Richard G. Scott

Last weekend one of the 12 Apostles, Richard G. Scott, came to our area

for a leadership training and then a special Stake Conference in our stake.

He is a sweetheart and a man of God.  I wanted to share some of the things

he taught us. 

1. We need to focus more on what we should be than what we are.
2. To reach a goal never attained ~ You must do things you have never done.
3. Your mind can strengthen impressions from the Holy Ghost or it can rule them out.  Impressions come from God and the Holy Ghost.
4. Once you give a transgression to the proper authority, don't bring it up again.  The Atonement if for all that.  
5. Stop thinking the Atonement is for everyone but you.
6. Answer to problems come in pieces.  Not all at once.  Let them work and learn little by little.
7. God judges men according to the light they are given.
8. Two things lead us away from the Spirit:  Fear and Breaking the commandments. Fear overcomes faith.  Breaking the commandments and fear put us in Satan's power.
9. Seek council when  a problem is very close to you.  Your love, desire and passion can cause confusion.  Satan causes confusion.
10. Where there is courage and trust, the Lord will bless.
11. You will never be prompted by the Holy Ghost beyond your ability.
12. You may have to use all your ability to overcome or succeed.
13. Don't judge yourself with what you think is your potential.  Trust the Lord and what he thinks you can do.
14. Study, Prayer, Faith and Hope don't mean much until practice, patience and service forge these into your character.  Doing these things will forge them into your personality.
15. When facing adversity...asking "why me" will lead you to a blank ending.  Ask "what can I do" and "what can I learn."  Pray and be submissive to the will of the Lord and great peace and understanding will come.

AREN'T THESE SO GREAT.  LOVE THEM ALL!

Also, President Tenney, from the Snowflake Temple spoke and left this thought: THE TEMPLE IS WHERE WE WORK OUT OUR PROBLEMS.  WE ARE ENDOWED WITH POWER WHEN WE GO TO THE TEMPLE.



Do I owe anything to this ribbon?

First Place regional track meet....5th grade, May 1964.

Can I describe myself as a girl in the 5th grade.  Homely, crooked teeth, few friends, wished

I was a boy, brought my lunch every day to school, walked home

alone after school, loved math, feared I would have to wear

a bra soon, played a trumpet in the band, ran fast.

Running fast is one thing ~ being recognized for that is another.

Being recognized for accomplishments is very fundamental to

who you are.  Before I won this ribbon I was a nobody.  Not that

I recognized that then.  But I see it clearly now.  I believe this

blue ribbon saved my life.

It came at a critical time in my life.  6th grade was approaching

and so was puberty and all the choices that young womanhood

brought.  So right there at the end of my 5th grade year ~ I became

the fastest runner. 

It said I could do something that not everyone could do. And

for that, it gave me a place and I was wanted and needed.

5th grade is the first year you can join the track team.  I was in the

smallest class.."D" class.  I made

the relay team with 3 other girls.  They were all older than

me and just tolerated me.  We had several meets and I

don't remember how we did.  I know I was confused alot.

But I made it into the regional finals in the dash.  The

meet was in Round Valley.  I won my heat and got

to run in the final race.  One of the girls on our relay team

was supposed to win it all.  Her name was Pat Johnson and

she had red hair.  It was in a pony tail that day.  So, the

gun goes off and we run and I passed her.  I remember feeling

her beside me and then I went in front.  And this is how I

remember it:  she reached out to grab me (I wasn't suppose to

beat her.) and I was

pushed over the finish line first.

One of our coaches, who had not given me the time of

day the whole season grabbed me by the arm and lifted

up my arm and said, "here is first!".

From that day on I was first.  I wasn't first in everything

but I felt somehow older and wiser and stronger.  The point

I am making is that God blessed me.  He watched over

this homely girl with crooked teeth.  He gave me something

to distract me from the world.  Running morphed into

softball and cheerleading and student government and friends.  

Scary to think what might have been if Pat Johnson

hadn't given me a push over the finish line.

Harvest

This is one of those pictures where you really had to

be there.  These grapes came from my friend, Carol,

who gets them every year.  She brought them in

this basket and it was a pretty presentation.

Wish you were here to see.

Things of Interest

Say Goodbye to the scuttle.  The crawl space is entirely empty and covered with 18 inches

of insulation.  It was in 1985 that I realized I could store stuff up here.  (I found

stuff that, I am sure, has been up there since then.)  It is kinda sad

to close this relationship.  It wasn't a magic closet or anything like that but

it was how things were stored for 25 years.  My grandchildren certainly

thought I could pull great stuff down from there.  And they just begged

to go up with me. 

