Forget-Me-Not, Dear Lord

I'm still basking in the glow of the messages I heard at the Relief Society Broadcast last Saturday night. And now I've been able to get a better view of my own Forget-Me-Nots by the front door, in daylight this time. I noticed a Lady Bug visiting as well and though I don't have a fancy camera I managed to get a pretty neat photo of the combination. I'm sure I will be in and out over the next few days trying to best that!

This new week has had it's moments already and I'm struggling to get back on course with things that need doing. But that's how it goes, downs mixed in with the ups. Which reminds me - I loved the movie "Up". I love any movie that leaves me feeling uplifted, no pun intended.

 It's been three years since we traveled down to Salt Lake for October General Conference with Amber (our oldest) and Karren and Jami (our two youngest). Only Linda (our middle child) stayed home because Brenda (our second oldest) drove down with some of her friends.





It was perfect that we were able to meet up with her in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Temple Square. When you consider how many members travel to Utah, hopefully with a ticket to get into one of the five sessions in the Conference Center, it was perfect timing to find her among the throng.

This weekend is an exciting event for Latter-day Saints worldwide. I'm looking forward to the messages we will hear from the Prophet of the Lord, President Thomas S. Monson, and many of the other General Authorities. Their counsel provides us with comfort and direction that focuses on our time and the challenges we face.

I am truly grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and for my many, many blessings. I know I am not forgotten.

RELIEF SOCIETY BROADCAST

Last night I attended the Relief Society Broadcast for the women of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the Millwoods Stake this began with a display of the various talents of sisters in our stake and a scrumptious meal. My friend Jennifer and I were hanging out together and we got to visit with several good friends also in attendance. 

The satellite broadcast was to start at 6 pm and to help us prepare we had a special trio perform a beautiful musical number. Just as they concluded we could see on the screen at the front of the chapel that President Monson and others had just arrived in the Conference Center and were taking their seats before the meeting started. 

Two of the hymns that we we heard were sung by a 300 + women's choir who were part of the program in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two other hymns were sung by sisters in all the worldwide congregations that were participating. This took place in over 175 countries and in more than  80 languages. In our Stake Center our voices were so strong and beautiful as we joined in with the voices of the choir in Salt Lake - it was amazing to hear!

Each member of the General Relief Society Presidency spoke. Sr. Beck spoke on the Pattern of Discipleship, Sr. Allred on the Greatest of all Gifts - Charity and Sr. Thompson spoke on Covenants Made and Kept. The final speaker was President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counsellor in the First Presidency of the church. It was very inspirational, as expected. 

I have found his talk on YouTube in two files if you would like to hear it. 

Part 1 -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIznS4FJCL0

Part 2 -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cug4tFqGp5M

Here is a picture of my own Forget-Me-Nots that I took when I got home. I will add a daylight photo tomorrow :-)

Just this year my Mom suggested I plant it in the flower bed by my front step. I'm so glad I did. It now it represents the 5 points of President Uchtdorf's talk tonight and an encouraging message to all women worldwide. 

GOOD NEWS TONIGHT!

Tonight was a long one if you were at Beaumont's Town Council meeting. But it was so worth it to be there and hear council decide in favour of saving the St. Jacques house. All seven members of council voted unanimously to allow the home to be moved to Parc Beacon Park. What a relief.

Even though there was someone to challenge the idea it became obvious to me that council was well aware that Beau Val residents were contacted several times despite what they were being told. It was nice to have Amanda to speak for residents who were in favour. She was able to make it very clear how hard we tried to get comments from the residents. All in all I'm grinning from ear to ear on this one.

We have a lot of work ahead of us still. We need to raise $61,873 more as soon as possible. So far pledges now total at $3,127.

Wow, it's still hard to believe.

