December 29, 2020

 It has been a very nice week with Christmas on Friday. We have never been alone for Christmas in our lives. We have always been with our parents and family (Tom was alone on his mission with missionaries and members) or with our children or some of our children. Covid has resulted in many people having quiet Christmas’ without family and friends. We were blessed to have each other and we had a fun family zoom meeting on Christmas morning arranged by Rissa. We did a scavenger hunt, I told about an experience we had at the London Temple and Tom recited Melvin J. Ballard’s experience with the Savior and then bore his own testimony of the Savior and we visited with each other. Everyone was there except Ross and Sarah who were still with her family. We contacted people during the day, had our Christmas breakfast and ate leftovers in the evening.  Joanne and Dave FaceTimed us and we had a nice visit. We were blessed. We had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and took a plate to Carol at that time.

Sarah and Ross were married on Tuesday the 22nd in a park behind her house. John Adams performed their ceremony. They were having trouble filming it for both family and others to see so Cindy just FaceTimed us. It had snowed the day before and they had their winter wedding. It was sunny on that day so there should be some lovely pictures. Sarah had not gone to the Temple when the Temple was open to receive her endowments and their sealing, which was scheduled for today, had to be postponed until the Temple moves to phase 2 again. They had a drive by reception at Temple View in the evening and that was cute. They had their bridesmaids and groomsmen stationed along the way with lanterns to welcome, take gifts and hand out treats. The bride and groom stood under an arch with a heater on them. The Nativity we bought them has been held at the mailbox in Lynden and Gerry Moore picked part of it up when he was down for work. He said he would get the rest the next time he is there.

Tom has been recovering from his biopsy this week and still dealing with stomach upset and back pain so not feeling his best. Yesterday Doctor Glen Collingridge called with results of the biopsy. It is prostate cancer and Tom’s levels are high so Glen is moving quickly to have a bone scan, PET scan and CT done. We already have the bone and CT scheduled. They will done at the Abbotsford hospital. The PET scan will be done at a private clinic. We are concerned but praying and they children are praying and concerned as well. We have informed Joanne and Dave and Wayne. We go for bone scan tomorrow. That will take two visits - one for the injection and back a few hours later for the scan. We have been walking this week but trying to be a little more restrained with our pace and distance. We feel very blessed and know that the Lord is mindful of Tom and taking care of him.

Challenges and blessings.  

December 22, 2020

 Today is Ross and Sarah’s wedding day. Because of covid restrictions, only ten people were permitted to be in attendance and that eliminated not only grandparents but siblings. Sarah wanted it in a park behind her home. Because it snowed yesterday, it was a little chilly and there was snow and water dripping on them from the trees but they seemed happy. They were having trouble broadcasting the ceremony for others to see. Cindy FaceTimed us and we will watch the filmed version later, as will the rest of the family. They are having a drive by reception this evening over by the Temple. We look forward to the time when Tom can perform their sealing in the Temple.

We went to Karl on Wednesday to get my hair cut, then picked up some Chinese food at Capilano Heights restaurant, went to see our old house and over to the cemetery to place little Christmas trees on Mom and Dad’s graves. The yard at our old house is overgrown and out of control. We have been trying to post more Christmas Cards and email and phone our friends to check on them and for Christmas. Our Willoughby Ward Devotional “Silent Night, Holy Night” was broadcast Saturday evening. We had previewed it first and were thrilled with what the Vernons had done with it. It was lovely and people seemed to enjoy it. We had wonderful performers and we feel that the Lord blessed us as it all came together. We had a busy but nice Sabbath day. We watched the London Temple Christmas Devotional and heard from all the presidency members. It was lovely to see them and hear from them. We watched our sacrament meeting and Cindy spoke and did well. We then zoomed Betty Small’s funeral and Tom gave the closing prayer. It was nice to see everyone from our old ward. We took Carol Jones the sacrament  after all these meetings. Sundays can be busy even when we don’t go to the church.

We went to the hospital on Friday morning for Tom to have a biopsy of his prostate. The security fellow told us that only the person having the procedure was allowed to enter but he could see that we wanted to be together and he would make an exception for us and so I went in too. They took 12 biopsy samples. He took it easy that day and did fairly well recovering from the procedure but his tummy has still been upset and his back has still been causing him a lot of pain. He is now feeling better overall. He has had some good sleeps except for one night.

Tom has completed another puzzle. We are not sure how many he has finished during our isolation time. We have lost count. 

December 15, 2020

 We have worked this week with Erika and Richard Vernon to prepare for and film our ward musical event   SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT. The Vernons were called as our “tech” support and they are wonderful.  We met with them on Tuesday evening at the church to get some of our filming equipment and props set up and we arrived early Saturday morning at the church again to finish our set up and welcome our participants. We had each number scheduled an hour apart to maintain COVID standards and restrictions. Charmaine and Cheyenne arrived at nine to perform and film “Still, Still, Still”. Brian and Brenda Leavitt arrived at ten and read their parts. Duerichens arrived at eleven and sang “O Holy Night” (Alice on piano) and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Charlotte Law, Carol Hur (violin) and Alice Davies (piano) performed “Silent Night” at twelve and at one o’clock Anchor (violin/sing) and Joseph Tsai (piano) filmed “Guard Him, Joseph”. That concluded our musical program but we filmed Sister Senter, a missionary, playing “Joy to the World” on the piano at two, and that number will be shown at sacrament meeting on the 20th. Now it is all in the hands of the Vernons. They are editing all the clips we recorded into one complete program and we are praying for them as we know it is a big undertaking. They are adding Alice’s background music to the Leavitt’s readings. We broadcast this Saturday evening to the ward and others.

Tom talked to Dr. Collingridge on Monday and told him of his upset tummy and back pain and he agreed to let him go off the cholesterol medication for a month and see if that helps. We have decided that his back is hurting as a result of cleaning the shower daily and I have taken that responsibility over and ordered a shower cleaner on a pole to save both our backs. We are prepping for his phone visit with the dermatologist this week and his biopsy at the hospital on Friday, the 18th. His tummy has improved somewhat and his back is feeling better.

We taught Carol again this week. We have started Temple Prep lessons with her now. We took her the sacrament on Sunday and hurried home for me to zoom with the oldest primary children who are preparing to go to the Temple for the first time. I spoke to them about the Temple and the blessings of the Temple. Jack spoke to them about the blessings of the Priesthood. We took Christmas gifts and treats to Roger, Shannon Tsai, and Esther Lai’s home. They are some of our ministering people. We have also taken things to Barrobys and Carol. Esther had major surgery this week, with one of her legs being amputated. She is diabetic and really struggled thru these past years. We are praying for her and have been communicating with her children. Roger was suppose to have surgery this week too but his was cancelled. We have been working with our accountant and financial planners on some things this week too. We get our daily Walker Walk in each day but Sunday and we stay in touch with kids and grandkids.

I made orange rolls this week and more spiced almonds for Christmas. We have bought a small turkey but may cook a rolled turkey breast. We are still deciding. We are trying hard to keep our diet low cholesterol and we both are losing weight. We are trying to cook Christmas but keep it healthy.

