We works hard and we plays hard....

Well, we work hard and we play hard! Having had a very busy Spring semester with classes and activities, we had a little break before Summer semester begins at the institute…no classes to teach, most of the students away for the break, and no missionary district meeting.

SO…you KNOW that we are very experienced at packing a lot of tourism into a short period of time…

Actually, we spent a Saturday in Holland MI for the annual Tulip Festival. The following Monday we had to go to Ohio for a routine Kaiser visit (there is no Kaiser Permanente in Michigan and every visit is a 460 mile round trip!) SO we added a couple days to visit Kirtland, Ohio, which is just another 40 miles beyond where we had to go anyway.

Kirtland is the site of an extraordinary and formative time in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we’ve long looked forward to being able to spend a little time there learning more and absorbing the wonderful knowledge that some incredibly important events occurred there.

So with that introduction, here’s the update…

Today (5/22) it’s a humid 88 degrees! Seems like we had a few spotty days of spring and launched right in to summer. Everything is green, flowering, and beautiful.

Our feathered and furry friends are busy behind our apartment…

Mr. Squirrel says “Am I feeling lucky today?”





Whoops…maybe not so much….








The fields are being prepared for planting…




On the MSU Campus, love is blossoming….




As are the flowers and trees….






And the Red Cedar River has finally stopped rising and is becoming peaceful, although still overflowing its banks….




In Kirtland, Ohio, we visited with our Half Moon Bay friends Dean and Marjorie Cook. Elder and Sister Cook are spending their summer as service missionaries helping to maintain the church historic sites in the Kirtland area. It was great to spend time with them as we visited the sites.

In front of the main visitor’s center…yep, it’s us!






And here with the Cooks at the John Johnson Farm, where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma stayed for a time…




The Kirtland Temple....




School of the Prophets in the Newell K. Whitney store….




And a bonus lighthouse on our way home. This is the Marblehead Light on the southwestern shore of Lake Erie….



The Holland Tulip Festival. They plant 120,000 new tulip bulbs each year for this. It is fantastic! Holland is a very nice town on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan that was founded by Dutch settlers…as you can see, their legacy has become a very big annual festival!

It's May!!!

I’ve never seen such green, green grass before. It is everywhere and it appeared almost overnight. The daffodil’s are in full bloom and even some of the bushes and trees have blossoms. We’ve heard that spring in Michigan is spectacular and I think it is finally on its way. What a wonderful, but busy, week we have had. Along with finishing our classes for the semester at the institute, we had some very special visitors from home. Marjorie and Dean Cook stopped by on Tuesday on their way to serve their mission in Kirkland, Ohio. They were able to stay for the night; and after dinner out, lots of chatting and laughing, a very WET rainy walk on MSU campus, breakfast here, and they hooked up their rig and were off. We are enjoying our mission, but we definitely are homesick for our family and friends so it was so wonderful to visit with them. We welcome all family and friends!!! Eric called last night to let us know that he had his plane tickets to come visit us over Labor Day. Yea!

The University Ward keeps us super busy along with our institute classes. Monday night for family night, we went on a picture taking scavenger hunt for two hours on MSU campus. The kids helped us see things we had never seen before and it was a bit crazy, but fun. (It didn’t hurt that our team won.) The ward also had an “end of the year” BBQ and then Friday night was institute graduation which was wonderful.

We always try to make the most of our Saturdays. I am fascinated by the whole making of maple syrup so we went to the Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival and it didn’t disappoint. We had a yummy pancake breakfast with real maple syrup. They had maple everything for sale—maple ice cream, maple cotton candy (had to try it), maple candy, maple soda, maple cream, and on and on. Just driving to Vermontville was a treat as the grass and fields are so green and beautiful surrounding quaint farm houses and classic red barns.

