Happy Easter - 2024

Happy Easter! He is risen!

Matthew 28:5 "And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

28:6 - He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

(Matthew 28:1-13, Mark 16:1-14, Luke 24:7-49, and

John 20:1-23)

Ready to celebrate Easter Saturday with family.

Because of a light sprinkle of raindrops, we had the Easter egg hunt downstairs at 4:00; and then we ate at 5:00 on Saturday, the day before Easter. 

Max finding the treasure inside the eggs he found.

Grant before he found the treasure inside the egg.

 We remembered previous years when there were more children eager for the egg hunt, so in those days we had the children line up by the back door ready with their baskets to hunt for eggs hidden in our backyard. The smallest children got to go out first and have a head start finding some eggs that were easy to see.  After about 5 or 10 minutes, the rest of the grandchildren started searching for the eggs harder to find.

Grampa Sam brought out an assortment of caps the give away.  Elder Joshua is looking over one he chose.  

Mason, Anna, and Paul are seen in the kitchen area talking about their successful egg hunt.

Time to enjoy the ham dinner with the delicious food brought by family from the online sign-up list provided by Beth.  

Judd with Dean, Claire, Jenna, Josh, and Shannon (Amy away from the table momentarily)

Mason, Isaac, Brynlee, Rebecca, and Anna.  Corban and Paul joined them after the picture was taken, as they had planned to eat in the backyard.

Paul decided to come inside and join his cousins to eat downstairs.

Corban was headed downstairs to join the others when he turned around for a quick photo.

Ethan, Anna, Joshua, Mason, Paul, Corban, Claire, and Scott

Scott, Paul, Joshua, Isaac, Ethan, Corban, and Mason

Doug, Isaac, Corban, Mason, Ethan, and Anna

Hugs, Goodbyes, and Thank You for Coming

Megan, Jared, and Gabe

Haley, Sarah, and Maren

Wesley, Tyler, and Haley

Amy and Judd with Dean, Claire, and Nate

Todd, Beth, and Elder Joshua

Josh and Jenna

Sarah and Derek with Max, Anna, Grant, and Paul

Cousins:  Brynlee, Rebecca, Marisa, and Shannon

Doug & Shannon with Isaac, Mason, Brynlee, and Corban

Ethan and Whitney

Eden and Maren

Ryan and Tani

Scott and Kristine

(We enjoyed having them stay with us.)

Gramma Narene & Grampa Sam

Iguazu Falls - 2013

We were on a Fun For Less Tour in 2013 (January 8 to February 2) to South America and Antarctica, which included flying to the falls in Argentina.  We had our picture taken while standing in Argentina with Brazil behind us across the river to the right; Paraguay was across the river to the left.

Iguazu Falls straddles the border of Argentina and Brazil.  It is considered the largest waterfall system I the world.  

The falls span 1.7 miles along the border, with about 60% - 70% of the falls on the Argentinian side.

The falls range in height from 196 to 270 feet, making them taller than Niagara Falls and wider than Victoria Falls. 

The name “Iguazu” originates from the Guarani or Tupi words “y”, meaning “water”, and “ûasú”, meaning “big”. According to local legend, a deity created the falls in a fit of rage when a beautiful woman named Naipí fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. 

The first European record of the falls was by the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541. Today, Iguazu Falls continues to captivate visitors with its majestic beauty.

Before You Think or Post

Before You Think or Post

T -  is it True?

     H - is it Helpful?

       I  - is it Inspiring?

         N - is it Necessary?

 K - is it Kind?

St. Patrick's Day Celebrating with Empty Nesters

We enjoy being with members of our Empty Nesters who typically meet in our home once a month.  For March in 2024, we hosted the day after St. Patrick's Day.  

We served mint chocolate chip ice cream,  chocolate bars decorated with green and chocolate frosting, fresh bell pepper strips (green, red, and yellow), onion dip, celery sticks, green granny apples, Oreo cookies with green mint filling, tortilla chips, and stoneground wheat crackers.  I forgot to put out the nice large strawberries I had gotten intending to use for a contrasting color.

We showed a 10-minute video on YouTube about the life of St. Patrick.  Next we passed out printed copies for a fun quiz about this March 17th holiday.

We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the table visiting while eating the refreshments.  

