Thursday, September 28, 2006

I wish you enough

My grandson, Bryce, sent me a story awhile ago about a mother and grown daughter saying goodbye at an airport and they said to each other, "I wish you enough." The tho'ts were different than these but I really liked these too. I found them as I was cleaning off my desk at one time a while ago.

May you have
Enough happiness to keep you sweet
Enough sorrow to keep you strong
Enough hope to keep yo happy
Enough failure to keep you humble
Enough success to keep you eager
Enough friends to give you comfort
Enough wealth to meet your needs
Enough enthusiasm to look forward
Enough faith to banish depression
Enough determination to make each day better than yesterday.


I tho't this had some good tho'ts so wanted to post it.

The one after this (it will appear after this one since I blogged it first) I tho't I'd add what my sweetheart wrote for his mother for her 90th birthday last Saturday. That's why I posted it.

What Karl wrote in honor of his mother

MY MOTHER FROM AN ADULT SON’S VIEW POINT


I’ve always felt I was blessed to be born to the best mother and father I could have had on this earth. My mother has been and is dedicated to be supportive and understanding, showing or feeling empathy whether things are gong difficultly or well. She helped out like a good farmer’s wife and was appreciative of Daddy’s hard work and desire to please her and make her laugh. She was able to instill or encourage her sons to do their best to help Daddy and achieve their personal goals. She was seldom critical, but supportive in her children’s and Daddy’s choices. I remember when Daddy broke up the ground south of the ranch house and we and Mom gathered up the sagebrush in piles to burn. That was team work.

My work ethic was inspired by my father, who loved horses and was appreciative of nature and enjoyed growing crops and of course battled against weeds and varmints (squirrels, badgers, mice, certain birds). And in so many ways enjoyed being who he was--- never afraid to fix things and to make use of machinery. He grew up depending on physical strength, taking good care of horses and being friendly and helpful. Only three or four men got on his bad side…stinkers…Don Clegg and Ben Comish to name two. He enjoyed teaching his boys how to do things and seldom criticized except to say “one boy is a boy, two boys is half a boy and three boys is no boy at all.” He believed in Scouting, “Be prepared” “Do it well” in so many ways. My mother worried a lot and also was able to laugh and see the lighter side of things and always had good advice when asked for her opinion.

From my own experience of being a husband and father I know I am blessed with the best woman and daughter of God I’ve ever met. We make a good team and I admire the loving nature of her as mother and she is appreciative and patient as well---most of the time--- and able to tolerate my idiosyncrasies. She appreciates my talents and efforts to please and serve and visa versa---much like my own mother and father did. Music has been a good common ground and source of peace of mind, inspiration and a way to enjoy and get past hard times.

I have enjoyed my relationship with Mom and Renée both in the sense---that they can tolerate my teasing nature to a point. I am so impressed with the enduring and patient nature of mothers for that is one of the best ways I know to gain insight into how much Our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to feel good about ourselves. It helps a man realize the importance of serving and appreciating life….and the children we are blessed with because of their endowment and desire to be mothers. My concept of self-worth as a spirit child is enhanced through being husband and father as well as son and brother. I know God loves me because of the parents, my wife and children---with whom I am blessed---their love and example.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Afton Robinson's 90th

