Stirling Adventures Continued: July 2011

Friday, July 22, 2011

70 Years Old !! ??

Now I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how I got to the age I am. One moment, I was a girl, then a young mother, a busy woman working and serving raising a house full for teenagers, a retiree enjoying time to relax and play and now suddenly I am 70! Time certainly flies by on wings and you definitely cannot call it back.

So what have I learned from this experience? To enjoy each stage of life to the fullest. I probably did not follow that advice when I was younger, always looking for the next phase to arrive, but now I just want to enjoy where I/we are and savor it rather like a wonderful creamy chocolate candy!

One thing I know for sure is that I am so grateful to have a family to love who seem to love me also, in spite of many shortcomings on my part.

Now on to the next adventure. Not knowing if it will last for 2 or 5 or 10 or 20 years, I do know that I plan to enjoy each moment and experience as much as I possibly can. I am so grateful to have a good man and best friend to share it with; to have a firm testimony of the reality of my savior Jesus Christ. For it is true, with God nothing is impossible. After all look at me!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

JULY = FAMILY TIME

July = Family time

I love July. Maybe because it is my birthday month? Maybe because it is warm and sunny? Or could it be the flowers and gardens in full bloom? Because of the watermelon and corn on the cob? Or maybe because it is usually a time we spend together as a family. No matter the reason, it is still my favorite time of year.

This July began with sunshine and family. Justin and Lindsey came to spend the 4th of July weekend with us. It was wonderful just sharing time with them. They are easy to be with and we had a good time. Then Sunday evening, Scott, Jenni and Kade and Zane came to stay for the 4th. Wow we hit the jackpot!

LINDSEY AND JUSTIN CALDER

Early on the 4th we went to our chapel for a patriotic program that was just long enough to remind us why we celebrate this holiday. Followed by a breakfast cooked and served by the youth.

After the breakfast, we went together as a family to the noon music presented by Logan – today was the Opera company. Great program and enjoyed by all, or least they acted that way! We had a cook out and had a wonderful meal of burgers, potato salad, beans, watermellon and finished up with triple chocolate cake!

SCOTT, JENNI, KADE AND ZANE STIRLING

Now they are all gone and we are tired! But happy!

More family coming soon – can’t wait!

Adventures for the two of us continue

Ok it is April 8th. And we have 4 inches of new snow and more expected today and tomorrow. There is something seriously wrong with this picture! I know I complain about the weather way too much - but you just cannot take the sunshine out of a California girl, no matter how old she becomes! I need sunshine to exsist! We had a wonderful few days in St. George last week with our good friends, Peggy and Gary Lambert! What a treasure old friends are. And yes we had sunshine!

We are home from Arizona. And it is cold and snowy here in Utah. Hard to take after a month with sunshine and warmer temperatures. We had a wonderful time and perhaps will stay a little longer next year. The biggest headache, literally, is that I brought home a king sized cold with me. Miserable coughing, sneezing etc. I know it will be gone in less than 2 weeks - but I have things I want and need to do.

We are getting ready to leave for a month and travel with our RV 5th wheel to Yuma Arizona. I do need to say that I rarely look forward to the actual trip or journey but I am looking forward to being warm and seeing the sunshine on a regular basis. Last year I was recovering from my fall and broken pelvis and could not enjoy the experience as much as we had hoped. This year I am looking forward to trying my hand at playing golf - and I do mean playing - never have done more than hit balls on a driving range. Taking long walks around the resort, going to the swap meet and seeing what bargins I can find -- those are activities to look forward to - plus those game nights of playing hand and foot. I will post pictures as we go along.

Well, here it is August 2010. I have not written a side post in some time. We have had a good year. There have been ups and downs, but that is normal and makes us appreciate the good times even more. We are planning a visit back to New Hampshire this fall. I think that will be good for us. We took a trip to Lake Tahoe last week to enjoy being away and to see a place where we spent part of our honeymoon. All in all life is really good.

I am really puzzled - how could it have been a whole year since we closed on our NH home. That means the buyers have been owners for 1 year. I guess I will have to admit - our house on the ridge is no longer ours. I look forward to visiting next fall and seeing what they have done with our home. We are doing well and feeling good. Staying busy with family, church and neighborhood. A happy place to be.

The middle of September and I am missing New Hampshire more each day. thankfully we have nice weather with cool nights and pleasant days. But I keep remembering the wonderful color and the crisp days. We are doing well, inspite of some family setbacks. Felt stays busy with community and church and so do I. We are definitely going back to NH next fall.

