BYU Football

 One of things that we most enjoy together- that is truly fun for us- is watching BYU football.  We especially enjoy it when they win!  But even when they lose, we love watching and enjoying it together.  I often text my sister, Joan(BYU's biggest fan), throughout the game, too and that is really fun!  BYU football is truly fun for us.

How Can I Skip Eight?

 This is William.  He's all decked out for the pool.  He took swimming lessons this summer, but was not fond of going under the water.  In fact, he hated it.

As his family was preparing to drive to Colorado to attend the baptism of his cousin, Audrey, his dad was teaching him about baptism by immersion.  He taught him that Audrey was now eight and she could be baptized.  "You mean she has to put her face under the water?"  "Yes."  After thinking for a few minutes, he asked, "How can I skip eight?"

Samuel Gets COVID

 

Our five-year-old grandson had COVID-19.  Ken and I have talked many times about who might get it first in our family.  Hope against hope was that none of them ever would.  But Sammy did.

Kristen was putting on a huge birthday party for Audrey in their home last Saturday.  Jared took the little ones to the park so she could get it all ready without distraction.  When they got home, the guests were there for the party.  Sammy came up to Kristen and said, "I want you."  She picked him up and immediately noticed he was very hot.  She took him upstairs and took his temperature- 101.3.  She put him to bed.  They checked him an hour later and his temperature was 103.  Kristen called all over town until she found a drug store that had self tests for COVID.  Jared went and bought one and tested him- positive!  

He was in the room with the party people only briefly, so hopefully they were not exposed.  Right now all the rest of his family tested negative.  We hope it stays that way.

He said a kid in his class threw up at school, and since he hadn't really been anywhere else, they are pretty sure he contracted it at school.  

Kristen called their pediatrician and she was most reassuring and told Kristen how to isolate and care for him.

I think their isolation solution was brilliant: They have a lovely room they call the library just by the front door of their house.  Right next to that is a bathroom.  The room has glass doors, so Sammy stayed in there. It is where they hold their Come, Follow Me discussions usually.  It has a nice flat screen tv, a large table, a piano, and is very comfortable.  He slept in there at night and Kristen slept on the couch near there.  When she went in, she masked up and no one else was allowed to go in.

The other kids were so loving and solicitous of him.

These pictures that Kristen sent of his siblings serving him really touched my heart:

Nathan and Audrey made him his favorite scrambled eggs on toast

 They were creative in helping Sammy through this.  Daddy went and bought happy meals and they had a happy meal picnic outside.

They  let him play outside on the deck and in the backyard.  Little Lissi couldn't understand why she couldn't go out and play with him.

Kind friends brought over treats and activities to help him pass the time.

Playing with bubbles outside.

One friend brought over a Halloween house for him to decorate.

We "tended" him one morning while his mom went to a yoga class.  I told him I was going to read him a story that my mom used to read to me when I was his age.  "What?" he said.  "You used to be five like me?"  "Yes," I said, I used to be five like you.  I can remember when I was five."  "Ahhhh!" he laughed, "I thought you were always a grandma."

Another fun craft from a ward member:

The quarantine is over as of today!!!  Yea!  All the rest of the family took COVID tests today and none of them got it!  That truly is a miracle.  We truly feel blessed.  It was not an easy two weeks, but they all feel blessed that it ended well.  

The One-in-a-Million Boy

 

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this beautifully written story of friendship, grief, healing, forgiveness, and love. I came to know and love the flawed and real characters and could empathize with their heartaches and struggles. Thank you to my sister, Pam for recommending this superb book.

View all my reviews

Peter Rabbit 2

 We really enjoyed the first Peter Rabbit movie, so ordered the 2nd one.  We didn't enjoy it quite as much, but it was cute and, like the first, taught a good lesson.  

