4 Bits and Tidbits

Lyle's family
As we reported last month, Joseph Card (Lyle's great-grandson and Terry and Becky's grandson) has received a mission call to the California Roseville Mission. He speaks in sacrament meeting on Sunday, December 9, with an open house that evening, before he reports to the Provo MTC on Wednesday, December 19.

Jerry
We spoke with Jerry on the phone on Friday, November 30. We were down visiting Kay and Karen in Hurricane and had made contact with Nancy Shahan (who as Nancy Blades joined the Church in 1964 in Nampa, and Jerry and I were her first home teachers). She now lives in Hurricane, and we looked her up and invited her over to visit. She walked in Kay and Karen's front door as I was on the phone with Jerry, so I handed the phone to Nancy, and she talked briefly with Jerry. We had a nice visit with Nancy catching up on nearly half a century. I had probably last seen her in the mid-1960s.

Kay's family
On Thursday, November 15, Kay celebrated his birthday. On Friday, November 16, he had surgery for an esophageal diverticulectomy. The doctor found a hiatal hernia while in there, so he fixed it also. Karen posted on Saturday, November 17, "Kay's surgery went well. This morning I get to take him home. For Thanksgiving dinner he gets only soft foods. He has not had to take any pain meds at all. We are so grateful for the priesthood and the blessings they administer . . . and the power of prayers. Thank you everyone." 

Claudia and I drove down to Hurricane on Wednesday, November 28, to visit Kay and Karen before we leave on our mission. We arrived there that evening, not long before Kay had to go off to tithing settlement. The delicious meal of soup and salad was Kay's first eating of solid food since his surgery. Karen works all day in the St. George Temple on Thursdays, so that afternoon Kay, Claudia, and I went through an endowment session, which ended just as it was time for Karen to be through. On Friday we visited with Nancy (as reported above under Jerry) and then went exploring: to Pine Valley up behind Pine Mountain, to the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, and back to Tuhacan, where in the evening we watched a live enactment (with live animals, a donkey, some sheep, and a camel) of the Nativity. We concluded the evening driving around looking at Christmas lights in St. George and Hurricane. And then Saturday morning, December 1, Claudia and I got in the car and headed home to Bountiful. It was a wonderful few days together.

Chad and Melissa's girls did well at the North American Western Regionals Oireahtas on Saturday, November 17. Danielle place third and Mckenna placed fourth. Melissa posted, "SOOOOOO proud of them. We love you girls."

Dean's family
With our visit these past few days to Kay and Karen in southern Utah (as reported above under Kay's family), we have now had an opportunity to see all our family before we take off for two years to serve at the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters (in Omaha, Nebraska). We visited our daughter Rachael and her family in Harrisburg, Illinois, for a week in September; the family in the Nampa and Boise area (Lyle and Nina, Jerry, Gene and Cheryl, Dale and LeAnn, and Rex and Jackie) in mid-October; and our daughter Eliza and her family in Atlanta, Georgia, right after that October trip to Idaho. And then Kay and Karen. Our travels are now through.

We are excited, however, that both Rachael's and Eliza's family are coming to see us at Christmastime for a week each: Eliza arriving on Christmas Eve and flying home on New Year's Day, and Rachael arriving on the night of Christmas Day and flying home on January 2. They will be here for when Claudia and I speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, December 30, before we enter the Provo MTC on Monday, January 14.

Our son-in-law Cade Hoff has accepted a new job in southern California, a contract position working for the military at Camp Pendleton, which he begins on January 2. (He had been doing a similar job, something to do with computers, for the military at Hill Field here in Utah.) So, the family will be moving from Layton to California just before we take off for our mission.

Dale's family
Dylan and Sarah are expecting their second child this coming summer—at least that's what their Christmas card announced. Exciting!