Sunday, June 23, 2013
Composers at Work
Chelle and the girls were up for the weekend. We had a great time playing with the twins and visiting with Michelle. What a great Mom she is.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Father's Day in the Nursery
The Father's Day gift for nursery was Hamburgers and French Fries made out of cookies, cake, and brownies. For treats the kids ate the "french fries" with a bit of frosting "ketchup" squirted on. Finn would take the tiniest bite, devouring the ketchup and then say, "I need more ketchup". They are such cute kids.
The wise man built his house upon the rocks.
The wise man built his house upon the rocks.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
A blessing in my life
A special friend passed away this week.
I have many fond memories of Mary Jane. She was such a blessing in my life. She was always giving and sharing. Many times she would give us treats she had made. Our favorite recipe of all time is her pumpkin bread recipe. I triple the recipe – and bake it in double (the tripled) batches. We always have loaves of pumpkin bread in the freezer. It is a favorite of grandkids as well. You can see it (and others) in our family recipe book. http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~allanv/Vicki/Recipes.html.
In the many years she babysat for us, we had many chats – two young mothers, busy with children and trying to figure out life. I would pick up the kids and we would visit for many minutes each day. She was a happy person who absolutely adored her family. She would do anything for them. She treated my children like her own and was always teaching and training. My children absolutely loved going to her house.
Here is an excerpt from a letter Steve wrote Jan 25, 1982: The woman that is babysitting for us has a girl Kim's age, and they play well together. Kim was so excited for school to start for Vic so she could go over to Julie's house. Almost every day she would ask Vic if she was going to work today so she would be able to go over to Julie's house. Mary Jane is also Kim's primary teacher. I asked her yesterday what she learned at primary, and she told me that she learned "to turn around." The primary gave a presentation yesterday and Mary Jane must have told her to turn around and stop looking at us.
Mary Jane loved holidays. Each Christmas the whole house was decorated. The yard was lit up with such cute things that the Rossi house became a destination for those wanting to experience the Christmas spirit.
Mary Jane was a worker! She rarely took a day off. There were times when she got home from the hospital one day and volunteered to tend my kids the next.
Our families were linked in many ways. June 14, 1982: When we got home Saturday shortly after noon, we learned that Marcia's Dad had died suddenly so they made plans to leave for Grand Junction. They left their kids with us for the rest of the afternoon while they got ready to go. Marcia was really upset by the death. Sunday continued to be hectic. Steve had an early morning stake Seventies meeting which he was in charge of, he had to teach the Gospel Essentials class, and he had to give the talk for the baptism of Wayne Rossi. I had visiting taught Wayne's wife, Mary Jane, for two years and she now tends the kids for me so we know the family really well. When Woolley's left, Steve was left without anyone to conduct the baptism. Since he was supposed to talk and also confirm Wayne and now conduct too, he asked me to give the baptismal talk.
December 10, 1983: By about 4:00 p.m. Vicki decided it was time to go to the hospital. We took the kids to Mary Jane's house and went to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, we discussed a boy's name. We thought we ought to be prepared for any eventuality. We decided upon Gregory.
November 1985: I started making a few plans for Hawaii this past week. I thought it was about time to look into the tickets and so it appears that we will leave on the first of January and return on the eleventh. The conference that we will be going to is the eighth to the tenth. I think that we will take Lori and Kim and leave the other three with Mary Jane. That is our thinking for the present time.
May 25, 1986: The next morning, Saturday, was Kim’s baptism. Vic and I went over to the chapel early because I had to get some clothing to wear. Kim had a dress that Vic had made when Kim wanted to be an angel. We got my clothing and then had about 40 minutes to waste until the start of the baptism. We walked around, talked, and really had a nice time. We really had a nice program. Spencer gave a talk on baptism and it was really special. He told that when he was baptized his brother told him to leave his eyes open when he went under the water. His brother didn’t tell him why, but he did it. He said that when he came up out of the water he saw his father standing there glowing. He said it reminded him of being in the presence of Heavenly Father. Then we had the baptism. I only had to baptize Kim once. After the baptism, Mary Jane gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. She also did a good job. At the end of her talk, she had a book, a Book of Remembrance, which she gave to Kim. In the book, her husband, Wayne, had written a special message to Kim. It is very unusual for Wayne to do something like this and so it made it very special. Mary Jane read the message to everyone. Wayne said Kim what a special family she had and what special parents she had. He told Kim that there must be something special that needed to be done in Utah or her parents wouldn’t be going there. Once again, Steve Allan is having a tough time getting hold of his emotions. I'm not sure how much of this I can take. Well, we will get Kim confirmed today in sacrament meeting. She had a very nice baptism and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I think it has been a special time for her and a special time for her parents.
I have many fond memories of Mary Jane. She was such a blessing in my life. She was always giving and sharing. Many times she would give us treats she had made. Our favorite recipe of all time is her pumpkin bread recipe. I triple the recipe – and bake it in double (the tripled) batches. We always have loaves of pumpkin bread in the freezer. It is a favorite of grandkids as well. You can see it (and others) in our family recipe book. http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~allanv/Vicki/Recipes.html.
In the many years she babysat for us, we had many chats – two young mothers, busy with children and trying to figure out life. I would pick up the kids and we would visit for many minutes each day. She was a happy person who absolutely adored her family. She would do anything for them. She treated my children like her own and was always teaching and training. My children absolutely loved going to her house.
Here is an excerpt from a letter Steve wrote Jan 25, 1982: The woman that is babysitting for us has a girl Kim's age, and they play well together. Kim was so excited for school to start for Vic so she could go over to Julie's house. Almost every day she would ask Vic if she was going to work today so she would be able to go over to Julie's house. Mary Jane is also Kim's primary teacher. I asked her yesterday what she learned at primary, and she told me that she learned "to turn around." The primary gave a presentation yesterday and Mary Jane must have told her to turn around and stop looking at us.