December 8, 2020

Christmas preparations have continued as I made and we distributed my Spiced Almonds to neighbors and others. Cards are arriving and the neighbourhood is sparkling with lights. 

Tom met with George Hara again to work on family history this week and we have been working on plans for the ward Christmas musical - “Silent Night, Holy Night”. We will film it this Saturday and broadcast it on the 19th. We are beginning to teach Carol Jones the Temple Prep lessons and she is excited. We watched our Stake Conference on Sunday which was our first conference since covid began. Elder Funk was our visiting general authority who zoomed in from Salt Lake.  Paul gave a good talk and Max received the Melchezidek priesthood which is a blessing and a miracle. Paul conferred the priesthood on him with Ross’ assistance. We zoomed in, as did the Hardys and Jacqui. Very special. 

We took Tom to the Urologist on Friday and he has put Tom’s name in for a biopsy of his prostate which hopefully will occur in the next week or so. The children are wonderful and are praying and concerned. Trevor wanted to pay for us to come to Nashville for Christmas so Tom could get tests done more quickly. Cindy looked into clinics here where we can pay to have tests done more rapidly. We talked to Doctor Collingridge yesterday and he feels we should get the biopsy done and then go from there with further testing. Tom’s tummy and back have been hurting and we felt it may be from the new cholesterol medication he has been taking so we stopped it and Dr. Collingridge agreed with our decision. We are praying. Tom is missing the Temple both spiritually and physically. He has such a connection.

Covid restrictions are not being lifted until the new year here in B.C. so zooming and distancing continue and we will be on our own for Christmas as we were for Thanksgiving. The first vaccines started being given in the UK today. They are starting with people over eighty. They say this is by no means the end and we are all waiting to see if the vaccines seem to be safe.

We walk everyday but every Saturday we do a special walk to the Temple. We want to see the Temple and we  want to see how the new perimeter fence is coming. Tom worked so hard with his presidency to receive approval for this fence to be built and it makes our hearts sing to see it moving forward, as well as the front ditch filled and a new sidewalk in its place.

December 1, 2020

Here we are into the month of December. We had anticipated that this would be a Christmas spent in the mission field at the London Temple but we are home, with no idea as to when or if we will be able to return to England but we are still hopeful. Vaccines for covid will start being given in England this month but Canada is still several months out. Trevor says there should be caution used as the vaccines are being rushed and we are still uncertain of the long term affects. Perhaps it is best that we are not the first country  to receive them. Seniors will be at the head of the list when they do become available.

We are moving forward with plans for our Willoughby Ward Christmas musical. The Abbotsford Stake broadcast their program last Saturday and, though only 19 minutes long, it was lovely. The Bishopric have called Richard and Erika Vernon to help us film and put our program together. We will be filming on Saturday, December 12th and then broadcasting on December 19. We have excellent people performing so hopefully things will go well. We will have people enter into the Chapel only with their performing group, film them and then have them leave before the next group come into the building. We will maintain covid protocol.

We met with Carol again on Thursday for our gospel discussion and took her the sacrament on Sunday. We received permission from the Bishop to teach her the Temple Prep lessons and we are looking forward to doing that. She is very excited to learn as much as she can. We zoomed with the missionaries on Thursday, with Mike Swan interviewing us about being a Temple President and Matron. We just answered Mike’s questions and hoped that the missionaries enjoyed it. Toese gave a zoom fireside on Sunday about Samoa. It was well done and we love her. I have worked on family pictures again for our Family Search site. We returned to Port Coquitlam Costco to pick up our Christmas cards and we have completed and mailed most of them. We also sent money off for our children’s Christmas. We concluded our #GiveThanks week that President Nelson suggested. We really enjoyed considering what things we were grateful for and posting daily, along with reading everyone else’s positive posts. I think it gave everyone a needed lift. So our week has gone with more leaf raking and work being done around our home. We are grateful for each other, for our home and for things to keep us busy. We try to help others as much as we can and often, these days, that is only with our prayers. Our prayer list is very long.

We are grateful for our children and their regular contact with us. Our American children celebrated Thanksgiving this past week. Trevor’s family stayed at home in Nashville and Rissa’s family celebrated in Montana, after they realized they would have to isolate for two weeks when they got back from their planned Utah trip. Justin, JayLynn and Jadyn went down to Enterprise, Utah to be with the Holt family. The government in the USA were pleading with people to forego travel and stay at home in order to limit the spread of covid. We will see what happens in the next few weeks.

We are still awaiting Tom’s visits with two specialists. He has an in office visit with the one doctor on Friday and a phone visit with the other in a couple of weeks. We are praying and fasting that things go well. We are doing our best to eat low cholesterol to help get his cholesterol down and we are losing weight but still eating pretty well. We do love our food. 

November 24, 2020

 On Friday, November 20th President Nelson gave a short talk and suggested that a cure for some of our ailments at this time, was to seek to develop an attitude of gratitude. He suggested that for the next 7 days we post on our social media things we are grateful for and then he offered a prayer on our behalf. We have taken the challenge and have been daily posting things we are grateful for - our parents, each other, our children, our grandchildren, our country and we plan on posting the gospel and the Savior Jesus Christ as our final two. It has been fun to read everyones “gratitude posts” and I think it has lifted spirits. We are blessed to have a Prophet.

We continue to move along in our restricted but happy life this week. We were invited to a zoom Canadian Humanitarian fund raiser program on Friday evening. They are the group that Tom went to Africa with and initially were organized by the Northcott family. We met with Carol again on Thursday and took her the sacrament on Sunday. The province is extending social interaction restrictions for a longer period of time so church continues to be completely zoom meetings. I led a Relief Society zoom discussion group on Sunday. We are also trying to work out the options for our Christmas Musical. Our own Christmas decorating is essentially done as the new tree we ordered turned up on our doorstep yesterday. Tom helped me assemble it and I decorated it. It is taller and narrower than our old tree. Voila, the tree but a tired me.

 

We had cleaned the house yesterday too and I was exhausted by the end of the day. We try to walk to the Temple at least once a week on our daily walks as we are monitoring the building of the fence around the perimeter of the property. Tom worked hard to gain approval for the fence before we were released and we are thrilled to see it happening. We continue to celebrate our family birthdays online and it was Keaton’s birthday this week. He got the family wishes going by wishing himself a “Happy Birthday”. He is a character. We cleaned up the leaves in our front lawn after a bad windstorm. That was our third time and hopefully the last as the leaves are pretty well all down now. Sarah had her bridal shower this week and it had to be a drive by one. Cindy took my card for her. We visit with our families and others. Both my ministering sisters called me this week and we keep in touch with our people to whom we are assigned to minister. The Lord has a plan to keep us covered no matter what the situation and our lives are a new kind of busy,

Our neighbour Jean returned from Austria a couple of weeks ago after getting her daughter Charmaine settled at music school in Salzburg. Jean has just finished isolation and Charmaine has now also returned home as the university has been shutdown. Everyone’s lives are upside down these days.

