July 14, 2020

We are still celebrating family birthdays on our “extended clan” messaging site and it was our oldest grandson Justin’s 24th birthday yesterday. He is in Provo just starting on his “in class” portion of his first year of  PT graduate school. He has been doing online classes the last few months.

 

The virus is making a resurgence and the number of people coming down with it is on the rise once more. I think summer, celebrations, protests for “black rights” and people just relaxing their vigilance are some of the reasons for it. Young people especially are getting tired of restrictions and the number young people getting the disease has increased significantly. There is still so much we do not know about this modern day plague including the lasting affects it may have on the body. Researchers are scrambling and we just pray, wear masks and social distance.

Lincoln Harvey and his grandchildren stopped by this week to bring us some blueberries and jam from Krause Farms where Lincoln is working. Lincoln is so sweet and kind and stops to say hello at our door every once in awhile. I phoned Mary the next day to thank her for sending the goodies over with them. Cindy arrived the next day with blueberries we had ordered as well as produce from Stella Watt’s greenhouse garden and knitted scarves sent by Ina Christensen that she had made. Everyone is so kind to us and we are grateful recipients of the results of their covid activities.

George Hara had helped me last week with family history and Marilyn and Cordell helped me this week and with their assistance along with that of Rod Smith’s in Victoria helping Joanne, we are getting a few things that were out of line corrected. We are working on my fathers’s Davidson line and I have also been adding memory pictures to some of our family members’ Family Search sites. So much to do even when we have more time available.

Tom was asked to play the piano for the baptism of Carol Jones on Sunday. She is about our age and she and her husband, who attended the baptism, have a daughter who has joined the church and lives in Utah. It was a Zoom baptism and only those who had parts do and had been invited attended and we all wore masks and social distanced. They had asked older couples like us to perform the talks, music etc. I think to connect Carol to members her own  age. We just listened to the music and as we have been asked not to sing. It was nice to see people again and to be in a church again after months of being away. It was the first time we had seen theses couples since we left on our mission in January.

Cindy, Paul and their two youngest boys have left on a camping trip to the Sunshine Coast this week. They were excited to have a break and the weather is lovely so hopefully they will have an enjoyable time. The older two boys had to stay home for work. Zachary is preparing to move to Boise to train and play with the Steelheads in August although I am not certain when the hockey teams will be allowed to play again. It has been nice for him to be home with our son Trevor’s family in Nashville during this time. We are waiting to see if BYU Idaho will be online come fall for our granddaughter Jadyn and all of our college age children are waiting on announcements from their schools. Liza’s family is always busy and Larissa is busy with her little ones and concerned about more people coming into their small tourist town of Whitefish Montana again.

We were thrilled to hear that the London Temple will be doing a stage one opening soon for sealings of preciously endowed couples. That is good news but still a far cry from their need for us to be there. The Temple will have to be fully running before they call us back again and the virus under control. We look forward to and pray for that day. Until then we wait upon the Lord and know He knows all and has a plan.

Trevor and Tammie at Jadyn’s Grad

Jack and Sam on Sunshine Coast

Jadyn’s Nolensville High School Grad - Zach, Trey and Jadyn

July 7, 2020

Max and Jacqui’s Engagement 

July 1st Canada Day was a rainy day and so our celebration took place indoors at our house. Brendon finished work the night before and drove down from Kelowna to join Liza and the children. Our daughter Cindy and her family came over to celebrate with all of us and we had hamburgers and the fixings to go with it. Brendon was so tired he fell asleep on the couch and missed the first course of the meal before waking. Some of the neighbours even set off  fireworks on the sports fields behind our house even though we were not suppose to have fireworks this year. Ross went to celebrate with his girlfriend Sarah’s family, so we missed having him with us.

Liza’s family kept a fast pace all week. Sayde had her camp each day for children with CP and on Thursday Brendon, Bryson, Keaton and Jack went on an all day hike up Golden Ears. Bryson had wanted to camp but the rain made a hike more doable. Liza and Breya went over to the North Shore and climbed Grouse Mountain and drove around our old area. We lived on Grouse Mountain for 32 years and Liza felt sad when we sold our house and she could no longer climb the Grouse Grind from her own home but had to drive to it. We picked Sayde up from camp that day. The Burgess family did some shopping while they were here too and on Saturday Liza, Brendon, Breya and Keaton returned and did the Grouse Grind once again. Liza wanted to improve her time and she did. The Hardy family came afterward and they took Liza and most of the kids to the Parkour Park to play while Brendon stayed here with Sayde and with Tom’s assistance trimmed our cedar hedge. We really appreciated his help. Sayde learned to make balloon figures at camp and our home quickly filled with a large number of balloon creations. She is very good at it. 

