Well this week has gone fast because it has been very busy.  It was good to have the holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday.  We celebrated by sleeping in and resting some that day but we had lots of things to do.  Larry is working hard on keeping things up at the house and it has been so cold lately that he has had to get out and start his truck each morning so the battery doesn't die.  I am trying to keep up with the Family Search mission and find a job.

This is a picture of my kids when Maren was a baby.  Her
Baby, Max looks a lot like her

Tuesday we were busy with missions.  I worked in the morning on Family Search and we had to teach the final career workshop for this month on Tuesday evening.  During the day we went to the networking group at LDS Employment.  I got some good leads there for employment that I am trying to follow up on.

Wednesday I worked some on the mission but I spent the afternoon trying to find some sources to attach to Larry's family in the Sources class that I taught that evening at the Family Search Center.  My last sources class I could not get the internet to work so I was pleased to have this class go well.  The Family Search mission had  Sister Susan Anderson present on Sources at our Tuesday meeting and she had a great PowerPoint that she let me use and it really helped to make the class more organized and have a backup in case the internet did not work.  When I came home that night it was 9 degrees out.

Last Wednesday when we came home from the Career Workshop we were teaching in the evening I had some things drop out of the book we use to keep things in and one of them was the DVD that we use for examples.  I looked everywhere to find it because they are not producing them anymore and they are rare to find.  I took everything off my desk and could not find it.  I searched the desk three or four times but it was not there.  Today when I finished my mission meetings I looked down and there was the DVD right on the top of the desk upside down.  Some people might call it a coincidence but I believe it was a miracle sent from God, it was not there before.

Nathan's Son Isaac won first in den and First overall in the
Pinewood Derby this week

Thursday they had predicted snow but we woke up to what looked like dry streets.  However it was freezing rain!  We don't get freezing rain often, in fact this is the only time I remember being exposed to it.  We were able to get ready and leave for LDS Employment by 7:25 am with no incident except to listen to the traffic reports of all the accidents in Salt Lake City.  Later we learned that there was a 7 car pile up on the main street just below our house that blocked the entrance to DATC so they had to cancel some classes.   We went to lunch and everything was cleaned up and we expected to eat at home but the road that is a slight hill to our home was so icy that we had to turn around and go eat at Wendy's in town.  The road looked like an ice sheet.  We stopped at Kaysville City and mentioned that it needed some kind of salt or sand.  When we finished our mission we went home and put on warm clothes and did not plan to leave for the night.  The roads were better and starting to melt because it finally warmed up to 32 degrees.

David, Maggie, Sam, and Isaac at the Pinewood Derby

We always weigh in at Weight Watcher's on Thursday when we go to lunch.  I was thrilled because I lost 3.2 lbs and so I am below 200 lbs at 199.6.  I just have a lb. to go and I will have lost 10% of my weight.  Larry was also pleased because he lost 1.8 lbs.  He has lost 32 lbs now and it looking great and wearing smaller clothes.  The thing that is good though is he had been able to cut his insulin in half with the WW program.

We had planned to go to the Bountiful Temple with the ward and some of our children that live close on Thursday night but they decided to cancel the trip because of the ice. We had called the kids and said that we were canceling right after lunch.  Our boss at LDS Employment said they even closed Temple Square for the evening because it was so icy during the day.

It was lucky that we could stay home though.  Maren and Landon finally made it to Salt Lake City about 4:30 p.m. after their flight in California was canceled because of the Salt Lake City airport being closed for ice.  They were able to find another flight.  They came to our house about 7:00 p.m. It was fun to see them and play with the kids.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures so I will have to get some when they get back from Roosevelt.

Nathan talking to Maggie

Friday, Maren and Landon went to his cousin Lee's wedding in Sandy and we tended the kids.  We had a good time.  We watched Disney Jr. and read books and played hide-n-seek and Barbies and legos.  Max is a really good baby.  He played on the floor most of the time with the other kids and then he took about a three hour nap.  I was amazed because Larry and I had energy the whole time to work with them and I even fix homemade mac and cheese for dinner.  I forgot to take my 2:00 pm medicine and still felt good until just after they left then I started feeling it.  They went to Kirsten's to see the new puppies and we were going to go but then I needed to find some sources for another class on Saturday morning and I was hurting so we called and excused ourselves.  I was shocked that I had been able to go for 12 hours without needing my pills.

