Familial Research and Development

Jack Giles was first. John and Janet Uribe introduced us—Janet’s dad owned two apartment complexes and I worked for them to clean apartments). We dated maybe twice. He came over on his motorcycle to my house a couple of times, picked me up after school once, met me at John & Janet’s on my lunch break lots of times. He took me up to Painted Caves to go skinny dipping—we went with another couple. I wouldn’t strip, even to my underwear and get in the water. I wanted to be there, I just didn’t want to be immodest. I hadn’t heard from him for a while and was in a shop in downtown Santa Barbara when I heard his motorcycle go past (a Suzuki and they make a distinctive sound—brrring-ding-ding-ding). I hurried outside and sure enough it was him—his traffic light turned green, he didn’t see/hear me and kept going. I ran for three blocks before I caught up with him. He gave me a ride home. I never saw him again. What was interesting about this is that I had met him before Chipper died and thi...

Watching the deer running through the woods reminded me of a time I went deer hunting with my dad. I think I was around 10 or 12. He sent me with the dog (Blackey) down through a gully. He walked the ridge. I waited at the bottom for a good 15-20 minutes before I started walking to the other end of the gully. This gave him time to walk the ridge ahead of me and as my and the dog's noise would scare and therefore flush out any deer there, he'd be in position to shoot the deer and not risk hitting me. Either that hunting trip or another he had given me the keys to the car and I had walked up a dirt road, which he had asked me to. I had stowed the keys 'safely' in the pouch-pocket of my sweat shirt. Needless to say when I got to the top of the road the keys were gone. Oh the frantic search. I don't recall finding them so I suppose he did because we certainly didn't have a spare set. I must have been older for this trip because I didn't have a sweat shirt with a...

When they were younger and racing out the front door on those hurried school mornings trying to catch the bus, IF they neglected to say, 'Bye mom, I love you,' and give me a hug, then I'd open the front room window wide and yell as loud as I could, "I LOVE YOU!" Embarrassed or not in front of the other students waiting for the bus didn't matter. I remember... I remember saying hello to Chipper for the last time. No way would I have known that the next time I'd see him, he'd be under a blanket, on a gurney, being slid into an ambulance-dead on the scene. So I know, first-hand, the importance of saying I love you each time we part. Because I really do. I love you!

When I'm at work I rarely check my cell phone. I'm at work. That's where I'm supposed to be. My cell phone represents my independent, separate and very private life. Unless there's something going on in the family or I'm expecting a call-I just don't check it until I get off work. Unless on the off chance things are dead quiet in the office and I hear some lyrical notes wafting from my bottom desk drawer which sounds get a little louder when I open the drawer and get normally loud when I reach into my purse and snatch my phone out. Monday I did not hear my phone go off. Going home I was so dog tired (I had woken at 2:47 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep-and yes this is unusual for me) I didn't bother with checking my phone when I got off. I drove straight home-had a hard time staying awake and just wanted to dive into bed when I got there. Dove called about the time I got into my office and that's when I noticed there was a text message. From fr...

You know Dove is such an interesting man. Sometimes he does things that I just have to ‘tsk’ my tongue at and other times I just marvel at how wonderful he is. He thought, of his own accord last week to check and make sure the Stake satellite receiver was functioning properly. Our town had had a power outage earlier in the week, so we heard from several residents about losses they’d suffered. The satellite was quite broken-he reported it and then yesterday he went up to check on it and found it was still broken. He was up early this morning and went back to the Stake offices, found that everything was as he’d left it the day before-and yes it was still broken-so he reported it to the Stake Presidency-who were meeting at that time. The only reason this is an issue is because next Sunday the Draper Temple will be dedicated and our Stake Center will be one of the designated areas that will host the dedication. We have tickets to go be part of the dedication and thus to participate in the ...

