For the love of a good dog...

I haven't posted since school started, and I decided it's time to do it! I thought at Christmas I would, but then my girls took the pictures off my camera and put them on their blogs, so what was the point? =)

I've been thinking alot lately about our empty, quiet house since the busy and full holidays. And now we're both really missing our Phoebe! We think about her every day when we walk into the house and she's not there at the door to greet us. We sure took that for granted for 11 years! She was such a good dog, and I'm glad Nathan took the time to put together this little video of her. The Men's Choir singing "Going Home" doesn't make it any easier, but it warms my heart to see her furry little face again.

Here's to Phoebs- Feb. 1, 1996-Dec. 1, 2008

Touching the Temple

When Heather was married in the Salt Lake Temple last January, we caught a cute picture of Curt with little Matthew. It reminded me of a story I'd read before, but couldn't quite remember it. Just recently, it was reprinted on the back page of the Church News. I still love it, so here it is, followed by the sweet picture of Grandpa and Matty.

Temples touch lives in a manner not possible through any other venue. Faithful Latter-day Saints yearn to be near a temple, to have, as it were, hands-on contact with a temple.

Two accounts illustrate this. While serving as a counselor in the First Presidency in 1957, President Harold B. Lee spoke of two boys who brought their little brothers to touch the Salt Lake Temple. President Lee quoted from a note that a watchman, employed on Temple Square, had written about the youngsters' venture.

The watchman wrote that the boys, each about 7 or 8 years old, had come early one morning to Temple Square, pulling their brothers in little carts. One of the boys told the watchman that it was the birthday of his little brother Joe, and explained, "'He is two years old today, and I want him to touch the temple so that when he gets to be an old man he will remember he touched the temple when he was two years old.' "

The boy pointed to the other toddler and said that his name was Mark, and that he was two years old, also.

The watchman's note continued: "Then with a solemn, reverent attitude rare in children so young, he asked, 'Can we go over and touch the temple?' I replied, 'Sure you can.' They pushed their little carts over to the temple and lifted the infants up, and placed their hands against that holy building. Then as I stood there with a lump in my throat, I heard the little boy say to his infant brother, 'Now, Joe, you will always remember when you (were) two years old you touched the temple.' They thanked me and departed for home"
(Given in an address at the April 1957 general conference, and reprinted in the Ensign, February 1971, p. 35).

The article goes on....

Another account of how Latter-day Saints desire to be near or in a temple unfolded at the time the nine new temples were announced by President Kimball. Regional representatives stake presidents, General Authority administrators and others were in a meeting a few days before the April 1981 general conference when President Kimball told them of the plan to build the new temples. As the place of each new temple was named, something akin to an electric stir rippled throughout the audience. Priesthood leaders turned to one another, shook hands, embraced. And wept.

Primary children sing, "I Love to See the Temple" (Children's Songbook, 95). Some parents take their children to visit temple grounds, wanting the youngsters to feel of the spirit of the place, to sense its sacredness, to develop a love for temples.

Without doubt, these parents want their children not only to touch the temple when they are young but also, as they grow older, to be touched by the temple.

Yes, temples can touch us as much — more so — than we can touch them. When we go to a temple, we touch its solid surfaces, but the temple touches us on a deeper level. It touches the spirit.

May we ever yearn to be in the temple, the House of the Lord, and may be always be prepared to feel its touch in our lives.
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Before Nathan went back to school, we decided to end the summer with a trip to the Washington Temple. It's always so peaceful and renewing....and I was just thankful to be there with my loved ones, and once again, feel the touch of the temple in my life.

Happy 31st Anniversary!

We celebrated our 31st anniversary this week, and I've been thinking back to "our beginning" and doing some reminiscing. I thought it would be fun to scan some old pictures of us in younger, skinnier years. =) We met in 1972 when I was a new BYU Freshman and Curt was just home from his mission. We were in the same FHE group, of course! Here we are getting down and dirty on a visit to the farm in Idaho...



Those were the days before air-conditioned tractors with stereo systems....just a loud radio and lots of dust- but Curt sure looked cute through the dirt! And he cleans up well! Here we are getting ready to go to a Homecoming dance....I still have that corsage in a glass box!



It took us about 5 years of back and forth dating to finally get together for good! I had just returned from my mission June 9th, and we made plans to get married in August. We went to Provo Canyon to have our engagement pictures taken by my brother, and here's one of the many we took...



At last -our wedding on August 26th in the Salt Lake Temple! It was a wonderful day, but we were in such a rush to get to our luncheon at Hotel Utah (now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building), we didn't get a single picture with the temple in the background! Live and learn!





It's been a great 31 years with 4 wonderful, happy children to show for it! =) I feel very thankful for a wonderful husband who loves me unconditionally and supports me in all I do. Hopefully we'll have another 30 years together! Love you Curt!

Good-bye Summer!

