September Birthdays are here!

The celebration is for Juge's #45 and Lou's #51.  Crazy! Guess how old that makes us!  Wow!  We had a fun time doing a party/lunch at Park Place in Cedar City on the 15th.  That's when we could all get together and we had a great time.  Lots of good food and crepes and lots of fun visiting along with it.  So proud of both of these ladies and the people they are today.  They are both amazing and so accomplished in so many ways.  Love you girls! Hope you feel loved and celebrated!  And that's all of the September birthdays, believe it or not!

 

Down Memory Lane in California/a visit with Sister Randall!

 While we were in CA for Aunt Georgia's funeral, we had a little spare time that we used to drive around and check out our old houses, etc.  It was fun!  Some of them took a little bit of looking to find since we weren't quite remembering the exact addresses!  These are  pictures of my family home that I lived in from Kindergarten on and the 3 apartments/houses that we lived in after we got married until we moved to Farmington, NM, about 9 months later.  The big red apartment building was first, the big gray house second and last was the little house.  Paul actually lived in the big red apartment building in a different apartment when he was on his mission!  It wasn't red then.  We also found the old house that was the office where my mom worked.  It had been repurposed to be an office for structural engineers.  She took over as secretary there for Janet when she went off to school in SLC.  Mom was there until she retired.  We also drove down to Fairmont Park and saw the old tank.  They used the lake to test the tanks to make sure they were waterproof!  We also took a picture of the street sign for Wong Street in English and Chinese.  I'm pretty sure that in the old days it was named Wong Way instead of Wong Street!  Ha Ha! 

 

On Friday evening after the funeral gatherings were all over we drove over to Hemet to take Sister Randall (Ellie) and her companion, Sister Gozart, out to dinner.  They got permission to spend an hour with us and it was such a fun time.  She's serving in the Riverside California Mission which is headquartered in the same chapel I grew up attending from Kindergarten on.  One of the local mission presidency members and his wife were actually attending the funeral luncheon that day.  It was crazy to visit the chapel of my childhood and even see people there from the ward helping with the funeral lunch that I remember from way back when I was in that ward.  Ellie got a good recommendation for a place to eat from a ward RS president.  It was really good food and not terribly expensive.  We had a good visit and then took them back to their apartment to go off to do some missionary work.  Such good girls!  So glad Ellie is making such good choices that will bless her life and many others as well.  

We love you Aunt Georgia...and LeAnne

The time came for Aunt Georgia, number eleven and the last child of Mary and George Broadbent, to head home for a wonderful family reunion in heaven.  She passed away on Tuesday, August 18th in Riverside, Riverside County, California.  Here's what her daughter, Jana Cheney posted:

"Our sweet mother, Georgia Swainston Abernathy, passed away very peacefully about 30 minutes ago.  She had family by her bedside holding her hands and no doubt, family across the veil extending their hands.  What an amazing 98 year adventure." 

She was the aunt that I had the chance to know and love much more closely than all of my others.  She and her family moved in with us for about a year and a half after they moved down from Idaho leaving a very bad marriage situation.  They became a much closer aunt and cousins that way.  I was pretty sad when they moved out and felt very lonely. We have all grown up and gone our separate ways, but they still hold a special place in my heart from that time we had together. 

Georgia was ready to go home after her long adventure.  She was struggling with hearing and vision and her heart and lungs were worn out.  We will miss her here, but we are glad she could leave her tired body behind and join the family waiting for her on the other side.  Happy graduation Aunt Georgia!  You passed your earthly test with flying colors!  We love you and hope the reunion with family is sweet!  

Georgia's children are, left to right in the top picture:  LeAnne, Jana, Thom, Anelle.  You will see a beloved "adopted" daughter in the lower picture - she grew up best friends to Anelle and neighbor to the family - Jennifer Conium.  

The picture below was created by AI and shows Aunt Georgia welcoming her daughter, Audrey LeAnne Wood, to heaven.  LeAnne has fought cancer for 18 years and passed away on September 5th, just 18 days after her mom, Aunt Georgia.  It's a hard blow to this family to lose both of them, but they were both "ready" to go.  I'm glad I got to visit with LeAnne and some of her family when they came to see us as we vacationed in Oregon a year or so ago.  I'm sad for her husband to have to go it alone now.  He still has some life ahead of him.  It's hard to say these goodbyes, but thank goodness we know it's not forever.  LeAnne was 76.  She and my sister, Marilynne were pretty close and actually had a double wedding/reception.  Rest in peace LeAnne.  

