Week 22

6 January

Michael generously shares his knowledge and talents at the Museum of Art exhibition on James Tissot: The Life of Christ.

7 January

Sandra volunteered to take my cyclamen plant to the convalescence hospital. In the short time I’ve had it, all the leaves have shriveled and been cut off. Sandra thinks it can revive.

8 January

James, son of my friend Eric, was one of the participants in the Living Legends group at BYU Women. Their performance was beautiful and touching.

9 January

I’ve been somewhat unhappy with my cupboard dividers since we remodeled our kitchen—pans seem to slip through from one section to the other. I have made a great discovery that I can change the direction of the wire barriers from horizontal to vertical. That should save things from falling through!

10 January

Mount Timpanogos shows off its beauty in the waning sunlight.

11 January

I meant to get a picture of the time at 11.1.11 today, but I was on the phone at the time. So I’ll have to settle for all these 1s at 11:11:11 on 11 January 2011.

12 January

Here we are: Linda, Shirley, and Susan, the daughters-in-law of Marc, whose funeral was today. We are married to Paul, Stephen, and Bruce, and we very much enjoy one another’s company when we get together.

Week 21

30 December

I met my December goal of going through every drawer and cupboard in my kitchen, cleaning off each shelf. I tossed some things, consolidated others, gave away, etc. And I wrote down in a computer file where everything is so I can find things when the moment of truth comes: “Now where did I put that?”

31 December

This gaping hole in Stephen’s car is the result of pure vandalism in the Los Angeles area. The repair costs just barely exceeded the $500 deductible.

1 January

How blessed I am. My visiting teachers came to see me on the first day of the year. Pretty impressive!

2 January

This is our Christmas card and photo collection for 2010. I do enjoy looking at the family pictures each year.

3 January

Stephen’s dad passed away yesterday at age 100. His room at Courtyard at Jamestown is very quiet now as we begin the process of cleaning out.

4 January

Cayelle loves to do the Toy Story puzzle—she can do it all my herself.

5 January

I surprised Jennifer and brought a birthday lunch to her house. Jennifer is a wonderful mother to her darling children.

Week 20

23 December

Elizabeth generously gave me her cyclamen plant to nourish before she leaves for London. This is a gift with no strings attached—she doesn’t expect it back.

24 December

What promised to be a big Christmas Eve dinner turned out to have only two guests—Ashton and Cole. We were glad that they, at least, joined us.

25 December

Ditto masters, I must admit are an odd thing to show for Christmas Day. With no family coming in, I actually worked on cleaning out some kitchen cupboards. Look at this prize I found---ditto masters dating to our time in Fremont (mid-1970s) when I gave a lesson to the Relief Society sisters (and later to the priesthood brethren) on journal writing. For those who have never seen a ditto master, it consists of two sheets. One wrote or typed on the first sheet, and wax (usually aniline purple) from the second sheet was transferred to the back of the first sheet. If errors were made, one scraped off the wax with a razor blade and tried again. The first page was attached to the drum of a ditto machine with the wax side out; by turning a handle to rotate the drum, copies were made. Subsequent copies became lighter.

26 December

Woops—I thought I had completed this embroidered Santa except for the outline stitching, but I see I missed a couple of stripes on the girl’s outfit.

27 December

Bruce and Susan with Susan’s children: Bernie and Toreva, Bryn, Wesley and Ilse—the day before the children were sealed to Bruce and Susan in the San Diego Temple.

28 December

Today qualifies as a two-picture day: at the San Diego Temple in the morning for the glorious sealings by the power of the priesthood . . .

. . . and back in Provo for the evening celebration of my father’s 90th birthday and my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary. Six of their eight children were in attendance.

29 December

Oh, yes, I got in the cleaning mode at my office as well—the blue bin and the two stacks of paper are all ready for recycling.