My summer is coming to an end. =(  For some reason that makes me feel almost panicky, like I'm losing my freedom in a few short days. I go back to work on Monday, and even though I'm excited at the thought of getting my classroom set up and meeting another group of adorable little kiddles, it's been a relaxing (but short) summer! I'd forgotten how great it is to stay up late, sleep in, and make my own schedule... garden in the cool mornings...

and spend all afternoon making a nice dinner for my men. Ha! Not that that happened very often! But it was nice to have the option!

I've been trying to get all kinds of doctor and dentist appointments taken care of before school starts, and I think I just have one more to go. Yesterday morning I had to get a couple of tests, and afterwards, I decided I'd just spend all day shopping some of my favorite stores. Mostly bargain stores- why do I love those? 

I did find some good deals, but I was in some unfamiliar territory without a map and got turned around on country roads.  I've always claimed to be a good navigator and have a great sense of direction, usually, so it was just plain weird when I'd been traveling awhile on what I thought was 74 north back towards York, and saw a sign reading 74 south.  No way!  Anyway, I was close to the Maryland border before I turned back and headed the right direction!

I guess I can't say I'm ALWAYS right!  =)  But luckily, I had nothing else on my agenda for the day, and rather enjoyed the drive through the lush green Pennsylvania countryside. It turned out to be a nice, relaxing day, and yes, I'm going to miss that sense of freedom!

Nathan's Summer in a Nutshell

Here's a picture summary of Nathan's summer in PA. He left Provo with a girlfriend, short hair and hopes to come home and make lots of money at BAE with his Engineering Internship. How things change! =)  Here he is with Robyn, but unfortunately, they broke up a few weeks later.

  

He got busy right away painting garage doors, organizing the basement, and building a ramp for poor old Phoebe who was having trouble getting up and down the back steps.  She loves it!


He set some goals for himself, including musical ones.  He's been learning to play Church Hymns on the piano so he can accompany when needed, and he's learned and memorized several classical and popular pieces.  He even played in my piano recital in June!

Nathan sang with the alumni York County Honors Choir in a beautiful concert at the Strand Theater on Father's Day.  I also had him sing a duet with me in Sacrament Meeting that morning.  Dad loved it!

He was called to be a counselor in the Elder's Quorum presidency for the summer, and that kind of forced him to get involved with the Single's Branch, which was great!  He's also had lots of great experiences with Institute, including a wonderful trip to Kirtland.  Here's a picture in front of the temple with his friend Becky.  They drive to the Branch together each week, and she's been so nice to share her family's new swimming pool with him this summer.

Here he is with Bree's friends Ann Marie and Sara, at a Branch Pirate-themed Murder Mystery Dinner, and a fun day at the beach.
Nathan has always loved a good bargain, and found a fun new tux (with tails!) at Goodwill with his friend Ashley. She's an old high school girlfriend, but they've remained good friends over the years. They had some fun times together before she left for the Dominican Republic on a "mission trip" for the summer.
While I was in Utah, Nathan and Curt had lots quality father and son time! They hiked and camped at Tuckahoe where Curt had hiked with the YW and would be going with the Scouts...
They watched the 4th of July fireworks from the mall in DC...
and then spent an entire day watching the Civil War re-enactment in Gettysburg. Dad was in heaven!

Nathan planned a last minute 2-day Branch trip to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Curt went along, and Nathan's best friend Alberto flew in from Chicago to go with them. They always have a great time together. Here they are before the Pageant with friends Rebecca and Amber...

...and in the Sacred Grove.
Couldn't resist adding this shot of the grove Nathan took- so beautiful!

This last week, Nathan took a couple of days off work to help Curt with rappelling at Scout Camp. It was an all LDS camp with boys from 8 stakes. Here he's teaching a group some gospel principles that relate to rappelling...and then a picture of him belaying Scouts off the cliff. His hips and hands were sore after two days of that, but Curt was sure glad he was there to help!

So, Nathan's been a great friend and help to both Dad and me this summer.  We'll hate to see him leave!  Even Phoebe had some bonding moments....here Nathan's holding her while Dad cut her toenails, and in the next one, they fell asleep on the floor.  Brianna would approve!

There were some days when Nathan had way too much time on his hands!  Here's a video he sent one Sunday while I was in Utah, showing the results of his hair that hasn't been cut all summer!  The song is one that he sang with Men's Choir- silly, silly.

Way too often he's come downstairs lately looking nerdy just to get my reaction...and this was a few weeks ago, so you can imagine how his morning "Kramer" hair looks now. I just shake my head...
Well, that's why we call Nathan quirky, but we sure love him!  =)  He'll be leaving in a couple of weeks, and he and Robyn are talking on the phone a lot more again....so maybe we'll be seeing more pictures like this from Utah....

But for now, this is what Nathan looks like tonight! =)

Our Missionary =)

Some of my friends have written that they loved seeing what Brittney and Heather have been up to, but wondered about Brianna and Nathan. So I decided I'd blog about them and use some pictures that they've sent (or members from Bree's area have sent!)

Brianna is having the time of her life, and is so happy being a missionary! She loves to teach and has had some wonderful experiences!  She's also been able to use her music alot and is singing or playing the piano or someone's guitar almost weekly.  Every week in her emails she talks about how glad she is that she made the decision to go on a mission. Here are a couple of quotes from this week's emails- the first to her president, which she forwards to us, and the second in our family's email:

"I love my time to study each morning, and I enjoy our companion studies as well. I love the scriptures!! I have learned SOOO much on my mission and would have felt completely inadequate going throughout the rest of my life w/out having learned what I now know. I never would have known the difference, but now that I do... I am SO grateful for it. I love my testimony and know it will only continue to grow and strengthen every day!"

"I love being on my mission... I hope to come home the same fun Bree... but SOO different as well! I'm amazed at how much I've learned, even something as simple as applying the scriptures. I just love them. I love being able to listen to a talk and as someone quotes a scripture I know where it comes from. I love the gospel and love the growth of my testimony!"

Here are a few recent pictures of our girl. Her name-tag used to say Hermana Toone, but I noticed she now wears a Sister Toone tag since she's serving in English areas. She loves when they find Spanish investigators though, and says that Spanish has become the language of her heart. =) She's been in Cheney since the end of January- and it's only her 2nd area! She thinks she'll be transferred in August and serve in one more area till she comes home November 17th. (Yay!!)

Here's member friend Celeste on the left (who sent us these pictures!), Bree and Sis. McNaughton, with new converts Echo and her daughter Heather (in front.) The next is with another of Echo's daughters. Her son Dustin was also baptized.


The rest are Brianna and Sister DeMarco- first at Zone Conference, then on P-day, and with friends.



                                             We love her new shorter hair-cut! =)

My Biggest New Fear!

I have to say that staying with Brittney for almost 3 weeks made me much more aware (and scared of) creepy crawly things!  She wrote a post on her blog about our spider adventure, which freaked us both out, but was pretty funny after the fact.  

So I came home and Curt left for a week at Scout Camp.  I was sitting here in the corner of our room using the computer, and finished for the night.  As I turned around I saw, out of the corner of my eye, my most hated creepy crawly thing of all- what I call a Moustache Bug!  And it ran right under my bed!   Aaaaagh!  They are so fast and feathery and just plain gross!  I've never seen one in my room before, but we've had them downstairs, and in the garage.  In fact, last week I saw one crawl under our fridge in the garage, which means now every time I run out to get something out of the fridge or freezer, I have to turn on the garage light and watch where I step with my bare feet!

So , here I am freaking out, trying to find a big shoe and a flashlight, and of course I can't find either one!  What is it about flashlights- they never work when you need one!  By the time I had a working one, one of Curt's big shoes, and a wad of toilet paper, and dared kneel down and look under the bed.....of course it was nowhere to be seen.  I ran around making sure the dust ruffle wasn't touching the ground anywhere, so it couldn't climb up onto my bed in the night.  I refused to think that it might be able to climb the legs of the bed- too slippery for sure!  And then as I'm standing there debating what to do next, here comes a moustache bug running (they're so fast!!!!) from under my desk toward the bed!  I got it with the shoe, scooped it up with the big wad of toilet paper and had it in the garbage before I even quit squealing.  (Nathan was sleeping in the next room- it's a wonder he didn't hear me and come running.)  But then I'm standing here thinking, okay, was that the same one, and he went under the bed and around the edge of the wall and out from the desk???  OR.....is it a new one that just came out of the vent that's under the desk, and he was heading to meet his friend (wife??) under the bed!  Nathan said the next day..".maybe he was heading HOME to their nest under your bed!"  Well needless to say, I said my prayers in bed that night- no kneeling by the edge! and am now sitting at the computer- days later- with my feel still up on a box of file folders.  Haven't seen a bug since, but you never know- one could run across my bare feet as soon as I put them on the floor!  

Last night Nathan and I did some research and discovered that my moustache bug, as I've called them since moving here, (since I'd never seen them before,) and they're feathery.....ew, did I mention that when you mash one, all the legs keep going?  And they leave a brown stain on the carpet!  Anyway, when I googled Moustache bug....I didn't see anything familiar.  Nathan's friend calls them Thousand Leggers, so I googled that and I there it was!

We found out it's actually a House Centipede!  Didn't know centipedes could be so fluffy and fast!  And we found out they're beneficial to homes cuz they eat other undesirable things....but I don't think so!! Now it makes me wonder what else is under the bed that it was feeding on, and did it lay eggs in my room?  I did NOT like learning that they could go anywhere- I wanted to think they were only on the floor.  Here's more info if you're interested!

                     http://bugguide.net/node/view/25

Well, even with my feet up on a box I'm itching all over just talking about it. So I won't be making friends soon with the House Centipede! =)