A BIRTHDAY TO REMEMBER

Monday was my birthday, but I have had several weeks of non-stop birthday!

My friend Kit took me out to dinner in Forsyth to the Hong Kong restaurant to celebrate. This is a tradition with us, we usually do lunch but since both our husbands were out of town and she was busy working on her house we did dinner. Since she is moving we did it before my birthday. That was a first. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures. But trust me, it was wonderful Chinese!! I sure will miss you Kit!!

While I was in Washington my wonderful cousin, Viv took me out to lunch for my birthday. We went to Ivar's. DELICIOUS!! I had fish & chips with popcorn shrimp and clam chowder. YUMMY!! Lemon Cake to die for was the dessert!! WOW!!
On Friday evening Meledie said she wanted to take Viv and me out to dinner.
It was a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY DINNER for me!! I was so surprised and delighted!!
We went to the Claim Jumper. I think it was in Lynnwood.
The food was incredible!!
Lobster, baby back ribs, baked potato..... what else could a girl ask for?!
So scrumptious!!
This gives new meaning to Sinfully Delicious!!
They also brought me wonderful Red Velvet Cupcake with a candle. Viv and Meledie sang Happy Birthday to me. The waiter said it was much, much better than the usual renditions:) They did sing GREAT!!
Meledie had raspberry white chocolate cheesecake.
Here we see her after she has just dumped the entire thing into her lap.
Good shot!! She only ended up with lots of white chocolate chips on the floor.
What a Fun, Fun Evening
Viv, Sidney & Meledie
Thanks Meledie!!
I flew home on Monday.
Laurence had me meet him at Mulligan's in Colstrip.
We had a fun dinner there.
My favorite there is their loaded nachos.
AND
The crowning glory was the sapphire earrings Laurence gave me!
I absolutely LOVE sapphires!
A BIRTHDAY TO REMEMBER!!!

“Fundamentals of Our Constitutions” - Elder Dallin H. Oaks - LDS Newsroom

“Fundamentals of Our Constitutions” - Elder Dallin H. Oaks - LDS Newsroom
This is a talk by Elder Oaks on the Constitution is really awesome! I would encourage all of my friends whether you are LDS or not to read this talk/speech. Prior to becoming an apostle for the LDS church he a Supreme Court Judge in the State of Utah, he was a lawyer and he also was a law professor with the Constitution being his specialty.

Wonderful People who have Helped Shape My Life~

Last week Viv took us down to Enumclaw, Wash to visit family. Our first stop was the home where Aunt Cathern is currently living. What a nice place and wonderful people running it. I was so grateful to get to see Aunt Cathern. Sidney, Mom, Aunt Cathern, Aunt Helen, Uncle John & Viv 3 Sisters

Mom (Bessie), Aunt Cathern, Aunt Helen

These women are all incredible women.

Mom will be 85 in November, Aunt Cathern is 88 and Aunt Helen turned 90 in February. Amazing!!

After visiting Aunt Cathern we went to Aunt Alice & Uncle Ron's for a wonderful lunch.
Above: Uncle Ron, Aunt Alice, Uncle John, Aunt Helen, Mom
This has been a great week+ to spend time with my wonderful extended family.

Title of Liberty-- Ireland Dublin Mission

Since I seem to be in so melancholy for the sweet times in Ireland I thought I would also share this song that was co-written and performed by and Elder I had the privilege to serve with in Ireland. (Have I mentioned how much I love Ireland, the Irish People and the missionaries I was allowed to serve with???) Be sure to continue reading to see the Mormon Aires performance and the rendition of I Love the Ireland Mission at President Pugh's funeral.

Mormon Aires

This video was taken of the Mormon Aires at their rehearsal prior to President Pugh's funeral last week. This was a group formed by President Pugh and they performed nightly at the Gaiety theatre in Dublin. This is their first time performing together in 30+ years. I have more about them in the following post. The second verse to this song was written by them, primarily Nick Mills, as a tribute to President Pugh.

Thanks to Brad Cox for making it available.

President Pugh: Farewell from this Life's Mission

President Marvin L. Pugh

April 3, 1912 ~ August 25, 2010

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Utah to pay my respects to a great man in my life. My mission president. President Pugh was my first mission president when I arrived in the Ireland Dublin Mission in August 1979. President and Sister Pugh were remarkable individuals and I know I didn't realize just how fortunate I was to have such loving, caring, spiritual individuals in my life. The funeral was attended by many, many missionaries and Irish members. It was an incredible tribute to a great man 30 years later. I traveled a long way to be there, but there were many that traveled much further.

