Three of my favorite things. Together. Amazing.

The Piano Guys version that includes 1. them 2. Iguazu Falls and 3. their version of Gabriel's Oboe and How Great Thou Art played on cello and piano.  Beautiful!

Iguazu Falls is located on the Argentina/Brazil boarder.  I went there as a young missionary in 1977 with our district for a P-day activity.  It is an experience I'll never forget. It was haunting. Gabriel's Oboe is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, in my opinion. It was written for the movie "The Mission" in 1986 by Ennio Morriconne and was nominated for an academy award for best movie soundtrack.
I want it played at my funeral.  Seriously.

The pure melody played by an orchestra with oboe solo.



In Italian sung by Sarah Brightman



A clip from the movie "The Mission"



A beautiful version in English by Hayley Westernra

We can do hard things

My four sweethearts.  I love them so very much.

I spent a week visiting Jordan, Jake and their darling family from August 10-17.  This was a hard week since Jake had undergone his second brain surgery on August 11.  It was also the back-to-school night for the girls and then school started the next day.  Talk about a bag of various emotions going on. Excitement.  Dread.  Pain.  Happiness.  Anticipation.  Acceptance.  Fun. Work. Rest. Anxiety.  Love.
I went to the hospital to sit with Jordan while Jake was in surgery.  It was good to be together to talk and to just be there sometimes without talking.  Their darling sis-in-law Jessica came over and stayed with the children while I was gone.  A ward member brought dinner.  I got back in time to take the girls to meet their teachers and to help finish up the shopping for their school supplies. And then...off they went to 3rd grade, to 1st grade and to pre-school the next morning.  Jake's surgery went better than expected and he was able to come home to recuperate after being in the hospital for one day.  He is a brave courageous man who bears this trial without complaint.
We watched some movies together, swam in the pool with the kids, cleaned, mopped floors, put away summer toys, organized, grocery shopped, made raspberry jam, put a scrapbook together and just had a good time being together.  I got to spend some one-on-one time with each of the girls.  Jord and I had pedicures and leg/foot massages together.  Lauren opted to go to Village Inn for breakfast and then go shopping at Old Navy and on to get ice-cream at Cold Stone.  Ellie decided to spend her grandma Vonnie time going to get a happy meal and a chocolate Sunday at McDonalds, going to the mall to buy a new stuffy and getting some candy at Fuzzywigs. We also took some fun pictures at the photo booth at the mall.  Sweet Ada wanted to ride the ferris wheel two times at the mall and eat spaghetti at the food court and buy a bouncy ball from the dispenser because it would last longer than candy.  A new stuffy was also a welcome addition to her stuffy family.

The girls would have preferred that their parents took them to meet their teachers that night.  They would have preferred that their parents took them to the first day of school.  Jordan would have preferred to have skipped sitting in the waiting room for hours while her husband was in surgery, and Jake would have preferred have a clean MRI scan and bypassing this whole second brain surgery experience.  That wasn't to be.  This is hard on everyone.  Very hard.  But what can be done? Unhappiness and discouragement are of the devil.  Happiness and hope are from the Savior.  All we can do it keep putting one foot in front of the other and living life because....we can do hard things. Toughness runs in our families.

My darling daughter who is literally gritting her teeth and bearing it.

Smiles all around six days after surgery

Love these two strong, amazing children.  Oh how I love them!

Tommy can out eat his sisters and he will try anything

My adventure with Lauren...just the two of us!

Mall photo booth with Ellie and Ada.  So fun!

Swimming most days in the 110 degree heat

Ellie's fresh fruit platter

Yum!  fresh raspberry jam!

Making killer pancakes with daddy

After watching the Parent Trap, these girls wanted to be twins for a day!

Tommy doing what he loves to do...playing with his toys. He is such a doll!

All the cards and letters people have sent to Jake and Jordan in one inspirational book

Off to first grade!

First day of pre-school

First day of 3rd grade

Yup, this is my life

I took a chance and gave birth to three of our four children
 during football season.  Luckily, the stars
 aligned and their father was present at their births.
 No football games on those days.

Attending a BYU game at Ole Miss gave
 me more respect for Southern women.  Wow! 

This post is a shout out to my BYU loving husband.  May "his" team perform at least half as well as he expects.  Forever hopeful, forever optimistic, forever true Blue, forever a Cougar Board fan, that's my Rick.  Go BYU!  Kick off this Friday at 5:00!

Making Sense of Suffering

Is there really any sense to be made of suffering?  It sounds like a comforting concept, but when reality settles in, it is much harder in practice than in theory to make much sense of suffering, whatever form that suffering takes.  I have discovered this truth however...it is much easier to be the one suffering that to watch a loved on go through a terrible trial. A friend said one time that a mother can only be as happy as her most unhappy child.  There is truth in that statement.
Jake had his MRI scheduled after they returned from our Bear Lake vacation.  It was a shocking surprise to all of us that a new brain tumor was discovered in the MRI. Say what?  Nooooooooo!!
Surgery was scheduled for four days later and again Jake submitted himself to brain surgery and again Jordan sat by his side.  The tumor was successfully removed but an uncertain future remains.  What can anyone say or do at a time like this?  I have felt so helpless to offer any words of comfort or relief to our sweet daughter and her good husband.  All  I knew to do was to work and keep busy, stay positive and help relieve some of the daily pressures by working and helping at their home. It is such a small thing when really what is needed are answers to those deep gut-wrenching questions that are not easily answered.  What can be said or done to give any relief to Jordan and Jake with the heavy burden they are facing physically, emotionally and spiritually?  With an unknown future and unknown suffering ahead, what sense can be made of this trial?
I don't know what else to do but to pray and ask for peace and comfort.  Prayer always brings a measure of peace even if it doesn't change the circumstances or take away the pain.  Talking to our Heavenly Father and asking for his help to get through another day takes on new meaning.  Talking to another person also seems to help.  Dear friends and family who are sincerely interested and who know how to be good listeners and help ease the burden.  Dealing with reality, even hard realities, is better than pretending and avoiding the truth.
Optimism is also important.  We are in charge of our own attitudes and our own optimism.  Yes, we get down and yes there are days and times when we feel we just can't go on.  But at the end of the suffering, we MUST return to hope.  There is no other answer.  There is no other road to follow.  Yes we need time to process, to go through the stages of grief, to mourn our losses, to feel fear and anger and to be scared.  But at the end of the day, we throw ourselves at the feet of Him who knows all things and ask for his comfort and sweet peace that all will be well.  Eventually. 
We place our faith in His plan.  As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, we are so fortunate to know that He has a plan for each of us.  We aren't just down here suffering needlessly.  There is purpose to trials and suffering.  We can ask for comfort and warmth to surround us, much like the picture shows an angel comforting the Savior.  We are never alone if we seek God's comfort.
I was recently looking for words of encouragement and came across these words from the teachings of President Lorenzo Snow:

