1 Texting and tweeting

Many senior citizens are joining the younger generation and are texting and tweeting. However, the senior code is somewhat different that the one the younger crowd is using, for example:

ATD: At the doctor's
BTW:  Bring the wheelchair
BYOT:  Bring your own teeth
CBM:  Covered by Medicare
CUASC:  See you at senior center
DWI:  Driving while incontinent
FWIW:  Forgot where I was
FYI:  Found your insulin
GGPBL:  Gotta go, pacemaker battery low!
GHA:  Got heartburn again
IMHO:  Is my hearing-aid on?
LMDO:  Laughing my dentures out
LWO:  Lawrence Welk's on
ROFL . . . CGU: Rolling on floor laughing. . . Can't get up
TTYL:  Talk to you louder
WAITT:  Who am I talking to?

2 Quote of the week

Freedom and light have never been easy to attain or maintain. Since the War in Heaven, the forces of evil have used every means possible to destroy agency and extinguish light. The assault on moral principles and religious freedom has never been stronger. . . .

An ever-present danger to the family is the onslaught of evil forces that seem to come from every direction. While our primary effort must be to seek light and truth, we would be wise to black out from our homes the lethal bombs that destroy spiritual development and growth. Pornography, in particular, is a weapon of mass moral destruction. Its impact is at the forefront in eroding moral values. Some TV programs and Internet sites are equally lethal. These evil forces remove light and hope from the world. The level of decadence is accelerating.

— Elder Quentin L. Cook

(Oct. 2010 general conference)

3 This week in our family

Our family's calendar for the next fortnight

Wed, Feb 23: Lyle & Barbara married 1954 [Lyle]
Thurs, Feb 24: Jeff & Liz married 1990 [Gail]
Mon, Feb 28: Shawn Tully's birthday [Gene]
[Feb 29]: Blake DeMartini's birthday [Ray]

Wed, Mar 2: Nicole Real's birthday [Gene]
Thurs, Mar 3: Robert Hodson's birthday [Dean]
Thurs, Mar 3: Conner's birthday [Kay]
Sat, Mar 5: Austin's birthday [Kay]
Tues, Mar 8: Kimberley Ellis's birthday [Gene]
Tues, Mar 8: Kaitlyn's birthday [Lyle]
Wed, Mar 9: Next issue of newsletter

If we are missing anyone's birthday or anniversary, please let us know

4 Bits and tidbits

Jackie's family
Rex and Jackie are now grandparents. Jolene gave birth to a baby girl, Rayna Head, who was born at 4:44 a.m. on Thursday, February 10. She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.

5 Our family 50 years ago

Excerpts from the February 1961 diary of Dorothy Batt Cleverly (1915–1982). The full text of her diary can be found online at Dorothy's Idaho Diaries and is updated daily, exactly 50 years to the day after it was originally written. The family at the time lived on a 40-acre farm in the Deer Flat area south of Nampa, Idaho.

Thurs, Feb 23.  Gene stayed home from school today. Jerry - Gene & I went to Nampa at 11:30 to get Gene's drivers licence. Gene got his licence & we came home & got mother - Ivard & Jackie & we went to Nyssa & saw Gail awhile.

Fri, Feb 24.  at 7: Ivard & I went in to Hales & got a Temple recomend, have to get it signed in morning. We are off work tonite & tomorrow nite. Ivard laid off so we could go to Utah in morning.

Sat, Feb 25.  at 10: Ivard & I Mother, Jerry & Jackie left for Utah. We went over to President Hurren's & had our Temple recommends seighned. at 11:05 we left for Salt Lake. Mother helped me write my history on way to Utah. When we got to outskirts of Bountiful we hit snow, 3 in they got today. We got to Ruth & Rays at 6:05 & had supper. Ivard & I & Jerry went to Salt Lake to Mission Home & saw last part of Kids programe & visited Kay until 10:45 so we went back out to Ruths & went to bed.

Sun, Feb 26.  Ray was made Presidents of Priests.  At 1: Ivard & I Jerry & Jackie went down & got Claudia & went in to Mission Home & got Kay. We all went out to Ruths & had a big dinner. got ready & left Jackie with Ruth & Ivard & I, Mother, & Jerry took Claudia & Kay in to "Assembly Hall" to Kays Testimonial at 5:00. It was real good. Kay didn't get to bare his, too far back. It was packed. We got out at 8: & went out to Irvins, they had a farewell party for Kay, about 30 people came. Ruth Cleverly was made Relief Society President today of So. Bountiful.

Mon, Feb 27.  took Jackie down & left her with Loraine all day & got Louie & Ivard & I, Mother Louie, Jerry & Kay went in to Temple at 10: Stella met us then we went thru 11:30 Session. After that Stella had to go do Sealing & Jerry didn't feel good so he went with Kay & got his garments & stuff & met Claudia at L.D.S. Business College & Louie Mother, Ivard & I went to 2:30 Session.

