Rejoice and be thankful smiles

My dear friend, Kris, who just happens to be our bishop’s wife and our Sunday School teacher, shared her favorite scripture with me. (She has many favorite scriptures but she says this is her very favorite favorite.)

It comes from the New Testament.

  It is 1Thessalonians 5:16…. ” Rejoice evermore.”  That is it…. just… rejoice evermore. It is just 2 words but gives me so much to think about. 

My smiles today come from that scripture and the 2 that follow it which are:

verse 16. Rejoice evermore

verse 17. Pray without ceasing.

verse 18. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

As I have been recovering from my gall bladder surgery I have been thinking about this. I am good at praying without ceasing. I pray about everything. I am sure that many of you do too. However, I am not as faithful about giving thanks in every thing…are you?

I'll admit that I was pretty bummed out about having my gall stone attack and surgery just hours after my daughter Erin and her family  got here. We had  many fun things planned that I was looking forward to doing with them that week. I’d been looking forward to their visit since they were here Thanksgiving.

When the terrible pain started while we were eating dinner, I just couldn't believe it was happening to me. I thought if I went home and took some medicine I would be just fine. When the pain became unbearable I asked Grampy gave me a priesthood blessing.  In that blessing Grampy said that I would know what actions I should take and my doctors would know what needed to be done to help me. I knew then that I needed to go to emergency at the hospital.  I was not rejoicing. I was in agony and very disappointed.

However, these scriptures say rejoice evermore and that it is God’s will that in everything we give thanks.

I've given that a lot of thought. I know that I can do better in rejoicing and giving thanks in everything.

I can rejoice that a hospital was near by

with technology to diagnose what was wrong with me.

Within one hour of me arriving at emergency they knew I had a gall stone stuck in my bile duct and I needed gall bladder surgery.

I can rejoice that I was rushed to surgery and within 12 hours I was back home again.

I can be thankful that there were good medical professionals to help me and anesthetics and pain medicines for me to use.

I can rejoice that Erin was here to be my nurse...

and the children to make me smile and forget about the pain.

I can be happy that I am healing quickly and feeling better every day. I was even able to work my regular shift at the temple last Thursday which was just 2 wks. after my surgery. I truly do have reason to rejoice and be thankful.

From now on I am going to try to remember 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 and apply it in my life because I know that is what my Heavenly Father wants me to do.

What do you have to rejoice about  this week?  I hope lots of good things.

Hugs, Grammy

Happy Birthday Smiles for Justin and my surgery update

Yesterday was my dear Grandson Justin’s birthday. The Utah family got together to celebrate it today. I got this cute picture from Erin of him opening our gift .  I wish I could have been there to give him a big birthday hug.

Justin is a wonderful young man. He served two years as a Mormon missionary in Guatemala.

Now he is  a medic in the Army Reserve.  I am so proud of him. He is a loving son, brother, cousin and grandson. He was badly burned on his head and hands as a child and spent years having painful surgeries. He came through it with faith, courage and compassion for those who suffer.

Happy Birthday Dear Justin

Our family is blessed to have Justin in it.

My health update:

It has been 10 days since my gall bladder surgery. I still can’t believe I ended up in the hospital so soon after Erin and Patrick got here.  My darn old gall bladder surely did change our plans for the week. I thought nothing would stop us from having fun together at Sea World, Knott’s Berry Farm and Lompoc/Solvang but I discovered that when a gall stone gets stuck, it is boss… and…. I couldn’t argue with it. I feel blessed that I have good health insurance and that they were able to diagnose my gall stone, remove it and my gall bladder and have me back home all in 12 hours time.  Modern medicine makes me smile.

At my age it is not easy recovering from surgery but I am doing  well. My incisions are not completely healed yet but the doctors think they will be in another week or so. I get stronger every day. Sometimes I get a bit down but most of the time I’m pretty positive.  I was disappointed that I was down in bed while the kids were here but it turned out to be a blessing having Erin for my nurse and the kids to make me smile.

I hope that you have a good week. I am planning to be much better when I write you next week.  Hugs, Grammy Lura

Grammy is cutting up in the New Year

We were so excited Wednesday evening because Erin, Patrick, Calan and Ellie came to spend a week with us in warm, sunny CA. They were happy to escape the snow and freezing temperatures in Utah. We had lots of plans to play in the sun. As soon as they got to town , we joined them and Mindy’s family for a delicious meal at Lucile’s BBQ.

