Traces of Time . . . January 4-10, 2016

Traces of Time . . .

This week 

~ January 4, 2016 
to 
January 10, 2016

in IDAHO ~

January 4, 2016 - Monday ~ ~ Family Home Evening

Walt started out Monday the way he does every day except Sunday -- riding 30 minutes on our exercise bicycle.  Then he does separate back and leg exercises and walks up and down our 14-step stairs twice.  He also wears an ankle weight on his right leg most all day to strengthen that numb foot and leg.

For Family Home Evening tonight we read together our Sunday School lesson on 1st Nephi, and Relief Society Lesson from Teachings of Presidents of the Church -- Howard W. Hunter, Lesson 1 "Jesus Christ--Our Only Way to Hope and Joy."

January 5, 2016 - Tuesday
Walt saw his cardiologist, Reed Harris, this afternoon, who told him his EKO (echo) was excellent as was his oximete(?sp) that was done recently.  The report is Walt's heart is looking great and he should live many more years.
Dr. Harris will be going to the Chile Rancagua Mission as a new mission president July 1, 2016 and he is very exited! He is turning his medical office over to another cardiologist soon.
Dr. Harris is currently the stake president for Dale and Connie's South Twin Falls Stake.  He will be released just 7 1/2 years into the normal 9 years of this calling.

Then Walt had an appointment with Dr. Temp Patterson, an ENT specialist, to see if anything can be done to help strengthen his voice, which--although always weak--is getting even weaker.

Dr. Patterson told him that the vocal cords do look weak, which comes with age.  Also that car accident Walt was in when the van driver went too fast around a curve in 1997 in Mexico City had injured his vocal cords and affected his voice.
The doctor said that two small devices could be inserted into his throat by the Adam's apple which might improve his voice, but perhaps he might want to wait a while before doing that. 
It was a cold, cloudy winter day.  We try to always schedule appointments for the afternoon.

January 6, 2016 - Wednesday

Out of the blue Walt said: "Let's drive to Twin and look for you a coat.

It was a beautiful winter day for a drive...like a heat wave at 41º and blue skies.

We went to the Magic Valley Mall. We haven't been there for several years!

We found the perfect coat at J.C. Penney's...

And Walt was surprised, but not unhappy, that it was on sale at 50% off!

Then we got to go have lunch at the Mandarin House.

Every once in a while we like to have Chinese food.

I really like my new coat!  I'm usually very allergic to wool--it makes me itch like crazy.  This one is 57% wool, then other fabrics, and so far, it hasn't made me itch. {Still crossing my fingers that it won't...}  I did ask if I could return it even thought it was on sale.  The clerk told me I could, just to be sure to keep the receipt.

Then we went to see our good friend, Ruth Melling. Her son Kirt had driven up from Utah to help her with some things.

January 7, 2015 - Thursday

We took down our Christmas trees. The only photo I took today was of Walt coming back from carrying the Christmas tree out to the front in his exercise shorts.  It just seemed funny for him to be outside in the winter in his shorts-to-the-knee.  I know the teenagers, and even up to the 50-somethings wear shorts year round, but not my 81-year-old husband.
You can see the ankle weight on his right leg.
That green smudge at the front of our lawn is the "kids' green tree" from the Family Room.  It was comforting to have that tree with the colored lights twinkling as we sat in our family room watching TV throughout those December evenings.  We didn't put "the kids' tree" up last year and missed it!

I'll see if I took a photo of it during December.  We called it the kids tree because it was colorful and ornaments of Disney characters and other fun ones.  It is now a mystery where all these ornaments are.  When we opened the Christmas decoration box that said: "Kids' tree," it was empty.  We have no idea where all these cute ornaments are disappeared to.
I found this photo of the kids' tree that I took on December 27, which also shows the darling heater that Julie and John gave us which looks like a "miniature fire" glowing.  It has made the room feel cozy and warmer.
We appreciate each nice gift we received from our kids.
I hope to catch up the past several weeks that I have not done yet for our 2015 blog.

The white Christmas tree with the blue lights and blue ornaments.

Janie and Shawn and part of their family came to stay overnight Dec. 22. Their younger kids didn't remember being here to see the blue tree.  

It was a fun surprise to Walt to have them ring the doorbell and sing ♫♪We wish you a Merry Christmas...♪♫ in their red Christmas hats.

January 8, 2016 - Friday
I only took one photo today, as I did yesterday--Walt exercising in the afternoon.
We were planning to drive Dale and Connie to Utah to do a session at the Brigham City Temple, then have lunch at Maddox.  However, when we called last night, Dale said it was predicted to snow and they didn't want to drive in that kind of weather.
It did snow and was really slippery on the driveway, roads, and sidewalks.  I did get my hair cut at noon because Jenny had not received my message earlier in the week that I would be gone on Friday.  
Walt and I ran errands in the afternoon that were "safe," like paying our utility bill at the City Hall drive through and going for Walt's Lisinopril prescription at Smith's Pharmacy drive-through.  We carefully walked in to King's Variety Store (5 and dime) to get the dividers we had ordered for the Book of Remembrance notebooks for our kids' Christmas gifts.  (We will add them next year when we add more life sketches for the 2016 Christmas gifts.)
Oh, and we did carefully walk in to Smith's to get some over-the-counter Omeprozol....plus some fresh fruit and veggies.

January 9, 2016 - Saturday

We drove to Boise to see my Aunt Eleanor, age 85.  We went to lunch with her and her daughter, Barbara.

We asked Eleanor to choose her favorite place to eat and she chose IHOP on Cloverdale.  "They have the best chicken fried steak in Boise," she said.