My cousins with LeAnne in the front (Jana, Thom and Anelle Cheney).

Clair (Les and LeAnne's daughter and husband up front and LeAnne and Les Wood back seat in Oregon.

Paul and I went out to the graveside/funeral and lunch.  It was very nice.  It was strange to be back in that old chapel I grew up going to for my whole life and even see some of the people that I went to church with there.  Most of the funeral took place at the grave with a brief talk from the bishop and a life sketch written by LeAnne shared by Daniel Wood, a grandson.  Afterwards we went back to the church where another life sketch written by Georgia was read by another grandson, Brian Cheney.  The lunch and visiting was very nice.  Now the next funeral coming up will be for LeAnne.  Such a time of loss for this family.  Thank goodness the knowledge that life goes on gets us through and brings peace to us knowing that they are in a better place where their sufferings are over.  Georgia was buried at Olivewood Cemetery in Riverside, California.  

These are pictures from LeAnne's funeral.  We didn't make it to that one.  My back is in bad shape with a herniated disc and pinched nerve.  Just couldn't add one more long trip to it.  

Temple and picnic

 Friday evening Lou and family came down to do some baptisms at the temple and then go to a play at Tuacahn.  Bryan's folks came with them.  It was fun to go to the temple with them and then have dinner.  After the play they spent the night because it ends so late.  We had fun visiting with them for breakfast.  

In the afternoon we wanted to get out, so we took Bean and went for a picnic at Duck Creek and then enjoyed a short hike and a beautiful drive down the mountain.  We listened to an interesting book too!  We got quite a bit of rain this week finally!  It has been wonderful!

Jem starts school...and I don't...Snow Canyon

 Jem started school this week! (8/13/26) He's in kindergarten at Legacy Elementary!  Beacher sent pics and he's looking pretty excited about it!  I hope he has a great teacher and enjoys learning and growing this year! I may do some volunteering if they need any help.   

I did not start back to school this year.  I'm a little sad, but pretty glad too.  After last year I just felt like it was time to retire and let the younger folks have my job.  It was the toughest year of school of all the years I've had and my attitude by the end was pretty done.  Too much testing and pushing and not enough of the joy of learning is what it seemed to be anymore.  I still loved the kids, but not the curriculum.  

We've spent the summer getting Paul recovered from foot surgery and from two cataract surgeries. Glad that's all done!  

Our truck has been broken most of the summer, so camping and getting out in the mountains has been curtailed quite a bit.  We have still gone to the mountains a lot for picnics and drives on paved roads.  Hopefully it will be done soon and we will get to take the trailer out for some camping.  

The day school started I enjoyed sleeping in, taking a bike ride and then going out for a little hike at Snow Canyon to see the rain puddles and the moqui marbles.  Later in the day we went to lunch and then I spent the afternoon working on some genealogy.  It was a nice, relaxing not back to school day for me.  I think it's for the best even though I will miss it in many ways.  

July Birthdays - Beacher, Jem and Supe, Kai and Ellie

We had Supe and Beacher and kids over the other night to celebrate 3 birthdays.  They are going to Oregon in July and would be gone for their birthdays, so we did them early.  Beacher will be 36, Jem 6 and Supe 40.  Kaia's birthday isn't until December, but we just let her celebrate too so she didn't feel left out.  They opened gifts and then we had dessert with some candles for the kids to blow out.  After that, we played a little mini-cornhole game that we gave to Jem and Kaia.  It was a set of two, so it worked out for it to be for both Kaia and Jem so she could get  something too.  It was a really fun evening.  We were going to celebrate Moss's Kai's birthday too, but he got sick, so we will have to catch him later. Happy Birthday!  We love you all!  

We got to wish Kai a happy birthday at our little 4th of July gathering with his family and Ferf's.  He's been really sick and hasn't been able to get better.  He's been on a few different meds and had a shot for what they thought was strep, but now they think he may have mono.  Feel so bad for the little guy.  He's so tired of being sick and having to just lay around.  Hopefully they get a real diagnosis now and he can start on a path of healing.  But, Happy Birthday Kai!  We love you and hope you enjoy your birthday presents when you're feeling better.