See the happy smiles on our faces….. well mine did not last very long. I usually eat  low fat foods because I’m always trying to lose weight …. but… that night I splurged. I had 4 ribs, fried okra, biscuits with honey butter, etc.  We all were having a great time until I started having stabbing pains in my stomach.  John brought me home and I took every thing I could think of to relieve the pain but it just got worse and worse.

We left for the hospital about 10:00 p.m. where I spent the night in absolute agony. I didn’t know I had gall bladder problems but I did. I had a large gall stone blocking the duct of my gall bladder.  Eating that high fat meal caused my liver to send bile to my gall bladder. The bile could not leave my gall bladder because of the stone blocking the duct….. that set off a terrible gall bladder attack.

Since I had eaten late I could not have surgery until 5:00 a.m. Thursday morn.  I told them I’d thrown up several times and all my dinner came up but they said they it was still too dangerous to operate. They gave me lots of pain killers but they just took the edge off. I was miserable all night.

After a two hour surgery, I woke up about noon and they sent me home.

I was welcomed back home with pretty pictures on the door and love from my cutie pies.

 

 

I could only eat clear liquids so Ellie made me Jell-O.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I pretty much slept the rest of  Thursday after the surgery. Sweet hugs helped me get better. (By the way… I’m not quite as fat as I look in this picture. I had an ice bag and a pillow on my stomach…. just wanted to clarify that!!)

Yesterday I was really sore from the surgery but not as miserable as I was during the gall bladder attack.

They told me walking would help get rid of the gas pains so I put on my fitbit and walked 7,023 steps.  I think it helped a little but……

 

 

 

 

…Playing dress up with Ellie was the best pain reliever of all. Erin has been a great nurse maid for me and John makes sure I don’t over do and make myself worse.

It has now been 2 days since the surgery. I am still very sore and have trouble rolling over in bed and getting up and down out of a chair… but I’m better than yesterday.  The whole gang is going to Knott’s Berry Farm today. I got up and made pancakes and home made syrup for them for breakfast. (I got it all made before Erin or John saw what I was doing and made me sit down.)  I had my heart set on going to Knott’s too, but knew I couldn’t make it even in a wheel chair so I stayed home.

I’m just going to eat my Jell-O and dry toast and take it easy.  The bummer thing is I still have my cold and cough. I feel like my incisions are bursting each time I cough and that is no fun.  A little while ago I was coughing up yucky phlegm and it hurt so badly that I actually look at my incisions to see if they were still together….. they are. Luckily I just have three 1 inch incisions. I was told they might have to make a long incision in order to get the large stone and the gall bladder out, but they didn’t.  I am very thankful for that.

We are suppose to take a 200 mile trip up the coast Monday and spend the night after sight seeing in John’s home town and Solvang. I’m still hoping I can make it but I don’t know if I will be up to it.

Man…. I surely picked a bad time to be a “cut up”!!!!  Oh well…. maybe getting my gall bladder out will lessen the bad stomach aches I got so frequently. Wouldn’t that be nice.

I appreciate the prayers and good wishes I’ve gotten. I know that God is blessing me and helping me recover. It has only been 2 days since the surgery so I shouldn’t be impatient.

I hope are doing well.  Hugs, Lura

A look back on 2013 and Happy New Year Wishes

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Happy New Year one and all. I still can’t believe that 2013 is over. I wonder if I accomplished all my Heavenly Father wanted me to do?  I hope He is pleased with me but I also hope that I can do better this coming year.

Do you make New Year Resolutions? I used to but I don’t any more. I have goals in mind that I want to accomplish but my main goal is just to be better. I hope that I can look back on 2014 and be pleased with myself and feel God is pleased with my efforts.

2013 was a good year for our family.  I had some  health issues but I am  better now.  I  still have problems with the esophageal spasms but not as often. My sciatic nerve is acting up but I live with it.  Other than just  normal colds, coughs and  aches and pains, John and I are blessed with pretty good health. For this we are thankful.
Here is a recap of some of our highlights of 2013

John and I continued working in the Redlands, CA Mormon temple one day a week. It has been such a blessing to serve in the House of the Lord. We look forward to another year of service this year.
In January we started out the year by going on a cruise to Mexico with some of our friends  and Erin, Patrick, Cal, Ellie, Loni and Claire from our family.