Chappaquiddick

 In July, 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy and one of his young female interns were involved in a car crash, killing Mary Jo Kopechne.  The accident was mysterious and fraught with rumor, and effectively ended Kennedy's hopes of running for president of the US.  What really happened that night?  I don't know that we will ever know, but this movie gives a lot more detail than I had ever known before.  We watched it on Netflix DVD.

Eternity is the Wrong Thing to Be Wrong About

I have been asked by our Relief Society presidency to prepare an article for each month's Relief Society newsletter on spiritual preparedness.   I thought I might just as well publish those articles here as well. 

 In Sister Joy D Jones's (outgoing general Primary president) talk in April, 2020 conference, she made a powerful statement that is worth pondering as we consider preparing ourselves spiritually.

Ken's Knee Replacement Surgery

 On Thursday, September 9th, Ken had a full knee replacement surgery on his left knee.  He injured it in a sports accident on July 27, 1994 and had reconstructive surgery on it then, but finally decided to have it replaced. He has nursed it and lived with it for a very long time.  Surgery gives him hope for a pain-free and strong knee.  

It was done as a same-day surgery at the Coral Dessert surgery center.  Our hospital suspended elective surgeries due to COVID, so this was our only option.

The following pictures were taken in the recovery room.  He had to walk around the room with the therapist before getting in the car to go home.  Ken has absolutely no memory of any of this.  The anesthesia clouded his memory.

After getting him home, the long days of recovery began. The first few days weren't too bad as the doctor injected a block into the area that masks the pain.  But after a few days, that wears off.  The pain was pretty intense for a couple of weeks.

Nights were the worst.  He just could not get comfortable enough to sleep.  Neither of us were getting anywhere near enough sleep.  But now things are much better.  

Kind people blessed our lives more than they will ever know. 

The day before the surgery, Connie Staheli brought over containers filled with homemade sloppy joe and buns.  What a blessing that was in that first week.

Resting in bed.

Resting on the couch.  He moved from place to place frequently to give his body a new position.  Our daughters sent him the nice ice pack.

Don and Ada brought over pot pies from Croshaws and this delicious lemon pie.  Nothing ever tasted so good.
Others in the ward have brought things: Sadlers brought a delicious casserole, our neighbors brought cookies, Loves brought  jam, etc.    We didn't even know most of them knew about the surgery. My siblings went together and Roger brought over a nice card and gift cards to local restaurants- so very kind!  The children in our neighborhood love Ken (one of them called him the Heavenly Father of our neighborhood,)  Several of them got together and made the cutest pictures for him.  One of them said, "Please don't die, Brother Hinton"  Grandkids have also sent pictures and get well notes.  They brighten our lives. 
Just as I was writing this, our ministering brother brought over an aloe plant and some fresh peaches- Ken's very favorite fruit.  I have wanted an aloe plant for a long time.  Everyone is so kind and good.

If you are squeamish, skip the next few pictures.  They are pictures of the progression of the wound.

This was after the therapist cleaned it up with neosporin.

 You can see it still has some healing to do. 

His leg, down to his foot is bruised and swollen, but we can see it is gradually getting better.

Selfie at the post-op appointment where we were told that all was progressing nicely and normally.

For the first couple of weeks, Ken had in-home physical therapy with Mark Larsen.  He was given a list of exercises, which he faithfully did/does two or three times every day. He walks several blocks each day.  He still does those exercises, but now goes to out- patient physical therapy at the hospital.  He has an excellent therapist there, Jona Droubay, that is helping him regain motion and strength.  What a blessing all of these medical professionals are!
Though it is slower than we would like, we feel very blessed that his recovery is going well.  We thank our Heavenly Father for that blessing.  
I will keep you posted!!

Audrey is Baptized

Our precious granddaughter Audrey was baptized on September 4th.  We decided to fly to be there and scheduled our flight for Friday afternoon, September 3rd.  There were weather problems at the Denver airport, so we spent the entire afternoon and evening at the St. George airport.  They loaded us on the plane at about 6pm, only to have us get back off an hour later.  We finally flew out at about 8:30 pm.  We got into our hotel at about midnight.   As we added up the hours, we realized we literally could have made the  10 -hour drive quicker!  The baptism was scheduled to be at 9 am on Saturday morning.   It was a short night!  It was about a fifteen minute drive from our motel.