Then we went over to her apartment at the Salem Creek Retirement Center on Cloverdale Road.  Since she and Earl started their Harmon Travel in 1965 in Hammett, then moved it to Boise in the early 1970's, she has traveled all over the world as a guide for many of their tours.  When she moved from her home of 43 years on Cloverdale, she told us she had quite a time choosing which keep sakes to save.  

Barbara told us they put up these shelves in the apartment that would hold her Mom's most precious souvenirs.

Eleanor's most valued pieces of her collection have made it more of a "home-away-from-home" for her.  Barbara also told me that to help their Mom feel more "at home,"she and her sisters painted the room the same color as Eleanor had in her home

Her kids also made a great computer center for Eleanor by taking the doors from the entry closet which opened it up for this space.
Eleanor was currently looking for a black and white photo of her when she was young for an activity they are having next week to see who can guess the residents from these photos.

We love her "wall of family photos" in her bedroom.

Here are some of the Huffaker family.  Here is Eleanor's Dad's parents, which are my great-grandparents--Welby and Martha Winn Huffaker.  Welby 1862-1915; Martha 1864-1894. I was always sad for my Grampa Huffaker (Dave) that his mother died at age 30 when he was just 3 years old.

Here are Eleanor's mother and father--Dave and Ella Huffaker -- my grandparents.  Eleanor told me this is the last photo they had taken of themselves.  I'm guessing they were in their 60s or 70s.  Grampa lived to age 90, and Grama to age 91.  (Dave 1891-1982; Ella 1891-1982)

Here is the last photo of Eleanor with her five siblings before David passed away at age 79 in 1997.  They are in birth order from right to left: Morris 1916-2002, David 1918-1997, Verna (my Mom) 1920-2013, Lorraine 1925-2013, Don 1928-living, and Eleanor 1930-living.

Here is David at age 25 when he was a pilot in World War II.

I remember Earl and Eleanor's wedding at Grampa 'n Grama Huffaker's farm home in 1949.  I would have been 11.

Here is the Earl and Eleanor Family with their six young children.

We enjoyed our visit with Eleanor,and Barbara so much.  It was a blessing to reminisce over past gatherings together and 
remembering family members who are no longer with us.
Families Are Forever!!

How great for my Aunt Eleanor to be in this nice, safe Retirement Center.  She said she wasn't eating correctly in her home because she saw no point in cooking for one and she was existing on peanut-butter sandwiches.  Now she has three nutritional meals prepared daily, and is making new friends.  Barbara lives only a mile or less away and Marge isn't very far.  They are happy that this was their Mom's favorite of the many choices in the Boise area.

We left just at sunset.

We went dressed to do a temple session, but we mainly went to see my Aunt Eleanor.  We decided to just drive on home even though we don't like to drive after dark. Walt drove to Bliss, then I drove the rest of the way.  The hardest parts for me driving after dark were the curves.  I can't judge them well in the dark and Walt said he had the same problem.
We got back to Burley about 8:15, watched our DVR of the Lawrence Welk show, did some laundry, downloaded our photos, then went to bed.
We will resume our weekly temple sessions at the Twin Falls Temple when it re-opens on Jan. 19 after its 2-week closure for it's semi-annual maintenance and repair time.

January 10, 2016 - Sunday

We had a great Burley 3rd Ward Conference today.
(I'm just going to share about Sacrament Meeting.  I hope in a future post to touch on the middle session and the teaching of President Tracy King about Lehi, and then Relief Society with our Stake Relief Society Presidency.)

In Sacrament meeting, Bishop Gerratt gave a great talk on "What Lack I Yet" citing an Oct. 2015 General Conference message. The Bishop concluded by telling us that we are in a daily fight for our spiritual lives and for the spiritual lives of our children, as shown in 3 Nephi 2:2 where the Savior tells that He had just destroyed the wicked whom He had saved from their sins through His Atonement [which Atonement made it possible for them to repent].


I didn't get a photo of President Jones today, but here is a photo of our stake president, Chad Jones, his wife, Bonnie, and their daughter Kristi from 2012.  Of course, he was in his Sunday suit today.

And here is a photo of Chad and Bonnie Beck Jones with their family in 2012.

President Jones is always exceptional in the messages he gives to us.  Today he talked about the many paths we face in life and that we take--not by chance but by choice. He testified that we need to follow the Savior and not the captive power of Satan.  We can enlarge our faith in the Savior by choosing to read the scriptures...important to read the Book of Mormon.  Follow the Prophets...they beckon us to do good, most recently to keep the entire Sabbath Day holy.  If we do this, even our wards will become stronger, which will be a blessing to the whole world.
President Jones said he knows we can increase our faith by doing what we believe.  He testified that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins.  He implored us to make all effort to increase our faith and not be distracted by the rains, mud, (example he had given earlier in his talk when on a trip to Korea watching the children walking to school in the rain) and any other enticements from making it along our path back to Heavenly Father.

We, too, testify that Heavenly Father loves each one of us--His spirit children.  He wants us to return to live with Him again.
Jesus Christ is the mortal Son of God, who came to earth to become our Redeemer and Savior. He did this for His love for each one of us.
Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration.  
President Thomas S. Monson is the current, living Prophet for the whole world.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored to the earth in 1830.  Listen to the missionaries to learn the truths of this Gospel.
The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel, as does the Bible.  The Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
Of this we testify at the end of this Sabbath Day - January 10, 2016.
Walter R. Petersen and Eileen A. Petersen - Burley, I D A H O