In Loving Tribute to Gordon B. Hinckley

Be Grateful, Be Smart, Be Involved, Be Clean, Be True, Be Positive, Be Humble, Be Still, Be Prayerful. -Gordon B. Hinckley-

Prophetic Passing

I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,
Yes, running, not waving his cane.
I see him embracing his father and mother
While they keep repeating his name.

I see him now meeting his fore bearers,
Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.
Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service
That only such noble men share.

I see him embraced by the Savior
While Father says, "Good and well done.
So faithful in stalwart endurance, I welcome
My noble, most excellent son."

I then hear the ripples of laughter
As he says the reception's just fine,
But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two
Since there's no need to waste any time.

I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward - there's work to be done.
President Hinckley would want it that way.

Anna M. Molgard
January 27, 2008

Just a few more family pictures

I thought I would blog these pictures. Macen is such a little clown.

It's a new week

Good morning all! We're starting the week off with Macen being funny! He does things that just make me laugh! We had a nice time this weekend. Grant got his bronco fixed. (huge thanks to Dave &Cindy Keltner) Macen was excited to get "Bluto" (that's what we call the bronco) back. Geran and Nan came for dinner..(our normal Sunday crowd) and we had a fun time. We did get some sad news last night. The president of our church, Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away last night. He was 97 years old. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. Two of the most amazing people passed away this past week.
I leave on Thursday for Salt Lake. My Grandma's funeral is on Saturday. I'll be back on Sunday. I will have pictures, because all of my siblings will be in Salt Lake. It will be the first time we have all been together since my wedding!
That's it for now. I hope you all have a great week!

In Loving Memory of Grandma Johnson

My Grandma, Mary Faye Fail Williams Johnson, passed away last night, January 23rd, 2008. She was 91 years young. She will be greatly missed.

The Legacy

"When I die, give what is left of me to children.

If you need to cry, cry for your brothers walking beside you.

Put your arms around anyone and give them what you need to give to me.

I want to leave you with something,

something better than words or sounds.

Look for me in the people I have known and loved.

And if you cannot live without me, then let me live on in your eyes,

your mind, and in your acts of kindness.

You can love me most by letting hands touch hands and letting go of

children that need to be free.

Love does not die, people do.

So, when all that is left of me is love.....

Give me away."

I love you Grandma

Katie Bug

3 years ago today we lost our little Katie Bug to SIDS. On this day I am reminded of how many blessings I have taken for granted. I don't think anyone realizes how quickly people come in and go out of our lives. I have learned to be thankful every single day for what I have. That being said, Thank you all for being a part of my life!

The Williams-Johnson clan

The Williams-Johnson clan at Grandma's 90th birthday celebration

My Grandma Johnson

I have been blessed in my life with amazing women. Each of them has taught me about the kind of woman, wife, and mother that I want to be. My Grandma Johnson is one of these women. She has been such an incredible roll model. She sets the standard for greatness. All my life she made me feel like I was her favorite. All of my cousins feel the same (...however, I really think that I AM the favorite) She saved herself from a bad situation, taking her and her 5 kids to safety..in a time that being a divorced single mom was almost unheard of. She met a Sailor, (who I think was the love of her life) and eloped to Vegas. They had two more kids and she blended the family together so well that the words "half brother" or "half sister" were never used!
My Grandma has the ability to play the piano without actually being able to read music. Some of my fondest memories are of her playing her "baby grand."
She also liked to dance. I remember watching her and my Grandpa dancing to Frank Sinatra songs. She and my mom could also tap dance. When Grandma got too old to tap, she used her fingers..She'd hum a tune and she'd use her two pointers to tap to the beat!
Okay..A little trivia about me... I HATED tuna fish sandwiches for most of my life..but when I went to Grandma's, she would make a tuna sandwich that not even a tuna could turn down.That was the thing about Grandma, everything she did was better . Everything she did made you feel good. Thankfully, she taught me how to make her tuna , and I have passed it down to my son. We call it a GGJ...and when I make it the memories of my Grandma come flooding back.
My Grandma is 91 this year, and as I type this her health is failing and sadly we are all making plans for her funeral. It's very hard to imagine my Grandma J in such a weak condition. She has been such a vibrant lady. I know when the time comes, she will be at peace, and there are a great many people on the other side excited to be with her again. She will be missed though. I am very grateful to have had time with her. Not many kids get to have a Grandma like mine!

