Garden d'Lights

Bellevue's Garden d'Lights Festival

This is the 19th year for the festival. 178 volunteers dedicated 8,700+ hours to create this display that has over 1/2 million lights. 

In the past we've been dazzled by Wildlights at The Columbus Zoo and Alum Creek Fantasy of Lights. Bellevue's display is beyond dazzling; it's AWESOME. We're not sure how to describe the design technique. The lights seemed to be clumped together to make the designs instead of being strung in outlines. You can see that technique in the grape vine pictured above. 

Snap d'Dragon - over 135 strings of LED mini-lights - over 200 hours to create

This dragon breathed fire too

Ocean d'Lights - amazing creations

The long, thin cylinders in the tree are "snowfall" lights. The light dropped through the cylinder simulating falling snow. The "purple" river really was blue. Three salmon jumped their way upstream.  60' river made of 12,000 mini LED lights

Children were given a worksheet with objects to find throughout the gardens - spider,  frog, turtle, and many other fun things. You could hear them squealing with delight when they found something on the list. 

For the Youth - And Adults

"Help the youth ...  stand firm for truth and righteousness. Open wide to their view the gates of learning, of understanding and of service in Thy kingdom. Build within them strength to resist the temptations of the world. Give them the will to walk in virtue and faith, to be prayerful and to look to Thee as their constant anchor."*

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*From the dedicatory prayer, Calgary Alberta Temple

Streets - More

We've spoken previously on the confusion that can arise with street names in this area. This is the result on our GPS when we entered the number 11412 and street 124th. You can see how important it is to know whether it's a street or avenue and whether the directional letters (NE) come before or after the street name. 

Read other posts here and here

Stories - Gifts

“Every room tells a story. My story. Yours. I need to get those stories down on these leaves of paper, it is a terrible and unquenchable urge. I want to write all the stories out so that the words stand strong with a life of their own, so that they truly exist. So that the story of this house and its inhabitants will remain forever. Yes, we the Bazelets of the rue Childebert. We lived here, and despite the snares that destiny threw our way, we were happy here." 

Tatiana de Rosnay, "The House I Loved"

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I have a great desire to record family stories - stories of people, places, and things. I don't know if I'd label that desire as "terrible and unquenchable," but it's pretty strong! Some of our ancestors wrote stories for us. What treasures those are! It's the stories that make people and places come alive. 

Let us all leave the gift of stories for our posterity. 

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One Chicken & A Family of Six

Recently we were having a dinner for six people - two roasted chickens along with brown rice and an abundance of vegetables. As I cut up the chicken, I thought back to family dinners when I was growing up. 

Mom roasted one chicken for the six of us. Were the chickens as plump as these? Did Dad really like the back, neck, and tail? Did Mom really like wings? Did those parts become their favorite pieces so we children could have legs, breasts, and thighs?  Is this why we learned to eat the heart (Dad), liver (Dad), and gizzard (me until I learned what the gizzard does)? For some reason I always ended up with the dark meat and that's my favorite to this day.  

Life Lessons From Nature

We can learn much from nature. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ created a world full of beauty and lessons that can help us in our journeys here on earth. 

Some of the most magical moments of our lives are connected with nature. 

You can’t always capture the beauty, colors, the feelings & the sounds. 

Spiritual experiences are the same way.

The smell of lilac on a warm spring evening - impossible to capture in words or image. 

Words are often inadequate to describe our spiritual experiences. 

Often the most delicate parts of our nature are difficult for others to see -

 like the inability of the camera (or photographer) 

to capture the beautiful, delicate blue of forget-me nots.

The right tools are of great help. 

Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost will help us know which tools to use for different parts of our journey on earth. He's given us prayer and scriptures. He also provides other tools - often by way of the people in our lives. 

Just like lilacs, our lives have seasons. 

We need to slow down and notice the beauty and uniqueness of each season. 

They go by much too quickly. 

Sometimes we get battered & torn, often inadvertently. 

This plant was probably stepped on just as the leaves emerged. 

We can still leaf out and be beautiful even if we suffer some battering along the way. 

The beauty of our beings can bloom and bust forth 

despite the chain link fences in our lives. 

Dressed For Thanksgiving

The Cow and The Coyote

On Central Way in Kirkland

See more costumes here, here, and here

Thread Loops - Useful Skill

My mother taught me many sewing skills and coached me through numerous sewing projects in 4-H. She taught me how to do the thread loop. I've used that skill many, many times over the years -  most recently for hanging loops on jackets and knit slacks. I think of Mom every time I do this. 

