WAR IN UKRAINE, SKY HIGH GAS PRICES, AND RECORD INFLATION MARK THE MONTH OF MARCH

 Sadly, the war in Ukraine has continued into March. Russian troops are trying to take the major cities there but the Ukrainian forces are pushing them back. Meanwhile, Russian troops are indiscriminately bombing hospitals, schools, shopping malls, and apartment buildings, killing many innocent people and displacing others. Upwards of 5 million Ukrainians have fled the country, causing a major refugee crisis for the surrounding countries. Word has it that the moral of the Russia forces is low and the Russian equipment is out dated and breaking down all the time. The hard thing about any war is the loss of life of so many innocent people, both the Ukrainians and the Russian boys who have been conscripted into fighting. Too sad.

The president of Ukraine was given the chance to leave his
country but opted to stay and fight along side his countrymen.

President Biden is weak and the world knows it.
He is leading this war from behind, always just following
what the other NATO leaders do. Too sad for this to be happening.
America is usually the leader of the world.

Hard times, though, bring out the best in people. There are so many post on Facebook of donation campaigns to help people in this crisis. Locally, our ward helped Larry Miller's wife collect dollars and supplies for the Ukrainian refugees. We donated some money and then on one Saturday, Paul helped collect children and adult clothing, socks, shoes, coats, diapers, etc. It was exciting to see the  many responses in our neighborhood to this need. 

One of the sweetest examples of people helping was posted on Facebook. The children of Katie Larson Brown wanted to help so they set up a stand on their street to sell hot cocoa for Ukraine. This little act caught on and soon these two little children were selling hot cocoa and cookies for Ukraine at their local Smith's grocery store. The stand was only up for 2 hours on a Saturday but  they raised $5,000. That was matched by a donor, so these children could send $10,000 to help the Ukrainian refugees. Amazing response to two children's desire to help a people far away but who are struggling. (Katie, their mom, is from Spokane and lived right down the street from us when we lived there.)

The other sad thing about these times of crisis, and in our country, is that gas prices are sky rocketing, as is inflation. Gas is now above $4.49 a gallon for the lowest grade (and rising). This means transportation of goods is more expensive so prices of everything, especially groceries, are going up. We are in a position that we can sustain ourselves during this time but there are so many families that are living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford both food and gas because of the rising costs. Even with all this, President Biden won't reverse his position on fossil fuels. He has shut down construction of a pipeline for gas and suspended drilling on all public lands. We were energy independent a year and a half ago, under the Trump administration, and gas prices were about $2.50 a gallon.  Now, we are dependent on other supplier around the world, most of whom are countries we shouldn't be dealing with, including Russia, until a couple of weeks ago. This administration is beholden to the extreme left's green energy policies and won't go against them even in times of crisis for the American people. 

Now for the happier news of the month - We had two granddaughters go through the temple this month to receive their endowments. Jillian was able to go the the temple in Portland on March 4 and Maggie went to the Provo City temple on the 23rd. Andrea and Casey and their whole family came into town so they could be in the temple with Maggie. It was beautiful to see a daughter and three granddaughters, all dressed in white, in the Celestial room together.  Truly this is the closest thing to heaven on this earth. After the temple, Allison and Lydia met us at P.F. Chang's for a delicious and fun dinner. A wonderful day, for sure.

Jillian on her big day

Maggie ready to enter the temple

After the temple - Charlotte, Jillian, Maggie, and Kasey

At P.F. Chang's

On Friday of the week the Westover's spent with us, they went with Maggie to find a wedding dress. After trying on several, she decided on the one pictured below. She will make beautiful bride. Exciting times ahead for the Westover's and Maggie and, her soon to be husband, Kacey.

Later that same night, we all gathered in the theater for a reading of the two act musical which Charlotte has written. Each of her family members and Kasey took a part to read as the words were shown on the screen. Most of the songs were prerecorded but for a few the girls actually sang them live for us. By the end, we were in tears as the emotions that the words and songs evoked were strong. After it was all over, Paul and I sat in amazement that our 24 years old granddaughter could visualize and then write such as incredible production. The songs are incredible and the story line is well done, It weaves two families' stories together from two different time periods. One family lived in 1856 and the other in 2013. The message of the play is also extremely meaningful. Such a talented family - not only the playwright, Charlotte, but all the girls and their singing voices. 

