I want to remember this

I'm still thinking about a talk I heard at church last Sunday. By the look in the speaker's eyes and
hearing the emotion in his voice, I could tell he was not only very sincere, but he's been through 
a lot. He spoke of family problems, although without going into detail. 
He said he now asks himself every morning, "What can I do today to live a Christ centered 
life?' and then he goes to bed each night asking himself, "Am I doing what I need to do to live 
a Christ centered life?"
I've been putting this to the test this past week. It's amazing to me just by asking
myself those questions each day, how the insight is coming. 
Here are some other points this speaker made that I hope to remember:
*Patience is the understanding of other's faults. (I think this one is my favorite.)
*We need to forgive those who are attacking us.
*We are suppose to love ALL of our brothers and sisters. 
*To love everyone is HARD.
*To love as He loved should be our highest goal.


Last week's church talk goes well with my scripture for the week.
The one I have on my fridge:


I think I see a pattern here....

My 2 youngest sons, Tyler and McKay. They were in sync growing up too....

January 2016
Juliet and Annie


July 2013
Leo and Scarlett


September 2011
Grant and Rich

I get the feeling these cousins want to be raised together. 
Can't help but wonder what kind of plotting and planning goes on in heaven. 

My version of Star Wars

Per Den's request for his birthday, we went to see Star Wars on Wednesday. 
(his real birthday was Tuesday but I was helping with a baby shower that night)

You know those movie previews they show for a whole 15 minutes before the movie begins? They
are SO loud to me so I leave and walk around outside a bit. Then I come back in, put my ear plugs in
and we were set to go. Or rather set to sit. For 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I'm doing well. Movie’s not bad. I recognize most of the characters from when I use to pick them off
our living room floor back in the 80s.

A text comes in on Den’s phone from some friends from church saying they can’t get home from
the beach soon enough to feed the missionaries tonight and ask if we can feed them instead.
Den hands me his phone. I text and tell these friends that while we would love to, we can’t because
I’m taking Dennis out for his birthday dinner tonight. Turns out the friend says it’s her husband’s BD
too! So we text back and forth about years and places born.

Next a picture text comes in of little Juliet. No matter what I am doing or where I am, I can never get
enough of my grandbabies. She is smiling in her sleep. I think she is liking earth life. How could she
not with the family she was born into.

Another text comes in. It’s my friend T from church. She is asking me to call her when I get home.
Now I’m left wondering…I hope everything’s all right with her.

The movie is okay but nearly as loud as the previews! So I go out to the concession place and ask
since only me and my husband are in Star Wars, could they please lower the volume? The nice girl
says, “Sure. I will ask my manager.”

Back to the movie. The volume seems lower. But my shoulder is hurting. Try to ignore. I shouldn't
have washed all those shutters this morning. It has not hurt like this in months! I go through my purse
looking for some Curamin for the pain. That stuff always works. Can’t find it. I turn on my flashlight
(did I mention Den and I are the only ones in the theater?)…and kept rummaging through my
purse.  Finally I tell Den I need to go find some in the car. Normally he would say he'd go get it for
me. But he's checked out. As he should. It’s his birthday movie you know.

So I walk out to the car and check all the door pockets, the glove compartment. No Curamin
anywhere. I decide quickly to just drive home and get some.

That took about 15 minutes round trip. Sent Den a text, “Hold on, I’m almost there.” just in case he
noticed I was still gone.

As soon as I walk back up to the top of the theater (we always sit in the highest row) I take out the
lunch I made for us earlier that morning. I hand Den his egg sandwich, cut up apples, and chips plus a
bottle of water. Back to Star Wars.

I don’t know what it was…but something about this movie reminded me of K at church. Then
suddenly I realized she called and left a message for Dennis a few days ago. I never finished listening
to it, but I saved it for him….but forgot to tell him about it! I texted K right away and explained and
apologized. She said no worries, she already solved her problem. Good to know.

Another picure came in of Juliet. This time she is cozy wrapped up. She’s only 6 days old but she
sure looks like she is smiling at the person holding her.