We try to stay healthy and are eating less cholesterol and both are losing weight. We are awaiting two specialist appointments for Tom. My knee is much, much better but not fully recovered. The body breaks down as we get older.

November 17, 2020

 I took the bull by the horns this week and suggested we start putting Christmas up. This has been a different kind of year and I just felt that “We need a little ChrIstmas, Right this very minute. Candles in the windows, Carollers at the door”. (from Auntie Mame) We got our outdoor lights up and everything else outside and inside up except for the main tree as we have ordered a new one and it will not arrive until December 1. We gave our old tree to the Hardy family and they are thrilled.

 Last Wednesday was Remembrance Day and we made our traditional pilgrimage to West Vancouver and my parents grave. The Hardy family faithfully join us every year and we have the opportunity to consider and appreciate my parents and their joint wartime sacrifice to bless our lives. Dad was in the airforce and had been a flight instructor here in Canada but, after securing Mom’s hand in marriage, he went overseas to fly bombers for the last two years of the war. Mom was the brave angel on his wing, praying and fasting for him constantly. We take our Remembrance Day wreath and add our current poppies to the numerous ones already on it and we walk around the cemetery.

We had a meeting with Carol Jones on Thursday and took her the sacrament on Sunday. Maxie Wong had passed away the end of October and her Celebration of Life was a zoom meeting Sunday afternoon. It was nice to see the North Shore Ward people and consider dear Maxie and her life. We received word last night that Betty Small had also passed away and she is another dear North Shore Ward friend and good friend to Maxie. They are enjoying one another still. Ron and Jane Komm saw us on the zoom and phoned us afterward and we had a nice catchup with them. They are stuck in Waterton, in their cabin, in the snow because Steven’s family have taken over their house while their place is being renovated. They may not even get back for Christmas.

We have been working on our Ward Christmas devotional and are hoping that the Bishopric allow us to just film and broadcast it to the ward because of the difficulties of coming together and the uncertainty of our lives right now. We have also been hanging sixteen frames up in the front hall to display pictures of the grandchildren. With the measuring and levelling required, it took two sets of hands and Tom was very patient. It is done! We have raked leaves twice now and will probably have one more go at it.

Tom had a phone appointment with the specialist on Friday and they have set up an office visit for him on December 4. We are hoping that he can get in sooner and are praying for that end. Tom will call again to let them know he is willing to take a cancellation if one occurs.

My ministering Sister Connor called today. She has had covid and recently completed her isolation and now she is calling to see how I am doing. She is so sweet.

November 10, 2020

 Our 50th wedding anniversary was August 26th of this year and we had a lovely day but the children gave us not only flowers and a beautiful cake but gift certificates for a photo shoot and a dinner at the Salmon House. Well, we were still enjoying our anniversary this past week as we received the photos from our photographer Debra Moore, which were taken last month, and finally went for our dinner at the Salmon House. We went to the North Shore on Wednesday late afternoon for Karl to cut my hair and then had a lovely meal at the Salmon House. It was our first dinner out since our lunch at the Little White House in Langley on our anniversary and covid regulations still prevail.

Doctor Collingridge phoned with results from Tom’s blood work due to his prostate concerns and they were not good. His cholesterol is up too and so he is on medication now for that problem. He is now to see a urologist regarding his prostate but the appointment they made was for the end of November and the children were concerned about that so Tom called the specialist himself and managed to get it changed to this week. We are all praying for him and anxious for the specialist to determine the cause of the problem.

We have been looking for a new Christmas tree and have brought two options home, returned one and ordered another one online. We have promised Cindy our old tree. We also got the outdoor lights up today before the weather gets worse. We probably won’t turn them on yet. Christmas has begun!

We cleaned up leaves in the yard but will probably have to do it once more. We have gathered pictures of Trevor’s wedding and family and sent them to JayLynn for a Christmas project that she is doing. We have met with Carol on Zoom this week again and took her the sacrament on Sunday. The government has asked that The Lower Mainland take more preventative measures for the next two weeks as covid rates have risen. Gyms and such are closed and we are to have no one in our homes except those who live there. Carol found a loop-hole to the regulations that permitted us to take her the sacrament. We worked on our Ward Christmas musical and are looking into filming and broadcasting it. We zoomed our Ward meetings on Sunday but also watched the Vancouver Stake Conference. Francois Tougas was released from the Stake Presidency as they are moving to the island and Chris Miller put in. We were thrilled. We love them all - Tougas and Millers. We talked to Roger this week, Joanne and Barb. We phone or email our ministering people and are in regular touch with our children, grandchildren and others. We are grateful for each other and for our home which makes up our little world.

November 3, 2020

 October has flown by and we are now into November. We even celebrated Halloween Saturday evening. We were not sure if Halloween would happen this year or, if it did, what it would look like. We bought treats and decided that we would leave them on the front step and allow children to help themselves rather than us hand out at the door as usual. It worked! We think we had about 70 children come. We just restocked our box from time to time and the children were on their own. We are not sure how much each child  took but that is okay. We had more fireworks going off in the neighbourhood than usual, especially in the field behind us.

We have been sorting thru bins again this week and I was thrilled to find the pictures and CDs that have been eluding me. We looked at the CDS and I went thru all the pictures and organized them. I still feel that there is a lot of organizing yet to be done to simplify everything we have. I keep in mind how the children would be dealing with this if we were not here. We want to have things organized for them in the future. 

I had a meeting with George Hara this week for him to introduce me to a new Family Search system. I was his test run. We met with Carol Jones again via zoom on Thursday and took her the sacrament on Sunday. She studies the scriptures and manuals and is thrilled to be a new ministering sister. She is a solid convert. We met Minna Miller at the Temple on Saturday when she was out to attend an endowment for one of their young adults. She brought us some samples of their Nitric Oxide product which is being tested, with positive results, for covid prevention. You spray it into your nose when you have been in public or feel you may have been exposed to the virus. I guess we are now part of the the test group. Chris wrote us a nice letter after we chatted with him on the phone while we were with Minna. We have great people in our lives and we are very blessed.

We have even had some family at our home this week other than just FaceTime contact. Max had his car on our driveway awaiting sale for salvage. The time came this week and he was here and visited with us until the tow truck arrived to tow the car away. Ross and Sarah also came to hand deliver their wedding invitation and we had them step in for short visit. It is nice to see live faces that we love. We do FaceTime the children too. We had a nice visit with Zachary on Sunday discussing scripture. He has been reading the Book of Mormon numerous times and we are very proud of him.

We continue with zoom church meetings. We were invited to the Vancouver Temple Workers’ Devotional on Sunday. The Presidency zoomed from Duncan and they had Michelle Rolfson sing. It was very nice. Frank Deyell was called to be an assistant Temple recorder and he will be great. Brent has been called to the Abbotsford High Council. Tom’s faithful helpers are being used well. We met with the Bishop for Tithing Settlement via zoom on Sunday and the Bishopric approved our Christmas Musical proposal. We now have to decide if it will be live or recorded and broadcast or both.

