Today is a sunny day after snowing for 2 days again.  It is cold though as it is 29 out side.  Our Bishop's family came after church to clean our driveway before we realized that they were there.  Said they needed a service project.  It snowed about 4 inches last night.

Some of the snow is melting

Even though Monday was a holiday we were surprised when the Northridge Learning Academy called and wanted to know if I would be able to come in and talk to them about writing some curriculum for them.  I was able to get the job and now have five books to write on marketing.  It is a good thing that I have a Subject Matter Expert living with me to help me write them.

Monday I also went to Kirsten's to help her figure out a pattern layout for a dress she is making for Taylor.  Taylor was feeling pretty good and we played a game of Candyland and some dice game she had so she would not have to sit on Kirsten's lap while she was cutting and pinning.

Larry went to an interview with Primerica.  He said they would hire him but it was strait commission and he would have to get his insurance license and security and exchange commission license and that is not what he is looking for.

Such a sunny day but about 20 degrees

Monday night we worked on some of Larry's Family History for Family Home Evening.  We are finding that there is a lot of information that Judy has that is not on the new Family Tree at Family Search so we have our work cut out for us.

Tuesday we both spent the day networking and applying for other jobs.  We have some good possibilities in the works but it takes a long time to get answers sometimes.  We watched a webinar from the University of Utah last week that helped us learn how to use linked in and other social networking sites for helping in our job search and that has been helpful.  And of course we teach the career workshop at LDS Employment so we have been teaching techniques for getting employment for a year.  In fact we had to teach the workshop that evening.

Wednesday Maren called and we had a good talk.  She is enjoying being in Young Women's in her ward and she always has some fun things to tell me about her kids.  I have also learned to pace while I talk on the phone at home and I got 40 minutes of walking in that day for Weight Watcher's points!

We worked again on job searching and networking but in the afternoon I went to Kirsten's to tend Taylor while she went visiting teaching.  Taylor fell asleep while I was there and so it was an easy job.

Our Clear Driveway

Kyle had to go driving that afternoon also.  He will get his license on the coming Tuesday if he passes the test.  He is excited because he will probably get his license before many of his friends who have been in a competition to be first.

We taught our career workshop class again on Wednesday.  We have a good group.  There is a man in there that is sold on RootsMagic for family History.  He says that you can upload things to FamilySearch Family Tree with it but I don't believe him from what I learned in my mission for Familysearch so he is going to spend some time with us showing us why we should update to RootsMagic 6.

Thursday we worked at LDS Employment with our mission.  It is always a good experience to try to help those who are out of work
.

Sarah, Lauren, Steven, Larry and Leslie Jenkins at
Bacon Park Family Reunion 1986

Thursday night we collapsed and enjoyed a TV marathon of detective TV shows while I cleaned out a box of things from my office that needed to be organized.  I found some old pictures of a reunion we had at Bacon Park by Roosevelt, Utah when our children where smaller.  I also found some pictures of the trip we took to Yellowstone the year before Maren was born.  There were also some birth and marriage certificates for some of my ancestors and a lot of other things that I needed to organize plus a big pile of trash.

John, Cory, Corrinne,, Kirsten, Craig, Kathy
Bacon Park Reunion

We decided on Thursday to go to the temple on Friday.  We wanted to go to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple but when it was snowing in the morning we decided to go to Salt Lake City and then maybe the snow would quit as the radio station was telling us.  We had agreed to meet Mom for lunch at the Senior Citizen's luncheon at 12:00 p.m.  When I got into the dressing room I had no dress to do endowments.  After going out to talk to the women helpers about what to do and communicating across the barriers to the men's dressing room with the help of the women helpers we decided to do initiatory work because it would not take as long and it did not require a dress.  It was a good experience doing initiatory and the snow did slow for the afternoon.