When he was in high school he had a guitar. It was blue. He really loved that guitar-it became part of his identity. He played it for a seminary talent show, he practiced on it at home, he played it for his friends. After a couple years he was ready for a car. He had saved his money up and bought one. Of course, like his guitar, he had to practice with it (see if he could beat out the truck next to him at a stop light-I now know that if you take off fast this behavior can give net you an ‘exhibition driving’ ticket), he played with it for his friends (rides to games and events, meeting at the billiards place) and he bragged about nearly reaching the top end of the speedometer (on a county road designated 45 mph in the wee hours of the morning and how big that ticket was-over $700-which he barely finished monthly payments on when he went into the MTC). This was during that same time period of his life when I was working full time and knowing he had a car as old as he was, that he needed...

Every once in a while you think maybe, as a parent you did the right thing. Last Sunday Frog, after having enjoyed a good Sunday dinner at someone else’s expense and effort, responded in a most mature and responsible way when I announced to the front room full of adults (dad, Roo, Frog Bride, Tallest Bro, Tallest Bro's Bride to be, and Frog), “Okay, looks like we need someone to volunteer to bake the cupcakes and someone to wash dishes.” Frog looked around at the room of people for a moment and then spoke up and said he was going to make brownies. Then I paused, for effect, and with no other volunteers I said, “Okay Dad, looks like you and I are going to be doing the dishes.” To this Frog immediately said, “Mom-you are NOT going to stand and do the dishes as long as I am in the house!” What a great example to his older brother to say that. So dad and Frog went to the kitchen to make brownies and do the dishes. I then said to Tallest Bro & Tallest Bro's Bride to be, “I belie...

I worked in the school cafeteria in Monroe Elementary when I was in the 4th-6th grades to earn my lunch. I worked in the school cafeteria in La Cumbre Jr. High when I was in 7th-9th grades to earn my lunch. I worked at the Pet Manor (pet store) when I was 16 years old. I fed fish, cleaned kennels, and sold product to customers. I worked as a secretary for Ririe Godfrey at Ricks College. I typed up the tests I would take from him in my Biology class. I graded the tests, including my own papers. That was interesting, typing up the tests. You used a ditto master. Two sheets of paper, one with very thick greasy blue carbon on it, the second sheet was a heavy duty sheet of slicky paper. You typed on the slicky paper and the back of it picked up the carbon. You separated the two, used a razor blade to scrape off the carbon that formed the wrong letters (this instead of white out), then ran it through a ditto machine (hand crank) to make as many copies as you needed. The tests were generally ...

That’s an interesting one. I’ve been telling myself that one of these days these kids are going to grow up and leave me all alone and I will be lonely—what then? So I’ve played in the back of my mind with what I would do when that time came. Finally it’s nearly here and I didn’t know what to do, until I heard three or four returned senior missionaries (three were couples) from missions and admonished the adult audience, if you want to serve a mission—get office skills so the young elders can go out and proselyte. Hence, went to college to gain office skills, so we can serve missions. Now watch, we won’t be working in a mission office!!

Well, at least that's what daddy thought. He tried really hard to push his concept on mom too. He felt that when we kids turned 16 years old we should go out, get a full time job and turn the money over to him and mom to help pay for the household expenses. Mama said no. Bob was 16, I was only 13 so I wasn't too afraid of getting caught on this one. I guess that's the ostrich-head-in-the-sand syndrome that so much of America is caught in the middle of. Mom fought her battle by finding out from the principal at the local elementary (Richard Boaden) what the current state laws were and eventually, armed with this knowledge and truth, Dad's bright idea was shot down and we kids were allowed to pursue our high school diplomas as a matter of privileges granted by the state and federal governments. Whew! Close call. Looking back I have a fuller view, understanding and appreciation for what mama went through. Bless her heart! She picked her battles, some more than others.