In the theater, waiting for the reading to begin.
The family shown on the screen is a picture that Maggie drew
representing the pioneer family in the play.

Other happenings this month, included Kailee's birthday. We celebrated it the Sunday following her actual birthday. Of course, we had to have a German Chocolate Cake for her birthday. She was thrilled. We are so glad she and Todd and their children live close so we can see them often and celebrate birthdays with them.

Mid month, the Fullers and ourselves wanted to do something so we decided to ride the Traks train from Provo to Ogden and back. It was an hour and a half up and back so we spent 3 hours sitting on the train seeing the scenery along the way. It would have been lovelier if we had waited for Spring but it was a fun trip, non the less. When we arrived in Ogden, we left the train and walked several blocks to a restaurant for lunch.  My chicken club sandwich was the best I've ever tasted. Gary loved his Jalapeno Turkey burger, too. By the time we returned to Provo on the train and drove home, we had spent the entire day together.  It was a fun and a different kind of day.

The next day, I hosted a Lunch Bunch at our home. That is a monthly luncheon for the relief society sisters in our ward held at different sister's homes. I decorated for St. Patrick's day as this luncheon was on the 16th. We had 15 sisters come, including two sisters from our neighborhood who are not members of the church. It was Spring break so this was more sisters attending then we had expected. Luckily I had set places for 18. I fixed taco soup with all the trimmings and the other sisters brought lots of other yummy food. It was a good event with all the sisters glad they had come. Side note: one of the sisters tested positive for COVID the next day but had no symptoms the day of the luncheon. Luckily none of us got sick.) 

I sent the leftover taco soup home with Betty Jo Matthews, the daughter of Jim Smedley. Jim has raved about that soup since he tasted it years ago. I thought he would enjoy it and he did. It seems he had had cataract eye surgery that morning and came home, after fasting all day, to the pot of soup. He called the next day to tell me how much he loved it.

Some really good news was from Jon this month. He finally posted on Facebook an update on his recovery progress since his brain surgery. He told everyone, what he had told us earlier, that he felt better than he has felt in 10 years. He also said that he should be able to return back to full time work as soon as he sees the doctors on April 3. That's when they will take another MRI to check the remaining tumor on his brain. If it has not grown, he will be able to drive again. Such good news. Meanwhile, he is doing some remodeling of his home so they can bring Mindi's mom in to live with them. She was in a terrible accident about 2 years ago and needs some pretty extensive care. Mindi is the perfect person to do that with all her study and implementation of wholistic treatments and foods. 

Jon's new look - hair grown back in.
No sign of the surgery's scar.

With the warmer weather we have had toward the end of this month, Paul has already been out in the yard starting some Spring clean up. The picture below shows the size of a tumbleweed he found in our back yard. It is actually two tumbleweeds stuck together but is still the largest ones we have ever seen. Sadly it was covering up a deer that had died on our back patio. We don't know how long the deer had been there but as soon as we found it, Paul called the Department of Natural Resources and they came and picked it up a few days later. That's the second one that has died in our yard in the last year and a half.  

The tumbleweed

The deer

BYU basketball wrapped up this month. After the regular season, the team was invited to the NIT basketball tournament. After not makin the cut for the NCAA tournament, the NIT was the next best thing. They played three games at home in Provo...won the first two and lost the third to Washington State to end their season. Hopefully they will do better next year.

I can't  leave without adding a few more political memes I found good enough to post.....

Where's Trump when we need him?

The Ukraine war give Biden a way to blame all his failure
on Putin

This is how most of feel about our beloved America

And something to think about in these unsettling times:

I'll end with some darling pictures of our little Lincoln to make us all smile  -

And that's it for this month.

FEBRUARY - A SHORT MONTH THAT'S SHORT ON ACTIVITIES TO REPORT

 Though we've kept busy with the day to day routines of this month, reportable activities are a little short this month. We've celebrated Valentine's Day and President's Day by changing the lights on our home. Valentine's Day was done with pink, red, and white lights. We got lots of comments from the neighbors about how nice they looked, especially with our pink porch and deck lights. Right after Valentine's Day, we changed the lights for President's Day to red, white and blue with blue porch and deck lights. We're having fun with the changeable lights on our home.