AFTON RING CHRISTENSEN ROBINSON

Afton Ring Christensen was born September 25, 1916 at her parents home in Central, Idaho. She was the oldest daughter, second child of John Erastus and Helga (whom her husband called Connie) Ring Christensen. Her older brother Lyman was 13 months old at the time. She eventually had two sisters and three other brothers making a total of seven children. During her childhood years she lived there in Central, then they moved to Banida, ID, then Provo, then Ogden, UT, then back to Central for high school. She went at least two years high school right there in Central. The last two years of high school she lived the school year with two different families during the school year since there were no buses and it was too far to walk in the winter. She did graduate from Grace High School in 1934. She met Frederick Roland Robinson at a dance in Grace. They were married January 6, 1937. They moved a two room house down in front of the location of their present home from Central. Dad built onto the house adding the kitchen and bedroom and a room for the indoor bathroom and back utility porch. But they lived in just the two rooms until after Gene was born. Gene was born in the “bedroom” which is now the living room where the piano and TV now are. After that he built a basement behind the house and then he and others moved the whole house over the basement. Mom states it was done in February and it didn’t storm and it was a miracle they were able to move the whole thing without it breaking in two. Mom said that when they finally got their indoor bathroom, the very first night all four boys were so excited that they took a bath all four of them together. (Imagine how big it must have looked after using a galvanized tub for baths.) Karl was 10, Gene 8, Stan 4 and Paul a year old at that time. Their first baby was born, September 30, the same year they were married. The only baby to come early. He was what is called a “honeymoon baby”. His name was Karl Frederick Robinson. Gene Roland Robinson was born June 13, 1939. Their third son Stanley John Robinson was born June 11, 1943. Their fourth son Paul was their first baby to have been born in a hospital. He was born July 7, 1946. Their only daughter Jewel was born January 24, 1950. Then their two “cabooses” as they called them, Kent Joseph Lee Robinson and Fred David Robinson were born May 2, 1955 and November 24, 1956 respectively. Mom was a stay-at-home mom. She stayed at home out helping in the fields. She always had a large garden that Dad made sure was plowed and ready for planting but then she planted it and weeded it and harvested and canned the harvest herself with the help of some of her sons. During the years she worked in all of the auxiliaries of the Church. She was Relief Society Secretary for five years, Stake Primary Secretary for nine years. (I first met her the first of April 1962 when she was in SLC for the General Primary meeting before General Conference. Karl and I went up from Provo where we were attending BYU to meet her.) She also worked as Sunday School Secretary and teacher as well as teaching in the YWMIA. I remember her going to the temple with Dad after he retired from farm work at least twice a week and they would do three sessions each time they went. I remember her telling me that at one time the Stake President when he shook her hand told her that she and Dad had done more temple work than any one else in the stake that year. She still goes at least once a week (except when it’s closed) and does three sessions each time. She has worked in the extraction center since 1980…for 26 years.. She is still a faithful Relief Society Visiting Teacher. . Many of us have received yarn doilies that she has crochet for us and everyone of her great-grand children have received a towel made by here. Her great-great grand daughter received one too. She has 35 grandchildren and 86 great-grandchildren and one great-great granddaughter.

I was at first writing this to go into the Caribou Sun in honor of Grandma Robinson's 90th birthday. I read it to Paul and he tho't it sounded too much like an obiturary and was too long and asked if I could shorten it. So I shortened it to the following:

The children and as many grandchildren as can be there will meet in Logan at Golden Corral on September 23rd to celebrate Afton Ring Christensen Robinson’s 90th birthday. She was born in Central, Idaho on September 25, 1916 and spent most of her young life there. She married Frederick Roland Robinson on January 6, 1937 in the Salt Lake Temple. She had six sons, Karl (Renee) of Idaho Falls, ID; Gene (Dot) of Sandy, UT; Stan (Kathy)of Roy, UT; Paul (ElDene) of Soda Springs; ID, Kent of Salt Lake City, UT and Fred (Debbie) of Medford, OR; and one daughter, Jewel (Gary) of Ogden, UT. She has 35 grandchildren and 86 great grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.

The funny thing about it was when Grandma saw it in the paper she mentioned to my husband..."it was kind of short wasn't it?" So he and I both told her why it was so short and I read the above to her and those who could hear or listen at the gathering last Saturday.

Karl and I left about 10:40 Saturday morning to drive to Karen's and Kent's in Blackfoot. They and Kylie and Shandel and Macie and we left about 11:20 to go to Logan to meet others at the Golden Corral there to help Mom celebrate her 90th birthday. It was Karl's brother, Paul's idea to have everyone sign a paper and parents to sign for those who were to young to sign for themselves. There were 85 or so names on that paper. That was quite a turnout. Out of seven children, six and their sweethearts were there. There were also numberous grandhcildren. She was so pleased that so many came to honor her. She said that she was very glad we did it that way instead of an open house. I told her that if we'd had an open house for her that she wouldn't have been able to visit with those who where there as much as she was able to there. Stan & Kathy and their children made a picture book of all of there children with a small write up about their families and presented it to her. Stan thanked me for the inspiration. He said that the letter I sent out was the inspriation for the idea for doing that. It was very nice. I wished I'd tho't of that for my own children. But I still could put together something like that for her and for my mother too. I saw many neices and nephews and their children whom I haven't seen for a long time. Three of our five children were there with nine of our 20 grandchildren and our great grand daughter too. It was good to see all of them also.

