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Happy 1st Birthday to Ruby and Sara and Philip this coming week.

In cleaning up some papers this week I came across another poem I had copied from my grandmother's book.

     "If I could number only happy hours,
     I should perhaps name all that I have known,
     For days when clouds hung low and grief engulfed
     Me with its surging flood, when hope had flown
     And doubts obscured the way, have now passed on--
     Ameliorated by times gracious hand.
     Today I know that blessings ofttimes wear
     A strange disguise, I better understand
     The need for clouds and tears and shattered dreams.
     A maze of hues will hide the rich design
     Of master works of art, when seen too near--
     A distant view full beauty will define:
     The somber tones accentuate the bright
     Give warmth and depth to modify the light.
                                            -Maude Osmond Cook

I wanted to include this here because it adds to some previous comments that I've made about how her poetry spoke to me at a difficult time in my life and also brought me closer to her (though she died when I was only 10 yrs. old).  With all the pain and sorrow my grandmother went through in her life, she could still begin this poem the way she did. "If I could number only happy hours,/ I should  perhaps name all that I have known."

Crista asked me what she could do as far as genealogy goes at this time in her life.  I told her she could gather stories and share them with her children as they grow.  We are blessed because we have so many stories that have been written down, some even published, that we can share with each other. A good place to start is reading my dad's book.  There is also one written about WW Clyde.  Phineas Wolcott Cook left a journal and Janet Porter has written a book based on that journal that makes it read more like a novel except that it's not fiction.  There is a book about James Henry Hart, and there are many more. Steve Christensen has also done a lot of research and gathered a lot of stories about the family.

I don't have a lot of news to share this week.  Finn had another infection, most likely caused from a mosquito bite.

 I tended the boys while Adrienne took Finn to the Doctor.  I tried to get a cute picture but those boys don't know how to smile for the camera.  They have to be as goofy as possible.

 

Max had to have a wart removed from his toe.  They gave him something to calm him, but apparently it was pretty traumatic for him anyway.

Matt, Crista and Ruby were down from Logan for the Frontrunner Century Event.  A century bike event usually indicates 100 miles, but this one was only 62 miles. Salt Lake to Ogden. Matt and Roy rode in it and felt very blessed and grateful that the rain that was forecast 100% chance all day Saturday, was delayed until the afternoon.  They finished the ride, having felt only a few raindrops.
Crista dropped them off and she and Caitlyn picked them up 4 1/2 hours later.  She was able to get a few pictures as she saw them off.

Crista, waiting with Ruby for the guys to take off.

At the beginning.  Left: Matt, Middle: James Shriever, one of Roy's co-workers
and Roy on the right.

Progress with the framing this week:

Front of house

Back of garage

Bridge foundation

Here are some pictures of the grand kids from the week:

Picnic in Sara's backyard

Hyeji

Doyeon

Ori intent on her coloring

Ruby and Finn with grandpa, Saturday night.

Maverick

Roy and Ruby

Ruby

Good weather and lots of fattening food

We received this picture on Monday.  You can't help but be happy
when you see Ruby's cute smile!

Roy had business in St. George Tuesday and Wednesday and asked if I'd go with him.  Of course, who wouldn't want to spend a few hours in sunny St. George when we've been having such "wonderful" weather up here.  We left Tuesday morning and drove down.  I'd purchased shrimp at Costco and we ate that for our lunch.  It's good our lunch was light.  Tuesday night we met  Jeremiah Johnson (he works with Roy), at his parent's restaurant--The Granary--in Santa Clara.  They'd been hired to fix dinner for a small group of clients and potential clients.   Jeremiah's mother is French. (thus the restaurant is French).  Jeremiah has a lot of interesting stories.  His parents were hippies--literally.  His dad played in a group.  He opened for "The Doors" and played with some other well known (not to me) groups.  Jeremiah was even babysat by Rosie O'Donnell.   Jeremiah had a lot of experiences that people not of our faith (and some of our faith) have to go through.  Luckily, he found the gospel.  He's a great guy with a great wife and six kids (so far).   Anyway, back to the Granary.  J's parent's bought the building about 4 years ago.  It was once the Granary for the church.  People would bring 10% of their harvest for tithing and it would be stored there.  They have converted this old building into a beautiful restaurant.  There is seating in the garden, seating in the cellar, and seating in the actual building.  We went down to the cellar.  It'd be a nice place to be when it's hot in St. George because it stays about 70 degrees year round.  There are bars on the windows (about 8" X 12") because kids would squeeze in and steal the apples.  Here are pictures of some of the food we enjoyed.  All of it French, and all of it fattening.  Roy ordered the Cornish Game Hen.  I ordered the Beef Burgoyne

The appetizer

 See how happy we look.  Especially while eating the dessert!  You can never complain about good food.  I was literally stuffed full.

