Thursday, July 2, 2009
A Father's Blessing
I want to share an experience that we had several years ago. Tom has graduated from West Point and was getting ready to go to Ranger School for the Army. Before he went to Ranger School he had come home and spent a week or so. He left and went back to Georgia. He was there for a couple of days and was getting anxious about Ranger School. It is a very difficult and very few make it thru. Tom really wanted to become a Green Beret (Special Forces) but he needed to become a Army Ranger. He called his father as asked if he could come and give him a Father's Blessing. Grant got an ticket and flew back to Georgia and gave Tom his blessing and then Grant flew back the same day to Reno. I have always admired Grant for doing that. He could hardly walk when he got home. I had tried to get him to stay a couple of days, but knowing Grant he had to get back to work. I was just amazed that he would do that for his son, he could have very easily said Tom couldn't you had gotten your Bishop or Home Teacher to give the blessing, but Grant just jumped on the plane and was glad that he could do that for his son.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Tom Peacock
I called Tom Peacock in England today. I try to call him every month. He and Lillian lived next door to us in Newton Aycliffe. They were such good neighbors and became very good friends. Lillian passed away on October 21, 2008. Tom misses her so much. They truly had a wonderful relationship. They did everything together and he took such good care of her. She died of Lou Gehrig's disease. We talked for quite away about everything. He told me that Andrew Hancock, the Ward Mission Leader goes to see him about every two weeks. He said the young Elders come every Tuesday night and teach him. He told them that they would never convert him. He always gives them a ride home after the lesson. I think that he really enjoys it and you never know they might do some good. Tom is a very kind person and would do anything for anyone. Grant said if we could pack them up with us when we moved, we would have brought them home to America. Tom has a daughter and daugher-in-law that call him all the time. ( They are Lillian's children by a previous marriage. Tom and Lillian had both been married before and had terrible marriages.) I think that is why Tom and Lillian's marriage was so good. They both appreciated each other and showed it. I can see why Tom would miss her so much.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Catherine "Trina" McLean Jacobsen
My mother was born in Denver Colorado on April 11, 1920. She was the only child of Richard C. McLean and Catherine Marie Hoffman. My grandfather worked for the Highway Department in Nevada. They lived in Wells, Nevada when she was twelve years old. I can only remember her talking about living in Wells and Fernley, Nevada.Her mother died when she was fourteen years old and her father remarried Doralee "Rowena" Brambaugh. They had two girls. Rowena Nevada McLean and Dorothy Kay McLean. My mother was pretty much on her own after her mother died. She lived in Fernley, Nevada at the time of her mother's death. She graduated High School in Fernley and went to Woodbury College in Burbank, California and studied Interior Decorating for a year. While she was at college she babysat for a couple. We have a picture of her sitting outside in the backyard with the child riding a bicycle.
I wish that I would have listened to her more carefully and wrote some of this stuff down when she was alive. She married my father on December 27, 1941 in Gardnerville, Nevada. They lived in almost every town in Nevada, as my father worked road construction. They lived in Fernley when my brother and my sister and I were born. As there was no hospital in Fernley, we were all born in Fallon, Nevada. We lived in Fernley the first five years of my life. My dad was gone and we lived in a little house in Fernley. I mean a little house. My mother had many friends there, as she had gone to school there and I think that was her only comfort.
One story I do remember is that my mother and father we living in an apartment in Reno and my mother was working. She came home one day and my father hadn't found a job and was laying on the bed. She told him that he better get out and find a job because she wasn't going to support him. I guess he realized that she meant it, because he always had a job and he could always find a job.
I have come to realize that my father was a womanizer and drank quite a bit. I don't know how my mother ever survived that other than she had three small children and she hadn't finished college, so she felt she had no way to support herself and three children.
Mom was always at home, she never worked outside the home when we were kids. When we lived in Fallon on my grandparents ranch, Mom sold Avon for awhile. When she sold Avon is when we started to have to help her clean the house. It really wasn't much but it seems like it was to us.
Mom had a very kind and loving personal. She was always saying "if we didn't have something nice to say about someone, don't say anything." She was always for the underdog. She wouldn't let us make fun of some one walking down the street. I loved that about my mother.
My mother was a very moral person. I never doubted that she was true to her beliefs or her morals. I could never understood why she put up with my father. My Father never layed a hand on my mother, but he did verbally abuse her. He was always putting her down and didn't listen to anything she had to say. It was always his way or no way. I often think of the life my mother had to live with my father and wonder how she turned out so good and kind. She had a very unhappy marriage and I think a very lonely and unhappy childhood. It amazes me that she turned out to be the person that she was. As I grow older I think of her and wish that she could have had the life that I have enjoyed. One thing that my mother did was love her children and taught them good sound principles. I don't think that we ever disappointed her, at least I hope and pray we didn't.
