Daddy Daughter Weekend

 Our ward has a tradition of having a daddy daughter dance. We hadn't had one for a while and so when it came up this year, Allen was excited to let Jill know. She was as excited about it and decided to come down to Calgary for it. It was so fun to see how excited Allen was about it. 

When she arrived on Saturday we all went shopping. Jill has some gift cards she hadn't used so she tried to get them all used up. She found some great things: shoes for spin class that hook to the bikes as well as some beautiful clothes from Uniqlo. 

After shopping, Allen and Jill went to the party. Allen said, as usual, Jill was the life of the party - leading girls in lots of fun line dances and other songs. 

After that, of course, they went to a movie. Over the years, they've often done that after Peirce and I go to bed. Peirce and I aren't the night owls Allen and Jill are! 

It was really nice to visit with her this weekend. 

Weekend With Percy

 Peirce and Michael really love to travel. Earlier this fall they went to Ireland for a couple weeks. This week they went to San Diego for a concert! While they were gone, we got to hang out with Percy. He is such a cutie. We love him. We especially love how worn out Bentley gets when Percy is here. They play almost non-stop!

Shuko

 Shuko stayed with our family for a month. She was in her 30s and had worked in Japan at an orphanage! I was always touched by how careful and kind she was. 

After living with us, she found an apartment in the SW. She hopes to get a job working as a nanny. 

Miyu

One of the things that has really added to our family is having English students stay with us. As a family, we have many wonderful memories as well as crazy stories from these experiences.

After many years of not having a student stay with us, we decided this year to open up our home again. Miyu arrived from Japan on January 21. She is outgoing and friendly and not afraid to jump in and try taking the bus without a dry run! Years ago, whenever we had a student stay with us, we'd go with them on the bus to show them how it was done and draw detailed maps. They'd always get lost the first few days. Not anymore though. Google maps is a great help! 

Her birthday was a couple days after she arrived so we had a cake and presents, of course. Happy birthday Miyu! 

Christmas 2024

Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Our 2024 Christmas was busy and rewarding. 

We don't really do a good job of decorating for many holidays around our house - but we definitely do a little more for Christmas Our tree had a designer approach....all silver and white (beads and tinsel, but alarmingly, no Christmas balls!) I really liked it. It was all Allen's idea but I happily went along. I loved having it up and sitting by the tree to read each day. The Christmas gifts were wrapped in paper that matched the theme as well. Allen is so clever!

All the fun started on December 22 when Jill and Chase arrived from Edmonton. Peirce and Michael also came over and there was a big sleepover in the family room (bigger people means bigger sleepovers!) It was so fun to have them here and my heart was especially happy to see everyone get along so well. Grandma Jensen also came and spent a number of days with us, which added a lot of fun to our time together. A friend of ours, Meredith, also spent time with us over the holidays.

Christmas Sunday at church was a fantastic musical program. There were a lot of songs I had never heard and our ward's little choir easily took up the challenge of the complicated music. It was really nice to all go to church togethr. I didn't want to pressure Peirce into attending and so I told to Peirce him it would be fine either way. After talking it over with Michael, happily, they decided they would attend with us. Peirce said that the first time someone said something stupid to him though he was going to march out. There was no need for that. Everyone was so happy to see him and to meet Michael. Again, a heart warming experience. 

My dirty little secret about Christmas is that Allen does most of the shopping to get us ready for Christmas. In turn, I try to do most of the cooking....although everyone helped a lot. Saturday night when everyone arrived, we had our traditional Chinese Food night. On Christmas Eve, we had a six course meal! Sunday was the regular turkey dinner and on Boxing Day we enjoyed a pot luck with friends at the church. 

On Christmas Day, we went to a movie: The Boys in the Boat. I read that book years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the movie as well (although, I still say the book was better). Our friend, Meredith came with us to the movie. I even decided to use the word "swing" from the book for my word of the year. More on that later.

