The cake looks to good to eat, but we didn't let that stop us.
Gardner Clan
Stake RS Presidency with Michelle Sinsel as secretary.
Heidi Weed, Ruth Gardner, Cheryle Mire, and Michelle Sinsel
Stake RS Presidency Jan 2010-March 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu
The cake looks to good to eat, but we didn't let that stop us.
Gardner Clan
Stake RS Presidency with Michelle Sinsel as secretary.
Heidi Weed, Ruth Gardner, Cheryle Mire, and Michelle Sinsel
Stake RS Presidency Jan 2010-March 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Backyard
My mother is an avid gardener. When my parents lived here in Kansas, we always had a vegetable garden. Now that they live in a more northern climate she has turned her skills to more floral than veggie.
This is the view out the window of the room I stayed.
Not only does she have a green thumb, but she also has some mean sewing skills. Of course I learned the art as well, but I am nowhere in her league. This is just one of her current projects.
Some of the fun designs, the machine can do.
The beast. Is it too early to put dibs on this?
We're cooking now.
One of my favorite childhood memories is of my dad making pancakes for Saturday morning breakfast. He would make them in some kind of shape, not just the usual round discs. My favorite shape was an elephant. So for a walk down memory lane I asked my dad to make me an elephant pancake for breakfast. Eating an elephant for breakfast is like eating a chocolate bunny at Easter. The bunny's ears are saved for last, just like the elephant's trunk.
This just needs one more thing before it's ready.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
You have to save the trunk for last.
Now that was yummy!
Making Memories
For the last few weeks I've had the opportunity to visit my parents in Federal Way, WA. While there, my mom and I worked on a project together. With the help of my mom's favorite toy, we made a baby quilt for my newest grandchild to be. I did the embroidery and piecing and my mom did the quilting. It took almost the entire time I was there to get the quilt top done, but it was fun.
One of the blocks.
Making progress.
The almost finished project
One of the blocks.
Making progress.
The almost finished project
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A Mother's Love
Every year in the Shawnee Mission school district there is this contest. It's called Reflections It's an opportunity for students to submit creative work in 3 different categories; literature,photography, and art. The entries are judged and then the winner goes on to the district competition. This year Sean decided to enter in the literature category and he won that division for the school. This is what he wrote
A Mother's Love
Sharp thundering booms filled the night sky with flashes of light and short glimpses of black clouds. Lightning shot cloud to cloud scoring the god's ocean with pixies only to live and breathe and grow in a second’s glance. Wind sails flew through the skies, writing and breathing through to the torrents of cloud. The winds played as they snaked through the vapor ocean, chasing each other in circles, ignorant of the terror, excitement, and destruction their playfulness caused. Children huddled with mothers in their underground caverns, filled with the loud banging of fire breathing monster, spawn of Hell's furnace; giant creeping crawling bugs made of shadow, threatening to devour them whole, and their heroic mothers vanquishing the foul beasts with soft caring words or warm, embracing hugs, or exciting stories of mythical lands, brave conquerors, and fantastic battles. The stories filled the darkness, dressing the child with his most potential weapon: imagination.
Ah, but alas, the stories could not last, for the biggest and most terrible monster came to pass. Its roar was louder and far more frightening than one hundred fiery demons, and its shadow large enough to swallow armies of shrouded night crawlers. The beast fell upon the mother and child's hideaway, tearing apart their home. The child terrified in fright reached for his mother's protecting hand, the hand that gave him strength and courage, but it wasn't there. When the monster tore away the home it smiled a wicked smile. Swirling and twirling it spied the mother and child, and greedily it reached with its monstrous hand and snatched away the child's mother and hungrily ate her up. But hungry it still was and reached for the child, and brave the child tried to be, brave the way his mother told him to be. But the monster was bigger and scarier than anything he had ever seen and fear filled his heart, making him cower into the deepest darkest corner, trying to run away from the terrible beast, but it found him. The child was too scared to look, the world felt so cold, so lost was he without his mother and her protective arms, her wonderful stories that made him so brave. What was he to do?
