "It's all genetic."

Jared is excited to have another baptism scheduled. "This past week has been really busy and awesome. We taught some sweet lessons to Phil Friday night and Monday night. We taught him Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the word of wisdom. He is totally excited to be baptized. His baptismal date is scheduled for the 29th of this month."

The Elders started a service project at the local library. They are organizing photographs from the town newspaper to be scanned and put on the internet. The photos are from the 1960's and 1970's. "Thursday we started doing our service project for the library here in Gadsden. They started us on this project sorting photos. Apparently the Gasden Times stores all their old photos here in the library. So the library had us start sorting through all the pictures from the late 60’s and early 70’s so that they can digitize them and put them on the internet for people to have access to them. It’s going to be a long project and will probably take us at least a couple of months since there are about 100,000 pictures. Plus they are all negatives so we have to hold them up to the light. It’s kinda fun to do because we get to see a lot of Gadsden back in the day. I enjoy doing it. The library is really thankful for us to help them do this."

Tuesday night, Jared took a call from a man in Great Britain who has dedicated his life to the downfall of the LDS Church. He apparently spends his time calling missionaries around the world trying to convince them that they are wrong. "He said I was a pretty smart fellow and I wasn’t the typical missionary. Maybe because I didn’t try to bash with him and I wasn’t rude to him, I don’t know. But I just told him what I know. So that was interesting. He has called a bunch of missionaries in our mission."

All-in-all it sounds as if he had an interesting and busy week. I am always excited to hear from his, see his pictures and see the growth that is occurring.

The Guitar Hero

 
 
 
 

Jordan was the opening act for a big concert in Cedar City several weeks ago. The band (and I can't remember their name - sometimes I can't remember my name) is from California and has a legitimate recording contract. Jordan said they let him play some of their songs with them. He has been picking of different performing gigs and really enjoys it. For his birthday he received another guitar gizmo that allows him to make his guitar sound like a synthesizer. I would really like to attend one of his performances. I've even heard rumor that he sings when he performs. That could very well be possible since he has Mormon Tabernacle Choir members in his gene pool.

Another Week Gone By

Wow!! Another week has gone by and I still haven't been in for a haircut. It really seems as if the last week started and ended at the same time. There was so much going on (not much of it fun), that time sped past at whatever speed time goes by at when it's going really fast. I don't remember much before Thursday so I will start there. On Thursday evening after work, Sherrie and I headed south to pick up Jordan from SUU for his birthday on Friday. We made it down in good time, but were delayed in returning just a big as the apartment of girls next door had birthday brownies for Jordan. We opted to take the longer route back and stay on I-15 given our previous experience in December when we were stranded in the middle of nowhere (which is located between Meadow and Delta, Utah). On that trip, my poor brother and father had to come recover us in Delta after we sat in our freezing, non-operable car for a couple of hours during the wee hours of the morning. That trip also cost me a new engine for the Subaru. We did make it back, albeit late, without incident. I was up bright and early for work and Jordan was able to sleep in. Jackson Farnsworth came up from BYU to spend the weekend sometime on Friday. That night we had pizza and cake to celebrate Jordan's 19th birthday. Mom and Dad came up from Saratoga Springs, but didn't get to stay too long because it is still winter and it gets dark and cold early. Jordan had a good birthday and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with his friends. Saturday morning he had an early visit to the Bishop's house to start his mission papers. He was able to hang out some more with his friends Saturday. He really enjoyed having Jackson up for a visit. On Sunday morning he was up even earlier to visit with the Stake President for his Elder interview. About 10:30 am we headed back south to return him to his apartment. Again the trip down went much faster than the trip back. On the way back we stopped in Saratoga Springs to drop off my mother's purse which she left at our house on Friday. We also took the Mazda truck back with us for my neighbor to repair. It wasn't really fun driving separate cars back, but Sherrie and I were able to talk on the phone (hands free of course...). We didn't hit any deer and only saw one drunk driver off the road with the highway patrol attending to him. So all in all it wasn't a bad trip except that we arrived home late and tired. I was, however, up bright and early to head out to work which was good because the Subaru had a dead battery (thank goodness I have a collection of jump starter packs). That wraps up a few days. I am still racking my brain to figure out what happened Sunday through Thursday. I guess if I can't remember it, it must not have been worth remembering...