Jill, Chase, Peirce and I volunteered to usher at Storybook Theatre. We got to see One Christmas Carol....which was a version of the story told by one actor playing ALL the parts. It was really something else. That takes some talent!

Allen took on the challenge from our Stake President to make sure the social needs of people we knew were met. It meant that he invited family friend over for dinner on Christmas Day, organized a Boxing Day pot luck, a young families dinner (lots of kids and lots of fun and lots of noise!) and an empty nesters pot luck. Phew!! It was a lot of socializing. LOL 

On New Year's Eve, Jill and Chase invited their friends, the Holoboffs over. We had breakfast supper and then played games. The Holoboffs are really great. We were really happy to spend the evening with the cool kids! LOL 

Being together and having everyone enjoy being together is really what made our Christmas great. We have a wonderful family.

2023 has Zoomed By!

 Well, well, well. I have done a really poor job of blogging in 2023. What in the world happened?

Late in 2022, we were asked if we would be in charge of Moroni's Quest for our stake. I really didn't know what we were getting into and it didn't take long for things to ramp us and start taking up all the empty space and more in our calendars. The event was in July and I don't know if I've ever experienced anything more tiring AND  more energizing at the same time. The learning curve was steep and I was so grateful for the mentorship from our friends, the Paynes. Allen's health was not great through it all and until we got answers in September, he really struggled to do all that was required. 

The Sunday after Moroni's Quest, I was really ready for a rest. I'll never forget waking up Sunday morning and seeing the bags under my eyes. I looked terrible!! It took a good week of resting before I felt like I had really recovered. Apparently, rest wasn't a long term plan though as that Sunday I was called to be the Relief Society president in our ward. Again, it's been a tiring and energizing experience. I'm learning a lot and really growing to enjoy the assignment. 

This year, my goal is to write more. Stay tuned! 

Second Christmas

 For our second Christmas we celebrated with Grandma. We were worried that she might not be able to come because it has been so cold lately - but on Christmas Eve the cold spell ended and things warmed up tremendously. So grateful! 

Christmas Eve was Chinese food and a movie (Scent of a Woman....strange choice for Christmas Eve....but alas!)

Christmas morning we opened stockings and then headed off to church. I was playing the organ and the choir did a beautiful cantata. It was really amazing. 

Later, there was another Santa visit by Allen. We have a family in our ward where the parents are absent and kids are living with their older brother so he helped them with presents by taking them shopping to buy gifts for their siblings and then today he showed up with stockings for them. 

Later we opened gifts. Grandma went off to her sister's house for dinner and we had ham and scalloped potatoes and an amazing cranberry cheesecake for dessert. I'm not one to make fancy desserts often. This one was a winner! 

I was trying to get a selfie of us. Finally Peirce said he should try. We are laughing at how simple it was for him! LOL

Christmas Cranberry Cheesecake. So good!

Two tricks we learned this weekend when it comes to Bentley: 1. If you buy him a bone he will be quite busy and stay distracted with it while we open presents. 2. He loves getting a new ball! He played for hours.

Crying in Safeway

 One thing about Allen is that he loves to give gifts. He really is a true Santa Claus. 

Today we went to give a gift to one of our favorite cashiers at Safeway. He always talks to all the cashiers and knows them and that's how he got to know her. We have another connection because I taught her daughter in grade 3. A few years ago her husband died suddenly and we often wonder what we can do to help them as they work through the loss of their dad and husband. Allen had bought a gift card to a restaurant and we went through her till. He placed it on the belt, along with the groceries we were buying. She started to ring in our items and then she froze and looked up at us. "You didn't have to do that," she said. Allen told her he knew, but he wanted to...and Merry Christmas and all that. That's when her tears started...and so did mine.

Early Christmas Celebrations

There are a lot of memes and commentaries on social media about how women do all the work for Christmas and the husband just shows up and sees what everyone got for presents. That isn't the case in our house. Allen does the bulk of the gift planning and buying and he's great at it. He also is a great help at getting our house ready for Christmas. I'm so grateful for him!

