Photos from Zac

It was great skyping with Zac on Christmas Eve.  We really enjoyed visiting with his companion, too, who is from Argentina.  Wayne and the companion had a fun time speaking Spanish to each other while Zac tried to understand what they were saying.

Our family Christmas #4- In Pittsburgh

We drove to Pittsburgh to visit Bryce's family.  While we were there, we got to talk to Zac on Skype!  He is on a mission in Brazil, and we got to see his smiling face for an hour while we heard about his life there.  This is our first missionary to Skype with.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with Bryce's family.  We went to downtown Pittsburgh to a big Christmas display and a great toy store. Unfortunately I hardly took any photos!  

 

 

Our family Christmas #3- in Virginia

We drove to Virginia to be with Adam's family.  We saw the lights at the Washington D.C. temple,

decorated another gingerbread house,

saw the Great Falls of the Potomac, and also went to the Air and Space museum.  It was great to see their new home.

Our family Christmas #2

I like to buy gingerbread kits after Christmas and save them for the next year, my favorite part is helping the little kids decorate them.

Our family Christmas #1

We got together with Isaac's and Seth's families, and Tara, before Christmas for family time.  I brought costumes for the 6 grandchildren who were there.  Because of Hannah's and Tessa's actions, there were some sarcastic comments about the "good angel" and "bad angel."

About the same time as Hailey ripped off her wise man crown,  Hannah turned into the "fallen angel".  (We also loved the tattooed Mary.)

Elizabeth "Mary" wanted to take this very reverent picture, and she looked lovely with her baby sister.

New granddaughter Caroline

 Here is Isaac and Rachel's fourth child.

She has the funniest cowlick in front.  It is a complete circle.  She is going to hate that when she gets old enough to want to fix her hair.

Quilt: "A House for Daisie"

This isn't the cutest quilt I ever made, but it has a great story.  I had made the quilt for no reason, it was just a center block that I had put big borders around, and I was quilting it to give as a charity quilt to a quilt guild.

As I was finishing it, it occurred to me that the fabric was covered with daisies.  I thought of a relative who was having a terrible legal battle over custody, and the little girl's name was Daisie. Then I saw that there was a house in the middle, and Daisie really needed to be able to come home.  Eureka!  I had made the perfect quilt to give to that family at that very anxious time in their lives.  And it was a complete miracle, because I hadn't even planned it.

Another view of House on Nowata Road

Here, Carla is about 3, so the addition onto the house is also about 3 years old.  You can see the addition right behind me (in yellow dress), my sister Cindy (in orange), Larry, and Carla.  The front porch, living room window, and master bedroom window are all visible here.  Also, see the moose antlers hanging on the garage.  My dad shot that moose, and Larry still has the antlers.

House on Nowata Road

This is the first house I remember, 5 miles outside of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.   When I was tiny, we had 4 children in one bedroom, and my parents in the other bedroom.  There was one bathroom with a bathtub (no shower.)  There was a window air conditioner only in the living room.

  Later, just before my sister Carla was born, my parents added an addition onto the house, connecting it with that garage you see on the far left.  They added a living room, a master bedroom and another bedroom, making 4 bedrooms in all.  Plus one more bathroom and a small sewing/utility room.

I can even remember my telephone number.    
The prefix was "Edison", so the phone number was ED 3- 1187,  or 333-1187.  It is amazing what you can remember when it was the first thing you ever put in your brain.  I will probably remember that number when I have Alzheimer's.

Cool car in 1961

This is a picture of my older sister Cheryl and older brother Larry in 1961.  Look at our family's cool car in the background!  I wish I could see the whole thing.  One of my earliest memories is waking up in the back seat of that car, and seeing mountains all around as we were driving from Oklahoma to Arizona.  It was the first time I had seen mountains.  I also remember being very sweaty and hot, since there was no air conditioning.  Those were the days!

And look at the vast emptiness all around our house, we had zero neighborhood kids to play with.

Anson's eyes

Here I am, about 18 months old.  I definitely see a resemblance between my eyes and my grandson's Anson's eyes.

A quilt for Sally P.

A dear friend, Sally P., has cancer again. I found out that Susan Y. and Amelia B. had made a quilt top for Sally, and I offered to quilt it for them on my long-arm machine. 

First, I had to add strips to the backing because it wasn't big enough. 

Then, since I have very little experience on the long-arm, I had one fiasco after another as I tried to load the quilt top, backing, and batting onto the machine, and again as I tried to figure out how to use the laser and follow a pantograph. 

But miracles do happen, and I got the quilt quilted between 11:00 pm and 1:30 in the morning on Sunday night.  Amelia was able to bind it on Monday, and Susan and Amelia delivered it to Sally on Tuesday, before she went in for surgery on Wednesday.

