Where Did the Summer Go?

I can't believe it's almost September again .... my mind is still back in March; (but then my mind tells me I'm still only 35 years old) so much for believing my mind!

We've had a busy summer for a couple of 'old' folks, plus David. We've been to Utah two times - once in June and again in August - to attend two grandchildren's weddings. We wished we could have attended Jennifer and Jason's wedding, in the St. Louis Temple on April 24th, but was unable to do so... although we did get to visit with them when we were in Provo for Matt and Mykel's wedding on June 19th, which took place in the Salt Lake Temple; also had a chance to visit with Jay and Aubrey, which was nice. As Stephen Bruce was entering the Provo MTC about the same time, we were able to see him as well as Debbie and Bruce. We stayed in Provo a couple of nights with my brother Lee and his wife Joyce; and were also able to visit for a few hours my brother Max and his wife Karla, who live in Springville. We stayed with the Stansbury Park Carr's, Steve/Kathy and family, for a couple of days after the wedding and returned home after a wonderful trip. Julie flew out to San Francisco - she flies relatively free as Curtis still works for the airlines - and then helped drive us back to Elko/Spring Creek - from which we then drove ourselves to Salt Lake for the wedding; reversing the process when we were ready to return home.

This past week we again drove to Salt Lake, hitching a ride with Renee and Stacy, who was returning to BYU for her Sophomore year. We rode in their 12 passenger van, with Stacy's "stuff" taking up the back quarter of the van... and it worked out just fine. We all stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, near the airport, and really had nice accommodations... an almost straight shot onto North Temple! We were there to witness Cyndi and Scott's sealing in the Salt Lake Temple on August 21st; and on our return trip to California, we were able to spend a couple of days with the Smith family in Spring Creek, Nevada. Jenny/Greg and children were there for the wedding, as well as Curtis/Trinity and girls... in Spring Creek we visited with Diana/Joe and girls as well as Adam ... we had lots of fun visiting with them all.

On the 9th of August we had another grandson get married; but this time we only had to travel to Berkeley, California - about 25 miles north of Fremont. Daniel and Lena were married in the Berkeley City Club, a lovely old building near UC Berkeley where they first met. The ceremony was performed by a Jewish Rabbi, whom both Danny and Lena know, and who traveled all the way from Santa Rosa to perform their wedding ceremony. We had the opportunity to meet many of Lena's family from southern California and round about. It was very nice to become acquainted with them, especially Lena's 92 year old grandmother... what a sweet and special lady she is. We met many of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as her father (Lena's mother passed away a couple of years ago) - it was good to meet them and see what a close and loving family they are.

We're back at home now and ready to get back on some sort of a routine. We got David's school information packet yesterday and it has quite a few changes in it because of the California State Budget problems. I think most states have lots of problems with their budgets due to the economic down-turn this past year; but without getting too political, over the past number of years, our California legislatures have done a miserable job of balancing our state budget and now the "fat is in the fire", so to speak. Therefore, all state entities have had to be cut... as well as Special Education, and we are now seeing it this fall. David's classes start Sept 14th (a week later), M-Th (no Friday classes), Thanksgiving - all week off, Christmas vacation starting Dec. 14th (three weeks off), Easter break is one week (normal); plus he has to pay $100 for the first semester (more $$ requests may follow); but I guess it could be a lot worse! The NUMMI Plant in Fremont is closing it's doors in March (a joint venture with GM/Toyota) Since GM went bankrupt, Toyota has chosen not to go it alone; so about 1200 workers are losing their jobs in a couple of months. So... our California economy has a long way to go before it gets on the upswing again; hopefully, not too many more months of the downswing to go!

We are still healthy and going - as much as two 75-plus year olds can be. Grandpa/Dad has days when he is not feeling his best; but my theory is, "as long as I can get out of bed each morning, all is well..." !

May Update...

May has come and gone before I had a chance to do anything noteworthy other than stay healthy ... which in itself, at my age, is noteworthy! Doug is starting to feel better, he even went 18 holes on the golf course yesterday; although he did admit that he got caught in a sand trap the other day and got so frustrated at trying to get out that he just picked the ball up and tossed it onto the green!! All you golfers out there can relate to that, I'm sure.

We had two new babies born this month, our 31st & 32nd great grandchildren. Tana Marie Bailey, born to Diana and Joe on May 15th; and Kaylee Grace Dyer, born to Devin and Carolynn on the 28th. We hear that we'll have two more "greats" born in November. Jared and Julie Bates are expecting, as well as Jonathan and Candace Evans... so numbers 33 & 34 are on the way. WOW... it won't be too long until the great-grandchildren numbers catch up with our thirty-nine grandchildren number!

Justin is doing well on his mission in the Dominican Republic and Stephen Bruce will enter the MTC on June 17th to serve in the Utah Ogden Mission. I told my brother, Bob, who lives in North Ogden, to keep an eye out for an Elder Evans in his area... as he will soon be serving there.

We are looking forward to driving to Salt Lake - with Julie's help - to attend Matthew and Mykel's wedding on the 19th of June. They will be married in the Salt Lake Temple on that day. We also hope to visit my brothers' and Doug's sister who live in the area. We'll stay a few day at Steve and Kathy's home before heading back to Spring Creek and the drive home - with Julie's help, again. It's so nice that she is able to fly out and back to San Francisco, without too much cost... one of the "perks" of having a son who works for an airline.

March & April have gone so fast...

I can't believe how quickly time flies by! It is now the 23rd day of April... and also the wedding day of Jennifer and Jason Kohl in the St Louis Missouri Temple. Matthew LeCheminant is graduating from BYU Provo today, too... what an eventful day for our family!