Maggie is the Cheerleader

Yesterday we went to the Family Search Center and I gave my class.  Again things went well and the internet worked well until the class was over.  Larry and I stayed there for our shift and went home and had lunch.  I decided to work on my mission from 2-5 because I had not been able to work Friday.  Larry started working on some plugs that needed replacing or updating.  When I went to my computer I could not get any of the programs to come up that I use for my mission.  On Monday or Wednesday I had run some scans for my computer so I assumed that it had deleted those mission programs.  I asked how I was to deal with this on the Computer Tips and Tricks site on Skype and they told me to uninstall and then reinstall the programs.  I spent about 3 hours doing that and then went to do something else on the computer and realized that nothing was opening on my desktop.  So I decided to shut it down and restart.  When it restarted it was doing all these things probably related to the scans that needed to be updated.  When it finished everything was working on my computer so I think I wasted 3 hours doing all the uninstalling and reinstalling if I had just thought to restart my computer earlier.  Larry also felt like he had wasted the afternoon because it took him about 3 hours and a trip to the store to fix one plug.  So we complained to each other.

Last night and today were Stake Conference in our Stake.  We had a visiting General Authority Warren Tait and his wife here.  Last night we had the temple president for the Bountiful Temple there also.  They had lots of good talks.  We were challenged to find one name on our own to take to the temple from our family this year.  We were also challenged to read the Book of Mormon three times and underline everything in the Book of Mormon that tells the purpose of the Book of Mormon the first time.  Then we were challenged to underline the 2nd time with red everything that has to do with the atonement of Christ.  And the third time we were challenged to underline everything that seemed like it was talking to us in Blue.  He challenged us to do this in 30 day increments for each time but he said that we could take longer if we needed to.  We are contemplating how to do this as we have already mapped out how to read the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History materials for Sunday School.

This morning he challenged all of us to follow the Prophet and find a way to serve a mission.  I think we have that one covered.  He also challenged us to read the Book of Mormon again but not so specifically.  He promised us that we would grow spiritually if we would do that.  The challenge of the entire meeting was to lift ourselves a little higher.

Gauge, Brinlie, Jada, Ellie, Daxton, Mckinley  Maren's children
with their cousins

I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the things I learn being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I know that it is true.  I see miracle everyday that help me to know that Heavenly Father loves me and is there for me.  I hope that I can be a good example to all of the truths that I believe so they might have the desire to know more and be a member of the Church at this time on earth.  I hope that you will all take the challenge to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it as you read.  He will reveal the truth of it to you if you do.  I know because he has done that for me.

Well it started snowing as soon as we left the Regional Center where we have Stake Conference.  It is beginning to be a winter wonderland and it shows no sign or stopping soon.  Guess I will curl up and make some phone calls.

Thought I would show you the results of all of Larry's hard work this week.  He took three carloads of materials to Deseret Industries and filled up both of our garbage cans twice and moved several boxes into the house but we now have a two car garage again.  We have not had a left bay since Larry and I got married and he brought several things there to add to what I already had.  The results are in the picture.

Our "new " two car garage.!!!

This all started when I asked Larry if he would clean out the bottom of our closet in our bedroom for my Christmas present this year.  He is feeling better and he doesn't seem to stop.  And of course I am not complaining and he is getting his activity for Weight Watcher's  The picture below is a creation that I had in my closet all this time that Maren made for me in 4th grade.  I called her and asked her what she thought I should do with it and she suggested that I take a picture of it for posterity and throw it away so I did.

Speaking of Weight Watcher's we were really bummed this week to have both of us gain weight.  I gained 2.4 and Larry gained 0.4 so we are wondering what we have to do this week because we thought we were pretty good last week.  Hopefully it will be just a fluke.

A beautiful creation that Maren made for me about 4th Grade

We were thrilled to get our bank account back to normal this week.  Larry was able to get a haircut and get his suits cleaned and get the cars oil changed and the cars washed.  It was a huge relief.  I spent a lot of time doing mission while he was doing his errands.

Tuesday and Wednesday evening we had to teach the career workshop for LDS Employment mission.  We had a good group this week.  They were fun to teach.  We have decided that we have to practice what we preach so we are going to start networking on Monday to find us jobs.  The statistics say that if you network by calling 10 people a day and getting 2 contacts per person and have 2 face to face interviews a day that you will get a job within 30 days so we shall see.

Nathan called on Tuesday or Wednesday during the day.  It was good to talk to him.  He is getting more patient with me.

Taylor had to have an echo treatment on Thursday at Primary Children's Hospital.  From that they have determined that she has to have a heart cath on February 5th.  After that is done then they will decide when she needs to have surgery.  We hope that you will join us in Prayers and Fasting for her. She is really getting a lot of personality despite her problems.

Friday our missions collided and Larry went to staff training for the LDS Employment mission and I did my familysearch support mission.  There is a real need for more missionaries in FamilySearch Support they had several missionaries on that afternoon but there was a wait and few missionaries ready to take a call.  I took several right together because calls had waited 5 or more minutes .  Then it took me until 6:30 p.m. to finish writing up the cases.

