Well, I can't believe all that has happened around here since my last post. One thing I did forget that was so important to me, but, somehow I didn't tell you about, was the wonderful week-end we had with Charity and James' new baby. On Sat., Sept. 12, Laurie and Sue Johansen had a baby shower for Charity, and then, on Sunday, Dave & Patti and all their kids were here to give little Elias Dane West his name and a beautiful blessing by his daddy. It was wonderful seeing all of the Johansens together after all of them have been apart for so long. We tried taking pictures, but our camera battery died, and I felt so bad that we didn't get any. However, Charity's friend was there, and she did get some great pics that I will send to you (when I get them from Charity). On the 27th of Sept., we felt so blessed to see our son, Lane, sustained and set apart as the Bishop of the Sunset 5th Ward. Unfortunately, again, no pics, because this dumb lady forgot to take the camera. But, you all know what Lane looks like, so I guess it is all right. That same morning, I was called to meet with the second counselor in our bishopric and was asked to be the cubmaster in our ward. Can you believe? Me, this 76 (well, in about 17 days) year old grandma, a cubmaster. I really thought they must be kidding. But, no, I guess not, because I was set apart last Sunday, Oct. 11. I am overwhelmed with the prospect of it all, but, I have been working hard the last 2 weeks getting ready, and I believe it is all falling into place. Our theme for our Oct. Pack meeting is "Jungle Safari", and I think the kids will like our trip through the jungle. I will send pics of our decorations, etc., after the 28th (Pack meeting). On the same day as Lane's new calling and my new calling, Tammy had a little "going away" party for Brandy, Jake and the kids, and that was not so good. How we will miss them. But, it is a golden opportunity for Jake, and they just couldn't turn it down. I was finally able to get some pics, and I will share them with you. Hope they go where I want them to go. Check back later.

Tuesday, Sept. 22 was such a special day for us. Randy has been involved for several months doing weed-eating and other mundane tasks that we all hate for our neighborhood, and our little community of Washington Terrace. One of the neighbors, Pam Johnson, called KSL and told them about Randy's service to others, and KSL came and did a spotlight on him. You can check this out by going to this hyperlink:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8038124

It was aired on KSL this morning at 6:00 a.m., and so I am sharing it with you. Love ya' lots. Shirley

Randy with Joe from KSL and Pam Johnson, who sponsored Randy as a candidate for the award.

Heather & Joe

from KSL

Shirley Brownson, June Knudsen, Roy Browson

Heidi Shapiro, Catherine Palmer, Pam Johnson, Heather, Joe & some family members.

Bishop Jack Dallinga, Blaine & Carolyn Phillips,

June Knudsen, Shirley Brownson, Margaret Hunt,

Rochelle & Mary Walker, Renee & Larry Hancock,

Lee Hoerchel

Vern Coombs, Shirley, Heather

Tammy, Bostyn, Shara, Sandy

Coombs, & Logan Coombs

Several others were in attendance that we did not get pictures of, but, my count was wrong. There were 39 in attendance. Those that were here were:

Randy, who is the one featured for the big deal!

From KSL: Heather & Joe

Pam Johnson who nominated Randy for the award and presentation.

Shara, who started all of this along with Pam

Vern & Sandy Coombs, and grandson, Logan Coombs

Bishop Jack Dallinga (High Councilman for our Ward)

Bishop Spencer Smith (Our current Bishop)

Bob & Nancy Morley

Roy & Shirley Brownson

Blaine & Carolyn Phillips

Larry & Rene Hancock

Lee Hoerchel & Margaret Hunt

Madeline & Steve Damon

Jill Marchant

Diane Hundley

Rochelle & Mary Walker

Kirsten & her son Ferlin

Wendy Hegstrom

Tammy Nyland

Brandy, Bailee, Bostyn, & Hayden Miller

Heidi Shapiro

Catherine Palmer

June Knudsen

Fred and Shirley

Fun Day for Randy!

Randy has spent several months going around our little town of Washington Terrace, and weed-eating many homes. Pam & Merrill Johnson (owners of one of these homes) decided that Randy should be rewarded for his many hours of community service. Pam called KSL and together with Heather (?) they decided to have as many friends and neighbors that could join us be here yesterday (Tues., Sept. 22) at 2:00, and they would do a spotlight for him. Well, we never thought we would have such a nice group attend with a day and time like that. Shara had also worked with Pam to make things go so well. She kept Randy away from the festivities until KSL arrived, and then brought him home to see what his "surprise" was. Pam brought this sign, along with two bouquets of balloons to make it even more festive. We had 34 people in our front yard, including Randy, Fred, and I. Fred and I had made two kinds of cookies the day before, and we set up a card table in the front yard, where we put the cookies and lemonade, and chairs for everyone to set on. KSL interviewed Randy and asked him why he wanted to help everyone the way he did, and he told them, he didn't think anyone either didn't have a weed eater, or didn't know how to do it. I thought that was kind of funny, as he has always wanted to help others with any project they needed done. He certainly deserved the honor that was given him. KSL will broadcast this event on Friday morning, Sept. 25 between 6:00 and 6:30 if any of you would like to go in and watch it that early. These are a few of the pics we took of those in attendance. Unfortunately, we didn't get everyone that was there.