Sunday we slowed down a little and were able to have Bryson and Keaton do the Sacrament for us and have a short lesson. The Hardy family came over later bringing Ross who had been MIA up until this point. They stayed for dinner and then the Burgess family packed their two cars and set out for home. All is quiet once more and our house is empty again.

Our BIG news this week was our grandson Max proposing to his Australian girlfriend Jacqui on Friday via FaceTime. Max went over to the Temple and while talking to her in front of the Temple got on one knee and proposed. His family was filming here and Jacqui’s family, who had the ring and flowers with them, filmed at the Australian end of things. She said “yes” and they are very excited but have no idea when they can get together for this marriage to happen. Jacqui and her family were at a rhinoceros zoo because she loves rhinos. It was July 3rd here and July 4th in Australia. This is the new coronavirus way of proposing.

We have been cleaning up and catching up since Liza’s family left. I had a family history meeting with George Hara today as I am confused about some Davidson family 3rd great grandfathers. I appear to have two of them when I only need one. Still confused but we will get it sorted eventually. Time goes on and still no return to our mission in sight. That will work out too I am sure along with wedding plans and family.

Hardy and Burgess Families

Beautiful Breya

Our Liza

June 30, 2020

Keaton Creations

Sayde learning time.

Sam, Jack, Keaton, Bryson and Breya

This week we celebrated two of our daughters birthdays - Lucinda’s (Cindy) and Larissa’s. They were born two years and one day apart. We spent all of Cindy’s second birthday wondering if Rissa was going to arrive but she has her own personality and wanted her own day. We had Cindy’s family over the day before her birthday for Chinese food and Larissa and her family went camping in Montana near where they live for her celebration.

Because of our age and covid concerns we try not to go into stores very much other than grocery stores at the senior early hour times. I decided I should shop online and ordered some clothes from the Root’s online site. I am getting tired of wearing the same things all the time. The blouse I ordered came without incident but the pants arrived later with the security tag still on them. We thought we could just pop into the nearby Roots store and quickly have it removed. However, they had lent that particular remover to the White Rock store and told us to go there. Off we trekked to the Morgan Creek store in White Rock. The remover was literally taped together and they could not get it to work and suggested we go to the Surrey Guildford store. By now my size and color of pant was no longer available online so with that not being an option, the next day we drove to Guildford in Surrey. They had the proper remover and took it off without a problem and finally after an online order and a visit to three stores, which we were trying to avoid, the pants were ready to wear. The simple and easy had quickly become complicated and difficult.

Our daughter Liza’s family had planned on coming down for the week starting Sunday, June 29th but Liza had developed a sore throat so she and the children drove down to Vancouver on Saturday for her to have a quicker covid test option. Brendon had to stay to work at his dental office Monday and Tuesday and he planned on coming later. Liza and the children checked into a hotel after she had the test to wait out the arrival of the results in order to keep us safe. They came over on Sunday for lunch and dinner and they sat on the deck while we passed food out to them. It is the new way of doing things. Her was results came back Sunday evening and they were negative so first thing Monday morning they were at our door. Liza got Sayde off to her camp for children with CP and she and the other children went to Ikea.

We have our home bustling once again with grandchildren as two of the Hardy boys have come over to play games with Liza’s family. It is all good and as it should be after weeks of quiet and just the two of us. We enjoy our own company but also love having our family with us. 

We prepare now to celebrate Canada Day tomorrow just with our family. 

June 23, 2020

It is our grandson Justin and his wife JayLynn’s second wedding anniversary today and we have Cindy and Larissa’s birthdays this week too. We are celebrating our family events online these days with congratulations and good wishes. We do it mostly on our “extended clan” messaging site or by email. It is the new way of doing things but fun.

We try to keep in touch with friends these days but had an optional way of socializing opened to us this week when Marilyn and Cordell Rolfson walked over to our house and we had a nice “social distancing” visit out on our back deck. Sabina Denton also got in touch with us this week too and we had a nice visit. We have not heard from her in ages. She had discovered from her family history research that she was related to Tom and wanted to let us know. She is a family history expert.

Sunday was Father’s Day and we had an orange roll and soufflé breakfast which is Tom’s favourite. We had a ward  “zoom” meeting and Ross and two other return missionaries gave talks. Cindy and the boys came over later with homemade marshmallows and we had a deck visit with them.  Our neighbour Jean and her family brought Tom some pastry treats too.  The other children FaceTimed or phoned. Zachary announced that he will be playing hockey with the Boise Steelheads and we are pleased about that.  Everyone is so good to us. We feel very blessed and Tom had a lovely day.

