Happy Birthday Lynell Sunday Six

Today is my firstborn's birthday.

For my Sunday Six this week, I want to tell you six things about Lynell that make me smile.

1. Lynell is cheerful to be around.

She was born happy.

As a baby she would wake up each morning singing.

2. Lynell is an optimist.

Because she loves God and trusts Him she does not doubt when life gets hard.

She looks for and finds the good in situations.

Even in the midst of hard times she can find the "silver lining"

The name of her blog "An Ordinary Miracle" is an example of her optimistic attitude.

3. Lynell is considerate and helpful.

She notices when others need help and gives it.

Even when she is visiting family on vacation she always pitches in and works.

She goes the extra mile... again and again.

4. Lynell is friendly .

Lynell has always made friends easily.

By the end of her first day of kindergarten she had made new friends to walk home with and did not want me to drive her.

She reaches out to others and they feel her warmth and goodness.

5. Lynell is a hard worker.

She doesn't do a job half way.

She teaches and choreographs her dance classes with her whole heart.

She puts great effort into her photography business.

She works hard at whatever task is at hand.

6. Lynell is a great wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend

Her love for family and friends is evident each day....

and we all adore her!

Lynell has many gifts and talents.

She has blessed my life every day since her birth.

Happy birthday dear daughter.

I wish that I was there to celebrate with you today.

Much love, Mom

My Father's Day Sunday Six

Happy Father's Day

My father wasn't around when I was young. He left our family when I was 7 and I didn't see him again until I was a teenager. He died when I was 22. I am sorry that I did not have more of a relationship with him.... but then life is what it is.


My earthly father never got to know me very well or love me very much.

However, I do have a Heavenly Father who knows me well and loves me.

I am thankful that I know this is true.

I want to share with you how I came to know this...beyond any doubt.

...

As a child my mother taught me to pray. I attended church with her regularly and learned to respect and worship God and Jesus. I grew to love my Saviour. I felt great appreciation for his sacrifice and overwhelmed that He loves me enough to die for me.

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Somehow, while I worshipped God and prayed to Him, I did not feel like He was really my Father. Maybe it was because I didn't have a relationship with my earthly father it was hard to imagine me having a Heavenly Father.
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My mother died when I was 41. We were very close and her death came at a hard time in my life. The company my husband worked for had folded and John was out of work. I had to start working to help support our family. I was in my first year of teaching high school and my first year of working on my Master's degree. (I was required to go back to college in order to get my CA credential.) I was overwhelmed with working, being a student , a wife, a mother and taking care of my sick mother.

...

My mother was very ill and lived with us at the time. In spite of her fragile health she was a great support to me. Her love and encouragement were a great source of strength to me.

And then she was gone. I held her in my arms as she drew her last breath and I kissed her goodbye.
...

A few weeks later I decided that I should clean out her things and give them away.

As I knelled on the floor and opened one of her drawers the scent of her perfume hit me. As I looked at her things and saw notes written by her hand I was overcome with great grief.

I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders.

I cried out "Mother, I miss you. I need you. If only I could talk with you I know you would help me and make me feel better."

So great was my grief that it seemed to push me to the floor and bare down on me.

...

While I was in this state, sobbing, I began to feel warm.... like arms were wrapped around me.

I felt a calming peace surround me.

My heart began to pound and felt full of joy.

In my mind I heard these words...

"My dear daughter, your mother is gone, but I am here to help you.

She loves you but I love you even more.

She knows you well but I know you even better.

You can not talk with her for a season, but I am here and you can always talk to me.

I am always ready to listen and to help.

Come to me. I am your Heavenly Father. I wait with open arms."

These words were only in my mind but I heard them as clearly as I would have had they been spoken out loud.

At that moment I knew that God really was my father....

....My Father in Heaven...

and I was his daughter whom He knew and loved.

How wonderful it is to know that I really am a child of God....

...we are all children of loving Heavenly Father.

I am so thankful for that knowledge and testimony.

...

I am also thankful for the wonderful men and fathers that I have in my life now.

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My John is a dear husband, father and grandfather.

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My son David and my 3 sons-in-law love their wives, their families, us and their Heavenly Father. They include us in their lives and welcome us in their homes. What a blessing that is for John and me.

...
Today I am smiling as I think of them with thankfulness in my heart.

I think that the pictures I am posting today are self evident.

How wonderful to have these good men in my life.

