Happenings.......

This past week I arranged to see both Isaac and Rebekah graduate at Brigham Young University in Idaho.  Their graduation will be December 16th which is the day before Rebekah's birthday.  They will both have their bachelor's degree and go off to an internship somewhere. They are still working on that one.  But I am arranging to fly to Salt Lake City on the 14th of December and stay with my brother.  Then the next day I will drive my father's car with him up to Rexburg, Idaho which is only about three hours.  I'm pretty excited as this is my Alma Mater back in 1979.  There has been a lot of changes since I was there and the school is now a four year university so I'm excited to see all that has been done.  I have been looking online at some of the buildings and familiarizing myself with the campus so I won't be completely unaware.

 This cute little boy is Peter Holifield.  He is one of my grandsons who is 18 months old.  Such a cutie.  He lives with his Mom and Dad in Warner Robins, Georgia. Naomi and Jon Holifield.

Today we participated in an Eagle Scout project in Robertsdale, Alabama.  Tyler Evans chose to clean out the Emergency Preparedness warehouse to reorganize and inventory all the equipment and supplies they have there.  It was really a great project and there were about 30 of us there. We were done around noon and all were able to go home.  We made 60 dollars on our yard sale items from last week and Jim started working for the Baldwin County Schools in subbing for teachers.  He got himself on all the high school lists, middle school lists and some elementary school lists. We have been told by several different people that once they get to know you, you are always busy.  It's very exciting.  The only draw back is that we are paid once a month.  So I guess we will have to get used to that and schedule our bills around my paychecks and his.
Tomorrow I fly out to see Sarah, Drew and their children.  They will be going on a trip and I will be staying with Bella and Lael.  I am excited to visit with them and see Rex.  I also get to trick or treat with them.  Very fun.

Hope for the Future.....

I found an even more colorful picture of the fall leaves of the north on Facebook and wanted to post it here. After our difficult week last week--we have more hope for the future. We are going to start again this week to find more work and get somewhere on the hotel plan.  We have to get going to see that hotel remodeled to be a museum and gift shop and also a place for parties. I'm sure we can make it work. We will rent our house and live in the back of the museum which will be very exciting.
Something that was said over the weekend really touched me:  "You can count the number of seeds in an apple but you cannot count the number of apples from each seed." Mary Fairchild  
You never know when you will help someone or touch a life with the example of  how you live you life.   So enough of me philosophizing and tomorrow is a new day to try again. 

Self Confidence

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
images/view_photog.php?photogid=73

I've been having a rough couple of days over the last week. Actually, over the last few months. I had some great highs and some terrible lows.....  As a couple, we are going through such trials financially without a permanent job anywhere--it is so stressful.  I feel bad about myself --I'm sure Jim feels this way as well.  In between these lows, I have become more successful with my writing.  I had seven pieces published through Deseret Connect in print and online in Deseret News, MormonTimes.com and KSL.com. I was really excited about that. Then I was asked by More Good Foundation to write my own column which was unbelievably fantastic.  It is online officially as Bonds that Tie the Family.  All my children are doing well and we are pretty healthy (knock on wood) so there are many highs but the lows are so awful.  We don't have enough money for just the basic needs.  We keep scraping along trying to improve the situation.  Trying to write under those conditions is difficult too.  I guess we should be happy we are not on the street--homeless somewhere--which does happen to so many good people in this country.
  I just have to keep plugging along and break through this trial.  On top of that---my hotel plans just keep getting knocked down...... but every time I think---I can't do this-- something comes along and gives me some hope.  I dont' think it's false hope---but a hope that I can ask someone else for the financing or another person appears who wants to work on it.  If only we had the money to start--we would have that thing looking great in no time.


I suppose that is enough moaning about the difficulties of life...... I'm sure this would make a great tragedy/comedy movie somewhere down the road......  Speaking of roads: the picture shown is that road not taken.....somewhere in Pennsylvania there is this road that is traveled but I have not traveled it yet so I have to trudge through.  Or rather I should take a good look around while I am trudging through and enjoy the scenery.
One more thing......Lydia showed me this psychological test from Facebook----I don't know if it has any validity but you look at a large square of mixed up letters--as it's shown on a word find page--- and the directions say that the first three words you find in this square will describe you........ I found beautiful, love and funny......Am I beautiful? Never thought of myself that way.  I suppose Heavenly Father thinks so....  I know I love intensely and I like to be funny.  Maybe it does describes me which does help me to feel better about myself.