The Cooks and McCarthys had contacted us that they were unable to come; and we also missed Lee Ellertson, Tubaughs, Egglestons, Andertons, and the Dunns (who are a new couple in our ward who had indicated they planned to come). We enjoyed being with those who came:  Haskells, Proberts, Smiths, Berretts, and Kay Larson.

Favorite Movies and Other Memories

I have lost tract of how many times I have enjoyed watching The Sound of Music, but I remember the first time I took Scott and Marla with me to see it in the theater in Show Low, Arizona.  As it first opened in theaters in 1965, they would have been very young; so I am impressed to recall they liked it, too.

Julie Andrews, as a young novice in Austria in the 1930s, is introduced in The Sound of Music in the opening scene singing in the hills before returning to the convent and learning that she is to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer. 

A scene in The Sound of Music where the von Trapp family have entered a talent contest before fleeing to Switzerland away from the Nazi soldiers who have come to make Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) serve in the army against his will.  He is strongly opposed to the Nazis and their ideology. 

The movie received five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.  Julie Andrews was nominated for Best Actress and Peggy Wood was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.  

A recent TV special honoring Julie Andrews had a surprise visit of the now grownup children from The Sound of Music who joined Julie Andrews in singing the chorus of Do-Re-Mi.  Photos of the five children who attended are shown above them with Julie Andrews in the center with Carol Burnett to the left, who presented Julie Andrews with a special award.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

If you ask my family which is my favorite movie, they will likely reply: The Sound of Music, and that would not be wrong. But right up there at the top would be this sentimental movie, An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, released in 1957, and considered "among the most romantic films of all time." I shed a tear or two every time I watch this movie. It's a classic.

A scene from An Affair to Remember when they are visiting his Grandmother Janou (Cathleen Nesbitt) with Deborah Kerr as Terry McKay and Cary Grant as Nicolo (Nickie) Ferrante.  A special shawl from the grandmother plays an important role in the final scenes of this wonderful movie.

Although each is engaged to someone else, Nickie (Cary Grant) and Terry (Deborah Kerr) meet aboard an ocean liner and fall deeply in love.  They agree to rendezvous six months later atop the Empire State Building, but tragedy strikes . . . and the lovers' future takes an emotional and uncertain turn.

Get the hankies ready!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Sleepless in Seattle, (1993) starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, was partly inspired by An Affair to Remember, particularly the ending. References, clips and the theme song from the earlier film are used throughout. I really liked this movie, too.

"Sleepless in Seattle" is a 1993 American romantic comedy film that follows a journalist (Ryan) who, despite being newly engaged, becomes enamored with a recently widowed architect (Hanks), when the latter's son calls in to a talk radio program requesting a new partner for his grieving father."

Celine Dion and Clive Griffin's duet "When I Fall in love" is in the final scene.

When I was growing up in Mission, we got to see movies shown on a big screen in the school's gymnasium at the boarding school until the gym burned down.  Then after the fire, for a time we watched movies on a smaller screen in the dining room at the end of the block from our home.  Later, we went to Mission to see movies.  Movies were free for our family at the boarding school and still inexpensive in town.  I have shared before how I saved the dime for popcorn at the movies and when I had enough I bought a watch.

A movie I remember from those days was"Arsenic and Old Lace" starring Cary Grant. When the bad guy climbed through the window to hide a dead body, I thought it was so scary I moved from my first-row seat to the second row and covered my eyes.  Some years later when I saw the same movie and liked it, I realized it was actually a dark comedy and not a scary movie.

Our house is hidden by the trees in this photo.  It was at the corner of the quad (center back of photo).

The trees hide our house in the left corner of this photo.  The school gymnasium where the movies were shown was in the center of the block down the street to the right from our home.

Here I am on my bicycle by our home at the boarding school.  The saddle shoes were popular.  It was usual to wear a dress, so the girl's bike had a skirt guard.  This was my first bicycle.  My second bike was one I got the first year we were married that I rode to BYU to school and also to work at the child guidance clinic.

I don't have a photo of the bike I had at BYU, but here is one of Sam on his bike taken by our apartment where we lived in Provo after we were married.

Sam on his nice bike in front of our apartment in Provo.  I have shared before how one night someone took Sam's bicycle apart, stole the parts they wanted, and then put the frame back together.  My bike wasn't as nice as Sam's and nothing was done to it.

Paul Harvey's Letter to His Grandchildren

PAUL HARVEY'S LETTER TO HIS GRANDCHILDREN 

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches.. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy / girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it... And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he/she is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.