Nov 18, 2011

Christmas 2009

 Christmas this year was a lot of fun.  We had all of the children and their families here for at least part of the holidays. Jeff and his family were here from the 18^th to the 21^st. However during the short visit we had three parties. We met as a family on Saturday after Marie and I had completed photographing a wedding at the Provo temple during the morning.  We had a lot of fun and a big dinner. We played games and Jeff even had the four wheeler out driving around the yard in the snow. (It was a bit hard but after one trail was made it worked a little better.) The grandchildren even got to play a game of twister Christmas style where the plastic sheet had Christmas things on it rather than just the colored dots.

Then on Sunday we had a birthday party for Marie and more food. It was a big meal provided by the children.  Marie was pleasantly surprised with a new Kitchenaid mixer suggested by Tia. It had occurred to me as something that I wanted to do after seeing Tia use hers here to do a cake a few days earlier. I figured that if I got one that then Tia wouldn’t have to bring hers. However it was Tia making the suggestion to get it from Bed, Bath and Beyond.com that made it a little easier for me since she came and helped decide on the model and color. Marie also received a Cuttlebug machine which I didn’t even know she had wanted.  So Brittany picked up one of those and then suggested to me that I get some embossing folders for her for Christmas which helped me since I had no idea what would be best for Chritmas after having just given the Kitchenaid mixer to her.  We had a lot of fun watching her open the presents from each of the children.

Then on Monday night we had our family Christmas party here at home. All of the children and their families were here again and we ate more food. (I have gained five pounds over the past two weeks and most of it over those three days.) It was a lot of fun however and each of the families were excited to open their presents that they had given each other. We had a lot of fun but the end came too quickly and Jeff  and Lori began packing to return home that evening. They had to go since there were major storms predicted for the next few days and they had mountain passes to cross to get home. They left at around 9:15 pm and needless to say Marie and I didn’t sleep too well that night. Part of the reason I must admit was because of too much food in my stomach. I arose finally at 5:30 am and went to see where Jeff had emailed us at 4 am stating that they were home and I was almost ready to go back to bed since I could probably sleep then but I stayed up and instead almost slept at my computer at work all day instead.

I had taken Marie to a movie on her birthday on the 16^th that was called “Everybody’s Fine”. It was a movie about a man who was getting prepared for each of his children to come visit him and they all backed out at the last minute so he ate his home bar-b-qued filet minon steak by himself and then decided to go visit each of them.  It was a very interesting movie to watch at this time of our lives and knowing we were expecting all of the children for the holidays ourselves. Well for us they did all come and it was a very great event or set of events.

So for Christmas we had everyone again with us on Christmas Day as well, except for Jeff of course but even with them we had a video chat with them before we opened our presents here. Loren, Tia, and Brittany were here at around 9:30 AM and after we had video chatted with Jeff’s family we ate breakfast in our traditional manner and then opened presents and greeted Hayden’s family around 12:30 PM and Ben’s family around 1:30 pm. I got a lot of pictures and am trying to process them quickly so that I can send a cd back with Loren and Rachelle since of course Brooklyn was a major star in most of them. We have really enjoyed having them here and Brooklyn has really been fun. At first she wouldn’t let us hold her but now when they are almost ready to go home she is finally letting us hold her and play with her one on one.

Now Hayden gave me a present that is going to place quite a challenge on me. He gave me a book called “Dad, Share your life with me …” A daily journal of Childhood memories. I have been thinking that what I really should do is start a private blog and write it in the answers to the questions that are written for each day in that blog so that all of the children would have it and be able to read it since my hand writing is far from legible at best. Then each of them that might be interested could pull it off and save as they desired.

Nov. 17, 2011

An adventure on the way home from work.