I think it is beautiful!

 The front, which was pieced by Amelia and Susan.

The back.  I added three of the strips to make it big enough.

Boy Scout camp was at our house

 We hosted Boy Scout camp for our ward and one other ward for 5 days in July.  All the cooking and eating was done around the garage.  It was pouring rain every single day.

 Merit badge classes were held on our front porch and our screened porch and other places.  I couldn't look out any window without seeing bunches of boys and leaders everywhere.

 

 They held flag ceremonies every morning and evening.

The archery merit badge and fishing merit badges were taught in the front pasture and at the pond.

I got no pictures of the horsemanship merit badge, which was taught near our barn and in the adjoining pasture.  Our friends brought 2 horses over for the week.  It was raining so constantly that I never went out there.

All in all, I think it was a good experience for everyone.  The only lasting consequence was that we had a lot of flies in our garage and in our house for a few weeks afterward, but now they are all gone so life is normal again.

Awesome lighted reading glasses!

 What a great idea!  I can read my scriptures, lying in bed in a dark room.

These are LightSpecs, by Foster Grant.

Visit to Pittsburgh

 I went to visit Bryce's family last week.  They took me to this high part of town overlooking the convergence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, where they form the Ohio River.

Here is my sweet little granddaughter, Gabrielle, in their pretty backyard.

Anson likes classic cars too

I found Anson looking at Wayne's magazine. It looks like Anson is going to take after his Pappy.

Climbing trees

Wayne has embarassed me over the years by climbing trees in inappropriate places.  We got in trouble for climbing this tree at Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Virginia.  You will notice that I refrained from climbing because I knew we would get caught.

This was about 1997.
Then in 2002, we did it again (only Adam was on his mission so he isn't in the picture.)

This was by the water in Bar Harbor, Maine.  And nobody yelled at us that time.

Wayne rock climbing

Here is a picture of Wayne when he first learned to rock climb.  I think it was around 1995.

My baby picture

Tiffany and Adam think their little boy looks just like me in this picture.  I had big blue eyes and so does he.  What do you think?

Dr. Suess wedding guestbook

We went to Britt B.'s wedding reception last week, and were surprised when we went to sign the guestbook.  It was such a cute idea!  We were signing in between the pictures and words of the Dr. Suess children's book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" 

That was way better than a stale old guestbook, like the one we had at our wedding.

Zac's first long email from the Brazil missionary training center

 Zac had the craziest first week I have ever heard of!  He was basically forgotten for a few days.  Here is part of his first email home.



"The first day was the longest of my life.  I got no sleep on the plane, and then when I got to the CTM they kept us busy until that night introducing us to everything.  When I got there they had no idea I was coming.  The first they heard of me was when the person picking missionaries up at the airport told them an extra one arrived.  So I have had two other companions all week.  elder. J,, and elder. P.  What I expected was very different from what actually happened. 

To put some perspective on things James G. arrived at the MTC with 800 other elders and sisters, and Quin V. arrived a week later with 1000 other elders and sisters.  I arrived with two other elders and they both became my companions.  We were it the whole day. 

The week before only one elder arrived from New Zealand elder. O., and a week before him one elder arrived from virginia elder. Smith.  This is what makes up my district.  Other than that between 15 and 30 other elders and sisters arrive from Brazil on Thursdays.  On Sunday I counted all the english speaking missionaries here, there were 19. 

After the first day we were basically forgotten about.  We would show up to things on the schedule, but most of the times no one would show up, so we would go somewhere and study.  We never knew what to do until saturday, when we finally got put on the same schedule as the two other elders in our district who knew what they were doing.  I never met any of the other english speaking missionaries until Sunday.  My Portuguese is coming along faster than I ever thought it could."

21 Aircraft Avenue, Layton Utah, 1982-1987

Aunt Carol, and the current homeowner

When I was in Utah a couple of weeks ago, we went to see the old house where Wayne and I had lived in Layton.  Wayne's grandparents, Earl and Olive Nunn Wixom lived right across the street from us, in a very similar house.

Our little house was 685 sq. ft. upstairs, plus a full unfinished basement, plus a garage that was attached, but there was no doorway in between.

While we were taking pictures of the front of the house, the homeowner came out and talked to us, and was so nice to invite us in for a tour.

The current homeowners have changed it quite a bit.  They have added pop out bay windows in both of the front rooms.  They have changed the garage to a family room which is accessible from the house.

They ripped out the upstairs bathroom and changed my little boys' room into a big bathroom, and added an addition onto the back of the house.

