Sunday, February 24, 2013

Lots of changes

The month of February was a very busy month in many ways. The kitchen remodel of course has taken most of the time. Even with that there were a lot of other things that had to be done. You never appreciate what you have until there are changes. While redoing the floor everything had to be moved out so all the cooking and food and plates and everything had to find new places. We "camped" in the family room for a few weeks but as Cindy pointed out with camping at least you know where everything is.

 Not so with our set up. Washing dishes in the bathroom sink, cooking on a hot plate if we cooked at all, and no water unless you go up stairs. It gets pretty annoying. Then again it is better than generations past when the water was outside.











With the new kitchen we got a new fridge. Ours had served us for 27 years. We again never realized how small it was until the new fridge was delivered on the 23rd and we found out we had room to spare in the new fridge.










 Tyson and Spencer met Maddie at Petco and dropped by with their dogs so they could see Maddie's Ember. This was right after the fridge was delivered. It was quite the gathering with Tyson's Bruce and Spencer's Athena and Maddie and Ember. It made me appreciate Ember since she is so much smaller than the boy's dogs even though there is not much age difference.













Finally after snowing for the last two days the morning sky was clear and blue and beautiful. Everyday the mountains have something different happening on them. You never get tired of the changing scenes.  There is also something about the white snow and the blue sky that is so pretty.





Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Fourscore Birthday Party

The end of January brings the birthdays of both Mom and Dad. This year mom hit the 80 mile stone. So what do we do to celebrate, we go bowling. Mom and Dad use to be in a bowling league for many years. It was good to get all those who could come to join us. We always look forward to the family get together and this was no exception. While we are not the greatest bowlers we had fun.









After bowling we took over the Ogden Pizzeria for a while. Happy birthday Mom and Dad.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Winter cold

The month of January was very different from last year. After a nice snow storm the sky was clear and the mountains covered in white.




 This made a good time for icicles to form and the sun hitting the ice created some great sparkling lights.


























Then the cold hit. There were nearly two weeks when the temperature never got above 20 degrees. It was colder here than in Anchorage Alaska during the same time period. The haze from the inversion made it difficult to even see the sun and there was no blue sky.
















We had several good snow storms and then we had the very unusual ice storm where everything turned to a sheet of ice. People were slipping and sliding all day long. As I turned into the driveway that night I slide down the side of it. The storm even left a layer of ice on the snow that you could pick up.    

Sunday, February 10, 2013

A week of reflection

A few days after Maddie's birthday I had a week to reflect through a series of events of my life over the last 40 some odd years. The first event was on January 8. My mission president Robert P. Thorn passed away on January 2nd and his funeral was on the 8th. He had not been well for a while and was unable to often communicate these last few years. This was so sad for a man who was so eloquent and gifted in speech for many years. Sister Thorn took such good care of him. Our last mission get together was three years ago when President. Thorn turned 80. The event was one of those good days when he could address us all. I first was introduced to president Thorn by letter in 1974 when he wrote me congratulating me on being called to South Africa. He stated that he wanted to make sure that we came to the mission prepared because he started "preparation proceeds performance". For the next two years I learned great lessons from him on leadership, discipleship and striving for excellence. You knew after an interview when he said he loved you that it was heart felt.

left to right- me, Mike Petterson, Dale McKinnon, Steve Oliver, Sister Thorn, President Thorn, Jan Christiansen, Jay Hanson, Jeff VanWorkam, Steve Keck, Gary Lundstrom- leaving the mission Feb 1976
 His influence did not stop after those two years. There were years of get togethers at the Lion House with the other missionaries who could make it. We would have a dinner and then talks from such people as Elders James Faust, Nathan Eldon Tanner, Thomas Monson, Paul Dunn, Spencer W. Kimball, Aurthur Haycock who was secretary to three of the prophets. Such was the meetings we had. Other later meetngs did not have church leaders but they had the ambassador from South Africa or a performance from the Drakensburg Boys Choir Africa. He was 45 when I met him as my mission president 37 years ago and has been an influence in my life ever since. He even expressed sympathy when Gaven passed away since he also had a young child die in their family.

Part of the Elders at the funeral
 Those elders who could attended the funeral. Some traveled from great distances since he had meant so much in their lives. They had all of us who were there sing the mission anthem as part of the service. Afterwards we gathered at a luncheon and reflected as a group on his influence in our lives. It was a very emotional and gratifying gathering and as I reflected on the group that was gathered together I was grateful to be part of that group and to of had the experiences I did. There are still a wonderful group of not so young men that I have a special bond with. As we took the group picture of some that were in attendance Sister Thorn quipped as there were groans from those bending down, "Who is going to get you up because it won't be me."
The Elders with Sister Thorn and her family Michelle, David and Camille

 Two days later there was a dinner held at Weber High for the 1971 State Championship team. That was 42 years ago. It was bad weather that night but most of the team made it. We really did not know what to expect but it was a nice dinner and they had the present Weber High teams and their parents there. That meant the Kyler Weaver and Shelly and Jason were there. Shelly said she thought that the dinner would be kind of strange to have all these old people there and then she found out at the dinner I was one of those "old people."  It was a nice evening and good to see how everyone was doing. They showed a video clip of the team back then and everyone laughed at the short basketball trunks we wore. They could not believe it. They probably would also laugh if they knew that there was no such thing as a three point shot and that dunking the basketball would be a technical foul. It was interesting comparing the two reunion groups that I met with over the last two days. While the basketball group was a good group the missionary group had a strong bond and concern for each other.






2013 Picture left to right- Ron Buhrley, Coach Jerry Coggins , me Ron Montgomery, Rich Haws, Mark Hodson, Chad Green, Dennis Montgomery, Kirk Dickamore, Kevin Lewis, Ryan Jones








 The final event was on the following Monday. I received an award from the City of Ogden for working there 30 years.It was a nice luncheon and Cindy was able to attend with me. It is hard to believe I have been working with the City that long but then again everything over the last week and their beginnings longer than 30 years ago. It does not seem to have been that long ago for any of these things.
Tom Christopolus- my boss, Cindy, Greg, Mayor Caldwell and Mark Johnson C.A.O.