 

This year Jill and Chase are going to Ontario for Christmas so decided we would do Christmas with them the weekend before. I was not sure it was really going to be that great....but it was really a wonderful weekend! 

Jill and Chase and Peirce all came over for dinner on Saturday. We ordered a meat platter from one of our favorite restaurants, Big T's, and added some great Christmas salads. It was a great feast!

After dinner, we had a little family pranking to follow up on. There has been a long standing back and forth between us and the NAckroyds. 

Allen also had a visit to go do with the Payne's as Santa Claus. It was quite a busy night! 

Later that night, we watched a movie (or rather, turned a movie on and fell asleep). 

Sunday morning was Christmas stockings and then we went to church in Jill and Chase's ward. After church, we opened presents and had an amazing turkey dinner! 

Not a tennis racket?

Our turkey was so big it was busting out of the roaster! :) 

Those beautiful blue plates were one of my Christmas presents from my dear husband. 

On Sunday Allen also went and played Santa Claus for the Payne's. It was a lot of fun!

It was really a great weekend. It is fun to have our family all together. I love how Jill and Peirce and Chase all get along so well and have a good time together. I feel richly blessed!

Mission Reunion of Sorts

Father's Day seems like a good time to publish this post. I miss my dad. He served a mission to Denmark and always loved to tell stories of his experience there.

I came across someone connected to my dad. It was quite a surprise:

The internet can be a wild and wooly place with strange interactions. I have become more and more careful about who I connect with on the internet and so when I received a message from someone I didn't know named Tim Sondrop, I wasn't quick to respond.  

Something about it made me curious though. He asked: Is your father Gayle C Jensen who served in the Denmark mission during the mid -60s?

That was a pretty specific question. Not your average 'hey pretty lady'. LOL I finally responded. Turns out Tim is the youngest of five boys and his father and mine were companions on their mission. 

He said:

I discovered his obituary in a google search. I read that he had passed away in 2010 to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. My condolences. I have no doubt that my father and he are continuing their missionary lessons in the spirit world. 

He was my father, Daryl Sondrup's first companion in the mission field. My father passed away abruptly last month and I've been reading through his missionary journal. In it, he relates his experiences with your father including baptizing, Thanksgiving and Christmas '65 and many missionary experiences. 

This particular one stood out to me:

November 20, 1965

Today I had the scare of my life. As my companion and I were getting on the bus, my companion, Elder Jensen, turned to me and said, "This is a first lesson." We were just leaving to a cottage meeting. "I hope you're ready to give it."

I don't know why, but I got kind of sick all of a sudden. I was praying that he was kidding. but when we got to the appointment, I found out, to my dismay, that he wasn't. So, when we got to the Joseph Smith story, he said, "Now my companion will take over."

I was praying all the time. I started off quite well and even felt a little proud of myself until we got to about the middle of the lesson. Then I started to have a little trouble (every once in a while, my mind would go completely blank). Towards the end, my companion ended up giving most of the lesson. But I think it went quite well for the first time. I wish though, that I could get over getting embarrassed when I talked to people. We gave the lesson to Hr Nielsen a Ferisor.

Some other excerpts:

• He bears his testimony which is very vital in the conversion of people, he is a good teacher - He makes the lessons interesting and understandable.
• My three months I spent with Elder Gayle Jensen will be remembered for as long as I live. I will never forget the times I spent trying to struggle through the lessons. Elder Jensen's statement, "Come on, you can learn a page a day."
• Elder Jensen was a great Elder and he helped me very much in getting a good start here on my mission. He pushed hard on the lessons, but I'm glad he did. 
  
