LES MISERABLES

Well I finally saw "Les Miz". The cutest "beggar girl" was a little more dishevelled than what is protrayed here, but she did a fantastic job. The voices were great, the scenery was very good, the death scenes were realistic and when the people were told to leave the barricades we checked to make sure our favorite "beggar girl" had gone to safety. She had. Please note the blue apron. It was a proven way to make sure we were watching the right person. Just a hint for those who are planning to attend the program.

What a great job the Musical Theater dept. does at Bountiful High School. It was here that I saw my first production of "Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Coat" and rose to my feet with all in attendance when "Pharoah" appeared. I was so proud of "Our Andy" and wanted to tell everyone "He belongs to us" :o)

Good job Caitlin, you are a natural :o)

We look forward to more productions at BHS.

VACATION AND ITS AFTERMATH

If you read Lesley's blog you will know where we have spent a few days

recently. One picture she did not post because she didn't have it is this one. A Bald Eagle. I love to see bald eagles at Yellowstone it is probably sacrilege to say, almost like seeing a bear, but don't tell Michael I said so. :o).

Then a few days of saying goodbyes and getting Derek and Dorothy off home. It was good to have them and it is always interesting to Dot and I just how much these brothers are alike. One starts a sentence and the other finishes. They feed each other jokes. They love their family.

Since they left I have been canning peaches.

And today Alan took our bedroom apart to paint and replace the carpet. A big job but he has done bigger jobs.

David and his family are in Disneyland so I have been given the privelege of feeding the pets!!!!!! what a worry!!!!! hurry home.

It is fun to be on vacation but it is nice to get back into a schedule and besides there is always another trip on the horizon :o)

A Scoop

An interesting wedding is to take place on Oct. 2nd and we have received exclusive photos of the Bride's custom made gown.

The photo on the left has been released by the Bride .....


But we show these exclusive photos.

And also the following photo of the Bride
and her "made of Honor" and other "attendants"

Seriously we had a fun time at a Bridal Shower for Jessica who is soon to join our family. She was a good sport and allowed the younger guests to dress her as a bride. The theme of the shower was "Time of Day" and a lot of ingenuity was shown in choice of gifts. Jessica's Mother and sister were in attendance and hopefully were "reassured" as to the family their daughter/sister is marrying into. As for our Family, we are excited to have her join us. Love you Jessica :o)

I only have one sister....

....... Jean. She is older than me by 13 years, today is the anniversary of her birth. So going on the premise if I remember her and tell others about her she will always live. :o)

She was beautiful and happy, she would go dancing with our brother Jack and had a lovely alto singing voice. She always seemed to have a lot of boyfriends. I remember meeting one of them by accident in downtown Belfast and he took me to lunch. An unforgetable experience for this 10 year old. When she would go out on a date if she received a box of chocolates she always saved a few for me. Well maybe I had to give Brian one but..............

During the war she worked in England and came home on a visit, or maybe she came home to stay, either way, we shared a bed and one night June was there and Jean told us about all the fun she had in London and what she had eaten and we were punching her while she was talking about strawberries and cream and knickerbocker glories. Desserts that to this wartime child were only words. And the three of us lay and giggled and had a good laugh.

I finally had a Knickerbocker Glory when I visited Belfast for her funeral.

She was 26 years old when she got married and I was a bridesmaid. Brian and I used to love and go visit her in her first apartment. Her kitchen was a closet (about the size of Lilian's main floor bathroom) but what delicious food came out of that "closet".

This picture of her with our Mother was taken about 6 months before our Mother passed away in March 1953, just 10 days before Jean's first baby was born.

After I got married she would come all the way across Belfast to visit, it was about an hour's journey and involved several buses. Billy worked in a banana warehouse and she always brought bananas, when Alan got home from work and saw the bananas he always knew Jean was here. :o)

Until we came to the States I never had to buy bananas and when I got here it was a difficult purchase for me. :o).

She came to Utah to visit us several times, and it was fun to have her. I returned to Belfast a few times to see her.

This is one of the last pictures I have of the two of us together.

She passed away in April 1995. I miss her. I have not been to Belfast since.

Then and now

On this date in history Sunday Sept. 7th 1958 Alan and I and our 2 month old baby Lesley Ann traveled overnight on the Heysham boat to .... Heysham England, where we transferred to the train and 6 hours later we arrived at Euston Station in London. Thence by London Underground District line to Dagenham where we were met by Uncle Harry and proceeded to his home where we stayed overnight. The purpose of our trip was to attend the dedicatory services for the newly built London Temple and to also receive our Endowments, and be sealed together as a family for eternity. We had met in June of 1954 and got engaged at Christmas of that year. Being young my Father would not give permission for us to marry unless it was in the Temple. Only problem was there was no Temple in Britain. There was a Temple in Bern, Switzerland and one under construction in Newchapel Surrey, South of London. In April of 1956 we had a District Conference at which President Clifton Kerr from Tremonton Utah presided and when we (Alan, me, my Dad) approached him he suggested we should get married. I love that man. :o)

We were married in July 1956, and now here we were at the first opportunity coming to the Temple to be sealed.