We are deciding that we need to organize and update our family member sites on Family Search. There is an inaccurate history posted for my father that needs to be removed and his actual history put on PDF and posted instead. We need to put our mother’s histories on too and Tom’s father’s. Grandma and Grandpa Tanner have about one picture each on Family Search and Tom needs to ask the church for permission to to put more information on their sites. They seem to put a lock on information being posted for the Tanners and probably all church leaders. Our other grandparents and great grandparents need additional work done too. This additional time Covid isolation affords us lets us get to some tasks that have been needing our attention.

We renewed our car insurance again. We are just doing incremental payments for short periods of time as we do not know when we will be able to return to our mission. The British Prime Minister lifted the first level of isolation restrictions in England today so maybe that is a start. We have been able to do more work with our accountant this week while we are here though and that makes Cindy happy as she would have to help with it otherwise. Being home is good in numerous ways.

Tom’s allergies are bothering him more this year but we still get outside to walk and work in the yard and only go further afield for groceries and errands. We are always doing the “covid dance” around other people.

We have two more grandsons wanting to propose to their girlfriends. One girlfriend is in Australia and one lives here. We are now waiting ourselves to see how everything plays out and to see if their Grampa, the sealer, will here to perform their sealings in the Temple or back on his mission. When these events do happen we will have more anniversaries to be celebrating. Life goes on despite a pandemic.

We were able to post pictures last week and hopefully we can rectify that this week. Few pictures of our grandparents from our efforts to organize and record. 

Harry and Vesta Davidson

Eldon and Sara Tanner

Thomas and Hilda Walker

Irvin and Edith Anderson 

June, 16, 2020

Things changed as the week went on and early Thursday Brendon called to say that the lab had the needed crown completed earlier than expected and he could come put it in at 4:00 PM so Tom went down to the office and his dental work was finalized. It seems to have gone well. We made the decision to return home on Friday and ordered Chinese food for dinner Thursday evening to treat the family.

 

It was fun being with the children and helping Sayde out with things. We have enjoyed our walks thru the forests and down by Mission Creek which is really flowing like a river right now. Liza keeps busy with work and Brendon is at work each day. Bryson goes to his High School on assigned days for his woodworking class as he cannot do that at home.  He rides his bike down and back. Breya, Keaton and I made orange rolls one day and they were well received. This was their second time using the recipe with my assistance and I think they have a good mastery of the process now. Brendon’s parents, Ted and Rosemary, came over one day for Ted to help with some yard work and it was nice to visit with them. Rosemary is confined to a wheelchair now. It is difficult for both of them.It rained on several days and we had some warmer days too.

We were concerned Wednesday morning when we awoke and found a message from Cindy that she had, had a nosebleed start spontaneously which could not be controlled and required a trip to the hospital and a balloon to be placed in her nostril. She was to leave it and return in a couple of days to have it removed. It was extremely uncomfortable and we all prayed for her. She said she felt our prayers and was actually able to feel calm and sleep one of the nights. When she returned to the hospital and had the balloon removed the bleeding resumed and they had to cauterise the area. That was another extremely painful procedure and, needless to say, the whole process has drained her and probably put her body into shock. She is recovering now and has to go in and see an Ear Nose Throat specialist, hopefully soon.

We drove back on Friday and listened to podcasts that Liza had downloaded for us all the way. We have been busy at home with our regular activities once again and have had phone calls from people checking on us - Marilyn Rolfson and Sabina Denton. Our dear neighbour sent her daughter over with fresh cooked prawns in the shell for us and they were yummy. Our other neighbour Marie came over to tell us that her husband Gene’s cancer has spread and we are so sad. We heard via email that our 100 year old friend Sister Burrell was wondering how we were doing so we gave her a call. She is preparing physically, mentally and spiritually for the reopening of the Temple. She is precious and an inspiration to us all. She loves Tom as he has been her Stake President and Temple President and respects and prays of him. Everyone needs prays and love and we all need to extend prayers and love.

We have had rain and sun since we returned home and we and our yard are hoping for a little more of the latter. The following pictures were taken at Liza’s in Kelowna last week and illustrate both those weather conditions, as well as what it is like to have a mother like our daughter Liza. Sorry videos well not upload so you miss Liza and the children running in the rain.

Liza, Sayde and Keaton

And She Stretches!

June 9, 2020

We have continued to do our regular “isolation” activities this week such as walking, painting the desk chair, yard work, housework, shopping and such - BUT - we have also taken some major steps forward.