Here's a video to show you how to make thread belt loops. Try it; you'll be able to use it.

Bowls & Their Stories

The other day I made something that required many bowls. At our age, everything has a story or two - even bowls.

The blue bowl on the right - that comes from Mom and Dad's home. I remember it from my childhood. What stories it could tell. 

The three metal bowls - Joe brought these with him when we were married in 1976. They're a marvelous addition to our kitchen. 

The two white bowls with the blue pattern - John King & I received this set as a wedding gift back in 1967. There used to be a third bowl but it broke more than 35 years ago. In June 1976 I was using the large one in our kitchen on Harvest Street in Dublin, Ohio. Michael is helping. 

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Added February 16, 2014

In the movie "The Way We Were" Barbra Streisand's character uses a bowl exactly like this white bowl with blue pattern. 

Temple Building People

Sometime in the fall of 1981 missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lugged a film projector and reel of film to our living room to share a message with us. Joe, MichaelK, and I had been meeting with the missionaries off and on (more off than on) for several months. The film was about the construction and dedication of the temple in Washington, D.C.

"We are a temple building people." Those words were uttered by Spencer Kimball in his vocal cord cancer-scarred, gravelly voice when he spoke to the people outside the Washington D.C. Temple before its dedication in the fall of 1974. Spencer Kimball was prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After the missionaries left, we compared impressions and realized we all had been struck by Spencer Kimball's words, "We are temple building people." We said, "Now that is a prophet." At the time we didn't know much about prophets or temples. But those words and feelings implanted themselves into our hearts and strengthened our desire to learn more.

"From the days of the Old Testament, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples - sacred structures where He could teach, guide, and bless them." Read more here. 

Temples are now being built all over the world. The temple, the House of the Lord, is a place of love, refuge, peace, learning, eternal covenants, and closeness to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Earth and heaven meet in the temple. It is awesome. 

Watch this beautiful video about why we are a temple-building people

Washington DC Temple

We started our eternal family here

Columbus Ohio Temple

Seattle Washington Temple

Evening at the Lake

Marina Park, downtown Kirkland

Helping Hands - Hurricane Sandy

It's been inspiring to read about all who are helping people clean up and recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. This video tells about a group of "Helping Hands."

Click here

Family Treasures

The other day the scripture about "treasures in heaven" went through my mind and heart. At the same time I was reminded by the Spirit that family is the greatest treasure we can have in heaven.

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, .... For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Christ & The Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 6: 20-21)

Eternal family - this can be a reality - family relationships can continue on the other side of the veil. It's our choice. 

Reflections on the Journey

"I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections" by Nora Ephron includes essays and tidbits on topics such as being divorced, email, eating habits, her start in journalism, and memory loss. The book ends with two lists - "What I Won't Miss" and "What I Will Miss." After finishing the book I discovered that Ephron had been diagnosed with leukemia in 2006, four years before publishing this book in 2010. She died two years later, June 2012. She was five years older than I am.

One of my favorite essays dealt with her start in journalism. She explained the cultural assumptions and restrictions about what women could and couldn't do in the 1960s. There was a structure, a career path, for men and a different one for women.

Ephron graduated from Wellesley in 1962 and went to New York City to be a journalist. She got a job at Newsweek. She was told by the employment agency that women didn't become writers at Newsweek. "It would never have crossed my mind to object, or to say, 'You're going to turn out to be wrong about me.' It was a given in those days that if you were a woman and you wanted to do certain things, you were going to have to be the exception to the rule." (page 17) She was hired as a "mail girl" for $55 a week.  "There were no mail boys at Newsweek, only mail girls. If you were a college graduate (like me) who had worked on your college newspaper (like me) and you were a girl (like me), they hired you as a mail girl. If you were a boy (unlike me) with exactly the same qualifications, they hired you as a reporter and sent you to a bureau somewhere in America. This was unjust but it was 1962, so it was the way things were." (page 18-19)

Our daughters and granddaughters hopefully won't ever encounter anything as blatant as this. I think it's important for them to know how much has changed in a relatively short period of time.

After I read the book, did some searching to find out more about Ephron, and discovered she had a terminal illness when she wrote the book, I reread the lists enumerating what she would and wouldn't miss. I thought about what I'd put on my lists. We don't have unlimited time here on earth. I am thankful to know that our journey continues on the other side of the veil.

