Better than we are?

One night last week after having our local missionaries over for dinner, one of them asked, as they always do,
if he could leave us with a blessing. Of course. A very lovely prayer, but one line of it intrigued me.

He said in his prayer, "Bless us that we will help people to be better than ourselves." 

I don't think I've ever heard anyone pray for that. I kept thinking about it and then the next morning Den and I discussed it. I said it out loud, "Help people be better than ourselves?" Not that I'm saying we are so great....but it's an interesting concept wanting more goodness for others than we want for ourselves.

He asked me why that line surprises me. So then I added, "I suppose this really would be brotherly love at its finest, right?"

Then he asked very simply, "Isn't that what we want for our children?" 

Absolutely! Yes, I've always wanted my children to have more blessings in every way, more than I want it for myself. I think most parents feel this way. So why should that desire not extend towards everyone?

This makes me think of a quote (on my friend Rebecca's blog),
by Benjamin Franklin: "When you are good to others, you are best to yourself." 


Or how about this quote I saw recently:
"When you seek happiness for yourself it often eludes you.
  When you seek happiness for others, you find it yourself."

Perhaps we can't separate the two? Sort of a "what goes around comes around?"
I'm still trying to figure this out. Any thoughts?







Watch Richie Pray

Have you ever seen a 21 month old pray?

I don't know what I like better...watching him pray, or the conversation between his parents.  :)


Our weekend so far

Crazy Carly, as her Mom calls her, came to town today with 2 day old Mara.

 I think she was feeling a little restless....having just given birth at home and all. 

 

 Enoch took their 5 older kids to the zoo. 
I was disappointed I didn't get to them all, but Carly assured me, "It's better they're at the zoo."



Her brothers, Ty and Jake were outside making a bench for the Ronald McDonald House.
Very impressive!


Then we stopped over to check on my Dad. 
He was suppose to come home today but Susan didn't like the way he was breathing 
so an Xray was ordered of his chest. Thankfully Susan caught that, because turns out he is in the 
beginning stages of pneumonia. So no going home today after all.

(In case you are wondering about Susan's blanket, they keep this hospital very COLD.)


When I first walked into his room tonight and asked him how he was doing, 
He said, "Excellent."
Sorry Dad, but you don't look quite excellent.

But he's always been that way.
He's said to me all through my life, "It will all work out."

Look who came to see Grandpa tonight!

The 3 cousins!
Davey, Austin, Ty

This made Dad and Susan so happy.

They all have their mission calls, 
and will be leaving within weeks!


Last week I came across this picture of one of the missionaries 
who baptized both my Mom and Dad back in 1956!
(Anyone know if I have that year correct?)
Imagine how Derrold Bates felt when he opened 
up his mission call to Fresno, California!

Did he have any idea how many lives he would change 
by knocking on the door of one young married couple? 
I don't think so.

Speaking of which, we have a brand new family member 
born today! My niece Carly already wrote about it on her blog!





I don't like this

My Dad says he's doing better but to me he looks so uncomfortable.




I wish he were doing this instead.


Susan sits by him all day. Complete devotion. We are so grateful to her.
His fever has come down but his CT scan shows blood clots in his lungs.

He will be here for at least another 3 days.


Nice view from his room.


As nice as this hospital is, they have some kinks to work out.



Like this sign.... This is the 3rd floor and it points to access to 1st floor and patient rooms.....


 But if you were to follow the arrow all you would come to is this door that says it is not an exit!

But I don't care...they can have all the strange signs they want. 
I'm just happy they seem to be taking good care of our Dad.

UCLA did their 500th deep brain stimulation surgery this morning. 
This is the same surgery Dad had for his Parkinson's years ago at Stanford.
Go HERE so you can watch the patient play his guitar during his surgery. No joke.

Update on my Dad


My Dad was taken by ambulance this morning because of a high fever and weakness.
I knew he was very ill when he didn't have the strength to press the TV remote.