First, with the desk and little table having received their final coat of paint and properly cured for a week, we asked Cindy to bring some strong grandsons over to carry the desk back upstairs. On Thursday Cindy, Jack, Ross and Sarah arrived to complete the task. They were the first people we have invited into our home and they stayed and visited for awhile. We even hugged. Ross is starting work next week but up to this point he and Sarah have been together pretty well every day since he returned home from his mission.

Second, on Friday evening, we received a phone call from Camille, our great niece, and she asked if she and her family could stay with us Saturday night as they were coming down from Prince George to buy a new car. Camille is our nephew Jonathan’s daughter and she is now married to Daylon, from Prince George and they have a little girl Nova. We love Camille and we would never say no to her or anyone for that matter. They arrived Saturday evening, picked up their new car and we made them dinner. They had sacrament with us Sunday morning which was very nice and we made them breakfast and then a lunch to take on their journey home. It was fun having them and they were our FIRST house guests since the coronavirus and our arrival home from England.

And finally, as a result of Tom breaking his molar crown on a nut shell, we asked Liza and Brendon if we could come up to Kelowna for a few days while Brendon replaced the crown. We arrived on Monday and also Brendon’s birthday and Tom had the tooth prepped. The dental lab is short staffed and will be unable to have the crown ready until next Tuesday which is an unusual amount of time but we are enjoying being with the family. The children are still homeschooling, Brendon is back in the office under restricted Covid guidelines and Liza is seeing PT patients virtually and a few in their homes again. This is officially our first trip away from home and staying with any of our family since the isolation began. We are feeling very daring.

The virus is slowing down in some countries and going strong in others. There has been protests against racism all over the world as a result of  George Floyd’s death in the USA. He was a black man that died while being restrained by the police. Social distancing has been not been very well maintained during the protests and we are all waiting to see if a second wave of covid starts on its own or a result of boundaries not being maintained.. Many countries have not yet opened their borders.

Our lives are opening up a little and the world is also opening a little too. We are all feeling somewhat tentative as we take these first steps.

The Green Painted Furniture Finished

Camille and Family

Liza, Sayde and Keaton

June 2, 2020

My father was a pilot before the war, during the war and for the rest of his working career. After the war he flew for TCA which became Air Canada. I have heard about flying, have had the opportunity to fly since I was a small baby and have even sat in simulators. I know the concerns of having a heavy fog ground cover that can prevent a safe landing. I know how planes circle until the fog lifts and they are able to land. Well, that is what I feel like at this time. We are in a holding pattern circling and awaiting the go ahead to land. We have been in a holding pattern since March 16th and our return from England and we are waiting and wanting the fog of covid to break and allow us to land safely and the world to carry on and us return to our mission. Praying to that end.

Our good friend Chris Miller, who is a respiratory scientist, has been working for many years on nitric oxide as a product that can kill bacteria and virus in various parts of the body safely. It is now being tested for it’s success rate in treating covid and CTV news has reported that the tests are going well and are being expanded. Chris was a young man in the North Shore Ward years ago when our children were young and Tom was Bishop. Chris and his wife Minna are amazing and still live on the. North Shore.  It would be great if this testing proves to be successful or something like it does and then we could all make that long awaited for  and anticipated landing.

We continue to keep busy every day with our walk, work at home, family history, shopping, furniture painting and connecting with people. We went to the North Shore this week on Thursday to visit my parents graves  in West Vancouver. It was a lovely sunny day and we walked around the beautiful cemetery. Mother’s Day is in May and Mom’s birthday is May 31st and their wedding anniversary is June 18th, so we always try to visit sometime around then to take flowers. We just took small geraniums this year as our selection was more limited than usual. We enjoyed our time there and then went to Ambleside Beach and enjoyed being close to the water for a time. The North Shore is beautiful and we miss it but increased development there is concerning. We are glad we raised our children there when we did and that we have such wonderful memories.

Our children are busy in their families and for the most part are remaining home for work and school. Brendon opened his dental office again and is seeing patients under strict guidelines. Our grandsons seem to be okay to break social distancing for the girlfriends. Trevor had surgery last week for a chipped bone and torn ligament in his elbow and is trying to recover from that. It is hard for him not to do his body building even for a short time.

Tom has broken the crown on his back molar and this will require a drive to Kelowna for Brendon to replace it next week. We don’t think the labs are too busy right now so they will probably be able to get it made quickly.

Life goes on as we continue to circle and await the go ahead to land and carry on as normal.

Ambleside Beach

Parents Grave

Walk thru Cemetery