Happy Thanksgiving.

I am so grateful for my Savior, for my husband, for each of my children, their spouses, and my grandchildren.  I am thankful to live in a beautiful area, in a comfortable and spacious home.  I am thankful for good health, and the ability to do the activities that I love to do.  I have been richly blessed--spiritually, physically and materially.  I hope that I will never be guilty of the sin of ingratitude.

It has been a wonderful week to reflect upon the blessings of my life and to spend time with almost all of my children and grandchildren.

Wednesday, Roy, Caitlyn, and I, met Adrienne, Jieun, Hyeji, Doyeon, Yuna, Gunnar, Ollie and Finn at the ice rink to "practice" for the Christmas show.  I sure hope we can pull this off.  They'll be pretty cute regardless of their performance.

  

Caitlyn at work--You can see why they
put her on register all the time--she gets tips!

There are no skating pictures of Gunnar and Yuna because they didn't stay on the ice long enough.

This year, I was able to enjoy turkey prepared by Roy on three separate occasions.  He cooked the first turkey for work, and left me some of the turkey and dressing before he left.  I made soup out of the carcus that night.  He made the 2nd turkey for the YSA ward's family night.  This time without worrying about dressing, but it was still delicious.  And of course, the third turkey was for Thanksgiving.  He makes a great turkey dinner.  Thanks to everyone for all your contributions to the meal (Dan & Jieun--mashed potatoes, Adrienne and AJ--rolls, and Crista, green bean casserole. Roy made the turkey and dressing, and I made my famous pomegranate salad.  Pies were made by Costco).

Thanksgiving morning we took a walk with Crista, Matt, Ruby, and Nick and Ori.  We usually try to take a little hike, but decided a walk would be fine since our trail had snow on it and all our winter gear was in storage.  We  certainly thought that our house would be done before we had to unpack it.  Unfortunately, we were wrong.  We now have a few boxes in our current home to be unpacked for winter use.

Effie is such a happy baby

Ruby, chillin' on the couch while staying with us for Thanksgiving

The holiday weekend culminated with a trip to the train store with Grandpa Roy.  Grandma Catharine stayed home to get her house in some semblance of order.  I think they all had a good time.

For some reason, this picture is sideways--I geuss it's because I turned my phone sideways to take it. Anyway, you get the idea.  I finished this quilt top this past week.  I don't have any idea how many hours I put into it, or how much I spent.  I kept the receipts, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the answer.  Now to get it quilted.   

A Normal Week for a change

I was able to spend a little time with grandchildren this week.  Tuesday, Gunnar, Ollie, Hyeji, Doyeon, Yuna and Finn came over.  All but Finn were there to  practice for the ice skating Christmas show.  We wanted to work it out on land, since it's so much harder on skates, but...we were wrong.  It was so much harder on land because there was nothing to slow them down or contain them.  We went through the number a couple of times (joke), and then they had a good time with their cousins.
Wednesday I spent time with the boys again when I tended them while Adrienne went to an eye appointment.  I went to their house--it's amazing how much more settled they are when I tend them there vs. at my house.  Then, Saturday morning I got to spend about 1 1/2 hours with Ori and Effie while Nick went to the chiropractor.  Sara was at a ball game with her dad and brothers and Nick was on kid duty.  He's still recovering from his surgery, so he's a pretty good sport.  I enjoyed doing puzzles with Ori and holding Effie.

Monday I attended Daughters of the Utah Pioneers or DUP.  My mom used to do this.  I find I enjoy it--even though I'm the youngest of the attendees by quite a few years.  It's good to be reminded of what our wonderful forefathers went through so that we could live where we live and have the Gospel in our lives.

There were a few frustrations with the house this week.  One--the tile in the Master bath was almost completely done, until the builder realized he hadn't put in the electric heat in the floor that was in the plan.  All that tile had to be ripped out (we checked this afternoon and it's been ripped out) and re-done.  There were some other, even more major, mistakes, but we worked them out.  The outside of the house is pretty close to being done.  I'll try and take a picture this evening.

Beginnings of a back yard.  This is where the fire-pit will will be.  The hole for
the trampoline is ready.  Some sprinkler pipes have been laid.  We didn't
get as great a head start on the yard as we hoped because the outside of the house
hasn't been done enough until recently.  This picture was taken yesterday while the sun was
still out.

This picture was taken at about 5:30 pm--it was getting dark so it's not very good.

Caitlyn played in a recital Tuesday night and did a great job.

Caitlyn is also getting promoted to Trainer at Papa Murphey's.  This comes with a raise!  I'm happy that she likes her job and that they recognize what a great worker she is.  We are still worried about her with her jaw problems.  She seems to be in pain quite a lot.  Her physical therapist would like her to get more sleep (she and the Dr. are worried she's not sleeping well because they feel her jaw is placed so far back that it probably makes her tongue interfere with her breathing).  If the PT had her way, Caitlyn would quit work, skating and violin, but we don't want her to completely quit life.  She will most likely give up skating after the Christmas show.  Keep her in your prayers.

And that's about it for this week.  Pretty boring.  But, house problems aside, I kind of like my boring routine, and it gets interrupted a lot, so it's nice when I can just be home to skate, sew, and catch up on things.

Election week, charity dinner, and a funeral

This has been an interesting week.  Is there anyone reading this who could have predicted the outcome of the election?  We were not presented with the best options this time around, but if Donald Trump can choose the right people to be around him, we might be okay for the next four years.  Hopefully some of the bad things that Obama did can be set right, and some good things can happen for our country.