Tues, Feb 28.  Kay left for Lima Peru for 2 1/2 yrs. at 8:30 we all left for Grantsville to take Mother home. Claudia missed school & went with us. Mother was sure glad to get home. At 9:35 P.M he boarded a Pan American D.C. 6, flight 602 & left for Peru with 5 other missionaries. It was clear & cold wind & we saw the big plane wing it way over the high, white snow covered mountains in moonlight. Me & Jackie cried after he left.

Wed, Mar 1.  got up at 6:30 A.M & I packed to go home & we ate breakfast with Ruth & Ray & they left for work. We loaded car & went down to Irvins a few min. went up to my cousin's Beth Hulse & I got some genelogy of Aunt Pearls. We left Bountiful for home at 10:30. We got home at 5:30. I went to work at 11:

Thurs, Mar 2.  I came home from work & had some pop corn & read all the paper since we went to Utah.

Fri, Mar 3.  Kay got to Lima Peru today. Ivard went hunting us a place to move, he said he never got home until about 6: & I ask him about it & he wouldn't answer so I got mad & went to bed. Gail, Lynda & Kids came just as we were finishing eating.

Sat, Mar 4.  I came home & went to bed at 9:30. Ivard was already home & in bed. He got up in a little while & watched T.V. all day. I still didn't talk to him. Simplots called at 6: & said we wouldn't work tonite or tomorrow, have to call in Mon.

Sun, Mar 5.  Gene took Ray over to the Bishops to go to an early meeting. Jerry & Gene went to Priesthood. I made 3 carmel pies & 3 bannana pies had a bath & me & little Kids went to sunday school & Testimony Meeting. I bore my testimony. Jerry & I played game Scrabble & Ray & Dean went collecting fast offerings.

Mon, Mar 6.  They repossesed our baler & corn picker today because we missed this yrs payment. Ivad went over to Kuna hunting the sheep man to get our money for pasture but he didn't find him. Came home & I said he should be hunting a place to move, today is our last day of our months notice, he got mad & went to town at 2:30 & I called Stockman at 7:30 & he said he'd be right home. I called again at 10: & told him to get my car home, he brought it home & took off back to work at 11: I got mad & laid off, I feel awful.

Tues, Mar 7.  I got books up & started to work on my Income tax. I went to relief society at 10: & bore my testimony.

Wed, Mar 8.  I came home from work & Ivard was home in bed.

6 What in the world

Jazz coach resigns
In a surprise announcement on Thursday, February 11, Jerry Sloan stepped down after 23 seasons and 1,127 wins as coach of the Utah Jazz.

“I had a feeling this time was the time to move on,” an emo­tional Sloan said during the news conference. “[That's] a long time to be in one organization. Again, I've been blessed. Today is a new day. When I get this over with, I'll feel better. My time is up and it's time to move on."

Long-time assistant Phil Johnson also resigned. Jazz assistant Tyrone Corbin was named the new coach.

7 A final word

There is a line in one of our hymns that says, "Time flies on wings of lightning" (Hymns, no. 226). How true that is!

Elsewhere in this issue of the newsletter we report that 50 years ago this month Kay flew off to Peru to begin his missionary service. In the ensuing half century, he served in Peru for two and a half years, came home and married Claudia Peterson, finished his education, reared a large family, worked at his career, served faithfully in the Church, lost his eternal companion to cancer, remarried, and with his new companion, Karen, served another mission in Peru. Kind of like coming full circle. And he has a large posterity that calls his name blessed.

This is not intended as an obituary or a eulogy. We are simply observing that in the blink of an eye the years roll by and a half a century is gone.

I feel as young as ever, and I can remember the events that Dorothy recorded in her diary entries those 50 years ago. Kind of sobering. Yes, the poet was right when he penned these words:

Time flies on wings of lightning;
We cannot call it back.
It comes, then passes forward
Along its onward track.
And if we are not mindful,
The chance will fade away,
For life is quick in passing.
'Tis as a single day ("Improve the Shining Moments," Robert B. Baird [1855-1916]).

Life is quick in passing. In the eternal scheme of things, it's hardly a blip on the radar screen, sandwiched as it is between the eternities of our life before we came here and the eternities that will follow after we leave. But, in the nature of things, the way this earth life was designed and set up, what an everlastingly important blip it is!

I like the analogy of a prism. White light can be sent through a prism and come out the other side reflected in a rainbow of colors. Earth life is our prism. Our eternal spirits come pure from heaven, and through the trials and tests and temptations of mortality, we get to show what our true colors are. We get to show what our hearts really desire. The few or many years we are privileged to spend here, and how we make use of the time and opportunities and gifts we are given, will set the trajectory of what we will be and do for all the rest of eternity. Again, kind of sobering.

So, let us use our days wisely. And, as this same hymn also says, let us:

Improve the shining moments;
Don't let them pass you by.
Work while the sun is radiant;
Work, for the night draws nigh.