“Mommy!” he cried, tears fell from his face. Where was Mommy? The monster reached for the child; the world felt colder than ever, colder than winter's day where he and his mother would play in the snow for hours.
“Mommy!” But it was vain to try; nothing could be heard over this monster's roar, and his mother was to far away to hear him. He was so scared.
“Mommy!” he whispered in such a soft voice, like a butterfly's wing flapping in the breeze. Suddenly the world was warm and bright, the fear left, and the monster's roar was silence. He could hear birds singing and felt the sun warm his back— it felt like a hug from his mother.
“Jasper,” came a voice. The child knew that voice, a voice he loved so much. He looked up and saw his mother standing there with a warm smile where there once was a grinning monster.
He cried out happily, “Mommy!” and ran to her and hugged her legs.
“My little hero,” she said so lovingly. Her voice rang like a choir of angels and was more beautiful than a thousand harps. She put her arms around him. But this moment, too, could not last. Gently she pushed her son away and knelt down to both knees, as she looked into his eyes, his beautiful eyes she loved so much.
Jasper gasped, “Mommy, you're so pretty!” She seemed to sparkle and glow, perfectly flawless, like an angel. She smiled at his words, so innocent and honest.
“Jasper, my love, please listen” Her voice was so unfamiliar, but he knew it was his mother's voice, so he quietly stood there and looked back into her eyes and listened. “The monster is not gone yet, and you must defeat it on your own.” Her voice was filled with sadness hidden behind a mask of strength.
“Mommy, no.”
“Listen, Jasper.” She said sharply and softly. Jasper listened sadly. “I cannot be there, but I will be with you. I will always be with you.”
She gave him one last hug, and when she let go he was wearing a breast plate that felt like his mother's hug and made him feel brave and strong. “This will protect your heart and body from any monster or beast that may wish you harm.”
Upon his head she placed her last kiss, and from it grew a helm pointed and proud. “This will protect your mind from fearful and doubting thoughts.”
She held his tiny hands a final time and pulled away, leaving a majestic sword and a powerful shield with a butterfly painted along its broad bough. “Trust these to protect you and you will conquer the most frightening of monsters.”
And she said six words that were the last words she would ever tell her son in this life. These words filled him with understanding and wisdom, and the knowledge that he was never alone.
And when his mother left, and he returned to face his foe, the monster that so greedily stole his mother from him. He was a boy no longer, but a man, a man wise, strong, and brave, the fear in his eyes replaced by steel. And in one swift, powerful stroke he felled his enemy. And never again would he be frightened of any beast, for his armor, sword, and shield made from a mother's love never left him.
But the most powerful of the few precious things his mother left him were the six last words she told him with a smile impossible to forget. They stayed with him, giving him a reason to keep on fighting all the monsters, demons, and beasts that haunted the world that frightened child, teen, and adult alike. He fought bearing his armor and sword and the six words until his final breath, and when he died he saw his reason for fighting the terrors of the world. They embraced each other warmly, and the hero of the world told his mother:
“I love you mom.” And while still in the embrace she replied with the six words she said to him before she left the Earth, the words that fueled his drive to defeat the creatures of darkness, the words that defined his existence.
“I love you, my little hero.”
by Sean Fackrell 2010
A Mother's Love
Sharp thundering booms filled the night sky with flashes of light and short glimpses of black clouds. Lightning shot cloud to cloud scoring the god's ocean with pixies only to live and breathe and grow in a second’s glance. Wind sails flew through the skies, writing and breathing through to the torrents of cloud. The winds played as they snaked through the vapor ocean, chasing each other in circles, ignorant of the terror, excitement, and destruction their playfulness caused. Children huddled with mothers in their underground caverns, filled with the loud banging of fire breathing monster, spawn of Hell's furnace; giant creeping crawling bugs made of shadow, threatening to devour them whole, and their heroic mothers vanquishing the foul beasts with soft caring words or warm, embracing hugs, or exciting stories of mythical lands, brave conquerors, and fantastic battles. The stories filled the darkness, dressing the child with his most potential weapon: imagination.
