First May Weekend

Here are the highlights of the very busy end of the week and weekend.  

On Thursday, the small condo we have owned for several years as rental property went on the market. Our condo is the one in the middle level.  It's been a good income property in a very nice complex, but we decided to sell it and invest the money into a larger home in Southern Utah that has no HOA.  Our realtor told us that we already have a showing of the condo scheduled for Monday.  The real estate market isn't great right now, but we are hopeful that we can sell it and get enough to pay off the home we bought last summer.  We have a good realtor, and the place is very nice inside and it is well-priced, so we are hopeful. 

I took some personal time off and attended the annual BYU Women's Conference with my daughter both Thursday and Friday.  It was fun and refreshing to gather with over 10,000 women of faith to learn important things and deepen our relationship with God.  We enjoyed the classes, and meeting and chatting with many of the speakers.  It was an uplifting and spiritually recharging experience.

After the conference sessions on Friday, my daughter invited me to attend my six-year-old granddaughter's musical recital for a program my granddaughter is in called We Play Music.  It was fun to see the children put on display the musical skills they are gaining. My little granddaughter is the third from the right in the picture. 

Here is a picture of my granddaughter and I, after the performance.

 

Here's a cute picture of my daughter and granddaughter.   It was fun to attend the performance. 

After the performance, my son-in-law suggested that I stop by and say hello to my older 17-year-old granddaughter at work.  She works at a Crumble Cookie store.  She was surprised but pleased to see me.

Of course, you can't go to Crumbl Cookie without bringing home a little treat,  so Charly, Josh and I have been enjoying these a little piece at a time all weekend. 

Saturday morning, we went back to our daughter's house to go to a plant sale with her.  A family in her town grows all kinds of seedlings in their greenhouses and then sells them in the spring.  We got tomatoes, several different kinds of melons - including Honey Dew and Cantaloupe, a pepper plant, and a strawberry plant. 

Later in the day, we got all of the little seedings planted in our garden.  I hope they grow and do well. 

Saturday afternoon, Josh asked Charly and I to go with him to look at apartments, which we did.  These are some of the places we looked at.  Josh will be living here at our house for a while so he can work and save money, but he wanted to get some ideas about rent prices and locations that would work for him when he moves out.  

Sunday morning, we were up and off to church, as usual.  It was sunny with some clouds, as you can see in the picture of our Sunday morning sky. 

Sunday afternoon, after I took a little nap, I decided to go for a walk.  You can see that the sky was no longer blue.  It was cold and breezy and I had to wear a jacket.  

I love seeing the flowers of spring which are all over the neighborhood.  

Sunday dinner was country fried steak, mashed potatoes and country gravy with fresh, steamed green beans.  To me, this is a total "comfort food" meal and it is one of my favorites!

After dinner, Josh and I drove to our favorite walking spot for a little after dinner walk.  It was raining by the time we got there, however, so we just drove home.  After I post this, I plan to take my shower and do some reading until bedtime.  

Weekend Gratitude:

• Attending BYU Women's Conference with my daughter.
• Seeing my grandkids and watching the youngest's musical performance.
• Getting our income-property condo listed for sale. 
• Planting our garden.
• Finding some good apartments that Josh can move into as soon as he saves some money.
• Receiving needed rain on Sunday. 
• Josh is starting his new job with two days of orientation and first day of work on Wednesday.

Praying for:

• Josh to do well in his new job. 
• Our little condo to sell quickly and for a good price. 
• Stressful work situation to be resolved.
• A grandchild who is going through a hard time. 
• Our nation.

That's all for this weekend.  Thanks for visiting.  Have a great week.

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"But I will sing of 

your strength,

in the morning I will 

sing of your love;

for  you are my fortress,

my refuge in times

of trouble.
~ Psalm 59:16

The Week and Weekend at the End of April

 

Our weather this past week has been typical spring weather here in the Mountain West. We had several days of sunshine and blue skies, followed by clouds and rain all day on Thursday.  

On Thursday, Josh had three job interviews and he got two job offers on the spot!  He was very pleased.  He decided to take the job that seems to have the best future.  The job is entry-level right now, but it is with a good organization that likes to promote from within.  This building, in downtown Salt Lake City is where he will be working. He will have orientation on May 5 & 6 and begin work on May 7.  We are very grateful that he got a job so quickly.

Thursday night, the women's group at church had a special activity.  We started with a service project of collecting and sorting new and like new clothing for children in need. 