SUNDAY - The Great Family Get Together

I've missed writing on my blog for a few days now because things keep getting busier around here. Today after church we had the whole family over. All five girls with two son-in-laws plus my Mom makes for a busy kitchen at dinner time. Loved it. We chose to wait for Glen to get home first so we weren't eating until 7 pm. Good food too as my Mom was in her element.

Afterwards we broke up into smaller groups - my job was to help Jacob learn the best way to do research on his French ancestors in Quebec. We found out several things just by going to my favorite online websites. It felt so good getting back into it. The funny thing was to watch five of our gang pack into Tom & Amber's car at the end of the evening for their ride back home into the city.

Jami (#5), Karren (#4), Brenda (#2), Linda (#3), Amber (#1)

Amber fills her seat well now. She's expecting their first child, a boy, in October. Roughly six weeks to go! Woohoo! I'm gonna be a Grandma! Brenda's husband Jacob is rather tall and had to squeeze into the back seat with Brenda and Linda. Yesterday we had knocked down most of our fence so we were able to see right through what used to be a solid wall and into their car as they smiled and waved to us. Everything became much quieter in the house once they were gone :-(

Which reminds me, Glen and I talked with a friend of ours (yesterday, Saturday) to see about having our fence replaced. He starts tomorrow! I hadn't expected it to be that fast but once the decision was made we had some cleaning up to do. We cut the raspberries down to the ground and moved things away from the fence. Knocking the boards off was very therapeutic. I was still steamed about this letter I had read that is included in the upcoming town council agenda.

Which brings me to the letter. There is a fellow in town who is entirely opposed to our efforts to save a heritage home/ provide a museum in Beaumont. He implied some things I certainly disagreed with and he wasn't very nice about it. This coming Tuesday will be very busy as council has a number of topics to cover. But the most important one to me will be whether or not the town will finally decide to allow us to move the St. Jacques house to the Beau Val location. This fellow's argument is that no one in town really wants a museum. Well, he should have seen how well we did at Fall Awareness last week in garnering even more support for the project. So there!

Here is a view of the park that is currently being used by dog owners, I guess they think it should be a doggie park. We want to make this corner beautiful.  So in my opinion Tuesday night is going to be the most important night of the entire week. It will even surpass my excitement about starting Cubs on Thursday.

Thursday, Sept 8/2011 - Making lots of friends today

(By the time I finished typing this report it was Friday, just past midnight).

First thing today I decided I should take pictures of my growing sequoia trees. I asked my Mom for ideas of names that I could give them. Unforgettable ones. Bonnie and Clyde were the best.

Bonnie is the smaller one, she is about two weeks younger. That leaves Clyde as the bigger of the two. Someone teased me about planting one of them in the back yard of our future (I'm hoping) museum. Ha, if I did that they would outlast everything in town, right? Their lifespan is 3,000 years and they grow 325 ft tall. Talk about having a history!

Next, after stopping by a couple of places to arrange for future meetings with potential sponsors, I found myself making a new friend. This person has lived in Beaumont for quite a while and was very interested in the topic of saving the St. Jacques home for a museum. We chatted so long that I was late for my next appointment. I asked my new contact to write down her name and number for me so that I can meet with her again. She has not only memories of Beaumont in the past but photos too. Gotta see them!

I called Eleanor to say I was just leaving and she was fine with me being about a half hour late. When I arrived and showed my house model she was quite delighted to see it at last. I noticed she had clipped a photo out of last week's Beaumont paper, the one of the aerial photo of the town back in 1948. We visited for much longer than I had planned and we had a great time doing it. She was even able to identify almost every building in the photo. Exactly what I needed! Hugs and kisses on the cheek later (French tradition you know) I was headed back home for a delicious supper. Thanks Mom, I was starving .

Tonight was Fall Awareness in Beaumont. Mom and I packed up our stuff and headed to the curling rink to set up. We had lots of info on what help we need for fundraising but I focused on showing the house model to everyone willing to come over. Both adults and kids were quite curious so we kept pretty busy. The kids were definitely interested in what the museum would be like. I got quite animated in explaining things and so my voice started to become a little hoarse as I tried to talk over the noise in the curling rink. Everyone I asked (we guessed it was about 40 people) expressed their support for us saving the house. We have to save this home, the people want it!

