Our Happy Valentines!

Well this morning I woke up to a sweet smelling aroma & discovered it was a
beautiful bouquet of roses & white lilies & valentine chocolates! And I gave
Kelly a heart-attack with little hearts & Valentine chocolates & card.
Well when you've been married as long
as we have you start to think alike! Look at our cards. Mine to Kelly on the left,
& Kelly's to me on the right!!!! OOh La La! We got an extra hug & kiss for that!
Funny!!! I'll leave the hearts up while I'm gone so Kelly will know I'm thinking of him.
We've been celebrating for sometime now . . . . . . . .
Since I'd wanted to go to The Cheesecake Factory for several weeks, we
ended up going up north to the one on Camelback the friday before this. And since it
was a bit expensive because we indulged with cheesecake also, we decided that
would be our Valentine Dinner! Well this friday comes & Kelly offered to go to
our favorite Chinese Restuarant. Sooo I said okayyyy! The Golden Gate has the
best Chinese Food. Then we were planning on going to the Stake Valentines Dance
& entertainment this evening, (Sat.) but I gave Kelly an option of movie or Valentine Dance &
of course he picked movie. So off we went to Sweet Tomatoes & to see Bride Wars
in Ahwatukee, staring Kate Hudson & Anne Hatheway. It was a funny, sad & happy
movie. We enjoyed it! I think Kelly's being generous because he knows I'm leaving next
saturday for Georgia, and will be gone for twelve days helping Brittney when her baby
is born. It's been a long time since we've been away from each other that long. We'll
see how we handle it! . . . . . See you soon Brittney & hope we timed this right!

We're happy too that Sean was able to get his back surgery & all has gone well so far &
Brent starts a new job on Tuesday. That's ocassion to celebrate!! Good luck to you both!!

Valentines Day

My Flower Garden

Well I decided to plant some different kinds of flowers this year. I planted
some red & pink Geraniums. They kind-of remind me of my MOM. She used to
have several of these flower plants in the kitchen window. I also planted some
pink Gerbana flowers. I'm hoping they'll last longer into the warm weather! Funny!
I guess I unknowingly picked Valentine colors, how appropriate for the mo. of Feb.!!

LaVerne said she heard me say I wanted to plant some more rose bushes so she
gave me a bareroot pretty pink rose bush for my birthday. Thank You, LaVerne!

In looking for places to plant it I decided to dig up all the old Aloe Vera plants along the front wall. They had really multiplied. It took plenty of digging to get them all out & it amounted to a 2 ft. high pile of wheelbarrow full!! I saved several Aloe Vera & planted them along the
south fence so as to keep Kelly happy!

In following the planting instructions I had to dig an 18 inch deep hole by 2 & 1/2 ft. wide.
Wow if that wasn't a work out! I must say I got my exercise that day & did a little leaning
on the shovel too! Huff! Puff! Now it's just water, wait & watch grow!! And that's My
Flower Garden experience of late!!

Something Fun & Random!

Ashley recently had a sort-of "What have you done?" list of 99 things posted on her blog.
You were supposed to tally up your score of how many of the things you'd done. Just
something fun & random. Well my score was 52. So I guess I have lived & experienced
a little! There were other things I have done that I thought were kinda equivalent or
sort-of though, instead.

*I did start my own Blog with Ashley's help. Still learning!

* I played snare drums in our High School Band
along with another girl & guy. We even took a Band, Choir & Dance trip to the city of
Chihuahua, Monterey & Mexico Cities. We performed at the Arbolillo (similar to our
BYU), at an American High School for foreign students, & at a Church Stake Center.

* I've climbed the mountain to the Statue of Christ, called "Christ Redeemer" now listed
as one of the new 7 top wonders of the world in Rio De Janiero, Brazil. Drank coconut
juice out of a coconut on the famous Copacabana Beach & walked it's beaches.

* I sang solos in our High School musicals. I was Linda Low in "The Flower Drum Song",
and The Baroness in "The Sound of Music" The Baroness had singing parts in the
stage version.

* I've climbed to the top of the " St. Augustine Lighthouse" at 165 ft. high with 8 flights
of spiral staircase! Huff, Puff, Whew!! St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest city in the
United States. And been to the top of the "Latino Americana" in Mexico City. (similar
to our Empire State Bldg.)

