May 25, 2023

 I am grateful for our children, grandchildren and spouses. They bless my life and give me reason and reason and a reason is important for me. After the deacons pulled up the sod, I was left with more sod than I had ever anticipated. It needed redistribution in more bags which was beyond my capacity and strength, so on Monday evening, which had been the Victoria Day holiday, Cindy, Paul and Sam came to take care of that and also finish setting up my new deck furniture and break down the cardboard boxes the furniture had come in. They worked hard and I so appreciated it. I bought them A+W for supper before they went to have ice cream with Ross and Sarah. Paul and Sam put the debris filled bags out on the walk for pickup the next day but unfortunately the green pickup does not take sod and dirt and I had both, so when Paul and Sam came on Tuesday evening to have Trisha cut their hair after she cut mine, they pulled the bags back up to the house again. They hope to take them to the dump on Saturday. What a project this has become! Ryan, my landscaper, is coming to evaluate my burned turf and give me suggestions for the front.

I stained the back deck myself but parts of it are still tacky and refusing to dry. I have my back deck set up with the new furniture and it looks cute. I planted a few more plants in the back today and I am done back there. I have a neighbor, who does woodwork on his driveway. He is a kind fellow and offered to knock the wasp nests down from my eves and from Marie’s. I may ask him to make a little rustic bench to put where the BBQ  was on the back deck. It would provide a little extra seating and be a place where I could put plants and other things. We will see.

The dog is doing better but had to have a follow up appointment with the vet and have a follow up poop analysis. We took care of that today. I think she is fine and definitely lively but still having accidents in the house. Ugh! 

The Temple is really busy as we approach the 2 1/2 month closure. Saturday was extremely busy but I feel that all went well with our live ordinances. We will be busy right up until the doors close this Saturday. I will miss the Temple a great deal but I want to use the extra time I have to get some things done that I need too such as starting work on our project to improve the Fort Langley cemetery and placing of the headstone. I have Moroni’s Quest with the youth, Zach’s wedding, Jack and Jeannette coming to visit as they do their Alaska cruise and more.

Cindy just old me that Phil Harvey and Jesse Leavitt came today while I was out and removed my bags to the dump. How kind people are! I am so grateful!

May 18, 2023

 It is about a year since Cindy and I took Tom to the Abbotsford Hospital because he could not keep any food down. It proved to be a bowel blockage but the cancer was also on a rampage and he only lived two more weeks. It is difficult for me to think about all that happened during that time but it is also a very sacred and precious time to me too and I treasure all the love we felt for each other, from our children and others and from the Lord. The miracles came in abundance,  not the one we had wished and prayed for, but the ones the Lord had ready to pour down upon us.

Tom blessed me more than any other person in my life and I have had wonderful people in my life. I have the deacons coming tonight to help with yard work and staining my deck. I went to see if I had the appropriate strain and brushes and I have both because of Tom. I regularly turn around in need of something and find that Tom has already taken care of it. As I talk to and work with people, I realize that I have been blessed with a remarkable and loving husband who truly did and still does make me feel secure and loved. I am not sure why I have been so blessed but I am ever grateful for him and oh, how I miss him.

I had a lovely Mother’s Day. Cindy left a cute breakfast in the fridge for me while I was serving in the Temple on Saturday and then made a picnic for us on Mother’s Day. The children went together and got me a lovely set of pots and pans. I admired Lara Lyn’s new pans when I was in Whitefish and they got me some like hers. They are so good to me and I love them and our grandchildren. They are all remarkable.

The Temple is closing the end of the month for 2 1/2 months and so it has been very busy and very hot as we are having a heat wave and the air conditioning, which will be repaired during closure, is not working. We have been doing a lot of live ordinances and as Ted Streibel has been on a cruise, I have been handling the new male bookings too. 

I taught Amy and Hyrum the follow up Temple lesson and gave them my BBQ. They are a great couple and I really appreciate them. The awnings they put on my bedroom windows still seem to be helping in preventing further turf burn and that is a big deal for me.

Kona is feeling better and has completed her treatments for her bowel infection. I have washed her and all of her things and hopefully that is the end of it but we still have to do a follow up poop test next week.

My days and weeks are full and all of that is good.

