RipStik'n Grandma

Miah teaching Grandma how to ride a RipStik. He says, "I'm not paying the hospital bill, but I'll help you."

Missionary Work

It has come to my attention that some of My Grand kids don't know that I served a mission as a young 21 year old. This is a call for a poll of Grand kids to see how many know that and to possibly then give a mission report for their benefit. Some of you kids may not know much about Daddy's and my missions either. Let me know what you find out from your kids.
And Thank you, Cathy, for the missionary board for Christmas. It's fun for everyone to see where everyone went.

He's here!

James (long, un-pronounceable, Hawaiian name) Chung-hoon was born February 14th. He weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and was 20 inches long.

Today has been an interesting day!!! I guess it began last night. I've turned Jenny's room into a quilt tying room and we've been tying quilts for a "big boy" bed for William and a matching quilt for the crib for the new baby which is also a boy. The twin size quilt is done and I was trying to finish up tying the baby quilt and I needed to go to the bathroom. I had 3 more stitches left when I reached too far and knocked the quilt off one stand. In trying to put it back on I tipped over another stand and in trying to fix that I tipped over the other two stands. I managed to get to the bathroom without making too many more problems, then had to return to the quilt and do the last three stitches. I did get it finished.

Then today, I got back from my second trip to the MTC and Mary Ann came rushing in to get a Lube Doc coupon for Jenny who was getting her car inspected for re-licensing and wanted the discount. For some reason my printer wouldn't print it off so I went into the kitchen to see if there was one on the calendar on the fridge. While I was looking I heard something go pop in the wall and could hear water running. I went downstairs and sure enough, water was running down the door in the quilt room. I threw all the extra towels on the floor making a channel to the drain and removed the old socks that block it, then went and called Johnny who happened to be at home and he hurried over and turned off the water at the street. We first blamed Daddy's repair job from broken pipes back when we went to Alaska but after cutting a hole in the ceiling, that repair was still working beautifully. We cut a hole in the wall by the kitchen stove and the cap off that pipe area that we put on when we redid the kitchen had broken in half. Johnny put a temporary cap on it and will get one tomorrow that won't break but I now have two holes that need repair in the basement and kitchen. Can you believe how much worse it could have been if I hadn't been right there?

Oh, then the coupon for Lube Doc printed right off. Well that's life.

Family History--God lives

When I flew out to stay a few days with Carolyn and family, I was seated next to a lady who was also flying to Washington to visit her daughter. We had a lot in common. She was an avid Bible fan and knew the Bible well. She loved the stories and was involved in teaching the 5th graders in her church. She was a little surprised to find a Mormon who knew and loved the Bible probably as much as she did. I began to think that maybe some of my experiences as a child might help my children as they teach their children the scriptures.
I grew up in a very small branch of the church. We were so few in number that you might have called us a twig. My mom was usually the Sunday school and Primary teacher for all of the children. Do you remember that I have taught you the 4 steps of learning? Exposure, Verbalization, Common use and Creative use. and the 3 ways of learning? Visual-seeing, Auditory-hearing, and kinesthetic-doing. She used all of those ways. She exposed us to the stories, using pictures, animated expression and games and activities so we would remember them. She had us retell the stories by speaking, acting out and drawing pictures of the steps in the stories. Then we talked about what we should do or why Heavenly Father put that story in the scriptures so we would know how to act. Then we were encouraged to ask the Holy Ghost to help us recognize the situations where we could use what we had learned. Sometimes we memorized scriptures. Sometimes we gave a small part of the lesson or used some for" two and a half minute talks". We became very well acquainted with the stories and the characters in them. At home, it was before scheduled family home evenings, she let us use the picture kits she had and play Sunday school or Primary so we were telling the stories. (I particularly liked baby Moses in the bullrushes.)
When the lady on the plane said that she had some trouble with some of the children remembering the stories even until the next week, I suggested making something to take home so that she pulled in more ways of remembering and gave her some examples of things I've used. And when we were leaving the plane I told her I had really enjoyed talking with her and she gave me a big hug.

tutoring reading

Thursday night Isaac came over for help with a school assignment. His penmanship was so poor that it couldn't be read and the teacher had told him to copy it over. She had him tell her what it said and had written the words under his so we could tell what he'd said. I showed him the "face of a clock" penmanship and had him try each letter a couple times and the results were beautiful. So we rewrote the paper.