Tom went to see Doctor Collingridge on Monday to have a check up and discuss somethings that were concerning him. We went to the bank today and shopping at Home Depot for a new Christmas tree. We also stopped at the drug store. 

We have had some beautiful sunny fall days and and now we are into a rainy few ones but we feel blessed to have each other, our home, things to do and wonderful people around us.

October 27, 2020

Our back deck door has needed painting for some time and we finally picked up the paint this week and finished the project. Now we are thinking the basement door needs some love. Always something. We also went to LazyBoy this week to look for an accent chair for the basement but decided against the one we were considering and came home and ordered one online from Wayfair. Tom has been good about my home renovations but I am sure he is hoping it will soon be done. Does that ever happen? I just have too much time at home with opportunity to be looking around the house.

I made bran muffins this week and our bran muffins are Grandma Tanner’s recipe which is a very large recipe. The batter can be kept in the fridge for days but I think a week is long enough. We have been eating muffins and we took a dozen muffins over to Cindy and family. We are eating far too well during this pandemic.

I had a phone appointment with my doctor this week and Tom had an appointment with Glen Collingridge, who is Tom’s doctor. Tom is going to go in to have a checkup. We went for flu shots this week too and that was an adventure because getting in for a flu shot is not too easy right now. Because of the pandemic, the government is encouraging flu shots for everyone to lessen the burden on the health system.

I met with Carol Jones again this week via zoom. We discussed one of the conference talks. We took her the sacrament on Sunday too. She is a wonderful convert and a great person to get to know. She is eager to learn and be involved.

We have been working on our Ward Christmas Musical this week and it seems to be coming together. We have all the performers and we have presented our program to the Bishopric for approval. Now we wait to receive the final go ahead.

We watched the funeral for Josie’s husband Patrick on Saturday. He died suddenly from a heart attack and we are feeling for her and sorry we are not able to be with her during this distancing time. I also checked on Shirlene this week to see how she has been doing since Ross’s passing. Her daughter Nancy has been here with her and Nancy is taking her back with her to Utah for the winter. Our hearts are hurting for both Shirlene and Josie.

We have finished pulling the flowers out of our flower beds. The weather has certainly turned and our kids in Kelowna and Montana have had snow this past week. This change in weather and seasons will offer us some new experiences and challenges for our isolation. We are finding our path each day.

October 20, 2020

 Zooming is the new way of meeting with people for church or for other reasons. We never heard of it before covid restriction were put in place. We zoomed Carol Jones again this week and gave her the last of the ‘new member’ lessons and agreed we would continue to meet with her weekly and discuss other gospel topics. We zoomed sacrament meeting on Sunday and I zoomed a meeting with the Relief Society Presidency to discuss the format for the upcoming lesson this week. Tom and Athol Symonds have been zooming trying to figure out how to incorporate Tabernacle Choir music into the ward zoom only Sacrament meetings. We also zoomed into a ‘viewing’ for Josie McCarthy’s husband who passed away recently. They will also zoom the funeral this coming Saturday. We do a great deal of zooming.

We have been asked to organize the ward Christmas Musical and so we have been working on that this week and calling people to perform. I think we have a simple but beautiful program in place and we have some great people taking part. We have Julie Duerichen and her daughter Holly singing, Rueben Leonard singing as well as Charlotte Law singing and the Tsai brothers singing and /or playing instruments.  Carol Hur is playing the violin and Brian and Brenda Leavitt are our readers. We are calling  it “Silent - Holy Night” and plan on it being about 45 minutes long. We will zoom at least one of the two performances and perhaps record and broadcast a version of it. We still need someone to do decor, handle filming/sound and someone to play accompaniment. It is falling into place,

We also cleaned up the back deck for winter, cut Tom’s hair and took Carol Jones the sacrament on Sunday. We have both made phone appointments with our own doctors this week which is also the new way of doing things. We received an email from our London Temple President this week which included his desires for us to return in the near future. He feels it will be 6-9 months before we are able to go back. We answer emails, phone our family and others and tend to our house and yard. We FaceTime our family and connect with our ministering people by email or phone. Roger Jahn has another aneurism and will have surgery in December. Our world seems small at times but it does go beyond our walls and we are grateful for that. Our family are all busy and we appreciate them and each other.

October 13, 2020

 We were finally able to make arrangements with our friend Debra Moore, who the children had commissioned to take our anniversary pictures. We set Wednesday morning as the date and Derby Reach Historical site by the river in Fort Langley as the location. We got up early that morning and found it to be be a very foggy day but I was actually  thrilled because I think fog adds an interesting dimension to photographs and bright sunny days can prove to be difficult when taking pictures.. We had a fun time with Debra and hope she was able to make something of these old people. She hasn’t sent the finished “shoot” to us as yet.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend and, because our children have been going to school and some back at work, Cindy felt we shouldn’t all be getting together because of virus concerns. We determined if we were not going to have dinner with our family, we would take our meal to people who needed a Thanksgiving dinner. We phoned Gene and Marie next door as Gene is suffering from cancer. She had a turkey and was going to make their own meal.  We phoned Cheyenne across the street who is home alone with her father Wayne while her mother Jean and sister Charmaine are in Austria getting Charmaine settled in a fine arts college. We just told them we were bringing them dinner because we know they need help.  We took the sacrament to Carol Jones on Sunday and discovered that her husband would be in Saskatoon for Thanksgiving and the remainder of the winter and so we told her we would bring her dinner too. We started baking and preparing our regular Thanksgiving meal throughout the week - carrot cake, layered salad, stuffing, rolls, yams, mashed potatoes/gravy, brussel sprouts/carrots/bacon and turkey. Our table seemed empty with just the two of us but we hoped that our food helped some others. We have lots of leftovers and will get some cake to Cindy’s family.

We were very thankful on Thanksgiving Day to receive news that Jean and Charmaine were able to obtain Charmaine’s visa clearance in Austria, as we had been trying to help do it from this end and were running into difficulties. We were saddened though to receive news, that same day, that our good friend Ross Slarks had passed away. He had cancer and had been suffering these past years with multiple complications resulting from the initial surgery. We are grateful his pain is no more but sorrowing for Shirlene and her family. Ross and Shirlene were teenage sweethearts and were always joined at the hip. They are about ten years older than us but they and their family have been part of our lives since we were teenagers ourselves. Ross was Tom’s councillor in the bishopric when Tom was a young Bishop. I had babysat their children and Nancy, their daughter, babysat our children. We had holidayed with them and joyed and sorrowed with them thru the years.

Our sister in law Jeannette called this week and expressed concern for Tom’s sister Carolyn, who is going thru a difficult divorce. Tom called Carolyn and learned that she is still struggling to achieve a settlement with her husband, who is also a Tom. He is extremely successful but states that his money is all tied up and that there is nothing for Carolyn. Our hearts are breaking and we have determined to not only pray for Carolyn but for Tom, that his heart will be softened. He is a lawyer and never wants to feel he has lost a case even against his own wife. They had ten children together, with nine living.