MY DAY - Trying to accomplish something

I had a lot of good intentions for today (yesterday really, Wednesday - I'm writing this way past bed time:-). If I was to go out and set up fundraising appointments I needed to have some handouts to leave behind. Trouble with our two printers lasted all day though. Too bad we have become so dependent on technology that when it doesn't work we lose control of our day. At least supper was sort of on time.

The highlight of my day was a meeting I attended with probably 35 of my lady friends from church. The topic was "Stress, Anxiety and Depression". I've experienced all three.

It was an opportunity to learn some of the things that researchers have concluded or are working on. Basically, our thoughts affect our feelings that are also connected to our physical well being and how we behave. A network of friends, taking care of our body, doing things that help us increase our feelings of self worth, being willing to see ourselves in a positive light and more supportive of others - it all helps.

The bottom line is that we are daughters of our Heavenly Father and he loves us and wants what is best. Struggles with day to day living is part of this earthly experience that we all jumped for joy about in our pre-earth life. I know I learn more about becoming a better person through my challenges than I ever would living a life of ease and comfort.

Life is good, even today with my plans not going where I wanted them to. As for tomorrow, I've done my research. I've picked out the new laser printer I'm hoping to buy. I LOVE shopping.

MY DAY - Fundraising

Well, today I started contacting some of the developers we have in Beaumont. I'm arranging times to meet with each of them so that we can discuss the possibility of them becoming a sponsor to help save the St. Jacques house for a museum.

So far I have one appointment confirmed for Friday and I'm waiting to hear back from two others. It was interesting being downtown because I walked right by Rosedale Estates and Rosedale Villa, this large seniors complex. My aunt lives there now but I wasn't able to find her name on the list. Hmmm. I will have to look into this further. Mom wants to visit her sister at her new place so I've just got to find it.

I bought myself a new toy. It's a bluetooth headset for my cell phone. This should be fun, I love electronic gadgets. Anyone who knows me knows this is true. I'm still trying to find out where I can buy a roku box:-)

MY DAY - Summer is Over

I've decided to follow my friend Jennifer's example by making my blog entries shorter and certainly more frequent than they have been. I will try to keep up with all the things I find myself involved in. But before I do that here's a short recap of our summer:

Our second daughter Brenda was married June 23rd in the Edmonton Temple and her reception was three weeks later. We had a Dr. Who theme so now I own a homemade 7 foot Tardis. Google it if you're puzzled.

At the end of July our family participated in a Denton family reunion out in Darwell, Alberta. Then mid-August Glen and I took the girls (K and J) camping in Banff for four days where they decided to film another of their "Flock and Tran" episodes.

We stopped by to see the Calgary Temple which is currently under construction and then headed south to Cardston to see our nephew in two plays, "Spelling Bee" and "Happy Days" at the Carriage House Theatre.

Thank goodness the mosquitos didn't bother us while we were camping. But up here in the Edmonton area they were so bad (numerous) that they totally ruined my interest in spending any time in our backyard.

The girls are back in school and I'm getting things ready to start up Cubs on the 15th. I love the new uniforms. I'm also very busy working on serious fundraising to help save a heritage home here in Beaumont so that it can serve as a hands on museum for children and families. It's long overdue. September 13th is the date we've been told that town council will make it's final decision on whether or not they will support it.

Oh, yes, I've also been watching the daily news on Libya, mostly through my twitter account. It all started on February 17th. I have learned a lot about the people and their traditions and I admire them very much. I look forward to Moamar Gaddafi and his sons being rounded up and jailed. The Arab Spring of 2011 is a great moment in history for sure.

My next blogs should be shorter and hopefully more frequent :-)