lots of anniversaries and other stuff

Alex and 4 other boys have been asked to rotate playing the piano in Priesthood meeting. Alex played last week for the first time. He could only play the top hand, which is what several of the other boys will be doing, too, but I think it's a great idea. He hasn't had piano lessons for a few years because he really didn't like taking lessons. I'm so glad he has this chance to play at church.


There were 4 anniversaries in the family this week. Tuesday was Glen's parents' 58th anniversary. Thursday was Jacob and Susan's 5th. Saturday was Denise and Pat's 33rd. And tomorrow is Andrew and Heather's 3rd. Happy Anniversary Everybody! That's 99 years total. Wow.

Beside celebrating their anniversary, my sister and her husband were also celebrating Pat's promotion to the position of Las Vegas's Channel 8 News NOW Art Director. Good luck Pat! We're so excited for you.


Glen is on the Board of Directors of the Fallon Community Theatre group. They have been trying to save the old movie theatre. Their grant recently came through, so it looks like their efforts have paid off. 

They have started having an old movie night. In March it was "The Quiet Man." This week we saw "The Shootist," which was the last movie John Wayne ever starred in. We hadn't seen it before and it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but we enjoyed it. It's all rather fun. Glen made the cutest cookies for "The Shootist."

missing from this selection is the best cookie of all--it was a buzzard. too cute

 
Two music groups from BYU-Idaho performed in Fallon on Friday. "Sound Alliance and Vocal Union combine to create an instrumental and vocal concert that will entertain and inspire audiences of all ages. The groups present a multi-faceted program with both ensembles interwoven to perform inspiring vocal and instrumental jazz selections." 

Jazz isn't my thing, but they were so talented. I've had "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got that Swing" stuck in my head for 2 days now. We were able to have 2 of the musicians spend the night at our house before they left the next morning.

I kind of felt bad for them as it was dull and quiet over here without Hannah. She was in Reno participating in a YSA "Latter-Day Night Live." She performed Andrew's 2 "Book of Mormon Movie Trailers." She said she forgot what came next in the 2nd trailer, walked off stage, looked at her notes, got back on stage and continued. Apparently she did it in such a manner that the audience thought it was part of the skit. Wish I could have seen it.


And the highlight of the week, on Saturday night Jiaxin surprised us with a visit! He's transferring from BYU-I to BYU Provo and was passing through. I can't tell you how good it was to visit with him. He's the closest thing to having an adopted Asian brother that Hannah will ever get (in case you didn't know, for years she's been telling us to adopt an Asian brother for her).

Which brings up Elder Victor Siné. Victor is one of the Elders who taught Jiaxin the gospel in our house back in 2011. Victor and his fiancée are now internet sensations. They are getting married at the end of May and Victor wants to adopt Julianne's baby. They set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for the adoption and had a photo shoot where they dressed up as Rey and Finn, characters from the new Star Wars movie. I loved the photos even before I knew who was in them.

 Victor, Julianne, and baby Addie:
 

The real actors:

Hannah's house, hanging out with the boys, Henry, and home maintenance

Last Sunday it became official. Hannah found a place to stay in Reno! She'll be sharing a house with 4 other girls near the UNR campus (and not too far from her TMCC campus). For the first time in her life she will be sharing a bedroom. She'll spend Monday-Thursdays there, come home to work at the movie theater here on Fridays and Saturdays, and then teach Sunday School (on Sunday of course) before heading back to Reno. She gets to move in May 1st. Excited for her to have that experience. Excited for me that I don't have to worry about her driving back and forth early and late 4 days a week.

It was a relaxed week for Eric, Ryan, and me. And a fun week for all of us. We played a lot of games and just vegged, so there really isn't much to write about.

Oh, Andrew, I finally managed to (just barely) win "Castles of Burgundy." It came down to a tie-breaker against Alex, but I won. :) (Lost just about everything else we played this week though...my losing streak that started while I was at your house lasted for many games)

Eric and Ryan are headed back to Rexburg today and start their new semester tomorrow. Eric is again taking 4 art and 2 religion classes. Ryan will have physics and a lab, calculus, religion, and an Energy in the 21st century class. They are staying in their same apartment, but are getting some new roommates.

heading back (with their in-between-semesters' facial hair most BYU male students feel the need to grow)

Tuesday was Henry's 1st birthday. We got to "talk" to him on the phone. Wish we could have been there, but at least I was just recently with him.

Love this--first family photo I've seen where Henry is standing instead of being held!