Ah, but alas, the stories could not last, for the biggest and most terrible monster came to pass. Its roar was louder and far more frightening than one hundred fiery demons, and its shadow large enough to swallow armies of shrouded night crawlers. The beast fell upon the mother and child's hideaway, tearing apart their home. The child terrified in fright reached for his mother's protecting hand, the hand that gave him strength and courage, but it wasn't there. When the monster tore away the home it smiled a wicked smile. Swirling and twirling it spied the mother and child, and greedily it reached with its monstrous hand and snatched away the child's mother and hungrily ate her up. But hungry it still was and reached for the child, and brave the child tried to be, brave the way his mother told him to be. But the monster was bigger and scarier than anything he had ever seen and fear filled his heart, making him cower into the deepest darkest corner, trying to run away from the terrible beast, but it found him. The child was too scared to look, the world felt so cold, so lost was he without his mother and her protective arms, her wonderful stories that made him so brave. What was he to do?
“Mommy!” he cried, tears fell from his face. Where was Mommy? The monster reached for the child; the world felt colder than ever, colder than winter's day where he and his mother would play in the snow for hours.
“Mommy!” But it was vain to try; nothing could be heard over this monster's roar, and his mother was to far away to hear him. He was so scared.
“Mommy!” he whispered in such a soft voice, like a butterfly's wing flapping in the breeze. Suddenly the world was warm and bright, the fear left, and the monster's roar was silence. He could hear birds singing and felt the sun warm his back— it felt like a hug from his mother.
“Jasper,” came a voice. The child knew that voice, a voice he loved so much. He looked up and saw his mother standing there with a warm smile where there once was a grinning monster.
He cried out happily, “Mommy!” and ran to her and hugged her legs.
“My little hero,” she said so lovingly. Her voice rang like a choir of angels and was more beautiful than a thousand harps. She put her arms around him. But this moment, too, could not last. Gently she pushed her son away and knelt down to both knees, as she looked into his eyes, his beautiful eyes she loved so much.
Jasper gasped, “Mommy, you're so pretty!” She seemed to sparkle and glow, perfectly flawless, like an angel. She smiled at his words, so innocent and honest.
“Jasper, my love, please listen” Her voice was so unfamiliar, but he knew it was his mother's voice, so he quietly stood there and looked back into her eyes and listened. “The monster is not gone yet, and you must defeat it on your own.” Her voice was filled with sadness hidden behind a mask of strength.
“Mommy, no.”
“Listen, Jasper.” She said sharply and softly. Jasper listened sadly. “I cannot be there, but I will be with you. I will always be with you.”
She gave him one last hug, and when she let go he was wearing a breast plate that felt like his mother's hug and made him feel brave and strong. “This will protect your heart and body from any monster or beast that may wish you harm.”
Upon his head she placed her last kiss, and from it grew a helm pointed and proud. “This will protect your mind from fearful and doubting thoughts.”
She held his tiny hands a final time and pulled away, leaving a majestic sword and a powerful shield with a butterfly painted along its broad bough. “Trust these to protect you and you will conquer the most frightening of monsters.”
And she said six words that were the last words she would ever tell her son in this life. These words filled him with understanding and wisdom, and the knowledge that he was never alone.
And when his mother left, and he returned to face his foe, the monster that so greedily stole his mother from him. He was a boy no longer, but a man, a man wise, strong, and brave, the fear in his eyes replaced by steel. And in one swift, powerful stroke he felled his enemy. And never again would he be frightened of any beast, for his armor, sword, and shield made from a mother's love never left him.