Maren called and told me she was trying to pack and have a birthday party for Brinlie before they left Saturday morning.  She is brave.  She said that they were going to take a picture of the group of friends that came to the party and she was going to let them decorate their frames and then they would all have a picture because most of the neighbors are getting transferred soon.  Then they bought Brinlie a karaoke machine and they were going to let the kids play with that.  Sounded fun.  Grandpa was especially excited about the karaoke machine.  They were packing to meet the in-laws in California at Disneyland. Then they will be here this next weekend for a week.

Saturday I got to teach a class on "Adding and Correcting relationships in Family Tree" at our local Family Search Center at 9:00 a.m. And then Larry and I worked again with others from 10:00-12:00.  The class went well but there was a patron who could not grasp what a gedcom was at the end so I ended up talking to her for about an hour.

We went down to Mom's Saturday afternoon.  She wanted us to help her watch some DVD's so we did.  One was about their former mission president's charity foundation to help Doctor's in third world countries learn how to deal with problems of the eye.  Then we went to get gas in her car and ate at Culver's.  It was good to talk with her but we are supposed to be working for her.  I was pleased though that she had got an alarm system that she can use to call someone if she falls or needs something during the night.  It is called Lifeline.  She has been kind of uneasy being by herself at night so I think that will help.

Well in Sunday School today the teacher said that Joseph Smith did not tell his parents about the First Vision until after Moroni came three years later, so Larry is trying to find something that says that is not true.  So far everything we thought would cover it is inconclusive so I guess we will be doing some more studying. It doesn't really matter though.  The church is still true!

Remember Temple night the 24th and Family Birthday's the 28th for Brinlie and Nathan and Maren's family will be there.

I don't know how this will post but I wrote this on January 13, 2013 but I was not able to post the pictures at that time so I saved it as a draft.

Today has been a pretty peaceful day so far.  We have early church and so we get up and get going earlier than we did for Sunday last year.  We had a great Sacrament Meeting on the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals the Bishopric has set for our ward:
Daily:
Personal and Family Prayer
Personal and Family Scripture Study
Family Dinnertime
Daily Acts of Service
Personal Journal/History
The Bishop stressed that the Three Sunday School answers are Prayer, Scripture Study and Service.  In other words it is important that we are doing those each day if we want the blessings and help that our Heavenly Father wants to give us.

This was the picnic table after the first snow- picnic anyone!

Weekly:
Family Home Evening
Date Night/Nurture Family Relations
Keep the Sabbath Day Holy
Attend all Church meetings
Help Neighbors
The executive secretary spoke on these goals.  He stressed that if we are attending church and Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy that the others will come easier.

Monthly:
Attend the Temple
Parent interviews/Family Activities
Generous Fast Offering
Home and Visiting Teaching
Provident Living Goal
The Bishops counselor stressed that Attending the Temple is the primary goal here that will help us to have the courage to accomplish the other goals.

The snow blew right up to our back door something that is unusual

Yearly:
Maintain or Get a Current Temple Recommend
Participate in Stake and General Conference
Pay a full Tithe and attend Tithing Settlement
Prepare and Preform Ancestor's Temple Ordinances
Develop Talent
Missionary Activity
The counselor that spoke on the Yearly Goals did a magnificent job of Relating the importance of the first four yearly goals by talking about one of his ancestors that helped to build the temple in Nauvoo before they left for the west.  He talked about how he had to pay tithing to help with the temple construction and then he was able to get his endowment before he left for the west.  Then he talked about how it is important to find ancestors who did not have the opportunity of getting their temple ordinances in this life and helping them to have the same opportunity as his ancestor.

It was a great meeting and made me want to work on some of the goals that I am not so great at getting done like working on my journal.

Sunday School was on the importance of understanding the atonement of Jesus Christ.  He challenged us to listen to the song "I stand all amazed" this week several times.

The front walk after the first snow

Relief Society was the George Albert Smith lesson on learning by faith.  I came away with a renewed commitment to continue to study the scriptures and to attend the temple more diligently.

Last Sunday Erick and Heather and Ryker came over to visit in the evening.  I had found some things that belonged to John and he was anxious to see those.  I had also been able to print out some Fan Charts on Friday and Erick seemed to enjoy looking at those and seeing who still needed work on but it comes from new.familysearch.org and when we looked on Family Tree at Familysearch there were some of the holes filled in. 

Ryker always wants me to go on Bluemountain. com and show him the "puppy".  We generally have to look at all the animated e-cards on the site for Birthday's before he is satisfied. He squeals and yells and even knows how to make it replay if I put the mouse arrow in the right place.

