We Are Thankful

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We love this time of year when we reflect on all of our blessings.  We have so many!  On Thanksgiving day this year we were able to spend some time with Genna and Jeff.  Then the four of us went over to Jeff and Janeen Redd’s house for a feast!  How fun to spend time with them and some of their wonderful kids.  That was another blessing for us to reflect on!

Last Sunday some of our Sisters asked us if we would drive some people to hear Alex Boye speak.  Alex is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sings popular songs and acts.  He is a terrific speaker, too!  The Sisters loved it and everyone else did, too.  He was nice enough to meet with everyone afterwards and take pictures.  You can imagine the line was pretty long.  We didn’t stay for that, but Craig did snap a picture of Alex with someone else!  Here is his incredible I Am A Mormon page.

This week we went to Balboa Park San Diego History Center to see the Exhibit called “The Cat Behind the Hat”.  Yep, all about Dr. Seuss.  They have a wonderful kid’s exhibit with all of the drawings you love from your childhood.  There are life-sized statues of Horton, The Grinch, the Cat in the Hat and The Lorax. There are colorful activity nooks, whimsical furniture and creative projects for the kids. 

They also displayed some of Theodore Geisel’s never-before-seen artistic works from his Secret Art Collection (1920-90), along with his early drawings, advertisements and military illustrations from Life magazine.

 We loved it.

We have been pretty busy at the Battalion, thanks to Thanksgiving week when almost everyone in the country is on vacation.  It is like we are back in summer!  In our spare time, we helped put up Christmas lights. 

Supervisors: 2, Workers: 3.  Not really!  Those two Elders were just taking a breather.

The Sisters put the luminarias on the front steps and porch and placed decorations on the tall tree.

We will be having different performers for the 12 Days of Christmas.  It should be a wonderful experience to have Christmas at the Battalion!

Today you get to meet beautiful and happy Sister Milla from North Carolina.  She would like to be a nutritionist.  She eats healthy, played soccer and has been a nanny.  She is super patient with everyone around her and always has fun.

Sister Milla is not shy about talking about the Gospel.  She is very friendly and is always in a good mood. That makes for great tours!  And she is wise.

Family and Friends

Do you remember our post from last May when we went to our daughter Genna’s graduation from Law School?  Right after that she studied and studied for 2 months in preparation for the 3 day California Bar exam.  She has been waiting ever since the end of July to find out her results.  And……SHE PASSED!!  All of her hard work paid off.  It is a tough exam and we are VERY proud of her.  We will see her this week on Thanksgiving and that is just one more of the zillions of things we are thankful for. 

Genna's graduation last May

This week my cousin David and his wife Nancy visited the Battalion!  I haven’t seen David for many, MANY years and that was such fun catching up.  Family is the best.  Next time we meet up I hope they are wearing costumes instead of us.

A family came in to the Battalion this week who recognized Craig.  He was their bishop 25 years ago when we lived in So Cal.  It was great to see the Eliasons and catch up with them. 

Last Sunday we went to a President’s Fireside.  Two Sisters at the Battalion asked if I would go to hear them sing in the choir.  Of course!  Then one second later I realized they are Spanish speaking Sisters.  Is this fireside in Spanish?  Well, yes it is!  So Craig and I went to the Spanish fireside.  Thankfully, Craig could translate for me.  There was a very sweet spirit there.  The President’s wife gave her remarks in Spanish since she went on a Spanish speaking mission to Anaheim.  President Schmitt spoke Lao on his mission in Fresno, but has been working on his Spanish and only needed help from his wife once during his remarks in Spanish.  Impressive!  The Sisters did a great job on the choir.  We also got to see some of our Battalion Sisters that are out on full pross.  That is a treat!

This week at the beach we saw the guy that builds the impressive sand castles at La Jolla shores.  He seemed to be teaching someone how to do it.

There is a walk for Breast Cancer all over San Diego this weekend.  They are walking 60 miles in 3 days.  We have seen them in several places including right in front of the Battalion.  There were many people walking and many people cheering them on.  Very nice to see.

This lady sat in our wagon cheering the walkers on!

This week we are spotlighting sweet Sister Chung from Taiwan.  She was called Mandarin speaking, but was English speaking for her first two transfers.  She has already graduated from college in English Education in Taiwan. 

She has one sister that lives in China and has one niece.   She likes to play volleyball.  She found out she loves Mexican food a lot.  Tacos, tortillas, all of it.  She went to the San Diego temple for the first time this month and LOVED it.  She is always ready to greet people and take them on tours.  She is a hard worker.

No Polar Vortex Here!

It is still gorgeous weather here.  There has been some snow at home, but we are enjoying weather in the 70s in San Diego!  It gets cooler at night and when we walk along the beach, the water takes a bit longer to get used to.  Maybe we bring a sweater if we are out at night, but that’s not bad.

This week we got to see some friends.  Our dear friend Judy was only in town for a couple of days, but made time to have lunch with us.  It was so great to see her in person and catch up.

The Doolittles were in town on business.  Julie’s dad was one of Craig’s college professors and was instrumental in Craig deciding to go into city management.  John used to be our Congressman when we lived in Northern Cal and Craig worked with him then.  John was a huge advocate for Roseville and Placer County.  We sat in their tour.  John was a good sport and dressed up like a soldier in our Outfitting room.  He asked a lot of very informed and interesting questions.

We went back to Balboa Park this week.  There was an art exhibit called “Gauguin to Warhol: 20th Century Icons from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery”.   Here is what the website says about it:

Featuring masterpieces by more than 40 monumental artists, Gauguin to Warhol includes works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Salvador Dalí, and Frida Kahlo, among others. The scope of the show begins in the late 1800s, featuring milestones of Post-Impressionism by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin, and extends to the mid twentieth century in America with Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Motherwell as well as prominent Pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Through an impressive and encompassing array of works, the exhibition showcases the major aesthetic and philosophical themes of 20th century art.

It was terrific.  I didn’t love all of the art we saw, but I do love that we saw it.  They don’t allow photos in the museum, so all I can show you is a picture of the outside of the beautiful San Diego Museum of Art.

While at Balboa Park we saw an artist we often see at La Jolla.  We even bought one of his prints for our office at home.  We hadn’t seen him for a while, so that was fun.

My wonderful Mom will be celebrating her birthday this week.  Happy Birthday Mom!!  I love you.

Picture from last May when Mom visited.

This week our spotlight is terrific Sister Larson from Utah. She is studying nursing.  She has worked at a skilled nursing facility in Utah County.  Sister Larson always keeps us laughing and makes every shift more fun.

She is learning Mandarin right now from her companion.  She is a very hard worker, diligent and a source of strength for many.  She can always be counted on to be where she is needed and doing what needs to be done.