We also donated books to the domestic violence shelter in this area.  After the service project, there was time to visit and fellowship and have refreshments.  We then went into our chapel area for a message from a guest speaker involved in women's ministry for our church.  It was a very nice evening. 

Friday was our 14-year-old grandson's birthday, so we took him out for a birthday lunch on Saturday. He chose to go to Chipotle. We all had a nice time together. 

We sure enjoy one-on-one time with each grandchild when they have their birthdays!

Later we went back to their house to spend some time with the rest of the family.  Here are four of our five grandchildren.  Our ten-year-old granddaughter was missing from this picture because she had gone to a friend's house to play. 

Saturday afternoon was warm and beautiful.  I went for a little walk, until my still-healing broken foot started to hurt, so I cut the walk a little short. 

These cute little flowers are growing in my front garden.  I planted them last spring and they didn't do much, but this year they are really taking hold. 

Charly and Josh helped get the vegetable garden ready for planting.  We are planning to get some plants next week and get them in the ground. 

Saturday night was our 17-year-old granddaughter's prom.  She looked so beautiful in her prom dress!  My daughter texted me this gorgeous picture. 

Sunday morning, when we went to church, it was cool, and cloudy and breezy.  Later we had a little rain, but by 2 p.m., the sun was out.  

Sunday afternoon, we went to the home of friends we have known since before we were married.  The husband has been in and out of the hospital over the past week, and isn't doing well.  We took them dinner and stayed to visit for a few minutes. 

For Sunday dinner, we had broccoli and chicken casserole, along with baby spring mix salad and muffins.  

Over the last week, I finished four books, four nonfiction, and one fiction.  The picture shows what books I read and how many stars I gave each one on Goodreads.  I am also planning a book review post hopefully next week.

As the new week gets started, I am reading a memoir about a family fleeing Syria as refugees called A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea, and a book I started before Easter about Jesus' path to the cross called Via Dolorosa. 

Weekend Gratitude:

• Spending time with our daughter and her family and taking our grandson to lunch for his birthday. 
• Taking dinner to and visiting with our friends.
• Getting our garden ready for planting. 
• Enjoying some warm and sunny spring weather and a little spring rain.

If I could please ask for the prayers of my blogging friends and readers - things have become very stressful again at work, to the point that I am seriously thinking of transferring to a different school or retiring a year before I had planned to.  I am asking for prayers that I will know what to do, and for help in making the very big and impactful retirement decision.  Thank you so much! 🙏

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"...for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, 

The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."

~Hebrews 13:5-6

The Past Weekend

This past weekend was a pretty good one.  Here are some of the highlights. 

Friday night after dinner, Charly and I went over to our local nearby Crumbl Cookie store and got a dozen cookies to take to our granddaughter for her birthday on Saturday.  Her 17th birthday is Sunday so we wanted to take her breakfast for her birthday on Saturday. 

After we got the cookies, I got the Easter bags ready for all of our Utah County grandchildren. We also took them some paint-by-number kits because they all really enjoy artistic projects. 

Saturday morning, we got up early and went to our daughter's home.  We picked up our granddaughter and took her to a breakfast restaurant of her choice. She chose a crepe place that was very good.  Here is a picture of Charly and our granddaughter waiting for our breakfast order. 

We really enjoyed eating and visiting with our granddaughter who is growing into a very lovely young woman. 

This is the crepe that I ordered.  It had a cookie in the middle of the crepe with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel all over the top.  It was good, and the most sugar I have had in quite a while.  

After we took our granddaughter home, Charly and I went to our favorite used bookstore in Utah County, Pioneer Book. I had a box of books to turn in for credit.  It is always fun to browse all the used books at this large used bookstore.  Charly found a book he wanted.  I didn't get any books there.  I got a couple at thrift store we went to later.  

After the bookstore, it was lunch time, so we stopped at our favorite kolache place for a little lunch.  

Charly enjoyed reading the book he bought while enjoying his kolache. 

Saturday was another cloudy gray day.  You can see how low the clouds were on the mountains.  When we got home in the afternoon, all of the streets were wet, so it rained at our home, but not where we were in Utah County. 

Saturday night after dinner, we finished the Netflix series American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders. We then started a new documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal.  I enjoy documentaries. 

Sunday morning started off gray and cloudy.  We went to church, as usual. 

We attended our main worship service, then Charly and I went to the separate men's and women's classes. This is our woman's class. 

By the time we came out to get in the car after church, the clouds had lifted and we had sunny, blue skies.  Sunday's temperatures got up into the higher 50s, which was so nice. 