Well I had an accident on the way home tonight from work. I was very blessed in that I got out of the car as soon as I came to a stop. I was coming toward the intersection of Maple and 1600 West (by the Conoco and Model A Cafe) when a truck pulled out in front of me trying to cross from the west side to the east onto Maple. He was driving a chevy truck that was made to carry glass on the sides as you can probably envision. Well I looked at my options in the fraction of a second that I had before certain impact. Having had this happen once before in my life I only hoped that I could be as blessed ( I was going to say lucky but I know better). So I swerved to the right since the truck appeared to be moving forward and going left would have put me right into his cab, a place I didn't want to be since I wasn't really that excited to meet him that way. Well as I went right I went into a slide and was not able to get around him but because I was pushing on the brakes the front end of the car was slanted well toward the ground. So I went under the very back end of his truck breaking off about 2 and a half feet of a piece of 2x10 board that was used to walk on while loading the glass. I was glad that I was in the saturn since it was built low to the ground on the front end and thus went clear under the truck and as you will be able to tell from the following picture it actuall slid the truck off of the car before it went through the windshield where I was sitting. Yes, I was truly blessed, far better than being lucky.

Here is just a note to put into the back of your brain so that it becomes an instinct rather than something you have to think about when the situation comes up. The investigating officer told me that I had made the right choice by veering to the right and not the left. Now why would that matter, well going to the left would have put me into the traffic which was quite active since it was when everyone was on their way home. The traffic was very heavy. Once again I was not lucky I was blessed.

Written Nov 17, 2009. It was on my blog: mytreasuredphoto.blogspot.com

Another note:  Written Dec 13, 2009

Maybe today should have been a Friday the 13^th as all the rest of the world sees it but not me. Today started out with Marie riding to BYU with me so that she could have the car to come later after going to our home ward to listen to Jeff and Brittany speak.  It had snowed a little last night and was almost raining as I shoveled the sidewalk.  Then the drive over at 6:30 A.M. was pretty slick to say the least. On her way home Marie was almost unable to drive the car up the hill out of Springville into Mapleton.  The roads were not a lot better when she went back over at 1:oo P.M. However on the way home tonight the roads were fairly dry and driveable THANK GOODNESS because as I approached the intersection at 400 South and Main in Springville with a Green light for my lanes of travel I had to stomp on the brakes as a young lady made a left turn from the opposite direction of travel right in front of me. Marie then looked at me and said WHY YOU?. Again we were blessed in the fact that the roads were dry enough that my stomping on the brakes didn’t turn into a sliding experience right into the passenger side of the young ladies car. 

Nov 16, 2011

Candy Maker Kara Chocolates

In 1993, when I was laid off from Signetics as they moved the operations to New Mexico, I wondered what I would do for work to provide for my family. We had the meeting in April to tell us the plant was closing in December and so I had several months to secure employment. I was in a leadership position in the ward with Bishop B Ray Anderson who owned a small chocolate company called Kara Chocolates. He suggested that I come work for him and so since I was on graveyard shift at Signetics then I could go to work for him right after I got off and work part time so that I would still be able to go home and get sleep before going back to work that night again. So I did just that and worked for $12 and hour instead of the $30 or so an hour I was getting at Signetics. With the two jobs though I was able to put in cement around the side and back of the house and join it to the shed as well as buy our first ever couch and love seat set for the house.  (The old ones were given to me by my parents and the couch was actually one we had owned as a family when I was a very young child.) Well the job at Signetics ended in December and I went full time at Kara for three more years. I loved the job and remained at my average weight even though I was eating chocolates quite frequently during the day. I made the children sick of eating chocolates because I could take home the outdated stuff that hadn’t sold and let them have it. It wasn’t long before they didn’t greet the candy with any enthusiasm at all, in fact they dreaded it. It was really quite a blessing for them in the long run.

It was a good experience and I loved being able to turn out in excess of 20 thousand mints or other candies in a day. I however had to quit the jod when the factory was purchased by a couple of brothers and they were unable to keep enough chocolate and other supplies for me to be able to make candy. The older brother specifically asked me to work a graveyard making candies which I did on occasion as needed. However I told him that I would need sufficient supplies to keep me busy through the night. He said there would be plenty but when I came to work I had used all of the supplies within less than a half hour after arriving for an 8 hour shift. I locked the  door then left the key on their desk with a note that I was finished and would not be returning to work. I had been promised to many times things that were never given and couldn’t work that way any longer.

Version 2

Candy Maker at Kara Chocolates.

In April of 1993 Signetics announced a company meeting to be held at the Scera Theater in Orem. It was large enough to house all three shifts from the company at one time. At the meeting they announced the closure of the Orem plant to be effective in Dec 1993. Needless to say as I walked out of the meeting I was very scared and sick about the future. However there had been enough talk around the plant that it really hadn’t come as a surprise but it was still a shock to hear it actually happen.