Love abounds in the University Ward and there are lots of marriages planned for this summer. I even had the opportunity to go to one of the wedding showers yesterday. Then to complete our Saturday, we attended a musical concert at the Wharton Center at MSU as Peter and Terri Bates had given us their tickets for the concert. The chorus and symphony performed Verdi’s Requiem and the music was beyond amazing. Craig and I really got our classical music fix for awhile.

We came here to Michigan to serve and teach the young people in this area, but they have taught us so much. We have witnessed so much kindness as we watch how they treat one another—the young lady who walked back several rows to retrieve another young lady who is sitting alone, the young man who walks with the blind deacon as he passes the Sacrament, the many meals they fix for the elders who serve in this ward, the lovely flowers and thoughtful card we were given last week, and I honestly could go on and on. On Easter Sunday, I complimented Jo who is blind on how pretty she looked. She told me that Brittany had taken her shopping the day before. These kids just keep teaching us every day.

"He is risen...."

Beautiful day today...I was struck by the profound Easter message from Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here are the closing words of his testimony of the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ:

“…Of Him who delivered each of us from endless death, I testify He is a teacher of truth—but He is more than a teacher. He is the exemplar of the perfect life—but He is more than an exemplar. He is the great physician—but He is more than a physician. He is the literal Savior of the world, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Holy One of Israel, even the risen Lord, who declared, “I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:4).”
“Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives!'”

Spring at Last!!!!!!

Today has been an absolutely glorious day!!!! I know I am totally obsessed with the weather and it has been so dreadful lately and then today it was 86 degrees. We have gone from winter to summer in one day and I even saw beautiful little purple crocuses blooming. The kids all lounged on the grass on blankets all afternoon chatting, resting, and just soaking up every bit of sunshine. We even took turns at the BBQ to cook our dinner---such a great day Sabbath day.
Yesterday we had the opportunity of going to the Detroit Temple with the young adults and then breakfast with the group afterwards. Since we were in Detroit, we decided to check out the Ford museum.



Craig was able to see the 1967 LeMans winning Ford GT40 Mk VI he had always wanted to see.



One of the many Friday Forum lunches we do.

Super Busy Week!

This week has been an especially busy one as Brother Draut has been out of town and Craig has been teaching many of his classes as well as his own. I too, had an additional class to teach this week. I was asked to teach a cooking class on making "no knead" bread for their Thursday night cultural night. The cooking class, though, took hours of preparation, turned out to be so much fun for all of us. We had a great turn out and I think there were as many boys in the class as girls. I felt a little like I was back teaching school and helping my students learn a new task. After lots of laughing and joking around, everyone went home with their bowl of dough to rise overnight. The next day the apartments smelled like a bakery--there is nothing better than smelling bread baking. All went well with the classes, but we were glad to see Friday night come.
After being edified with two full days of General Conference we are ready to start another busy week and that week starts Monday at 6:30 A.M. Craig will be teaching the Power of the Scriptures class to all the early risers and I plan to spoil them with some freshly baked raspberry muffins.
This is a picture of our most recent district, with Elder Riley as the district leader. Every time we have district meetings, we always come away so impressed by the dedication and work ethic of the elders in our area.
Last week for Family Night, the YSA Ward had a dance contest. They divided up in groups and then had a few minutes to put together a routine. All the routines were so creative and fun. They never cease to amaze me with the clever ideas they come up with for activities. The lessons they give at Family Night are also so great and one that was given a couple of weeks ago on forgiveness really touched me and I still remember the lesson I personally learned that night. We just can't praise these young adults enough and they really have worked their way into our hearts.

Maple “Surple”, Midland, and the Lighthouse that got away….