Kids are funny, aren’t they? As they’re growing up they feel like their lives are not their own. They feel they’re being controlled and manipulated, hence they don’t want to listen to their parents or do what they’re told they ought to be doing. Finally, to the relief of the parents, they grow up, move out, go away. Then they really start to get a clue of the responsibility of being an adult. Couple this with listening to the prophets’ counsel and viola! You have the recipe of a couple who want a family (with the ensuing expenses), want out of debt, want a house, want a… you name it-it’s on the list. They think their next most obvious step is to find a way to be more self-sufficient. For some it turns out that that would mean they are going to use the most direct path to financial freedom-military service. The sign-on bonus will wipe out their debt. So the young man scored 87 on the pre-asvab (you’re guess is much better than mine to determine if that one was spelled right) whereas mo...

It was yellow when I was a kid and there was a trellis in front of the front door which had bougainvillea growing up it. There were two trees between the bricks on the parkway. I see from this photo that the sidewalk shifted and needed some blacktop to even it out. A sidewalk rearing up like that usually is caused by a tree root. My bedroom window is the one on the right. The one on the left is the master bedroom. There weren’t the cute, groomed trees by the house or the little fence. There was at the corner of the house near the master bedroom a huge pampas grass plant. The calla lilies grew along side the right side of the house along the narrow pathway leading to the back yard (where the garbage cans were stored.) When they first bought the house it was a full garage. Dad took about 7’ of it out to enlarge the living room. Looks like they’ve left it that way. They bought the house for $14,000. As of August 2006 it’s worth $2 million in the way-skewed California real estate market.

Surely you know me well enough by now that just as God is no respecter of persons, and He's perfect and told us to be like Him, I really could care less about 'famous' people. Or rather my definition of famous is in our offspring. But as for the rest-I don't measure up to them and they don't measure up to me but... Since you're insistent... Ya know, I don’t really pay attention to that sort of thing. If God is no respecter of person’s then why should I be? I respect others as human beings, I respect others authority, I respect others position, I respect others opinions (differing or not). Well, let’s see. Hometown of Louisville, Kentucky: (let me check the Internet first) Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay-the heavyweight boxing champ), Rosemary Clooney (I loved listening to her sing-she had a role in the movie the Poseidon Adventure), Crystal Gale (singer-Don’t it make my brown eyes blue), Abraham Lincoln (my favorite!) and me! Famous Natives People listed are almost a...

That’s an interesting one. I’ve been telling myself that one of these days these kids are going to grow up and leave me alone and I will be lonely—what then? So I’ve played in the back of my mind with what I would do when that time came. Finally it’s nearly here and I didn’t know what to do, until I heard three or four senior missionaries (three were couples) return from missions and admonished the adult audience, if you want to serve a mission—get office skills so the young elders can go out and proselyte. Hence, I’m in college getting office skills, so we can serve missions. Now watch, we won’t be working in a mission office!!

You attend church on Christmas and Easter. God sees everything and knows everything—you can lie to your parents but you can’t lie or hide from God. God is everywhere—he’s immense and fills all space; he dwells in your heart; he tolerates no out of control behavior; you must fear god—he will get you; you will burn in hell for wrong doings. My greatest faith promoting experience happened when I was ten years old. after the Jehovah’s Witnesses had been visiting with us (Mom and I), and I wanted to know some answers to some burning questions I had. I went to my room, and not having been taught how to pray, I begged God to teach me.: Where did I come from—did I exist before I was born? Why was I here? What was the purpose of my life?? And where was I going post mortal existence? What came next? I was told about twenty years later that at about that same time frame the missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints knocked on the front door for the first time. Mom turned th...

I think every teenager when they learn to drive absolutely loves the feeling of power and control they have. It’s great. Until you either get your first ticket or into your first accident. I learned at Santa Barbara High School, California. After school was when my session was taught. First we practiced and was preached to in the simulators which consisted of watching a movie and each students “desk” was a drivers seat with brakes, steering wheel and dash board. Mr. Cardon, my English teacher, was my road instructor. Probably the most annoying part was first thing he wanted each of us to practice was how slow we could go, in the parking lot. I’m talking idling and braking while idling yet still moving slightly forward.

