Our first three weeks home...

Before I try to catch up.
This weekend we drove to Utah for the blessing of our new grandchild #35. 
Saturday afternoon both families gathered to be there when Jerry blessed their seventh child -- Anna Sue Brewer.  Jen & Jerry drove Wednesday and Thursday from Minnesota with Seth, Sarah, Ben, Josh, Lizzy, Adam, and Anna.  We are thrilled to have them here this week.
A fun surprise for them was that Jerry's sister Robin flew in from West Virginia and his brother Stewart flew in from Nebraska.  Jerry's Mom, Sue, and his step-dad Steve drove over from Vernal, Utah.

My camera card got left in the computer, so I couldn't take any photos.  I'm waiting for someone to send me the photo of their family together.

(Space saved for photo of the Jen & Jerry Brewer family.)

We also enjoyed seeing McKell in her Westlake High School play "Catch Me If You Can" on Friday night. She was great as detective disguised as a nun in this mystery.  You can tell I didn't get all this when I exclaimed at the end: "What?! The bad guys won?!" Julie explained the surprise ending to Dad and me.
McKell has all kinds of fans congratulate her on her performances.

Here we are after getting McKell's autograph.

We can't believe she's a senior this year!

We saw Josh in his play for the new Corner Canyon High School "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat." He was great as Reuben, the oldest of the twelve sons of Jacob. It's the best production of "Joseph...." I've seen.  They even had a live camel, and added some funny cameos throughout.

Here's Josh with his family - David  & Julie, Anna, Sam, and William.

Julie Beth is a great fan of her brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.

Gar & Kathy, Abbey, Jacob, Isaac, and Jacee loved the play, too.

Now back to some catchup:
Our first three weeks home... (well part of them, anyway)
  Let's see, we left off the night of Nov. 2, Sunday...
So now we're to:
Nov. 3 Monday...
We just kind of wandered around our home, getting reacquainted with it.  Our kids had worked hard getting it back to where we had everything.
We found this fun display on our kitchen table:
"Welcome back home..
      From (the pineapples of) El Salvador...

to (the potatoes) of Idaho...

We found out it was our good friends, Dave and Marilyn Gibbons who had put it there, along with some food in our fridge.

They were in our first group of Temple Missionaries for the San Salvador El Salvador Temple.  Now President Gibbons is in the Temple Presidency for the Idaho Twin Falls Mission.
Each first Monday of the month they serve the young Elders & Sisters a biscuit and strawberries breakfast.
They brought some to share with us. No one can make biscuits like Dave Gibbons does!

They also brought some homemade gravy as a choice for a second topping.

We went to the City Hall to change our electricity and utilities back into our name. Then we updated our address back to Burley.

We also checked with Goode Motor about the car they were trying to find for us.

That evening after supper I had put in one of my favorite Doris Day movies: "Love Me Or Leave Me" when we heard Julie's voice. 

She said she thought we needed a little help in getting settled in.

What a fun surprise!

Then we had another fun surprise, Dale & Connie drove over from Twin Falls to see us.

It's always great to see Walt's brother and his wife. And we all enjoyed some of Connie's delicious homemade apple crisp.

November 4 - Tuesday

We had breakfast at Charlie's Café.

We went to vote...and saw some dear friends at the polling place which is in the Presbyterian Church.

It was so nice having Julie, Rigdon, and Max here for the day.

Julie helped us get our new cell phones and the cell that's like a "land line" all finalized with the setting up.  She also helped us do some more organizing, and suggested that we needed a new couch and to get the carpets cleaned.  She helped us find someone who could clean our carpets.

 

All too soon it was time for Julie to head back to Utah with Rigdon and Max, after we had a late lunch at Taco Bandido.

For the evening we watched one of our favorite history movies: "Judgement at Nuremberg" about the trials of the World War II crimes. Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster are in this movie.

Ju

November 5 - Wednesday

We had an appointment with our financial advisor, Tim Preston. I didn't take time for a photo because he had to rush off to fly somewhere to an investment meeting. We were great friends with Tim's Dad, Joe.  Now Tim has one of his sons working with him.

Wednesday evening...we watched "Love Me Or Leave Me" about the life of a 1920's singer Ruth Etting. James Cagney played the role of her gangster husband.  

Guess this was our week to get caught up on our favorite movies that are on video.  We didn't think they would have a video machine in our apartment in San Salvador.  But they did, and we hadn't brought videos.

* * *

It's midnight and I don't want to turn into a pumpkin...

      so have to finish this another time...

Hope you have had a peaceful and restful Sabbath Day.

Steve taught a great lesson in Sunday School this morning from Jeremiah about adversity and trials in our life. At the end he quoted Elder Jeffrey Holland: "...from our trials we can become either bitter or better."

     Let's pray we will all become better.

         We all have trials.

              One way to get through them is to help someone else

                   get through their problems and trials.

We couldn't get through this life without help from our Savior, the Son of God, and His Father, Elohim, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, or without a Prophet to guide us, even Thomas S. Monson.

    Of this we testify on this Sunday evening.

     In the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen. Walt & Eileen Petersen