But the most powerful of the few precious things his mother left him were the six last words she told him with a smile impossible to forget. They stayed with him, giving him a reason to keep on fighting all the monsters, demons, and beasts that haunted the world that frightened child, teen, and adult alike. He fought bearing his armor and sword and the six words until his final breath, and when he died he saw his reason for fighting the terrors of the world. They embraced each other warmly, and the hero of the world told his mother:
“I love you mom.” And while still in the embrace she replied with the six words she said to him before she left the Earth, the words that fueled his drive to defeat the creatures of darkness, the words that defined his existence.
“I love you, my little hero.”
by Sean Fackrell 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Feeding the Masses
Earlier this month I had the wonderful opportunity to help with feeding missionaries at a special zone conference. Elder David A. Bednar came to our stake conference and during part of the weekend had a zone conference for the missionaries. It wasn't just the missionaries within my stake, but the all the missionaries in the entire Missouri, Independence Mission. That's a lot of missionaries. We made 300 sack lunches for all those hungry Elders, Sisters, and Senior couples. The Stake Relief Society spent the entire morning at Ruth Gardner's home assembling the meal. It was so much fun. After making the sandwiches and filling the sacks, we took them to the Stake Center and served. One of the perks was to listen to the tail end of Elder Bednar's remarks to the missionaries. I so enjoy being able to serve in my calling. The best part of it all though was getting to have a picture taken with my missionary. He has less than a month to serve so this was probably the last chance to get a picture of him on his mission.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Good Food, Good Times
Nina, Sara Capener, and Violeta
Jenny Staggs and Gab Bumatay enjoying the festivities.
Violeta the master chef of the evening
As part of my ward's Relief Society we have a cooking group as an Enrichment Activity. Of course this group was started before the change in the Relief Society program in September. This month was the first time I was able to attend the group. The demonstration was on making Guatemalan Enchiladas taught by Violeta Soubie. It was a fun evening and the enchiladas were scrumptious. Now if only I can remember how to make them. I think everyone had a good time except poor Liam.
Nina Soubie and Liam, Nathan, and Eli Staggs joined the activities until Liam got sick.
Ashlee Dunlap with her darling daughter Ella
Melia Penrose and Traci Bozick watching Violeta cook. Billie's chopping parsley.
Billie Platt, Nina Soubie, Katie Wheeler
Billie, Violeta, Melia, Sara, and me.
The finished product, tasty.
Masterworks Concert 2010
Bekah is standing where the conductors elbow is.
Bekah front and center
The Masterworks Concert is a tradition every year at Shawnee Mission South. It's to showcase students at their best. The separate choirs combine to sing. In my opinion, the song chosen was not a good selection. The kids sounded fantastic, but the song itself was awful. The symphony orchestra sounded great as did the band. Each of the different music groups had soloists performing during the evening that were very good. Unfortunatley it was extremely difficult to hear the vocal soloist. Either the sound system was off or they didn't have it turned up enough. It was a bit disappointing.
Camille Larson front and center
Another Year Older
I don't think Sean wanted his picture taken.
My lovely Linda
Party people
My three favorite angels and me.
Nathan celebrated his 23rd birthday by having a video game party. Since I was babysitting the Capener girls that night I took them with me. They were so excited to go to a party.
Bekah and Celeste
Bekah and Nathan
three of my favorite people
Angels on Earth
I have had the wonderful opportunity for the past year and a half to become acquainted with an absolutely wonderful family the Capener's. They have blessed my life so much. I can't put into words how much their friendship means. Every once in a while I get the fantastic chance to tend Sara and Richard's two adorable little girls. This particular day I got them the whole day! Richard and Sara made an excursion to the temple together hence the all day babysitting. I had so much fun. Those two little girls are quite entertaining. Jocelyn is so smart. She's only three years old and is reading. Not just books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, but books that are probably at a 1st grade level at least. Not only does she read them, but as she reads sometimes she will sign what she is reading. She truly amazes me. Karlin is just as bright and is always wanting to help. These two little angels are like my granddaughters and I love them just as much.
Part of my entertainment was watching J and K go to the "Zoo" Jocelyn is a great big sister including her in her games. It was so cute to watch these two together.