 

When we drove up to the church, Brian was taking pictures of the family outside the church.

As we got out of the car, all of the grandchildren came running, crying, "Grandma!!!"  They all swarmed us and gave us hugs.  That may have been the highlight of the weekend for me!

Audrey looks very much like her mom did.  She always has.  She has a similar vibrant personality, too.  For her baptism, she wore the dress I made for Kristen when she was baptized.  Her older sister, Brielle wore Kristen's baby blessing dress when she was blessed, Audrey wore the baptism dress, so I guess Elisabeth will wear Kristen's beautiful wedding dress.  Three daughters= three dresses.

Grandpa gives Audrey a big hug.

The cousins sang "To Be His Child" for the baptismal service.  I took this picture when they were practicing before the meeting.  Brian played for them.

Audrey was baptized by her father, Jared.

The bishop took a picture of the whole group after the baptism.  Because of COVID, only family could come.  That included Jared's parents and two siblings and their families and Kristen's parents and Michelle and Brian and family.  It is always good to be with Jared's family.  They are such good people.

I love this picture of us with Audrey, or Audrey-liscious as Grandpa calls her.

I never heard the story of the doll, but Audrey really wanted Uncle Brian to take a picture of her with her doll.

Audrey with her Mackrory grandparents

A gift from Aunt Michelle

Kristen put together an amazing brunch for all of us at their house after the baptism.  Oh my, there was delicious food galore.  Did I not get pictures of the spread?  Here are some of kids eating.

I gave the baptism talk at the baptism.  I talked about the three "bears" of baptism:  our baptismal promises to:

1- Bear one another's burdens

2- Bear the name of Christ

3- Bear our testimonies of Christ always.

We then gave her the three bears as a gift to remind her of her covenants.

She didn't hate them!

For her birthday, we gave her this lego hair salon.  She spent the afternoon building it.  

In  the  late afternoon, we all went swimming in a friend of Kristen's community pool.  It was such a nice pool and we had so much fun!

The older cousins had so much fun together

Jared barbecued for us for dinner.  After dinner, the kids cleaned up the toys, then we had a very nice Come, Follow Me lesson.

We then had ice cream sundaes (to remind us what a treat Sundays are because we can take the sacrament and renew our baptismal covenants.)

These pictures are out of order, but before the swimming,  Jared helped the kids climb the climbing wall he made in their huge garage.

But honestly, who needs a special climbing wall?  Jake just scales the walls inside.  Isn't this a cute picture?

This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole weekend.  These kids worked so hard to get it just right.  Isn't it cute?

All tuckered out.

On the drive to Colorado, Michelle bit down on a Starburst and her tooth broke off.  She called Blake.  Because Monday was Labor Day- a holiday, he said he could fix it then if he could find an assistant willing to come in.  But that meant the Princes had to leave on Sunday to get back so they could go to Logan on Monday.  They attended a 9:00am church, then left.  We were sad not to have Sunday with them.  

We went to Mackrory's 10:30am church, then back to their house for the afternoon and evening.  

See- it spells Samuel!
That evening, Jared made us a delicious brisket dinner.  After dinner, he took some over to his parents' house.  Kristen made "brown pudding" a traditional Sunday evening treat in Jared's parental home.

The pudding cooks on the stove for an hour.  

It was delicious!

We didn't fly out until Monday afternoon, so we spent the morning back at the Mackrory's house.  We played games and chatted.  It was Labor Day, so the kids were out of school. 

A couple of weeks later, they had Audrey's friend birthday party.  It was a Bluey theme and this is the cake Kristen made for her.  I think this picture belongs in a magazine or, at least on Pinterest.

It was a wonderful family weekend.  Congratulations, Audrey!!!