Another Granddaughter!

We have another new grandchild:  Hannah Christine was born this morning to Isaac and Rachel.
7 lbs. 6 oz.  19 1/2 inches long.

Seth and Janette's daughter was born only six days ago.  We have gone from having 2 grandchildren to having 4 grandchildren in only a week.  Our family is growing exponentially!

Twin Presidents

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWAdt07XPgY&feature=player_embedded

32nd anniv of Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech - Obama remix

Fan Mail

I haven't made any blockbuster quilts in more than a year, so I haven't been putting my quilts in quilt shows the way I used to.

I put this quilt, "Five-thirty A.M." in a big quilt show in May.  If you don't know, this quilt represents my years of teaching early morning seminary.  My house is at the top left, with the lights on.  My car drives past all the houses in town (with their lights off) and then arrives at the full parking lot of the stake center, bottom right, with the lights on.  I also machine quilted lots of scripture mastery verses all over the quilt.

I told about teaching "a religion class" in the little card that hung with the quilt at the show.

To my surprise,  I just received a nice note in snail mail from someone I don't know.

"Dear Amy,
I so enjoyed your quilt.  But I was blown away by your years of faithfully teaching Bible at 6:00 a.m. in the morning.  May God bless your faithfulness.
Sincerely,  Stephanie B________"

That was so nice of her.  I wish I could tell her that I taught one year each of Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine and Covenants and Church History, and Book of Mormon.

Photo of Bryce and Marianne

Here is my favorite of Bryce and Marianne's engagement pictures.

Tessa's Two Grandmothers

Introducing Tessa!

Baby!

Seth and Janette's daughter Tessa Jill was born Wednesday night at 10:21 pm.

7 lbs. 9 oz.  And she is so beautiful!

I will try to post photos tomorrow.

Janette is in labor

I'll keep you posted.

Photos from Cumorah

Wayne and I went to the Hill Cumorah pageant on Thursday night and Friday night and watched Zac do the special effects.  We got to eat lunch and supper with Zac and his companion, Bro. G. from Las Vegas.  We also ran into our old friend, Roxanne (she is Michelle I.'s sister, we knew her even before she joined the church.)

More photos of "Time to Blossom"

My sister, Carla Jorgensen, just got through producing two weeks of "My Time to Blossom" for girls.  Here are lots of pictures:

http://staceykayphotographyblog.com/time-to-blossom/

What Zac is doing at the Hill Cumorah Pageant

Zac has been on the work crew at the Hill Cumorah Pageant for over 2 weeks.  Wayne and I drove up to New York on Thursday, saw the dress rehearsal that night, then watched opening night on Friday night, then drove home.  It was very nice to see Zac there, he only gets to write us letters once a week.

Here is what he has been doing:

When they arrived June 24, they began by putting up the stages.  This year the work crew made a record by putting up all the stages in three days and three hours.

They put all the lighting up onto the lighting towers, also setting a record for how fast they did that.

Zac chose to be on the ground crew, so these are his duties during the performance:

Put smoke into Lehi's altar.
Do the hydraulics to lift the Tree of Life into place.
Take down Lehi's Palm trees.
Help put up the stern of Nephi's ship.
Put up a pillar, put up a lighted torch, then stand by it during the whole King Noah scene.
Put a lot of fake boulders and rocks up on stage for Alma Baptism scene.
As the cast is carrying on a large green Jaguar idol, Zac plugs it into electricity to make the fire glow.
Destruction scene: This scene is only 70 seconds long, Zac has to run from place to place and do everything on the exact time.  He wears headphones, and the technical director counts the seconds and they have to hit their marks at the correct second.
Here is what Zac wrote about the destruction scene (he wrote this a week before opening night):

"At 5 seconds I have a smoke machine to run on stage six.
Then at 30 seconds I knock down a pillar.
At 37 seconds I do the same smoke machine again.
Then I run from stage six, slide down the hill under some facing, run under more stage to get to stage one.
At 54 seconds I shoot off a water cannon.
A few feet from me (I can touch it if I reach) is a fireball set up.  It is supposed to go off at 54 seconds when I am supposed to fire off my water cannon.  Luckily Brother W. hasn't made it to his post yet to fire it off, or else I would surely die.  I talked to Brother J (the head technical director) about it and he said I will probably move my water cannon.
My last effect is a large flame on the other side of stage one, I get to it right as Brother G. fires off a water cannon next to my flame."