Mary Jane loved holidays. Each Christmas the whole house was decorated. The yard was lit up with such cute things that the Rossi house became a destination for those wanting to experience the Christmas spirit.
Mary Jane was a worker! She rarely took a day off. There were times when she got home from the hospital one day and volunteered to tend my kids the next.
Our families were linked in many ways. June 14, 1982: When we got home Saturday shortly after noon, we learned that Marcia's Dad had died suddenly so they made plans to leave for Grand Junction. They left their kids with us for the rest of the afternoon while they got ready to go. Marcia was really upset by the death. Sunday continued to be hectic. Steve had an early morning stake Seventies meeting which he was in charge of, he had to teach the Gospel Essentials class, and he had to give the talk for the baptism of Wayne Rossi. I had visiting taught Wayne's wife, Mary Jane, for two years and she now tends the kids for me so we know the family really well. When Woolley's left, Steve was left without anyone to conduct the baptism. Since he was supposed to talk and also confirm Wayne and now conduct too, he asked me to give the baptismal talk.
December 10, 1983: By about 4:00 p.m. Vicki decided it was time to go to the hospital. We took the kids to Mary Jane's house and went to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, we discussed a boy's name. We thought we ought to be prepared for any eventuality. We decided upon Gregory.
November 1985: I started making a few plans for Hawaii this past week. I thought it was about time to look into the tickets and so it appears that we will leave on the first of January and return on the eleventh. The conference that we will be going to is the eighth to the tenth. I think that we will take Lori and Kim and leave the other three with Mary Jane. That is our thinking for the present time.
May 25, 1986: The next morning, Saturday, was Kim’s baptism. Vic and I went over to the chapel early because I had to get some clothing to wear. Kim had a dress that Vic had made when Kim wanted to be an angel. We got my clothing and then had about 40 minutes to waste until the start of the baptism. We walked around, talked, and really had a nice time. We really had a nice program. Spencer gave a talk on baptism and it was really special. He told that when he was baptized his brother told him to leave his eyes open when he went under the water. His brother didn’t tell him why, but he did it. He said that when he came up out of the water he saw his father standing there glowing. He said it reminded him of being in the presence of Heavenly Father. Then we had the baptism. I only had to baptize Kim once. After the baptism, Mary Jane gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. She also did a good job. At the end of her talk, she had a book, a Book of Remembrance, which she gave to Kim. In the book, her husband, Wayne, had written a special message to Kim. It is very unusual for Wayne to do something like this and so it made it very special. Mary Jane read the message to everyone. Wayne said Kim what a special family she had and what special parents she had. He told Kim that there must be something special that needed to be done in Utah or her parents wouldn’t be going there. Once again, Steve Allan is having a tough time getting hold of his emotions. I'm not sure how much of this I can take. Well, we will get Kim confirmed today in sacrament meeting. She had a very nice baptism and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I think it has been a special time for her and a special time for her parents.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
A Magical Place
We made a quick trip to the condo last night to grab the boat. We have it winterized and de-winterized in Hyrum so we needed to grab it, in hopes that Greg can return it to the condo before he leaves for vacation. I can't believe I'm so clueless around boats. I can't even back it, so getting it back into the garage is a major obstacle.
I hadn't realized how much effort it takes to pick up the boat - charging the battery overnight, checking the water level in the battery, reconnecting it, getting the ski bar raised, connecting the boat, putting on the covers. BUT, we did it! I was so impressed.
While we couldn't stay long, we had a great time - eating Papa Murphy's, playing Up-words, going on a walk down the park walkway to the beach, reading books. Our neighbors (from Providence) were there for the weekend. I had Boyd double check our connection of the boat to the car.
There is something absolutely magical about Bear Lake to me. It is one of the most gorgeous places on earth. We just got back from a week in Arizona. People raved about the natural beauty of the resort set in Tucson Arizona. While the cacti were pretty impressive, I kept thinking, "Why would you build a resort here? You so haven't seen Utah."
One Two Three - Whine
I'm experimenting with downloading ebooks from our library. It was working great until, after charging overnight, my Ipad started formating the pages in different font size - odd pages were small font and even pages were big font. Since font size determines the page formatting, there would be parts of pages that were missing. I tried several things, which included killing the browser. Bad idea. Now I can't find any record that I ever downloaded it, nor could I download it again, because SOMEBODY had already checked it out. ARGGG
Not to worry. I just downloaded another book - New Family Traditions. Here is one example I loved. A mother got tired of complaints about the menu and such. When the moaning begins, she simply calls for communal whining so evryone can get it off their chests. She says, "Let's all whine at the sasme time. Here we Go! One, two three ............waaaaaaaaaaaaah! Then everybody laughs and eats her food.
Another example is a "gratefuls and grumbles" session each night. Another family has each child come to the dinner table with one topic of conversation related to current events.
So while I may never know what happened to the Accidental Tourist, as least I have reading material.
Not to worry. I just downloaded another book - New Family Traditions. Here is one example I loved. A mother got tired of complaints about the menu and such. When the moaning begins, she simply calls for communal whining so evryone can get it off their chests. She says, "Let's all whine at the sasme time. Here we Go! One, two three ............waaaaaaaaaaaaah! Then everybody laughs and eats her food.
Another example is a "gratefuls and grumbles" session each night. Another family has each child come to the dinner table with one topic of conversation related to current events.
So while I may never know what happened to the Accidental Tourist, as least I have reading material.
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