Pneumonia was ruled out.
Then the doctor came in and said he has a "rip roaring UTI"


I asked my sister in law Kim to hurry over and stand by Scott before he hid his face. 
Uh, too late.
He humors my Dad though, so that's good enough.

Dad is still in ER and since they are packed, he may not get a room till morning. 

But he didn't want to marry her!

I thought about not posting this because of its scandalous nature.
However, I work on family history every day lately, and we take the good with the bad, right?

Besides, this so clearly illustrates the thinking of 1894, over a hundred years ago.
I thought it interesting this story was all deemed the man's fault.

So she "wins" his hand in marriage after trying to get him arrested
and in prison because he didn't want to get married.

And why would this woman.....who happens to be the sister of my Great Grandmother....
why would she even want to be married to a man who didn't want her? 

A 12 day trial? And how in the world did they come up with the 50 witnesses to testify?
I found the above article in one of my Mom's binders just recently. 


They went on to have 5 children, and she died at the age of 29.
 I have no idea what kind of marriage they had, but I can guess.

I am so very curious about this trial.
I'm trying to think of a way to learn more about it....
I would especially like to know what those 50 witnesses had to say.

This is my Grandpa Slinkard.
Laura Slinkard in the article above, was his Aunt.

I never noticed it before, but this young Grandpa Slinkard looks similar to my brother Chris.

Some things never change

Den says I'm obsessed with family history lately. He's right.
And in the process I am running into little treasures,
like this letter my mother wrote in 1957. Nothing too remarkable about it....
but notice what she says about me in the 3rd paragraph. Den says I am the same now.

 My Mom had 3 little kids at the time yet somehow she still found time for family history,
and visiting my Dad's sick or lonely relatives. 
By the time she had 8, same thing, only more of it.


Here we are, same year...1957.
Richard, Johnny, and Jill

Someone else in  our family loves to talk. Take a look here
If I didn't know Tyler so well I would say he is exaggerating a bit here, but I know he doesn't do that. 
So it really was 25 minutes!

Did you like Gone with the WInd?



Den and I have been watching this movie through 4 dinners so far and we are half way through. 
The last time I saw it, I was 17 and I quite loved it! 
It is so historical....not only the time period of 1865, 
but also the time period it was actually made in, 1939.

But guess what? So far Dennis doesn't like it.
I am totally gripped by it, while he is watching the clock.
I love the drama of it all, and the drama is constant. I had forgotten how constant.

Did you enjoy this movie once upon a time?
Or were you the only other person (besides Dennis) who hadn't seen it?



Together again!

In beautiful Portland together for 3 months.....


Aunt "Kenna" with Grant and his cousin Richie.


McKay and Tyler just like old times.



Richie!


Grant!


Karen with her Rich boy.

And look what the Heasley men made for dinner tonight:

Tyler and McKay go off to work together tomorrow, as Tyler begins his actuarial internship. 

Their wives both enter week 30 of their pregnancies.
Oh what a life.




Life doesn't come with a manual.

This was only released 5 days ago and the viewing is climbing.

Just in case you haven't seen it, here it is. I love it!

As I watch it, all I can think of is all that my mother has done for me.






I still remember when my Mom use to do this.....

Modesto

While growing up, when someone would ask me,
"So, have you lived in this town all of your life?" 
I would say, "No, I use to live in Modesto." 

I was only 3 months old at the time and we lived there for one summer.
But I still clung to that fact. I didn't want anyone thinking I had not been anywhere.

So this week when Dennis took my Dad to his Dr appt in, of all places... Modesto,
they went looking for that house on Floto Way.....and found it!


Seems like it should look older than that. 
But it's kind of cute.

We had the bottom apartment with the porch.
All these years later, and now I know what it looks like.

Just my Mom, Dad, my 2 year old brother, and baby me.
We were such a small little family back then.

Who would have thought 94 people would later join our family?






