How Did Cosmo Do It?

When I came home from Church 2 weeks ago, my dog Cosmo did not meet me at the door. Since I have a dog door, he generally comes running into the house to let me know in his loudest voice that it is time to feed him. Five minutes went by and he still didn't come in, so I opened the door and called him. When he finally graced me with his presence, he was limping. I thought I had better go out and see what dangerous thing in the yard had injured him. Cosmo limped past me to the spot in the yard that had kept him so busy:

He had somehow managed to get this large container of dog food out of his dog door.

This is actually the most benign thing that Cosmo has tried to eat. On several separate occasions (generally while I am at Church,) he has lived through stealing and eating the following:

15 sticks of gum and 9 pieces of Double Bubble Gum, all in 1 hour's time or less.

5 blocks of Tom Cat Mouse poison and a small bag of butter mints

64 Lactaid Pills at one time

1 box of Wheat Thins

1 loaf of bread

When I had forgotten that I had a cookie in my pocket one day, I found my coat halfway out of his dog door. He was going through my pockets searching for anything edible.

He has stolen my purse and taken it outside so he can look for mints or gum.

Of course, he always takes his stolen prizes outside to eat them because he KNOWS that he is doing something wrong, but he is so addicted to food.

You must think I am an irresponsible dog owner, but the truth is that he is way too smart.

He has figured out how to push chairs out from under the table so he can climb up on things. I had the mouse poison up high on a shelf; I still don't know how he got it.

He is really a character, but I love him dearly.

I'm so grateful he has had more lives than a cat, but now he is testing fate.

It seems that it was a hard enough task for him to get that big jar outside, but what really puzzles me is how he unscrewed that big lid off of it. Notice that he is limping and holding his right front paw up in the air.

Now Ducks Are Dining in My Yard!

(To view video, click on the arrow on bottom left under the photo)

When I was leaving the temple on Tuesday, I saw a pair of ducks sitting in the grass in the front of the temple near where I had parked.

I told them they were pretty birds. They ate it up. Then after I got home, I was amazed to see 2 ducks eating under the Catalpa tree by the shed.

Ever since I was little, stray kittens and dogs always followed me home.

Now birds are doing it.

Birds are getting smarter every year.

Thinking of Randy today

Every day, a 1000 times a day, I miss you. People said it would get easier as time passes BUT THEY ARE WRONG. Each day that passes is just one more day that I have without you, so that makes it harder, not easier. It was exactly 3 years ago today when I last held your hand and told you that I love you. I yearn to hear your voice and see that gorgeous smile of yours again. I want to have you make me laugh again. How could I have ever been so lucky as to have you want me for your wife?

Before we met, I had insulated myself

I felt safe

No one could hurt me any more.

I said I didn't need anybody.

Then you came into my life.

You came and broke down my walls

You kissed my soul with love

We were one.

Now my walls are gone

And so are you. . . .

I feel so lost.

My 5 handsome grandsons from Arizona

Chase is age 17 and in 11th grade. He sings in one of his high school choirs.

In the past, he has played football, but soccer has been his favorite sport ever since he was very young and started playing it. He also likes running.

He is an excellent student and is very good at playing the piano.

Below is one of my favorite memories of him.

When Chase was 2 or 3 & Jerel was assembling their new table, Chase quickly ran into his bedroom & got his toy tools. Then he started helping his dad fix the table.

Jordan and Ryder in 2010 (Left)

Jordan (Right) is age 15 and in 10th grade in high school, where he sings in the men's chorus, is an excellent student, loves to read, is very good at playing the piano, and wants to play football next year.

Tanner ( above left) will be 13 this April and is in the 7th grade. He loves playing baseball, is an excellent student, is on the student council, and is very good at playing the piano. He also participated in his city's track meet.

Trevor (above right) is age 9, in 3rd grade, and is a great student. He plays basketball, soccer, and computer games. He's very good at playing the piano and makes up his own songs, too.

Here Chase is helping Trevor to learn how to tie his new Scottish tartan tie. I gave all the boys tartan ties (made out of a unique plaid material that represents their last name) for Christmas. Tanner also wanted a McKinnon tartan tie since my grandfather, Tanner's great great grandfather, Archibald William McKinnon, was 100% Scottish, too.

Here is Ryder. He turned 1 in December.

I love his smile. Camille has to get her running shoes on because he has now been walking for 5 days.

These are all of Camille and Jerel's boys. I just can't believe how handsome they all are, and I love all of them so much. I wished they lived closer to me.

