Sunday Smiles

Hello Again dear blog friends.

This past week has really been a busy one for me.

Besides being in Utah, driving home (with 3 grandchildren), doing our church and temple callings,doing my Goldrush travel agency work and driving 100 miles to San Diego to attend a ship inspection, we celebrated two family birthdays.

I have been too busy to hardly sit down much less get on the computer.

I have missed checking in on your blogs but I have thought of you....

...and I've had so much to smile about that it will take a month of Sundays to tell you about it.

...

As you know from my last post, John and I and all 4 of our children and their families gathered together in Utah a week ago Fri. to go to court and to the temple with Erin and Patrick when they adopted, sealed and blessed little Calan. It was a wonderful day.

However, another special occasion was in store for us the next day.

...

Evan's blessing made me smile.

Saturday morning all of our family joined with Marla's family for David's little baby Evan's blessing.

We usually have our babies blessed when they are a month or so old.

In our church the baby is given the name he or she will be known by and then the baby is given a special blessing through the power of the priesthood that will help them through out their life.

This is a special and scared occasion to us.

The child is usually blessed by his father or another family member that holds the priesthood and assisted by additional family or close friends who are also priesthood holders.

Little Evan was blessed by his dad, our son David, and assisted by his grandfathers and uncles.

Evan is almost 4 months old.

David and Marla waited until they came to Utah for Calan's adoption to bless Evan so his family from both sides could be there to share this special time with them.
We are happy that they did that.
Since David and Marla live far away from us, across the states, we don't get to spend much time with them.
Being together with them for a whole week
and attending little Evan's blessing was a precious time for us.
We were all smiling.

Grampy with our David and his boys, Davey and Evan

This is Evan with his other grandpa.

I just threw it in because I thought it was cute how David got Evan to smile.
...
Watching Dancers made me smile.

Our daughter Lynell teaches preschool dance classes.

While David's girls, Grace and Emma were visiting in Utah, Lynell got them to go to her dance classes and be her assistant teachers.

Emma took her task seriously and carefully instructed the little dancers.

So did 7 year old Grace... who is so tiny that she looked like a preschooler too.

I was full of smiles as I watched.
...
Karaoke and more dancing made me smile.

Of course our family can't get together for too long without having a karaoke fest.
Almost every night we were smiling as we sang and danced to our hearts content.

What fun!
...
Hugs and kisses for Grammy made me smile.

I just couldn't get enough of my little ones.

My lap and arms were always full... and so was my heart.
...
Justin makes me smile.

It is not just my little grandchildren that make my heart smile...

My big grandsons do too.
My 18 year old grandson, Justin, graduated from Army basic trainging

this past week.

He did well and was one of 5 that were nominated
for outstanding soldier of the company.
Lynell and Dathan flew to Kentucky to attend the ceremony.
John and I could not go but our hearts were with Justin and we were smiling.

He is now in Texas starting his specialized training to be a medic.

How we love our Justin ...and wish him well.
...
My honey makes me smile.

Both kinds of honey...my John and the yellow sweet liquid, make me smile.

Most of you said that you thought John's home made honey extractor would work.

...

Well....it did ...but only for about 5 minutes...then it froze up and broke.

He had not put bearings in the bottom and when the contraption got to spinning really fast it got so hot that the plastic parts melted together and froze up.
We were sad...but John is back to the drawing boards to try again.

However, he took the beeswax frames and drained them into a tub.

He filtered them through layers of cheesecloth to strain them.

(This took place when I was really sick with kidney stones and couldn't get pictures for you)

We ended up getting 4 quarts, 6 pints and a bear full of honey.
and
IT IS DELICIOUS!!!

I am now happy that I let Queenie and her family stay in our yard.

...

I hope that you have been smiling too.

I have a lot more I would like to share...but this is enough for now.
Until next time I send you love and wish you well, Lura

Thankful Tuesday-Come share our joy

It is Tuesday today. We just returned home from visiting with our whole family in Utah.

I am feeling very thankful which is appropriate since...

...Fall is the season of thanksgiving.

Our family has a lot to be thankful for.

We all joined together in Utah last week to celebrate with Erin, Patrick and little Calan

Last Friday, Oct. 16th, was a very special day for our family.

Early that morning we all went to court with Erin, Patrick and Calan.
We have waited for this day to come for 6 months since little Cal was born.

It was an emotional and special occasion.
Erin and Patrick were asked what this adoption meant to them.
They were asked why they wanted to adopt little Calan.
Their hearts were so full.... and their feelings so tender.... that they could hardly speak.
There was hardly a dry eye in the court room as they told the Judge of their love for little Cal and how thankful they were to his birth mother that she would allow them to be his parents.

Patrick's parents had come from Indiana. We had come from California.
All of Erin's siblings and their families also came.
John and I were thrilled that all of our children came to celebrate with Erin and Patrick.
It was quite a sacrafice for them to come.
Mindy and family came from California. David and family came from Ohio. Lynell and family drove down from Northern Utah.
We all got there early Friday morn and waited anxiously for court to begin.

The Judge said he was pleased to declare the adoption finalized.
He wished us well....and...at last...
Calan is legally ours!
...
What a blessing!
What an answer to all of our prayers.