  
  

Here is my father's obituary:  https://www.lindquistmortuary.com/obituary/Daryl-Sondrup 

We hoped we would get at least ten more years with "Papa", especially for the sake of his grandkids. He was a kid at heart and we all miss him dearly, but I believe that we all have a time appointed unto death, and that your father and mine were needed to continue their missionary service to the Lord beyond the veil.

It's been a joy to read through my dad's missionary journal after all these years. I served a mission in Brazil, so I can relate to my father in a whole new missionary sense. Your father came across as a great man and I'm grateful to him for helping my dad at the onset of his mission. 

Those mission reunions can be awfully sweet!

Alma 17

1 And now it came to pass that as Alma was journeying from the land of Gideon southward, away to the land of ^aManti, behold, to his astonishment, he ^bmet with the ^csons of Mosiah journeying towards the land of Zarahemla.

2 Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel ^afirst appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had ^bsearched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.

3 But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and ^afasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with ^bpower and authority of God.

4 And they had been teaching the word of God for the space of fourteen years among the Lamanites, having had much ^asuccess in bringing many to the ^bknowledge of the truth; yea, by the power of their words many were brought before the altar of God, to call on his name and ^cconfess their sins before him.

Photo Regrets and Easter

I need to make one of my goals to be a better photo taker! Usually, what happens is that I'm so busy on those special days making food, getting ready, cleaning, and more that by the time the main event rolls around I'm tired and just surviving....and I forget to take photos!! 

On Saturday, we had dinner with the NAckroyds! It has been a long time since we have done this and I was surprised at how excited I was to have them over. I decorated the table with a yellow runner.Sad, but true.

Our menu was: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, fancy green beans, carrots, Thai cabbage salad, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, rice pilaf and for dessert the NAckroyds made the most amazing apple pie (with one crust!)

On Easter Sunday, Allen was asked to speak in church. He gave a really great talk on the Atonement. It made my heart burst with love and admiration for the good person he is. Jill and Chase came to our ward and Peirce listened on Zoom. What a blessing to have everyone be able to listen to his talk!

This is our family Easter dinner on Sunday photo. Sad, but true. I took the photo of the table before dinner and meant to take one when everyone was at the table, but....alas. I need to work on this!

Jill and Chase came over for Easter baskets and dinner. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, Asian cucumber salad, green beans (I love green beans) and for dessert, we made the kids share their Easter chocolate. LOL

We had a wonderful Easter even though I didn't record it very well.  

Significant Dates in History

March 13:

I remember the day Princess Diana died. We were newly married. I was upstairs in the bedroom, reading. Allen came running upstairs, burst into the bedroom and blurted out, "Princess Diana is dead!" I couldn't believe it. We spent the next hour watching the news on tv.

I remember many details of my life when the  9/11 attacks happened. Jill was pre-school age and I had organized a group of moms to do our own at home pre-school. That day it was my turn to run pre-school. I heard the news and when Faye arrived with her daughter, we talked about what was happening. Little did we know it was still happening. During the day I kept the tv on to see what else would happen. From our kitchen window, we could see the airplanes lining up at the airport because they were all grounded. In the afternoon, we went to the church building and made sandwiches for all the people stranded at the airport. As the days unfolded, the horror continued.

I For most teachers, in Alberta anyway, March 13 is a day we'll never forget. It is the day that was the last normal day of school before the pandemic. We went home that Friday not realizing that was it. Life wasn't going to be the same for a long time. I would have never thought that two years later, those changes would still be felt.

I looked back in my bullet journal at March 2020. Jill had been home from her mission for a couple of months and was in training at Central Mountain Air for a flight attendant position. Peirce was in grade 12. Allen was still really struggling with his health (we didn't know a heart procedure would be on the horizon) and I was working hard to keep up with school and with seminary.

The next week students did not come to school. The Premier announced on Sunday that school would be cancelled. We had one week to go until Spring Break and so we spent the week at school without students. We spent a lot of time in shock. We still didn't think that things would unfold as they would. When we were asked to clean out our student's desks, I thought they were overreacting. In the end, we ended up spending the rest of the school year online...and what a learning curve that was! 