I left that day knowing only that the Lord would somehow take care of me and my family. It was announced through the ward fairly fast since there were actually a couple of us that were affected. I was the Scoutmaster of the ward that time and also in the young men’s presidency and in that calling had several meeting that IU attended with the Bishopric. It was only about a week later when I was in just such a meeting and the Bishop asked if I would like to learn how to make chocolates. I responded that I would love to so he asked me to go to Kara chocolates after I got off from graveyard shift the next morning and he would show me around and I could decide for sure. Well Monday morning came and I went over and met Keith Cavanaugh and was shown a machine that was called the molding plant for chocolate truffles. I decided to start working for Bishop Anderson from that point. I was part time until Dec and then would go full time in Jan 1994. I was able to learn quickly from Keith and soon discovered that he was actually the first owner of the company and then sold it to B Ray Anderson when things got kind of tight for him financially. B ray kept him as part of the company however and he was very knowledgeable about how to make candy.

I worked for B Ray for about two years before he decided to sell the company and return to full time law practice in California. He sold it two brothers and then within a couple of months left the company to them completely. They soon fired Keith and I was left to run the molding plant by myself. Another member of my ward however had been hired to do consulting work for B Ray and was there to basically repair and install equipment. Bob  and I often rode to work together and enjoyed the fact that we neither one had to drive to work every day. We worked together for about a year and I really enjoyed it but found the new bosses to be difficult to work for. They had bought cheaper chocolate and thus were making cheaper truffles. They also had me work graveyard several times and each time they seemed to have the need but would never provide the support to be able to have me do a full shift. I would either run out of chocolate with which to make the truffles or I would run out of room to store them in the cold room because they wouldn’t have a shift there to package the ones that I had made the day prior. One day after a year and a half of working for them I was asked to do graveyard and I explained that I would be happy too but that I would need to have chocolate with which to work. They promised that I would and so I went to work on graveyard. Well I got there and soon found I had enough chocolate to keep in work until 30 minutes later. I ran out the chocolate and wrote a note to the bosses and then left my key on their desk and went home never to return to that ob again. I began doing insurance selling and soon found that I couldn’t make enough money so I put as much effort as I could into my photography and struggled financially for a while before starting to work for Bret Anderson at his cabinet shop.

Nov 15, 2011

Blanding Family Trip

I went on several trips with my family as I was growing up and I don’t remember a lot about any of them. We did however make a trip one year to Blanding where my Uncle Kay and Aunt Velma lived with their family. They were a most gracious host and I am sure that I played a lot with the cousins that were my age. The main thing that I remember however was when Uncle Kay took our families out to see the Indian ruins around Blanding and even into Colorado at the Mesa Verde ruins. I have only been there twice in my life but was always left with an impression of how difficult it would have been to live there. Now as I read the book of Mormon and get to the end where Moroni explains that the Lamanites were even warring with each other after they had killed all of the Nephites that they could hunt down, I realize why they moved and lived as family groups in such places of safety as Mesa Verde would offer to them where they could lock out any other warring tribes. I count my blessings often when I think about what I learned from that one trip and how I now have all of the comforts of a warm home and a soft bed and the ability to go outside and to other homes without having to climb down the ladders. I also think about the water that runs freely from my faucets without having to carry it from a nearby stream. I am truly blessed.

Nov 14, 2011

My first trip to Temple Square for conference at the age of 56. 10/5/2009

In October of 2009 I was given an opportunity to get tickets for General Conference on either a Saturday  or Sunday. I choose the Sunday afternoon tickets and got 6 of them so that I could invite Tia, Scott, Brittany and Jeff A. So when I went and picked up the tickets I was also given a parking pass for a parking plaza about 2 and a half blocks from the conference center.

