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.