Part of my entertainment was watching J and K go to the "Zoo" Jocelyn is a great big sister including her in her games. It was so cute to watch these two together.
Pageturners Celebrate 15 Years
This is all of us. Me, Mary Ellen Naylor, Darci Evans, Leslie Frederickson, Maria Miller, and Stephanie Bishop. We celebrated with a delicious dinner at Leslie's home. Here's to at least another 15 years ladies.
2010 marks the 15 year anniversary of the book group I am in called The Pageturners. I have blogged about this before, but here I go again. We have been together for 15 years as a group. Since we started we have had two members leave and two new ladies join us. Though we don't see each other often during the rest of the month when we get together it is so much fun. Many changes have occurred during these 15 years. Some had babies and some had babies get married. We have all gone through difficulties and I personally have been grateful to have these wonderful women there to support me when I needed a shoulder to cry on. I don't know how much I really contribute to the group, but my life would be emptier without them.
Darci Evans, Maria Miller, and Leslie Frederickson looking at scrapbooks of our escapades over the years.
Leslie
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
A Change in the Air
Finally I can blog this. I have been waiting for 3 weeks to put this in, but because of the crazy weather we have been having it kept getting postponed. I have a new calling that I am excited and anxious about at the same time. Excited because it's something I think I can do, but anxious because the sister doing it before me was just fantastic and it's going to be hard to fill her shoes. Plus there are some other things I feel anxious about too. I'm "the new kid on the block" since the rest of the presidency has been together for about 2 years now. I've been called to be the Stake Relief Society Secretary. I don't see it as being a lot different than a ward secretary, just more meetings. I had a good idea what the calling was going to be when Br. Aulick asked to meet with me. That is after I looked on the church web-site to see what his responsibilities were on the high council. When I saw Relief Society, I thought hmm, what could it be? I then thought to myself I'll go look at Hickory Hills ward site and see if Michelle has a new calling. Sure enough she did, so then I about 95% sure what Br. Aulick wanted to talk to me about. I'm so glad for the change. I had been the VT Coordinator and was really struggling with it. I was feeling even more like a pariah than I do anyway. It was just not good for me. I have never had a calling that I liked so little. That was very frustrating for me.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Out of a Hat
December 31, 2009 a pleased momma moment for me. Rebekah, Sean, their cousin Travis, and Chris Davis a friend of theirs have formed a band and they call themselves Out of a Hat. Tonight was their first (and maybe only lol) gig. They played a few songs as part of the entertainment at the youth New Year's Eve dance. I know Sean really wanted to do well and would be in his room practicing on his guitar. Today he decided to warm up by playing Rock Band. I don't know how much that really helps in the playing, but maybe it helps get mentally prepared for performing. Playing the guitar is something Sean has had an interest in for quite some time, but I never knew it until about 2 years ago when our former bishop called me with a proposal for Sean. His son Jonathan is a very accomplished musician and had agreed to donate his time in teaching Sean the basics of playing the guitar. I give all the credit to Jonathan. It was through his kindness and generosity that Sean was able to develop this talent and it is something in which I will always be grateful. I know there were many other ways for Jonathan to spend his time, but he was willing to take the time and effort for months in teaching Sean. I don't know of many people who would do something like that for someone in my family. It means a great deal to me. In the band Travis and Sean play guitar, Chris Davis is on the drums, Brandon Bishop joins occasionally for vocals, and Rebekah (the only girl in the band) plays bass. She's mostly self taught but had a few lessons from her special friend Nathan Hunt. I wasn't able to attend in person, but I got the next best thing. It's not often I brag on my kids, but I think it's okay this time. 
(Sorry the picture quality isn't that great. It's not a very good camera and the lighting was awful.)This is just a partial clip of the performance. For the entire song click on the following link (you'll need to click, drag, copy, and paste the links. I can't get them to work.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VKzit8eRuc"
This link is for one of the other songs the did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfWxVvYolyA
Sean is playing acoustical guitar and Travis is singing with Bekah providing back-up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