Hiccups: Hold your breath, until they go away. Warts: Compound W. Duct tape is the going rage. Footaches: Soak it in salt water; the ocean’s the best. Colds: lots of vitamin c and chicken noodle soup followed with a nap (several times a day) Earaches: stuff either a sliver of garlic or onion with a piece of cotton ball in the affected ear. Olive oil also helps seal out the air, moistens the timpanic membrane and helps the ear feel better quick. Birth control: abstain from sex Arthritis: don’t grow old. Use apple cider vinegar (1 T./glass of water) once a day to control acidity which helps leach calcium from the bones). Strep throat: chew on raw onion, drink warm as you can stand it water with bullion in it and gargle with salt water. Viral infection: any respiratory viral infection seems to respond well to a general cleanse. Mix 1 c. water, 1 c. honey together in a sauce pan. Bring to an almost boil and remove from heat. Then add 1 c. lemon juice (fresh is always best). Gargle and or s...

My desires for my children lie in holding to the rod, enduring to the end and through the gift of the Spirit be able to find the right mate and also through that same gift bond and fortify their union keeping it strong for eternity. The simple dreams include getting a house, being out of debt, accepting willingly and serving with every fiber of their being in any and all Church callings and being better parents than I as well as getting their education.

Jet! A little black Scottish terrier. She was jet black and there was a jet (new age technology at that time) passing overhead when I was asked to name her. Of course, I was 3 years old and mom and dad had obtained her, bought her food, etc. But I got to claim her as my own until she died having puppies. That was in Louisville, KY. Dad had a German shepherd named Sergeant. We took him with us one weekend when we went fishing at Goleta pier. I was about 11 years old and took him for a walk, purportedly, on the beach. He dragged me all the way to the wave’s edge tugging so hard on the leash and then he dragged me across the sand when I lost my footing and fell. I finally let go of the leash. I was sure I had lost him forever and that I would never be allowed home again. I didn’t know where I was going to live or how I was going to make it in life. He had his fun running wild, loose, and free (Dogs MUST be on leash, said the sign, but it didn’t say a person had to be at the other end of t...

The most interesting and important visitors I have ever cross my threshold have been my adult children and grandchildren. They know me and love me in spite of myself—how much more important or interesting can it get? I could list the things that have gone wrong with some of those visits—stains on the carpet, broken lamps, broken toys, broken dishes, etc. But in the end—these are things that even the Savior describes as, “. . . which moth and dust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal.” So, for me, the stuff is just that—stuff, replaceable. And as for people—immediate family are what matters and are all that matters.

Mostly this would center on our three sons receiving their Eagle Scout awards; David receiving his Wood Badge Beads (twice), or even participating in the Millennial Jamboral at Fillmore, UT when Pres. Hinckley came and spoke to the scouts. Exciting doesn’t quite cut it—isn’t the word which best describes my feelings about any of these events—I think deepest satisfaction would be more accurate.

Mom was outside in February in Louisville, Kentucky hanging clothes up on the lines when she went into labor with me. She said the clothes would freeze as soon as they were pinned to the lines. I was born on a Sunday. I was born around 8 p.m. so she missed her dinner as breakfast was the next meal served at the hospital. My feet were twisted outwards at the ankles. The doctor said I’d never walk unless they corrected that while the bones were still soft. So before she left the hospital with me (delivering mothers used to have to stay in the hospital for 10 days), casts were put on my legs, from the hips to the toes. My name Alice Ann is from my maternal grandmother Sarah Alice and my mother Dorothy Ann. Mom called me Alice Ann while we lived in Kentucky. By the time we moved to California and I started school I was called Alice, even at home, so I could get used to being called Alice at school. Somewhere along that time I decided I didn’t like the sound of my name (Alice). Sure I was p...