I have been sorting thru more family pictures again this week and proof reading the “StoryWorth” histories of ourselves that the children are having us write. It has been a good project for us to work on durning this time.

We are always working on the music for the ward meetings and we also met with Dave Leavitt, via zoom today, to get going on the ward Christmas Musical that we are in charge of this year. We will have to  follow the covid parameters and probably have 2-3 performances, with one being zoomed into homes. This is something we have never done before but we will pray for help and success.

We have done more yard work this week and got our growing dogwood tree in the backyard trimmed in preparation for fall and winter. We are also trying to prepare for Hallowe’en and determine what that will look like this year. Everything is new or at least different at this unique time.

October 6, 2020

 Our highlight of the week was our two days of October General Conference. Conference each six months has always been a much anticipated event in our lives. Through the years we have listened to it, attended it or watched it and now, with covid concerns, we look forward to that much appreciated connection with our leaders. They said that last April’s conference had more people tuning in than any other conference to date. We have not heard if that trend continued this time. The messages were directive, comforting and encouraging. The overall theme seemed to be “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 and Elder Holland’s concluding scripture, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 And so we carry on in faith and wait upon the Lord.

Covid numbers have been on the rise again but have levelled out here in BC a little. Even Donald Trump and his wife have been dealing with covid this week. We have been concerned with the children back in the schools and people all together again that cases might increase but so far, other than in Eastern Canada and places like New York City, the numbers haven’t been too bad. It is still bad in England which breaks our hearts.

We taught Carol Jones another lesson this week via zoom and this time we did it on our own without the Sister Missionaries We have one more lesson to teach her this week as part of her New Member discussions. We really like her and have been enjoying getting to know her. We will be taking her the sacrament each week from now on. We would to get to know her husband Martin but he is not in sight when we spend time with her.

Debra Moore is taking pictures of us for our fiftieth anniversary and both she and Cindy suggested we go to Derby Reach Heritage area near Fort Langley. We drove there on Friday to take a look around and go for our daily walk. It is lovely location near the Fraser River and should work just fine for the photographs we are asking for. The children gave us this as part of our anniversary gift. We will have the Salmon House dinner they gave us too next month after we go to Karl’s for my hair cut on the North Shore. Our anniversary is being celebrated over a few months and that is lovely.

Fall is coming and we are trying to get a few things done in our yard in preparation. We get the odd warm day but things are definitely starting to cool. We carry on with projects at home and have pretty well decided that we will spend Thanksgiving separated from our family as a precaution. It breaks my heart as the children are the ones we are most thankful for and they are what make the holidays special. So our covid time goes. We hope we are making the most of it and being of benefit to others in some ways.

September 29, 2020

Our high light of this week was our grandson Wyatt’s baptism on Saturday September 26th. We were unable to cross the border to be with him but his mother Larissa sent pictures and we were happy for them as a family and proud of him. His father Scott baptized him.

After the Funes family painters completed our painting projects, we had a day of cleaning things up and putting the house back together and then a couple more days of hanging the family pictures and the big mirror back up. We went to Michael’s to buy frames for sixteen grandchildren and now have to get current pictures of all of them and get that arrangement up. Carrying the sixteen frames pulled my neck out but the grandchildren are worth it and more.

We helped the Sister missionaries teach a new member lesson to Carol Jones via zoom on Thursday and we taught our grandson Max his last two Temple Prep lessons on Saturday. We zoomed Fast and Testimony meeting on Sunday and then took the Sacrament to Carol Jones and came home for me to be able to zoom  Relief Society. We delivered our BC food drive bags in our area on Tuesday and discovered that someone else had already delivered bags to our street. When we went out on Saturday to pick the food bags up, we found Keith Moran and realized he had been our double delivery culprit. 

Our neighbour Jean and daughter Charmaine are in Austria where she has been admitted to the Fine Arts University in Salzburg. They have, however, been struggling to get her criminal clearance thru the RCMP so some of us have been trying to help out. Tom has called the police a couple of times and they are just saying she needs to be here in person. Jean was ready to fly home with her and then back again but we have all been fasting and praying and things are looking a little more hopeful. I took two picture IDs of Charmaine to Robert Kearl to notarized and have ready in case they are needed. It has been most disturbing to them and to us that the police have not been more helpful. We have seen the paperwork that needs to be filled out and it is very basic and certainly can be done online. 

We went back to the North Shore this week for Karl to cut my hair. We picked up things from our favourite bakeries and walked on the sea wall before coming home. We miss the North Shore but not the increase in building and traffic.

It has been a busy week and seems like life is on the move again. We are still trying to be covid careful.

 

September 22, 2020

We are excited today because the Funes’ are here painting our new trim work and the baseboards we had repaired.  We have waited since July for this project to be completed. Our first painter was a “no show”, so we turned to Brother and Sister Funes who we knew we could rely on. We should have approached them first. The painters are all busy despite the covid concerns. They are all wearing masks in our house.

We feel very blessed because, after about a week of smoke filled skies and the inability to go outside very much, some rains came and the skies are clear. Clean air and blue skies are more appreciated at this time but should be always.

We taught Max two more Temple Prep lessons this week and he and Jacqui have decided that they will each go thru the Temple in their respective countries when they are each prepared. When the borders finally open they will be ready to be sealed and hopefully Tom will be able to perform that sealing.

We have been going thru Tom’s mission box this week and reviewing memories. We are realizing how many letters nearly three years apart adds up to as he was on his mission for nearly 2 1/2 years and we were engaged and apart for nearly another half year. He also has letters from his family, friends and people such as Mary Romney their “nanny” who became a third grandmother to them and Ches Pierson our seminary teacher.

We have done work in the yard this week with air cleared and our work now seems to be more fall oriented than summer as the seasons are changing. Tom trimmed the cedar hedge again as that has been bothering him. We also got his hair cut, reinsuranced the car and got other errands done. We have not wanted to insure the car for a full year just in case we go back on our mission. I went to have my eyes checked with Dan Davies as my eye that has been infected this past year has been bothering me a little. He has me putting eye drops in and cleaning it thoroughly. My knee still continues to heal slowly and Tom is healing from a strain in his back. We have constant need of repair these days. We have been asked to help give Carol Jones to post baptism lessons and we are happy to do so.

We were ready today to drop off our bags in our neighborhood for the BC Food Drive only to find that someone had already done it. This happened last year too so Tom is checking into it. We don’t want to upset the neighbors by approaching them with extra bags. The whole community and BC are now involved in the Thanksgiving Food Drive. This began about a decade ago when Tom, while serving as Stake President, had our Vancouver stake doing this service project and then suggested it as an opportunity for other Stakes in BC as well. The Area leaders had asked for suggestions and this was Tom’s. He had learned of it from Calgary. It has expanded since and hopefully helps the community.

We keep busy each day and still hope for a return to complete our mission at the London Temple in England. Tom watches the announcements regarding covid and keeps watching reports on the status of the Temples.