The Judge invited us up to take this formal group picture.

When the Judge left we all burst with excitement.
Little cousins from around the country rushed to welcome baby Cal officially to the family.

After court the adults went directly to the temple.
We joined together in the same room that Erin and Patrick were married in and
little Calan was sealed to Erin and Patrick and our family for time and all eternity.
In our religion we believe that through the power of the priesthood families can be sealed (joined) together for all time.

Families can be together forever.
Now Calan is both legally and eternally ours.

What a joy it was to be in the Holy Temple with all of our children and their spouses.
Nothing could bring John and me more joy than this.

Later Friday afternoon, Cal was blessed by his father and assisted by his grandfathers and uncles ...who all hold the priesthood.

For us a baby blessing is similar to a baby christening in other churches.

It was the third special event of the day.

...

I was not able to get to a computer to do my Sunday Six Smiles but you can believe that I was certainly smiling.

I will tell you more about the wonderful time John and I had with all of our children and grandchildren (except Justin who is at Fort Knox in basic training) at another time.
...
As you can see.... thanksgiving has come early to our family... we feel very blessed and grateful.
Hugs, Grammy Lura

What is John up to now with his new Honey???

I told you last week about how my John fell madly in love with his new Queen Bee.

He risk life and limb climbing up into a tall tree to capture her and 10,000 of her family when they came buzzing into our patio several months ago.

I was afraid that he would fall and break his neck....I was yelling

"John come down from there...she is not worth killing yourself over"

...but he would not listen to me.

He survived his "high" adventure

and built Queenie and her family a nice house at the back of our property.
...
At first I ignored them.

Then for a while, to make them feel welcome and like their new home, I made them sugar syrup ,which John took out for them to eat.
I was very understanding considering the love and attention John was giving his new Honey and her brood.

...

But....lately, I decided that enough was enough!

I told John that his new honey had been a freeloader long enough.

I said that it was time for her to pay some rent for her new home.

John agreed with me.

He went out and told her that she would have to share some of her

liquid gold with us.

Queenie agreed....and didn't seem disturbed that John demanded payment.
...

That is when John's new adventure began.

He found out that a honey extractor costs $700 or more.
$700!!!!!

So John being the thrifty, clever type (cheap), decided to build is own extractor.

He spent about a week drawing up the plans and making his extractor.

He bought a large trash can and fit PCP pipe inside.

He built wooden forms to fit inside the tub over the PCP pipe.

He made a fitting for his drill.

When he turned his drill on the wooden forms spun around and around really fast.

Next he went out to Queen Bee and took 4 of her wax honeycomb frames.

He scraped the tops off of the honeycomb cells and...

...placed the frames into his contraption.

He secured the frames with another wooden contraption that he made.

He turned on his drill....and around and around the honeycomb frames went.

...

We could hardly wait to get our liquid gold.

Around and around the frames spun faster and faster.

...

Do you think it worked?

Did we get our desired gold from his new Queen Bee honey?

...

Tell me what you think? Did John's extractor work?

You will have to wait and see.

Until then, I hope that you have an un-bee-lievably good week.

Love, Lura

My John found a new honey! part 1

I thought I knew my husband well.

I have known him for 45 years ....

and been married to him for 44 years...

...

I never in a million years thought he would do something like this.

I thought I was his only Queen Bee....

...but I was wrong...

Now he has a new honey.

I should have recognized the signs.

I noticed that he had been showing a lot of interest in her kind lately.

A few months ago he even bought a hat at a garage sale just to wear when he was with her.

...but I never thought it was anything serious....

...Until early one morning a few months ago.

We were having a lovely breakfast in the patio with Claire...

when it happened!

Ms. Queen Bee and 10,000 of her family made an uninvited visit.

They came buzzing by... disrupting our meal...and made themselves right at home in our tree by the pool.

My husband left me....without even saying goodbye...and climbed up a tall tree to visit them.

I told him that he was too old to be running after a new honey.

I was yelling..."No, No John....please think about what you are doing."

I was worried that no good could come from this, wild inpectious love of his.

But, my pleas went unheeded.

He not only went up to visit....he brought them back with him.

...And told them they could stay.

He did all this right in front of our little grand-daughter Claire

That is when I put my foot down.

I said if they were going to stay he would have to build them a house way in the back of our property.

I certainly wasn't going to have them in the house!

So he did.
As I said that was some time ago.

...and...with the passage of time...I have gotten use to the idea.

I've forgiven John for scaring me to death.

I've come to realize that Ms. Queen Bee and her family are not all that bad.
In fact they are quite sweet....literally dripping with honey.

So, we are all living together now.

I let John go out and visit them from time to time.

I leave them alone and they ignore me.

I like it that way.

...

However, something happened last week that changed everything.

John started spending hours with them....leaving me in the house alone for days at a time.

I will have to tell you about that at another time.

I'm not up to it tonight.

You really won't believe what happened next.

Stay tuned for the next "true confessions" installment.

Meanwhile, please give me your advice.

What would you do if your husband Bee-haved this way?

Leave me a comment and tell me what I should do.

Thanks and hugs,

Lura