When we saw the pageant on dress rehearsal and opening night, Zac had an additional duty.  He also set up the box for Moroni to take the plates out of.

Zac is having a wonderful time.  He has a companion that he has to be with all the time, they have a rule that if a girl speaks to them, they can only speak to her for 5 seconds.

He really, really wants some mail, so please write to him:

Brother Zachary ___________ (I don't put last names on this blog.)
Hill Cumorah Pageant
659 State Rt. 21
Palmyra, NY  14522

He will fly home on July 22.

Hot Air

A story from the 4-yr-old Primary class

Experience told by Nikki Alley:

"I teach the 4-year-old Primary class and have a little boy in my class who volunteers every week to say the prayer. Last week he thanked Heavenly Father for not letting us talk to strangers, then he thanked him for the alphabet, and proceeded to bless the letters A, B, C, through Z, then he thanked Heavenly Father for numbers and blessed the numbers 1-20, then he thanked Him for colors and blessed 10 different colors.  I wondered if I should stop him.  I didn't mind the prayer's length, but I worried that his classmates were getting impatient.   When I looked around the other children had their eyes closed and were listening intently, so I just let him keep going.  I was glad I did because he finished by saying, 'And thank you for Sister Alley because she doesn't make me stop praying like my mom does.'".  

(Church News, January 8, 2000  p. 2.)

Eating Dog Food

I went to BYU Education Week in 2007 and attended a class on teaching methods.  The woman told us about this so I did it at my seminary class that year as I taught about the Old Testament.

I was teaching about how the prophet Samuel chose David as the new king of Israel.  Men look upon the outward appearance, God looks on the heart.

I purchased a can of Alpo dog food, and a can of roast beef hash.  I carefully took the label off the Alpo and taped it over the can of hash.

During class, I took a can opener and opened the can, and started eating from it with a fork.  The students started screeching and telling me to stop eating it.  They could smell its meaty smell, and they saw me open the can, so what else could it be but dog food?

After annoying them for a minute or so, I finally removed the Alpo label and showed them it was really roast beef hash.  And we talked about how often we misjudge other people or situations because of our limited understanding.

When I see my old students from 2007-2008, that is one of the only things they remember about that year.  "I remember when you ate dog food!"

Cute little tent for stuffed animals

Here is the cutest tent to make for kids to play with their dolls or stuffed animals.
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/05/mini-tent-pattern-tutorial/

(Thanks, Tiffany!)

Prejudice against Mormons is alive and well

I was talking to one of the women in charge of our stake's Nativity celebration.  Our stake has been doing this event for over a decade, and it is a huge lovely display of over 600 nativity scenes, plus live music over about three evenings.

This particular woman (Sister H.) is in charge of contacting all the high school choirs and other musical groups, and inviting them to sing at our event.

My daughter was in our high school's honor choir, and there have been other nice Mormon students in that same choir, so I asked Sister H. to contact Mr. B because I knew how much he enjoyed having those youth in his choir.

She said, "Oh, no, that choir refuses to come to our church."

I was stunned, and asked why.

She said, "Mr. B. said he would be happy to schedule it, but when he told his Booster parents there was one very influential mother who was very vocal and absolutely forbade permission.  Mr. B had to back down because of her."

Anyway, I feel bad about that.  I am thankful for all the other high school and civic groups that are willing to perform there, regardless of any doctrinal differences they feel.  I think it is almost always a positive experience for them.  The group members tend to mingle throughout the cultural hall after their performances, looking at all the nativity scenes, and they appear to enjoy the event quite well.

I'm sorry that the honor choir at P.C. High School is denied that same experience, just because of one very prejudiced woman.  Phooey on her.

Adam has been working on this a long time

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/05/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-digitanks/  Here is an article about the video game which has MY SON as the art contractor.

"What is Digitanks?

Digitanks is a 3D artillery-based strategy game in which players command digital tanks to save their computers from an invasion of bugs and hackers. "


"How big is the team?

