A sad Goodbye to a dear Family member

This is Heidi.

The world's most perfect dog!

She has been our 4 legged daughter for almost 12 years.

We got her shortly after our youngest child went away to college.

She was a pure black German Shepard....who was not photogenic...

but was the best dog and friend anyone could have.

...

Never once, not even as a baby pup, did she do one naughty thing...

never...ever!

She was my 110 pound lap dog... at least she used to weigh 110 lbs.

She has lost 30 lbs. in the last few months.

Yesterday was the last time I got to hold her.
This picture was taken just minutes

before John took her to the vet and had her put to sleep.

The vet said that it was the kindest and best thing to do...

but how I will miss her.

Her total life was spent loving us... and being by my side.

I have cried until I've made myself sick....literally....

I am almost flat down in bed today with my IBS

tummy problems.

...

I know that she was just a dog.... but she was like a family member.

How sad I was to wake up during the night and realize she was not sleeping on the floor next to me.

I know that she is in a better place....but I miss her so much...

and I know that it will be worse after all my sweet family

all leave and go home.
...
But I have to pull myself together...

I have granddaughters to help me make good food for Thanksgiving.


I have sweet babies to smile at me.


I have piano recitals and...


Karaoke songs to listen to.

I have kids and grand kiddos to join in the hot tub.
I have so much to be thankful for and happy about.
...
So, why am I here in bed, feeling sick and crying????
This is not what I want to be doing?
So, why don't I get up and join my sweet family????
Maybe I will get my tummy to behave
and I feel better in a little while.
I will try.... no, I will do it....I simply must...

With God's Help I will.
...
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

ps. After I wrote this post yesterday I got much sicker. I was running to the bathroom with terrible diarrhea and throwing up every hour. When I have been that sick before it has taken me days to get better. I asked my husband and my son-in-law to give me a healing blessing through the Holy Priesthood of God which they hold. They laid their hands on my head and asked Heavenly Father to bless me and make me well according to my faith. I immediately was able to fall asleep.I slept all through the night not having to get up once to be sick. Except for being a little weak from not eating since Tuesday afternoon, I feel fine today. I know in my heart that God heard

their prayers in my behalf and answered them.

Today I will be able to enjoy this holiday with my family who have traveled so far to be here. I feel very blessed and thankful. If you would like to learn more about our faith and beliefs click here.

I know it may not be a Thanksgiving holiday where you live, but I hope that it is a good day for you and that you find much to be thankful for.

May God bless you all.

Thanksgiving Smiles

Happy Thanksgiving to You

Here it is Thanksgiving week already.

All of my children are coming.

I am so excited....but....where did the year go???

Our game room has once again been transformed

into our buffet room.

I have also put a extra table in that room since I can't seat

all 23 of us in my other dinning rooms.

The air hockey table makes a great desserts and punch table.

The shuffle board table....

...is nice and long and...

...makes a perfect main course table.

This will be the salads table.
I just love setting pretty tables.
I feel blessed to have the room and supplies to do this.
I am happy that these tables are set....I am smiling.
Now all I need to do is fill them with good food....and...

...Wait for all my dear ones to arrive.
David and his family got here tonight.
Erin and her family will arrive tomorrow.
Lynell and her gang will arrive Wednesday.
I am so happy... and thankful.
Everyone will be here except for our Justin who is serving
as a missionary in Guatemala.
With 23 of us all together you can bet that I will be busy....

I may not get much time to get to the computer to blog....

....but I will be thinking of you...

and wishing you

A very Happy Week.

I will get back to visit you when I can.

My smiles from the Carnival Splendor

At this thanksgiving season, John and I have much to be thankful for and smile about.

On the top of our list is our testimony of Jesus Christ and our belief in His doctrines.
Then comes our thankfulness for each other and our precious family....

...Our health...

...Our home....

...Our friends....including you....

and on our list goes.

We are also thankful for the nice trips we've been able to take.

...

We LOVE cruising. It is our favorite way to travel.

I guess those who were cruising on the Carnival Splendor last week

might disagree with us.

I am sure that it was not fun being stuck out at sea with no power

for 4 days after there was a fire in the engine room.

With all the bad news the Carnival Splendor has gotten this week,

I thought you might like to take a look at her

and see what it is like to be on board.
Come on this little tour of the Splendor with me....

I promise you won't get stranded at sea.

She is a beautiful big ship that was put into service in 2008.

We 've been on her twice in the past year and plan to go on her again next fall.
She holds about 4,700 guests and crew.
Her home port is Long Beach, CA
Of course when we were on her she was sailing...
not dead in the water for 4 days as she was last week.


I am sure that had a lot to do with our enjoyment of the cruise...
(However, John is disappointed that we were not on her last week.)

