Heaven Sent

Have you seen anything more tender and sweet. I loved precepting in the NICU (Neonatal Intesive Care Unit) because everyshift I was able to love and care for these little ones. I saw them and I would recall our Heavenly Father's love for us. I loved these babies and they weren't even mine, but I really loved them and wanted to do the best to care for them. I felt joy when I would see them get better it was an unbelievable experience. They are so helpless, perfect, and precious. This picture to me inspires hope, perfection, love, meekness, and LOVE. One day I know I will be able to work with these little ones.
Indira

Bloggings

Picture time! This is a picture of Strawberry Lake, (kind of near Heber in Utah) I took it when Indira and I were driving back from our Vernal trip. The picture doesn't do it justice, the water was a beautiful sapphire blue. I kept on "putting off" this blog because I wanted to find a really cool picture, but then I was just said to myself "just put up something pretty" so I did. Indira, do you remember this? haha, I climbed down the cliff thing and went in the water hahahah. It was really pretty tho, and a nice break from the long drive. I like this picture because it is really pretty and the sky is just wonderful. Beauty Beauty Beauty. God loves us so much because he puts beautiful things on the Earth for us to see and look at. Also be thankful for eyes so we can take it all in. (see primary song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" haha, I'm cheesy)

Not much else going on in Provo. School is mad busy, I'm pro at taping ankles now, BYU football lost 3 games in a row (idiots), I'm practicing my Spanish as best I can, I cooked chicken parmesean the other day for fast Sunday, and I'm so excited for General Conference! I hope everyone else is doing well! You are in my prayers! Go EAGLES!!! (Playin the redskins sunday! watch out Mc Nabb!!! ahhh!)

What Chores???

Ha ha. I have to laugh at this one... I remember when I was young and at home and learned the meaning of "chores" from Grammy Sumner... (my mom) it was much more of the traditional old home family sort of thing... the inside the house chores were for the girls, the outside "'man" chores were for the boys...
I remember mom always was making something for dinner. We almost always had a family dinner together when Dad would get home. It was pretty regular, and you could tell the day of the week by the dinner. We did fish on Friday's, (from Mom being raised Catholic), Tuesday was beans and cornbread. Sunday was a big dinner full blown "meat and two or three" with an occasional special dessert. Then the clean up would almost always be Mom washing dished and Kathryn and Claudia helping or clearing the table or whatever else needed to be done. Saturdays was another big day for cleaning. the girls would dust, vacuum , sweep (kitchen floor was swept not vacuumed) outside the boys would do all the lawn care, raking, trimming the hedge, shoveling snow, (we lived on a corner had a double wide driveway, (including shoveling several walks for elder church members in town) and anything that ever needed to be worked on that was car related. A number of us children also delivered papers either morning routes or evening routes. This was the childrens' means of earning spending money instead of asking for mom and dad to for spending money. Best I can remember all the children at one time or another did papers. After school delivery M - F, no Sturday, and then early / before church on Sunday morning, the morning routes I think were every day... Then there was the weekly collecting that had to be done every week. (I want my $2.00) And on Saturday getting a ride from dad, or riding our bike to the newspaper office to pay our weekly bill. I think the paper was $0.60 when I first started, and inched up from there in the 4 or 5 years I did papers...

We all had to make our own beds, put our dirty laundry in the hamper, put away clothes once laundered, but Mom did all the laundry, she ironed and we would spend countless hours in the dining room while mom would iron and we would be doing homework and or just listing to her wisdom... it was a grand time to be alive, no worries. Mom didn't work outside home till I was older, then it was mostly to fund her Geneology research and pay for missions and stuff.

You children may have gotten off easy as Della never did the regimented weekly routine. we did a little while in Utah, that was the extent of it. We all had our room assignments; kitchen, bathroom, living room, and all but we all know whoever had living room never did anything, the kitchen was alway getting help from Pop. and we all shared in the outside stuff. but the boys usually did the lawn mowing... ha ha
I guess that will wrap up this post. Hope you children are all doing well, we pray for you all, with teh activity on the blog, being so light, clearly school has started and is keeping you all very busy. That is a good thing. School should be your focus, blog when you can. We'll all be around when there are breaks. Love you all. Study hard! Play hard! :)