There is a poem by Shel Silverstein that reminds me of my Grandma:

"Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-gumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'cross the kitchen floor'
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before."

We got Snow!

Hi everyone! Most of you deal with Snow all the time. We here in Fallon very rarely get snow. Reno will get slammed, and Fallon with get a flurry or two. The weather man kept saying to expect snow, and we, of course, laughed at him! Saturday and Sunday morning were absolutely beautiful! Sunny, not too cold, and not a cloud in the sky! Macen and I went to Church Sunday morning at 9 am. We didn't wear coats because we would have gotten too hot. We got out of Church at 12. Got home, and went with Grant to the galley for brunch. Still, sunny, still warm, still beautiful! We finished brunch at about 1:30 and as we were walking to the truck, clouds had started to roll in..here in Fallon, we're used to clouds! By 2:30 the snow started coming and by 3 it was falling fast and hard! I was having friends over for dinner and started getting a little concerned about their safety. I called Nan and Geran over earlier..(We don't do Sunday dinner without them) Grant had left to work on his Bronco, and I was a little worried that he wasn't going to make it home by 6. He walked in the door at 5:55 and said it was a little tricky, but not too bad. Our other friends (the sister Missionaries) got to our house and we has a great dinner (Clam chowder, hot rolls, and carrot cake for desert) We has a fun time, and the snow stopped enough to let everyone get home safely....also allowing Grant and Geran to have a snowball fight! I will say that my husband is a gentleman. He cleaned off all the cars and warmed them up so that no one had to sit in the cold! So with all this being said..Heavenly Ski resort near Tahoe is just a little ways up the road..so y'all grab your skis and we'll have a blast!

our dogs!

Here's Bear..not thrilled that Scout kept him awake all night!

Here's Scout...tired from all the playing in the snow!

Monday..after the snow!

What a beautiful day..The snow ended at about 10 pm Sunday night, and this is what we woke up to!

Our poor tree! You can tell what direction the snow was coming from!

The front of our house..the rest of the yards in the neighborhood were clean with no foot prints..You can tell who has the five year old!

Snowing..it's not spring yet?

A close up of Macen and his purple lightsaber in the snow!

Geran was pushed down...it was funny to see!

Scout's first Snow!!! He would watch Bear chase snowballs and run out to help..the snow would hit him and he'd run right back in the house..finally he realized how much fun he was...he had a blast chasing everyone around!

It snowed in Fallon

On Sunday morning we woke to a beautiful sunny, warm day. Macen and I went to church, came home at 12:30, had brunch with Grant..not a cloud in the sky..at 1:30 clouds started rolling in, and by 4:30 pm this is what we had! At this point, we had about 3 inches on the ground!

Still snowing, and our sturdy pine tree started feeling the weight!

Macen and his "brother" Geran playing Star Wars out in the snow!

Obama

Obama in Fallon

Hi everyone! I just got home from meeting who I hope to be the next President of the United States..(I know that some of you reading this disagree with me, and that's okay...just as long as you get out there and vote) Barack Obama came to my little 'ol town of Fallon Nevada! The junior High school gym was packed with another room holding an overflow of over 200 people! He spoke with a great deal of passion, and has some great ideas for this country. He respects our military, wants a better health care system, wants our schools and teachers to get the money that they deserve, and has a plan for the economy!
Anyway, enough on him. There was a secret service member who looked just like my brother Bill..I actually had to do a double take! It was a great night..Now if I can just get my staunch Republican of a husband to hear about it!!! I am always up to hear other sides, so if you want to tell me your opinion, leave me a comment

Update on Scout the dog

Our Hound dog is getting bigger every day. He's so much fun to have around! He makes a lot of noise, and he and Bear play all the time. Macen adores him, and Scout has taken to sleeeping on Macen's bed at night.