We sailed along at about 20 knotts....


and thought our time on the Splendor was really splendid.

The many chefs worked hard keeping us well fed....


We had great meals at the casual buffets...

...and in the formal dinning room...

We had wonderful choices of great foods...

I can't even imagine all the good food that went bad and had to be thrown away last week.
It is so sad that the engine fire was on the morning of the first day.
If it had been later in the week, at least the guests would

have had great food the rest of the week.

They would have had a good week,

visited the ports and not so much food would have been wasted.

I am sure that we enjoyed our shrimp and lobster more than they did their Spam!
Poor cruisers...and poor Carnival.

I feel so badly for all of them.

...
Here are some pictures of the ship(and a few of us on her.)

I loved sitting on the deck working on my scrapbook.

Sometimes John gave me a hand.

Erin and Patrick often took walks with little Cal.

This is the big pool area.

They showed movies on the big out door screen by the pool.

This is the miniature golf course....

...the basketball court...

...the golf practice court...

... The walking/jogging track...

...the kiddy pool...

...the water slide...

...the indoor spa...

...the shopping mall...

...one of the lovely stair cases...

...one of the decks...

...a small pool...

...our cabin....

The Splendor has the largest cabins (220 sq. ft.) of any cruise line.

Of course we had elevators to take us up and down the many decks.
I guess that the passengers on last week's cruise got lots of exercise.

This is another of her small pools.

As you can see, the passengers on the Splendor had a nice place to stay...

even if the rest of their trip was miserable.
...
I am glad all went well on our 2 cruises on the Splendor.

However, as I mentioned before,

John says he wishes he had been on last week's cruise.

He thinks it would have been a "kick"

Oh well, to each his own.

I am glad that all of Splendor's passengers and crew

are home safe and sound.

I hope that they get her fixed up good before we sail on her again.

Have a good week.

Happy Sailing.

...

p.s. Linda from Behind my Red Door posted a wonderful

Thanksgiving post with a sweet story in it today.

Hop over and read it. You will be glad that you did.

Thanksgiving smiles and a Miracle

My blog friend, Linda, from Behind My Red Door, has been posting things she is thankful for during this November month of Thanksgiving.

She encouraged us to do the same.

In a way, my Sunday smiles are really just lists of things I am thankful for....
...but in the spirit of thanksgiving I am going to call my smiles

Thanksgiving smiles this month.

Thanks for the idea Linda. Linda is a Grammee L. like me.

She has an amazing prim home and she is a lovely person.

Be sure to hop over to her blog and see the things she is thankful for.

...

I am so thankful for the trip we were able to make to

Arizona a couple of weeks ago.

Let me tell you of the things I am thankful for

and about our miracle.

...

Our trip was full of diverse experiences.

We had delightful visits with young family....

...and with my "not so young" family.
My 88 year old aunt Susy gave me a book of remembrance
while I was there that will help me learn more about my family
and do genealogy work
I am thankful for that.
...
On our trip we visited little houses in the desert Arizona lands....

...And big houses in the mountainous forests.



We saw all sorts of vegetation we are not used to...

...From small cacti

...to large ones.
...
We drove through beautiful rocky hills...

... and though not so pretty flat lands...

...through deserts...

... and forests...

I thought as we were driving how thankful I am for the
beautiful and diverse world that God has created for us.
...
However, we had an experience on this trip that was life changing.
This is what I am most thankful for....
and what I want to share with you today.
...
After we left my Aunt Suzy we were driving on the freeway.
We were in the fast left lane going about 75 miles per hour or a little faster.
There were cars and trucks in the other lanes beside us but we were
by ourselves driving along in the fast lane.

All at once, John saw that we were coming up on the car in front of us too fast.

Then to his total surprise he realized the car was headed straight
towards us...going against the flow of traffic in our direction.

The on coming car did not slow down

or pull over onto the center shoulder of the freeway.

Within the blink of an eye, John swerved our car

and we missed a head on collision and certain death by a split second.

...

In hearing us tell this story, some have said that we were lucky that we

did not crash into another car or truck when John changed lanes so quickly.

..

Some have said we are lucky that John didn't over- correct when he turned the steering wheel so quickly to get out of the way, causing our car to roll over and then be hit by other cars which would have also probably caused a fatal accident.

...

I am here to testify that luck had nothing to do with it.

John and I both know that it was God who protected us that day.

John is a good driver...but not that good!

We believe that angels guided John's hands

in turning our steering wheel

and kept the other cars from hitting us.

...

I know that God lives.

He knows and loves each of us, his children.

I know we are alive today because of this miracle in our behalf.

We were not lucky...we were blessed.

I bear this testimony to you with a thankful heart.

...

I hope you have a week full of blessings.