Evidence. . .

A thought ran through my mind this morning that I think was an "archival retrieval" from my seminary days. . . so this is going back a bit - - like FORTY YEARS!!

Anyway, the thought is:

If you were arrested for being a follower of Christ, 

would there be enough evidence to convict you?

As Dad and I were eating breakfast, we discussed this and thought about all the different things that could be subpoenaed for a court of law.  

1.  What's the environment of your home/apartment/room?  Any pictures on the walls, magazines, books, that would support the charges, or not?

2.  Perhaps they would confiscate your CD player, MP3 player, Ipod, phone, computer, etc.  What music would they find?  What images?  What websites?  (I'm so glad I have www.lds.org as my Home page!)

3.  What about your car?  When they inspect your car what would be found?  A MESS?  Cleanliness?  

4.  What about the people you associate with?  Do they help you make good choices?  Do you help others?

5.  What about your thoughts?  Hmmmmm, maybe a lie detector test, or something like that.  Where is your heart?

Soooo, this is just some food for thought.  I hope we would each be EASILY convicted if tried on the charge of following Christ.

Love you ALL!

Love,

Mom

Oh Yeah. . . Dallin's In Provo!!

So, Dallin left for BYU last Saturday and I forgot to put up our sad crying pictures!!  I guess this is just the weird way we Hunt's say "Good-bye!"




 It's SOOOOO disturbing to me when I call him and hear all kinds of commotion and happy sounds in the background like people PLAYING and having FUN TOGETHER.  In fact, last night I texted Dal and asked, "Soooo, are there lots of fish in the sea?"  He quickly replied, "YES!  And I'm a master fisherman!"  Sheesh...do you think you could miss home a little bit?!?!  DOUBTFUL!!  Oh well, we really are glad that he is enjoying this week up there.

Next week, when school hits, he's going to be SLAMMED with homework; he's going to be DYING with muscle soreness from rugby conditioning with the BYU football coaches; and he's going to wonder WHEN he's going to sleep!  Poor boy!  Welcome to college life!!

TECHNOLOGY!

I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!!  


It's pretty cool when I am teaching a piano lesson . . . and the phone rings.  I don't recognize the number calling me so I don't answer it.


Then my cell phone rings so I know it must be someone who is REALLY trying to reach me, so I answer the cell phone, still not recognizing the phone number calling me.


VOILE!! I'm talking to my son in IRAQ!!  


PRETTY DARN COOL!!

Thumb Surgery. . .

Here's the whole story...

In March my thumbs (yes, both of them) started "triggering" -- where the tendon gets inflamed and swollen, and won't slide through the casing that holds it in place.  When the pressure builds enough as I try to bend my thumb, it suddenly would SNAP down; and it would snap up when trying to unbend it.  Very strange.  And started to become quite painful.  Hence, in May I had cortizone shots put into my thumb tendons to see if it would help.  IT DID!!. . . for 3 months. . . which is what the doctor said usually happens.  The only way to FIX it is to surgically go in and put a slit in the casing so the tendon can slide easily once again.

That's what I had done today!  It's a simple procedure...about 20 minutes per hand and not repairing anything...simply opening up the casing.  (see...minimal incisions!)

Sooooo, I just had Dallin drop me off at the hospital at 11:30 and asked him to pick me up around 2:00-2:30.  (Dad had wanted to come but I insisted he didn't need to miss work for such a simple procedure!)

The male nurse attending me was AMAZED that I wasn't on any medication, that I didn't have any health problems, and that my blood pressure was at 112/70!  Hooray for healthy bodies!!  (Now just fix my THUMBS!)

Anyway, the anesthesiologist (Dr. Larsen) came in and we talked about what kind of pain killer I wanted.  Since it was a simple procedure I told him I didn't want a general, "Just give me what I need to not feel my hands."  He said, "Really?" and I assured him I was not a wuss!  So off he wheeled me into the operating room. . . 

There were lots of people in there (about 8) getting everything ready for both hands to be fixed.  The nurse had put the IV in my FOOT since my hands would be worked on.  So I was a little confused when, in the operating room, they put an IV in each hand!  And then Dr. Larsen wrapped a rubber ace bandage-like thing TIGHTLY around  my hand with the IV underneath.  I told him, "That's a little uncomfortable, you know..."  He kind of smiled at me as he said, "I won't remind you that YOU HAD A CHOICE!"  I laughed!!  

After a minute I asked how long it would take for me to wake up if he gave me something.  He said, "Ten minutes."  I thought a second, then replied, "I want a nap!"  Within about 2 minutes I was waking up with the surgery completed!  GREAT NAP!!!

Dal and Thomas Hafen came and got me at the hospital.  We went to Wendy's for a hamburger (yep, had to fast from Thursday night til Friday around 2:30!), and then we went to Kohls where Dallin bought a cool looking suit!  After that we headed home, and I "rested," more or less...  ^_^

Salsa, the Easy Way!

