You are officially no longer a teenager. Welcome to the adult world!
Spring break is over and tomorrow Julz and I start back at school. The good part is school only has six weeks left! Ya hooeeee!
I read three books over the break. Two that an lds author wrote about romance during the 1800's over in England. Very similar to Jane Austin and Jane Eyre novel's. The third book is called "Wonder". It's about a young boy who was born with a very deformed face. He had twenty-seven plastic surgeries for the first ten years of his life. His mother home schooled him until his tenth birthday. That's when the story begins on how he copes in a private school some where in New York City. The book was on the best sellers list for a while and even though it's for youth and teenagers to read I learned a lot about how the parents raised the young man to have such great confidence. School is very hard for him at first but he learns to adjust to his new environment. Wonder was a very good book and now I'm ready to go back to school to try and encourage younger kids to read.
Fast and testimony meeting is always good at our Ward. I was doing fine until Lynn Belnap got up and started talking about her newly wed daughter Hannah. Apparently her diabetes is getting worse and her blood sugar is out of control. Through all her pain Lynn said that Hannah is still grateful for all her blessings and her husband. Hannah is really trying hard to look at all the good in this world even though her health is in serious jeopardy. Lynn read a part of Hannah's text saying that God is good no matter what. I couldn't hold back the tears.
God is good.
Love, mom
April 15, 2016
Hi Jess,
April 15, 2016
Hi Jess,
Tonight was our ward talent fair. They called it a fair this year because members brought things to display that are more like hobbies. So we had it at the Stake Center because one side of the gym had a bunch of tables set against the wall with everyone's hobbies or talents. There were three beautiful quilts. I hung mine and Pam Schow's quilt blocks that we are sewing from our RS sewing quilt class. Julie made a poster of her dancing photo's from BYU and played the dance she and Kirsten choreographed back in 2014 on Jenny's computer.
I'm sending you a photo of Jim Robertsons rock collection, it was really neat. There were all kinds of things that were displayed. Then we had another program with singing, poetry, piano (Julie did her recital piece), violins, guitars and ukulele's, even a mandolin. I decided not to sing a country song this year. Instead I entered the cupcake competition for our first annual "Cupcake of Wars. I really took some time and researched on pinterest and youtube. I was going to do an awesome german chocolate cup cake recipe that Stacy Bell gave me at work but I changed my mind since there were so many chocolate cup cakes.
Instead I found a carrot cupcake recipe with cream cheese in the middle of the cake part and cream cheese frosting on top with sprinkled sugar pecans and carmel syrup dripped on top. Well guess what I didtn't place in any of the categories or get 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. But, I won best in Crowd Favorite!! I was so surprised since there were so many cupcakes. Everyone who attended got to vote and I tied first with cute Cambree Thomas. Kristen Thomas's daughter who is only twelve years old. I was soooo excited I screamed when they called my name because it was the last award of the evening!! Any way it was a fun evening and I won a baking cook book to go with my small collection of cook books.
It's kind of funny since I've never made cupcakes from scratch. I've always bought the cake mix from a box. But I found out tonight the top winners used a box mix but just added pudding mix for moisture. Go figure.
I'm now up stairs writing to you since I can't go to sleep and your sisters are down stairs watching Pacific Rim with Michael VanWagoner. Dad left this morning with Grandpa to drive to New Mexico for Dad's dam conference and meetings with other dam engineers. Grandpa will stay in the hotel with dad at night and go visit his 97 year old brother and his 93 year sister in-law. This very couple both still live at their original home from when they were first married. Dad and grandpa will visit for a week and then maybe drive to Phoenix Arizona to visit Grandpa's 88 year old sister. Dad said it all depends on how Grandpa feels. They may be gone for ten days or come home in seven.
You looked really cute in the photo with your new b-day clothes! Your denture photo was my fave!!
Love, mom