Updates for a month?

I can't believe that one person can experience so many great, sad, painful, wonderful, and exciting things in such a short period of time. But, it has been it has been an interesting time!

I will try to update you on just a little of what has been going on in our lives. Last Friday, Fred and I went to dinner and a movie to celebrate the last of our many remodeling projects both inside amd out since returning home from our mission last Dec. We have put new seat covers on our kitchen chairs and bar stools, new inserts in our French patio doors, torn out the carpet in our main bathroon, and put in new tile, and sink counter top, re-painted the kitchen where we tore out the wall and cabinet to make more room for the fridge that went out, bought a new washer, dryer, and stove as well as the new refrigerator. We have re-painted our bedroom, and our TV room, and frontroom where we took the drapes and sheers down and put up new valances. We also tore out the front entry door and side lights, and, now with the drapes and sheers gone and the lighter windows in the door, our house has taken on a whole new look. We have put all new pereneal plants in outside that will hopefully NEVER have to be planted again in our lifetime! In addition to that, we have spent many hours at our proprty at Sour Dough cleaning, ripping, cutting down hundreds of tree sprouts, and have hauled 11 ton of gravel and spread it out around the property and road. I have managed to squeeze in two surgeries on my shoulder and hand. I had a lot of trouble with the first surgery with a few complications, but the last one seems to be better, and although I'm typing all of this nonsense with just one hand, it seems to be okay.

It has been an eventful last two days, and, although we are tired, we loved spending time with our family.

After we left Orem we came back to the baptism of our youngest, and last grandchild, McKinLee Jo Smith. How proud of her we are to have made such a good choice to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She looked like an angel, and is very special to us. She was baptized by her older brother, Jared, who did a supurb job. We are proud of him as well.

McKinLee was confirmed by her dad.

McKinLee at her house after the baptism

I feel bad that grandpa wasn't able to get a picture of "Kinner" alone, instead of me in it with her. Something happened to our camera, Darn!

Yesterday was a wonderful day, spent celebrating one of our great-granddaughters (Jersey Renae Smith, daughter of Robb and Jen, and granddaughter of Lane and Laurie) first birthday.

Can you believe all those presents for a one-year old?

Jersey is looking that cake over

And, mom gets some cake, too!

And, Jersey is walking all over the place!




On the 28th of Aug.. I underwent my second surgery on my hand. All of us thought the Dr. who had done the previous surgery had severed a nerve in my hand, as I continued having pain, numbness, and great sensitivity in it from two weeks after the first surgery on Feb. 02 until now, back thankfully, the nerve was not severed. The nerve was encapsilated with enough scar tissue to shut the nerve off. Hopefully this will relieve my pain and suffering.

Fred and I spent two days shopping and cooking enough meals to take care of us until I get full use of my hand again. We cleaned, washed, ironed, and got almost everything done on our "return home remodeling plan", before I undergo surgery #2.

After all of our family left on the 17th of Aug., Fred and I were riding around on the four-wheel, and just a short distance from our place, we came across these two bull moose.

There really are moose at Sour Dough!

And, by the way, when I downloaded more of my pics, I found one of a mother deer with twin fawns!



Look closely, and you will see mom and one baby. The other one is standing in back and is nursing his mother.

Brandy, Jake, the girls and Hayden stayed overnight with us, and we sat around the bonfire, had smores, and enjoyed visiting with one another. Brandy and the kids slept with us in the trailer and poor Jake about froze to death in the tent, and ended up sleepimg in his sleeping bag by the fire. We so much enjoyed the time we had with them. What will we ever do when they leave for

Virginia!

Grandpa and Jake checking battery cables on his car

On the 15th of August, we had made plans with all of our family that could, to come to Sour Dough and celebrate grandpa's (Fred's) birthday, but it rained off and on most of the night on Thursday, and it was really cold. We waited until noon and finally called our kids and told them not to come, as it was still sprinkling off and on, and really cold. Shara, though, thought everyone should come, as the roads weren't too muddy, and so Todd's family, and Tammy's family (except Kyle) came. Lane's family had by then made other plans. And, of course, Gordon and Jeanne are now living in Massachusettes. How we miss them! We had a great time with the kids riding the four wheelers, and the big boys playing hoseshoes (grandpa, Jim, Jake and Zach), and of couse, a good dinner with birthday cake.