How did it get to be August??? What happened to June and July??? We are enjoying our life very much, in fact, sometimes we wonder at how very happy we are. We are both feeling well. That is good for both of us. We have been enjoying our neighbors and both of us like our callings at church. Surprise! I never thought I would say that. But I have learned to study early and give myself a chance to learn before I teach. Felt is doing a great job with High Priests and has it organised and working well. We do have to tell you, it is much easier when you do not have to drive long distances to accomplish anything.

We are really enjoying summer in Utah. It is warmer than NH. We have had some culture - went to several dress rehearsals of the Utah Festival Opera in Logan! We purchased a new car last week. We have not gone green - but we did buy a Toyota Prius. We are getting 50+ MPG. And since so many of couples in Cobblestone drive them - we are calling them the new old peoples car. Tomorrow we are heading out to Yellowstone. I will write when we get back and include pictures.

Katie and Nate's wedding day went so well. It rained but stopped long enough for most of the pictures. She was/is a beautiful bride. We all met at the Bountiful temple for the ceremony and then went to a picnic lunch provided by the grooms family - it was very good even though we were cold and damp. All of our family gathered back to Julie and Dave's for some play time for the kids and visiting time for the adults. Before the dinner reception Katie and Nate came by and they looked wonderfully happy! Love is a grand emotion! The dinner was at the Lion House and very grand and so very good.

We are back in Utah after our cross country trip to Houston and Baton Rouge to visit with Mary Lou, our oldest daughter and her family and to attend the Stirling Family Reunion at Wakefield, the old Stirling plantation - there were 614 attendees! We had a wonderful time and I will post pictures later today.

Mother's Day is over. Julie has graduated and has a new position at primary childrens hospital. Katie is being married in less than a month! And best of all - all our family will be together for that occassion. We leave here Saturday, May 16 and drive down to Houston and then on to Baton Rouge, for the Stirling Family reunion of over 500! It has warmed up and we are loving it! The sun comes in our kitchen patio and warms things up so we have to close the blinds in the doors! YaHoo!

Wow almost May! The last 6 months have just flown by. In fact each day seems to go faster and faster for us. We have plans for a busy month of May: Julie's graduation, our missionary friends trip to Zion, travel to Houston and then to Louisiana to a Stirling Family reunion. We will be tired but are looking forward to seeing folks we love.

Okay - what is wrong with this picture??? Huge snowflakes coming down and beginning to stick. This is the last week of April - maybe mother nature can't find her calendar! We had a good visit with Geoff and Linda Parkerson. This will be an exciting week with Julie graduating from college! We are so proud of her accomplishments! A BS at 44 is a very good thing! More than her mother managed to do.

Easter weekend was wonderful! This is why we moved to Utah ! Our son, Scott, and his family came for the weekend. Then after church on Sunday we drove down to our daughter, Julie's home and she had 17 of us for Easter dinner! The joy of being together is priceless!

It is spring break in Utah schools this week and Sarah has come for a visit. We are having a great time - we even went to get a pedicure together

It is April and our friends the Hall's have returned to New Hampshire. We had a wonderful visit with them and made many memories. One other good thing came from their visit. Now I feel like this is home! We really love our valley, our temple, our new friends, and most especially our family nearby.

We have been involved with Julie and Dave while they remodel their kitchen! It has been fun to go down each week and see the progress. I have admit I am ready for spring. About the time I felt it was almost upon us, we had a spring snow of about 16 inches of fluffy snow. Oh well, it is supposed to be near 60 next week!

We used the gift card we received from our very generous Branch members in NH to purchase a new grill! How can you have spring with no grill??? We got a Weber Baby Q and it is wonderful. Heavy duty but small enough for us to take it with us in the RV. It is wonderful at grilling steaks!

We have experienced what Utah folks call winter. Compared to NH winters it has been very mild. It does snow frequently but not much accumulation at least not in our valley. The mountains and the area north of Salt Lake have been hit hard with heavy snow. We find ourselves looking forward to spring! And especially not having to wait until late May to see flowers! Yea!

As we move into this time of change and our move from Glen, New Hampshire to Providence, Utah, we want to be able to share some of our feelings and experiences with our friends and family. We hope you will visit often and share your comments and thoughts with us.

We have settled into our new home in Providence Utah. We are enjoying our new Ward and the wonderful people who have made us feel so welcome.

We have recently returned from a winter trip to Arizona where we enjoyed being warm and taking a break from winter.