Another Sunday

We took Rose to a bassoon recital today. It was a young man that Rose performed with in YYSO doing his senior rrecital. He did three concertos. It is interesting to listen to but I am glad it did not last over one hour.

After the recital we went to a Single Adult Fireside. Like normal it was not real well attended but I guess it is good for those who come. President Neal of the stake presidency was the speaker and he gave a good talk on the topic of repentance.

I took Friday off work and over the weekend we did a little work around the yard. We never seem to come to the end of yard work.

Fathers Day

I got this new grill for Fathers Day. The boys and I put it together on Saturday. I took a long lunch break since the pea plant did not start up until 3 in the afternoon. We were able to get it together and cooked burgers on it Saturday night. Today we grilled New York Strip steaks.

Peas and Other Things

I started work at my present place of employment 34 years ago this July 4th. Now I know what you are thinking. "What kind of business hires people to come to work on a National Holiday?" Well I work in the food processing industry and summers are dedicated to that very thing--processing food.

Over the years I have missed out on many summer activities that I would have liked to have participated in. In fact just this week there was a family event that I would very much have liked to have been part of but wouldn't you know the only three days in June that I absolutely could not get off work happened to be those very three days. We canned peas on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week. Teri and Rose were able to get out of town. The boys and I were here. At one point it even looked like we may have to work on Sunday but we were able to get done overnight on Saturday.

There have been some summer events that I was able to attend over those 34 years but they all required that I not spend as much time at them as I would like or it may have meant operating on much less sleep than I normally would have gotten.

I must say however that despite the summer events that I have missed out on I have had a pretty good career so I will not begrudge that point.

Toppenish Church Building

You may wonder why a post with a picture of the church building. Well, I have been thinking just how much my life has revolved around this and other church buildings. Of course I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all my life. The first building that I remember, of course, is the old Mapleton Ward building. I went to Primary and Sunday School there and later Mutual. I left for my mission from there and returned home there.

There were different church buildings from my mission. I remember well the chapels in Curitiba and Santos. I also remember meeting in rented houses that, while not as nice as the church buildings did provide a place for a growing church to meet.

After I returned from my mission I remember attending church now and again at Franklin and at Whitney because my work schedule at Del Monte sometimes prevented me from attending my home ward during the summer months.

After Teri and I married we went to church in the Preston North Stake Center for a while and then in the 3rd/7th Ward building in Preston. When we moved to Burley we went to the Star Ward Building and even after we were changed into the Burley First Ward we continued to meet in that same building. One of the memories I have of that building is going to get the kids from Primary and standing in the hall waiting for them. The Primary was singing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" (" O How Lovely was the Morning"). There I felt the spirit renew my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. We later moved into the city of Burley and attended church in a relatively new building there.

When we moved to Zillah the building in the picture accompanying this post is where we met and still do up to this day. I served as Elder's Quorum President here, and then bishop and then on the stake high council. Of course there are other buildings of the church which have influenced me too like the Logan temple where I went for the first time prior to serving my mission. There is the Ogden temple where Teri and I were married. The Boise Temple, the Provo Temple and the Columbia River Temple have also been important church buildings to me.

The church is not the buildings but they each one represent a period in my life that I can reflect upon and think how good God has been to me.

End of May

The month of May is fast drawing to a close. I can not believe how fast this month has gone by. I would expect that summer would soon be upon us but today does not indicate that it is very close. It has been cool and rainy again and that seems to the norm. We expect to have peas come on sometime in the middle of June. I am getting the ingredients together now so that they will be ready when the peas are.

We finally got the garden planted. The cool spring has just not prompted me to get out and get it done. We planted a few less things this year. The garden spot is not large enough for a lot of squash, pumpkin and the like. We do like to have some tomatoes though so we planted those and lettuce, carrots, and peas. We did have a pretty good crop of weeds coming until we roto-tilled the last time.

H-O-T

It is hot today!!!! It got up to 98.2 degrees F. today. Almost sounds like a body temperature doesn't it? Just Monday it was only in the 60's so it has been quite a shock to our system. We started up the air conditioner yesterday afternoon. There are things I should be doing outside but it is just too hot to do it.

Toppenish Murals

The city of Toppenish is famous for its murals. Here are just a couple of them. The swimming pool scene is on the side of the dressing rooms at the municipal pool located just across the street from the LDS Church. There are many such murals located all around the city. I just walked a little way from the church one day while Teri was practicing the organ and snapped these pictures.