Easter egg hunt!

Henry's first Easter

love that smile!

making messes on his 1st birthday

Glen, who lately has been spending most of his "extra" time building set for "The Sound of Music," took one of his personal days on Thursday to be with the boys and do some home maintenance. Besides going to the temple with us, he he went under the house where he changed the water filter and fixed a small leak. Yea for water pressure! He also fixed our toilet (did you know there is a filter inside the toilet tank? I didn't. Our tank was taking 20 minutes to refill before Glen fixed it). And of course we played games.

Sad news for the week. Chloe went missing. She's gotten out many times over the years, but has always quickly returned (or been returned). At first, I kept thinking I'd open the door and see her. I no longer think that because I can't picture her surviving so many nights outside without returning home, but maybe she's been taken in by someone. But, I'm thinking the worst. :(

MM, Bday, Wedding, Travels, and DWTS

Congratulations to Alice for winning the family's March Madness tournament! If UNC had won, I would have come in 3rd, I think. But Villanova won, which bumped me down to 7. Oh, well. It was a blast.

Birthday:

Ryan had his 22nd birthday on Wednesday the 6th. Finals week for him. We'll celebrate tomorrow. Happy Birthday Ryan!

Wedding:

Congratulations go out to Michael and Alicia who were married in the Monterrey Mexico Temple on Wednesday! Many were able to travel to be there with him. One absentee was his brother, Daniel, who couldn't attend at the last minute because he and his wife had just been given an opportunity to adopt a baby boy! David and Jackie gain a daughter-in-law and a grandson in the same week! Congratulations to everyone!

Sarah, Dallin, Alicia, Dad, Mom, David, Alicia, Michael, Jackie, Della, Susan, Jacob, Brandon

Travels:

No, we didn't travel to Mexico for the wedding, but I did get the chance to go to Utah. We couldn't find a ride home from Rexburg for Eric and Ryan for their week-long break between semesters, so a Great Plan was hatched.

I drove to Provo on Thursday and got to stay with Andrew, Heather, and Henry!

Henry almost has 2 teeth, and his tricks include clapping, waving bye-bye, "singing" to a Frozen song, "dancing," and he took 3 steps in a row while I was there (normally he takes one and then sits down and crawls). He will be 1 this Tuesday! He is such a happy baby.

practicing his walking

he's reaching for the kindle. people say it looks like he took a selfie.

Poor Heather has been buried in school work and has been living up on campus. Andrew was on Spring Break this week, so he was able to stay with Henry while Heather worked on a ton of projects and took an exam or two. Andrew, Henry, and I played while Heather slaved.

Eric and Ryan were able to find a ride to Provo and they came on Friday. Andrew invited Becky and Joseph over and we played games until midnight. For the record, I played about 9 games while I was at Andrew's. I lost every single one. It was still fun.

Eric, Ryan, and I left for Fallon on Saturday morning. Short and sweet.

Eric, Becky, and Andrew playing Tzolk'in

Ryan and Joseph playing a tank game online during our Tzolk'in game. Silly boys.

Dancing with the Stars:

One of my seminary students, Sharah, was in Fallon's 9th Annual Dancing with the Stars last night, and the fact that her dance partner Cary is a friend, one of our church leaders, and our dentist, I really wanted to go. Luckily we made it home from Utah in time so I could attend. The evening did not disappoint. Pure enjoyment and entertainment. Sharah and Cary even won!

Besides the couples that are competing, the various dance groups also perform. Our great-niece Brinley was one of them. Adorable.

Brin and her partner dancing to the theme from Ghostbusters

Sharah and Cary start out reminiscing about their younger days...

...then they act as they did when they were young and dance to "Footloose"

Sharah also performed in several other numbers, this one is "Zorro"

a cute competition number "I Don't Dance" (Hey Batter Batter Swing) from High School Musical

Another great competition number by mom and son Robertson, this one to the Mario music

a second mother/son duo, the Sorensens, dancing to the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean

and this is what Glen has been spending his time on lately--building set for The Sound of Music

Lastly, here is the video I took of Glen when he and his partner D'Ana took second place when he was in Dancing with the Stars in 2010. I was at the wrong angle to see it clearly, but he has a knife in his pocket that he shows the audience in the beginning. The music is the tango from the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," which is about 2 assassins married to each other who are given orders to kill each other. 2010 was the year they performed twice in the same evening--this recording is from the performance at the junior high. Then they performed at the high school where the judging occurred.