# 1 is my hubby John

He is a loving husband and father.

He is a great grampy



Just ask any of his 13 grandchildren

(well Evan may be too young to ask but the others will tell you.)

They all adore him

What a sweet Grampy.

What a sweet dad.

...

# 2 Dathan is my oldest daughter Lynell's husband.

Dathan is a hard worker and a kind and tender soul.
We are so glad to have Dathan in our family.

...
#3 is Ernie, our second daughter Mindy's husband.

Mindy and Ernie live close to us and include us in every
family activity and holiday. We also have dinner together every Sunday.

What a blessing it is for us to live close to this sweet family.

Ernie is special to us.

...

#4 is Patrick, our youngest daughter Erin's husband.

It took Erin 10 years to find her dear Patrick but he is worth the wait.

There is not a more loving and devoted couple to be found anywhere.

Patrick is thrilled to be a new father
He just can't get enough of his boy.

...

#5 is our son David.

David is a great dad.

It is so much fun watching him singing and interacting with his children.

I had such a good time watching my baby boy with his new baby boy.

What a blessing it is to have a son like David.

...

So on this Father's day I am thankful to know that

I have a Heavenly Father

and

I have these 5 good men and fathers in my life.

Happy Father's Day to all of you good Father's.

May God Bless you all.

Have a great week. I hope you will have lots to smile about.

(((Hugs)))) Grammy Lura

Please help me I need your input and vote

Dear Blog friends I need your input.

I don't think US Airways is dealing with me fairly.

Do you?

Please read my story and vote on the poll on the top of my sidebar.

On my recent flight on US Airways ..

My arm got burnt by hot water falling off of the beverage cart

and

My suitcase got crushed to pieces and ruined

I took these pictures after I was burned ,while I was still on the plane.
The hot water pitcher fell of off the beverage cart. Hot water spilled on me soaking my jacket and burning my arm. As you can see the burn covered quite a large area.


It remained tender and sore for days.


On top of that my suitcase got ruined.
The plastic inside was crushed into many pieces.

The wood inside the plastic and fabric was crushed and splintered.
My bag is totally ruined.

I thought US Airways would offer to replace my suitcase and give me a complementary ticket voucher as compensation.

I have had several friends who have been given free tickets for much less.

I expressed this in an email to US Airways (you can't call in a complaint)

I got the following offer:
$25 off of a round trip ticket costing $150-$249
$50 off of a round trip ticket costing $250 to $399
$75 off of a round trip ticket costing $400 to $499
$100 off of a round trip ticket costing $500 or more

I replied and told them I was not satisfied with their offer.
(One friend got a free round trip voucher just because the beverage cart was blocking her way to the bathroom and she had to wait to use it because they wouldn't let her go into the first class bathroom. My blog friend, Jan told me that she and her friend both got round trip tickets just because there was a mix up with the seats and they didn't get to sit by each other.)

I got this reply back from US Airways:

"I apologize for the incident on the flight; however, after careful evaluation, we were unable to discover any additional concerns causing us to reconsider our original compensation. "

Well....there you have it.
I have heard nothing back about replacing my suitcase and they are only offering me 10% to 20% off the cost of my next ticket purchased depending on the cost.

I don't think they are being fair.
Am I being unreasonable? (I don't want to be unreasonable)
What do you think?
Please vote on my sidebar poll. It is located at the top right side of my blog.

Also I would appreciate it if you would ask your blog readers to come over and vote.

The poll will be open for 6 days. I really want to know what you think.


Thanks, Lura

Sunday Six Reasons to Smile

Hello Dear Blog Friends

I just got back home to CA again.

In the last month I have traveled from America's southern to northern borders and from the pacific ocean to the Atlantic.

As I traveled by car, ship and airplane across the width and breadth of this great land I thought about how much I love my country. I am sorry that America gets negative press at times in the media. I love America. My heart is touched as I see our flag waving over our land of the free. As I travel throughout the land I meet so many good people who love God, family and their fellowmen.

Living in America makes me smile.

I believe that my foreign friends feel the same way about their countries. God has blessed us with a beautiful world to enjoy no matter what corner of it we call home.

...

However, after almost a month of traveling, I am glad to be at home again,

even though I miss being with my out of state family already.

I had wonderful visits with each of them.

...

I am smiling from ear to ear as I think of the time we spent together.

I am blessed to have such a loving and supportive family.