No birthday pics of Ellie, but she turned 20 and celebrated on her mission!  We just got to message her and sent her a card and some fun money!  Happy birthday Ellie!  We love you!  Here's what she wrote about her mission birthday:

 Happy Birthday!! What a better way to celebrate your birthday than doing missionary work??  It was Saturday and we had no luck all week long finding friends.  We didn't know what to do.  We had to take our truck back to the shop so we were biking again.  We ended up having the lesson with the guy we had met in the mountains and he was so interested. Friend number 1. After we headed out on our 30 minute bike ride to get our truck, we decided we would stop by one person on the way, she told us that she had met with missionaries before and would love to do it again!! Friend number 2. Later that day we stopped by this guy but he had a huge gate. We decided we would call him and see what would happen. He was soo Interested!! Friend number 3!! When you  "pray like everything depends on God, then work like everything depends on you" you see miracles!!  Also that day we had dinner at a members house with Napoleon and his super anti wife.  We were really worried how it would go.  It went so well and her heart was somewhat softened.  

Grands, genealogy and getting out!

 It was fun to see some fun things happening with the grands this week!  Brenden and Kai and family went up north for some soccer tournaments where they got Champion and Runner-up medals for the first time medaling in this tournament in 5 years!  Yea boys!  It was fun to get some text pics from Joel (Lou) and Madi and Afton from their Lagoon trip!  I had told them not to go on this one airplane ride that made me turn absolutely green...so they did and reported that there was no green there!  

After that great soccer game, Brenden came home and got his wisdom teeth out!  Not nearly as much fun as playing soccer!  

Also this week I dug into some genealogy papers that I seem to be finding all over the house.  I got a letter a few weeks ago for my birthday.  It was from an high school best friend.  She sent me  some old letters and pictures that I had sent her years ago.  She was cleaning out her basement and found them.  A few years ago she had sent me several others.  I decided they were pretty great history and wondered where to stash them.  I ended up adding them the the Friends section of my Treasures of Truth book that I started putting together long ago when I was in Young Women.  It was something they encouraged back them.  Then I started on lots of things that are stowed all over the house and got many things organized and put into proper places for genealogical saving.  There is still a ton more to do with so many things that my mom sent me over the years, but I will have to take it a bite at a time or this elephant will be too much for me to swallow.  I have enjoyed making progress though.  

By the end of the week I was beginning to feel very cooped up with paperwork, so we took off on Saturday afternoon and drove up to Cedar Breaks where it was 77 degrees instead of 114!  We had a great picnic and visited the little Ranger Station/Visitor's Center at Duck Creek.  It has recently been remodeled and is now a nice picnic spot/bathroom stop/ and little store.  It was fun to go in and to discover the new things there!  We also  sadly saw that a little stream we love is nearly dry this year.  We need rain so badly!  

June birthdays & Father's Day

 Madi starts June off on the 1st and is turning the BIG #16 this year!  She had a friend party before the big day that looks like lots of fun!  She made her own, very beautiful, cake! Another great thing happened for Madi's birthday!  She got her driver's license!  Yippee!!!  

Lance came next with #48!  He was actually down at Havasupai with the fam on the day of, so he had to wait till they got home to have cake and presents.  We just mailed it and luckily it got there to be waiting for him.  Happy Birthday Lance!  I'm sure you had a fun birthday...at Havasupai and again at home!  

Happy #49 Derek.  His girlfriend, Niki, organized a gathering for him even if he didn't want a party!  It was fun to go and hang out and visit with people there.  Happy Birthday Derek!  Hope the next year it a great one for you!

Father's Day - Had a great meeting at church to start it off.  Next we had Paul's choice of dinner:  Ham/Pinto Bean soup, corn muffins, melon and German Chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting and Costco vanilla ice cream.  It was just Paul, Bean and I.  In the evening Moss and Christie and family and Ferf and Jared (boyfriend) came over to visit and bring presents and eat cake!  It was a fun time.  Other kids called or texted to wish him a happy Father's Day!  We talked about how grateful we both feel for our own fathers who were great examples to us.  So thankful for being blessed by great fathers who were role models. So thankful to know that we also have a Father in Heaven and Savior who also love us and are the fathers of our salvation and redemption.  

Moss's birthday #42 - I started the day reading my old journal of the day he was born and for a little afterwards.  He came at a pretty challenging time, but we were happy he came and joined the family...finally, a little brother for Jay!  There's quite an age gap, but at this stage of life it's not such a big deal and I'm happy I persevered to have the promised sons and did not stop after Juge. I would have missed some wonderful people joining our family it I had. Happy Birthday Moss!  So glad to have another great son to bring joy into our lives.