We travelled from Dagenham to the Temple on Tuesday morning Sept. 9th a beautiful autumn day, the sun was shining and we watched the dragonflies, bees and butterflies flit from flower to flower as we waited, just us, in the grounds of the Manor House. The Temple was magnificient in the sunshine and in a short while we could hear the "Spirit of God" emanating from there as the closing hymn was sung. In that beautiful setting, peace, sunshine, flowers dragonflies etc. it made us feel like the angels in Heaven were singing, as indeed they were.

The Irish Saints were scheduled to attend the afternoon dedicatory session and when we entered the room we were thrilled to see President McKay and many other General Authorities sitting in front. As the proceedings were announced we were surprised to hear my Dad's name spoken to give the benediction. What an honour. He was as surprised as we were as he was not forewarned.

After the services we went with the other Irish Saints to stay overnight at the YMCA Camp in Chigwell Essex. We went by bus. Lesley slept all night, the first time in her 9 week old life.
At 5am next morning Wednesday Sept. 10th we set off again on the bus, back to the Temple for the first Endowment session. Lesley went to the nursery as Alan and I received our eternal ordinances. Later in the sealing room Alan was a witness as my Dad was sealed to his deceased Lilian, then I and my deceased brother Samuel were sealed to our parents, then it was our turn. As my Dad witnessed, Alan on one side of the altar me on the other, we were sealed for Time and All Eternity, then Lesley Ann was brought in dressed in white and sealed to us. WE WERE NOW AN ETERNAL FAMILY.

And here we are 50 years later. STILL AN ETERNAL FAMILY only

BIGGER. 6 children, 6 in-law children 23 grandchildren, 5 in-law grandchildren, 4 great grandchildren with 1 more on the way. Every one precious to us and to the Lord. We love the Lord and praise Him. We thank Him every day for each one of these precious souls and for each other.

Education

Today is the first day of school in Davis County and quite a few of my Grandkids are going back to school. We have four going to College, five going to High School, three in Junior High, two in Fourth Grade, one in Kindergarten, two in Pre-school. And others who have passed their goal, and two who are still a year or two or three away from the school system. One getting married, and one on a mission, and one preparing for a mission. There is always a lot of coming and going in our family.

I think of when my bairns were in school. I was always so excited for the last day of school and the promise of summer. Then I always looked forward to the first day of school. I always get a little melancholy in September because the time is flying by and everyone is getting older. :o( But!!! .... then there is always things to look forward to. Band performances and school plays and programs.

And canning peaches and tomatoes.

I remember when I was in school, this is a picture of me in my school uniform. You could always tell which school a student attended because of the colours of the tunic and the tie. This is the uniform I wore when I attended Orangefield Primary School in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I was twelve when this picture was taken. I must confess I don't remember exactly the order. I know the tunic was green I think the tie orange and the sash green. My hair was long and my Mother always braided it. Just a bit of trivia. A few years earlier my Mother and my youngest brother went to the country for a few days and my Daddy had to braid my hair. :o) Not as neat and concise as my Mom's but him and I were sure proud of the finished product. :o)

Alan loves to look at the old pictures and see the newest generation reflected in the older.

A New Day

I am now a liberated woman. We had pizza for our birthday dinner :o). Alan had invited the "children" for cake and ice-cream at 6pm, but that is an awkward time as no one had a chance to eat sooooooooo I said why don't we order pizza. Pizza is not our favorite food. But........ we ordered all sorts of pizza and everyone was pleased. I may do this again, NO WORK that is why I am liberated. And the clean-up was a snap. Earlier in the day we drove to Morgan for a hamburger and Raspberry shake at Steph's. 70 miles for a hamburger. As Alan and I are fond of commenting "only in America" Only half the family were here, but that is still a crowd. One son is in So. Cal. on vacation. Another is in England with his son on a graduation trip to watch soccer. And another son lives in California so was not able to make it. But I heard from them and that was wonderful.The cake was my Alan's favorite , white with raspberry filling and real whipped cream. He never forgets the "Irish" connection so there were shamrocks on it. :o)

Someone asked me one time

"when is your birthday?"

I answered "August 22nd"

"What year?"

"Every year!"

The cream frosting was good. But don't worry, I nibbled in a corner next to the dish :o)