*Grown some vegetables? I grew a hot-bed of little tomato plants when I was twelve
yrs. old for one of my Beehive class awards. When the plants were sufficiently big, my
dad helped me transplant them to a good size field out on the farm. We had to pick those
huge horrible green worms off them quite often. Had lots of fresh tomatoes and canned
plenty of stewed tomatoes for the family food storage. I remember being quite impressed
with the harvest! Also helped dad hand plant a whole field of corn, watched it grow,
harvested & family canned the corn. Had plenty of fresh corn on the cob also.
Planted a family backyard garden in Sacramento, Calif. Among other vegetables, I
planted a whole row of Zuchinni, not knowing!!!!! Wow! We shared with the whole
neighborhood!! Zuchinni out our ears!

* Hitch hiked with a complete stranger to Pacheco with Ivelen & 2 yr. old Lori, when
the family van broke down at the springs on the first part of trip up the mountains. My Dad
drove back down & fixed the Van & rescued the family.

* Haven't visited the Vatican, but visited several huge old Cathederals in Mexico City
from the Spanish Era.

* Been in the Newspaper? Had picture in the paper in Michigan when a drunk driver
hit us from behind going 95 mph! We had gone to Chicago to pick up Kelly's brother
at Heathrow Airport & were on our way home. We were in the passing lane on the freeway
& little 2 yr. old Lori was sleeping in the back of the station wagon (before days of
seatbelts) & she was ejected out the back window, up & over his car & landed in the
medium. The freeway was loaded with semi-trucks. Miraculously she suffered only
bruises & scratches & spent the night in the hospital for observance. She & I both
had a limp for a few days but ok. I was eight mos. pregnant with Julie at the time.
I believe in guardian angels!! Totalled our vehicle!

* I got to shake hands with President David O. McKay when I was 8 yrs. old and
attended the dedication of the Bureau Of Information (visitors center) on the Mesa
Temple grounds with my parents. - I've been in Joseph & Emma Smith's Mansion Home
in Nauvoo.

* I haven't been to Eifel Tower, Lincoln Memorial or Wall of China. But I've been to the
Pyramids near Mexico City twice and been to Maxmillian's & Carlotta's Palace twice.
Attended the Bale Flocorico in Old Spanish Era Theatre, with famous glass curtain brought
over by Maxmillian from the old World. . . . . . . Drank out of the Fountain of Youth
discovered by Ponce De Leon in St. Agustine, Florida. . . . . . Visited the Redwood Forest
& went thru arch in the trunk of a giant Redwood Tree large enough for a small car to
drive thru, in California.

* Been on a speeding Motorcycle? I've been in a motorcycle accident with 2 highschool
friends, Neil Spillsbury & Donna Komp. Was layed up for a week with a badly scraped
knee doing schoolwork from home & limped for several weeks.

* Saw lots of Amish communities in northern Chihuahua, Mexico.

* Gone without sleep for 24 hrs? In Colonia Juarez, Mexico (Mormon Colonies) they
raise alot of fruit orchards & in the wintertime they would have to keep smudge pots
lit and burning so the frost wouldn't freeze the fruit. During that season alot of the guys
would stay up all night tending the pots & miss school the next day to catch up on sleep.
So. . . Virginia Romney & I got permission from our parents to stay up with the guys
one night & have a smudging, visiting, kinda fun working experience with the guys.
And the bonus part of course, miss school the next day to sleep!! Funny thing during
that season we'd have to check our noses in the mornings because they'd get a little
black smudge in the nostrils.

* Held a lamb? I've held & bottle fed lots of baby lambs on the Queen Creek farm.
They use to follow us kids to the school bus stop in the mornings & we'd have
to run them back home & run back to catch the bus. Sometimes we missed the bus!