After the second snow when the neighbors did our sidewalks

Monday we had to visit the bank and ran errands.  I worked on my Familysearch Support Mission from 2-5 and then we decided to make homemade salsa for Family Home Evening Treat.  I once again made Salsa too hot for the Mexicans so on Tuesday we added everything from the recipe except more peppers and then it is still hot.  It has tasted good though.

Tuesday morning I have a  meeting for the FSS mission at 8:30 am and then I had another at 3:00 pm with the Mission Leaders.  I am now a Mission Leader Assistant (MLA) so I am privileged to attend those meetings. Larry has gained new energy from losing weight at Weight Watcher's so he spends the afternoon cleaning while I am doing my mission.

Tuesday evening I had to teach a class on attaching sources in Family Tree at Familysearch.org.  It was really frustrating because none of the things I was trying to do was working on the computer.  I tried to switch browsers because sometimes Internet Explorer does not show sources in FTFS but none of them would work.  I eventually had to try to explain how to create a source because it would not bring up the template.

After the second snow our house buried

Wednesday I have another meeting in the morning but we woke up to no Internet or TV service so it was a quiet day.  I worked more in finding places for things I have in boxes in my office and Larry had to go to the eye doctor at the Veteran's Administration. He came home very satisfied with the service he got in Ogden so he is going to transfer everything there from Salt Lake City.

Wednesday night Larry and I both were on a panel of people in the ward that have served missions of various kinds.  It was a very spiritual experience and there were a lot of testimonies of the Lord being in the small things in our lives.  Many experiences where the missionaries were in the right place to be the person to help someone with receiving the gospel.

Thursdays we help from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm at LDS Employment as missionaries.  We have a stake we are over as mentors and we call or email the people that have signed up at LDSjobs.org from that stake to help them in their job search.  We also spend some time looking for jobs for ourselves while we are there as we are both looking for jobs to cover our expenses.  If you are young and reading this make sure you are working on your retirement now so you will not be in the position we are in of having to go back to work after retirement.

The picnic table after the second storm 

A lot of the time in the evenings we work on our laptops and watch something on TV. Larry and I like the new TV program called "Elementary" and it is really convenient to watch what we want on Xfinity on demand TV programs.

I mentioned before that Larry and I are doing weight watchers.  We go on Thursday's to weigh when we go for lunch from the mission.  This week Larry lost 5.2 lbs and reached his 10% goal of losing 10% of the weight he weighed when we started, that is about 30 lbs.  I lost 2.6 and I am just a lb shy of losing my 10% at 20 lbs. lost.  The thing that is great for us is that Larry is getting off of insulin and his blood sugar is under control.  As a result he feels better and is more active.  We walk a lot and do more things around the house that we could not do the last few years.

Thursday night the snow came in and it snowed from Thursday evening until Saturday afternoon.  I am posting some pictures of the snow in Kaysville.  We got about 18 inches overall.  It took us 2 hours Friday morning to dig Larry's car and truck out and shovel the walks but it felt so good to be doing it ourselves.  And of course the temperatures plummeted so it has been very cold but not in the minus figures.  Davis School District canceled school Friday because of the snow which is almost unheard of in Utah, but they were not the only school district in the state.

Friday afternoon I worked on my mission and Larry started cleaning out the garage so we have a place to put his car in.  We are finding all kinds of treasures that we thought we had lost.  But, we are also finding a lot of trash also.  It is a good thing that garbage pick up is Monday because we have both our Trash cans full and the Recycle can also.

The bridge is almost buried by the snow

Friday evening Larry and I looked at some of his genealogy as I had to teach a class on how to add and correct relationships in Family Tree at Familysearch.org.  We found a few things that needed correcting and I was able to give a class at the FamilySearch center that went well but Larry had to dig out the truck while I was doing my hair because it had snowed again through the night.  While we were working at the Center we called Judy as we were the only ones there and talked to her about some of the genealogy that we had found.

Our wonderful neighbors finished digging us out while we were at the Family Search Center so we were able to go to Lehi to see Mom and help her with a few things.  She is doing well but does not like the snow and the cold.  She was complaining that she could not get warm the night before even with several blankets.  She only had a skiff of snow in Lehi.  The northern end of Utah County did not get much snow for some reason.  It is always good to see her.  She is doing well after Dad's death even though she misses him dearly.  She has been good to reach out to other widows in the ward and have them go to Senior Lunch at the Senior citizen center or to Church.

Well that brings us back to Sunday.  We have had a quiet afternoon.  Larry took a nap and I talked to several of the kids on the phone.  We are going to do endowments with some of the names I have printed on the 24th of January at the Bountiful Temple.  We are also going to celebrate January Birthdays on January 28th when Maren is here.  Life is good.