Thursday evening Roy and I had an opportunity to meet Crista and Matt in Logan and attend a charity dinner that Malouf (Matt's company) was hosting at their beautiful, new building.  I have to say, I have never sat on a heated toilet seat before, and it was delightful :)  I even heard a lady say, "I'm going to go sit on that hot toilet seat again."  We had a great time--mostly because of the company, but the dinner was absolutely fabulous.  Especially the appetizers: bacon wrapped shrimp, dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped with bacon, loaded baked potato fritters, mushrooms-tempura style, all sorts of cheeses, fruit, etc.  It would have been easy to enjoy the evening if nothing further had been offered.

Salad with butternut squash

Roy and Crista had the trout

This was my beef dish--with leek, mushrooms and
pureed califlower 

This was a tomato soup with burnt orange peel and
sun-dried tomatoes and buttermilk.  It was good
but maybe a little too strong flavored.

Saturday was Alan's funeral.  It was a fitting tribute to a good man who left us too early.  These types of events often bring loved ones together and Saturday was no different.  Bruce and Barb were there with all of their kids; Glenn and Rosilene, Jed and kids, Emily, Taylor and Ila; Dave's entire family, of course, minus only John Norton and two of Jenny's kids; Nan and Bruce, and John, Sierra, Eve and Lilly, Rachel, Walker, Benton, and Laura (and Rob), Roy and I and Dan and Family, and all of Christine's family (minus Jacob).  I am sure grandpa and grandma and other loved ones were in attendance.
The speakers were: Kellie Nelson, Adam Cook, Alan's brother, Cynthia, and the Stake President--I may be missing one.  Here is Alan's obituary
My pictures at the funeral weren't very good.

Family news:
Nick had surgery on Thursday and is still recovering.
Caitlyn had her staples removed.
Catharine practiced for the Christmas Ice Skating Show with Gunnar, Ollie, Hyeji, Doyeon and Yuna. Hopefully we can pull it off.
Ollie informed me I was old.
Roy's chickens are getting bigger--almost outgrowing the bin in the garage.

More pics from the funeral, taken by Nan Oblad and Jenny Norton

Sierra, John, Jieun, Dan, Hyeji and Catharine

Cook Siblings (I need to wear more flattering clothes
or not stand on the end next time)

Hyeji and Yuna at Grandma and Grandpa Cook's grave

Steve, Nathanael and Whitney

Jenny Norton and daughter (Brooklyn?) and son William

Je

Christensen family

Jed and baby

Bruce Cook Family

Cook Cousins

A Sad weekend

We are saddened at the sudden passing of Alan Nelson, Cynthia's husband, this weekend.  It is a sad event that reminds us that life is fragile.  It is important to put a high priority on our relationships and to express our love every day.  We are also reminded that we are not immune from trials, just because we have the gospel, (we are told that the Lord will test His people), but we can be grateful for the tools that the Lord gives us to confront our trials and for the ability to seek for His love, comfort and peace.  Our love goes out to Cynthia and her family.  Keep them in your prayers. I found this quote from October's General Conference in the talk by Elder Smutz, entitled, God Shall Wipe Away All Tears.  He was quoting Elder Holland:
"Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has taught: 'There really is light at the end of the tunnel.  It is the Light of the World, the Bright an Morning Star, the 'light that is endless, that can never be darkened.' [Mosiah 6:19] It is the very son of God Himself."

Thankfully we can seek for the comfort of the spirit when we go through intense trials and suffering. 

I mentioned last week that I had a few more pictures from Halloween weekend, so here they are.  Our family had a good time dressing their kids up, and the kids had a ball, too.  Though I'm not sure if Scooby Ruby Doo liked her costume much.

Two Pirates and a Witch

Luke and Leia on their daddy's lap

Two Pokemons in Texas

Jennie (far right) and her friends

A Server, a Knight and a Dragon

Caitlyn had a fun time at her dance last Saturday.

Hippies at the Halloween Dance

She also got asked out on another date for yesterday.  It was pretty funny, though, because the guy talked to her a couple of times at work, asking her what she was doing on Saturday, and talking about going to a movie, etc. but somehow Caitlyn didn't pick up that he was asking her out.  Just before she went home for the night, Caitlyn asked the boy how his day was.  He said, "It was okay but I asked a girl out twice and she didn't understand I was asking  her out."  Caitlyn said, "Oh, sad...who was it?" and he answered, "You."  So, she had a date yesterday, and she went, even though she had surgery on Friday.  She had a bone growth behind her ear that was bothering her.  The Dr. said it was about the size of a rounded quarter.  He shaved a bit of her hair and all of the excessive bone.

Before

and after

Roy had a colonoscopy on Thursday and I had mine the week before.  We both enjoyed the prep immensely (NOT).  On the weekend, Roy and Nick and Dan went down to help grandma and grandpa Rasband move some furniture around to get them situated from their move home from the care center.  I had spent the night in Midway with some friends from High School that I get together with every few months.  I enjoyed myself but I need to remember that I don't like to sleep away from Roy very much.

Pictures: (the first ones of Roy and the Green boys at the train shop were from the previous Saturday--I was at their home tending Finn while he napped)

Ruby, getting excited for her new little sister to come

Effie has finally been sleeping through the night
Let's hope it continues.

Jieun's beautiful artwork--Salt Lake Temple

Here is another quote from conference that I really loved from Elder Lynn G. Robbins:

“And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the children of the multitude … , and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things. …

“… And they both saw and heard these children; yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things” (3 Nephi 26:14, 16).

Perhaps more than opening the mouths of babes, the Lord was opening the eyes and ears of their astonished parents. Those parents had been granted the extraordinary gift of a glimpse into eternity and of beholding the true identity and premortal stature of their children. Would that not forever change the way the parents saw and treated their children? 

Remember this as you love and nurture your children.  They are truly remarkable spirits--sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, entrusted to you for their care.

I love all of you very much.