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.
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| The president of Ukraine was given the chance to leave his country but opted to stay and fight along side his countrymen. |
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| 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.
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| Jillian on her big day |
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| Maggie ready to enter the temple |
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| After the temple - Charlotte, Jillian, Maggie, and Kasey |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
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.....
And something to think about in these unsettling times:
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.
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| 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.
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| The tumbleweed |
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| 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.....
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| Where's Trump when we need him? |
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| The Ukraine war give Biden a way to blame all his failure on Putin |
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| 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.
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