Back to the big screen. I got to see the older version of Princess Leia all these years later. I sat there
picturing her younger face in my mind, and remembered my younger life. But none of that mattered
to me. I’m just so happy Den got to finally see a movie of his choice. And unlike most other times, he
hardly noticed how often I left….which is a good thing. After all, we were celebrating his birthday.

And I can finally say I went to a Star Wars movie. My first ever.

The big brothers meeting little sister.

So Dennis was working in our church temple yesterday. He was there all morning, and when he got
out to the car he checked his phone and he had 75 text messages! (they were all from Karen
and Tyler and me conversing back and forth). He knew just looking at the number of messages 
that Juliet had arrived!

It was such a happy day!

The last picture that came in last night. She was about 12 hours old, I think.
I know this baby. She looks so familiar to me!



Tyler and Karen sent me several videos too.....I chose these two...
Leo is such a tender sweet boy.



She's here!

After a very short labor and no epidural,
 baby girl arrived just before 9am!


Juliet Elizabeth

(they have not weighed her yet. 
Instead, they gave Juliet right to Karen and she started feeding her.)
 I can already see both Richie and Leo in their little sister.


Isn't her name beautiful! She has her Mama's middle name.

Karen told me during her pregnancy that naming her Juliet would be "giving a nod to the Rozier
family," because of my Grandpa Romeo Rozier.

Weight just in: 7 lbs even!
20 inches




Waiting....

Labor will begin in the morning.

Tomorrow is only a day away...

We will have some baby news tomorrow!

Little Annie will soon have another cousin to grow up with...





Dennis' first ambulance ride, and what I learned from his nurse



About 7:15 Tuesday morning I woke up to find Dennis not in bed. I figured he must have just gotten
up earlier but I didn't hear him. I assumed he was already working in his office down the hall.

So I got dressed and ready for the day, and as I was walking towards the kitchen, I heard his foot
steps behind me. "I have a problem," I heard him say. I thought perhaps he was going to say there
were ants in his office (we have been fighting them lately) but his voice tone didn't sound like an ant
problem.

He explained that heaviness and tightness in his chest woke him up at 1am and he was waiting for
morning since he didn't want to wake me up! I told him I was going to call an ambulance and he
said he didn't want to make a scene in the neighborhood....but he didn't say he didn't need one, so I
went ahead and called 911.

Sure enough we could soon hear sirens in the distance, and then a fire truck and ambulance coming
down our cul-de-sac. Next time I'm going to request they not turn on the siren.

Five strong capable looking men suddenly were in our family room hooking Dennis up to a monitor.
We were told a few minutes later that Den was not having a heart attack. I hadn't realized they could
make a diagnosis so quickly. But we were also told this does not mean he wasn't having a cardiac
event. So they gave him 2 baby aspirins and 3 nitroglycerin pills, and loaded him up in the ambulance
and took off.

Both Den's father and brother died from heart attacks at younger ages than Dennis is now. But all the
numerous tests they gave Den at the hospital yesterday turned out negative. Even the heart
inflammation test (he had three!) read out as 0.0.


I wish I could count all the nurses and doctors who complimented us on coming in. We were
told that many people (especially men) wait too long and it's always good to check things out.

But what I thought was most interesting was his nurse. Somewhere in the conversation she
mentioned she was 62. She and looked very healthy and in really good shape. Anyway, she told us
that she has learned much by working years in the ER.

Some of her advice to us:

1. She said she "has seen and knows too much," and that "our culture is so unhealthy."

2. We get together often and what do we do she said? We eat foods high in fat and sugar which cause
heart disease and cancer.

3. She said she eats a huge salad of greens everyday, and takes turmeric with black pepper. She buys
hers at Costco and while it's a little more expensive than some elsewhere it works better since it has
the black pepper in it. When I asked her about turmeric she said, "google it." And again she 
said, "google it!"

4. Sugar lowers our immune system and makes us prone to every virus that comes along. Our 
immune system stays low for 6  hours after consuming sugar. (This may help explain the rise in
colds and flu just after Halloween and Christmas.)

5. A man came in recently who just got health insurance the day before. He was having a full blown
heart attack and he was only 50. She said when she went over his diet with him she could tell why.