President Pugh was kind and caring, but make no mistake; he did expect you to work hard and to be obedient. One comment that I heard in one of the sermons at the funeral was that covenants made led to a life of commitments kept.
President and Sister Pugh had one daughter Kay Lynne and she died when she was 21. The Lord had promised the Pugh's many children and grand children. They considered all 300+ of us to be a fulfillment of that promise. All of the missionaries along with their spouses. children and grandchildren were listed in the program as their family.
A request from President was that at his funeral, his missionaries would sing the Ireland Dublin Mission Song (written by President Spencer W. Kimball), and then recite D & C 4. This was VERY EMOTIONAL for me. The two first lines are "I Love the Ireland Mission" and "I Love the Irish People". No truer words could be spoken. I feel so blessed to have been called to serve there and to serve the people I did with the people I served.
The above flowers are the arrangement that we as missionaries provided.

Some of the missionaries that were at the gravesite. Incredible individuals.
Afterward we had a "reunion" at President's house. Above: Bradley Cox, Scott Adams, Sidney Zeller Pitt, John Mellor
Vickie Bradley Meyers, Melody Oakley Andrews and Myself.

Susan Knighton Mutchler, Melody Oakley Andrews, Cynthia Covey Haller and myself.

As you can see there aren't a lot of sisters there, but considering the percentage of sisters in our mission, there were quite a few...:) I had the opportunity of serving with Susan and Melody, but was never privileged to serve with Cynthia.

Me and Jeff Curran. Jeff was my first District Leader. I have so much respect for him! He is truly a great man.

Although I have no pictures to show, Aisling spent the day with me. She was a GREAT chauffer, girl Friday etc. I loved being able to share a little bit of such a special part of my life with her.

This group Terry DeFreese, Shawn Murphy, Gary Skillen and Nick Mills were a singing group called the Mormon Aires. They sang nightly in a performance in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin with one of their productions and were guests on the Late Late Show with Gay Byrne. They came together for President's funeral. They sang the first verse of "O' Danny Boy" and then the second verse was one they had written as a tribute to president. I am trying to put the recording of this and the recording of I Love the Ireland Mission on my blog, but have been having problems doing so. (Note: apparently it decided to make it on somehow.... so it is below. Keep scrolling)

Really I guess it can all be summed up like this:

I Love the Lord.

I Loved Serving the Lord in Ireland.

I am so grateful for the blessings I received and continue to receive from serving.

I LOVE THE IRELAND MISSION!

This is a recording that Aisling made of "I Love the Ireland Mission" at President Pugh's funeral. Thanks Aisling!

A Beautiful Trip Down Memory Lane

In 1976 I left home for Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. I was blessed to be accepted into the Landscape and Nursery Management Program. This was it's innaugural year. There were about 20 people accepted into the program. We had all of our classes together except for our religion class. As you can imagine, we were an amazingly close-knit group. Dr. Kim Black was the head of the program. I came to truly love and respect him. Part of the program was to learn the practical aspects of landscaping. In other words.... getting dirty! One of the projects we started was a garden area behind the Agriculture building. Some of the guys in the program called it Fort Apache. This was the beginning of what would later become the Thomas Ricks Gardens. Fort Apache has been removed and replaced, and the gardens continue to grow. Yesterday as I was driving to Ogden, I stopped and took some wonderful moments walking down memory lane at Ricks College (aka BYU-Idaho). I hope I don't sound too boastful when I tell you that I was so proud to have been a part of this project. I know that none of us students even remotely caught the vision of what was to come. The gardens now cover some 10 acres and are absolutely stunning! I found myself very emotional as I thought about those hours spent working in that pasture land. People enjoying the gardens would have no idea what went into that project. I'm sure they wouldn't even imagine the pastureland, the weeds etc. that were once there. I saw a plaque on a bench dedicated to Dr. Black, I wish I knew where he was. I don't even know if he is still alive. I am so grateful for his foresight and hardwork to make his dream at Ricks College a reality. They now have all sorts of different majors within the horticulture department. They still have the same club we organized "Metus Topiaria", and it has grown so much. I wondered about the students I graduated with. We finished with an Associate Degree in Landscape and Nursery Management. (Ricks was a 2 year college)As I enjoyed the nooks and crannies, and all the little alcoves I couldn't help but wonder how many proposals and stolen kisses had occurred here. Hmmmmmm

If life should take you through or even near Rexburg, make sure you take the time to enjoy the gardens!