I DID IT! One Stitch At A Time.

Yeh!!! I finished climbing my mountain this week, Wed. Oct. 22nd. But instead of one step at a time, it was one stitch at a time. It took 160 hours of work to finish the quilting. A special thank you to those sisters who donated 33 hours of that time (Judy Rowley, Susan Hawkins, Lana Nielson, Michele Casper, Nancy Nielson, & Barb Winder). All I have left to do is finish machine sewing the binding on the outside edge & wrap it over the edge & hand stitch it on the front, which I will do as we are traveling to Utah next week. That will take some time, but much easier & faster than the hand quilting. These two pictures were taken after I finished the last stitches of the Salt Lake Temple (the temple itself & then the whole quilt spread out). The quilt is ivory on the front & sage green on the back.

I Just LOVE Sundays! (Grandpa Moody Story, too)- Oct. 19, 2008

Kathleen Nielson (left) is so great at doing our ward bulletin. She previously also kept our ward website up to date & has been a ward family history consultant. She was recently called to be a stake family history consultant. She has had quite the adventures, including working in the White House under three different U.S. Presidents. I am her visiting teacher & Jay is her home teacher. Kaye & Dave had other exciting news to tell us. While we were there they found out that their daughter, Amy, & her family will be moving into their nice home across the road for at least two years (they have six children & we so need more families in our ward) while Dave & Kaye serve a two year mission as directors of the same church history sites they just returned from. They will report back to their mission in January & Glenn & Cheri Warr from our area have just been called to go & serve with them, in their previous calling. I'm looking forward to when Jay & I can serve missions, hopefully some will be in places that our children & grandchildren can come to visit us. We sure had a fun visit with everyone today, including our children & grandchildren that we were able to Skype & talk to.
Here is a picture of Bart, at the head of the table, after he arrived home from doing several setting aparts of church callings. He is 2nd counselor to Bishop Rick Nielson & served as executive secretary to Jay when he was Bishop. Mike Davidson is the other counselor. Jay & I (Janece) are to the left of him. Susan & Heather are to his right.
We just love the Bart & Susan Hawkins family! They have 11 children and are going through withdrawals now that they only have 6 children at home. Susan's parents (who lived across the road) recently moved to their Timber Mt. cabin up by Cle Elum. The move was hastened because Susan's mother, Judy Rowley, broke her leg after falling from a stool while cleaning some cabinets up there. Jay & I are now taking their spots at the dinner table & loving it, but we're feeling a bit guilty about it. Pictured from left are Susan, Aaron, Alan, Marci, Kathleen Nielson, Kaye & Dave Freeman, & Jay Wood. The Hawkins' kids said they felt really privileged to have both of their previous Bishops at the dinner table with them. There were 13 of us altogether. The chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, biscuits, squash, apple slices w/caramel, strawberry salad (which I made), punch & cider were all very delicious.
Here's Jay talking & looking at maps with Dave Freeman (Bishop in our ward before Jay). He & his wife, Kaye, on the right in the background just returned from a six month mission to the Church History Handcart sites in Southern WYO as physical facilities coordinators. They guided tours at the Martin & Willie handcart centers, & helped with treks hiking around a 15 mile area over Rocky Ridge and other areas. Many groups came in the summer to do handcart treks. That is a place I would really like to visit & meet with my children & grandchildren one day. There are ancestors that were in both the Martin & Willie Handcart companies.

South Pass in that area, is where my grandfather, John Franklin Moody, Jr. age 16, about died when it got cold  & he was out of provisions as he was traveling by himself on horseback from around St. George, Utah to meet up with his family, who were settling the Big Horn Basin of northern WYO (where I was born). Indians came to his rescue & took him back to their camp & nursed him back to health & gave him provisions to continue his journey. Grandpa was always friends with the Indians after that & tried to help them out. Quite a story, told in more detail by my cousin, Jay Hampton. Grandpa told Jay lots of stories when he was living with Jay's family, when Jay was a boy. Grandpa died when I was three years old & his wife Juditha Maud, died long before I was born. I got to know his 2nd wife, Mary, a little, but she died when I was 8.
Here we have Heather, Jessica, & Brian Hawkins. They all did a great job as they took part in the primary program. Susan, their mother, has been so kind to invite Jay & I to Sunday dinner, when we are at home in WA. We will be gone most of the winter to Utah or traveling to Coriann's BYU basketball games. We are trying to return the favor this week by having a barbecue party & were going to swim, but our pool heater has gone on the fritz. I guess we can have a polar bear swim & then jump in the hot tub.

