A Visiting Teaching Tale

Last night, went to the Relief Society  Broadcast and witnessed a miracle. I arrived about 10 minutes late to find Sister O. at the door, who tells me we have a problem. I say "bill didn't get paid". She said she wished it was that simple, the cable to the chapels satellite feed had been cut. They receive the broadcast by satellite transmission. So the sisters were inside praying for a miracle. I found my seat, and we started singing hymns, then, a bishop from another ward just happened to stop by. No one had called him, and he was going to go to the chapel with his laptop to tap into the internet at the church. They had hooked up his laptop to the projector, so that we could see this broadcast. We were meant to see it. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk of the Forget Me Nots.  He reminded me that Lord is mindful of each and everyone of us. Married or single, young or old. After, we had a lovely dinner prepared by the Relief Society, I got to sit with my friends from the Willow Springs Ward. Fun to visit with them. Then, I made a plate to go visit a sister that I hadn't got the chance to meet yet. Since my blog is public, the only thing I will say is that she shares the same last name as mine. I went to see RaNae my VT companion, to retrieve the book I need to pass around. A Heart Like His. Anyway, we visited for a little bit and she offered to come with me to visit the sister...Here's how it comes, its funny.

*knock knock*

Who I thought was our visitee: "Who's there?"

Me and RaNae, who has been here a few times:  "Its us!"

Lady behind door:  "Who's Us?"

Me  :   "Your cousin!"

The lady opens the door and much to my surprise, out comes a Filipino lady...who is clearly not Donna, LOL.  I burst out laughing.  Dona told me three houses from the corner, but it was wrong. So we met the neighbor first. I was laughing so much. I might be the poster child for how not to do Visting Teaching, but we do have fun!

"Sisters, wherever you are, whatever the circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you, with an infinite love."        ~ President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

                                   Forget Me Not.

The Spirit of Quilting

I have always been fascinated by quilting. As a teen I had made my first tie quilt with my grandmother and I still have to this day. I think quilts tell a story. My story about my second quilt takes place a few years ago. You see, my Dad had passed away when I was 19 yrs old. I was living at home when he died, having only completed my first semester of college. When he had passed away it took a long time to go through his things. One thing a cousin had told me was when her mother had died she had wished she hadn't gotten rid of her clothes so soon. She regretted it. With that it mind, I saved two bags of my dads clothes and put them away in the closet.  Meanwhile life went on, I went into the healthcare profession, made new friends and continued to think about my dad's clothes. I had made friends at the Institute, and one of my friend's moms was an amazing sewer, she just loved to quilt. I remember thumbing through one of the quilting mags and out popped the idIea for me!  I had alot of these plaid shirts my dad wore to work everyday, my mom had bought him every christmas ,he didn't like them :)  And thats the running joke in my family. But those were the shirts that I had saved, and thought would be easier to sew with.

 I had the article tucked away for future keeping. A couple of yrs later, I started this project, with another friend that is an amazing person. She just had a love for making things. Not that me or my mom didn't, but the crafty, homemaking, seamstress extordinarre was not a gift bestowed to me..I'm working little by little. We had a picture collage that hung in the family room that my dad had made, and it broke several years ago. He cut pictures into all kinds of funky shapes and stuck it in the big frame. It looked nice, but when the frame had broke, an idea had been planted. I worked with my friend Joyce on this memorial quilt. Now, more times than I can remember we just had fun and chit chatted. It was so fun to get to know her. But again life happened, her kids were getting married, and I had just got into nursing school. So a project that shouldn't have taken so long was taking I think 2-3 yrs...we weren't on a schedule. She gave me this really neat idea of taking photos and scanning it to the computer, and then printing the pictures on fabric that goes in the printer. What a crazy concept? But, as I started to cut my Dad's shirts into squares, and assemble the pictures, I was so excited to see the finished product. We used a background of blue, because this was a gift to my mom to hang in her home...but little did I know.