Andrew's birthday and Conference Weekend

So Andrew turned 26 on Saturday. He's really an adult now because our health insurance will no longer cover him. Happily, he has health insurance through his job. Happy Birthday Andrew!

And that topic brings up March Madness. On the night that Andrew was born, when it was decided that I was to have a c-section, it took the operating staff a very long time to come in to the hospital. I found out later that it was because UNLV was playing in the finals of March Madness that night. They managed to win.

(as far as the current March Madness, Sarah is in 1st place--and will win if UNC wins--and I am in 6th. The best I can do is 3rd place is UNC wins. If Villanova wins, my "Places I Have Lived" bracket would take 1st place...except it's not entered in the Drink Milk family group. If Villanova wins, Alice will be 1st and I will be 4th in Drink Milk.)

It was General Conference this weekend. I captured a bunch of memes from facebook and put them on my other blog, if you're interested:
 http://mypensieve-beth.blogspot.com/2016/04/best-memes-from-conference.html

Here are some of my favorite quotes (much was copied and pasted from The Middle-aged Mormon's blog as he got the quotes down better than I did):

Elder Donald Hallstrom:
 
“When difficult things appear, what is our immediate response? Is our first response to remember who we are? Children of God.”

Mortal life can be agonizing but our hardships have eternal purpose even if we do not understand it at the time.

Elder Hallstrom also quoted Elder Holland: “You can have what you want or you can have something better.”

"The more distractions that surround us, the easier it is to treat casually, then ignore, and then forget our connection with God."

Elder Keith R. Duncan:

"The Savior’s Atonement is not only for those who need to repent, but also for those who need to forgive.”

Elder Dale G. Renlund:

"The greater the distance between us and God, the more entitled we feel and the more we tend to focus on inequities, we are more impatient...

“The closer we are to Jesus Christ, the more we appreciate his innocent suffering and are grateful for grace.”

Elder David A. Bednar:

Taking of the sacrament by itself does not remit sins – it is our preparation to take the sacrament and receipt of the Spirit that does. The Holy Ghost cleanses us from sin.

Elder M. Russell Ballard:

“The irony of being parents is that we tend to really get good at it after our children are grown.”

Pres. Thomas S. Monson: 

“If we chose Christ, we will have made the right choice.”

“May we ever choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong.”

Sister Bonnie Oscarson:

"True conversion comes when we search the scriptures instead of searching the internet."

"We all need to seek to have our hearts and very natures changed so that we no longer have a desire to follow the ways of the world but to please God."

Bishop Christopher Waddell:

“However far we may wander from the path, the Savior invites us to return & walk with Him.” Repentance is part of that walk.

Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

“If man can take the ruins, rubble and remains of a broken city, and rebuild an awe-inspiring structure that rises towards the heavens, how much more capable is our almighty father to restore his children who have fallen struggled or become lost?”

“The sheep is worthy of divine rescue simply because it is loved by the Good Shepherd.”

It matters not how you became lost. What matters is you are His child and He loves you.

What is the catch? He will force no one to heaven. He won't rescue us against our will.

There is nothing good unless you do it. (a German quote)

If our faith doesn't change the way we live, then our religion is dead.

"Obedience is the lifeblood of faith. It is by obedience that we gather light into our souls.”

 “Obedience is the process by which we discover what we are truly made of."

God sees us as we truly are and He sees us as worthy of rescue.

 Elder Robert D. Hales:

“The Holy Ghost is not given to control us…He speaks out to our minds and our hearts gently about many matters of consequence.”

Elder Patrick Kearon:

 “This moment does not define them (the refugees), but our response will help define us.”

The Savior was a refugee.

Let us come our of our safe places.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong:

"Our Savior invites us to always remember Him as He always remembers us."

Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

The Lord didn't make it easy, but he did make it possible.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:

“None of us want tomorrow, or the day after that, to destroy the wonderful feelings we have had this weekend. We want to hold fast to the spiritual impressions we’ve had and the inspired teachings we’ve heard.”

1^st: If you see limitations in others and yourselves, don’t get down on yourself and don’t give up. Conference in not intended to discourage you. Satan wants us to be miserable too – don’t fall for that.
“Only the adversary…would try to convince us that the ideals outlined in general conference are depressing and unrealistic.”

2^nd: Please remember tomorrow and all the days after that that the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments & try to keep them, who cherish Christ-like virtues & strive…to acquire them.

“The great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying- even if we don’t necessarily succeed.”

“The first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength but the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind and strength.”

Keep going. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.