• Every man and woman who serves the Lord, no matter how faithful they may be, have their dark hours; but if they have lived faithfully, light will burst upon them and relief will be furnished.
•  If we succeed in passing through the approaching fiery ordeals with our fidelity and integrity unimpeached, we may expect at the close of our trials, a great and mighty outpouring of the Spirit and power of God - a great endowment upon all who shall have remained true to their covenants.
• You and I cannot be made perfect except through suffering: even Jesus could not.
• There is no other way in which the Saints can make spiritual improvement and be prepared for an inheritance in the celestial kingdom than through tribulation. 
• Be of good cheer - be not disheartened, for assuredly the day rapidly comes when your tears shall be dried, your hearts comforted, and you shall eat the products of your labours.
• Every trial a man or woman goes through...at the end of the trial or affliction that individual is nearer to God, nearer in regard to the increase of faith, wisdom, knowledge and power, and hence is more confident in calling upon the Lord for those things he desires.  God will pour out his Spirit upon us, and we will come off victorious in the end.
  

Topaz Japanese internment camp

I have a very good friend named Patsy who is Japanese.  We've exercised together for many years.  We've walked miles and miles and talked and talked about all sorts of topics.  Some years ago, she told me the story of her parents who were children living in San Francisco at the outbreak of WWII.  When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, all of the Japanese on the pacific coast became suspect.  What followed is a very sad story of how their civil rights were taken away and they were ordered to gather up and leave all they had behind and move to internment camps.  All they could take was two suitcases per person.  They lost their homes, their property, their businesses, and their farms and their FREEDOM.  Two-thirds of them were American citizens, including her parents.  Her father and this family were sent to the Topaz internment camp in Utah and her mother and her family were sent to a camp in Arizona.  She has shared many stories that her father and mother have told about life in the internment camps for the three and a half years they lived there as 10 and 11 year old children.  It has been fascinating to me.   
Since then, I have read several books to learn more about the WHY, WHAT, WHEN, WHO and HOW of this incredible chapter in American history.  Here is a summary of that happened at Topaz and Here. I've been struck by many thoughts, such as:

• why were the Japanese Americans singled out as suspect and forced into camps when Italian Americans and German American and other Asians were not?
• the people in power removed a minority group from the general population and the rest of society let it happen.  It's easy to second guess that decision now, but it is very hard to understand it. 
• could something like this happen again in America?  Could American citizens be gathered up and denied their civil rights in the name of national security?

Several months ago, Rick was invited to visit the Topaz internment site in Delta, UT with a group of people with whom he works.  Guests were invited to go also.  When he told me about this opportunity, I was thrilled!  We went on this adventure the day after we got back from Bear Lake and squeezed it in before we started tending Lizzie and Will.  I am so glad we did.  It was a fascinating day and we learned so much about that happened between 1942-45 on the one square mile of desert land that was home to over 9,000 Japanese people in Topaz, UT.  We walked among the "ruins" of what is left of their homes, their schools, their dining hall, and their whole community.  There are nails, broken dishes, metal pieces, pottery, cement flooring and other reminders of life that went on there for over three years.  I tried to imagine what it was like to be a Japanese child growing up in a poorly constructed "home" with no privacy and no indoor plumbing for over three years.  It would have been even worse to have been a parent during that time and worry about how this internment was affecting family life.  It is hard to imagine.

Any yet, everything I've read and everything Patsy has told me tells of a people who (for the most part) cooperated with the authorities and made the best of a very bad situation.  Their sons would come home from fighting in the war and visit their parents who were being kept behind barbed wire! They were patient and long suffering and suffered this injustice with dignity.  Her parents families ultimately settled in the Ogden and Orem areas and raised their families in Utah.  They never returned to life in California. It was also very interesting to learn that there was another camp (there were about 10 total scattered throughout the western states) that was called the Minidoka camp and was located not far from Twin Falls Idaho, near where I grew up.  Who knew??
A Topaz museum is being built in Delta, UT and tells a story that needs to be told.  I marvel at the people and their resiliency, courage and honor and their ability to get on with their lives and not hold a life-long grudge against the US government.
 

From the Topaz Museum web site:

The story of these camps has become better known after President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and President George H.W. Bush issued a formal apology and token monetary compensation ($20,000 per person)  to all former internees. However, the events and causes of this tragic page in history must never be forgotten. If we can understand what occurred and why, we can insure that a similar denial of civil rights will never happen to any future generation of Americans.