He's learned to sit....

And lay down..not necessarily on command!

priceless

Giving Birth to Macen: $200,000.00
Cars Underwear: $6.00
Bottle of Tide Detergent to clean underwear: $17.00
Picture to show all of Macen's future girlfriends: PRICELESS

Duck...if you're a Mormon

I saw this on the Deseret News Websight and I thought it was great...I hope you all get something out of it!

DUCK...... IF YOU'RE A MORMON

I missed the memo that said it's A-OK to make disparaging and often erroneous statements about Mormons.

Apparently, they are fair game.

Sure, these are hypersensitive times, when name-calling or perceived bias against any group will get you the Don Imus treatment, but you get a free shot with Mormons. You can say what you want about them with impunity.

If you denigrate a racial group, you're racist.

If you denigrate women, you're sexist.

If you denigrate Mormons, you're hip.

No one would openly suggest that you shouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton because a woman can't lead the country, especially an ornery one.

Nobody would dare say that you shouldn't vote for Barack Hussein Obama because he's black, or of Muslim descent, or because he has a name that sounds like a terrorist. One Clinton worker even apologized for alluding to Obama's use of drugs as a youth, so apparently it's wrong to disparage former drug users, too.

But nobody is shy about saying you shouldn't vote for Romney simply because he's a Mormon.
It doesn't even register on the PC-O-Meter.

Just like that, 6 million Americans have been virtually disqualified from running for president. They've been rendered second-class citizens. They're foreigners living in America. They face a glass ceiling.

How un-American is that?

It would be one thing if most of those who oppose Romney did so because they disagreed with his politics or character. But Romney is one of the few candidates who has no character issues, a "squeaky clean" man who has a distinguished record of accomplishments, success and service, with no divorces, no affairs, no scandal. The only thing opponents can say about him is that he belongs to a church they don't understand.

A Harvard law professor called Romney the most qualified of all the candidates and "the perfect candidate for this moment in time." But there is his Mormonism, he noted.

Even the self-styled PC chief of police, Al Sharpton, once jumped in on the action, saying, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways."
Mormons don't believe in God?

For his penance, all Sharpton had to do was endure a family home evening in Utah.

It's open season on Mormons. A few days ago, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard stated on ESPN and in the newspaper that part of the reason fired coach Cam Cameron failed was because he got stuck with a Mormon quarterback — not a rookie quarterback (which he is) but a Mormon quarterback.

"And you'll have a hard time finding a leader anywhere in sports who was as unlucky this year as Cameron," Le Batard said, noting that because of injuries, Cameron was forced to play "a United Nations huddle of a Mormon quarterback, Mexican receiver, Samoan fullback and some guy named Lekekekkkkerkker."

Now Mormons are foreigners?

Ignorance makes no difference. You can say Mormons have four wives or that they aren't Christian, and no one cares.

Imagine the uproar if Le Batard had written that the Dolphins suffered because they had to play a black quarterback for part of the season? Or a Catholic?

The Salt Lake Tribune has had a field day for more than a week since learning that Mike Leavitt and some of his like-minded cohorts met early in the morning to discuss Mormon theology and governance while he was Utah's governor. What if it had been a Bible study?

Nobody seems to mind when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says his religion "defines me." Or when Obama says his church guides "my own values and my own beliefs."

People worry that Romney will take his orders from his church leaders. They don't worry that Obama will take orders from his church, whose "10-point vision" includes two references to its "non-negotiable commitment to Africa," with no mention of America. Oh, and the church statement begins by noting on the Trinity United Church of Christ Web site, "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black."

It's a different set of rules for some out there. You can print newspaper cartoons disparaging Mormons. You can harass their families as they walk to their biannual conference with all sorts of foul language. When someone commits a crime, you can note the criminal's religion, but only if he's Mormon. You can make them a one-liner on Leno. Good luck reconciling all this with the paranoid political correctness that's so in vogue.

Meanwhile, the most politically correct presidential election field ever assembled — a woman, a black, a Mormon, a Baptist, etc. — has gone politically incorrect, but only when it comes to you know who.

Doug Robinson