For the first time in awhile I have some time on a beautiful – although cold – Sunday afternoon, so how about an update on our recent meanderings… We are keeping very busy with our Institute responsibilities, but are having a great time and are finding a lot of satisfaction as we teach and testify about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We continue to become better acquainted with the young folks who attend classes and the ward, as well as those who are looking into joining the Church. I am continually reminded of what a great generation this is as I see them making thoughtful, prayerful decisions about their lives. What an inspiration it is to be around young folks who are so sincere about advancing their lives, both spiritual and temporal. Naturally, there is a full portion of challenges and disappointments, but it is impressive to see them learn important principles as they face adversity as well as success. Our Institute Director was unexpectedly called away for a week last Friday, so we will be extra busy this week with teaching additional classes, etc. Last Saturday we had a couple hours free so went to the Maple Syrup Festival at the local Fenner Nature Park. Got a first hand look had how collecting the sap, boiling it, etc. works. Karen is pretty enthused about making some Maple Syrup on our own, since we have a woods right behind our apartment full of the White Maple trees, but I am reminded that it takes 40 gallons of sap (!) to end up with one gallon of syrup. Makes going to the local grocery store for syrup look pretty easy….

We had an entire day free yesterday, so we took a little sightseeing trip. It was beautiful out, but the temperature was still in the low 20’s, not counting the wind chill. We went to Midland, which is right about in the “middle of the mitten”. (Hold up your right hand, palm facing you, then consider how much Michigan looks like a mitten, and you will get it.) Midland is the home of Dow Chemical Company, founded many years ago by a young Mr. Dow who the locals considered to be somewhat crazy as he conducted some curious chemistry experiments. Guess he was offbeat kind of like Bill Gates and his crazy PC’s as Dow is a worldwide producer of chemical compounds. They seem to take very good care of the hometown... most of the local attractions (Museums, Art Galleries, public gardens, etc. seem to have the word “Dow” in their name.

Among the attractions is the (locally) famous “Tridge”, a well done three way foot bridge that spans the confluence of the Chippewa and Tittabawassee Rivers and which then flow into Saginaw Bay, on Lake Huron.

After leaving Midland, we headed for Bay City, on Saginaw Bay to see the Saginaw River Rear Range Lighthouse. It turns out that it is completely inaccessible to the public, so we finally – after an hour or so of looking – gave up on it. But here’s a picture from the “Lighthouse Friends” website so you (and we) can remember what we missed.

We Had a Visitor

Tiffany flew out for a short visit last week and it was wonderful to have her here and so we could share some fun things about Michigan with her. Some interesting thoughts bounced around my head when she called from Chicago to say her connecting flight to Lansing was cancelled due to the fog here. Her husband immediately got her a flight to Detroit, which is an hour and half drive for us, but we hopped in the car and headed out into the very dense fog. It was after 10:00 P.M. as we cautiously found our way down the freeway, which was completely wrapped in fog. As we drove through this very thick fog, I kept thinking about how I am so grateful that we are sealed together as a family and so grateful for the gospel, which teaches that families can be together forever. It was so hard to see and dense fog just made me think about wandering around in the eternities and not being able to find your loved ones, not being able to find them ever. I know I get crazy thoughts sometimes, but I really love all of my family so much. It was after midnight when she landed, but all was well.

We did a little Christmas shopping in Frankenmuth at the world's largest Christmas store.

The snow is finally melting and there is lots of flooding. We are taking a short walk on the walk along the swollen Grande River.

Craig wanted to show his very slim wardrobe here. I won't be taking a picture of my closet.

We rearranged our office and it is quite a nice place to work.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Lansing Stake Women's Conference and it was quite an event. It started at 9 A.M. with a nice breakfast and a short program in the cultural hall and then we all moved into the chapel for the rest of the day with some inspiring speakers and beautiful musical numbers. We ended the day with a great lunch. Quite a day!

Last week was Spring Break here at MSU and it gave us an opportunity to go to Parma, Ohio for some routine doctor appointments. Cleveland, Ohio is right next to Parma and so it gave Craig the opportnity to check out the East and West Harbor Pierpoint lighthouses on Lake Erie.

We were saddened when we woke up to the news about the huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Our lives here on earth really are so fragile. May the Lord's blessing be with the people in Japan.