Engagement

Today I woke up to a soft blanket of snow on the ground.  It was snowing gently and everything looked so soft and white and peaceful.  

The day was busy with everyday activities and ended with the most wonderful surprise.

Our second son, Michael and his girlfriend jaNee announced their engagement.  I was actually at the PM beauty school having a hair and scalp treatment and massage courtesy of Andrea when I received this most welcome and long awaited news.  

 Yeah! I am so excited.  We already love jaNee.  She is so nice, kind, fun to be with, great with the family and to top it all off, she's very beautiful both inside and out.  They will be married at the end of March.

 Wow, I can't believe it.  We are so busy planning Emily and Jose's  wedding on February 19th and now we also have Michael and jaNee's wedding in March.   What a surprise!!!!!  Two children married so close to each other. This means that all of our children will now be married.  Another chapter in our lives is closing and a new one will be opening up.

Rewards

We have been home from our mission for over 

3 months now and we are still reaping the rewards.  We got an e-mail from Dino and Larissa and they have finally been married and baptized.  If you remember, this lovely couple had been studying with us for over a year and remaining faithful the whole time.  They finally got all of their paperwork done from Madagascar and Belgium and were able to get married and now baptized.  Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!

Also our center for young adults if flourishing and doing better and better.  All of the things that we ordered for them have finally arrived and have been set up.  It's a "real center" now.  We ordered things like couches, bookshelves with books and a subscription to the Ensign in 5 different languages, 4 computers with rolling stands, WII with several games, ping pong table, foos ball table, and many other things.  It took us our whole mission to get all of these things approved, ordered etc.  We are so glad that they are finally up and the youth can enjoy these things.  It's good to see that things are continuing on so well.  I am so happy about it.

Lunch and Bargains

 This morning Andrea and Yoho invited us to go out to lunch with them because Bryce and Becca are in town. Of course we wanted to see them so we were happy to go.  When we got to Zuppas, we had a bonus of Dani and Tate being there.
Becca is expecting their first baby.  It's a girl and we are delighted for them.

Here are cute Dani and Tate.  I tried and tried to fix the photo, but will have to ask Anna what I've done wrong.  Miss Computer Expert will have to give me a lesson.  Tate finally likes me.  She will now talk to me and let me hold her.  I am a happy great-grandma.

I love a good bargain so since we unexpectedly didn't have any babies to take care of today, I go to do a little shopping.  I got all of these items for $16.00: 3 dishtowels with tags still on, 2 glass jars with lids, a brand new scarf with tag still on, 8 children's books, 3 frames which I will probably re-do, and the red glass serving plate which has a pedastol that doesn't show up in the photo.  I think I did some really good shopping.

Missionary Dinner/ Connie and Yvonne

 I am going to try to catch up on some of the events that have been taking place recently in my life.  John and I are very busy babysitting almost every day.  We are so happy to help, but it does reduce the amount of time we have to do other things.  I am going to try to be a good blogger again.  Anyway, on the 5th of Jan, we had a very fun dinner with our former missionaries.  Sister Kohler had recently returned and she called me so that we could get together.   Of course I was delighted and suggested that we invite the other returned missionaries too.  She put out an invite on facebook and we all met at Brick Oven Pizza right in the midst of BYU campus.  Oh my gosh,  it was so much fun to see all of the returned missionaries again.  One of the highlights of our mission was spending time with these wonderful young people.  It was great to catch up with the events of their lives.  They are just beginning on a great new journey in life and we are so happy to be a part of it.  

On the 27th of Dec, I got to go out to lunch with two of my bloggy friends.  I had met lovely, fun Connie and her husband before and this time I got to meet Yvonne.  Yvonne was just as beautiful and delightful as I had imagined her to be.  We 3 had such a good time together.  It felt as if we had known each other and been friends for a long time.  We were all comfortable with one another and had so much to talk about.  These 2 women are so wonderful.  They are both great examples of what womanhood is all about.  I am going to try to follow their example.  I loved being and spending some time with each one of them.

It is so interesting how one can become friends by being in the blogging world.  I really didn't even know much about blogging until I was about to go on our mission.  One of my daughters is a great blogger and so I learned from her never imagining that I would make friends in this manner.  Lucky me to have 2 new, great friends.

Blessings

 Yes, this little guy is definitely a blessing, but I'm specifically talking about John tonight.  Our son-in-law, cute little Reggie's Dad, gave John a Priesthood Blessing before he had his test and today we got the results of the CT scan.  Even though the Dr. definitely saw bleeding, that bleeding is now gone and no trace of anything there.  John's endograft looks great.  I am so thankful for all of my blessings and today especially grateful for the Priesthood and the power that is in it.  Thank you all for your prayers and your concern.  I really appreciate it a lot and love you all even more for it.  

Worries

The day before yesterday John went to have an ultrasound of his endograft.  In 2004 his cardiologist found that he had an abdominal aneurysm.  This is an extremely dangerous condition and he had to immediately have an endograft put in his abdomen to save and protect his life. The surgery went great and he has been doing really well ever since.   Yesterday after the ultrasound, the Dr. called and said that they think that there is bleeding around the bottom of the endograft.  This means that there is probably a leak in the endograft.  Today he had to go to the hospital and have a CT scan to determine what is going on.  The Dr. actually telephoned late in the afternoon, but John was on the phone and didn't answer the call.  Now we have to wait to call tomorrow to see what the results are.  As can be imagined, I am very worried.  We will see what happens tomorrow.  

Sunday Night Surprise

Oh my goodness, we were so surprised , well kinda surprised that Emily and Jose got engaged.  Emily and Jose have know each other for about 4 years and have been friends all that time.  They have been dating for quite some time too.  Jose drove up to Utah from California for Natalia's 2nd birthday party.  He hung out with us and we had a very pleasant time together.  The party was lots of fun, but I will post about that later.  Sunday he attended church with us and then Sunday afternoon we all went to Val's for dinner.  After dinner we went to the Correa's for Ruben's birthday and Emily and Jose went out for a little while.  Before we all went to our various destinations, Jose talked to John and asked him if he could marry Emily.  Much later after we were all home, they came in and announced that they had gotten engaged and will be getting married.  Now I was just speechless.  I  knew that they really cared about each other and in fact I knew that they loved each other.  I even that Jose had talked to John.  I was just so surprised that it took place that evening.  They do not want a long engagement and are wanting to marry in February, if Em can get time off from work.  She has a week break from school after her final on the 13 of Feb.  That sure doesn't give us much time to plan a wedding.  I guess I will know within the next few days when, what, where, etc.
Meanwhile my head is spinning trying to remember all that has to be done to plan a wedding.  Good thing I've got lots of great helpers.  The picture of them above was taken by me from a sitting position and is not a very good picture (neither the lighting nor the angle), but it's the only one I have of the 2 of them.  I will try to get better pictures better.