Happy Birthday Nathanael!

I cannot believe that Nathanael Pfiester is now 9 years old.  He is and Dane are the only ones that I have made it just in time for.  Nathanael obviously wanted to spend as much time with me as possible because he was born during my plane flight to be with Carianne after the birth.  Aunt Norma had to pick me up at the airport and I had to stay with her the first night in Texas because of thunderstorms.  It was an interesting evening.  It also flooded over the 4th of July weekend just after he was born.  Pam, Pam's friend Erica and I were alone at the Pfiesters while they were at a family reunion.  The creek rose up almost to Carl's parents back porch.  It was a wild weekend.  Fortunately we were on high ground and planning on going nowhere anyway.  We had a ball just watching the storms. 

Nathanael has been a sweetheart since his birth.  He is my second grandson.  Like so many of my grandchildren he looks like both sides of his family.  When he is with Clyde and me though, people can tell he is ours.  That is always fun.  Clyde is proud because Nathanael is lefthanded.  I look forward to moving back to Texas in 2 years for two reasons.  I will be warm and I will be closer to at least some of my grandchildren - my Pfiester grandchildren.

A Spinner in the Sun

It has been a while since I have done a book review but I have been haunted by this book.  I can't quit thinking about it.  The problem is, unless you want to download it on your computer or have a Kindle or Kindle app you probably won't find it.  It was written in the very beginning of the 20th century - about 1905.  The author is Myrtle Reed and she was one of my Grandma Tuttle's favorites, which is why I started reading it in the first place.  The story is of a woman that appears in a town, heavily veiled after 25 years.  She had been badly burned there in the home of her fiance.  He had been saved from any harm because of her quick thinking.  When he arrived at the hospital, he was told that the burns were so bad, her facial features were unrecognizable but they thought she might be able to see shadows.  The rest of the book is about how the lives of people are touched by this woman.  There was one profound thought by a man that did acts of service, especially for women (in honor of his mother).  He was working very hard putting a garden in.  Evelina asked him why.  He said it brought him great joy.  She said it was her garden, though.  He said, "Any act of service is all the more joyful by the actual work rendered.  It is the work that makes service sweet."  I highly recommend this book.  I just don't know were you will find it except from the Guettenberg Press.

Summertime with our Girls

Pam coming down a slide at Sea World.

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I am not sure where this picture was taken but I think it was taken at the San Antonio Zoo or Sea World.  I am sure one of the girls will correct me.

We spent all of our girls early childhood summers in the deep south.  They grew up in Texas and North Carolina.  They spent their summers in Texas because my father would come and get me in Durham, North Carolina in June, we would drive to San Antonio in the station wagon and then Clyde would fly in about August.  We did that the two full summers we lived in North Carolina.  Every other summer we lived in Texas.  When Fiesta Texas and then Sea World were built in San Antonio, we bought summer passes for each - one year Sea World, the next year Fiesta Texas.  Then we realized we enjoyed Sea World maybe once a year but Fiesta Texas we loved going to over and over so we settled on getting a family pass there every year.  This worked out really well when I went back to UTSA to get my degree.  I would go year round, even during the summer.  When I didn't take the girls' to my sister's, I would dump the kids off at Fiesta Texas and then go to class.  I would get oug of class and spend some times with the kids at Fiesta Texas and then head home.  We didn't do that all of the time but the girls still talk about their summers at Fiesta Texas.  (Fiesta Texas is now Fiesta Texas Six Flags).  


We always had a family pass for the zoo, also.  Our daughters still have wonderful memories of the zoo and take their children to the zoo.  This is a rambling post but I was just thinking about the fun summers with my daughters' as they grew up.  I miss them.  

A Wonderful Weekend

This was an incredible weekend.  Friday we went early to the temple and stopped off at IKEA to get some shower gifts.  I love shopping in IKEA because it reminds me so much of Germany.  It is like shopping in the Kaufhof - the German department store - except that store was set up like a real store not a warehouse.  I found a super soft blanket, a cute rattle and then I bought our staples of sparkling black current juice and their thin gingersnaps.

Clyde and I spent the night in Boston, so we checked into the hotel before we went to the temple.  I am glad we found it in the daylight.  It was a wonderful room and just what we needed.  Then we went and reported on our shift.  It was busy evening.  One sister couldn't find her brother.  They were visiting from our of town and she would not believe that her brother would go on a session without her after she expressly told him to do initiatory.  He is suffering from the early stages of Dementia and she was quite concerned.  She was looking all over for him, but was repeatedly told that he had gone on a session.  She was positive that he would not do that.  It turned out he had.  I spoke with her Saturday morning and then with him.  They said they couldn't believe how kind our temple was and how we went out of our way, first of all to get that brother on the session (our Ordinance Workers helped him rent clothes and get him ready for the session) and then keep his sister calm as she waited for him to come off the session - which ran long because of 2 own endowments.  That was kind of our feel good moment - to know that we do go above and beyond the call and do what the Lord wants us to do. 

The reason we spent the night in the hotel was because we had to be back at the temple at 8.  To get home at midnight and turn around and have to leave the house at 5:30 a.m. just seemed overwhelming.  This way we had a good nights sleep and were at the temple ready to serve.  It ended up just being a wonderful experience in the temple as we watched our wonderful young people doing the baptisms.  I love our young people.  They are remarkable.

I stopped at Target on the way home to flesh out my baby shower gift and to buy a reusable Target bag.  I use their bags instead of gift bags because they are nice looking and they become a secondary gift that is so much cheaper than buying a gift bag that will only be used once.  Clyde wondered what I was doing until I went down the gift wrap aisle to get tissue paper.  He saw the price of the gift bags - especially the big ones we would have needed.  He was grateful I was being thrifty.  Jackie was tickled because she loves getting the nickle back when she shops at our local grocery store when you bring your own bag.  It adds up.

Then right after the shower, Clyde helped clean the Church and it was time to go see one of our local high school's productions of "Beauty and the Beast".  One of my seminary students played the Grandfather and did a wonderful job.  I was very proud of him.  I was thinking last night as I was watching Devon, I moved here just before his baptism and he turns 16 the end of June.  I have been watching him grow up to become a remarkable young man.  I have been very blessed.