Photo of the Day: Train TV

Morning commute. Quiet Car. Train TV, set to snooze. Necessary morning nap/meditation.

~ photo by iPhone, with some filters.

Happy Anniversary Mary and Max!

In honor of a very momentous year in the now, 48-year marriage of Mary and Max, I present their annual Christmas letter.

  ~ photos by me, by iTouch in August 2015, DC area

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

December 2015 finds us back in Utah after a very rich and fulfilling time in the Washington D.C. area as missionaries at the Washington, D.C. temple. Our service in the temple was very spiritual. The people we met there will be eternal friends whom we miss daily. The "hundred-things-to-see-and-do-in-the-D.C.-are" list that we received when we arrived was not completed, but we did explore some places we had not seen in our thirty plus years on the East Coast--the Baltimore Inner Harbor and Ft. McHenry; Gettysburg; Hershey, PA; Ocean City, MD; Assateague Island and the wild ponies *, to name a few. In July we got permission to go up to Palmyra, NY to see the Pageant and then to Niagara Falls, which was on my "Bucket List." I was not disappointed. [So, you can now assume that Mary is writing this.]

The temple closed August 8 for some major renovations, a month earlier than our original release date. So, we took our time coming home with detours to NC to visit relatives and a week at Topsail Island and to CT and the Cape for a week. ** (No, I cannot get the Cape sand out of my heart.) We then headed West via Interstate 90 with Moscow, Idaho as our goal to meet our newest grand daughter [Jaime]. We made it as far as Mt. Rushmore when we got a call that brought us home by September 13.

The call was to inform us that the water pipe bringing water from the street into our utility room had burst above the shut-off valve for the house. (That valve was closed). Our neighbor who walks his dog discovered water coming from under the garage door on the afternoon walk. He called our friend who had keys. She rushed over and called our son [Jed] who drove quickly from Mesquite [Nevada] and then called us as we sat enjoying Mt. Rushmore. We told him to call the insurance company and ServiceMaster was here in an hour. We got home to torn out carpet, twenty fan/heaters roaring, and major decisions to make. Three months later, new flooring throughout and a clean house. Now, to convince Max to go on another mission!

The grandchildren grew and thrived while we were gone. Drew is nearly 11; his twin brother and sister are three. The Moscow kids are nearly ten, eight, and six, and Jaime is one. We did get to see her at ten months when we left the mess here for ten days. FaceTime is a farmily-connecting tool we love.

So, what do we do now? We started our service at the St. George temple December 3 and submitted our paperwork to serve for another year at the Home Storage Center the first of January. We need to be busy with enough time to explore our beautiful area, work off the weight we gained from all the missionary parties, and help our neighbors. We are grateful for all our blessings, you being one of them for enriching our lives. May 2016 be good to you.

Love, Max and Mary

~photo by me, November 2015

* Hey, that's on MY bucket list. No fair
** And, hey, I visited for a few days in August to help clear out a lot of stuff. A LOT of the stuff. A CAR FULL OF STUFF. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. MANY PEOPLE ARE ENJOYING ALL THE STUFF.

43 Ideas for Birthday 43: Passage(s) on a Private Plane

Yo fat cats!* You need to use up your share on your private jet? Need to make your private pilots earn their keep? Need to use the plane to justify its purchase? Want to just be an all-round mensch?

I may have need for some trips from NY, to DC for a pickup, and then out to West. When? I can't tell you until I have to tell you. That's the way of these things. Just being able to pick up the phone, place an order with you, your plane butler and/or pilot(s), zip down to the private hangar at the local(ish) airport and get in the air and get to my destination(s), that would be really helpful for me and my family. Like an eternal blessing kindof helpful.

Oh Birthday Fairy, please connect me to those peeps.

Plus, it would be my way of getting to get a ride in a private plane.

Hey, a girl can put this out into the universe, right? No harm, no foul.

 

* I am sorry. What IS the appropriate terminology with someone with deep, deep pockets who can float multiple private plane trips without it impacting them one bit? And don't expect anything in return from me and mine?

** No insult to people with higher than average BMI or cats with the same issue.

*** What do normal people do? Stress out!

Max and Mary Mission Update: On the Move

Over the past ten days, Grumpa Max and Grandmary have successfully managed to make it from St. George, to Salt Lake, to St. George, and across the country to their new D.C. area digs. Thanks to modern texting, cell phones, e-mail, and i-chats, it's easier than ever to track and make a record of their progress.

Here are some of the compiled Notes from the Road: 
  
Saturday, 9/13

From Dad: 

In SLC, taking walk

Left home to head to SLC for training

Monday, 9/15

From Dad: It’s official 

[They have official badges and everything. Thanks to techybro J for the blurry bits to preserve family privacy, if not sanity.] 