As a child, on my bike. . . hmmm. . . This is a painful one to bring back. My parents, for all their backwoods larnin’ really cared about appearances. I guess all Americans with pride do. So I had grown up caring and to a degree fretting about my looks. Grandma Nelson once said of me that I was an ugly duckling. I guess it was meant as a backwards complement. Well, the story. I was riding my bike (I was about 12 years old) in our back yard. It wasn’t that big of a yard. There were clothes on the clothes lines. I ducked to miss the clothes, so I could keep my speed up. I ducked hard and fast. I chipped my left front tooth. It’s still chipped. Never had an accident on a motorcycle. Used to ride as a passenger with Jack Giles driving or with Connie Placencia driving, but I was never in an accident. Wet my pants…. I wrote up that story already. It’s under DO YOU RECALL ANY OUTSTANDING FAMILY TRIPS OR SUMMER HOLIDAYS YOU EXPERIENCED AS A CHILD?

I’m always going on special dates. Anytime I go on a date with my husband it’s special. My favorite was when we went to the Temple with names from the Flint line that needed to be done. I knew my grandpa Flint really loved me so to honor him I wanted to do as much as possible on his line. I had spent a lot of time researching this line and had a LOT of names. I wasn’t sure what to do with them. We took them to the Temple and they saw how many there were and told us to submit them to Salt Lake. We stayed and did an Endowment session. When we left, we walked off to the north side. We were talking about nothing in particular. There among the 4 evergreen trees I could hear children’s voices. They had a southern accent and were talking to us. “Bye now.” “Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?” I turned to David, did you hear that? He had heard it. Who would leave their children in their car while they went into the Temple? We looked around. We saw no children. When we got home I checked the notebook...

The most special birthday party I had was when my daughters worked to put one together for me. They invited friends from all over, staged it at the Salem West Stake Center and it was all about me. They got their siblings together and decorated and everything. They coordinated with their dad and made it such a grand affair. That was probably the most special birthday celebration I have ever had and will ever be a treasured memory of the heart.

I was 12 years old when I was taught how to run the wringer washing machine. So I guess I’ve been doing laundry for a long time. Frustrating experiences eh? Yes, well, there’ve been more than one or two. We had bought from my Mom and Dad their old wringer washer and it worked fine for a few months then some seal broke in it and it started leaking motor grease into the wash tub. Well, that floats, mostly, but then when you pick the clothes up out of the water to put them through the wringer, guess where the oil globs cling to. That’s right. David made a valiant effort to fix it but it was too far spent so it didn’t matter. We then went to Deseret Industries and found a brown Crown Frigidaire washing for $15.00. We borrowed Ed and Kathy Grover’s truck and brought it home. It worked great for about 5 years. When we replaced it with a new one we ended up buying a floor model. It was the last white one available. We got it into our home, after a 5 day wait-so there was a LOT of laundry wait...

We (David and I) had bought for about $250 a little brown VW Rabbit. That’s all we had to get around in with all 6 of our kids. In fact, we even bought the swamp cooler for our home at K-Mart and brought it home in the back of that little car (3” sticking in the car and the rest of the box hanging out of the car—David’s a whiz with ropes and knots). Well, eventually the poor old thing needed to die. We couldn’t afford to replace it so we kept resurrecting it. Like when the turn signal indicator handle broke off, David inserted a long metal screw which you had to force down or up and hold it in position while you were steering and shifting with your other hand when you made a turn. At one point the breaks needed to be done. Brake pads and brake fluid ran about $40, if you can get them fixed right the first time. To have the brakes repaired at a shop ran closer to $200. Well, about an additional $10 later (several large bottles of brake fluid) David had been trying to bleed the air out o...

