A New Month:)

Thought to Ponder:  "The onslaught of wickedness against our children is more subtle and brazen than it has ever been. Building a strong family culture adds another layer of protection for our children, insulating them from worldly influences."                 L. Tom Perry, "Becoming Goodly Parents"

I liked this one; it is so very true and so very important in this crazy world we live in.  Here is another just for fun, shared by our RS president as she spoke in Stake Conference today after reading two letters from her missionary son - one about a person he had worked with who had made the decision to make the needed changes in her life and be baptized, the other a gentleman he had worked with a year ago, was glad to see again, but was saddened that he had not moved forward at all in his life.  I think this one is true too.:

"You will remain the same until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change. 

What are you doing today to improve your life?"

September Notes:
September 8th: Cousin Heather's birthday - guess I missed it:(.
September 2oth: Sara and Patrick celebrate 10 years of marriage:)!
September 26th:  Yep...Dad is turning 70.  How about that!


Family Notes:     Written a week ago:  Short blog...but at least a little.  We are nearing the end of our visit to Sara & Patrick's for Abby's baptism...just about everyone is in bed and we will be soon too.  It was wonderful to be able to come for the baptism, which was beautiful.  Sara posted some pictures on  Facebook and I will put some here just for memory's sake.  Following the baptism friends came to the house and all ate pizza and then ice cream.  Since Patrick works for Schwann's they have a good source for that stuff now:).  Later in the evening we went to the Cracker Barrell restuarant for a good dinner... that was fun.  I am feeling very guilty because I sent a card to Sara with our arrival time in SLC of 3:42 pm and she had planned a dinner for us on Friday... only I mistook the boarding time (printed in BIG numbers) on the ticket for the arrival time (very tiny print) so I really messed her up.  Our true arrival time was actually about 7:30 p.m. - slightly different.  And then we had to get the rental car and drive down.  We stopped in Provo (actually Orem) and had dinner with Mary (but it took us a very long time to find the restuarant...) so it was late when we got to Sara's.  But they only beat us home by a short period of time as they had gone to the  Carnival associated with Onion Days:)!  This was my first time to see their home with them in it; the last time I was here was before they had actually purchased it and I had only seen the outside and the property, so it has been really nice to see the results of all their work:).

Ready and waiting:)

At home - after the beautiful service:)

Close up of our newest church member:)

Kirby family plus Grandma & Grandpa Oliphant + Mary Elizabeth:)!

Sunday, September 8th:     I can't remember the exact time I wrote the paragraph above...probably  Saturday...but maybe Sunday.  Not sure.  Anyway, we went to church with them on Sunday, then spent the rest of the day just enjoying our visit.  Monday we headed up to Salt Lake City, had a lunch together at Denny's before us heading to the airport and them heading to the aviary...heard later they went shopping and made it home with a bunch of new trees to plant:)  Our flight home was a little bumpy due to weather conditions but we made it just fine and even got to the office not too late on Tuesday:).

Had a full and busy week - that is not new - and it went very quickly.  Friday was a temple day for a couple of our zones and two of the office couples went up to the temple (Portland) with them.  Dad and I held the office down...and it was my most productive day ever since we first started working in the office:)!  I think all the years of homeschooling trained me to be listening as much as possible to everyone around me.... that doesn't work so well in an office situation where I often find myself distracted and unable to really concentrate on the things I am trying to do.  So - on Friday I ended up getting a TON of things done...whittled my list down to almost nothing.  Maybe I would work better in a cubicle - who knows?  (Of course we don't have any cubicles, so it is irrelevant.)

Anyway, one of the couples returned about 3:30 p.m. and we left a short bit later because we had been planning on attending the Stake temple night and were thrilled to have our own names to take thanks to the Bullinger family doing the initial work for us on very short notice.  We found a handicapped parking space really close to the door of the temple, which was so encouraging.  Once inside, I discovered that they were VERY busy...in fact, finding a locker was almost an impossibility, although a sweet worker finally found me one.  I guess people ended up having to share lockers after that... apparently it was a stake temple night for two stakes and there were so many patrons there.  It was kind of exciting - kind of goes along with the prophecy that temples will be open day and night during the millenium - I kind of think I heard that somewhere.

We made it to the chapel session with time to spare because they were running late with things; the session was great - but ended up getting extended for nearly an hour extra because they were so behind and were trying to keep up with all the patrons there for the sessions.  We finally made it into ours - and, by the way, saw the new film which is so very different from previous ones while still maintaining the words...that was interesting:).  Maybe the fact that it takes longer now is helping to throw the timing behind - altho I think that is mostly due to the large number of patrons coming.  Anyway, to kind of shorten the story, by the time we walked into our back door it was 1:00 a.m. and I could hardly make it to the bedroom.  I think we cannot do it that way again - our bodies just can't quite manage it:(.  But - I am very glad we were able to do it:)!

To make life a little more exciting, Mary Elizabeth flew into Portland on Thurday evening; Michael picked her up and they drove down to Charleston where they met his grandparents.  Spent Friday and Saturday visiting with them - boating & crabbing - and with Michael's family.  Came here about 11:30 last night and went to church with us today:).  Church was stake conference - which started at 10:00 so that was a blessing and allowed everyone to get a little more sleep.  We've had a fun afternoon/evening together; they leave early in the morning for Longview, Washington where Mary is meeting with a Sub Zero store owner to help them work out some problems.  Speaking of Sub Zero - someone is trying to figure out where to put their Sub Zero in San Antonio, Texas - so Jim and Jeanie if you have any great ideas, share them with Mary right away so she can share:)!

Well, I need to close this down and try to get some pictures up...Michael had a bunch of pics on his phone or Ipod - I wish he would post them so I could steal a few, but don't know if that will happen or not.  Hopefully I can at least get Abby's baptism pictures on here:).