We made it to Mom's just in time to go with her to play bingo which is earlier before the lunch.  Larry found out they have pool on Friday's there and the lunch while being 18 weight watcher's points was delicious.  Therefore Larry thought we ought to go again next week.  We even won prizes in bingo.  So we are planning on going to help Mom again on Friday and enjoying the luncheon.

Back: John, BJ, Nathan, Erick, June
Front: Kirsten
Yellowstone 1987

We spent the rest of the afternoon helping Mom at the house.  It is always fun to spend the time with her and learn from her.

Back :Nathan, BJ, Jacob, June
Front:  Erick, Kirsten
Yellowstone Summer 1987

Saturday morning we did not have to teach a class at the Family Search Center so we did not have to be there until 10:00 a.m.  I was glad that we did not have to go to Mom's on Saturday.  It was a beautiful snowy day but it was really snowing.  We did not have any patrons at the Center but I was able to teach one of the consultants that comes on the 4th Saturday how to recover his username and password for his LDS Account and show him the training's for learning how to use Family Tree.  I was able to look up references for a class I have to teach on notes in Family Tree and Larry was working on his family history.

Erick and Heather looking at old photos

I felt really awful when I got home.  We ate and I tried to do some things and I just could not get feeling better.  I finally laid down and slept for 3 hours.  I do not know what Larry was doing during that time but I know I had more clothes in my closet this morning.  I woke up and tried to do some of the work on looking for jobs and did not feel good.  I spent sometime praying to Heavenly Father about my frustrations and later felt some peace about things that had been confusing me.  I got up and was able to work and worked for about 2 hours.  Larry made a wonderful dinner and that made me feel better also.  I think it was my Fibromyalgia.

Last night I took the new phone I got from insurance on Wednesday up to the Mall to get Verizon to help me set it up.  I spent the rest of the evening and sometime today working on downloading my apps.  It will be nice to have a phone that is not broken but it is always a challenge to reset the phone with what you use.

Ryker loves Grandma's Computer especially the
Yappy puppy on Blue Mountain

Today was a wonderful smorgasbord of teaching at church.  Sacrament Meeting was about Tithing and it's blessings.  Sunday School was about Faith and Repentance and we had a special women's meeting from the Bishop for all the women helping us to understand how the Atonement can help us overcome the feelings of discouragement and depression that many women feel because they are not perfect. Larry taught the High Priest lesson from talks from the October Conference.

Erick and Heather came over for dinner in the afternoon.  We had a good time looking at the old pictures and Ryker had to view all the e-cards on Blue Mountain.com.  He loves watching them and we always have to start with yappy birthday.  Erick also showed me how to do use Google Sites so I can make a website for my portfolio for job hunting.

Well I have learned how to get my scanned older pictures into this blog so I am feeling good and need to finish for the time.

Well it has been about 3 weeks since I last blogged.  So much for my resolution to blog daily.  I am not even getting it done weekly lately.

Brinlie

After much prayer and fasting and talking about it with Larry I decided to ask to be released from my Family Search Support Mission.  I loved it but I need to get a job so we will have some money to pay for the house and other debts that we cannot afford.  I have been trying to spend most of the day looking for a job each day but there are always things that interfere.  I have 3 jobs that I have applied for so far and I have tried to spend some time networking also trying to find out who are the hiring managers on these jobs.

Ellie with Gauge in the background

I also need to make a portfolio of my work so I am going to have to make we a website with my stuff on it.  That is a little daunting to say the least but I am learning that I have to bite the bullet and get working on these things if I want the job.

We had fun with Maren and Landon for the last week of January that they were here. All of the family here got together for January Birthday's on the 28th of January.  We had hamburgers and Hot Dogs with all the trimmings and of course cake and ice cream.  Maren's kids all got colds so the next weekend Larry and I had colds.  We stayed home from church for the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of February but that worked out good and we ended up not having it for more than a week.