The first school I ever attended was kindergarten in Buellton, California. Home of Andersen’s Split Pea Soup. Not that that means anything to me. We lived in a motel run by my dad’s adoptive parents. That was an interesting arrangement. Dad had caught a magpie and put it in a cage and was trying to teach it to talk. But, I digress. Back to the school story. I remember about being there. I don’t remember going and coming. I don’t remember the teacher except that she was teaching the class. I recall her being gentle and kind with me, something I was definitely not used to. Then we moved to Santa Barbara, another story about the car being loaded down and all this stuff on my lap and on the floor beside and between my legs. Not a comfortable memory, but joyous in that we were moving into a house. I then attended Monroe Elementary there in Santa Barbara, CA. There are lots of memories of that school. The teacher taught me how to write my name. A TV star of “The Cisco Kid” came to the school...

Obedience. One word? You expected me to respond to that with one word? And no explanation? Tough. You’re getting one anyway. You can live with your moral agency and freedoms more complete and intact as long as you’re obedient. To your parents, the laws of the land, the laws of the gospel. It’s that simple. Everything else seems to sort itself out. Just be obedient.

Aunt Betty, Dad’s sister: She had been in a car accident which caused some health problems. Also she was in a wheel chair. Mom told me it was from PKU (An inborn error of catabolism, characterized by a virtual absence of phenylalanine hydroxylase activity and an elevation of plasma phenylalanine, often resulting in mental retardation.-The Merck). Aunt Betty died a week after delivering her 4th child, with a brain hemorrhage, something related to the car accident. About 15 years later her oldest daughter Elizabeth-goes by Bit had called and we had a nice long conversation. She indicated that her mother wasn’t in the wheel chair because of PKU but rather from the car accident. I have no time line on any of it so I don’t know who to believe. Aunt Millie, Mom’s sister: She’s a younger sister. I remember visiting with them one holiday, could have been Thanksgiving and they had a house dog. Their house was always nice and clean, orderly, hard to imagine that they came from the same mother. T...

That’s a really good question. Let me give you a list of the places I think I would like to go, then I’ll give my real answer to the question. I’d really like to go to Israel and walk around and see some places, Masada, The Dome of the Rock, Golgotha, Gethsemane, Bethlehem, Nazareth, places like that. I’d like to go on a cruise. I’d like to go to Paris and walk around. I want to go to the Louver. I want to go to Australia and see where David served his mission, to Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and the Great Barrier Reef. I want to go to England and see where my ancestors are from. I know It won’t look like it did when they came over, but I suspicion I will smell and feel some of what they did and I think I would sense they had been there. I want to go to Kentucky and see where I came from, I was 4 yrs. old when my family moved away. I want to go to Patzicia, Guatemala; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Manhattan and see where my son’s served their missions. I’d like to go on a church history to...

I have 2 brothers and one sister, well, except that my Mom had a miscarriage between Bob and I so there’s another little girl. Bob (Robert Gene Nelson) is the oldest of us children. He was born in 1951. Brown kinky curly hair, brown eyes, and stocky built. He’s very much like my dad and I wonder if that’s why they don’t get along too well, too much alike. Although Bob, when he started the abusive behavior with his children got caught on it (like Dad did in Kentucky) and he went through the classes DCFS (or whatever it’s called in California) and seemed to get better about it. He likes hunting, fishing, outdoor sports and feels he can get closer to God out there than in a chapel. A story about Bob and I? What comes to mind first was he was trying to get me to fix his breakfast. I was about 13 years old. I was trying to get him to say the magic word. He wouldn’t. I refused to fix his breakfast. We had a physical fight. The mirror in the dining area got broke and one of the dining room ch...

Yes, ah…… When I was younger I felt like a failure unless I won. That was then. This is now. I have a whole different perspective on winning. I came to that along the following road (series of learning experiences). I would play games with my children. Checkers, 4 square, Sorry, Trouble, Kings Corner, Hand and Foot, Rummy, Boggle, etc. People have different abilities and adeptness in different areas and at different stages in life. So, when I could beat my children at all the games did it make me feel good? No. It wasn’t a fair contest. But I couldn’t beat my peers at most games, does that make me a sore loser, poor sport, or inept. Well, I don’t want to think about that. So, what then was the purpose behind playing games? To show prowess? To show superiority? Or is there something much deeper. Is it to learn skills? Stretch abilities? Learn new things? For social interaction? To draw people closer together? I opted for the last 5 possibilities. So for me it became an opportunity to pa...