All of the programming and design was done by three programmers working as a close team: me, myself, and I. There's one contractor who does the art and another who composes the music. That's a small team compared to most game industry projects. I'd even say it's a micro-team."

Display of Zimbabwe currency $1 to a $1 Trillion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcaa0KV2xVg&feature=player_embedded#at=166
The hyperinflation took only one and a half years.  In one day a Coke cost $50 billion dollars in the morning, $100 billion at noon, and $150 billion that evening.
The YouTube is 3 minutes long.

It is interesting that Belarus seems to be starting down a similar path.  On June 25, 2011, the article below talks about how their currency was devalued by over 50% earlier that week.



Welcome To Hyperinflation Hell: Following Currency Devaluation, Belarus Economy Implodes, Sets Blueprint For Developed World Future


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/25/2011 17:22 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/wel...lodes-sets-blu


"A ‘91-style meltdown is almost inevitable." So says Alexei Moiseev, chief economist at VTB Capital, the investment-banking arm of Russia’s second-largest lender, discussing the imminent economic catastrophe that is sure to engulf Belarus following the surprise devaluation of the country's currency by over 50%, which we announced on Monday. 

Thoughts for the 4th of July

Ezra Taft Benson, 1986: 

"In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Savior declared, "I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose" (D&C 101:80)....

In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith on August 6, 1833, the Savior admonished: "I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land" (D&C 98:6).

In the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer, given on March 27, 1836, the Lord directed the Prophet Joseph to say: "May those principles, which were so honorably and nobly defended, namely, the Constitution of our land, by our fathers, be established forever" (D&C 109:54).

A few years later, Joseph Smith, while unjustly incarcerated in a cold and depressing cell of Liberty Jail at Clay County, Missouri, frequently bore his testimony of the document's divinity: "The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner" (HC 3:304)."

Ezra Taft Benson, "The Constitution, A Heavenly Banner", devotional address at Brigham Young University, 16 September 1986.

Statement of Boyd K. Packer (2004):

Will the Constitution be destroyed? No. It will be held inviolate by this people; and as Joseph Smith said "the time will come when the destiny of this nation will hang upon a single thread, and at this critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction." It will be so.

I do not know when that day will come or how it will come to pass. I feel sure that when it does come to pass, among those who will step forward from among this people will be men who hold the Holy Priesthood and who carry as credentials a bachelor or doctor of law degree. And women, also, of honor. And there will be judges as well.

Others from the world outside the Church will come, as Colonel Thomas Kane did, and bring with them their knowledge of the law to protect this people.

We may one day stand alone, but we will not change or lower our standards or change our course. 

(Source:  Boyd K. Packer, "On the Shoulders of Giants", Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law Society Devotional, Saturday, 28 February 2004, 6:00 p.m)

Statement of J. Reuben Clark, Jr.,  1944:

“Brethren, let us think about that, because I say unto you with all the soberness I can, that we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back; and once lost, we of this Church will, in order to keep the Church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known, heavy as our sacrifices and grievous as our persecutions of the past have been.” [J. Reuben Clark, Conference Report, April 1944, pp. 115–116] 

Up the wall

Elizabeth and Thomas painted our retaining wall with water on Thursday.  Rachel said Thomas insisted on wearing Elizabeth's pink Tshirt that morning.

More updates on the Cumorah work crew blog

http://hcpworkcrew.blogspot.com/

They worked all week building this 15-level stage.

Zac is on the work crew at the Hill Cumorah pageant.  You can see new photos of him on the blog listed above. 

 (He arrived June 24, 2011.  Anything before that date is last year's work crew.)

Baby Boy due in Nov/Dec

Tiffany had an ultrasound yesterday, and she is having a BOY!  With the two baby girls that Janette and Rachel are having this month, that will be good to have a little variety amongst the cousins.

Seth's birthday

Happy birthday to my wonderful third son! Thank you for all the help you have give me over the past year. Here are just two examples:

Fixing my Featherweight sewing machine when it had a piece of thread impossibly jammed into its inner workings.

And contributing MANY MANY hours of work to Zac's Eagle Project. Thank you so much!