Sunday afternoon, I finished this book, Habits of Holy Men by Don Staheli and Lloyd Newell.  It wasn't a very long book, but it was chock full of good stuff.  

Our Sunday dinner was a delicious ham and cheese sandwich roll.  I got the recipe and directions over at Mari's blog, My Little Corner of the World.    Look for the recipe under Cooking Thursday.  

We had tater tots and green salad with Sandwich.  It was all delicious, and best of all, we will have leftovers for tomorrow's dinner.  I always get the best recipe ideas from Mari's blog. 

After dinner on Sunday, we watched some more of Operation Varsity Blues on Netflix.  It's an interesting and troubling documentary. 

Finally, some of you are friends with me on Facebook, and I wanted you all to know that I have deactivated my account for a while, so you won't find me there and won't be able to message me on Facebook Messenger.  The reason I deactivated my account is kind of a long story, but I hope to be back on in a couple of months. Until then, feel free to email me through the link on my blog.  

Weekend Gratitude:

• Seeing our granddaughters on Saturday.
• Taking our 17-year-old granddaughter to breakfast.
• Having an enjoyable Saturday in Utah County with Charly.
• Traveling safely.
• Worshiping at church Sunday morning. 
• Josh is making progress on his capstone paper.

Coming up this week:

Tuesday - ACT test for 11th graders at school

Tuesday - Social Security and Medicare meeting at our school district offices

Praying For:

• My children and grandchildren
• My broken foot
• Our nation
• A situation at school that is causing me a bit of an issue and is the reason I deactivated my Facebook account.

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy 

and peace in believing,

that ye may abound in hope, 

through the power of the Holy Ghost."
~ Romans 15:13

February - Off to a Good Start!

Here are the highlights of the first weekend of February in our world. 

Friday evening, Charly and I started our weekend by going to the temple to worship.  

We love attending and worshipping at the temple together.  It was a wonderful and peaceful way to spend a Friday evening and I really needed it after a month that had many troubling things happen in our country and the world.  We try to worship at the temple at least once a month, in addition to our regular Sunday worship meetings. 

Saturday morning, we got up and walked at the mall just as it was opening for the day. We walked there for about 40 minutes, then we headed to our daughter's house. 

We took some Valentines crafts for our grandchildren.  Here are the two youngest girls hard at work on their crafts.

All of the grands enjoy doing artistic projects.  Here is the youngest with one of the Valentine's pictures she made. 

We had a family pizza lunch together, then we watched the kids play. 

This is the youngest dancing for us. 

It was so much fun to spend the afternoon with our daughter and her family.  For the most part, the grandchildren get along well with each other and enjoy playing together.  

When we got home, I put the painted rock that Hattie painted for me in a special place by a picture of the family. 

We put the little heart ornament that Hattie made for us on the refrigerator by family pictures and other fun things from our children and grandchildren.  Our refrigerator has become a family shrine of sorts, and we remember the people we love and the wonderful memories we have with them every time we walk through the kitchen. 

Sunday was a cloudy and windy day, but the temperatures were up into the 50s.  We attended our main worship service, then later we went to the nursing home/care center to help with the service there. 

In the afternoon, I indexed 156 records from four pages from a city directory from Salem, Massachusetts.  The city directory was from the 1930s and 1940s.  I haven't indexed for a while, but had some time this Sunday afternoon. I index from microfilmed images from the Familysearch.org platform.  This allows people looking for family records to more easily access and read the records.  It is a way of helping to preserve historic records so they are not lost.

For Sunday dinner, we decided to have what Charly called a "summertime picnic meal" in the middle of winter.  We had pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, macaroni and cheese and green salad, along with some kettle chips.  It was all so yummy!

After dinner, I got some Valentine's cards ready to send to our son Josh and grandson Miles. We included some gift cards to Maverik for gas because both of these young men are always in need of gas for their cars.  It's a small way we can tell them we are thinking of and care about them. 

After I post this,  I'll take a shower, then read and relax before bed.  Tomorrow, it's up at 5 a.m. and back to school for another full week in the classroom.

Weekend gratitude:

• Having a great visit with our  daughter and grandchildren.
• Traveling safely this weekend. 
• Enjoying time with Charly.
• Catching up on rest. 

Coming up this week:

Monday - Staff meeting after school

Tuesday - Appointment after school

Saturday - Breakfast with my cousin

Saturday - Haircut

Sunday - Helping with worship service at the rehab/care center

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope your February is off to a very good start!  See you again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"In February, there is everything to hope

and nothing to regret."

~anon.