I have always, all of my life, desired, hungered, looked forward to, dreamed of, sought for, waited for, and most wanted to go to college. To me it is one of the most important things in life to accomplish after the gospel and after raising a family. First find the gospel and hang on for dear life; second become an eternal family and hang on for dear life; third get a college education for the sake of dear life. It is so worth it. For all of my life’s experiences (which is of great value) going to college has filled in many, many of the missing CHUNKS of my knowledge and experience. I am so glad I have been so blessed with the opportunity to go to college. Before college, as an acceptance of humility, I thought I was ignorant. Now, through college I know I am.

Uh, let’s see. It was our third date. We went to a pillow movie. Yeah, that’s what I thought too when I first heard it. But really, you just take a pillow or cushion so you can sit on a linoleum covered cement floor in a huge auditorium to watch a movie. On the way over he kept talking in the car about a problem, didn’t know how to approach it, had to talk with a girl, serious matter, eternal consequences. I tried with talk to the Bishop, fast and pray. He had. Well, then talk with the girl. Oh it was such a frustrating conversation. I asked if it was one of the girls from his family home evening group (he was the family home evening group father). Well, no and yet, she may be. We went to the movie. I didn’t take a pillow or a cushion and wouldn’t use his pillow (he’d be sleeping on it that night and it just didn’t seem right). We watched, “The Mouse That Roared.” (1959, Comedy Adapted from Leonard Wibberley's satirical novel, the world's smallest country, the Duchy of Grand Fe...

TV station announcer, for channel 3’s KEYT in Santa Barbara, CA. He came to judge a speech contest held at our ward. I won the contest. I was quite rude. I mentioned his tie did not go with his suit. I was a teenager—I knew it all. The famous (to me at least) person I most cherish having met was Elder L. Tom Perry. I was working at ZCMI at the University Mall (it isn’t there anymore). A very tall gentleman came in to buy his wife some socks for jogging. I was jogging at the time (I ran 5 miles/day). As I visited with him and helped him select a gift, I felt I recognized his voice and perhaps his face, but couldn’t place him. When the sale was complete I said, “Excuse me, if you don’t mind my asking, your face and voice are very familiar, and may I ask your name?” He responded, “My name is L. Tom Perry.” Then, like the idiot I am, I said, “I thought I recognized you. On my TV you’re about this tall (it was a 20” screen). I had no idea you were so much taller.”

My favorite restaurant is anyone I can afford, where I can sit across the table from my husband and enjoy a good meal and just visit. These places include: Ottavio’s in Provo, UT Fenton’s in Oakland, CA Taco Bell (anywhere-they all taste the same) Kentucky Fried Chicken (anywhere-they all taste the same) Ruby River in Provo, UT Mulboons in Salt Lake City, UT Any Chinese Buffet (anywhere-they all taste the same) Mongolian BBQ places are good too

I believe that God created all things on the earth, flora, fauna, minerals, etc. Probably used natural laws, so probably the Big Bang. Now that I know light actually causes matter in a non-gravitational place to move faster-I can see Him and a host of others who emanate light, converge on a point where there's a lot of unorganized matter (like a nebulous-I'm woefully ignorant, maybe it would have to have a lot more than just some gas-although a sun dies because of fusion then fission and heavy metals created...) and get that all spinning and then planets start to form. I believe He knows full well all about evolution. I believe He created humans in His own image. I believe He may have used hominids to do so. The reason that the great apes will never develop to the degree that humans have is because the intelligence which occupies their spirits is a lower intelligence than is occupied by human spirits. This is also why hominids were probably used by gods to develop to an accepta...