Dennis is fine, and it turned out to be a good day. He has been doing ambulance billing since he
retired from cop work,  so he said it was great to get an eye's view of what goes on in the process. He
said once he was settled in he decided to enjoy it. We both learned some tips about health.

And another thing we learned....actually we were reminded of it....on any given day there is LOTS of
suffering going on in hospitals. I sat there by Dennis for hours listening to doctors talk to other
patients. Some were too ill to speak, others had sad stories of horrible suffering. We saw some on
gurneys in the hallways, looking sickly and alone. Those of us who have good health, need to be SO
THANKFUL for it.

Being able to walk out those hospital doors, and take Dennis with me, was such sweet relief.


42 years, and then this happened

I'm still in awe over this.

I have to give back ground first.
Way back in the Fall of 1973, when I was 19...
and while I had a very bad case of lingering horrible mono ...

I began writing to a girl, Pam, about my same age who lives in Michigan.
She was married and already had a baby boy.

We became what they use to call "pen pals."

Remember, this was way before Facebook and cheap long distance phone calls.
If you wanted to know someone in another state, you wrote to them by regular mail.

This picture of Bill and I, was taken the same year.
I got married over a year later, and Pam and I continued to trade stories about married life. We were
both "there" through our pregnancies and births, our mothering, and the highs and lows of everything.

Pam's Mom passed away when she was 19, and eight months pregnant with her first child.
I would often shake my head wondering HOW she got through the days and years  
without the extra help and support I always had from my Mom.

We traded LOTS of stories through the years decades. But I never met her. I still have never met 
her, and we are now Grandmas. A few years back we discontinued snail mail between us and keep
in touch with email and Facebook and phone calls (they are free now you know)

Last month our grandson Austin, got married in the Columbus, Ohio temple. 



Pam and her husband Tom were invited to the reception afterwards, so she and Tom drove the 200 
miles round trip from Addison, Michigan to Findlay, Ohio to attend.
She and Tom met my son Logan, and his wife Amy!


Pam brought the scrapbook she had kept of our family all of these years....filled with pictures of the
boys growing up, newspaper clippings, etc. As you can see, Logan and Amy were very interested.

Logan was surprised to learn that night that he was born at 11pm.

I would often send Pam The Rozier Times, 
back in the day when first my mother, and then my sister Robin compiled it. 
See, there Pam is holding two of them!...she brought as samples.

Pam was the one who gave me Logan's baby book when he was born 36 years ago!

Tom and Pam in 1984. She was pregnant with her 3rd baby.


She had never met any of us, and then suddenly there they were together with my Logan and Amy!


There is just something unexplainable that happens to me as I view these pictures.
How can this possibly be that Pam and Tom were right there with Logan and Amy? But they were.


I think Pam and I talked about 6 times that evening,while she provided me updates.
I even got to hear the evening prayer at the reception over the phone.



The MC asked for the longest married couples.
Tom and Pam came in second having been married 43 years and 7 months!


All the long married couples were asked to give advice to the newlyweds.
Pam said that marriage is not 50/50, but 100/100. 
When Tom was asked for his advice he said he agreed with Pam. Good answer!


An evening I treasure, and I was not even there. 
Thank you Pam and Tom for driving all that way to meet some of my family...after all these years!

Just a little excerpt from a letter of hers to me, dated Jan. 26, 1991:
(This letter just shows a little of her heart, and the kind of person she is.)


That particular letter was written 24 years ago but can you catch a glimpse of who she is? 
Very concerned for others, and what she can do to help and serve. 
You would be amazed at the numerous community projects she is continually involved in. 

She's an inspiration and one of my forever friends. 
I'm thankful at least a part of my family got to meet her and her husband!


*Except for the first one, all pictures courtesy of Pam.





My Two Bookclubs 2016


If you have read any of these books 


please let me know what you thought, okay?

Book Club #1 
(I call it #1 since we meet the first week of every month....in rotating homes). 