How cool is it when Dallin decides to involve his friends in making a last batch of salsa?!?!

It's pretty cool!!  I should have taken more pictures when EVERYONE was here...oh well.  There was LOTS of help!

Dal picked a bunch of tomatoes from our garden, but when I found out he was
bringing friends to help out, I was not about to miss out on the added help.
I went over to the community garden and picked a 5 gallon bucket FULL of tomatoes.

This is only a SMALL portion of the tomatoes...the counter was covered!!

Dal was a great supervising chef!!

They ended up bottling TWENTY-TWO QUARTS of salsa!  

And all I had to do was put the salt, and garlic in!  

They did EVERYTHING ELSE!!  It was GREAT!!

SWEETS TREATS TO IRAQ!

Mil and I made "sweet treats" to send to Denzel!  Hope they get there before they rot!!

Working with SORE THUMBS. . .  pre-surgery!!

Bet you can't guess what kind of box they are coming in!!

I caught Mil snitching!!  BAD girl!!

HELLO KRISTY. . . and GOOD-BYE KRISTY!!

Kristy arrived in St. George LATE Monday night...actually early Tuesday morning...and ran around doing a hundred different things in a very few short hours she had at "home" before she left for SLC this morning.  We managed to squeeze a few fun things in...some with her...some without her!

(Uncle Steve did really good sending us some COOL sunflower seeds to plant in the community garden!

From Strange...

And, of course, we enjoyed our BBQ dinner together!!

From Strange...

Sure do wish the rest of you could have been here with us!!

Sacrament Meeting Thoughts...

Today, as we were singing the Sacrament hymn #185 (Reverently and Meekly Now), some of the words toward the end of the hymn really struck home to me. They are as follows:


4th verse -
At the throne I intercede;
For thee ever do I plead.
I have loved thee as thy friend,
With a love that cannot end.
Be obedient, I implore,
Prayerful, watchful, evermore.
And be constant unto me,
That thy Savior I may be.


I think the hymn is an excellent reminder to each of us!  Hope you have a great week!  


Love,
Mom

Military Men (and women)!

A few nights ago, a man stopped by to ask if we would paint our window with a "Welcome Home" sign for his nephew who was returning from duty in Afghanistan. Dad and I talked to him a bit, and told him we would.

When I painted the window I couldn't just say "welcome home, Jesse" so I put this because I thought of Denzel and his service . . .

;

This evening there was a knock at our door. When Dad and I answered it, there was a man standing there with his 10 year old son, and he said as he pointed at the window, "That's me..."

Well, we invited them in after shaking hands and introducing ourselves, and had a very nice visit. Among other things, Jesse told us that he embedded with a different unit from South Carolina. When they returned home to the south there was a big parade and hoopla planned for all of the soldiers...however, Jesse came home to Utah...with no hoopla for one individual. He was VERY grateful for the window and our gratitude. I was so happy that we could do something so small, but very meaningful for this soldier who was willing to serve our great country and sacrifice so much to help each of us.

Thank you, Jesse (and Denzel), for being willing to serve!!

Love,
Mom

Free Feed. . .

Silver and Kodiak are living in style for the next few weeks!  They get to be down in a pasture by Sunbrook Golf Course that Hafen's own.  Dad and I went down to check on them and they seem veryhappy and content!

Millie and I enjoyed being in Pine Valley early in the week...so did Madi, Megan and Shaylee, and Celeste! 

Memory Lane. . .

So, Dallin got home on Monday night . . . and I had lots of tomatoes on the counter waiting to be made into salsa!!  We finally got around to doing it today, thanks to Dallin and Thomas Hafen!

I thought this  might bring memories back for each of you kids!!  Why does it seem like making salsa was an ALL DAY affair?!?!  It took Dallin and Thomas less than an hour!  Maybe it takes all day when you're trying to involve LITTLE KIDS!!                                                                

I hope you all have wonderful memories of bottling stuff in our kitchen!

HOME. . .

Grandfather was released from the hospital last night...HOORAY!!

Dallin got home from back East last night . . . HOORAY!!

Kristy is coming home from Korea next Monday night. . . HOORAY!!

Chickens Galore!!

Yup!  Our chickens are growing up!   And they are producing eggs quite efficiently.  For the record, they DO have names.  See if you can pick them out:  Salt and Pepper are the two black and white ones; Heckyl and Jeckyl are the Black shimmery ones; Peter and Pan are the two reds; Blondie is...blonde!; and Nimrod is the odd one...

From Chicken pics

We really enjoy having the chickens...if you couldn't tell!  Dad feeds them by hand occasionally and sometimes they peck a little hard.  But mostly they just like to see what's up when we come in the chicken run!