A Funny Video

Another House Enhancement Project

Ruby was not happy about things being torn up. Today he spent the entire day after we got back from church with Jonathan. Jonathan is his security blanket. During the construction or deconstruction activities yesterday, he would just sulk around and scowl at us. Maybe he liked the carpet more than we did...



 
 
 
 I decided Saturday morning that I was finally up to tearing apart my house again in hopes of enhancing it. Over a year ago I bought the hardwood flooring to do the entry way stairs and hall. It has been since sitting out in my garage waiting patiently for me to do something with it. Jonathan and Sarah were both big helps in getting the old carpet, pad, nails and staples out. Jonathan is a hard worker and helped me do a lot of the work on the cabin and house in Oregon. Sarah also likes to jump in and helped a lot until she had to leave for a study group. Isaac (our 4 year old neighbor) came over and helped pull staples and haul pad and debris out the front door. We rewarded him with peanut better cookies and a glass a milk. He loves to work and comes over whenever we have something going on and wants to know what he can do. Around dinner time we had to take a break and go get some Mexican food at Casa Del Rey in Grantsville. Later in the evening we had to take a second break and go get hot fudge sundays at McDonalds. I was able to get the floor started. After a few slats I put too much pressure on my staple gun (special gun for this type of flooring) and broke the alignment bracket (I guess it wasn't design to keep a person of my stature from falling over - aah the difficulties of age). After some quick research on the internet we headed down to Home Depot to buy some Gorilla Super Glue. It promised me in their add that it would provide a workable bond within 5 minutes. Well, they were right. I was able to work until my back told me to quit. I guess all the work took a toll on me. After church this afternoon I took a four hour nap. I guess I will piecemeal the work the rest of the week to finish it up. It is going to look really nice when it is done. It looked so nice getting the nasty carpet off the stairs and out of the hall we commented that we should have done that back when we bought the wood and it would have been better than living with the carpet all this time.

Winter Refuses to Give In

 
 Winter is still with us here in Tooele, Utah. Spring teases us for a few hours or maybe even a day and then the snow piles up again. This morning as we left for church I noticed the primrose and Pasqua flowers starting to bloom. They have beautiful blossoms that emerge even before the crocus. I'm waiting for the snow to melt of the back patio to I can see if the Helleborus is starting to bloom. But even as we had a beautiful springlike day today, The forecasters are telling of more snow falling tonight.

Prom Time

 
 
 
 

Sarah was asked to the Tooele High School Junior Prom. The young man, Micah, decorated her room and left her letter to unscramble to find out who he was. I took her on an extended driving practice while Micah and his friend, Jaret, did the room up. It was fun to watch her surprise. I could tell she was really excited in her cool, calm and collected manner. We were on the internet almost immediately looking at dresses and jewelry. This is exciting to see my daughter done up as a princess and going off to the ball. Last year it was held in the Capitol Dome. I haven't heard the specifics for this year yet, but it is the second Saturday in April. Not much time to prepare.

Six Happy Couples

 

This is the picture from Sarah's "Girl's Day Dance". They certainly are a stunning group of kids. It is so fun to get pictures like this. What a great time in life to see your children continue to grow and mature and begin their adventure in life. The young man, Micah, that Sarah took asked her to the Junior Prom. So we have feverishly begun Prom Prep.