Today was our Primary Children's Program in our ward. The theme was, "I Am A Child Of God". The children are such 'angels' & always an inspiration to me. (It really made me miss my precious grandchildren). I can't help but get emotional as I watch them sing & say their parts & tell their stories. I wish I could have taken a picture. Some of them even got emotional, themselves. Stephanie Garza & her children were the main little spotlighted family that conversed as narrators between everything else. Their grandma, Barb Winder, who is the first quilter pictured in the blog before this, was really struggling to keep her emotions, when they talked about being a forever family. For those of you who know their family, it's quite a story in how Oscar, the father, came to join the church, & how awesome it was when they were able to get sealed in the temple. Dad/Jay was Bishop & so we were quite involved with the situation & witnessed it come to pass. Oscar also has some amazing, miraculous stories to tell about when he went to war in Afghanistan/Iraq & his life was spared on many occasions.

 

Walt Lowe does such a great job in teaching our gospel doctrine class. Our class covered 3 Nephi 12-15 "Old Things Are Done Away, And All Things Have Become New".  A lot of discussion on the Beatitudes,  being the 'salt of the earth', a 'light to all people', & how Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses & taught the higher law & how we can be true disciples. As we were talking about lust, it was so cute how he told us, "I have the answer. When you are constantly confronted with immodest women or the ugliness of the world, the key is to quickly turn your head away & don't look back." Other comments were, to quickly replace thoughts with a scripture or hymn, & I was thinking, "shut it off, if something bad comes on TV or the computer, etc., or quickly leave a place that the spirit of God can not be. We are in control. Satan wants us to think we aren't, but we always have control over him, if we choose to." It also reminded me of a scene in the inspirational movie, "Fireproof" that Dad/Jay & I saw Fri. night. The actor, Caleb, was tempted to click on some porn & knew that if he wanted to save his marriage he was going to have to overcome this temptation, so he grabbed his computer and threw it out the door by the garbage & started beating it to death with a baseball bat.

Then Stephanie Barrow Brook, taught a wonderful lesson in Relief Society, "A Heart Full of Love and Faith: The prophet Joseph Smith's letters to his family." She has had quite a life, herself. Stephanie's husband is not a member & she has a teenage daughter who is in Utah, getting the help she needs to deal with some mental & emotional issues. She pulled out all of the letters that have been written by this daughter to the family & how much they mean to them. She also pulled out some letters written from her own mother, Judy, when she was dying from cancer, when Stephanie was a teenager, & how wonderful it is for her to be able to read them over & over, & how it gives her a boost when the 'going gets tough'. This has given me the encouragement I've needed to try harder to write more e-mails & letters to my children, on a regular basis. We'll see how I do. I know I cherish what letters I have from my parents, children,  grandmother & other relatives & friends. Pictures of course are extra wonderful, too.

More Quilting

                This is when all of the daisy flowers, buds, leaves & lines had been completed, before focusing on the temple. The ladies that come say it will be just beautiful! I sure hope so.
This was when I was working mostly on the bottom portion of the temple with all the windows & lots of lines which I have now completed. The spires are hard to see here, but I'll post a picture when I finish this coming week. Then I'll just have the binding to cut out & sew all around the outside edge, & then hand stitch it over the edge. I may do the hand stitching while traveling to Utah the first part of November, since I have some table runners & other projects to work on for the wedding too. We'll see how anxious I get to totally finish the quilt before going to Utah.

This past week I've been going like crazy on the temple quilt & had even more women who showed up from the ward to help. About 63 hours were spent on it this week & so 146 hours have now been put into it & the end is in sight, which is extremely exciting! I'm now working on the towers (spires) of the temple which is tedious work with lots of tiny stitches & starting & stopping. It's addictive & hard for me to quit once I get going. So I stay up until midnight or after almost every night. (It is nice to have Sunday to rest & catch up on my blog, etc.) It's so fun to visit with the sisters that come. We get caught up on what's happening in each other's lives, & of course they are all excited about the wedding & want to see pictures of Janica & Seth.