I wish that I would have listened to her more carefully and wrote some of this stuff down when she was alive. She married my father on December 27, 1941 in Gardnerville, Nevada. They lived in almost every town in Nevada, as my father worked road construction. They lived in Fernley when my brother and my sister and I were born. As there was no hospital in Fernley, we were all born in Fallon, Nevada. We lived in Fernley the first five years of my life. My dad was gone and we lived in a little house in Fernley. I mean a little house. My mother had many friends there, as she had gone to school there and I think that was her only comfort.
One story I do remember is that my mother and father we living in an apartment in Reno and my mother was working. She came home one day and my father hadn't found a job and was laying on the bed. She told him that he better get out and find a job because she wasn't going to support him. I guess he realized that she meant it, because he always had a job and he could always find a job.
I have come to realize that my father was a womanizer and drank quite a bit. I don't know how my mother ever survived that other than she had three small children and she hadn't finished college, so she felt she had no way to support herself and three children.
Mom was always at home, she never worked outside the home when we were kids. When we lived in Fallon on my grandparents ranch, Mom sold Avon for awhile. When she sold Avon is when we started to have to help her clean the house. It really wasn't much but it seems like it was to us.
Mom had a very kind and loving personal. She was always saying "if we didn't have something nice to say about someone, don't say anything." She was always for the underdog. She wouldn't let us make fun of some one walking down the street. I loved that about my mother.
My mother was a very moral person. I never doubted that she was true to her beliefs or her morals. I could never understood why she put up with my father. My Father never layed a hand on my mother, but he did verbally abuse her. He was always putting her down and didn't listen to anything she had to say. It was always his way or no way. I often think of the life my mother had to live with my father and wonder how she turned out so good and kind. She had a very unhappy marriage and I think a very lonely and unhappy childhood. It amazes me that she turned out to be the person that she was. As I grow older I think of her and wish that she could have had the life that I have enjoyed. One thing that my mother did was love her children and taught them good sound principles. I don't think that we ever disappointed her, at least I hope and pray we didn't.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Today we are going to Twin Lakes to spend a few days with Jake and his family. Bobby and Deena Tucker have a cabin there and they said we could stay there. It is a beautiful place. Their cabin is right up in the mountain and looks done over the lake. It has all the comforts of home, shower, toliet, tv, vcr, telephone (in case of emergency), wood stove, plenty of beds. We have rented a pontoon boat for tomorrow, so we can go fishing and just relaxing on the lake. It will hold eight people.
I order a Kindle from Amazon. It is a electronic book reader. I can contains 15,000 books and it is pencil thin. You can order books for $9.00 and cheaper. Deena Tucker has one and I have been thinking about getting one for a long time. Several months, in fact. Another thing about it you can put the scriptures on it. The Book of Mormon and several other church books only cost $3.50. I am excited to get it. It cost $369.00, that is one reason I thought about it for some time, wanted to make sure that I would use it. I do love to read and it also has the ability to listen to the books.
I order a Kindle from Amazon. It is a electronic book reader. I can contains 15,000 books and it is pencil thin. You can order books for $9.00 and cheaper. Deena Tucker has one and I have been thinking about getting one for a long time. Several months, in fact. Another thing about it you can put the scriptures on it. The Book of Mormon and several other church books only cost $3.50. I am excited to get it. It cost $369.00, that is one reason I thought about it for some time, wanted to make sure that I would use it. I do love to read and it also has the ability to listen to the books.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday May 31, 2009
Today we went to Hawthorne for their Ward Conference. I am the Stake Young Women's Secretary. It was a very enjoyable trip and time there. The lady that gave the lesson for the Young Women gave a lesson on Journal Keeping. I realized that I needed to be better about keeping a journal. So I am going to write every week about that things I did that week. I am sure that too a lot of people that this will be very boring. I am doing this for my grandchildren. I want them to know what Grant and I do and what I think about things.
Saturday Grant and I worked in the Temple. We left at 5:30 am and got home at 4:00 pm. When we got home, I took a long nap and Grant went to the church to clean the building. May was the month that the High Priest had the responsibility of cleaning the building. So Grant has gone every Saturday and helped cleaned the building. I went with him once to clean the building. Grant is the High Priest Group Leader in our Ward. We are in the 6th Ward.
Saturday Grant and I worked in the Temple. We left at 5:30 am and got home at 4:00 pm. When we got home, I took a long nap and Grant went to the church to clean the building. May was the month that the High Priest had the responsibility of cleaning the building. So Grant has gone every Saturday and helped cleaned the building. I went with him once to clean the building. Grant is the High Priest Group Leader in our Ward. We are in the 6th Ward.
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