Friday, December 30, 2016

Rereading OLD JOURNALS and BLOGS

It's amazing how a blog can be like a diary recording your activities and thoughts with photos and words. I spent a few minutes reviewing my blog entries/posts for the past year and it was like reliving some of the good times...I made this list of monthly accomplishments:

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Grandkids and Dan-Tina
JAN-genealogy research takes up lots of time in our cold weather.

FEB- Tour of Provo City Temple and time with family in Utah Valley, son Frank V's 50th birthday-I'm getting older.

MAR-Busy with Poetry in the Park and Redrock Writers Seminar, robins are nesting and two eggs soon to hatch.

APR-Busy with traveling to Utah State Poetry conference in SLC area and Mesquite Fine Arts Festival in Nevada.

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l-r: Emilee and Heather
MAY-GRADUATION for twins and family reunion, lovely Mother's Day visit with son Jeff and his two kiddos.

JUNE-Summer heat is here, working on family history again, exercising-walking in the outdoor pool.

JULY-My birthday and fun trip to Cedar Mountains and to visit Sagers in Hatch, Utah.

ImageAUG-Reading Julia Cameron's book -It's Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativy and Meaning in Midlife and Beyond. I want to teach a class about this! Released from RS presidency-now I'll have more time to do other things.

 SEP-Grandparents day with James, Folk Dance scrapbook photos and visiting the twins-home from college.

OCT-Floyd sisters-hubby's daughters reunion, Caryn's back!

NOV-Thanksgiving at Dan's and Kanab trip for writers conference plus trip to North Rim of Grand Canyon and Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

DEC-Holidays-Dan's family visits on their way to Mexico for a family service project.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Looking back...

Today I spent quite a bit of time looking back at old memories captured on photos and stored in my dropbox file which is getting filled up. How fun to see earlier times and realize how many memories of family and nature's beauties were experienced.

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Sunset on Great Salt Lake on the way to the SL Airport
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Four years ago enjoying the new Salt Lake shopping mall
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Trying to sell some of the five book I wrote-gave up on that...lol!
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Enjoying a hike on the Virgin River Confluence Park
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Appreciating the "stark beauty of our desert surroundings"
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Exploring Snow Canyon park in St. George city area
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Hubby is my chauffeur and designated guide on these excursions

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Family Christmas Visitors

Dan, Tina and family stopped by briefly on their way to  Mexico for a service project they do each year helping build homes for LDS members in Puerto Penasco. It was fun to see everyone, they'll be back on their return trip for New Year's Eve...
 
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Hatch family enjoys homemade stew and pumpkin pie.
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The breakfast cooks: l-r Emilee, Heather and Daniel
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Our cook James slept in...
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Emilee and Nathan who is growing a foot every time I see him...
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Getting packed for the trip south in the rain.
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Heather looking good after a successful semester away at a Snow College.
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Heather taught me how to do selfies...
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Emilee also had a successful semester away at BYU-Idaho
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Can't believe my first grand children are almost adults and in college!
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My son Daniel is a successful college teacher now at UVU=Utah Valley University
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Friday, December 16, 2016

Poem published in UTSPS Panorama

My days of being published are over except for poems. When I retired I wrote 5 books in 5 yeasrs: My books are still spotlighted on my blog in the left column at the bottom and available: (1) Looking Back at the Good Old Days (2) Nature Notes for Kids: collection of poetry for my grandkids, (3) Find Your Voice, Write Your Life Story, (4) Family Home Evening for Empty Nesters and Singles, and my last attempt: Discover Your Voice After Divorce: Writing workbook for Healing and Recovery. The last two books are available as e-books from Amazon.com So guess you could say I've achieved some success if not monetarily...lol!
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So here's my latest published poem in Panorama 2016 entitled: