Week 11

21 October

This is one of my finds at Special Collections in the Harold B. Lee Library. Someone doodled a face on the inside cover of one of my great-grandfather’s journal notebooks.

22 October

My sister Lynette and I went to the Church History Library to do research on Margaret Cooper West. The only thing we found was a letter from Margaret to her daughter and son-in-law, which we were able to get a copy of (for 25¢ a page).

23 October

Marcus’s sister Kayt is enjoying her bridal shower a few weeks before she gets married. We’re so proud of the choices she has made to prepare for a temple marriage.

24 October

Our bishop sits in his office in front of a picture of Christ—all of us work together to try to bring souls to Christ.

25 October

Craig (with his daughter Alexandra) is trying to finish our retaining wall.

26 October

This is one of my favorite autumn trees (on 930 E). In the cool of the season, the leaves slowly turn from a summery green to a brilliant red.

27 October

With the first real snow of the season, we went to the fieldhouse to walk in the morning—we would much rather be outdoors, but we don’t want to risk a fall.

Week 10

14 October

Our staff went to the BYU Press open house to learn about their HP Indigo Digital Press. Unique features include the ability to print out variable data (personalized Christmas cards with labeled envelopes, etc.), the avoidance of press set-up time, and the option of printing on demand (to save warehouse space).

15 October

We made our semiannual dental trip to brother Bruce in Grand Junction, Colorado. Good reports!

16 October

Angie's family and several other ward families took our turn to clean the church today. Many hands make light work.

17 October

Stephen doing two of his favorite things—using his laptop and eating popcorn.

18 October

Our neighbor Tricia shared with our home evening group the fourteen fundamentals of following the prophet as outlined by Elder Ezra Taft Benson in 1980 (and repeated twice in general conference).

19 October

The blocks for the retaining wall were delivered—350 concrete bricks, each one weighing 64 pounds, each pallet of 54 blocks weighing almost 3500 pounds.

20 October

A colorful shopping experience at Sunflower Market—I didn’t much care for bell peppers as I was growing up, but I have grown much more fond of them, especially with their cheerful colors, crisp texture, and tangy taste.

Week 9

7 October

Pat is my wonderful visiting teaching leader. We get together at least twice a month to reorganize visiting teaching callings and to record the visiting teaching contacts for the previous month (here in the clerk's office). I rely on Pat to keep track of changes that need to be made and to contact sisters with changes.

8 October

My sister Jeanine is in town from Missouri, so we decided to eat lunch at Skippers on the spur of the moment. Here is my dad with four of his five daughters and a couple of grandsons.

9 October

My brother Larry was the featured speaker for BYU Women this month. He spoke on astronomy and the ways of knowing and showed us stunning pictures of galaxies, nebulas, clusters, etc., and opened our minds to the glories of the heavens among the Lord’s creations.

10 October

Stephen’s brother Paul with his wife Linda were able to visit for the weekend. They treated us to dinner at Tucano’s, a Brazilian restaurant, and attended our ward with us on Sunday. Linda and I love to share ideas for a good read.

11 October

While Jeanine was in town, my parents and siblings and spouses met for a quarterly dinner at the Brick Oven. This is some of the décor on the wall of our room at this popular local restaurant.

12 October

These are some of the lovely sisters in our ward who came to a weekday Relief Society meeting/flea market. We have a wonderful group of sisters in the Edgemont Fifth Ward!

13 October

This brown bean pot used to belong to Martha in our ward (until I picked it up at the flea market). She hasn’t used it for a long time and said she would put baked beans in and heat them at a low temperature in the oven for 2½ hours. Who wouldn’t want to be the new owner of something that belonged to our wonderful Martha?

Week 8

30 September

Just an update on current gas prices at Costco (the lowest in the valley). When our children were young, I made a canvas city for them to play on, and the unheard-of, high gas price at that time (early 80s) was $1.29 per gallon.

1 October

Stephen and I made a quick trip to Rexburg, Idaho. We dropped off books at the library and then managed to get in the 10:30 session at the temple. We have never been inside this temple before—it was characterized by lots of straight lines and a very few circles.

2 October

The landscaping project is moving forward! Most of it has been dug out. We missed the excitement yesterday when a Comcast cable was cut (it certainly wasn’t where the blue stakes people had marked it).

3 October

I couldn’t give up on my conference tradition of making cinnamon rolls, so I invited the neighbor family (and their friends) to come over.

4 October

Fall is arriving in all its glory—bunches of gold chrysanthemums in our own garden highlighting the white flowers in front.

5 October

Dad’s student Deborah spent three and a half months in McLeodganj, India, last summer, so we invited her (and her friend Spencer) over for dinner. We peppered her with questions and received informed and enthusiastic answers.

6 October

Quoting Maya: “Hey, Oma, it’s hard to keep playing the piano when you ask me to look up at you.”

Week 7

23 September

I convinced Stephen to go with me to the farmers market south of the stadium. We bought a few things, including a pulled pork sandwich, which we shared for dinner.

24 September

I went to Salt Lake to have lunch with Marian Robertson-Wilson. After a very pleasant lunch we went through her contribution to the Brown festschrift, an article on the Coptic Easter services. She even played the piano for me on the Steinway that was built especially for her father, musician Leroy Robertson.

25 September

Talk about stylish shoes—check out what Maya is wearing these days!

26 September

I love this sweet smile from Cassius—he is at an age where he is responsive to those around him.

27 September

Here is an old linotype machine that graces the foyer of the BYU press building. True confessions—as an undergraduate I used to work at the press when the linotype machine was still used for typesetting.

28 September

This range of books is about pioneers and early settlers. I was perusing the indexes to each set to find information about Margaret Cooper West. I have felt very strongly that I should submit a proposal to write about this great-great-grandmother in the upcoming Women of Faith series. She was born before 1820 (1804), which puts her in the first volume. I asked Lynette if she wanted to coauthor an article with me since she loves to collect family history stories. The two things we want to focus on are Margaret’s contribution as a healer and her testimony of polygamy. Lynette and I got together and put that proposal together and sent it in (before the 30 September deadline)—now we will wait to see if it is accepted.

29 September

Someone has creatively removed some of the lettering from this truck that originally said “BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY.”