* Been on a cruise? I haven't been on a long Cruise but I've taken a Speed Boat Ride
up the Iguasu River to the falls & felt it's mists in Brazil. . . . .Been on a Panama City
Bay 2 hr. dinner Cruise twice & been on a Savannah Riverboat dinner cruise in
Savannah, Georgia. Man there rivers are huge back there! There were huge ocean going
vessels going up & down the river loading & hualing cargo for overseas. . . . . I've toured
the U.S.S. Alabama Battleship & the U.S.S. Drum Submarine, it earned 12 battlestars in
World War II. It took 2 1/2 hrs. practically running to see all of the battleship. In
my journal I recorded they baked 550 loaves of bread a day to feed the crew each day.
I was impressed! It's like a small city!
* Seen Niagara Falls? I haven't seen Niagara Falls, but I've been to the Iguasu Falls
in Brazil where Shaun served some of his mission & we visited when we went to pick
him up. It was shear thunderous beauty!! I was mesmerized & the mist felt wonderful!
I could have stayed all day enjoying! They had a little freindly racoon-like animal called
a "Quachi" that wandered the place & would come right up to you to investigate! I had
to have one of those cute little stuffed look-a-likes & carried it home on the plane.

* Toured the Everglades? No, but I've driven over a good part of them. We drove miles
& miles on elevated freeway through Louisiana & Alabama over water & Everglades.
I was amazed!! I wondered how they ever built all that over water & what one does
if the car breaks down???

* Eaten Caviar? No, but I've eaten Rattlesnake at "Rustlers Roost" on South Mountain.
Tates like chicken!!!! I've eaten Calmari & Sushi & "cooked oysters on the shell"! I've eaten
chicken livers at the famous Shuhasqueria Restuarants in Brazil!

Well. . . . that's just to mention a few! So I quess I have lived a little!! I do have some
things I want to do on my " Bucket List" Ta Da! But that's for another day!!!

Why??? Why I read what I read???

One of my girls recently asked me why I read so many books about wars?
I thought I had read quite a variety, but I guess alot recently were about different facets
of war.
First of all I've decided in this life there just isn't going to be enough time
to learn & experience all the things I want to know!! So I try to learn about them
& experience them through reading. I want to know what's going on in the world now
& in the past.
* I want to know how people lived in the past & what their experiences were like.
* I want to know how people faced & face today, life's struggles, & how they make the
the good times too or inspite of their situations.
* I want to know what challenges they faced & what they learned & how they
got through them.
* I want to know about people with different roles & different proffesions & the work
they do. The doctors, the psychologists the soldiers, the truck drivers, the politicians
the police instructors, the special forces, the journalists, the Iraqi & Afganistan people,
the scientists, the educators, etc. etc. Queens & peasants of the past!
* I wanted to really try to understand what was going on over in Iraq? All the in's &
out's of why we did what we did & what's going on over there. Why do alot of Muslims
hate us? And what do they believe?

Anyway . . . . . . . in the book I was just reading I came across the perfect answer.
I just finished reading: "Mormon Scientist" The Life And Faith Of Henry Eyring,
by Henry J. Eyring.
Henry knew the compatibility of the right kind of discipline and creativity not only
by virtue of a lifetime of working to get to the bottom of things, but also because of
a unique doctrine of Mormonism. Through Joseph Smith, the Lord challenged the
nineteenth-century Saints to seek knowledge "diligently":
Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that
you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle,
in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain
unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand.

Significantly, in addition to teaching the need for deep, disciplined study, through
Joseph Smith the Lord also advocated an unusually broad search for truth. He
spoke of knowledge of all sorts:
Things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth;
things which have been, things which are, things which must
shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which
are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and
the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of
countries and of kingdoms.

Joseph Smith himself personified insatiable curiosity and thirst
for truth in all fields. Though he received no formal education
beyond the second grade, he spent his life studying a vast array of
subjects: history, astronomy, law, and linguistics, to name just a
few. In this respect, the Prophet's approach provided Henry with
a vision of discovery contrary to the academic dogma of the mid-
twentieth century.
Much of Henry's creativity thus flowed from ignoring the tra-
ditional, by-the-book kind of discipline. Like Joeseph Smith,
he sought truth everywhere it could be found.

If you think about it, having just read The Book Of Mormon again, it
contains alot about war along with the teachings of the gospel. It seems
to be a part of this life's happenings. . . . Well now this year I'm reading
"The Doctrine & Covenants" & the Primary Lessons I'm teaching are
about Joesph Smith's life & teachings & I'm enjoying reading the book
about Joseph Smith & people who knew him personally that Michelle
gave me for my birthday. Thank You Michelle!
. . . . And now I quess that's the end of Why!!!!
And that's a rap!!!!! For now!