Angel's 50th birthday bowl.......

For my sister Angel's 50th birthday my brother Charles' wife Debbie planned a bowling party.  We had it the Saturday after Angel's birthday at Orchard Lanes in Bountiful.  To start out our adventure I drove to Jamie's and then we went together from her house.  We weren't sure how to get there so I punched it in to my phone's GPS.  Well the 'girlfriend' took us to the wrong place.  We had to call for directions from Debbie, but we finally made it.

A friend of mine made the comment, "Nothin' says fashion like a snazzy pair of bowling shoes", thanks Becky.  That being said this place had the wildest bowling shoes I have ever seen.  Here is a picture of Cambria and me showing off our matching shoes.....

Leslie and Paul..

The bowling alley gave us a bowling pin for everyone to sign to give to Angel..

Jax..

Braxton ready to bowl...(love his face)

Trev enjoying his pizza...

Paul helping Gunner, Gunner would pick up the heaviest ball on the rack to use..

Leslie taking her turn..

Miss Cambria...

Angel giving some pointers to her friends son....

Charles helping Trevon....

Angel's friend Roxanne....

Jax, he had this shuffle that he would do going up to the line, it was great....

Charles and his wife Debbie (and baby) who planned it all.....

Roxanne and her husband..

Some of Angel's friend..

I love how everyone manages to look everywhere but at the camera except Debbie that looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

Les, Angel, Debbie and Jamie..

Cambria 'patiently' waiting for her next turn.  By the last game Gunner and Braxton had quit playing and Cambria was very happy because she would take their turns too..

More of Angel's friends...

This is Master Davis and his wife. He is Angel's Sensei...

Roxanne's family..

This is a picture of how the bowling ally spelled mine (Junati) and Jax's (Jay) names.  The kids started calling me grandma Junati (ju-na-tee).  It sounded like an anime name...

Cambria and Braxton......

Jamie sporting Jax's hat....

Me... (check out Leslie's neon shoes...)

This was my favorite moment of the afternoon.  Charles was taking his turn and was going to go over the line so to avoid that from happening this is how he ended up.....at least he didn't foal :)

Mmmmmm, birthday cakes.....

Everyone singing to the birthday girl..

Blowing out the candles...

Me and my sister..

  I was beat by pretty much all of my grandchildren, who all loved to rub it in.  It was a very fun afternoon.  Thanks Debbie for making it happen

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

So my first vegetable garden went from looking like this......

to THIS..... 

I have 5 tomato plants, 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash, 1 spaghetti squash, 2 cucumbers, 3 green peppers, 1 jalapeno, 5 red potato mounds, a small strawberry patch and 8 raspberry starts of which only 3 survived, and 2 rows of green beans.

here is a picture of the first harvest I made from it.... 

Since that first pickings I have continually been reaping the benefits of growing my own veggies.  It is true what they say, NOTHING tastes better than vegetable picked right from the garden. It has been fun watching everything grow and going out daily to see what veggies are ready to pick. There is something very satisfying in eating what you have grown yourself.

Besides the new adventures in gardening I have now for the first time in my life tried my hand at putting up veggies to eat later.  My first attempt was Dilly Beans.  My friend LeAnn had me try hers and they were so yummy.  I love dill and I had a ton (well maybe not a ton, but still a lot) of green beans so I thought why not try it?  LeAnn came over and coached me through my first try at canning.  It was fun having her there and it wasn't hard at all. 

Here is the finished product, 12 jars of dilly beans...... 

Every jar sealed, now the wait.  For the best tasting beans you need to let them age so the flavors soak in.  So around Thanksgiving I should be able to taste my work.  I can't wait.

My tomato plants have so many tomatoes on them that the plants have bent the tomato cages so badly that I can't get them to stand up.  I have already given tomatoes to my niece Heather and Dave from my carpool. I have broken off two branches trying to move the plants around to harvest the ripe tomatoes they are so heavy with fruit. I now have a bowl of green tomatoes because I didn't want to throw them out.  I will have to find a recipe that calls for green tomatoes so I can use them.

I'm sure my next try at preserving vegetables will be with tomatoes.  I'm thinking salsa and my own tomato sauce.....we'll see.

I Saw A Mighty Angel Fly!

On Tuesday July 12, 2011 the Angel Moroni was put on top of the east spire of the Brigham City Temple.  Because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity I left work early so I could watch.

When I got home it started raining, so instead of walking I drove and parked as close to the Tabernacle as I could. Here is a picture of the Temple as I was walking down 2nd South.

It was raining pretty steady by the time I came around the corner of the Tabernacle.  There I ran into my friend Trina and her boys.  They had been there for a while and they didn't bring an umbrellas because it wasn't even cloudy when they got there.  So I sat with them and shared mine.  Here is Trina, Isaac (in front) who I taught in Primary last year, her youngest son Garrett, and Steven was taking the picture.   

We had the best seats right on the Tabernacle front steps, here is our view of the Temple.

They say "The Heavens weep when the Saints meet".  I say they were tears of joy. A little rain never dampened our spirits. Everyone that could came to watch.  If they didn't have umbrellas they didn't seem to mind a little water and everyone was happy and enjoying each others company and the spirit that was there while we waited.  The Tabernacle had their speakers outside and had music playing.  Here's a picture of the sea of umbrellas in front of us.

I told Trina the the weather would clear up in time for the raising.  About 10 til noon the rain stopped and we could see the clouds starting to break up.

It was suppose to start at noon, so a few minutes after the basket with a few men went up.  It was so funny because the guys in the basket were taking pictures of the crowd as they went up.

They got to the top and had to hold on to the spire as the crane lifted them up the last few feet to the top so the basket wouldn't hit the spire.  They were up there for a little bit and then they came back down. 

We all of a sudden saw the big crane start to come done.  We waited for a while and then it started going back up.  It took the basket of men up again and then it brought them down.  We didn't know what was going on.  We all just waited.  At about 12:30 they announce that they couldn't raise the Angel at the time because of the wind that had picked up. We had a group prayer for the winds to stop and then we waited.

The skies kept clearing up and I kept watching the trees and waiting.  I guess to be honest at first I thought we would see a instant calming of the winds.  Then I kept thinking that is not how the Lord works.  I kept remembering things like, it's not our will but the Lords,  nothing can stop the work of the Lord, and that we just need to have faith.  So while others were getting discouraged and leaving, thinking it wouldn't happen today, I just sat there patiently watching the winds blow and waiting.

At about 1:34 I notice that the back crane (the one that was going to lift the Angel) started moving again, and then the driver of the front crane got back in.  For the third time the men went up in the basket, this time they started doing things to the top of the spire. Then the sun came out all the way and the winds died down.   Here is the second attempt.

Then we heard the signal, the air horn blasted twice, a cheer went through the crowd.  Next thing I saw was this sight.  If you stand at the front of the Temple there is a window above the doorway and right now it looks all they way through the building and out a matching window at the back.  There hanging in the window was the Angel...this is the best picture I could get of that.

As the Angel came up over the Temple, the Tabernacle started playing the song "High On The Mountain Top".  It was worth the wait. 

Then came the process of hooking all the cables from inside the spire to the Angel.  This took a little while and because the sun had come all the way out it went from about 70 to 90+ degrees in a half hour.  The umbrellas started going back up for shade. 

Here they are turning the Angel so he faces east

Lowering him onto the spire 

Unhooking the cables 

The Angel Moroni is in place, the air horn blasted three time to signal it was done.  Another cheer went up through the crowd. 

It was well worth the wait, an awesome afternoon.