January 7th
Miss Buncle's Book
by D. E. Stevenson

February 4th
Gracie: A Love Story
by George Burns

March 3rd
The Lost Quilter
by Jennifer Chiaverini

April 7th
Women and the Priesthood: What One Mormon Woman Believes
by Sheri Dew

May 5th
Pearl of China
by Anchee Min

June 2nd
The Invisible Wall
by Henry Bernstein

July 7th
In the Company of Others
by Jan Karon 

August 4th
The Convict, the Rookie Card and the Redemption of Gertie Thump
Becky Lyn  Rickman

September 1st
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin 
Olympics
by Daniel James Brown

October 6th
Coming Home: A Mormon's Return to Faith
by Susan N. Swann

November 3rd
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
by Laurie King

December 1st
TBA



Book Club #2 
(We meet every third Wednesday of the month in Pam Biberston's home.)

JANUARY 20
Quiet: The Power of the Introverts. . .                                                                                 
Susan Cain


FEBRUARY 17
From Baptist Preacher to Mormon Teacher                                    
Wain Meyers and; Kelly Martinez


MARCH 16
The Life Beyond                                                             
Robert Millet and; Joseph Fielding McConkie


APRIL 20
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Brooklyn Bridge                        
David McCullough


MAY 18
The Fourth Turning                                                                               
 William Strauss and; Neil Howe


JUNE 15
American Grace: How Religion Divides and; Unites Us     
Robert D Putnam and; David E. Campbell


JULY 20
The Time Keeper                                                                                                                 
Mitch Albom


AUGUST 17
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself                                                                         
Alan Alda


SEPTEMBER 21
The Power of Now 
Eckhart Tolle                                                                                                               



OCTOBER 19
My Name Used to Be Muhammed: . . .
Jeff Benedict and; Tito Momen


NOVEMBER 16
The Wright Brothers  
David McCullough                                                                                               



DECEMBER 21
The Immortal Nicholas                                                                                                         
Glenn Beck


I look forward to both of these club meetings every month! 
Even when I don't read the book, I still look forward to attending. 
The conversation is my favorite part of it all! 

Teaching rather than punishing

Late Christmas Eve I couldn't sleep.
So finally about 1:30am I got out of bed and decided to read this magazine
that had been sitting on our end table for a few days. 


I admit I was taken in by this 1950-1960s (?) picture of President Hunter with his granddaughters.
He presided over our church in 1994 for just 9 months until he passed away.

I began reading the several page story of his life written by his son, who is now elderly.

What struck me most was this paragraph:


I immediately thought....that's how I was raised! 

I may not remember events when I was really young, but I don't remember being punished for
anything, ever. My parents instead, just talked to me, especially my Mom. She just explained things
to me and she acted like of course I would have done the right thing had I known better. 

It was just nice to see her ways in print.

Here's a more clear picture of the cover.
I just love old pictures of good families.
I'm thinking more 1960s?

Our New Year's Celebration last night

We celebrated the New Year last night, just Den and I. We played a couple games of Scrabble and
watched a few movies. Then while Den popped the corn I made us both hot chocolate with
marshmallows. At midnight we ran outside with our pots and pans and clanged them together. That
didn’t really do the night justice so then Den brought out his 38 and fired a few shots in the air. So
romantic. We wanted to do somehthing different this year so about 12:30 I fried up some eggs,
sausage, bacon, hashbrowns and pancakes and we had our very first 2016 breakfast.

So of course none of that happened. Our real celebration was so much better. He watched the BYU
basketball game and ate GF cookies, while I studied for my Primary lesson in the other room and had
my granola. About 10:30 we got ready for bed. As I was filling up my thermos of water from the
fridge for the night (my nightly ritual)….Den came in and stood beside me and said, “Wasn’t it 17
years ago tonight that we kissed for the first time?” We were at a singles dance that night and all the
power in the church building suddenly went out. The entire group of people fled out to the parking lot
and just stood there hoping for the lights and heat to go back on in the building. It was freezing cold
and Den suggested we go sit in his car. That’s where it happened. Our life changing kiss. I knew I
was falling for him. And the rest, is our blessed history.

Look what happened last night

  Just a little pre-graduating gathering for our DIL Amy.... Not everyday a Mom of 7 and a Grandma of 7, graduates from college. It was not ...