Next day:

Me: Did you show your teacher your paper? What did she say?

Isaac: She said, "WOW!"

Me: That's all? Just WOW! ? It was better than that!

Isaac: Well, yeah, but she was just a substitute.

Memories: Car stories

My mom, Ruhama Adair, was raised in Orderville, Utah. In the early 1900's they still used horse and wagon for travel. She remembered going to the Grand Canyon in a horse drawn wagon when she was still quite young. She also remembered the first car or horseless carriage that came to Orderville and the stir it caused. She was 14 when aunt Teeny died. That would have been around 1920. After that she went to Salt Lake and attended East High School and worked as a maid for some of the officers wives at Fort Douglas. That is where she met Daddy and they were married October 11, 1930. Daddy drove a car but Mom didn't learn until I was about 5. I remember walking to town, about a mile, when I was 3 and 4. Mom would push the buggy with Dan in it and sometimes Naty or I would ride for a ways. One day we were just around the corner and I needed to use the bathroom only there wasn't one and when I had to go, I had to go, now. I wet my pants. Bill came along on his bicycle and took me home, changed my pants and brought me back to Mom and the others. It became necessary for Mom to learn to drive, so Daddy taught her. Our car was an old Buick. I don't remember the year, but they bought it when Naty was two so we had it for awhile. I have a picture of it somewhere.

Driving in Prineville , was somewhat like driving in Loa would be today. Mom really felt uncomfortable driving that car. It started with a crank. So she always began her road trips with a prayer even if she was only driving a couple miles. One day she drove up our 100 yard driveway onto the paved road, then down to the corner and on to the mile long straight stretch to town. We went past the canal, Lincoln Road, Melrose road, over the bridge and then slowed way down to go over the railroad tracks. There were a couple of men standing on either side of the road talking to each other. Our car made too much noise for the man on the right side to hear so he stepped out into the road to get closer. But as Mom went over the tracks something said stop! so she did. The man who had stepped into the road, put his hand on the radiator cap, and said, "I guess I'd better pay attention to what I'm doing. Lady, you are one great driver." The man on the other side of the road was also impressed. If she had stepped on the gas again as per usual she'd have hit him hard.

Another time on the way home when we came to the corner, she stopped rather than going on around. Just As she got stopped a group of boys on their bikes came around the corner and they were all over the road. If she had kept going she would have plowed into the whole group because neither of them could see each other until it was too late. When we started learning to drive she told us to listen for the instructions from the Holy Ghost if we wanted to be safe.

I was probably 8 or nine because Bill was 17 or 18 when the Ashlocks came to visit. They had become acquainted at church in Springfield when both had lived there and so they decided that we would all go over the McKenzie Pass to Springfield to visit others that they had known. The McKenzie pass was a very very narrow and twisty road through the trees and over the mountain. We decided that it would be more fun if the kids all went in our car with Bill driving and the adults went in the other car so they could visit. We had prayer and started out, us kids in front and the adults following. Everything was going well until we met a big old flatbed Semi truck coming around a turn on our side of the road.Bill made a sharp right turn, stepped on the gas and climbed the bank. The truck went past and its very tail end hit our back fender and squashed it a little. I was sitting by that window on that side, but you know me, I didn't even really know what was happening. Mom and Dad came along a couple minutes later and found our car up the bank and the truck backing down the road. Its driver hadn't even slowed to stop but his passenger just jumped out and came running back saying, "All I could see was that carload of kids." He and the driver were really glad to see Adults come along to take care of the kids. Mom walked us down a little side road to a waterfall while the men drove the car off the bank and assessed the damage. There really wasn't any except the crumpled fender and I never even noticed that the car was on the bank at such a slant until after we came back from the waterfall. I was in fourth grade when we discovered how near sighted I was. Maybe that accounted for how calmly I took things. Dad drove us on into Springfield and both Mom and Dad acknowledged that the lord had really blessed Bill in his driving. We went on into Aunt Tessie's and Mom read us "When The Grass Grew" from the Book "A Story to Tell" about George Albert Smith when he was a boy. I think that car was our old green 41 Chevy.

It's getting late so...more another time. Did I tell you about the first time I drove after getting my license and the green panel truck?