Eric & Lindsay Stevens Koehn Reception

The tables were set up to leave a space in the center of the room for dancing, & other traditions such as throwing the flower bouquet to the eligible single women & the garter to the single men, to see who is supposedly next in line to get married. 

Everyone mingling & enjoying the refreshments. Purple and Green were the wedding colors. Lindsay even had an amethyst set in her pretty engagement/wedding ring.


On Oct. 11th, Eric & Lindsay Stevens Koehn were married in the Columbia River Washington Temple. Eric (previously a Mennonite) was baptized  about 2 1/2 years ago and became a member of our Basin City LDS 2nd ward, when Jay was still Bishop.  Eric & Lindsay live just down the road from us. They are both older and have searched for a companion for many, many years. They first met two years ago through the LDS single adult program, but didn't actually start dating until after they watched conference together at a friend's home, last April. Everyone was extremely thrilled when they heard about their engagement! Eric is a school bus driver in the North Franklin school district & also works for Sage Hill Northwest. Lindsay works as a caregiver for disabled young adults through Tri-Cities Residential Services & she sometimes works as a driver for Dial-A-Ride. We are so very happy for them!

Harvest Festival At Our Country Mercantile

Then on Sat. Oct. 11th, I again met Jay at our Merc & we watched BYU play NMU in Provo & beat them 21-3. They had their 16th straight win and have a 6-0 record & may possibly qualify for a bowl game! They are ranked eight and nine in the polls. I have really been getting into this college football thing. It was also an extremely busy day at our harvest festival, which is a very good deal, & it wasn't even our normally busiest weekend. Here are several more pictures taken inside our store (picture murals of the cable bridge & grape vineyards & fields in the Tri-City area, our deli, homemade icecream & chocolates, gourmet items, other food items, fresh produce & crafts) & around the outside where much of the festivities take place. Check out countrymerc.com to see what we have to offer there.














On Friday, Oct. 3rd I met Jay at our Country Mercantile to watch BYU football play at Utah State & win 34-14. Yeh! Then the Pasco 7th Branch Young Adults came to have a fun night at our harvest festival. Jay & I occasionally attend the branch with our calling as Stake Young Adult Coordinators. It started pouring rain & we eventually had to take down our fun obstacle course castle & frog. They still played on the pyramids & in the mazes, road the wagon to the pumpkin patch, visited our petting zoo and drank hot chocolate as they visited. The missionaries were also there to join in on some of the activity, mostly just talking. Some had to go inside and try out some of our famous chocolates, etc.

Working on Janica & Seth's Wedding Plans

Janica and Seth had some fun engagement pictures taken on Oct. 8th, for them to choose from for their wedding invitations. Here are just a few of them. They are waiting for the CD that will have all of them. You can view more of the pictures on sharonjohnsonphotography.com.

It's been almost two weeks since my last post, so I definitely have some catching up to do. Most of my time has been spent working on Janica & Seth's wedding plans; shopping & gathering daisy flowers & materials for the table decorations, reserving & purchasing other decor for the receptions, learning to grow wheat grass (pictures taken on day four & day nine of growing), gathering addresses for the invitations and working on their temple quilt, which has been a full-time job by itself (84 hrs. have already been spent in 12 days of stitching with the help of some of the women in my ward). The quilt has been very theraputic & it's fun when I have someone to talk to. Otherwise I  listen to BYU-TV or other talk CD's as I work.  The pictures show the progress from day one when I started Sept. 29th, to  day ten, Oct. 8th,  & then day twelve, Oct.11th. I took a break on Sat. Oct. 4th to watch both sessions of general conference & then watched both sessions on Sun. Oct. 5th. What a wonderful uplift to listen to so many wonderful words of wisdom of faith, hope & charity, from our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson, our Apostles, & other general authorities!! What a great blessing in our lives to have leaders to direct us in this world of turmoil!!!