This guitar was David's dad's mom's.  I think it went up there

in 1985.  David was surprized to see it and sad at the same time.

He remembered it in better shape. 

  

These were the shoes that Tim wore home from his

mission.  I loved them.  I loved the thought of

the work he did in them. 

                                     I was happy to find these two pair of shoes.  One for the

girls and one for the boys.  3-6 months, maybe.  All of our

girls wore the girl shoes and Pete and Tim wore the boy shoes.

They were tiny little people once.

                                           This is Pete's guitar.  When he was 5-6 he took

lessons from a lady, Sandra Buckingham.  He did

pretty well.  She moved to the valley and

we found another teacher for a while but

he moved on to something else. 



David ~ 2 years old

David conducted a funeral for a ward member

 a couple months ago. 

The sister in law of this ward member looked for

David after the funeral

and gave him this picture.  It was taken in 1955. 

 If  you know Show Low

you will recognize the LDS Chapel in the background. 

David's mom was a close friend of

this good lady, Hilda Frost. 

She knew that David was going to be at the

funeral so she brought this

picture to give to him.

David's mom and Hilda grew up together.

  So when they all married David's family would

come to Show Low and visit friends. 

This picture was taken on one of those visits.

David is one chubby boy.....can we think Jett? 

 Look at Pete watching David.

Left back:  Phyllis, Marian, Lorena, and Pete.

Front left: Sharon, Kathy and David.

Reap what you sow.....I wish.

The first day of autumn is this Thursday.  I am glad.  My pumpkin patch has

already decided to quit so it will have reason come Thursday.  (In part, the

real reason it is on the outs is because I am tired of gardening and have

let things take care of themselves.)

I have two pumpkin patches.  One heirloom and one hybrid. 

You tell me~which would you plant?

 These pumpkins above

are hybrid.  They really did well. 

And these poor babies are heirloom.  Obviously not

run of the mill shapes.  (that is why I planted them) But

there are only TWO.  Alot of new soil, fertilizer, water,

and sunshine.  And TWO is all!!!!

We made our garden organic this year and I bought

mostly heirloom seeds.  Trying to be the good gardener.

I would say it was just me and my amateur gardening

skills but my hybrids are big and fat and sooo cute.

I want to be loyal to original seeds but I also want produce.

I guess I have a long time to decide.

Treasures

I guess on the show Hoarders part of the therapy to help people

get rid of all the stuff they are hoarding is to take pictures

of stuff and record why it means so much that they can't get

rid of it.  And then get rid of it.

My reason for not getting rid of stuff isn't the hoarding mentality.

But stuff does mean something to me.  But, really, I can't

keep some of this stuff any longer.  But ~ it is hard to say goodbye.

So I took pictures of some stuff and here they are.

These are our children's trophies.  Mostly from their

Junior High years. 

This poor blanket is David's.  I made it for him when

he was on his mission.  He was a little teary eyed when

I told him I was going to throw it away now.  Not really

but he did tell me it meant alot to him to have that

quilt with him on his mission.

I made this doll for Tim when he was little.  I asked him

earlier this week if he wanted it and  he couldn't even

remember owning it.  This was a knock off Cabbage Patch

and came with a pattern for the body and the head

was to be attached.  (I made Mandy for Jill....this poor boy doesn't

even have a remembered name.)

And this is Elonora.  She was my doll when I was growing up.  (kinda looks like the doll

in Toy Story....scary.)  When I was about 5 my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas and

I told her I wanted a really big doll because I wanted a friend to play with.  I think that really

must have broke my mom's heart so she rushed right out and found this big of a doll for me.

I did cut her hair off occasionally but I didn't pull it out.  She lost a leg sometime ago and

a foot.  As I write this I am thinking I might go dig her out of the trash and keep her a while

longer. 

Bye, Bye, Monster ")

Well, I have given Heidi every opportunity to claim and take this blue monster.

Answer, "no".

So~I moved it outside because it really takes up room.

It did not go unnoticed by our favorite little neighbors.  Dylan came by

earlier in the afternoon and  saw it on our porch and wanted

to know all about it.  He said he thought he and his brother would like it. 

Sounded good to me! 

Next  thing I know he had gone home and returned with his little brother,

Cyrus, and his trike and little wagon. 

Bye, Bye.

Dylan came right back so I asked him what his mom

said.  He said she liked it.  "-

Help!

