Nailed it!

My Grandson was here in Utah to celebrate his 4th birthday.  We were going to have the party here, so we asked about what he would like for a cake.  He wanted a dinosaur cake.  So I went to work to find a cute dinosaur cake, and pinterest never fails.  Here is a picture of one of those I thought was cute.

Well, I thought it would be cute to add rocks and candy rocks should be great.  Then I decided that the cake should have brown frosting.  My daughter suggested we use crushed Oreo cookies for dirt.  Then, I decided that the strawberry gel used for shortcake would work well for the lava.  I couldn't find cute little dinosaurs, so I bought a set of the little plastic ones.  The final result looked more like the cake had been run over by a truck.

Then began the real lesson.  I asked my 7 year old grandson to put the dinosaurs on the cake.  I left the room and when I returned, the dinosaurs were being killed in lava.  I was a little frustrated and felt that was not appropriate for our little 4 year old's cake.  

When the family arrived and the dinner was over, the cake was brought out to be served.  Three adorable little boys were having a ball killing dinosaurs in the lava.

I was still caught up with the "nailed it" about how the cake looked.




But my daughter-in-law wrote a post that helped me realize that my "nailed it" was really in missing out on the fun those children had.  So here's to dinosaurs dying in lava and whatever else brings children that kind of joy!

Evaluating truth

I have been pondering a great deal about the great divide that is occurring in our country.  The issues causing such great contention have been issues that have existed for many years.  They are not new to this time or to this presidency. 

So I was pondering why it has become so contentious and divisive.  That made me think back to being a prosecutor.  You see, a good prosecutor knows that their responsibility is not to win at any cost.  It is to gather the facts fairly, analyze carefully and determine whether it is in the interest of justice to proceed in a case. 

One of my greatest tools was to evaluate the evidence of the defense.  They were not under the same requirement to share information that I was.  So, I had to look to other witnesses, documents and try to determine what they might have that would allow them to prevail at trial.  I had to evaluate their evidence to find the weaknesses in my own case.  Sometimes they had a really good argument about a point.  I just had to accept that and build the strength of my own arguments.  Attorneys who knew me well knew that I would treat information they gave me with fairness.  Sometimes, I changed my position based upon that information.

There were some things that neither side could do, like tamper with evidence or hide witnesses.  Unfortunately, Perry Mason was known to do both.  The reasons for those protections were to allow the judge or jury to clearly see the evidence in the case  and make a determination as to the truth.

One of the things that people could not understand is how we could argue strongly against each other in court and still be friends.  It was simple.  We understood each other.  We knew that the other side was doing what they believed to be right.  Sometimes, we even understood that the other side was correct, but we had a different responsibility.

How could that be?  Defense attorneys are necessary in order for our system to succeed.  They must be able to separate their personal feelings about a client in order to protect the rights of that client.  If they served as the judge and jury, their clients would not receive a fair trial.

I see the divisive issues in the same way.  There may be two sides, with understandable arguments. We may not always know all of the information upon which the other side is relying. We need to listen to both sides.  Unless the press becomes objective, we cannot rely on a single source for our information.  People are biased and see things through their personal life experience and belief systems.

We are the judges in these contentious issues.  We should insure that we are carefully evaluating to find the truth where it stands. Then, we must be strong enough to stand for the truth we find.

The passing of the torch

Yesterday, I found out that our wonderful Branch President from the Clear Springs Branch has moved on.  I don't know the second counselor, but I love the new President and 1st Counselor and their families.  While it is hard to see President Tedjamulia and Virginia move on, it is also wonderful to see these fine men ready to take over the reins. And their families are wonderful, too.

President Tedjamulia helped our mission to be a wonderful experience.  He wasn't afraid to give us assignments and trusted us with lots of things.  The first day we met, he gave us a list four pages long of things he wanted us to work on.

President Tedjamulia was kind about our language skills.  He initially told Jim how great his Portuguese was, then laughed when we were leaving at how far he had come in order to serve there.  He was understanding and helpful to me because the language just didn't come for me.

Virginia is a delight.  She appears to be very shy and reserved, but we often saw a funny side.  She served faithfully at President's side even though she did not speak Portuguese.  She was kind and supportive.

The people in the Branch have been an inspiration to me.  I learned so much from them.  I miss them every day.  I am grateful the Lord blessed them with wonderful families to continue their great work.

We went from Atlanta weather to THIS!

s the first winter we have been back from our mission.  There are many things about the weather that we miss, and this winter has added the weather as a big one!  Our winters in Georgia were quite mild.  We had a few snowflakes while we were there.  We experienced a weird hail storm during a tornado warning.  But we were lucky enough to miss snowmaggedon there.

We have a cabin in the mountains here in Utah.  When it snows a lot, we have to go up to shovel ThiIItthe front deck. This year has been crazy!  Fortunately, Andreia is a machine at shoveling and Kaitlyn is more than willing to help when she is around.  So, Jim and I shoveled once.  The next time Kaitlyn came and brought friends to help.




So, the snow has continued to fall.  We go from several years of drought to record snowfall.  And it isn't just one or two days of snow.  It is several times a week.  So, Kaitlyn, Andreia, Jim and I went up again to clear the deck. 

The picture is Jim standing on the mound in front of the garage door.  In the picture on the right, he is standing on the mound looking through the railing of the deck.

Titan also jumped, but I didn't get his picture. 

It is not all work, however.  Jim and the kids built a luge run in the back and had fun with that.  And Kaitlyn got to live a dream she has had for years.   She always wanted to jump from the deck into the fresh powder.  This year, there was plenty of snow and she did it.

Sweet mission friends

This week we were able to have dinner with three of the returned missionaries we grew to love on the mission.  It is always a delight to see these returned missionaries and hear the plans for their future.  We worked very closely with Kurt Cottle, Madeline Abram and Jennifer Martinez.  They were outstanding missionaries.

One of the fun things that we shared was a crazy little joke in the family.  Kaitlyn came to visit while we were on our mission and she brought 100 little flamingos.  She hid them all over our home there.  The Assistants were living in the same house at the time and they thought it was hilarious.  If they found one, they would proceed to hide it better.  When we left, we knew that there were probably some still there.

So, during their visit, our three friends secretly hid flamingos.  This time we have no idea how many are here.  We have laughed at how efficient and skilled those three were in hiding the little critters.  Titan has loved it and hides them, too.  So, Kaitlyn, the fun lives on!

Today Riley Christensen will be reporting her mission.  We hope to be able to welcome her.  She is one of the last missionaries to return that we knew well.  It is hard to believe that we have been home 8 months.