Jeremiah; Client' Patricia, Jeremiah's mom, and another client

Patricia, restaurant owner in the cellar of the Granary

The next morning I was able to sit at the pool and read while Roy went to a conference.  I even met a Georgia friend for lunch (Cathy Fowler).  I haven't seen her in years and it was fun to catch up.  I told her I wanted to eat light and she took me to Croshaws.  Not light!  Mostly all they had was pie.  Pot pie and all kinds of sweet pies.  I  had a pot pie and tried to avoid the crust.  Cathy ordered the pie and a dessert mini pie and then told me I had to share the dessert.  Oh well.  There's always another day to try and eat right.  After lunch I met up with Roy and we took a short hike before we headed home.  It was in the Red Canyon Conservation area. Yes, it was as hard (or harder) than it looks!

We ate at the Kankun restaurant in Beaver on our return drive.  Roy says it's his favorite Mexican restaurant in Utah.

The most interesting/important thing that happened on Thursday was that we had an appointment with the Bountiful Young Single Adult Stake Presidency.  Roy was a little worried, but greatly relieved when he was called to the High Council.  They told him he would be assigned to a ward.  He will act as a sort of 3rd counselor.  He was sustained today in their Stake Conference.  The stake covers all the area between North Salt Lake and Farmington.  There are 12 wards and it covers the area of 26 conventional stakes--so, our move won't make a difference.

Speaking of our move, There was a little bit of progress  on our house this week--even with the rain.

In the garage.  I am on the east side of the house.

From the backyard 

Also from the backyard.  

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I found the following excerpt while looking through some of my genealogy files.  This was written by my brother Glenn.  I am not sure, but I think he wrote it down for David and then it was shared with me.  

As I mentioned last night, I had a very faith promoting conversation with Grandpa Clyde before he died.  I believe it was after Grandmother died, and Rosilene and I were visiting with Joshua and Jed.  Jed would have been a newborn, so this was early in 1976.  It didn’t take Josh long to know where the orange sticks were hidden, and whenever we visited, he would make a beeline to the hutch in the dining room.  Anyway, while Rosilene was with Joshua, I must have been discussing our ancestors, particularly William Morgan Clyde as a drummer boy in the Nauvoo Legion. Grandpa told me that toward the end of William Morgan’s life, he would visit him frequently to have conversations with him about his pioneer days.  He said that on one occasion, he decided to ask him what he thought of Joseph Smith, since William Morgan had played a part of the building of the Nauvoo Temple, had experienced the massacre at Haun’s Mill and had worked tirelessly to help the saints evacuate Nauvoo after the death of the Prophet.  Grandfather Clyde said that William Morgan looked at him sternly and let him know in “no uncertain terms that he knew that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of the Living God.”  I look at that conversation with Grandfather Clyde as my direct connection to the Prophet Joseph Smith and as another supporting stone of my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.   Hope this is of use to you.   Glenn

William Morgan Clyde is my great great, so your great great great grandfather Clyde.
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I have been trying to study the conference talks since we received them a few weeks ago. One that I have been thinking about is Elder Hale's talk on revelation.  Of course, you should read them all, but I would like everyone to read this one this week, even though I'm going to summarize some of it here.

 Elder Hales talk on revelation

First of all, Elder Hales tells us how we can keep the Holy Ghost actively working in our lives.  He says,

 "...we can receive and retain the companionship of  the Holy Ghost by always remembering the Savior, keeping His commandments, repenting of our sins, and worthily partaking of the sacrament on the Sabbath day."  

"The Holy Ghost provides personal revelation to help us make major life decisions about such things as education, missions, careers, marriage,children, where we will live with our families, and so on. In these matters, Heavenly Father expects us to use our agency, study the situation out in our minds according to gospel principles, and bring a decision to Him in prayer."

