On This Day in History January 23 1937

My Alan was born..........

There are MANY things I can say about my Alan but there are just a couple I wanted to mention.

We met in June of 1954, got engaged at Christmas 1954 and in January I travelled to Yorkshire where he was then living and gave him as a birthday present a Triple Combination. He was so thrilled, it was the first one he ever had. Prior to this he used a soft-backed blue copy of the Book of Mormon and a similiar copy of the Doctrine and Covenants. But he was already familiar with the scriptures as he read them everyday. He was 18 years old. On the day before Lesley was born, our second wedding anniversary, I gave him a copy of the Bible. He read and used these books for many years and when the covers began to show wear and tear I bought him scripture covers to preserve them. He was a "little" rebellious when the Church published the LDS Edition of the Scriptures because he loved the "feel" of his precious books and where exactly to find what he was looking for, but he soon accepted these "new" copies and "retired" his old books. I think Lesley now has these copies. The purpose for this little bit of history is this; I want our children and more especially our grandchildren to know , their Granpa, reads, knows, loves and lives the scriptures. A day very rarely passes that he does not spend time in reading. He honors his Priesthood, loves the Lord and his family. It would be my desire as the Mother and Granma in this family, that our children and grandchildren would emulate their Granpa.

Another thing he does, he makes me laugh every day. :o)

He has taught me many things, but one of the very first things he taught me was, to let him be a gentleman and allow him to serve me. As a result, he always opens the doors for me, carries my packages, does heavy jobs and assures me it is his privledge to make me happy.

Another biggie is

I.NEVER.HAVE.HAD.TO.PICK.UP. AFTER.HIM. Not in 52 + years of marriage. He always puts his things away carefully, always brushing his suits before hanging them up. Even turns his socks right side out before putting them in the laundry basket. And then he carries the laundry basket downstairs for me. What a man. I.THINK.I.WILL.KEEP.HIM.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART.

LOVE YOU

On This Day in History January 15th 1979

I started to work for the Church as a PBX Operator.

The partial history behind this is .........

Back in 1952 I left school and my Mother had desires to see me do something different, so we went to the "Labour Exchange" and filed an application for the "Civil Service". My choices were "Telegraphist" or "Telephonist" so we looked at each other and choose Telephonist. Unfortunatly by the time I finally started in Telephone House in Belfast in June 1954 my Mother had been dead a year. But I have always credited her with my "future" employment.

When I started this is a picture of what my work envirionment looked like. The only difference is the clothing style.

Then I worked as a telephonist on our local newspaper "The Belfast Telegraph" (the tele). This is a picture of the office I work in and a picture of the equipment I used.

After coming to Utah I worked at the LDS Hospital and again used similar equipment but this was 20 years later and new electronic equipment soon replaced this.

In January of 1979 as already stated I went to work for the Church and this opened a whole new career. I loved being an "operator". The work was always moving, I didn't have to bring it home with me and I talked with people from all over the world. Being a Church operator gave me the opportunity to meet the Brethren and help them in their work. They often said what a comfort it was for them to call from all over the world and hear, "LDS Church Offices". There were several operators and the work was fun. Therein lies another whole "BLOG" or should it be called a "book"?

David and Friends

David enjoys to "relax" by participating at our local Playhouse and has had roles in quite a few productions. He was asked by our City Arts Committee to provide some entertainment for our citizens so he enrolled some of his friends from the theater to come perform with him which they did and sang a variety of songs from Broadway shows which they had performed locally.

Our Granddaughter sang "On My Own" from "Les Miserables", and our oldest Grandson sang "Lily's Eyes" from "Secret Garden" and "Those Canaan Days" from "Joseph"plus a couple of others.

But for me the highlight was Alan singing, "I'm reviewing the situation" from "Oliver" He has done a lot of singing over the years at many different functions, but he was delighted to be considered among "David's Friends" and sang this song which he first performed about 35 years ago, I don't remember the occasion but I do remember it was at a program at Viewmont High School. (A Miss Bountiful Pageant?)

Tis the Season ........

......for SNOW.

The reason why some people do NOT miss Utah...

.... and the reason why some people DO miss Utah.

First of all the "Postcard" awww!!!!

Then, the WORK awww!!!!!

Then our "favorite" former Bishop came to share his "talents" and machinery :o)

So far we have been ok.
No loss of power!
Still get to stores.
Have a gas fire and
a good movie!!!!!
lots of junk food!!!!!!

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW

Ward Breakfast

Well, Saturday morning has come and gone and our Ward activity

was successful. We did NOT have an Ulster fry for two hundred people but we did serve, pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon and hashbrowns.

We served 200 people in 20 minutes and people were happy to have a HOT breakfast. We had a lot of help to cook 20 pounds of bacon, 15 pounds of sausage, 22 dozen eggs and 18 packages of hash browns and 25 pounds of pancake flour. 12 gallons of milk and 12 gallons of orange juice. YM/YW provided a program, Primary delivered invitations, Priesthood did tables. RS did table decorating, Ward Mission arranged letters for Missionaries, Sunday School helped to cook.

I am glad it is over, we came home, opened a box of

Cavanaughs, and vegetated. :o)

Another Reason to Give Thanks

Avery Madeline, arrived today and she is beautiful. She is our first Great Grand Daughter. We have 4 Great Grand Sons, Adam, Zachary, and William. And then Mason. They are her cousins.

Peter Pan

Wednesday Night we were treated as "Senior Citzens" to free turkey dinner and performance of this play at Weber High School. What a great night. Our favorite "Indian" was of course our granddaughter Megan. :o) This scene was particularly impressive as a LOT of practise went into the timing.

This scene also took a lot of coordinating with singing and choreography. There were 30 Indians, 31 Lost "Boys", and 31 Pirates. A LOT of running up and down stairs in the auditorium which these youth took as if they were mountain goats. A lot of energy was expended and a grand time was our experience. What facilities the schools have to work with and what opportunities the youth receive in their educational years. We were really proud of Megan her performance was outstanding. She stayed in character and with having the red on her costume we were able to keep track of her. Granpa said he was able to keep track of her because she was the most beautiful Indian, nevermind Indian, THE most beautiful girl on stage.