Memories

I will attempt to follow the format, Car / Road Trip

There are a few that stand out, but forgive me if the memory is a little foggy, in no particular order: 1) The trip to AZ where we picked up Granny In AK and she helped drive thru the night, and with granny driving it started to snow about an hour before Armarillo TX., (this was in the little blue van). So I started driving after our gas stop and was doing the best I could to get us thru, having had more snow driving experience and could maybe go a little faster. It turned out to be the worst conditions I have ever driven in. There was, in some places up to 4 inches of frozen snow and ice on the roads, it was a real wet heavy snow and I was actually suprized we got thru to Albequerque. if you chech the map, it is a pretty good hike, several hundred miles, well once we got to Albequerque, we turned south to get to more clear roads, the word at the truck stop was it was like that all the way to Flagstaff. UGH. We were stopped a couple times, cars were slidding off the roads all around, there was a truck with a fullsize airstream trailer blocking our lanes we drove around them off the road. but wow. 2) the Niagara Falls trip and the Toll Booth episode has to be a classic. I loved the way Blake wrote the dialog he and Kevin had after I yelled for them to "shut up"... bunch if idiots back there..."
that is so funny. "Is he serious?" "No, he's never serious." "But I can"t tell with those glasses on." "But he has that smirk on his face."... ha ha I laugh just writing this. And a few honorable mentions, the Trip to New Jersey from Utah including the adventure of the car dying and the Black Hills camping, and all we did, (that was a great time). Universal Studios, Space shuttle launch. Combined with the T-Bones steak house memories! That was a Sumner Classic. (J, this is one I would play and replay once we get our lives on CD up in heaven, ha ha) Insane that we did all that traveling. Countless trips to Grannies, Aunt Claudia's, when we were still in AZ a few trips to Utah. Yikes, Ya'll got your million mile club pins yet?

I think I will come back to this and add the "crazy" memories and "movie" memories on a Part II and Part III... Love all you guys, It is great to hear from you all Keep bloging. Hope school is going well for those in school. Ha. no me. KZ's last "First Day" is this Tuesday... We'll take pictures. :)

Road Music

Hello. I am going to catch up on the list of labels and entries to the Blog... I'll not make these too long...so here is an attempt.

I will list my favorite Road Tunes, not in any order but as Blake has mentioned by mood or desired effect of the tunes being played... I have some favorites so lets get them out first. Of course you should all know one of my favorites is Rush 2112. the first side of the "album" but now that it is on CD, the whole thing. Another Rush favorite is Farewell to Kings. Title song, Zanadu, Cygnus X-1. I have my other favorites, anything Pink Floyd, Alanis Morrisette, and Shania Twain. And after that, there are selected songs from a multitude of artist that I just love to "cruise" to. Tom Petty, AC/DC (Live "The Jack" from Let there be rock, Bon Scott version). The Coldplay X&Y was turned on to me driving home from Grannies for the last time with Della pulling a trailer in the Park Ave. (very heavy that trip, so many emotions, specifically the song Fix You. Della and I had a great "We Miss You Granny" cry together playing that one several times in a row. I still can feel the emotion of that tune and that section of road north of Tampa on I-95. Della and I had some great tunes experiences when we were first married in WI. Pete Townsend: White City, Dire Striats, ZZ Top, Greatfull Dead, Stevie Nicks,

One quick story, when I left Albert Lea to go live in Reno (pre mission) I was playing cassette tapes in the Blue Flame. I was playing them as they were in sequence in the "brief case" so, about midnight or later, I was in Wyoming getting really sleepy and Neil Young was playing and I cranked it for another hour or more. "Rust Never Sleeps", "Tonight's the Night". If you don't know that one, I highly recommend it. But that was one of those fun times just me and the Blue Flame out in the middle of no where! Thank you Heavenly Father for keeping me alive on all those road trips! Well, I am sure I am missing some, but that will have to do for now.

WHY I LOVE THIS MAN!!

If you look closely at great comedy teams, there is always the really funny guy and then there is the 'straight' guy - the one who never laughs or the one who sets up the really funny guy to seem even funnier. George Burns is really funny, but it was his wife, Gracie Allen who played the straight guy and allowed him to be even funnier. Every once in a while he would set her up to be funny and it would be great. My life with Benet is wonderful but it is kind of like living with Roger Rabbit. It helps that he treats me like Jessica Rabbit too. So this is my favorite image of late. it makes melaugh every time I see it. I found it the other day and KNEW it had to be the image of the day.