I often hear people loosely saying things like, "God told me I should do this..." speaking of things that are everyday matters, or maybe even things that this person wants to do, whether or not it is wise.  As Elder Hales says, the Lord has given us agency and He wants us to use it.  He will guide us, but we cannot expect him to tell us every little thing that we should do.  We must be careful lest we "trivialize" the power of revelation in our lives. 

"I remind all of us that the Holy Ghost is not given to control us. Some of us unwisely seek the Holy Ghost's direction on every minor decision in our lives.  This trivializes His sacred role.  The Holy Ghost honors the principle of agency.  He speaks to our minds and our hearts gently about many matters of consequence."


"Sometimes the adversary tempts us with false ideas that we may confuse with the Holy Ghost.  I testify that faithfulness in obeying the commandments and keeping our covenants will protect us from being deceived."

The rest of the talk is very good also.  I hope you will all read it, ponder it and apply it to your own lives.

Elise suggested that we all "ponderize" a scripture together.  There is a passage that I am interested in memorizing.  Mosiah 4: 9-11

"9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."
"10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them."
"11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and longsuffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel."

Reading through this I realize it's pretty long, so at least we could ponderize vs. 9 together.  Let me know what you all think.  
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We ended our week with the family over for a spaghetti dinner.  Here are a few pictures from the week.

Max's girlfriend of the week

Ruby

The girls in the hot tub after dinner.  

When you have a big family, you get to celebrate a lot of birthdays!

I forgot to share this picture last week:  Jieun and I finished this doll sized quilt made entirely by hand--mostly by my mother.  I'm sure my stitches weren't as neat and even as hers, Jieun probably did better, but it was neat to work on, and finish something that my mom worked on.  I will have to find a place to hang this in the new home.

This week was spent recovering from last week.  I don't know why, but jet lag zaps my strength, even when the time change is insignificant. 

However, we did have some fun family activities to participate in.  The first was Finn's birthday party, the 2nd Hyeji's.  Somehow the years just keep zooming by.  Finn's great grandma Green said she couldn't believe Finn was only one-year-old, though, because he's already running.  His favorite toy at his birthday party was the cane of this same great grandma.  For some reason he just loves walking around with it. 

For Hyeji's birthday, Roy and I picked her up and took her to lunch and then let her pick out her birthday present.  We gave her the choice of where she wanted to eat.  She picked McDonalds.  I spent a few minutes trying to talk her into a different choice, but Roy convinced me that McDonalds actually had some good choices.  He was right, unbelievably.  With their "Create your own" menu, I was able to order a grilled chicken sandwich on an artisan bun with guacamole for the sauce.  It was quite delicious.  Hyeji told her mom where we went.  she said, "Grandma didn't like McDonalds, but she likes it now."

Good news:  On Friday they started framing our house.  We expected it to have happened about a week previous, so that when we arrived home from Mexico we'd be pleasantly surprised at the progress.  But, alas, it was not to be.  The framer that was going to frame our house was still working on another project...finally our builder made the decision to put someone else on the job.   

I must admit, I've thought a lot about our son, Thomas this week.  This week marks the 23rd anniversary of his death.  It's a wonderful blessing, though, to have Easter also mark this anniversary every year.  We always have the promise of the resurrection to reflect upon when we think of his loss.  Dan gave a talk in Sacrament meeting on Easter Sunday and spoke about that wonderful promise.  We missed his talk as we were in Mexico, but he sent me a copy.  He used a talk by Dallin H Oaks called Resurrection, as the basis for his talk. Here is a link: Resurrection, I'm sure it's worth a re-reading.  He also used my Ensign article from 2003.  Working Through My Grief.  He said that his ward was touched by his story.  It's hard for me to read over the article that I wrote.  Some of it was changed from my original draft and I could pick out exactly which parts I hadn't written.  It does bring back some very painful memories.

 Nan sent me the poem that my grandmother wrote about her son Glenn that passed away at the age of 12 1/2 from blood poisoning that I talked about in a previous entry.

              "You walked always in pleasant paths

                   Nor needed to be sad

                For there were many lovely things

                   That helped to make you glad.

                You found the early buttercup

                   The lark's ways well you knew;

                You made friends with the furry things,

                   They loved and trusted you:

                But you slipped quietly away

                    While heaven spilled her tears,

                For you were young and strong and gay

                    And wise for your brief years.

