2014-11-24 Egbert's new home

The Egbert's new home in progressing. Michelle sent a couple of photos of the inside and this photo of the outside of the home. Their current home is now listed, but there hasn't been much early interest. Our banker e-mailed to say that he wanted to pledge some of our assets to allow a bridge loan to the Egberts for the new house. When they sell their current home our assets will be released.

We've loaned money to Conleys for Jeff to buy an accounting franchise when they moved to Colorado Springs. This loan was paid off with interest.

We've loaned Egberts money to finance their dental practice in Colorado Springs. Hans pays principal and interest faithfully each month.

We've loaned money to Christensens to allow them to get a lower interest rate on their home refinance in 2013. They pay us interest each month.

We've loaned the Fords money to move to their home on Browning, to pay for remodeling, and to dig them out of a financial black hole. They paid us $3,000 but no interest or other principal. I suppose we'll need to note all this in our will.

2011-11-20 Grandma Donna breaks her hip

I had the inspiration to call the Legacy Care Center to see about visiting Grandma Donna, and the receptionist told me that she had been taken to Riverton Hospital the day before because she fell and broke her hip. She had surgery to repair her hip and is dizzy and disoriented. Her adopted son, Rob Buttle, was at the hospital, but he was more interested in telling me woes than telling me what he knew about Donna's condition.

Donna thought that she had fallen two months ago. She also said she had to wait for 5 years to have her teeth fixed. She wanted to go back to Legacy as soon as possible and didn't want to be moved to a rehab place.

Donnalyn moved her to the Rocky Mountain Rehabilitation Center on 12600 South and 3400 West where she will stay for at least the next six weeks. She can't put weight on her hip for that long (or longer).

2014-11-20 Jack plays Egeus in Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream

Jack played the role of Egeus in Midsummer Nights Dream at the 6th grade Shakespeare festival at Bonneville Elementary. This is Melissa's last elementary school Shakespeare play. Thomas was in 'As You Like It', Joshua was in Midsummer Nights Dream, and Benjamin was in Twelfth Night. The school with all its volunteers does a wonderful job of putting the play together.

Egeus -  Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to marry Demetrius. Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the forest.

2014-11-15 Will's basketball team wins in Idaho

Coray drove his basketball team to Idaho for a weekend tournament. They came away as the winners with some grousing from the other teams who complained that Lone Peak was too good. Will sprained his ankle which is still sore a week later. Coray is a terrific coach and enjoys his associations with the boys. Why hasn't he been in young men's since he was released as scout master?

2014-10-31 Missionary English classes

While we were helping to teach an English class in Italy, Thomas is also engaged in teaching an English class in Japan. Teaching English seems like a great way to get to know people without the pressure of conversion. Some of the best conversations with Italians for us were with the English students including
Raffaele - who found our apartment
Martina - who is investigating the church
Stefano - who went with us to Napoli
Federica - who took a job in London in a pub
Marianna - who picked us up at the airport with Martina and Federica


English classes started with a prayer and ended with a spiritual thought and prayer. After a lesson on how to say a prayer in English our attendance really dropped off. Not too much interest in church related instruction.

The missionaries are not well trained in English instruction, although the have a lesson plan prepared by the mission office.

2014-11-11 Elizabeth and Anna have a cello concert

Elizabeth and Anna played a number of pieces on the cello accompanied by their teacher. Anna played all of the Suzuki cello numbers by memory. Elizabeth played a long piece from memory by Bach. It was an ideal recital because only our grandchildren performed, we sat on comfortable sofas, it was pretty short, we were proud of their performances.

2014-11-04 Melissa is elected to the SLC School Board!

We are thrilled that Melissa won a seat on the Salt Lake School board replacing Laurel Young. Melissa campaigned diligently, had her ups and downs, managed to not spend too lavishly, met a lot of people, had wonderful support of her friends and neighbors. We're sure that she will do an admirable job as a board member. Laurel could not have been more complementary about Melissa and was thrilled to be able to turn over her board seat to Melissa.