Wood Badge Training and all tickets completed

One of the highlight of the week for Roy, Caitlyn, and I, was our trip down to Utah County to see the new Provo Temple.  We're glad we picked a weekday.  Though it seemed to keep moving, we were in line for 40 minutes, while the tour lasted less than 30, but it was worth it.  It's really a beautiful building and it's obvious that lots of love (and money) went into the renovations.  The woodwork and the stained glass really stood out to me--also the beautiful artwork and furnishings. I'm sure it means a lot to the people of Utah County to have this building preserved. Your grandparents (Verl and Fern) used to get paid for caring for the Provo Tabernacle right after Grandpa graduated from college.  He had a friend who did Janitorial work and he told Verl about this opportunity.  It meant free rent in a little house that stood about where the Nu Skin building stands now.  Rent would have been $38 each month which was probably equivalent to several hundred dollars now.  He had a day job as an accountant, but the free rent allowed them to save up money for their first home.  Grandpa said it was quite a lot of work as there was a large grassy area that they had to mow, plus the gardens-- and whenever there was an event such as regional meetings or high school graduations, etc. they had a lot of extra cleaning that had to be done.  They were in charge of the upkeep for the whole facility.  They did this for about three years.

Thursday was spent with Gunnar, Ollie and Finn, while Adrienne and AJ went Helicopter skiing with AJ's parents.  I told Adrienne I was a little concerned about this activity--who would take care of Gunnar's broken leg if she had one, too?  Thankfully, they both came home intact and had an awesome day!

Friday night we had a big "skate party" at the Rec center.  I didn't realize what it was all about--though I really don't know why I was so clueless.  I thought it was a program to watch and I wasn't worried about skating in it (and Caitlyn couldn't skate in it because of shin splints and tendonitis).  Scott Hamilton was there for a cancer fundraiser and while there was a very short program, mostly it was just a big skate fest on the rink.  I didn't even bring my skates (actually, I didn't think I had my skates, but I found out later they were in the car the whole time :).  

Caitlyn, Scott Hamilton, myself and Roy

Also at the fundraiser--Miss Utah and Miss Teen Utah.
Roy looks like he's having a  little too nice of a time.
He also likes to steal my thunder and send out pictures to all
the family before I write my newsletter for the week so
most of you have already seen this.

Saturday we had Glenn and Rosilene and their family to dinner.  Patti didn't come because she was exhausted, and Emily had a prior commitment, but Jed and brought his kids and Taylor brought Ila.  Ila had a great time--even though my own grandkids were overly tired and not very good about sharing with her.  I told Glenn and Rosilene that they're special, we don't think to have our extended family that live in Utah over for dinner.  I guess we need to put some of my other siblings on our guest list for future dinners.

Sunday night, Roy was awarded his Wood Badge Scouting Award.  After the Wood Badge training, he had several "tickets" or goals that he had to finish to get the Wood Badge award.  

With the "Fox  patrol"  Here he has his Wood Badge Scarf, etc. 

One of the other members of Roy's Wood Badge"Fox Patrol" was sitting by us through the meeting.  He was telling Roy about his wife and her recent hysterectomy.  He was saying that it was difficult that she couldn't pick up their two year old, etc. Roy leaned over to me and said, "How many kids did we have when you had your hysterectomy?" This made me laugh so hard (and it had to be quietly) I nearly started crying.  It reminded me of a stupid question I asked Christine at our siblings dinner in December.

Below are a couple of pictures of the progress on our home this past week:

Boy, this panoramic picture sure makes it look like a mansion :)

Today I learned how to scan my family history documents, save them as a pdf file, then scan them again and save them in another format so I can correct them, then save the corrected version as a word document.  I had planned on sharing some more of Aunt Clara's letters, and I thought it would be easier if I could just cut and paste, thus the lesson in scanning--but I'm out of time and energy.  

Here are a few pictures I got from family this week:

Max and Daisy

Doyeon at the zoo

Crista has brand new carpeting in her basement!

Maverick

Max

Remembering...

Some of us met at the cemetery tonight to commemorate Thomas's birthday today.

 Elise sent a few pictures via group text--most of which we are very familiar with.  There was a full moon above the mountain, too bad it didn't show up very much in the picture.  It was a really beautiful evening.

This has been a tender day as we've said Happy Birthday to Tom and also to my mother on Friday.  Some of you might also have realized that this is also the anniversary month of Grandpa's death.  Here are a few photos to remember our loved ones.

1993: Grandpa wrote down a tender story about babysitting Thomas while grandma and I went to Relief Society.  He had a hard time getting Thomas to bed.  Thomas fell asleep, and grandpa put him in his bed.  Of course, that woke him and he followed grandpa out of the room.  The next time this happened, grandpa tried crawling out of the bedroom.  That didn't work either.  After several failed attempts, grandpa gave up and this is how we found the two of them when we arrived home.

2007--Adrienne's wedding

Grandma and Grandpa Cook with Thomas

Grandma and Nan

Florida, about 1995

Monday Roy and I had an appointment with the builder to go over the proposed schedule.  Just before it was time to leave, we got a call.  The meeting was postponed--due to the good news that the bulldozer was at our lot and they were excavating.  We instead met at the lot and talked over a few things.  It was so exciting to see something actually happening.  We've been working on getting permits since August.  We found that Centerville City was a little difficult to work with--at least when it comes to permits, zoning issues and variances. 

This doesn't look like much, but they are actually pouring footings
 tomorrow, so a little bit has happened since these pictures were taken. 