I think John was sweet to let me fly off across the USA on the spur of the moment to help David's family when little Evan was born! That meant that he had to drive all the way to Utah alone....without me to talk to... or pack . (and he actually remembered to pack his toothbrush)

Nothing in this world could bring me more joy than my family does.
As I look back over the past days these are just a few of the things that made me smile.

My kitchen helpers made me smile.

I had a lot of fun cooking for my son's family while I was there helping them after our new little Evan was born. The "big" kids were eager to help me in the kitchen ...

and ...I loved having the "help".

Davey, Gracee and Emma were happy with the pineapple upside down cake we made.

Can you blame them???? Doesn't it look yummy?

...

Grace's bravery made me smile.

Gracee told me that she had a goal of getting her loose tooth out before I left there last Friday.
It was her first loose tooth and she was nervous about getting it pulled.

She kept telling me that she was going to do it before I left... And she did!!!

Thursday eve. just before climbing into bed she crawled up on her daddy's lap and asked him to pull it. (Doesn't she look cute in the little night gown I made her? It is almost too small for her now . I think she wore it just to make me feel good.)

After a few tugs the tooth came out.

Gracee was so pleased.... you can see that Davey was not as excited about it.

Good for you Gracee Girl!!! You are a lot braver than I was when I was a little girl getting my teeth pulled.

..

Giving Calan his blanket made me smile.

(Am I asleep in this picture?? Maybe I was just being shy???)

For the last 10 years I have made a blanket for each of our new grand babies.

Erin asked me to make one to match Cal's room.
The theme of his room is airplanes and his colors are blue and brown.

I made this crazy nine patch work quilt for him.

I am not a good quilter but Cal told me that he likes it just the way it is....flaws and all.
...
Calan's smiles make me smile.

Don't they make you smile too?

He had smiles for his Grampy.

(Even though he just turned 2 months , Cal seemed old compared to our new little Evan I had just left.)
He had smiles for his Grammy.

Now I ask you.....isn't he darling!!!!!!

Those dimples melt my heart!

He is full of coos and smiles and so much fun. There was a tender movie on TV but none of us could pay attention to the show because we couldn't take our eyes off of our cute smiling boy.

Watching Erin and Patrick watch Cal brought even more smiles to my face.

It is so obvious how much they adore their baby boy.

Adoption is a wonderful, loving gift.

We are all so thankful to have Cal in our family. What a blessing.
...

Jalen's driving lesson with Grampy made me smile.

Jalen will soon be old enough to get a learner's permit to drive so Grampy decided to give him a driving lesson.

Upps!
...
The first day of summer vacation from school makes me smile.

After years and years of being a student and then a teacher, the first day of summer vacation ranks right up there with Christmas and birthdays in my mind. (Probably even better than birthdays now that I am getting so old.)
And what did my newly graduated Justin and his brothers do their first day of freedom?
They played all day of course....wii...pool...basketball...ping pong...board games... you name it and they played it last Monday.

It was a big day for Johnny and Jalen too. Jalen graduated from Jr. high and Johnny graduated from elementary school the Friday before....the same day Justin graduated from high school.
Lynell let them play all day Monday and enjoy the moment...
but then at Family Night that night she announced what their summer schedule was going to be.
There is going to be lots of things...yard work, house work, lessons, exercise time, scripture reading time as well as play to keep them busy all summer.
Justin heads off to Army boot camp in August and we all know how much fun that is going to be!
...
And what was Lonica doing while the boys were busy playing games?

Sewing up a storm.
Loni is like her Grammy and loves to sew. She is very creative and makes all sorts of cute things.
She is her Grammy's girl.... that is for sure. Smile.... Smile...Smile.
...
Upps.... I listed more that six smile makers.
Oh well, I have so much to smile about that I couldn't limit it to six this week.
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I have been really tired since we got home and I haven't even had the energy to turn on my computer.... however..... I will catch up with all of you soon.
I think of you all the time.
You blog friends are special to me.
I hope that you have a great, smiling week ahead.
Love and best wishes, Lura

My Marvelous May & Joyful June

I have just had the most MARVELOUS MAY ever.

Instead of doing my Sunday Six this week I am going to do a May recap.

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I have had a lot of Mays in my life....64 to be exact.

From start to finish...May 2009 took the cake!!!