Watch Jo pack

Den and I have a good friend who travels a lot.
She has been just about everywhere and anywhere.
I know she packs light because we often pick her up from the airport.
So I was curious, and asked if we could come see how she does it.

This time she is going to Ohio for 2 weeks. And this is all she is bringing with her.



  So I can't quite adopt her ways. 
However, there is something she also does that I have done the past  few trips. 
She uses her guest bedroom to pack in and begins about 2 weeks before she leaves. 
That way she can have her "suitcase" open and add to it as she thinks of things she needs. 
Which in her case is very little, and in my case is very much!


Two More Books



I've read these both recently and really enjoyed them...

I've read all of her other books, and I admit I rolled my eyes and shook my head at times. 
But not at this one. She is nearly as old as I am, and she has a life perspective. 
I was surprised at how honest she was....admitting her failures and regrets. 
We all have them. 
I was especially surprised by the conversation between her and one of her daughters in the last chapter.

But I have a warning. I could have done without Chapter One. 
It's like the first chapter was written by a different author. 
There was nothing wrong with it per say...I even agreed with it,  just draggy. 
The rest of the book to me was a page turner.









And this one...
I don't usually read children's literature.
So I only read this one because it was recommended by a good friend who knows me well. 
She said I would love this book and I did! I fell in love with the characters, 
and especially the relationship between this very awkward child and his parents.

It all just left me with this huge desire to be kinder and gentler, with everyone.

I can't explain it very well, so take a look at this little trailer about it:



 

Thank you!

I really appreciate all of you who took the time to comment on my last post. Now we have a big list of ideas of to watch during dinner. We have decided to watch the first episode of each show, and then see which one will work best for us. If you think of anymore, please do let me know so I can put it on my list!

So thanks to all of you, this is what we get to choose from...(and many I have not even heard of before)

A Touch of Frost
Little House on the Prairie
Granite Flats
Waltons
Cheers
Magnum PI
Friday Night Lights  (Den already vetoed this one)
Veronica Mars
Tales of Avonlea
Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman
The Rifleman
Highway to Heaven  (this was Bill's favorite program ever so I've had my fill of it)
Rockford Files
Christy
Downton Abbey (I know SO many LOVE this one, so I don't know why we didn't.)
Rosemary and Thyme
Seinfeld (Even though the Romneys love this, I can still hear my Mom telling me it was not for us.)
             

This should be fun while we decide. Thank you again so very much!




Wonder Years is over....done...finished

...and we're sad about it.


I can't believe we did this.
Den and I just finished watching all 115 episodes of THE WONDER YEARS
during 115 dinners we ate at home.

Like most parents, we did not allow the TV on during dinner.
But everyone is gone now and has been for 8 years. Whoa, really?
Being empty nesters and getting old like we are, has its perks.

Watching Wonder Years was all new for Den,
but I use to watch this with my sons from 1988-1990....
until the show brought up issues I didn't want them to know about back then.

I love the teenage drama....and especially the music from the 70s.

I think Dennis was drawn to it because one of the main characters,
Winnie, looking incredibly like his daughter Kim. 
Especially in the episode below. If you want to just see her, go to about 3:06.

And notice the music....those great songs from my high school years were in every episode.
(because the era of this program was late 60s, early 70s)


So here's my question.....Now that we have completed the Wonder Years,
and we enjoyed it so very much, does anyone have a suggestion on what we can watch next?
We tried Mayberry but while Den can't get enough of that series, I've had my fill from the past.
We have ordered the movie Gone With The Wind and plan to
watch that over a period of about 6 dinners. (Dennis has never seen it!)

But what do we do after that? Anyone know of a particular series we might like?
Just about anything you tell us, we probably have not heard of it.



Talk about being ahead of the game!

When my Dad and Susan showed me this quick video of my nephew Alex a few days ago,
I had to watch it about 3 times before I believed it. I kept thinking...really? He's that much ahead?

I love hearing my brother John's proud laugh in the background too.

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 ...