2 Valentine's Day Candy Houses in 2 Days

When I flew to Boise in November, I took 2 suitcases--one with clothes and the other was full of candy, cookies, and cereal. After we ate a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Nickie's, I thought the grandkids would have fun watching me make a Candy/Cookie house, so Nickie and I made 2. One for her children and one for my dear friends, Dan and Diane Edwards. Two weeks later I flew down to Mesa, Arizona, taking 2 more suitcases and made another Candy/Cookie house for my 5 grandsons down there. I wanted to make 2 more at Christmas time for my 4 grandchildren who live in the Salt Lake area, but I was so busy with my Christmas project for my sister Charlene, that I didn't get the other 2 houses made. Therefore, I decided to make them for Valentine's Day. This being a little unorthodox, I decided to call them Hansel & Gretel houses, so I bought 2 Hansel and Gretel books, made Scandavian Heartbaskets and filled them with candy, thus receiving the Candy house for Valentine's Day would make sense.

Here's the cute book I bought

and the heartbaskets that I made for Karli and Sage.

They were both such good readers

they both could read the book to me.

Sage and Karli with the first house on February 13.

Avery and Nash with their Valentine House.

Nash with his heartbasket--

notice it is without the candy since he already ate it.

A Christmas Miracle: Charlene's CD Album

Last June of 2010, I started worrying about how my sister Charlene's music needed to be recorded and how her children and grandchildren had never heard most of her music and had no idea of how prolific a composer she has been. My goal was to record all of her compositions onto CDs and give them to all of her children for Christmas. It was a daunting but enjoyable task. By December, we had recorded over 360 tracks of music which included 174 song titles plus minus tracks. The finished album of 10 CDs took over 7 months to complete and took up over 9 gigs of memory on the recording studio computer!

Below is a photo of Charlene recording her music at Full Fidelity,

the recording studio of Steve Phillips. He is seated behind Charlene.

Steve is so good at what he does and is so easy to work with; we would have

never been done by Christmas if we had gone to any other recording studio.

We spent so much time together,

I feel like Steve is a member of our family.

As a child, I remember hearing her at the piano composing into the wee hours of the morning. She wrote her first 2 compositions when she was only 14 years old. I have always wanted the world to know her music. She could have written music that could have been performed on Broadway. She could have performed on Broadway. She certainly had the voice and acting ability, plus beauty. The top photo of the album cover shows her performing when she was Miss Carbon County.

Below is a picture of Charlene when she was a runner up

for Miss Utah National Guard.

In 1977 she won 1st Prize in the Churchwide Relief Society song writing contest with "A Women's Prayer." It was sung when they dedicated all of the Relief Society Monuments in Nauvoo June 28, 1978, as well as also being sung in the Tabernacle when they held the 1st Women's Conference in the Fall of 1978. To the left is the front cover of when the Church published "A Women's Prayer" and also a photo of the statue that inspired the song Charlene wrote.

* * * *

I am so proud of Charlene. She is one of the truly Celestial people that walks on this earth today.

Dearest Camille--Happy Birthday

I brought you home from the hospital

when you were only 2 days old.

Since we didn't have ultrasound in those days,

I took a yellow outfit to the hospital because I didn't know

if you were a boy or a girl until you were born.

Here you are in your first bed.

I slept in this bassinet, too, when I was first born.

You have always loved to talk on the phone.

You are very intelligent and

you have always loved to read.

You are very musical.

You have a great singing voice.

You have always loved to play games.

Even when we went to Disneyland together,

you brought your Scrabble game,

so we could play it in the hotel room.

Below is a photo of when we had a perfect game

because we had used every tile on the board.

You have always loved babies.

You have always loved to dress up.

I made this witch costume for you when you were 8 years old.

Even when you were 3 years old, you always loved to dress fashionably.

One night when you were 10, you put on my slips

and pretended they were fancy dresses--

accessorizing them

with

my scarves, ribbons, shoes, & gloves.

What a creative child you were!

What a classy gal you were at age 18!

. . . . and a beautiful bride.

Camille, you will always be my beautiful, precious daughter.

Have a wonderful day.

May God shower His blessings upon you.

I will love you forever.

Love,

Mom

Yukatas, Dragon Boats, and 1000 Cranes

On August 7, they celebrate Tanabata, the Festival of the Stars, in Sendai, Japan. While I was a missionary in Sendai, we had an investigator whose father owned a kimono shop. He made both my companion and me special yukatas (summer kimonos made out of cotton) which were hand painted with designs like the beautiful paper decorations that they hang above the streets for the Tanabata Festival. Sister missionaries don't usually wear kimonos, but we got special permission to wear them for only one hour. Here we are in the yutakas that were made especially for us. Pictured below from left to right: Me, our investigator, my companion Linda Stoddard, and a member of the Sendai Branch who went with us.