Josh, Cindy, Bailee, Jim with baby Hayden, and Randy

Jim and Fred against...........

Jake and Zach

Todd by the playhouse



Tammy, Bostyn, Brandy, and Hayden

Tammy, Jessie, Shara and Bostyn

!

It has been a busy, trying, painful, wonderful month filled with way too many things for one person to experience, but, I'll try to update you on just a few of the events that have taken place in our lives. We had a great week-end beginning last Friday. We came to the conclusion of all our remodeling projects both inside and outside of our house by taking out all of the dead mugo pines from the front of the house, and re-planting new shrubs. Fred and I went to dinner and a movie (the first time in so long I can't remember). On Sat. we traveled to Orem to see one of our great-granddaughters (Jersey Renae Smith, daughter of Robb and Jen and granddaughter of Lane and Laurie) celebrate her first birtthday.

Dad needed to help her, as she wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do.

Wed. Aug. 12, 2009

Well, I got Mr. Brownson's pics of what he thought was our mother deer and her twin fawns, but, they didn't show much. So, we will see if we can get her back a day next week when it is a bit more quiet after all our family have left from celebrating grandpa's B-Day. Till then. Love ya' all.

Sour Dough

Today I am going to try and add some pics of our place at Sour Dough, and if you get them, then I have been successful in doing something new. If you don't, well......So, here goes.

Tues. Aug. 11,
You will never guess what happened yesterday while we were entertaining our friends (the Brownsons, and the Kings) at Sour Dough. We have had this beautiful deer visit our property on a couple of occasions, but, yesterday she came in to get seeds out of the bird house we had in the tree, and after eating for just a minute, and while we were watching her, she turned around to see what the commotion behind her was, and there, standing beside her, were twin fawns. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to our camera to get the picture of the three of them, but Mr. Brownson did, and maybe we can get it from him so that I can share this beautiful thing of nature with you. We were at Sour Dough for their big Sour Dough Days, but, it was really cold and we only stayed for dinner on Friday night (Aug. 07) and for breakfast on Saturday morning (Aug. 08) before leaving for another party with the Ladies' Club that I have belonged to for over 50 years. Guess I'll also have to share that funny picture with you as well. Believe me, 8 old ladies really are funny looking. We are looking forward to spending time with our family members to celebrate Fred's 78th B-Day this coming Sat. (Aug.15), also to be held at Sour Dough. I promise to download a few pics of some of our events over the past few weeks within the next few days. So, till then. Love ya' lots. Shirley

All about us!

After 57 years of marriage how can we share all our memories in a few sentences? And where do I begin to tell you all about us? Well, most of you know all of those details, so maybe I'll just begin by telling you a little bit about our life events as we left Florida after serving our mission in Dec., 2008. We traveled for a few days, and Fred became ill, and was swerving all over the road while pulling our 5th wheel behind our truck. As we came into Texas, he became worse, and we had to get him to a hospital to see what was wrong. He was admitted after having many tests and exams with prostatitis, and a kidney infection. He was so ill that the doctors told us we could not drive home pulling our trailer, and so Tammy and Jim flew to Amarillo, met us, got us on a plane, and they drove the trailer home, while we flew back to Utah. After arriving home, and being changed on a different medicine, Fred gradually improved and is doing much better right now. In Feb., I had to have a rotator cuff repair and a carpal tunnel release done, and now, 6 months later, the shoulder is doing okay, but I am still having a lot of trouble with my hand, losing most of the mobility in it, and continuing with numbness and pain. I am scheduled for an exploratory surgery on the 28th of Aug., and then further surgery after that down the road for a tendon transfer, and web site release to get my movement back in the hand. We have spent many hours remodeling our house; tearing out carpet in the bathroom, and putting in floor tile, a new paint job, and a new counter sink top. We have painted our bedroom, the TV room, and have made new covers on our chairs in the kitchen. We had to get a new stove, washer, and dryer, and would you believe? Our fridge went out yesterday, and we had to buy a new one, only to find that after doing a little remodeling for it to fit, it still didn't, and Fred has now torn out the wall into the cupboard trying to squeeze it in. Holy Cow! It never rains but what it pours. In addition to those projects, we have hauled 10 tons of gravel to Sour Dough, pulled, cut, and shoveled out hundreds of saplings from the property, repainted the deck, painted the shed, and the playhouse, and tried to really upgrade the place. But, it is so beautiful there amongst all the folliage, and the wildlife that roam the place. We have already had 3 groups of friends visit us for dutch oven dinners at Sour Dough, and how we enjoyed their company. Our family members are planning to come, also, for Fred's 78th B-Day. So, that updates us for a little while. Hopefully, all of you will receive this and will let us know what goes on in your life. Love ya' lots.

Hello: Guess what?

Can you believe that an old lady like me is trying to "blog"? Well, neither can I, but here we go.