                The lightning flashed in fierce dismay

                    The thundering protests ran

                From peak to vale and back again

                     For earth had lost a man.

                The wild winds lashed and moaned aloud

                     Their sorrow to convey

                That one who filled life to the brim         

                     Must now go far away...

                The angels must have come that night

                     You left us with a smile--

                The fearful storm could show it's might

                     Peace beamed on you the while;

                But on our hearts the cold rain fell

                     For many a weary mile."

                                                                                --Maude Osmond Cook

Reading my grandmother's poems after Tom's death really made me feel a connection and closeness with her.  I understood so much more than I ever had before.  One the day of Tom's funeral it was freezing cold and rainy--unusual in Atlanta for April.  However, the sun came out briefly as we dedicated the grave.  This poem reminded me of that.  It seemed appropriate to have terrible weather on such a day.

On Saturday, after a long morning starting with a staff meeting at 6:30 followed by a CPR review, Roy and I enjoyed a lovely violin recital that Caitlyn played in.  She is really getting quite good, but she didn't want me to include the video here.  After the recital we worked on the yard and got the front yard looking quite presentable.  Dan and Jieun came over and helped us for a few hours.

A quick story about my sweet husband:  There is a little autistic boy in our ward.  His family recently moved in.  At the scout auction, his parents bought him a handmade wooden airplane.  He loved it, but after about 10 minutes it broke.  Roy picked up a sturdy "Planes" airplane at the store and took it to church today.  He gave it to the little boy and his dad and told him he could play with it after church.  Roy is always thoughtful like that.  I could learn a lot from him if I was a little more humble.

I'll finish off with a few more pictures:  Yuna, comfortably planking while watching TV.  Maverick, giving us one of his beautiful smiles, and Ori, enjoying a sugarfest.

Away from it all!

Happy Birthday to Finn and Hyeji this week!

Spring break was exactly that this year--a break.  We had a great time in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.  Roy and I have been to Cancun twice before, but we've always stayed on the hotel strip; then, when it came time to do extra activities we had to head to the area where we stayed this time.  During the week we had a couple of days to completely relax, swim in the ocean and in the pool, and read.  The rest of the time we stayed active and busy.  Below is a picture of Roy, Caitlyn and I on our first excursion--Chichen Itza.  We've never been there before--the other two times in Cancun we opted out of the long bus ride to get there--and it was a long bus ride.  I had envisioned this long tour on an old run down bus with a broken air conditioner--another reason we'd never gone.  The bus was actually really nice and the air inside was cool (thank goodness).  Chichen Itza is a Mayan ruin and one of the 7 wonders of the world.  It was pretty cool to see the pyramid built as a Temple for Quetzalcoatl (there are other names used for him but this is the one we recognize).  There were many other ruins and it was interesting to hear their version of the history there.  As awesome as it was, it was also very hot there.  The heat combined with the long bus ride makes this a once in a lifetime for me.  I don't think I'll ever go there again, but it's great to say I've been there and I'm glad I went.

Pyramid at Chicen Itza

There were a lot of these little guys hanging around.  Like us, they came
in all different shapes and sizes.  We learned to identify the males vs. the
females.  This is taken at one of the ruins.

Below are pictures of the three of us at the Occidental Grand Xcaret Resort.  Roy was getting in a quick moment of romance.  There wasn't too much of that sort of thing since Caitlyn was there--and she was taking the picture, of course.

 

The resort had a buffet dinner--or if you preferred, you could
 choose one of about 5 restaurants.  This picture is in the Italian
restaurant--our least favorite that we tried, but still pretty good.

 On another day we went to Tulum (another ruin, but much smaller).  We've been there before and on our previous visit we asked for a Mormon guide.  We were able to get one and the tour was very interesting.  Since that visit, they have now blocked off the buildings and you can't get up close to them as we were able to do previously.  Due to graffiti, etc. they had to put ropes around everything.  We were still able to see the Mayan hand prints on the walls of some of the buildings--symbolizing getting close to deity (that's what we were told this time, though we had to ask.  I don't remember what the Mormon guide told us).  There were red hand prints and black ones.  The red signified royalty, and the black was purely religious.  We were with a tour group this time, but we asked our guide if we could get a Mormon guide instead.  He apparently checked and said it was the Mormon guide's day off.  I had heard there were several brothers that did it, so who knows...  This guide was very basic and was done with his spiel pretty quickly.  The guide we had at Chichen Itza took an hour to give us his presentation, but he should've taken only 40 minutes or less.  I turned to Roy and said, "Phil would be getting pretty impatient right about now."