• 

  Max and Gauge

Brinlie's art work

On the 28th and 29th we worked on Brinlie's 7 year old quilt that I make with the kids.  She chose a Rapunzel fabric that was pink, green, purple and gold.  She chose a pink back and we tied it with yellow.  For once I was able to match the pattern on the top so it looked better.  Brinlie seemed to like it despite the fact she was not feeling super.

Maren, Gauge and Max

Taylor went in for a Heart Cath on the 5th of February and ended up having her surgery two days later when her oxygen would not go up and her blood was anemic.  She was originally scheduled for 5th of March so it was a surprise to all of us.  She did pretty good on her recovery until she was diagnosed with RSV on the 11th.  They thought she had probably had it for 2-3 days before they finally did some tests to see why she was throwing up and congested.  They put her in quarantine for two days and then they let her come home on Wednesday the 13th. She looked really good that day but she has had up and down days since then, but that is to be expected with major surgery.          

• • 

    Isaac at Golden Corral with the staff singing to him for
    his birthday

  

  Nathan with Maggie

 Nathan and Sara are having challenges right now with their marriage.  He has moved to St. Louis, Missouri looking for work and has Maggie with him.  Sara is still working in San Antonio area and has the boys with her and they are still in school.  If Nathan can get a job there then Sara said that they would move there to Missouri close to her dad.

Taylor on Friday after Surgery

• 
  

Jeff and Michelle's great Aunt Betty had a stroke and a heart attack Saturday morning.  She was still alive the last I heard but she is not doing well at all.  Michelle and Daniel were thinking of flying down but were not able to get a flight.

Taylor on Friday

Larry is still working on cleaning up the house.  He has now gone to the bookshelf downstairs looking for things he can get rid of.  I thought it was funny because he took one of the fire extinguisher lamps downstairs when we first got married and brought one of his upstairs.  And it has been that way for several year.  This week he decided that it looked funny so he brought the fire extinguisher upstairs again because it matched better and took the other one downstairs with the lamp he had that matched it. It does look very nice and he has worked very hard to get things working well.  He has also hung up plaques and vinyl signs that I have put off hanging for years.  He is very motivated lately.  I should have had him retire sooner.

We are still doing weight watcher's.  Larry has lost 36 lbs and I have lost 21lbs.  We do great when we are home because we just don't keep desserts in the house.  But we had two chances to eat out this week and I did not do very well at planning ahead.  We took Kyle out to dinner this week for his birthday and we used the gift card Maren and Landon gave us for Christmas to Buffalo Wild Wings for an early Valentines dinner last Saturday.      

Taylor the day she came home from the hospital

We also went to the movie, "Les Miserables" on Saturday with some tickets that someone gave us that got lost and Larry found them in cleaning.  It was a wonderful movie.  I have seen several stage plays of the musical but the story did not come through as clearly as in the movie.  I came home feeling like I had had a spiritual experience.  It is such a good story.  It is hard to see movies anymore that have an uplifting feeling.

I am still teaching Family Tree classes at the Family Search Center here in Kaysville.  I teach them on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. and then Larry and I work at the Center until 12:00 p.m.  Then we go down to help Mom with whatever she wants help with.  It is hard to get her to let us do somethings because she doesn't feel like doing it so she doesn't want us to do it.

Isaac had his birthday this week on Saturday.  It looks like he went to Golden Corral for his birthday.

Maren and her family were pleasantly surprised with snow this weekend.  A rare occurance in North Carolina.  From the pictures it looks like they had fun.

• • Well, we have read scriptures and said prayers and I am about finished with this so I suppose it is time to close and go to bed.  Have to get up early to take the truck to Kirsen's so John can work on it and I am going to help her with patterns for a dress for Taylor.  Larry has a job interview for tomorrow so wish him luck!

    
    

    

    Snow in North Carolina this week!!
    Gauge, Brinlie, and Ellie with Mr. Snowman

    

    Ellie in her layers!

  

  Ellie, Brinlie and Guage playing with their friends in first snow
  in North Carolina since they moved there.
  