While ice skating these past couple of weeks, I met a sweet young woman. After helping her with some skating skills, I visited with her and found out that last April she left her FLDS community and her shared husband, and took her two children with her.  She is living with one of her brothers who had previously been kicked out of the community.  It sounded like, though her dad is still a believer, he is an outcast also, but her mother is still in the community and thus--she cannot communicate with her.  I was scheduled to have the missionaries for dinner Wednesday night, so when I ran into Rose on Wednesday, I told her the missionaries were coming and asked if she'd like to come to dinner with her kids.  She graciously accepted.  We were able to meet her two kids and also her brother's two children whom she cares for every day.  They are such a sweet family.  She loved our family pictures and said she'd do anything to have a picture like that of her family, but they are all spread out and cannot all be together because of their circumstances.  My heart went out to her. 

Friday night I spent the night with some High School girlfriends.  It's amazing that we have retained a our friendship all these years.  Spending the night with them was enlightening.  I found out things about them that I never knew and it helped me to understand them better.  One of my friends is estranged from her entire family.  Her mother died soon after her marriage, and her father remarried a woman only 7 years older than my she was.  The new wife did not like my friend and resented the life that her father had had before his remarriage.  My friend said she tried for 7 years to rekindle the relationship, but after shedding many tears, she decided she had to be happy with her own family.  My other friend told stories of her parents being so worried about her weight that they were constantly saying hurtful things.  She had an eating disorder (as did another of these four friends).  I thought I had struggled with my self image, but she really had it hard.  I was reminded to be grateful for my wonderful parents and family.  While I was in Midway, Caitlyn and Roy had a date together at China Garden.

Last Sunday night we had a visit from Ruby and I got a cute picture but forgot to include it in the letter.  Roy took the picture of Nick and Ori at a Young Men's meeting--last week also.

Happy Valentine's Day--and a little genealogy

Happy Birthday, Yuna!  Yuna had a little birthday party on Wednesday night.  I guess I was a little off last week when I said, "happy birthday to Yuna tomorrow."  I was thinking she was born on the 8th, but it was really the 10th.  Hopefully that'll be corrected in my memory for the future.  Roy and I went over for a little bit to wish her a happy birthday, and then we left to go to a movie.  Roy had  bought us tickets (before the invitation to go to Dan's) to see, "To Catch a Thief" with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.  We both thought we'd seen it enough to know what it was about, but were surprised at how much we had forgotten.  It was fun to see this old movie on the big screen.

 The rest of the week was filled with my routines, family, a temple session, dinner and a play for a Valentine's Celebration, babysitting, etc.  It's interesting when I sit down to write this letter how hard it is to remember just what I did during the week.
As you can see from one of the pictures above, Nick isn't completely clean shaven.  When he came to dinner last night, though, he was.  He told us that he knows it's time to shave when Ori rubs his cheek and says, "shave it off."  I have been looking through some of the stories of my ancestors, and I found some stories written by my great Aunt Clara.  WW Clyde's youngest sister.  She said that her father shaved his mustache off when she was born "because I was a girl."  She says, "I never saw him wearing a mustache."

Hyrum Smith Clyde

She also wrote about my grandfather, WW Clyde.  She says, "Wilford must have been a serious minded and sober individual almost from the moment of his conception.  It shows in his face in both his early and his late photographs."

"And there was a reason for it.  Times were serious and sober.  His parents were serious and sober. He was the third child to be born to Hyrum S. and Elenora Jane.  Each of the first two babies had died before reaching a first birthday anniversary.  The fourth child was a girl named Hazel who died at age eighteen months of what was diagnosed as diphtheria.  I was told by Jennie Thorn, a first cousin on my mother's side, that when she was eight years old, she, with her mother and brother were spending several days at my parents' home, when Hazel, who had awakened apparently well, became ill.  She died and was buried before sunset that same day.  For with a diphtheria death, burial was done as soon as a box could be put together, lined, and the body dressed for burying.  Fumigation and isolation followed.  My mother never did get over the terror and trauma of that day..."
"Responsibilities were put early on his shoulders.  When he was little more than five years, mother often said, he was sometimes left alone at home on the farm doing whatever job he was assigned, while his parents with horses and wagon made necessary trips into town. Three or so hours alone.  No close neighbors.  Indians about who still stopped at farmhouses for help or handouts.  It must have been frightening for one so young."
"During his entire growing up period the simple day by day activities of making a living were serious business.  Only on the Sabbath did the tempo change.  Sundays only the 'couldn't wait' things were done: cooking, caring for the sick, irrigating, feeding the stock, milking the cows.  Social life consisted entirely of Sunday or holiday dinners with relatives, plus an annual family reunion...  On other days everybody worked every daylight hour.  That was what life was all about. To work long and hard and to assume one's share (or more) of responsibility was the ethic of this family and that day.  Only those who did work hard made it.  Some who did work hard failed to make it.  But it was a believed-in truism that if you worked hard and always, if you wished well for those about you, you were bound to arrive at some good end--or at least a better one."
Later he had jobs on campus [University of Utah] as a waiter and a janitor.  Clara says, "I remember saying to Wilford during the depression days of the 1930's that advanced degrees were for opening doors to better jobs and more money.  His response? Not for that alone.  You go to college to improve for yourself the quality of your own life and to increase your value to others--not for money and prestige alone."

I'll share more of her writings in future letters, but I wanted to point out how hardworking your great-grandfather was.  He believed in work and he taught it to his children and many of his grandchildren.  He passed away when I was 16, so I don't remember a lot about him, but I do remember that he was a serious man and that he worked hard and expected this of others as well.  No wonder my mother was always an early riser.  She would get up and wash and iron, long before us children would get out of bed.  She ALWAYS had breakfast ready for us.  And it was always tasty.  I do remember once she tried something new--soup for breakfast.  She got a lot of complaints and I don't remember every having soup for breakfast again.  I can't believe we had the gall to complain.  I don't think many women get up early and make breakfast for their families anymore.