We bought this house in 1982 for $35,000.  It had been built in 1942, and was 40 years old at the time.  We put in a new bathroom, new roof, new furnace, new flooring, new electricity, and didn't make a penny when we sold the house for $35,000 in 1987.  The current owner said she bought it for $41,000 in 1991.

Bountiful Apartment 1981-1982

While I was Utah recently, I went to see the apartment where Wayne and I lived from fall 1981-spring 1982.  Adam was born while we lived here.

We graduated from BYU in April 1981, and moved to an apartment in Layton, Utah for 6 months.  After that, I got a job at Brooks Fabric Store in Bountiful, and the owners owned this apartment right behind the fabric store, and we moved into it.

This is the back of Brooks Fabric Store, which we could see out our side window.  I only worked at the fabric store for a few months until Adam was born.

Last week, I went inside Brooks Fabrics, and I couldn't believe that they hadn't changed a thing (except the fabric for sale) in the whole 31 years since I worked there.  The ugly old linoleum tile floor and the same old wooden fabric racks, same wooden shelves around the walls, it was amazing.  So I guess updating a business isn't necessary, as long as your same old customers keep coming back.  It must be an institution by now, and no one cares what it looks like as long as it keeps stocking the fabric they want.

Zac left on his mission today

 Zac is my fifth son to leave on a mission.  We got to take him to the airport, and miraculously, an LDS Delta airline worker pulled some strings and got us some security passes, and we actually got to go through security with him and wait at the gate for a little while.  We haven't waited with any of our missionary sons since Adam's mission, because he left in August 2001, just before 9-11 changed airport protocol.

Zac left about 5:45 pm on a plane to Atlanta, and from there he is flying all night to Sao Paulo, Brazil.  He will be in the Mission Training Center there for 6 weeks (?), then he will travel to his mission in Florianopolis, Brazil for the rest of the two years.

We are so proud of him, and wish him the best as he learns to speak Portuguese.

Poison Ivy, Tree Down

Living on this much land sure brings its own troubles.

I found poison ivy in our front flower bed.

A big tree fell down onto our lawn, and we have been trying to cut it up with a chainsaw little by little.  We are going to have to pull it with a rope and the tractor to be able to reach more of the branches.

Wayne had to weedwhack all around the perimeter of the fence, but only got it partly done.

My neighbor's workman killed a water moccasin at our pond.

Tree frogs are adhered to our porch railings.

I never thought about any of these things before we moved here.

Wixom keepsakes, part 3

Wayne's parents, Lu and Wickie, lived in Maine for many years while Lu was a park ranger there at Acadia National Park.  Earl and Olive Wixom, and young daughter Carol, came to stay with them every summer (Earl was a high school art teacher, so he had summers off.  It was too hot to make chocolates in those days without airconditioning, so Olive had the summer off too.)

This is a picture of Earl Wixom at the top of the Morgan Tower on Mount Desert Isle (Acadia National Park).  J.P. Morgan originally owned the whole island, and had given some land on Sand Beach to his daughter.  She and her  husband, Mr. Satterlee, built a house, a gardener's cottage, and this stone tower on their property.

Wayne's family liked to visit this tower while they were living in the old Satterlee place.  Later the Park Service tore the tower down.

Here are some great 1950's pitchers which belonged to Olive Wixom.

Aunt Carol has this old rocking chair.  It was brought into an uphostery business where Grandpa Earl Wixom was working, but after it was reupholstered the customer never came back to pick it up.  The business owner sold it to employee Earl for $15.  Carol remembers rocking so hard in it just to make it tip over when she was little.

Sister Monson passed away

My mother called from Salt Lake City and said the flags were at half mast, Sister Monson died today.  I feel sad for President Monson and his family.

More Wixom keepsakes

 I was at Wayne's Aunt Carol's house in Layton, Utah, last week, and Carol showed us a lot of  heirlooms from her parents, Earl and Olive Nunn Wixom (Wayne's grandparents.)

This trunk belonged to Olive, and was what she packed her clothing in when she was young.  Carol painted it gold later.

Grandpa Earl Wixom built this dictionary stand, and this big dictionary was always on top of it.  The clock belonged to Olive's sister Ruth.

Mary Ann Markham Nunn

This is Mary Ann Markham Nunn, Olive Nunn Wixom's mother.

When I knew Olive, she was about this age, and resembled her mother a lot, I thought.

Mary Ann Markham was an orphan, her parents both died of a contagious disease so everything they owned was destroyed.  Mary Ann really didn't know very much about her parents so her genealogy is very difficult to do, we have so little information.

After she married, she and her husband and family moved from Nebraska to Idaho in a covered wagon, and then her first husband (Olive's father) died. Mary Ann outlived her husband for many years, and remarried, and lived in Idaho until her death.