Tulum

Listening to the guide at Tulum

After a couple of hours at Tulum, our tour continued at a park called Xel ha. The food at this park was included with your entry ticket so we were able to have lunch before we got in the water.  We had a blast there.  The underground river felt heavenly after the heat at Tulum.  At the end of the river were some rope courses, a zip line, cliff jumping and a few other things.  We didn't try the cliff jumping, or the slides. We snorkeled there and took pictures with an underwater camera (these have not been developed yet).  I am pretty fearless while snorkeling, usually, but at one point I looked down and I had 3 huge fish swimming right underneath me.  I panicked and let out a scream, but then realized it was no big deal.  It just startled me.  If we ever go to Playa Del Carmen again, we will stay at Xel ha for a whole day.  Even though you had to pay extra for a lot of the attractions there, there was plenty to do in the water without doing any of the extras.  We almost paid extra to have fish therapy, but we didn't have enough time (Fish Therapy: you immerse your feet in a tank of water and little fish eat the dead skin off!)
One of the highlights of our trip was a dolphin/manatee encounter.  Roy wanted Caitlyn to have the opportunity, but he decided he'd just take pictures while we swam.  There were a couple of French girls from London that were in our group, and one was very afraid--not of the dolphin, but of the little fish swimming around in the dolphin pool.  It was kind of funny.

I'm pretty sure that we could never do this in the US.

The manatee were pretty cool.  We got to feed them lettuce.  I'd hold up the leaf and they'd put their flippers on my thigh and use it to leverage themselves higher to get the lettuce. I really had to brace myself.  I think they about knocked Caitlyn over.

mother and babies.  We were able to feed the larger babies, but
there was at least one that was still nursing.  

At Tulum

I had a few favorite things at the buffet.  Papaya
 (the pineapple and melons were good, too),
Ceviche (fish, cut small, with tomatoes, onion and cilantro,
marinated in lime juice.  Fish, and jicama!  

Nowhere else would Caitlyn ever wear the same swim cover-up.
We both liked the same one and figured we'd wear it at different times,
but she decided it was okay because no one there would ever
see her again.  

, 

Note the guest in the middle

Xcaret is a park that was connected to our resort.  There were a lot of animals on exhibit--an aquarium, an aviary, and a butterfly sanctuary.  There were also several underground rivers that you could float through.  At the end of the day, they have a couple of shows.  Here are some characters from the show that highlights Mexican history.

This is a depiction of The Mayans playing a game on a large field.
 There were 7 players on each team.  After a winner was determined,
  the captain of the losing team was sacrificed to the God's.
  Then there were 13...

Some of the dancers.  Actually, in the front picture it's only one dancer,
the rest are puppets.

We were really glad to get home Friday night so we'd be ready for general conference.  What a great time to come home--two days to listen to prophets and apostles while recovering from playing hard all week.  I loved all of the talks.  I was very touched by Elder Nelson's talk in the priesthood session.  What a hard thing to do everything you could do as a physician, only to lose two sisters after their surgery's.  That story really touched my heart.  We are so incredibly blessed to have leaders that can help us find direction in our lives.  I've got to re-listen to Elder Uchtdorf's talk.  I was kind of dozing off by then, but I have a feeling that talk was meant just for me.

We were able to have Dan's family and Adrienne's family come to dinner on Sunday evening.  Ori was sick, so Nick came over for just a short time.  Grandpa Roy always loves to see his grand kids.  He cooked a pork butt and some shrimp so we could choose what we wanted on our tacos.  I made a salad (like one that we had eaten for lunch after our dolphin adventure. I asked them what was in it and they freely told me).  It was delicious--Jicama, pineapple, cucumber, orange slices, lime juice with the option of "Tajin," kind of a seasoning salt with just a bit of a kick to it.  

Here are a few family pictures from the week:

In Logan with Crista for the weekend.  Hyeji turns 6 on the 8th of this month.

Finn turns 1 on the 7th of this month