Reading loft updated and trim work painted

Front entrance trim work painted

September 15, 2020

We try to keep busy in positive ways during this pandemic and reading books written by church authors has been one of those things that we have felt good about doing. I have been listening to audio books, especially during the healing of my knee. My knee is doing better but I am still reading. Tom listens to numerous books too and now he has pulled a muscle in his back so may be listening even more. What a pair we are! I read Wendy Watson Nelson’s “The Heavens are Open” this week and it was excellent. I have also read Sheri Dew’s book on President Nelson, David Butler’s trilogy on the Godhead, Emily Belle Freeman’s book on Grace, Tim Ballard’s “Pilgrims Hypothesis” and a book authored by a gay member of the church “Without the Mask”. All were excellent.

We use email, messaging and the phone to keep in touch with family and friends these days. We message, FaceTime and phone our children regularly. We email friends from the mission and contribute to and read the mission “app” and we email and phone our ministering people. We work on our musical chairmen calling at home and email and phone those we need to talk to. The children have us working on our histories by sending us each a question every week that we reply to and then send to a site called “Storyworth”. They answers will be made into books at the end of the year. As Tom was answering questions he began thinking of his friend Peter Russell who we had known during our teenage and young married years but hadn’t talked to for decades. He asked Liza to try getting Pete’s phone number from his son Paul who Liza and Brendon had known in Saskatoon. She succeeded in obtaining both Peter and Clares’ numbers. They had been divorced long ago and we had a little contact with Clare since but none with Peter. We had double dated in our teenage years and Clare had come to Vancouver to live with us and attend UBC with me for a year just before we both got married. I was able to make contact with her and we had a lovely visit, catching up on literally years. She had completed her PHD and is still working with the Calgary School Board and she has been busy with her four children and twelve grandchildren. She has bought her parents home and now lives just where she grew up. Her life has been full of good things. Tom has yet to make contact with Peter but we know his life has been less positive and perhaps that is why Tom has had these feelings and he needs to speak to him.

Fires on the west coast of the USA have sent smoke across the borders to us. Forests and communities are burning and the poor air quality is affecting millions. Both Liza and Larissa have the smoke in the interior and in Montana. We are praying for rain to help everyone involved in this concerning situation. We have limited our walking and our time outside.

We were happy Saturday to have Max over to receive the first two Temple Prep lessons. He received permission to have us give him the lessons and we love it. He is preparing to go through the Temple and eventually, when flights are able to fly between Australia and Canada, be sealed in the Temple to his fiancée Jacqui. Jacqui is having the same lessons in Australia. They do not care which Temple or country they marry in, they just want to marry and have Tom be their sealer.

We were surprised when we had a zoom meeting with the missionaries Saturday evening to find that one of the missionaries was Elder Swan, Tom’s brother Wayne’s grandson. Elder Swan had orchestrated the whole thing and knew he would be teaching us. He was serving down in South America when covid hit and was brought home and reassigned to Vancouver. He seems to be a fine young man and we were thrilled to get to know him.

We are still celebrating family birthdays online and our grandson Wyatt and his father Scott both had their birthdays this week. Wyatt was one very excited birthday boy receiving a new bike and lego set as well as being able to skateboard with three friends.

We are trying to keep busy during these confining times and hope that our busyness is of some value to us and to others.

Scott and Wyatt

Max here for Temple Lesson

September 8, 2020

Update to Reading Loft

 Liza’s family was here for the week and they were off each day on some new adventure. Because Sayde had a cold she did not go to her planned for “camp” for children with CP but stayed with us or went with Liza and the other children. They went to the beach on Wednesday and Sayde walked in the ocean with her walker and collected shells. On Thursday Cindy picked Liza, Bryson, Breya and Keaton up early and they joined the Rolfson family and several Kenyan children for a hike up a mountain in Chilliwack area. Liza loves hiking and running mountains and Cindy likes hiking too but her legs were hurting badly by the time they got down. Sayde stayed with us that day and we learned some cursive writing, read books and played. Brendon drove down Thursday evening to join his family. The Burgess family went to the North Shore on Friday and while Brendon and the older children climbed The Grouse Grind, Liza and Sayde had their own explore and hike. Brendon then took all the children to Capilano Suspension Bridge and Liza ran along the Capilano River to Ambleside just the way she used to as a child with the track club. The North Shore is beautiful and we miss so much about it. They bought me flowers at our old Hardy’s corner store and they ate Chinese food ordered from Capilano Heights Chinese restaurant. The whole “home” experience on the North Shore. Brendon left early Saturday morning with Keaton to go to a “young men’s activity” in Kelowna and Liza left later with the other three children. 

Liza and Sayde have both been dealing with bad colds this week and Cindy and Max have it too. Tom now has it and I am fighting against it. Sayde took the covid test when she first came down with the cold and as she seems to be the original source of this virus,  we are all assuming it is a cold and not covid. Cindy has had one covid test and Liza has had a couple in the past few months. You feel like you can’t be running for tests every time we sniffle or sneeze and we realize colds and flus are still around. Hopefully this is a cold.

We have been busy with the children this week but we did run out to look for a new ottoman for our reading loft. We found one at “Lazboy” but after a valiant attempt we realized we were not going to get it into our car. Cindy came to our rescue and got us home ottoman and all. I have made a few trips to Home Sense and have accessorized the area. It looks very cute and it makes us feel good because the ottoman was on sale.

We had the Hardy Family for Chinese food Monday evening. We often take them for or order in Chinese food before school begins and Monday was Labor Day. We have also been working on our new church calling as joint ward Music Chairmen and doing our ministering. All these things are being done by email and by phone.

Brother Funes arrived to look at the painting project we have after having our new mill work and baseboard repair done. He said he would get to us in a week or two. The first painter we contacted came to see the project but never got back to us and we finally had to give up on him.

Trevor’s Trey is back at school and Rissa’s Wyatt is back too. Trevor and Tammie are taking Jadyn to BYUI this week and we are excited for her. The other children are ready to return to school in the next week or so and all will be IN the schools. Cindy is also starting her job as a teaching assistant. We are hoping all goes well and they are all kept safe. We are praying.

My knee is improving very slowly and I am going on longer walks. We still hope to go back on our mission but as we can see, when I am home too much, I start to redecorate. Tom is taking it well.

Cindy, Liza and children on mountain hike.

September 1, 2020

August 26, 1970

August 26, 2020

Wedding Day August 26, 1970

  The month of August 2011 was month that will always be remembered in our family with joy and thanksgiving but also with loss and grief. We had three precious grandchildren born that month.  Halle and Anderson had not survived but we were grateful that Sayde, Halle’s twin had survived and though it was expected that she would have CP, she was thriving and feisty. She still is thriving and feisty and she does have CP. All three would have turned nine this past month but only Sayde was here to celebrate though we remember and think of them all and miss our two angels who chose heaven. The Bull family sent 9 balloons heavenward yesterday on Anderson’s birthday.

Liza’s family arrived yesterday to spend one last week of summer with us. Both Sayde and Liza have bad colds and are trying not to share them. Sayde was tested for covid and the results were negative. 