  • Maren said, "The kids got themselves ready to play in it I was absolutely dying when I was pulling off clothes when they were done. Gauge simply threw on a hoodie hat and gloves while the girls each had at least 5 pairs of pants 5 or more shirts ellie even had on a nightgown...lol it was priceless and they were soaked to the bone! Good memories happening."

• 
  

.

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.

I thought I would use this medium to publish our Christmas letter for this year. I was shocked to see that I had not posted anything since 2011.

It has been an interesting year. We are really counting our blessings this year. Larry and I are in good health and using Weight Watcher's to lose weight and get Larry's Blood Sugar under control. We were inspired to use Weight Watcher's after watching our daughter Kirsten lose 35 lbs. on the program. Last year at this time Larry was recovering from a fall that broke his hip and required him to have surgery and then be in a care center until 2 days before Christmas. It took him about 5 months to recover from that and move on but he is doing very well now.

 Half of our children are now living out of State and BJ and Holly are moving to Hawaii on the 27th of December. Jeff and Misty are living in Puyallup, Washington , Jacob and Nikki are living in Red Wing Minnesota, Maren and Landon are living in Richlands, North Carolina, and Nathan and Sara are living in Converse, Texas. So we have decided we need to get a job with Delta so we can have free flights to visit them all.

 I have been retired since 2010. Presently I am serving a part-time from home mission for the LDS Church in FamilySearch support. I have learned all you need to know to use the new product Family Tree on FamilySearch.org. It has really given me a boost of self esteem to be able to help people with these products. I also work at the local FamilySearch Center and teach classes and I am a Ward Family History Consultant. We did a lot of campaigning for Romney and even went to Las Vegas to stump for him this year.

Larry at a campaign rally in Las Vegas

 Larry retired in September from Discover Card. His health was in jeopardy and so he needed to retire. It helped and he is feeling much better. We are serving a part time LDS Employment Mission at the Layton LDS Employment Center. We work there on Thursdays each week and teach the evening Career Workshop once a month. Larry is also the Ward employment specialist so the two combined keep him busy and he feels grateful having the opportunity to help those in our ward who need employment.

June's dad, Lars Jenkins died this July after a long illness at 90. We have enjoyed going to Lehi each week to help Mom with whatever she needs in the way of housework and errands. June also had two brother-in-laws die this year.  Redge Hermansen in January and Paul Christiansen in December.

Max Gentile

 We were also able to increase our grandchildren to 24 this year with the addition of Maximus Landon Gentile to Maren and Landon's family in June and Myles Kelly Lars Christiansen to Jacob and Nikki's family
 in November.

Ashton, Abbie, Lexie, and Baby Myles

Isaac, David and Sammy for Halloween

 Nathan completed his Master's Degree in Social Work this year but due to the Economy is presently playing Mr. Mom while Sara teaches at a local Charter School. He is also an officer in the National Guard in Texas. They were able to by a new house this year and are enjoying the transition from apartment to home. They were able to come to Utah for a while this summer. It was fun to spend time with them and their 4 children David, Issac, Sam, and Maggie.

Maggie dressed for Halloween

 Michelle lives in Layton and is busy teaching school. Daniel still works for the company that sponsors Resume Rabbit online as a computer engineer. He works from home so they are able to live in Utah even though the company is in California. They are busy keeping their children in several activities. They have four

Michelle and Kallise after a dance recital

children Ethan, Hailee, Jaron, and Kallise. Michelle has had some health problems but keeps working hard. Daniel is in the Tabernacle Choir Bells Choir so he is often on Music and the Spoken Word at this time of year. They are taking their children to Nauvoo this year for their Christmas Present so it is going to be a quiet Christmas this year at our house.