Our Valentine's Day lights

Speaking of President's Day. The Westover girls, Maggie and Charlotte, and Kasey Lightheart came up to spend the long weekend with us. They arrived late Friday afternoon and, after a light dinner of ham and rolls, spent 2 hours in the hot tub. Saturday morning, we had a late breakfast of sourdough waffles, a family favorite. That afternoon they drove to Park City to see a movie. They came home to a dinner of Lime Chicken Street Tacos and then spent the rest of the evening, downstairs, playing video games with their siblings in Oregon. Modern technology is amazing, allowing them to all be playing a game together from two different places, hundreds of miles apart. It made Paul and I smile as we could hear all the laughter emanating from the basement as they played their games.

Getting ready to chow down on sourdough waffles
with strawberries

Sunday was church but, due to a problem with Maggie's car's brakes, they couldn't go down to Provo to go to church as they had planned. So without Sunday clothes, they decided to tune into our ward's sacrament meeting via You Tube. Sad thing, though, the sound went out half way through the opening song so they didn't get to hear the messages. They did find a previous sacrament meeting and listened to that. At least, they got some spiritual instruction for the day. Todd and Kailee and family came up for dinner so we had a full house. I thought Todd would be out of town but he called Sunday morning to say he had cut his trip short and would love to come to dinner. Luckily, we were having something that I could expand by unthawing another chicken breast and changing the vegetables from what I had originally planned. We love having everyone up for Sunday dinner. It makes our week. After Todd and Kailee left, the Westover's and Kasey went down to the theater to watch a movie. We love that they can come up here and relax and feel at home.

Andrea wanted a picture of the whole group at our home
on Sunday, so Charlotte snapped this selfie.

At the first of the month, we attended the BYU Football signing luncheon. We were hoping for a good meal from the Marriott, usually a tomato based lasagna, and an update on who would be coming to play for BYU this next season. Instead, we got a not so tasty cream and spinach lasagna and not one word about the signing of upcoming players. They did show a film during lunch to spotlight some of the players but it was hard to hear and concentrate on it while eating lunch. Coach Sitaki spoke to us and that was good to get his insight on the upcoming year and his philosophy about coaching, nevertheless, the afternoon was a big disappointment all around. We were glad that Don and Dana didn't stick around to attend as they had planned.  I would have been embarrassed, after building it up to them during the time they were here visiting.

BYU basketball has also been a big disappointment. They started the year out great, even being ranked in the top 25. Now, they have lost 6 league games and all the games are barn burners, even when they play the teams at the bottom of the league. We attended the BYU/Gonzaga game at the first of the month. Though, we knew we wouldn't win, we didn't expect them to get blown out like they did on our home court. BYU was also were expected to be a sure thing to get into the NCAA tournament.  Now, they have probably lost any chance of that unless they win the league tournament in Las Vegas in March. The likelihood of that is nil. We will be grateful when the season is over. Maybe they can rebuild for next year. It's a sure thing we will not buy season tickets for a while.

The crowd, especially the students, were hyped for a good game.
Too bad it was so ugly.

One of the highlights of the month was a last minute decision to attend the Wasatch High School musical entitled Anastatsia. It was the story of the Russian revolution where the Bolshevik forces overthrew the 300 year rule of the Romanov dynasty. The play was so well done in the state of the art theater at the local high school. We were prompted to go because one of the boys we taught in the primary, when he was 10 and 11, was the lead male actor/singer. Chai is now a senior and blew us away by his talent on the stage. The lead woman was amazing, as well. We could relate to the plot of the musical because of our service in Russia on our mission and our subsequent trip to St. Petersburg where we experienced the opulence in which the Romonov family once existed. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and could hardly believe this was a high school performance. It seemed almost professional. Such talent.