OK, this has been the plan:  build a carport with storage in the crawl space,  take the stored stuff out of the crawl space over the family room and put it in the carport crawl space.  Who thought that up????? 

Tonight my friends Leslee and Carol came over and helped me get everything out of the family room crawl space.  And now I could just cry.  What was I doing.....this is terrible.  It didn't look like this much up there all these years.  I am just going to back David's truck up to the front door and shovel this stuff out. 

Warning to children:  If it belongs to you it is coming your way.  (I have kept alot of their stuff because it was precious to me.  I feared it wasn't precious enough to them.)  Precious or not here it comes!

What's in the boxes?  Christmas ~ alot of Christmas.
 Bank statements. 
Dolls.
Stuffed animals.
 Baby clothes.
 Football helmets.
Volleyball memorabilia.
Missionary shoes (with holes in the soles).
Dishes.
Canning jars.
 Trophys.
Crutches.
 Lamps.
 Baskets.
Fabric.
 Halloween,
Thanksgiving,
Easter,
St. Patricks Day,
 4th of July.
  School art projects ~ including a 4' long blue monster (get ready, Heidi).
Suit cases (from David's mission ~ 38 years ago).
 Washing boards. (no I never used them)
 Typewriters. 
Video Camera.
Humidifier.
Costumes.
 Reception decorations.
 Shoe boots.
  Easy bake oven.
  Lite Bright.
 Shelves.
Car seat.
 Ice Chest.
 And too many more to mention.  Ughhhh!

Did I say I could cry?

Then and Now

When my husband and I married we knew we what we wanted in our home.  It would be a forever home. 

 He lived in a small town in southern Arizona and went to school with 20 classmates.  When he was 15 his family moved to Utah and in one year's time he attended two high schools with 4500 students each.  And then they moved again to Show Low.  These experiences were hard on a small town boy.   I lived in one house for 18 years.  When my parents divorced my brother and I stayed with my mom in that one house.  Though we were no longer a stable family, staying in that same home offered stability.

When David and I talked about marriage and children we both felt that our experiences, though totally different, taught us that living in one place and in one home would create stability.  It took us a while to get that one home.  And now September will mark 30 years in our forever home.

  When we moved in there were two apple trees and two spruce trees in the front yard.  The two apple trees are still there but only one original spruce tree.  They have matured and added so much to our landscape.  We added more apple trees in the back yard, more spruce trees in the front and a couple of Aspen trees.  The garden was once in the backyard and then moved to the west side of the front yard and now it on the east side of our driveway. 

This is probably in the late 80's.  (No that is not a swarm of bees above our house.....but if it was it would be cool to have a picture...its just a smudge.)

2005  Different view....same house.

Garage around 1985.  Looking north.  (These kids were so excited

when David shot this turkey. That is Pete and Jill and I don't remember the other boy. Obviously not one of my own..I would remember his name.) 

                                When we learned that Heidi was coming we knew we needed to spread out a bit.  So we enclosed the garage and made a family room. We left enough of the garage for a workshop in front.  When we found out Lee was coming we turned that space into two small bedrooms for Pete and Tim.

This is Heidi getting a hair cut on the back porch when she was three. (summer 1987)

This picture is facing west.  (look at those cheeks)

This is the back porch now looking the same direction. Behind the door

is our laundry room (and you don't get to see that....) and that is about where Heidi was sitting for the haircut picture.

I have not missed the back porch.  Not too much.  It was nice for wood cutting and

craft stuff.  But I will take the square footage inside anyday.

This was our dining area in 1990.  This is Lee's first birthday.  That is me with my best friends.

The window looked out into the back porch.  Side note:  I made the table

when we had been married two years.  Took a woodshop class from NPC

and our instructor let us make whatever we wanted and I wanted a table.

We cut out the window and expanded the opening for the entrance into the back porch room.

I truly enjoy the opening and flow of the back porch room.

This is probably the finishing touch.  We added this car port this summer.

Last winter was hard on David.  All that snow! 

Years ago we poured concrete to make a Bball court.  Last summer

David sawed down the standard.  This summer we covered it.

From the day we moved in 30 years ago until now I have loved our home.  I have spent alot of time in beautiful homes of friends.  And, occasionally try to duplicate things, but I have never needed what they have.....just them!  I love all the changes and customizing we have done.  And all of our memories are here.  It would be hard for me to know someone else was living in the home where we raised our children.  I know I could do it but I don't want to.    

Because this is our Forever Home.

Stop by and say hello. 

We are usually home.