Nikki's deck Garden and the wilderness in their backyard

Ashton and Abbie as Minnesota Vikings

At the National Eagle Center with Lexie, Ashton, and Abbie

 Jacob moved his family to Red Wing Minnesota in July of 2011. He is working for a nuclear energy company, Xcel Energy there. He is also still in the National Guard in Minnesota. Nikki is able to stay home and take care of the children. I was able to go visit them in June and see the area there. It is right by the Mississippi River and they took me to the National Eagle Sanctuary.
It was a beautiful area. Raspberries grow wild! It was fun to see their home and my grandchildren, Lexie, Ashton, and Abby. Nikki was able to have their fourth child Myles in November and everything went fine despite some complications.


Jeff and Misty just recently purchase a new home in Puyallup, Washington. We were excited that they were able to purchase a home. Jeff works for Comcast as a Call Center Manager and Misty is completing her studies in Elementary Education. They have three wonderful children Leah, Matthew and Owen. They were able to visit us this spring and we had a great time with them also.

Kirsten lives in Layton and so I am able to see her family often. She and Jon have a combined family of four. Kennedy, Kyle, Brooke and Taylor. Kirsten works for a couple of companies doing medical transcription. Jon works for Utah Transit Authority as a mechanical supervisor. Kirsten has had

Brooke, Kyle, Kennedy
Kirsten, Jonathan, Taylor

problems with a foot that she just had surgery on and earlier in the year Taylor headbutted her like children do and broke her nose so she had to have surgery on that. Taylor has a heart problem so she will be having surgery in the first part of next year but she is basically a healthy 3 year old right now. Kirsten has taken up selling Avon so she will have something to supplement her income when she is taking care of Taylor after the surgery.

Heather , Ryker and Erick relaxing after Trick or Treating

Erick and Heather are also in Layton. They have one son Ryker who is the light of their lives. Erick graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 2010 but has not been able to secure a job in Mechanical Engineering. He is working for the Civil Engineering firm that he has worked at for several years and preparing to try to enter Law School. He would like to be a patent lawyer. Heather is a stay at home mom with an avid interest in Family History right now. They grew a garden this year and Heather canned many bottles of food for their storage. She made some yummy pickles

At Temple Square with BJ and Holly

BJ and Holly are moving to Hawaii on a leap of faith. He is attached to a Naval Reserve Unit there and has had to go their several times for duty. Holly has gone with him and they love it there. So they decided to move there to finish the last year of BJ's schooling in Computer Science. BJ will be going to the University of Hawaii. Holly has been working as a nurse in Logan to support them but is hoping to find a job in Hawaii. They were able to get things to fall into place in renting their home in Providence so they are hoping that it will continue that way.

Ellie, Gauge and Brinlie on July 4th

 Maren's husband Landon joined the Navy in 2011 and is presently stationed at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina. He is working as a medic with the Marines. He pulled some tendons in his ankle early in the year and has spent most of the year trying to recover from that. Finally in August he had surgery to help him heal properly. Maren does hair for people in her garage and is a stay at home mom with 4 kids under 6, Brinlie, Gauge, Ellie, and Max. I was able to go and visit them at the end of June and stay for about 3 weeks. However I was the bearer of ill tidings and got strep while I was there and gave it to all the kids which turned into

Gauge, Ellie, and Brinlie 

pneumonia. They came back to Utah with me after my visit and we were all sick for three more weeks here. I was grateful to be able to stay with them but it was not the trip I had planned. It was fun to see the area they live and see the Atlantic Ocean. They have an amazing neighborhood where they live all military people that take care of each other and we are grateful for that. Brinlie broke her arm in October and had to be sent by ambulance to Chapel Hill about 3 hours away for surgery because of the extent of the break. While they were gone the neighbors took care of things and cleaned their house and had food waiting for them when they returned. I am grateful that Heavenly Father watches over my children when I cannot be there.

At the beach with Ellie and Landon

 Larry and I are grateful for the many blessing we have at this time of year. We are especially grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his church on the earth. We are grateful for this season that reminds us that the purpose for this life is to accept Jesus Christ and his teachings and use those teachings to return to him and overcome our sins and weaknesses. We are grateful for all the friends and family that we have that make our life better and hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.