Cruising is always nice but cruising with friends and  loved ones is GREAT!
Two of our grandsons turned 8 this year and were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (Mormons) by their dads who are Elders and have the priesthood authority to do so.

Davey’s birthday is in Feb. We traveled to Utah to be with him.

Austin turned 8 in March. Attending the baptisms of these 2 sweet boys was special to us.
Another special event happened in March.  Our Grandson Jalen got his mission call to serve in Osorno, Chile

He left us in April and will serve for 2 years. He  has learned the language well and is enjoying serving in Chile.  Jalen makes my heart smile. He was a great kid when he left us. He will return to us a better man for having served the Lord and the people of Chile.

Jalen’s older brother, Justin who had just returned from his mission to Guatemala went back into his Army reserve unit and got upgraded to be a specialist as an army medic. I hope that he does not get deployed but if he does I’m sure he will do a good job taking care  of  wounded soldiers. We are proud of our Army boy and all those who serve in the military.

In May John finally met his goal of visiting inland Alaska. We loved our trip to Denali and Mt. McKinley and the cruise that followed. We don’t have a trip planned for this year. I guess I’d better get busy arranging one.
In July we went to Wyoming for our annual family camping/river rafting trip.

We always have a great time being together with all of our kids and grands.

Throughout the year, 11 year old Claire made great strides with her singing career. She was in 3 LA opera productions. She got a main part in Noah’s Flood in April.

Next she was in Tosca and then Carmen.

She had to cut her hair short in order to be in Carmen. That was a big sacrifice because Claire had beautiful long hair.  However she wanted the part in Carmen bad enough to do it. All of our Utah kids came to CA in Oct. to support Claire in her roll in Carmen. (I thought it was really nice of them to come so far to support their niece.)  It was a big event for our family when we all attended the LA Opera together and watched our Claire performing like a doll and singing like an angel.

Claire’s 13 year old brother, E.J., was busy with his own musical fetes.   He is becoming quite accomplished  at the piano but his true love is the trumpet. He practices hours a day and has made first chair in every honor band he tries out for. (Our son’s children Emma, Gracie and Davey all do well at piano but unfortunately we weren’t in Utah for any of their concerts so I don’t have pictures to share with you.)
While Claire and E.J. were busy at music rehearsals all year, Lonica and Johnny were busy at the gym and the dance studio.

14 year old Loni won every dance competition she was in and got scholarships to a dance academy.

This little gal is an amazing dancer and beautiful to watch.
Her big brother, Johnny was busy making his mark in the gymnastics world.

In August he competed and was ranked 7th in the nation.

In Sept, on his 17th birthday, he was invited to join the USA National Junior Team. He went to his first international competition in November where…

..The USA boys brought home the Gold.  We are so happy that Johnny’s years and years of hard work at the Gym every day but Sunday is paying off for him. His heart is set on making the next Olympic team. I hope and pray that he will make it.

In Oct I was able to take a short cruise to Mexico with my friend Jan. This was one of her bucket list items that I was happy to help her check off.

In November, our whole family (except Johnny and Jalen who were out of the country)  came for Thanksgiving.

We had a wonderful time being together and giving thanks for all of our blessings.


In Dec. we spent Christmas with Mindy and Ernie and had a lovely time. We had planned to visit Utah after Christmas and spend New Year’s Eve there. However, since we were not able to find anyone to sub for us at the temple and since I have a bad cough and cold, we didn’t go.


We ended 2013 by going out to dinner with friends and then back to their house for a little New Year’s party with some of their other friends. I started coughing a lot so we left a little before the year ended and …

…made it home in time to ring in the new year with the crowds at Time’s Square on TV. (Can you see my NYC friend Buttercup in the picture?)
Those are the high lights of our whole year 2013… but they are only the tip of the iceberg. All of our kids and our grand kids have done well this past year. I could tell you about all of their accomplishments but it would take way to long. Let’s just say that I am so proud and thankful for each one of them. My heart is full to the brim and bubbling over with smiles.
We have had our challenges this year but we know the Lord had been with us and blessed us abundantly. We are very grateful and look forward to 2014 with hope and high expectations.

Happy New Year &

May God bless you in

2014

Hugs, Grammy Lura