Me to them:

What was the hardest part of the week? and why? 

Dad: The hardest part of this training week was arriving at this hotel, checking in, getting parked down stairs, having a very poorly organized desk staff, convention party people all over the building, in the elevators, and hall ways. Then not knowing what Monday would bring in the temple. Key words would be tired, frustrated, anxious, overwhelmed by visual and audio surroundings. Mom would say trying to keep dad from stroking out. 

What was the most surprising part of the week? and why? 

So far how peaceful being in the temple for a day six hours of training. More on this tomorrow. [Nope, no updates and I didn’t push, as we were both busy.]

What did you learn this week?

Still holding on this but LOVINGKINDNESS is one word Old Testament and is a key word in our work and time in the Temple. It is two words in the rest of the scriptures.

Wednesday, 9/17

Text From Dad: We are home & unpacked! 

On the road again 

Monday, 9/22

E-mail later from Dad: We thought on Sunday night that this was a good sign for us to start the trip. The double rainbow went across the sky and ended also in a double.

E-mail later from Dad: I was outside getting ready to finish packing the truck and this little guy was trying to get across the front walk and I am afraid his movement made me wonder if the trip was going to feel this way also.

E-mail later from Dad: Just before closing the gate I decided to document how I was loaded. I weighed each bag and bucket and we ended up with 450 lbs in the back. The truck was able to handle it well except in the Denver area through the ski country. We ended up gearing down like the big trucks.

E-mail later from Dad: Before getting to the Denver area on Monday Mary woke me up for a sound nap to take this shot of the strange weather in the area. We did see rain from this mess but the wind was no where to be seen.

E-mail later from Dad: It was time to take a lunch break in Green River and we picked the place with the most cars in front. Good eats and clean.

E-mail later from Dad: The river was not green as I looked out the side window of the dinner. This shows what the rains had brought down stream from earlier in the day.

E-mail later from Dad: This is a moving truck shot in the Vail Ski Resort. The Quakies really were turning and with the sun on them shown brightly.

Text From Dad: Stopped at 577 miles in Silverthorn/Dillon CO at 7:00 MDT. Hard rain now! Maybe early start in the a.m.

Tuesday, 9/24

From Dad: After 12 hour drive, 735 miles, two driving naps each we ended up in Concondia, MO

From Dad: in answer to my question about DID YOU REST and stop?

We stopped twice for gas, twice to eat, three time to P. We rest.

Wednesday, 9/24

From Mom: We are in Zanesville, Ohio after nearly 12 hours of trucks, traffic, and construction. We will see my friend Diana, then on to Kensington.

From Dad: For the record today, we traveled 12 hours lost another hour. Covered 677 miles. Three hated words for day – work zone ahead! Slow driving. We have about 6 hours and 350 miles to eat to DC by 5 pm. Hope to get away from Aunt D before 10:30. We meet them for breakfast at 8:30.

Later e-mail from Dad:
Wednesday at 11/noon [in Indiana] looking for place to eat. This is the first thing we saw when walking into the dinner. No one there the help out back outside having a smoke. We almost walked back out but stayed and was waited on and served as if we were old friends.

Before we left the place was almost full of local folks coming in for lunch. Waitress knew most of them by name what they were going to order. One of the best meals for the price and we left feeling really good at stopping there. You never know the book by the cover. See below 

I went outside and got this picture, but right now I don’t remember the town we were in but, needed food, bathroom and gas so it was a good stop off the freeway.

Thursday, 9/25

From Mom: We got here before 4:00, were unloaded by 4:00, have cookies, banana bread, muffins, and are off to dinner and a tour. We are sleeping in tomorrow morning.

Friday, 9/26

E-mail recap from Dad:
This is not the end of the day on Wednesday but the morning as we started East again.

Tuesday was a long day and we covered 735 miles. Wednesday was just as long 12 hours but we only made 611 miles because of the three dreaded words “Road Work Ahead”. I 70 had a major project going on about every 5-10 miles and slowed everyone down greatly. Thursday we traveled only 345 miles took almost 9 hours but stopped and visited for a couple of hours near Old Washington, Ohio with Mary’s college room mate and husband. We arrived in Kensington, MD at about 3:34 PM EDT and were met by five couples that had the truck unloaded and all items in apartment by 4 PM.

We were not like the snail and the luck of the rainbow saw us through all the miles with out being harmed or having truck problems. All in all a good trip. Mary figures we make the trip for $750 which covers, gas, food, and three nights in motels. Yes we are cheap and lucky. The gas prices were like the highway speed. The closer we got to DC the lower the gas prices and speed limits.

Part 2: Max and Mary Adjust to Apartment living, and Auntie Nettie Giggles ... a LOT!