Elder Gibby Wednesday Update - February 18, 2009

 
 
 
 

Jared is loving Gadsden, Alabama. The following is an excerpt from his letter today:

"WOW!!!!!!!!!, This week has been great!!!!!! We had 2 investigators at church, Connie Brown and Candy Burns. It was Candy’s first time coming to church. She was able to come with her motherinlaw who is an inactive member. Candy’s husband is in Afghanistan for a year. So both of them came to church and really loved it. We are going to teach her the Plan of Salvation this Friday and are really excited.

"Last Thursday was multi-zone. It was really awesome. I played the piano for it. That was really fun. I guess I’m one of the best in the mission. I don’t think so but I enjoy playing. Thanks mom and dad for all the time and energy you put into me learning the piano and paying for lessons. I will forever be indebted to yall. Yall are the best parents ever!!!! One of the speakers at the conference is a CEO for a investigation/spy firm up in Hunstville that works for the government. He taught us how to reduce our differences by mirroring them physically as well as speech and tone of our voice. It was really interesting. I felt like I was in training to become a spy or something. It was way cool.
Thursday night we played basketball. We play every Thursday night. It is really fun. It’s a killer though, afterwards I’m exhausted. Oh, side note, I broke 6 feet, I am now 6 feet and a quarter. Yea, but still not taller than dad. I’m working on it dad, don’t you worry, I’ll be taller than you one day, even if that means you have to shrink more. Haha jk.

"Friday night we had a great lesson with Phil Williams. We were able to give him a church tour Monday and it went really well. His entire family is actually LDS but he never joined. He lives by himself now and is divorced. He actually has 2 prosthetic legs so that was interesting. The church tour went really well and he loved it. We will be teaching him again this Friday and hopefully he’ll come to church. I’m really excited for that."

I am certainly proud of him as a missionary. He has continued to maintain an extremely positive attitude which can be seen in the success he has in each area he serves in. It is hard to believe that he has been out for almost 10 months. With each month the time goes by faster.

More Excitement

Sarah did it! She passed her driving test and now is a fully-licensed (under 17) driver in the State of Utah. She was excited to pass because now she will be able to drive herself around to prepare her response to the prom invitation. It cost me a day of vacation but it was well worth it to have the memory of taking my daughter to her driving test. I thought I would be able to sleep in this morning, but being the efficient and conscientious young lady that she is she scheduled the test early so that she wouldn't miss very much school (she even went to school for her 7:00 class).

Great Excitement at Our House

Sarah was asked to the Prom tonight. How exciting! I think her mother is every bit as excited as she is. We had to immediately go to the online stores and start browsing prom dresses. We only have one princess so she is going to look like a princess. The young man decorated her room (while I practiced driving with her for an hour - a good excuse to see what homes were on the market). I can tell Sarah is really excited even in her controlled and calm fashion.

What a Beauty

 
 I certainly have the right as a father to be proud of such a beautiful daughter.

Sarah's Big Date

Sarah went to the Tooele High School Girls Day Dance on Valentines Day. She asked a young man, Micah, who is in her physics class. She went with a group of 5 other couples. Aren't they a handsome looking group. Sarah's dress was beautiful and I must say (unbiased of course) that she was absolutely striking. The group went to one of the girl's home to play games and watch a movie earlier in the day. Then they came to our house at 5:30 for dinner. We had spaghetti, salad, french bread and cheesecake for dessert. Everybody appeared to have a good time. After dinner and getting a mild case of hypothermia taking pictures outside, everybody went home to get ready for the dance. They all met again at our house and we were able to take some more dance pictures. At about 11:30 they arrived at our house again for a light dessert (icecream and cake). It was fun to host the kids and everybody seemed to have a really good time. They are all such a good group of kids. I am so glad that Sarah was able to make such outstanding friends when we moved to Tooele. (Actually, all the our children made top notch friends when we moved here.) I have to admit, though, that it is kind of emotional as a father to see your daughter dressed up so beautifully on the arm of another young man (they are just friends - but isn't that how it starts). Just another year and Sarah will be off to school and it will just be the three of us here. Well, I digress. Life is good and yesterday was fun and left us with great memories for years to come.