From Chicken pics

The chicken coop (far right) as 6 nesting boxes.  Dad's lifting the lid to the lower three.  The one above it houses the upper three nesting boxes.  There's a little ladder they walk up to get inside the coop when they are ready to lay.  Other than that, they spend their time in the chicken run where there is plenty of room!  They are HAPPY chickens, and they live in Santa Clara, UTAH...not California!!

Carpenters. . .

August 7, 2011 – Sunday

Today in Testimony Meeting, I had a thought come to my mind. . . a picture, actually, that was followed with some thoughts.  I contemplated them during Sunday School, and in Relief Society, and finally shared them in my testimony at the end of our Relief Society meeting.  I want to share them with each of you, too.

With my dad in the hospital, it has caused my thoughts to turn to him a bit.  I was raised by a father who is a building contractor.  While I was growing up, my dad would sometimes take me on jobs with him, and I learned quite a bit about hammers, saws, and especially putty and putty knives.  My dad did a lot of remodeling work, fixing buildings that were damaged, or adding onto existing ones.  He would take things from a state of disrepair and turn them into beautiful, functional homes and offices.  He was a very good carpenter. . . which then caused me to think of our Savior, the Master Carpenter. 

Our Savior was raised by his earthly father, a carpenter.  Jesus learned this trade growing up.  However, His life was about reconstruction and remodeling of a different type.  I picture each of us as a very fine piece of wood just waiting to be chiseled and molded into what our Heavenly Father wants us to be.  However, we are here in mortality where “things happen.”  We get chinks and gouges in our wood that can be very unsightly.  It may be like a young child taking a ball point pen and gauging the letter “H” into your fine wood.  You may even wonder HOW it will ever be repaired.  You may attempt to hide it, but the gouge is still there.  Occasionally, you may remember it.

But the Master knows how to fix even the worst gouge or dent.  He doesn’t send some underling to fill in the hole with putty.  He comes Himself.  His life-blood, the Atonement, is the “filler” used to heal the wounds and the scars we each have.  As we turn to Him and seek His help, He fills us, sands and polishes, and makes us in His image. 

He truly is the Master.  It is because of Him that we can be made whole, that we can stand before Him with love and gratitude for ALL we have, ALL we are, and ALL that we will ever become.  He is the ONLY way.  Truly.

Just wanted you to know.

Love,

Mom

What can I say. . . oops!!

So. . . with so many things going on in May, and June, and July . . . I just realized I didn't do so good documenting our joy!!!  Can I do that in retrospect?!?!?! ON THE SAME DAY. . .  May 6th, 2011 . . .  Kristy graduated with her BS degree in English from Dixie State College (which we didn't realize she was REALLY graduating until after the fact . . . yes, it's a long story! And  we were so glad that NAT WAS THERE!!) . . .  From Kristy Grad .  . . so Dad and I went up north to be at Brandon's graduation in Salt Lake City.  He received his Masters Degree in Accounting  from the University of Utah.   (Tannya graduated THE SAME DAY with her BS in Dental Hygiene from Dixie State College, but she stayed up north for Brandon's graduation, too!!)

From Brandon's graduation... WE ARE SO PROUD OF  ALL OF OUR GRADUATES!!!  This year we had a BUMPER CROP! CONGRATS . . .  Brandon, Tannya, Kristy, Amelia, and Dallin!

Grandfather, Grandma and Nikki! ...

 More info. on Grandfather's progress. . . Grandma and I went to the ICU unit and had a nice visit with Grandfather.  He was happy, alert and talkative, but after about 15 minutes, he fell asleep.  We talked with Dr. Nasiff, the cardiologist, and she reported on the angiogram procedure, what the prognosis is, etc.  It's tentative that Grandfather will be able to be released from the hospital by Thursday or Friday. . .  he may need to go to a rehab center initially to receive the care he needs, although hospital care may not be needed. . . we'll have to see.
More update info...

Update on Grandfather Barton

Saturday morning, Linda received a phone call from Grandfather asking her to take him to the hospital...he was having severe chest pain.  He went to McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden.  Lots of tests later, he did have some heart damage, so was going to have an angiogram done on Sunday or Monday.
Dawn and Mom were with Dad at the hospital this morning while all the rest of us were at Trevor's homecoming talk Sacrament Meeting in Springville.  Dawn sent me a text during his talk, saying Dad was in surgery having the angiogram. 
Awhile later, we were at Matt's and Nancy's visiting and eating when the call came from Dawn saying there had been some complications...there were 4 blockages; 2 were repaired, but while working on the 3rd, there was a rupture in his artery and severe bleeding into the heart lining.  This was not good.  They were able to stablize him, put a drain in his heart, and moved him to ICU.  This was extremely difficult for Dawn since she was the one there with him.
Since then he has improved and they are hopeful that Grandfather can be moved to the cardiac ward on Monday morning.  We pray that everything will go well and that he regains his strength quickly.