Two other events are worth noting: We attended a fireside put on by our ward on a Friday night after we had worked in the temple. We were so glad we went, even though we were very tired, as the speaker was wonderful. She was Merrilee Boyack, a noted BYU Education Week and Women's Week speaker. She had such an uplifting message for us all. What I committed to do was to let no good impression go to waste but instead act on it to serve others. The other thing was to perform lots of what she called '5 second' acts of service. What was meant by that was to notice those around you, where ever you are, and give them smile or a compliment or help them if needed. We all left grateful that we came.

The second event was the funeral of a dear temple worker, Arlene Burgener. She lived here in Heber all her life and was a wonderful influence on all she knew, especially her nieces and nephews, and brothers and sisters. She never married but taught school, served three missions and served faithfully in the temple until she had to leave because of cancer. She was so loved by all. Arlene was a cousin to Ron Burgener, whom we served with in Russia. After the service, I was able to visit with him and his wife, Linda, for a few minutes. Like Linda said, we will always hold a special place in our hearts for those with whom we served in such a unique place.

We has a surprise visit from Ryan and his family at the end of the month. They made a last minute decision to drive to Provo to attend the final BYU basketball game against Pepperdine. They were originally going to come up Friday night and stay till Sunday morning but schedules got in the way and they didn't arrive in Provo until Saturday afternoon. They stopped off to visit Aubrey at her dorm and then met us for an early dinner at Zuppa's. We all went to the game and were glad the team was victorious. Ryan and his family spent the night but had to leave first thing in the morning to make it back to St. George in time for their ward conference. We love that they are so close that they can come to see us often.

At Zuppa's

At the game

At home after the game having brownie sundaes

That afternoon, we had 11 for Sunday dinner. All our BYU grandchildren came, along with Maggie's fiancee, Kasey, and Aubrey's roommate, Alexia. Of course, Todd and his family were here, too. While we were all sitting around after dinner, this picture was snapped by Aubrey. Beautiful view and beautiful sunset beautiful family.

Two side notes: Last month, Paul gave Nathan a BYU hat that was too small for Paul. Nathan had it on the whole time we were in St. George. Well, about two weeks later, we got the this picture from Katie telling us that he only takes off that hat to sleep.  It must be special because his Grandpa gave it to him.

2nd note: We have worked in the Provo temple since we moved here in 2006, minus the time spent on  two missions and during the COVID shutdown. This month marked the 50th anniversary of the dedication of that temple. It's hard to believe it has been that many years. The sad thing is that this temple will be demolished, in the near future, to make way for a bigger, more up to date temple. 

The design of this temple was to represent the cloud by day
and the pillar of light by night that led the Israelites
out of Egypt and into the promised land.

On a very sad note: This month, Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia had been amassing troops along the border of Ukraine for several weeks. When they started setting up field hospitals, we knew Putin was serious about invading this independent country. He has a dream of reuniting the old Soviet Union and will go to any means to accomplish this goal. He is an evil man and his ambitions are killing thousands of innocent people, including members of his army. We are so sad for the people of Ukraine as well as our dear Russian friends. The majority of the Russian people are against this war, even though, the state owned media in Russia claims that Ukraine attacked their forces first. That is an out and out lie. Russia is the aggressor and is now bombing cities across Ukraine. The whole world is praying for Ukraine who is putting up an heroic fight to defend their country. Even the Ukrainian President has armed himself and is staying in the country to fight with the people. An example of Patriotism for us all to follow. 

The Ukrainian president as compared to our U.S. president,
who is turning his back on the plight of these innocent people.

We are disgusted with our country's response to this crisis - to little to late and leading from behind. The U. S. has always been the leader in world affairs but, with the weakness of President Biden, Putin knows he can do anything he wants and the U. S. will just sit by and wait for NATO to act. So sad. This war is being funded by Russia's exports of its gas and oil and, with high gas prices, Putin is getting rich very quickly. The ironical thing is that the U.S. is purchasing 10% of our oil from Russia. A year ago, we were energy independent, having enough resources to supply the world. Biden's administration has closed down the Keystone pipeline and put a ban on drilling on public lands. Hence, our gas prices are up to almost $4 a gallon and we are dependent on other countries, including Russia, to supply our energy needs.

We are all wishing this man was still in charge.
This  invasion would never happen under his leadership.

Now for some words of hope and wisdom:

Until next month........