We got back to Blackfoot by 5:20pm and back to IF at 6:45. I was able to watch and listen to the women's conference on KBYU at 8:00. I figure I had the best of both worlds. I was so glad that I was able to hear their messages. And the music was beautiful. The second song that was sung was just beautiful. It was about the Savior's love and how we can be instruments in his hands in serving others. I had never heard it before but it really touched me. The general presidency of the Relief Society gave very good talks. Sister Hughes has the same maiden name as my mother's maiden name (Hurst) but they are not related. Mama said that her brother who lived in England for five years said that Hurst was as common over there as Smith is here. Anne C. Pingree my mother told me just a few months ago is her aunt's, my Grandma Hurst's sister's granddaughter. Cleo Clark was the sister's name. So we are related. A couple of times removed but still related. Our grandmothers were sisters. They all got emotional as they talked. Sister Pingree stated that they were called four years ago. They all gave such good and touching talks. My mother said that she wondered if they were so emotional because they were going to be released this coming weekend. That is certainly possible. Time will tell. And President Hinckley's talk was superb. He does such a good job all the time. His talks are all so personal and special. He makes me thankful to be a woman and a mother in Zion. He just has a way with words. He did look much more tired than I've seen him. He is 96 years old so I imagine with his age and reposibilities that he is tired. I was so thankful that I was able to listen to the conference; I feel that it will help me become a better person.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Our Labor Day Weekend and week

Labor Day Weekend
The first thing we did Saturday was go to Raelynn Johnson’s funeral. She was only 53 years old but had suffered with Multiple Sclerosis for twenty years. She was one sweet lady. All of our children knew her except maybe Richard but he may have known her too because Scott asked after Richard. She had two sons and eight grandchildren. We were glad we went.

Since my birthday was on Sunday this year, my sweet husband took me to see Lake House and then to Sizzler for dinner afterwards the day before on Saturday. The show was recommended by Michael & Tanya. I really enjoyed it. Karl had trouble keeping track of which time it was since it went between 2004 and 2006 all the time. The only part that confused me was at the end. I’m still not sure if it was later 2006 or 2008 then. She told him to wait two years so if he did then it was 2008. Anyway, I’m glad we saw it. We had the Senior Malibu Chicken there at Sizzler with a salad bar added for $1.00. They told me that since I was ordering that I could NOT share my salad bar with him. So I had the salad bar and a little of the chicken and baked potato. When I’d eaten all of the salad bar that I could then he finished it. I only took the one trip to the salad bar. We might be splitting hairs here but they did too. And Karl didn’t have ANY of it until after I’d eaten all I wanted to eat of it. Since it would have been thrown away if I’d just left it we decided it was the same difference if he finished it off.