The children of our family are starting to return to school in the new covid world and we will just have to see how that goes. Jadyn leaves for BYU Idaho in about a week and she has been told that if she comes down with covid the school is asking that students isolate in place and not return home. In that way they hope to prevent further spread of  the virus.

We celebrated a major milestone in our lives on August 26th - our 50th Wedding Anniversary! We started discussing this event while we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii. We felt then that we wanted to share that future event with our children - perhaps in Hawaii. When we left on our mission we decided we would instead celebrate it alone by driving to the White Cliffs of Dover where the old song indicated that you should celebrate your Golden wedding day. Who knew that we would be in the middle of a pandemic and unable to even be with our children and grandchildren or even Dover for that matter. The Hardy family are  the only family near us and they were leaving for Kelowna that day. Well our children and our grandchildren made it a special day for us anyway. They all messaged video clips to us throughout the day sending good wishes and Cindy and the younger boys came over with beautiful flowers, a gourmet cake, wishes and gift certificates from all of them. Joanne called and she and Dave sent wishes and after Cindy posted the event on Facebook we received kind wishes from many and a phone call from Bob and Pat and flowers from our neighbour Jean and family. We went for High Tea at the Little White House in Langley which was so fun and then we ordered Italian food for dinner and enjoyed our yummy cake. It was a lovely day and we were able to share it with our family. But mostly we were able to share it with each other as we have the last fifty years. We were in love on that honeymoon when we started planning our 50th and even more in love when the day arrived. We could have never guessed that possible. We have been so blessed in being able to have our wonderful family, to share remarkable experiences, to add very special people to our friend list and to support each other thru cloud and sunshine over many years. We have tried to make the gospel our constant path and it has opened heavenly vistas to us. Our hearts are full and we are are very  grateful for all these things and so much more.

August 25, 2020

 My knee concerns are slowly improving. My doctor had me take another blood test this week which showed normal white cell levels and no infection present. She also had me see an orthopaedic specialist yesterday, Doctor Boyer. He had an X-ray taken of my knee which indicated my knee is in good shape and the bursitis healing. He thinks the lancing done previously on my knee has contributed to more swelling and bruising and that I am healing from that procedure as well as the bursitis and infection.

We made it a point this week to complete the addition to our privacy barrier which we had originally built on our covered deck. The neighbours are close and we use our deck almost daily in good weather so we decided more privacy would be a benefit to us and the neighbours. Tom cut the 2x2’s that he had bought with Paul and Cindy and I painted them out in the backyard. I helped Tom screw them up and it looks very nice. I spray painted an outdoor sun/moon ornament that hangs on the finished project.

I have listened to seven audio books while my knee has been healing. That has been one of my keep busy projects. I also taught the Relief Society lesson this week for our ward. The lesson was on the new “Proclamation of the Restoration”. I enjoyed preparing for it and I love to teach but the main thing that concerns me with the zoom teaching is the technology. I had a few things that I wanted to share with the class and with the help of Tom, Paul, Sam, the Neisners and pray everything worked out well. I am now going on short walks with Tom each day and I love it. We also ventured out to do some clothes shopping this week and with the way you shop these days with covid concerns it is an adventure.

David Leavitt called Tom and I to be joint music chair people for the ward on Saturday and it was announced on Sunday. With covid things are a little different. The ward wants special musical numbers for our zoom sacrament meetings but we are unable to have any singing by individuals or choirs. They also want us to organize the Christmas program and music - again probably without singing. This will all take some thought and ingenuity.

Cindy did an overnight hike with some friends up at Manning Park this weekend and Liza ran a 32 km three mountain peak trail race up at Big White. Liza won for the women and beat most of the men.  The girls were both happy and both are more adventurous than their mother.

We have had rain storms and sunny days this week and we have needed both the rain and the sun.

Privacy Wall Update On Deck

August 18, 2020

 I have been asked to teach the Relief Society lesson this coming Sunday on the Proclamation of the Restoration and I have been preparing for that zoom meeting. I love to teach but I have never taught by zoom before and I still need to have at least one grandchild show me how to bring things up on the screen as part of the lesson. I think I will need a dress rehearsal to make sure things are working properly.

I have been doing some short walks with Tom in the mornings before he goes on his longer walks. I feel like I need to keep moving and keep my strength up and my blood flowing. The knee concern is still there and gradually, very gradually improving. I have a phone appointment with the doctor this afternoon. I have been cooking, doing a little yard work and cleaning as well as reading. I read David Butler’s book “Almighty” and Michael Wilcox’s book “What Seek Ye?” this week. Both were very good.We went to the plant nursery to buy a couple of new plants and Cindy and Paul took Tom for some lumber at Home Depot and he and I have been cutting 2x2 pieces to add to our “privacy” divider on our back deck. I will stain the pieces and Tom will screw them up. We got Tom’s hair cut this week and I coloured mine. We are looking better.

It has been very, very hot this week and on some days almost impossible to be outside. Our children have all had warm weather too. Trevor had surgery on his other elbow last week and hopefully that will be the last for awhile. We appreciate our children and their phone calls and FaceTime calls. Staying in touch with them means a great deal to us.

We are excited that the Vancouver Temple is moving to a stage two opening this month. Our neighbour Jean has been waiting for the opportunity to go thru the Temple for the first time as has our grandson Max. His girlfriend Jacqui needs to go through too but she is in Australia near Sydney and they are not open yet for endowments.

We continue to pray for the alleviation of the affects of the virus on the world and on our Temples and missions.  We would still like to complete our mission.

View From The Deck

August 11, 2020

This was a happy day for me. With the covid virus Tom has been doing his best to cut my hair and for a skilled dentist he has done very well, however,  I have been longing for a haircut from Karl my long time hair dresser on the North Shore. I had let my hair grow longer than usual and today we finally made the anticipated trip to Karl’s salon. I have no words. When people used to tell me they loved my haircut and wantEd one like it I always felt like saying, “Well, you need my hair, my head and my Karl” and my Karl is the real key. Feeling good!

Liza and Cindy’s families were in Shuswap camping this week with many of the Burgess family members. Sayde celebrated her 9th birthday while they were together.  Cindy and Paul left their two oldest boys Max and Ross home to work so we had them over for dinner together on Friday and Max came for church with us and again later for dinner on Sunday. Ross had gone camping with his fiancé’s family by then. Sarah picked Ross up from our house Friday evening and we were able to see her engagement ring and a picture of the wedding dress she has already purchased. Max’s Jacqui is shopping for dresses online as she cannot get to the necessary stores in Australia at this time.

Our daughter Larissa in Montana went camping with her family on the weekend too and they celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary. They are growing a successful vegetable garden. Our son Trevor and wife his Tammie in Tennessee are preparing their daughter Jadyn for her first year of college at BYU Idaho and their son Zachary to play hockey for the Boise Steelheads. The start of Zach’s season is still up in the air as covid has thrown a curve into professional sports. Trevor’s youngest, Treyvn is already back at school zooming. His oldest, Justin, was named Vice President of his PT grad school. Everyone is busy.