See For Yourself----

                                                                                           

Memorial for Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

I remember reading about Steve Jobs back in 1980 and what he had started to accomplish along with Bill Gates.  They were fierce competitors and it seemed as if Bill Gates had taken the lead for a while.  But as time went on Steve Jobs caught up and was just as successful as Bill Gates but not so open about it.  He was a very private person and I appreciate that. He was driven to make life better for everyone through electronics.

Pancreatic Cancer is brutal --but he managed to stick around a lot longer than most people do when they fight pancreatic cancer (6 years).  My mother didn't even make a year.

This post is in honor of Steve Jobs and all that work he has done for mankind.  A writer friend of mine coined it perfectly in her poem below and I copied it here.  It is amazing to me how people  can be so successful in the face of so much adversity.  It is amazing to me what people do with their lives when the odds are against them.  Here is the essence of Steve Jobs:

"iRemember"

by Tanya Parker Mills

Given up at birth

By an educated Syrian father

And an equally learned mother

Into the arms of loving,

Less lettered parents,

He whiled his way through school,

Perhaps surprising no one

When he left its rule to

Follow his own.

Racing time,

He molded masterful manipulatives,

Each designed elegantly to bring the world

To our fingertips

In easy, intuitive ways.

iMac,

A solid friend,

Dependable, accessible, with a

Mouse that makes the Lion roar.

iTunes,

Bringing music to the masses,

A revolution in song sharing

Between artist and listener.

iPod,

Our first fisted friend,

There on errands, walks, and runs,

Fusing melody with life.

iPhone,

The iMac in our hands,

And an "app"licable library

For the future.

iPad,

The iMac and iPod combined,

Simplified and squeezed

To a minimum, yet somehow more.

i's galore,

iBook, iPhoto, iMovie, iLife, iWork,

But this "i" always,

iRemember.

Steve Jobs set a president for us all!!!  Let us all take a lesson from this genius, driven mind.......

Patrick Henry's Speech

From Google Images

In my searches for writing my weekly column,I came across this great quote from Patrick Henry's Speech!!!  His words can light a fire under us in our war to protect our citizens from our federal government.  Read on:

"No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve.

This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?

For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth — to know the worst and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House?

Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation — the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motives for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies?

No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer on the subject? Nothing.

We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.

Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament.

Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.

If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, “Peace! Peace!” — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

Patrick Henry – March 23, 1775

The Provo Tabernacle to be Made Into A New Temple

Provo Tabernacle from Wikipedia

I am so excited.  President Monson just announced the next temples to be built. What is so exciting is that the Provo Tabernacle, which was gutted by a fire recently, will be remodeled into a temple in Provo.
I had been so sad to read the news of the this fire a few months ago. It was such a beautiful building inside and I have personal experience meeting in this magnificent building.

Back in 1982 to 1985, we lived in the area of Provo which used that building for stake conference.  I loved sitting inside the Tabernacle for church.  There was so much detail in the work inside and and I would just look around as I listened to the talks.  It was almost distracting but you felt such a spirit in that building when you entered.  When I heard the fire gutted the building, I was physically ill.  What a terrible shame to lose such a wonderful place.  But now, our Priesthood leaders have decided to restore this building as it once was and use it as a Temple of God.  It makes so much sense.  The Provo Temple is the busiest temple in the world and what better way to supplement temple attendance than to have another temple right in the city of Provo. It makes my heart sing!!!!!  What a great idea!

Our Winner of the Blog Giveaway----

Today, I am pleased to announce our winner of the My Memories Suite package.  My good friend Glenna Grant was the one picked out of a small box.  Congratulations, Glenna!!!!!  I'm sure you will enjoy it.  She lives in Loxley with three of her children left at home.  There are two older daughters married and moved away.  Glenna has been staying in Miami for the past few months taking care of her father. What a gem.....

Thanks to everyone who participated!!!  Sorry I couldn't give everyone a copy of the scrap booking program.