After church Sunday we came home and ate dinner then left for Grace. Since Apple wasn’t open on Monday because of the holiday and we hadn’t been down there since Memorial Day, we decided it would be good to go and stay until Tuesday. At first Mom said that she would be going to the temple that day leaving at 7:30 am I told her that we could either leave then or lock the door as we left. She then contacted the ladies she goes with and since it didn’t make any difference to them, they decided to wait and go Wednesday instead. So we didn’t leave her place until 1:15 or so. But that’s getting ahead of myself. We arrived there after sundown. About 8:15 or so. (The sun is down before 8:00 now. The days are definitely getting shorter.) Monday morning after breakfast around 10:30 or so Karl went outside to do weeds I assumed. I had bought Ever After with Drew Barrymore at Wal-Mart for $7.50 so Mom and I started watching it. It wasn’t really too far into it that I noticed she had gone to sleep. I went on watching the movie and working on Abbie’s “I’m a Child of God” plaque. I tho’t I heard a knock on the door but wasn’t sure. After a moment I decided I’d better check it out. By the time I got to the door no one was there. But I saw a fire truck going by on the other side of the garage. I looked on the other side of the house and saw another one on the other side of the fence in the track and that the grass was black and smoldering. I tho’t, “Oh, they must be doing a controlled burn.” (Karl really laughed at that later.) I just went in and watched the movie some more. I had noticed a pickup and an ATV in front of the garage but didn’t see any people anywhere. After another 45 minutes or so Karl came in and Mom woke up. We soon learned that Karl had decided to burn a pile of weeds that he had put by the incinerator last May when we were there and to which some dead tree branches had been added by both him and Gene when he was there. He was pulling some weeds near by to add to it and noticed it creeped under the fence into the grass there. He grabbed the shovel and started digging and throwing dirt on it trying to keep it from spreading too far. He had jumped over the fence to try to contain it until he noticed the fire was on both sides of him and knew he didn’t want to be trapped with fire on both sides of him. So he jumped back over the fence and fought it on Mom’s property. Bishop Crae Williams was driving by and stopped to help him. And a young man driving a blue pickup also stopped and helped. The three of them fought it for a while. Bishop Williams asked twice if they should call the fire department. The third time he just took out his cell phone and called them. They had to come from Soda Springs. They were there until 2:30 or 3:00. They said they were having a slow day so they didn’t mind being called out. Karl said that they were very nice about it. Just suggested that he get a burning permit the next time he was planning on doing some burning so they would be aware of it. He would have had to get the burning permit by Friday. We didn’t even think of gong down until Saturday. Later on Karl took me up the hill to see just how far it had burned. It had gone up to the stubble field where Simonsons had planted some wheat and harvested it. They had leased the ground from Mom and paid her a third of the crop. The fire burned right up to the edge of the stubble and just quit. Karl said that he was standing there and watched it stop. I said, “you were blessed. Some one was watching over you.” I asked Karl about much area acre wise was burned and he said about three acres. It was all crab grass, very thick. We walked up the track the next morning and took some pictures.

Wednesday, we celebrated our 44th anniversary. Karl took me to TGI Friday’s. Karen had told us that Shani and Kylie really liked their Jack Daniels Chicken. So we ordered that. I wondered if “Jack Daniels” meant whisky because that is the only thing “Jack Daniels” I had heard of. We asked the waitress and she said she didn’t know what was in it but she really liked it too so we ordered it. After it arrived and we tasted it (the sauce reminded me of Karen’s teriyaki sauce that she put on the left-over chicken the day after our reunion last June) and really liked it we asked the waitress what was in it. She said she would find out for us. Well, low and behold, it has soy sauce, sugar and whiskey in it. (And some spices too because it was quite spicy but she didn’t tell us those) “but the alcohol cooks out” she assured us. We did like it tho’. So I guess the Jack Daniels did mean whiskey. It couldn’t have had very much tho’ because the sauce actually tasted good and whiskey smells terrible and tastes worse. I know because when I was 4 ½ I got the red measles and had a high fever for days and wouldn’t break out. Our neighbor. Mr. Westering, told Mama to give me a shot of whiskey and I’d break out. He went home and got some and I was obedient and drank it. It was the most awful tasting stuff I have ever tasted. I don’t really remember what it tastes like but I do remember that it tasted very bad and that sauce was really good so it couldn’t have had much in it.

Today was Carol Cleverly’s funeral. She died on Labor Day. She and I were visiting teaching companions for at least 12 years maybe more. We saw her first cousin come into activity together. We were her visiting teachers. It was a neat experience. Carol was a very neat and talented lady. She had ARDS---adult respiratory syndrome. That is what eventually killed her. Her lung capacity was less than 10% when she died. I guess she was literally gasping for breath. I was so glad to see her in her temple robes. She hadn’t been thro’ the temple yet for her own endowments when they were divided away from us 6-8 years ago. President Robert Fulks was the speaker. He had been her family’s home teacher for years before we were split up. (He’s now in our ward and is the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency.) He read some excerpts that she had written. And her daughter Michelle did too. Michelle read one that she wrote when she stubbed her big toe and really bruised her foot up because she wasn’t wearing shoes. (I can identify with that—only it was my little toe.) President Fulks read excerpts that she had written regarding her testimony of the gospel and the Savior and the plan of salvation. It was so gratifying for me to know that altho’ she hadn’t been well for a few years she had studied the gospel and gotten a stronger testimony of these things. I was very glad to find these things out. I talked to Valene Erickson afterwards and she told me that Carol and Francis hadn’t been sealed yet because Francis is still struggling with cigarettes. But it was her greatest desire to be sealed to Francis. I hope that he can find the strength to be able to quit and be sealed to her for time and all eternity. We have had quite a week.