The first week in April the Salt Lake Carrs', Steve, Kathy and family, came to California for a visit to try and get out of the winter snows; but alas, only to find rain... but there was one beautiful sunny day that they were able to do the 'tourist' thing in San Francisco and had a great time doing so. We were able to get some good visiting in as well as shopping and some home projects completed. We went to a local nursery and bought some flowers to plant, after Steve had rototilled the ground the day before, and we were able to get them planted, even in the rain.... they are growing well and looking great!

We got the news that Stephen Bruce has received his mission call to the Utah Ogden Mission and will report to the Provo MTC in mid June... and that Nathaniel will graduate from Virginia Tech Medical School in mid May, from whence Nate, Becky and family will move to Ohio where Nate will be doing his medical residency for the next four years. I just looked at their Blog and saw the house they hope to be able to buy there, and it is gorgeous... to say the least!

Grandpa, David and I are doing pretty good; although Grandpa is still having some health concerns; aka, breathing problems due to fluid build up in one of his lungs. He cannot sleep too well when he is lying down, therefore he is awake most of the night and catches up by sleeping when and where he can all day long. He is in contact with his doctor, who has him upping his Lasix dosage to see if that will help get rid of the fluid before his appointment next week. Someone once said that "getting old is not for wimps", what a truisum that is!! But, we can't complain too much... there are many of our friends who have much worse health problems than we do, so we count our blessings.

I was released from my Primary 1st Counsellor calling a few weeks ago and am now a Ward Missionary as well as a Family History Consultant; and at the end of May, my stint as being DUP Company President will also end. I have really enjoyed both my Primary and DUP callings, but it is time for someone else to have those experiences... and the sometimes challanges! As Dad/Grandpa is the Ward Mission Leader, and now that I am a Ward Missionary, we have a lot of contact with the missionary Elders in our Ward, as well as once a month at the Missionary Corolation Meeting we also get to rub shoulders with all the young missionaries serving in our Stake... kinda brings back memories of our own mission in Virginia.

February Update

As you can see, my weekly update didn't last long... but I'll try to recap what's been going on in our lives these past two weeks or so. We have finally gotten some rain, that was desperately needed, here in California. We still are not up to 'normal' but every storm helps; so we're hoping for more and are supposed to get some in the next couple of days. This wet weather really puts the kebosh on Grandpa's Tuesday golf days... so he'll just have to make up for it when the weather clears again.

The exciting news is (drum roll) that after wanting to get a new lighting system for my living room - those who remember how dark that room is know what I'm talking about - we finally got some new lighting installed. Our local professional handyman, Petey Brown, was able to take a couple of days to come and install nine (9) can lights for us; three in the laundry room and six in the living room, plus a tube skylight in there... which I love! He also fixed our 'dripping' bathroom faucets and hung two hallway lights. He has us on his list to come back and replace a length of old original galvanized water pipe underneath our house that goes up into our shower. This section of pipe sprang a leak a few weeks ago and he was able to put a plumbers "band aid" on it for a temporary fix, so it will need to be replaced. A couple of years ago he re- plumbed all the old galvanized water pipes with copper; but because that section went up into our shower wall, he left it for a later day... which has now arrived. Our house if about 55+ years old, so I guess it deserves to have some refurbishing done to it!

Last Sunday Jeff and Diane flew in for a three day visit, and it was great! We had lots of time to visit - even played Skip-Bo at night with the guys joining in! While they were here, we went to Costco and purchased a new 36" flat screen T.V. to replace the 10 year old one we had... although it still worked if we "boxed its ears" on both sides to get the picture up and visible, so we decided we'd better get one when someone was here to help set it up for us... the same with Dad's new computer monitor. We 'oldsters' need a boost up when it comes to these new fangled high tech gadgets that abound in this modern world of ours!

These are my parents, Charles Alfred White and Hilda Eleanora Stevens White, taken at their home in Clearfield, Ut, approximately 1966. Mom died the following year on December 8, 1967. She suffered from heart problems most of her adult life; after having rheumatic fever as a child. Dr. Russell M. Nelson (now Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) performed heart surgery on her in late October, 1967, but her body was too weak, after so many years of illness, and she didn't survive.

This is a Carr family picture taken in 1983. Note, all the children in this picture are now married and some have families of their own. Doug's parents, John and Edna Carr, are in the center of the picture.

So, this is how one 'Blogs'!

Today is our fifty-sixth wedding anniversery and I just got back from Panera's Bakery, where Grandpa took me out to lunch... it was delicious! Since I've been on a new eating plan for a couple of weeks, I decided that just for lunch I'd take a break and go out to eat.

I just can't believe how fast the years have gone by; but looking back at all the things we've done and places we've been, not to mention the rearing of eight wonderful children, I guess it does take that many years to accomplish! We often wonder how things would have changed if we had (or had not) made the choices that we did in our lives; or if our parents had made different choices, such as church, moving, etc., our lives would have been totally different as we probably would never have met. When we look at things in that light, choices truely do make a difference.

This week, in Fremont, has been pretty normal for us... attended church, had FHE on Monday, Tuesday: with Grandpa's help, vacuumed all the floors (which hadn't been done for a few weeks), changed the beds, cleaned the bathrooms and moped their floors, did the laundry, and then decided that that was enough! Today, Wednesday: did some DUP stuff, went to lunch, and wrote in my new Blog for the first time. I think I'll work on Lisa/Gavin's new baby blanket for an hour or so... Lisa is the next one due, and is expecting a baby boy the first week in March, with Trinity/Curtis not far behind them with their new baby girl... so I'd better get sewing!!

I'll try to do 'California updates ' each week, but don't hold your breath!