We had to be there by 1:30 P.M. so I figured we should leave right after the first session and travel together to SLC and go to the Conference center.  However since there were 6 of us and each of our cars would only carry five we decided to take 2 vehicles which then created the first problem, where to park the second vehicle. As we got closer Scott decided to find a spot on his own and we went toward the address. I turned one street to soon and due to the traffic travel became extremely slow. I finally decided to let Marie, Britt and Jeff out and they could then walk up and get the seats. Little did I know I would have to turn away from the parking spot and end up going an extra 10 blocks to get to the right street so I could park. I had to go up about 6 levels before I finally found a spot and then realized that there would have been plenty of room for Scott to park also. However it was too late for that since I had even had to call Marie for directions since she had taken the directions with the tickets, even my ticket. I parked and rushed to the elevator and went to the bottom floor. While in the elevator Britt called and I discussed with her where we were to meet. I then followed the lead of several college students and we ran a good portion or the way to the conference center however the J walked (ran) across the street while I went on up to the crossing light and had to wait for  couple of minutes before we could all cross.  I then went to the outside left of the group and began to fun again. In front of the Church Office Building there is a pull in area for cars to unload passengers so unlike the rest of the group I went to the left and followed the sidewalk rather than cross thru the pullout like everyone else was doing. As I rejoined the group I started to walk again and reached down to get my phone so I could call and see where they were again. To my horror it was gone. So I turned around and retraced my steps all the way back to the bottom of the elevator shat in the parking plaza. Needless to say I was tired but I hadn’t found the phone and just figured that someone must have picked it up and would have taken it into the lost and found by that time. So it was now getting close to time for conference to actually start so I turned around and started running back again taking the exact same path that I had just taken and now twice and see if I could see the phone from a different perspective. Well I did not 5 steps from where I had first missed it across the street from the conference center in front of the office building. It had slid up against a cement barrier and there it stayed no one picking it up because they were all still cutting through the pull out rather than following the sidewalk. I was glad that day for the laziness in general that we as mankind have when it comes to walking. I had missed it when I turned around because it could only be seen when walking the opposite direction.

Well I picked it up and called Britt and discovered that Marie was waiting outside of door 22 for me and we only had 10 minutes to spare. (That was when I had really started wishing that I had J Walked three time myself rather than having to wait for the lights.) I went on across with the crowd though and found Marie who then informed me that since we were late we would have to go down to door #4, all the way around to the northwest side of the center passing 14 or 15 other entrances. So we did and the line was luckily only a few feet long and we were able to enter without much further delay. We then went to the second floor but was told by the ushers that there were no seats left there and we would have to go on up to the balcony, well we explained that our children were there and still had seats for us so they let us enter. Luckily Marie had already been to the seats and roughly knew where we were to go and as we were almost there then Scott also found us and took us the final few feet. I was so relieved to sit down and there was even 5 minutes to spare before conference started. I had time to say thanks to my Heavenly Father several times, which I did, for prompting me to leave so early and then leading my feet back to my phone in the meantime.

We enjoyed conference and I was even somewhat entertained by following where the cameras were located and which one was currently transmitting the images on the large screens to the sides of the conference center. In fact the thought often occurred to me that it was like being home in front of the TV since the screens were much easier for me to see from the second level than were the speakers at the podium.

We left the conference edified and having enjoyed the one time we were able to be at conference in the center with the Prophet and other church leaders. We walked out of the second floor across the hall and out the door where Marie had first met me which was also ground level and right by the street I had crossed after finding my phone, I had sure taken the long way to get there at first. However I think Marie and I were both silently vowing to never go through that again even though I had now learned all of the ropes and it would not necessarily be so difficult getting there the next time, but we would both rather skip the travel to and from and spend the time with our children and grandchildren instead in the comfort of our home.  When we had walked the 2 and a half blocks back to the parking plaza I had to admit that I really had failed to notice which level I had parked on due to the stress of getting back together with all of them, We went to the 6^th floor and, well, nope it wasn’t on that one so I quickly bounded up the steps to the next level and finally to the eighth level where it was parked somewhat by itself with plenty of parking had Scott followed us there as well. We called them and found that they had parked in a three minute zone and had a $30 dollar ticket waiting for them. Well we left the parking terrace after going down the first four floors rather quickly and then getting stuck in the rest of the traffic trying to leave from the lower floors. It took us nearly a half hour to get back onto the streets of SLC and another 20 minutes to get to the freeway. I was sure Scott and Tia were halfway home by then but we then discovered that they had been diverted around several different streets and actually were almost a half hour later getting home than we were. Needless to say I was glad to get home from a 2 hour session of conference nearly 6 hours after leaving home to go to it.

I love conference but now I know why I love to watch it on TV.