The inside are the pictures printed on the fabric, interspersed with denim. Then the outer squares are my dad's work shirts with the white. What ended up happening was we had gotten the squares sewn together, then my mom had gotten sick, and later passed away. My wonderful friend Joyce, helped me to finally finish this. Sadly my mom never got to see my finished product, but it was displayed at her funeral. As I had said earlier, it was a gift. But you know,it was very comforting to me to have this displayed in my home. A quilt is there to give you physical comfort, something that you can curl up in perhaps. But this spiritually comforted me in the months and years following my mothers passing. Its a memorial to my family and I love that. That is the spirit of quilting.

Girl's Weekend.

September 7th is my friend Alison's birthday. Its also my mom's...she would have been 70. Also my mom and dad's anniversary is on September 11th. So, its not a surprise that September is a hard month. But I wanted to go celebrate my mom and my friend Alison...so road trip it is!

     Another trip through the St. George Gorge. I always love this part of my drive, but not at night.

                                         Mom would approve!!

  Our acccomodations at Seven Wives Inn. My first B&B. Its over a 100 yrs old. So cute.

I chose Seven Wives because it is a place I have always seen and wanted to stay at. Its across the street from Brigham Young's Winter Home and around the corner from the house where my mom grew up! It was really a neat place. Its pricey, so only one night spent here, but if you have four..its affordable.

We stayed in the President's House.

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I went exploring to the other rm upstairs, we were alone at firsr, LOL.

Living rm/Bedroom #1...also check my Miche! My other purse broke :(

 Bedroom 2, the bed was so high, you might need a stepladder!

                             

     We got here nice and early...it started with I forgot to buy tickets to the show..we gotta have faith!

We killed some time taking pictures in the rain.....

I can't believe that I spaced the tickets? We went trying to see the show Little Mermaid..so we got some sandwiches from Great Harvest..and had a little picnic in the car..meanwhile the rains came down...

Peek a Boo!

Here's Allison....sideways!

 Here is Lilly and Joeleene..right after this photo, Lilly fell two steps..Oh my gosh!

After some, ice, tlc, and DoTerra Melalucca oil..thanks to Dr. Allie...we waited. She fell pretty hard,

but she was ok.  After a few hours, a miracle happened.  Right as the show started, I got the opportunity to get some really good house seats from the manager.

      Little Mermaid...here we come!!  :D

Under the Sea...there was always water on the stage, and the danceres were on rollerblades!!

I was so wowed by this water curtain! Made especially for the Little Mermaid production.

The show was so amazingly good. I saw Tarzan last year, and this topped it for me. Oh, how I love Tuachan!!

                                          Late night stop at Smiths for goodies..ahem, pickle chips!

Here is Joeleene with her selection..gotta have junk food!  :)

It was almost 1100 and there were people just hanging out at the Smith's parking lot...its an exciting time there, LOL. Me and Lilly got the guest sofa..so bedtime came not so quickly, and I had some allergy issues going on... it was fun though!

I can't get rid of this picture..oh well.

                                                     Good morning!

                                                    Cheers!

            Me and our lovely innkeeper...and homeade granola.

                                         Backyard, where they grow their own ingrdients. and....

          Grow the chickens.....:)   Thank You Seven Wives Staff...we had a fabulous time!!

                                                  This is my mom's house.....

Next stop...Brigham's house.

              I love it! Half canapy bed.

  With Sister Johnson...who comes from Boise Idaho!

   We stopped at Deseret Book...saw the temple in the distance, and some polygamists inside the store.

                With a stop at the Frostop....

                                    Zion's National Park....with some crazy rain along the way.

    Going in the first time, leads to Kanab....

  I think this was a goat, but we also saw a deer, couldn't drive and snap!

And lastly...as we left Zion, I was totally lost. Because I have never been to Kanab. So I stopped for gas and asked for directions, they told me to either go back through the park or drive around and go through Colorado City. WHAAAT??!!! We locked our doors and zipped through as fast as I could go. *No Mormons were harmed....or married.*  ;)