My bursa concerns are somewhat better but it is not a quick heal and sometimes just when I feel we are making progress things seem to slide back. My pain at night is less, I am helping more with cooking, cleaning and things around the house. The pain has certainly decreased so we are hopeful and prayerful. I am getting more books read than usual and have really added to my online cookbook recipes. 

We are excited and somewhat surprised that the London Temple is moving to stage two reopening. The Vancouver Temple is still at stage one. We are pleased though that the Vancouver Temple is moving forward with an exterior fence around the Temple grounds. We were not sure if this was going to happen or not and we are so happy to see it going up. Tom checks on it when he goes for walks without me. I am anxious to be with him again on every adventure.

Karl “Cut”

My Happy Cut

August 4, 2020

We celebrated Tom’s birthday last Thursday, July 30th and Zachary’s birthday on Sunday, August 2nd. Our celebrations are mainly just online these days but Cindy brought us over some healthy desserts for Tom. I felt badly on his birthday as I am still a lame duck and was unable to do much to make it a special day for him.

I went to the doctor’s office last Wednesday for her to examine my knee in person. She just looked at it as she entered the room and said it needed to be lanced. I already realized that and even when she told me it was going to be painful, I was eager to have it done. It has improved somewhat but is still swollen and  a little red and warm. I am able to bend it now but it still feels tight and it definitely does not have full mobility. She took a sample of the fluids and put me on another round of antibiotics. I think the infection has improved but I think the bursa is still inflamed and will take some time to settle.

Tom goes on walks alone and is still doing much of the work around the house but I am trying to do more. I have been entering recipes on my recipe app and now have 111 entered. I think I have all my essentials there now. The app proved to be very helpful on our mission for our meals but should even be more beneficial now. I have listened to Emily Belle Freeman’s book on “Grace”and enjoyed that. I am ready to get going on some other books now.

Cindy and Liza’s families left yesterday for Shuswap Lake with the Burgess family. Liza wanted Cindy’s family to be with them this year. Her sister is a good support for her. The weather is warm and they should all have a good time. The two youngest boys went with Cindy and Paul and Max and Ross are home working and planning weddings.

Mary and Laurel Harvey brought me over a hand held massage device to stimulate my blood flow. They are so kind. Marilyn Rolfson called to see how I was doing and the Elders had a Zoom meeting with us last night. We discussed the “Restoration Proclamation”. We appreciate everyone’s contact and kindness. The Elders have challenged us to write our testimonies in some copies of the Book of Mormon that they might be able to hand out to individuals and they offered to pray for our neighbour Gene who is struggling with cancer.

At this point I am looking for small improvements with my leg and trying look for and appreciate my many blessings. Slowing down with covid is one thing and this knee concern is just an additional braking mode for me to learn from.

Burgess Family

Hardy Family

July 28, 2020

It has been an interesting and difficult week. Last Monday evening my left knee began to suddenly swell and become very painful as we were getting ready for bed. I had a terrible night and the days and nights have not changed much since then. I have been on the phone with the doctor who first diagnosed it as gout but after seeing a picture of it and reading the results of blood tests she had me take, changed the diagnosis to an infected bursa on the knee cap. I have been on antibiotics and painkillers and been thru lots of ice packs. Fortunately I have usually gotten some sleep each night. After talking to me today the doctor booked an in office visit for tomorrow. I think she will get a better understanding after seeing it. We are praying and Paul is coming tonight to help Tom give me a blessing. Tom has taken over everything this week, the cooking, shopping, cleaning and laundry. He is so good and I feel badly as I sit with my leg up. The weather is hot and the yard needs tending so he has been working at those chores on his own too.

I have taken this time to listen to Sheri Dew’s book on the life President Nelson. It was excellent. He is such a remarkable man and there is much we do not know about him. Certainly a man prepared for our time. We also had a carpenter come to add some millwork to two of our walls and repair some baseboard damage in a few other areas. We have scheduled a painter as well to seal and paint the areas but they cannot come until August. Both these trades people worked on our home when we built originally and know the home and needs well. It will look good when all is done. This is what happens when you have time to think about and come up with ideas for your home during covid isolation.

Our big news this week is that our grandson Ross proposed to his girlfriend Sarah yesterday while they were boating with her father and stepmom and his family and her Mom were watching on the beach without Sarah knowing others were observing. It was a surprise for Sarah who is difficult to surprise and the ring did not fall into the lake which we were concerned about. Ross’s older brother Max was engaged three weeks ago to his Australian girlfriend Jacqui but neither of these marriages are going to occur too quickly due to current circumstances and schooling. Our daughter Cindy’s life is changing rather quickly. Her two younger boys are still in high school so we should have a pause in that family for a little while.

I am eager to see the doctor and hopefully next week will find a few solutions for my situation.

Ross and Sarah

July 21, 2020

As I was getting ready for bed last night my left knee suddenly became very painful and swollen. I have no idea what is happening and I am debating calling the doctor today as the pain and swelling both continue. I did not have a very good sleep to say the least even though I was tired and excited to get to bed. It was a normal day yesterday with our walk, cleaning the house and bit of watering in the yard. Justin has been doing his best to advise me as a PT today and Tom went to London Drugs to get some tensor wraps but they are too painful to wear. I am mainly icing the knee and taking pain killers. I did some bush trimming while standing. It is hard for me to do nothing.

Maureen Fairburne has been in the hospital with shingles, sciatica and pseudo gout - all in and on the same leg - so we made bran muffins, soup and salad and took it to her on Thursday as she is home now.  We gave some muffins to Gene and Marie next door. He is suffering with cancer. We gave more muffins to Cindy and her family and we have been enjoying the rest. 

We had the young man who did the mill work in our house originally come and evaluate the house for some baseboard repair and some accent molding on two other walls. He will come back next week to do his part and we have the painter scheduled to come in August. He too is the original painter who did our house. With more time at home I tend to come up with projects. Poor Tom.

We continue work on family history. Tom had another meeting with George Hara yesterday and we have been taking pictures of Grandpa Tanner’s material so some of it can be posted on Family Search and made accessible to other family members. Tom inherited two boxes of Grandpa Tanner’s pictures, talks, etc. when Ruth died. We sorted it awhile ago and we are now trying pass along pictures that might interest the rest of the family. Like the prophet Mormon, we cannot publish but a hundredth part if even that. We have been trying to add pictures to our parents, grandparents and other’s memory portions of their Family Search sites. We have never had the time before to do these things. We are asking our children to add their own  family portrait pictures and memories.

We enjoy our FaceTimes with all our children and Justin and JayLynn even FaceTimed us on Sunday and that was a treat. Jadyn has scheduled her classes at BYU Idaho and is still planning on going to Rexburg to start in the fall. Zachary does not need to be in Boise for hockey now until the fall and he plans on driving out with Jadyn and their mother Tammie. Tammie will get them settled and fly back.

I am waiting now to have  telephone appointment with the doctor so we will see where this knee concern takes me from here. I hope not into too much adventure. Talked to her and she has me starting treatment for gout.

Justin and JayLynn