One great blessing I'll never forget is that on Friday, March 13, for some reason I decided to have my students clean out their desks of anything that didn't need to be in their desks. I was so grateful the next week! Teachers told stories of digging through moldy food, scads of garbage and scrap paper and more. I didn't have any of that because a little voice told me on Friday that I should have my students clean out their desks.

As mandates were rolled out and lock downs were put in place, we learned a new way of life. We learned as teachers to turn on a dime. We learned how to socially distance, how to worship at home and we saved a heck of a lot of money on gas since no one was going anywhere. 

The world will never be the same. Now there is a lot of unrest, even though mandates are being lifted and there is a vaccine and we know how to keep ourselves safe. Somehow, people feel a need to protest. Sure, there are still measures in place for cross-boarder travel - but given the covid numbers in the states and some other countries over the past two years, I'm okay with following the Canadian rules. We have come out of this much better than many other countries have. All of this has been one long Lord of the Flies re-run where we have seen some people be quite self-centered and only care about what they want or what their traditions are versus the instinct to follow a set of rules and values so that we can live together and look after each other. 

Through all of this, we have learned some good lessons on simplifying life and what is really vital. May we never forget! 

My Brother, Neil

 My brother passed away on Saturday night. He was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer almost five years ago. When he was diagnosed, we had no idea how long he would be able to live with the disease. We are grateful we got as many years together as we did. He did a lot of living in those years, traveling to many interesting places. 

This week, he started to feel worse than usual. No matter how much pain medication they gave him, it didn't seem to help. By Friday, he was unresponsive and he passed away Saturday at 7:30 pm. Our hearts are broken.

"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."

—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Lessons my brother taught me:

It's never too late to find love.

Life is better with good friends.

Always be positive. Happiness is a choice.

Winning is fun.

You can't hit a homerun if you don't swing...and work on your form. Homeruns are more fun than singles. Besides, you don't have to run so hard.

Go for the double play.

When things are coming at you fast, choke up on the bat.

There's always the next game.

Be a team player.

There's something to appreciate about every part of the world.

If you get a chance, go!

There's no need to be too serious.

Just because someone says you are sick doesn't mean you have to quit.

My brother was a courageous fighter and an all round great guy. Everyone liked Neil. I can't even express how much he will be missed. On October 9, he hit is last figurative home run and rounded the bases jubilantly, all on his own. I only wish I could have seen the high fives on the other side.

This is how I will always remember him. In this picture, he is in the Czech Republic at the World Junior Hockey Tournament 2020. Canada beat Russia in the final game. He was thrilled to be able to be there. This is how I will always remember him:

Wedding Days

 This weekend was Jillian and Chase's wedding and it was a wonderful celebration! They were married in Cardston. We have a temple in Calgary but it was closed for some minor renovations. Allen and I were married in the Cardston temple and it had been a lot of years since we had been there. The person who married them was Brother Ursenbach. When I met him, I said, "Oh! I have some favorite Ursenbachs: Andy, Dan, Matt, Chuck...." and he happily responded, "Those are my sons!" The lady who helped us in the bride's room was from Paris and so it was fun for her to be able to speak French with Jill and later with Chase. The ceremony was really lovely. He encouraged everyone there to apply the covenants they make in the temple to their marriage. I had never thought of temple covenants that ways before. 

After the ceremony we had some Subway trays and Allen's mom and Carmen brought some veggie trays. Then we were off to take pictures on the temple grounds.  I can't wait to see the pictures!

That afternoon we had a lunch in Lethbridge at Earl's restaurant with lots of family and friends. It was nice to be able to sit and relax and visit. I stole a cool picture from Zoe's instragram from the restaurant.

Saturday was the reception. Celebrating with lots of extended family and even more friends made our hearts swell! 

Now they're off to their honeymoon!