I doubt if I live to be 100 I will ever have a better May. You already know about most of these things but I'll post some new pictures as I make this recap. So here goes.......
Week 1

The first week of May I spent at the beach with my dear friend, Sil.

We have loved going to the beach since we were young girls. Going to the beach together takes us back in time and for brief moments we feel young again. (Very brief moments.... until we look in the mirror ....or try to run on the beach..lol)

Just being together is a treat for both of us. We visit for hours, watch movies to our hearts content and eat, eat, eat and eat. We also celebrated her birthday together.
What a fun way to start our May.
...

Week 2
May 10th John took me on a Mother's Day cruise to Canada.

(Can you tell that the wind was blowing from looking at my hair???)

From the 10th to the 17th we had a wonderful time aboard the ship and visiting beautiful Victoria and Vancouver.

I think that there are no prettier places on earth than those we saw in Canada.
What a lovely experience. I still want to do some cruise posts when I have time.
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Week 3
May 17-19 we had a visit with little Cal and his mommy and daddy.

They came to CA while John and I were still on our cruise.

What a treat to get a surprise visit from our 12th grandchild.
This was a lovely way to end our cruise.
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Week 4
May 25th we celebrated Memorial day and John's birthday.

Mindy and family came over and we had a wonderful day together.

We had a great ribeye steak BBQ with all the trimmings...

... and played in the pool...

Then we sang happy birthday and helped Grampy blow out his candles.
(We were helping him celebrate the 28th anniversary of his 39th birthday!!! lol)

May 26th Evan Levi was born...

...and I flew east to meet him on May 27th.

I had a wonderful time with my "baby boy" who is now 6 feet tall and the father of 4.

It was great to be with David, Marla and their precious children.

The children adore their baby brother and I adore all of them.

It was my priveledge and pleasure to share this special time with them.

I am so glad that I got to help them out when they needed it.

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I hated to leave them yesterday. I will treasure the time I spent there in my heart forever.
Marla's mom will arrive next Monday and take over where I left off so they will be in good hands.

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Wasn't that a marvelous May!!!

...and...

June is off to a jolly start as well.
Yesterday morning, bright and early I boarded a west bound plane.

It still amazes me that I can be on the ground one minute...

...and soaring above the clouds a few minutes later.

After a flight to Chicago and a 2 hour layover, I caught my connecting flight and 4 1/2 hours later I was in SLC, Utah

I often think of the months of hardship, suffering and death the pioneers faced coming west.... and I was able to do it, door to door, in 9 hours. It is amazing!!!!

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Last night, June 5th, I attended my grandson Justin's High School Graduation.

It was held in the event center at Weber College.

(Can you spot Justin in the crowd?)

Dathan and Lynell are proud of their dear son.

Justin is a wonderful young man. He graduated with a 4.0 gpa and has already earned 1 year college credit while attending high school.

He has enlisted in the Army Reserves and leaves for boot camp in August.

He will be trained as a medic. After 6 months of boot camp and training Justin will be certified as a EMT paramedic and ready to serve his country.

Justin was badly burned when he was 3 years old. He has been through years of surgeries and is no stranger to suffering. As he was growing up he often said that he wanted to be a doctor. I think his training as a medic will be a good start for him. I know that he will be of great service to those in pain that he treats. I hope that he will not be called on to serve in harm's way... but where ever it takes him ,Justin feels strongly that this is the path he wants to take.

Parents, Grandparents and his older brother Jordan attended the graduation. The rest of the family celebrated with us at home.

This is the first grandson that we could see graduate. John and I were still teaching when Jordan graduated 2 years ago and we could not leave our own teaching assignments to attend.

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Today we are at John's brother's home staying with his sister Celia while Forrest and RoLayne get away for a little while and attend the temple.

Celia still hangs on to life by a thread. Forrest and RoLayne give her loving care 24/7.

We are so grateful for the loving service they give her day in and day out. I wish that we lived closer and could be of help more often.

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Tonight we will go see Lonica dance in a program.

Tomorrow we will drive down to visit Erin, Patrick and Cal.

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Our dear Marie from Oak Cottage asked me if I was black and blue from pinching myself. I should be.... because I have had to keep pinching myself all month to see if I was awake or dreaming.

This last month has been amazing.

A once in a life time kind of month.

I am very thankful and appreciative for all of these wonderful experiences and blessings.

I hope that you are doing well too.

I send love and best wishes.

Grammy Lura