I was satisfied to have an older brother, a younger brother and a younger sister. I felt there were enough. We weren’t the best of friends then and we’re not now either. So nothing lost. There were enough to know that it’s frustrating to have one not pull their share of the load in keeping a shared bedroom clean. There were enough to let me know what it was like to fix food for and wash laundry for so many. It sure felt empty though when Chipper died. It was hard to adjust to setting the table for one less person. Having that many fewer clothes to wash and hang up and bring in and fold up. It was hard to get used to dividing the hamburger into fewer, but larger, patties when I fixed dinner. Harder to adjust to putting fewer dishes away.

I remember our family going to Grandma Flint’s apartment in Long Beach, CA and having a tuna and sometimes chicken casserole dinner with her. She always treated us well. Sometimes she’d know we were coming months in advance and she’d save all her pennies and when we got there she’d divide them up equally between my siblings and me. I remember looking at her hands in her lap when she spoke and seeing how gnarled with arthritis and old age they were. I remember her glasses, oh so thick, they made her look like she had bug eyes. My Grandma Flint loved me. I knew that. I remember Grandpa Flint coming over to our house in Louisville, KY. He would have a brown paper bag in his hand. He would let me sit on his lap and would give me a cookie for each hand and Bobby would get one cookie. He didn’t get another one until I had finished one of my cookies. My Grandpa Flint loved me. I don’t remember any of their parents. I remember our family going to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nelson. On the way do...

Fears? I guess the greatest fears were what would happen to you if Dad was mad you’d crossed him or gave him cause to blow off his steam on you. The other fear was walking out the pier and seeing those huge 1” cracks between the wood planks. I was sure I would fall between them and land 100 feet below (really it was only about 15'-20')in water so deep you could get swallowed by a whale (really it wasn't more than 20' deep). I was always afraid at night, when it was dark, that I might have something or someone jump out at me and attack me. Didn't matter if it was in the house or outside. Never occurred to me that like a dog chasing a car, after it’s caught, what would it do with it-so what would the boogy man do with me? Fantasies? I always imagined I was a queen. I knew I was. I knew I was superior. Not to anyone in particular, nor above anyone else. The thought hadn’t occurred to me that we are all queens and kings. As to any other fantasies, I hated the way I was ...

The most special event that comes to mind is about there being a flood in the city streets of Louisville. Out our back door and down the steps the street was flooded. Out the front door and down 2 steps the street was dry. I think it had something to do with the Ohio River, but I can’t find anything on the Internet relating to flooding, river flooding and Louisville, Kentucky. I do recall the adult neighbors standing around on the sidewalk and exchanging comments about too bad for the guys on the downhill side of the street. And how grateful they were that they were on the uphill side of the street and how they almost bought or rented one of the houses across the street, etc. They seemed to be watching their kids play in the flood waters and talking about the potential dangers with that (sewer water, storm drain water, and bacteria). I recall mom saying that I could NOT play in the water as I hadn’t had my shots yet-whatever that meant. Well, that’s what I thought at the time. I had no...

I was once promised by a wise sage, "Remember always that your greatest mission and gift shall be that of a mother. Choice spirits of your Heavenly Father shall be entrusted to your care. By the love and teachings which you give them and the example which you set, they shall grow strong in the faith and be powers for good throughout all the world." That said back when I was 17 years old and clueless what my future may hold, it's interesting to take a look back and see what could possibly have been meant by this promise. 1) One child went to Guatemala and taught a baker in a mountain village how to make pizza. I'm not sure but I think he broke the prime directive (Star Trek fans can relate to that one.) 2) One child went to Iraq and Afghanistan to give those people the choice to be free-if they want it. 3) One child worked on refurbishing computers which were then sent throughout the world enabling people in places they wouldn't normally be able to get access to ge...

This morning was one of those Leave It To Beaver, Donna Reed Show, Father Knows Best, My Three Sons morning. We got up when we wanted, felt fully rested, the kids were happy, Family Home Evening was done and the lesson well learned and then... Grandpa played with his hot wheels set with Little D and Babers. Take a look and enjoy!