We had only walked one block when a man rushed up to me and said, "Hold my baby, so I can take your picture with her." I wonder who he thought I was.
After the second block, we were interviewed by a radio station. After the 3rd block, a reporter from the local newspaper took our picture, and after the 4th block a television station photographed us and we ended up being on the TV news. I have no idea why all the media was so interested in us, but it sure was fun.

Here's our photo as it appeared in the newspaper. Translated it says, "The Casual Kimono Style is very fitting. In paper and bamboo. . .they're pretty, aren't they?
Here are more photos of the decorations that go on for 8 blocks. Above is Sister Stoddard talking to some girls. In this photo you can see how long these decorations really are in comparison to the people below.

Did you notice the Coca Cola sign?

About the same time that Tanabata was in Sendai, the missionaries went with some of the members to Matsushima (it means Pine Islands). We rode on boats that were shaped liked dragons as they wended their way between many beautiful pine covered islands.

The photo below shows how Matsushima looks with all of its tiny pine covered islands.

After I got home from Japan and I was living in Billings, Montana, the owners of a Japanese restaurant were celebrating the 1st birthday of the their 1st child. A friend of mine was invited to the birthday party, so I decided to make a present that most people in Japan will never get. I folded 1000 cranes in one week's time as a birthday present for the child. I could fold 100 cranes in 6 hours if I wasn't interrupted, so you can see that it was a BIG project. Since I had to finish in one week, I was working every spare moment that I had and then I strung them together in Tanabata fashion. It took over 50 hours to make. I was still putting this together one hour before my friend was to go to the party. As you can tell, I had an oriental living room when I lived in Billings.

One thousand cranes are a symbol of long life and good luck. Jon told me that when the mom saw the gift she started crying and was totally surprised to receive such a gift. She didn't even know me. I just wanted to do something that would be totally unexpected.

(For those of you who know me, you know how I like to do unusual things, and giving something anonymously is even more fun.)

I Can't Believe that Someone Didn't Call the Police!

The Japanese members of the Church always liked to ask the full-time missionaries to put on special programs for them. Plus, the missionaries liked doing it because it was a fun break from everyday proselyting. When I was in Sendai, Japan, the summer of 1968, the missionaries were asked to put on a special 24th of July program, so Elder Peterson our District leader, decided to let the members have a glimpse of what pioneer life was really like. The skit was to take place in the dirt lot which was in front of the old pink building where we attended church. We affectionately called it the Pink Barn.

The elders spent a week making the log cabin, seen below, out of cardboard and in preparing for the skit. Here are the members, on July 24, 1968, calmly waiting for our program to begin. They had no idea what they were in for.

Elder Peterson talked the local junk man out of his cow and wagon for the night, so Sister Stoddard and I rode in on the wagon and Elder Peterson, our "dad for the night," led the cow into the church yard.
Elder Peterson rented a 45 revolver and here he is doing some of his fancy quick draws for the members. He was actually very adept at handling a gun, but remember we are "missionaries."

As the skit progressed, my companion and I fixed our dad dinner. We didn't have anything for costumes, so I had the idea of copying "The Sound of Music," so we used the green and white curtains from the church for our skirts and I used a paper bag to make a bonnet. I am sorry I am wearing the "bonnet" because you can't see my face, but I really was there.

Then our dad left his daughters (us) alone, so guess what happened?

Of course, the Indians attacked! Bloodcurdling war hoops startled the poor Japanese members, and out of the shadows came Elder McNeil with a flaming arrow to set the cabin on fire! (As this progressed, I was beginning to wonder if flaming arrows were against the fire code in the city of Sendai.)

Two more Indians (elders) appeared torching the cabin again and taking my companion and I captive.

Then they tied Sister Stoddard and me to the stake.

Then the Indians did something that my companion and I didn't plan on. They had soaked a rope in kerosene and then they lit it on fire. The flames were just a little bit too close for comfort and as we were encircled by flames, I got an idea of how the pioneers really had felt. I was hoping the flames wouldn't spread and that I would live to see my parents again.

Three Indians did a war dance around us while we were encircled by flames. (At this point the members were shocked. ) They thought that the Elders were being really mean to us, but then Elder Peterson, our dad, appeared with his gun, scared the Indians away, and put out the fire.

It was all really great fun and a skit like this will probably never be seen again

by the Japanese saints.

In Sendai, Japan, July 24, 1968, will go down in infamy;

and it will always be one of my favorite memories.