On Moss's birthday (June 23rd) Lou, Joel and Afton came down and brought us a wonderful lunch.  We didn't know they were bringing it for us too, but they did, and it was a delicious salad!  After lunch they had a few hours to spend and one errand to run before heading back up for Joel's swim team practice.  What a nice time it was to spend with them.  We went to see the Eccles Fine Art show of Fire & Ice.  I loved seeing it again and sharing it with them.  Next we stopped in at the Red Cliffs Reserve center and they enjoyed seeing all the desert critters and such.  I love that place too. Oh, outside before we went in we saw a stone well with a bucket.  On closer inspection we saw that it had a plexiglass bottom leading into an old early St. George stone well that a family that was called to live here by Brigham Young. The had built the well for their home that had been on the property where the county office building is now.  As it was being built, they discovered the old well and saved it and put a historic site sign next to it.  So cool! Last we went to the St. George Art Museum.  They had changed the exhibit I was hoping they could see, but they had one that was quite interesting about people in prison in the the downstairs gallery and up top they had some religious art that was deep, lots of reading for interpretation, but worth it.  There was too much to see/read for the time we had, and the kids got a little bored of it, so we left some unseen.  Then we went back to the house for root beer floats!  Such a fun time visiting and going fun places.  Yesterday had been a very hard day for me, and this morning started with a scorpion in the garage, but the day just got better and better!  I feel like my birthday started a day early.  Oh, Lou and family gave me another James Herriot DVD that I'm excited to watch!  Happy Birthday #71 to me!  Thank you Lou and kids for making it such a nice day for me.  Time truly is one of the very best gifts you can give.  

On my birthday it looked like we might not find something fun to do because our truck was in the shop and we had already taken all of the pretty paved drives we could think of to get out of the house with Paul's foot restrictions.  The day dawned cloudy, a little bit rainy and so much cooler.  I took a nice morning walk and stopped by that old well we had found and read more about it.  While Paul was fixing the faucet in our camp trailer I went in to read scriptures and found a fun card and present from him.  He and Bean had very sneaky like gone shopping for it the day before.  It was a brand new Lifetime card table and a pink Lowes bucket, both things I had been wanting!  After lunch we went out with Bean for some fun.  On the way to our destination at the Kayenta art galleries we spied some historic  buildings we wanted to see in Santa Clara...and the caretaker, an old friend, just happened to be there to unlock them for us.  She had to leave and just said to close the doors when we were done.  It was an old pioneer home and Santa Clara Relief Society building.  It was so fun to look through them.  Next we did go out and look at a couple of the art galleries at Kayenta Arts Center.  They had some beautiful and unique works of art that we enjoyed very much.  Then we took a beautiful drive out to Gunlock reservoir and then went out to early dinner at Olive Garden using a gift card I had gotten for Mother's Day that paid for all of it!  That evening Ferf came over bringing lots of nice gifts from all of the kids and we enjoyed my free Nothing Bundt Cake and my free cheesecake from Olive Garden and a little visiting time with her.  I got some nice phone calls and texts from the other kids throughout the day too!  Lots of FB friends wished me a happy one too!  That evening Paul and I relaxed watching the fun James Herriot DVD movies that Lou and family gave me.  What a nice day it turned out to be!  Today, I got a really nice phone call from Janet too.  Paul and I had a good visit with her.  Happy #71 to me!  Thank you to everyone who made it a lovely birthday for me.  And that's all of the June birthdays!  

One more cool thing I got for my birthday a few days after was a bday card from my best teenage friend, Malinda Carter.  We had such fun times together and then she moved.  Lots of my teenage friends moved before we graduated.  But, we did keep in touch some through the years, mostly writing letters after we were both married.  She has been the good one at instigating I have to say.  I get busy even with my own sisters and don't keep much in touch.  But for my birthday, she send me some old pics I had sent her, the graduation announcement I had sent her and some letters I had written to her after Lou, Jay and Ferf were born.  It was a fun walk down memory land to read them.  I wish she could do FB or Instagram, but because she once had a job at a prison, she feels unsafe putting herself out there.  Maybe we are just going to have to get in the habit of a yearly Christmas or birthday (darn, I forget hers) letter/card.  Thanks for the memories, Malinda!  

 

Art around town...beautiful!

 Today we tried to go to see a new art exhibit at the university.  I had the dates wrong, but they had a small exhibit of paintings of Christ in the foyer.  They brought a very sweet feeling.  

After that we decided to see what they had at St. George Art Museum.  It was a southwestern exhibit and some other things.  Most of the southwestern art was by native American artists.  Some of it I liked, and some, not so much.  I took pictures of a few.  I'm glad that these places don't charge you to see their exhibits.  It was a good way to get out a little since Paul is still not able to do a lot.  We both enjoyed it!