May 10, 2023

 I had a sick dog over the weekend. She got up Saturday morning with a loose bowel problem but I did my Temple shift hoping I would not find major problems when I got home. She had, had an accident but on the kitchen floor, however things had spread a bit. I did clean up and Cindy arrived to help. The night was bad and the next night too with her pawing on her crate every two hours or less to get outside. Poor little pumpkin. She was just not herself. I got to church on Sunday though and I was determined to hold out until Monday so we wouldn’t need to go into the emergency vet. I do not like going to the emergency vet. We got to Monday and she was still having problems so I booked an appointment with her own vet Dr. Jin. We stopped on the way for me to get my 6th Covid vaccination and almost $400 dollars later we were back from the vet armed with antibiotics, probiotics, our flea and tick pills for three months and expensive poop test ordered. I should have not gone ahead with the poop test as she started improving quickly. Yesterday she had a grooming with Gabriela and she is looking and acting much better. Not sure if she ate something or got a bug. Perhaps the poop test results will give some insight.

Brother Streibel has still been recovering from covid so I did the LOW training at the Temple by myself with the help of the Rempels. I made carrot cake and took plates and napkins. I bought a vegetable platter from the Streibels and Rempels brought cheese and crackers. We had a good turnout and I hope it helped.

I have been working on m talk for the Mid Single Adult Conference the end it the month and it is almost done. I had difficulty determining the direction it was to take so I hope it is going to benefit someone.

Cheyenne is home from school has been over to visit. She wants to talk about boy concerns but I think that  topic will take all summer to discuss and I am not certain what the outcome will be. I want to help Jean and the girls stay strong in the gospel so I hope my advice and support are helpful. I would like her to go to the YSA but I think she is nervous about it. Both she and Charmaine have nonmember boyfriends.

I have ordered new deck furniture and am preparing my old furniture to be given away. I will need help putting it together. I worked on setting up the old furniture today to take a picture.

One of our investment companies with Eric Muir had a security breach and our names were on the list of those who had private information taken. I filled in the paper work to give increased protection to Tom’s identity but my letter from the company has not yet arrived. I am working with Phil to get our Alberta company dissolved and I am waiting to hear fromWayne’s son Jonathan to help us with the next step. So many things to worry about that Tom would have taken care of.

I am meeting with Fuji and Pauline Lee tonight at the Temple to do an LOW review with them before they help an Asian couple on Saturday. They were not able to come to the training meeting last week. I have to hurry home afterward for Stake YW meetings and will miss the first part of of the meeting with the Stake YM.

Onward I go, trying to do my best and hopefully it is helping someone.

The picture of the London Temple would have been taken across the hall from our apartment.

May 2, 2023

 It is Jadyn’s 21st birthday and I had a nice zoom conversation with her and another one with Zachary earlier. Bryson called me yesterday to visit and to ask if could teach him the Temple prep lessons. I love my children and I love my grandchildren and I am grateful for their kindness and love. 

It has been a busy week and by yesterday I was a little spent and tired. I often feel more emotional at those times too but my best recourse is to power thru and keep moving after having a cry. I carried on and got my regular cleaning and Monday chores done. 

I had gone to Hyrum’s endowment session last Tuesday evening and was glad to be there. He and Amy are a good couple. I went to the Stake Council meeting Wednesday evening because Cathy was not feeling well. I drove on my own as I could find no one to go with. Jean had me and the Sister missionaries for lunch on Friday and that was lovely. I served in the Temple Saturday and then drove Cindy out for the evening meeting and drove her and Paul home. We Stake YW leaders cleaned out our cupboard before the meeting. Paul gave me permission to zoom the Sunday conference meeting from home as I had been asked by Vancouver Stake President Bateman to participate in the Burnaby Ward second hour discussion at their ward conference and I needed to leave soon after the conclusion of the Abbotsford Stake conference. The Burnaby meeting focused on finding JOY in relationships. I was exhausted by the time I got home for family zoom. Amy and Hyrum completed my awnings on Saturday. They look cute and I believe they are stopping my windows from burning my artificial turf.

Brendon drove to Edmonton on the weekend to pick up Bryson and the furniture. Max wrote a big accounting exam. Sam went on a school river rafting expedition while he was sick with a cold and Wyatt’s team finally had a baseball victory. Every other child and adult in the family were busy too. Justin started a new job in St. George and they moved into her family’s condo. JayLynn will be getting more diagnostic tests done for her Crohn’s disease struggles. We pray for them. We pray for all of them.

We have our struggles our fatiguing moments but we are blessed.