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Caryl Holton - Veteran

Caryl Ames Holton & Celia Sconce Cathcart

Sidell, Illinois

January 16, 1918

Caryl Ames Holton joined the Army in the fall of 1917. January 16, 1918 Caryl wore his uniform for his marriage to Celia Sconce Cathcart. In June 1918 Caryl was headed to France on the SS Leviathan. This ship had been built by the Germans as a luxury liner. It was docked at a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey when World War I started. The ship was seized by the US government and was used to transport troops during the war. 

Caryl wrote his family every week for the year he was in France. The following except comes from "THAT TRIP," a three and one half page single spaced, typed account of the trip from New York City to Brest, France in June 1918.

"Friday morning about 10:50 A. M. I went into our supply officers room to see him about some supplies. His room was on the outside, next to the pier, and the port hole was open. Glancing out the port-hole I notices [sic] the pier was beginning to slip away from us. I looked at my watch. It was 10:55 A. M. on Saturday June 15th. We were off; off on that trip that meant so much to all of us; the trip for which we had all been waiting. I think that every man on that boat must have breathed a little Paryer [sic] then. A Prayer to the Master Pilot, to take us safely to our journeys end; to look over our loved ones whom we were leaving then, and after our work was finished to HIS liking, to bring us safely home.

"We were towed out into the river. Then our own engines began to throb, although we could hardly tell it because there was so little vibration, - and we were on our way. We were hardly started when abandon ship call sounded. That first drill wasn't exactly according to directions, but we got every man at his station before many minutes had passed and there we stayed until we were well out of the harbor. As we passed the Goddess of Liberty, every man removed his hat and a wonderfully inspiring cheer went up. The thought that came to me then- and to almost every man, I think, was- "WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN?"

"......... On the second morning out, we discovered that our destroyer had left us and that we were left on our own resources. We were alone then until the following Friday morning. When we first went on deck that morning we discovered that we were convoyed by four U. S. destroyers. Until you have seen the Stars and Stripes show up under just such circumstances as that, you have one sensation to experience because never did they look so good."

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In late May 1919, after almost a year in France, Caryl prepared to come home. May 11, 1919 he wrote:

"Mother o' Mine," ... Just two weeks from today, if all goes well we shall be sailing by [unintelligible] [unintelligible] taking a last look at this country which is so good to look at - from a distance. Then just as soon as it disappears below the horizon I'm going to plant myself up as near to the bow as possible and stay there as much as my duty and physical condition will permit - so I may be among the first to spy the Statue of Liberty as her torch appears "over the hill" where we left her a year ago. When we passed her last year I removed my hat - because everyone else did. This time I'll remove it for another reason - because I've come to an understanding of what she means and represents."

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Caryl was discharged from the US Army June 19, 1919 at Camp Grant, Illinois. At the time he was a first lieutenant and had served in the Engineer Corps

What's With This?

We've been here over a year and a half. We haven't figured out what's up with road construction. Projects seem to take forever - especially the sewer line project that involves our block. Over the last year and a half trenches have been dug, filled up, redug, paved, torn up again, and repaved. The city gives us nicely printed notices periodically letting us know what's going on and what's going to be blocked when and for how long. The workers have always been very polite and cleaned up in amazing ways the end of every work day. They carried groceries for people who had to park across the street because their driveways were blocked. Last Friday the filled-in trenches were nicely repaved, edges sealed and it looked like they were finally finished. 

I joked to Joe that someone would be here Monday to punch a hole in the street. 

Monday morning - I said to Joe, "Do I hear jackhammers?"

Sure enough - two men were punching a hole in the smooth, newly paved street. 

What's with that? Who forgot what? 

That says "water." Was this hole part of the plan or did it get paved over by mistake?

What I want to know now - did someone forget to put in that big, concrete pipe that's on the side of the road? Will there be jackhammers on Monday again?

Faith

"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." Moroni 7:33

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"As long as we are governed by the Holy Spirit our minds are strengthened, and our faith is and will be increased."  Wilford Woodruff

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We need to work to strengthen our faith and then put it into action to carry out the Lord’s work – He has given us an individual assignment – that is why we came to this earth - we can get the job done. BUT, the initiative is with us – Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always there – the door is always open.           

Joe

Bloom Where Planted

You don't usually look for tulips up in trees

Sometimes we find ourselves in unexpected places. 

We can bloom where we are planted 

and provide beauty from those unexpected situations. 

Kales?

When did "kale" become "kales"? What's next - spinaches and lettuces?

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FYI - this is a great addition to my breakfast drink; read more here.