Thanksgiving Weekend

We are having a very good weekend. To start with we were invited to Marvelle & Clifford's Open House on Friday evening. I asked Ardell and Ashley to go with me and we all drove down right after work, well we pulled Ashley out of school just a few minutes early. I wanted to get on the highway before the rush hour traffic. We left the city by 4 pm and arrived in Cardston at 6:15 pm. We had the wonderful experience of having supper at the Mandarin Gardens on Main Street in Cardston, before going over to Marvelle's new house. The lady, Joan, in the restaurant was quite entertaining the way she would go into the kitchen and holler out what the patrons wanted for supper - hamburger steak, veal cutlets, NewYYYYork steak. It was hilarious. Ashley and I had a good laugh. Then we left there and arrived at Marvelles' where there were a houseful of people in the house. I got to visit with a lot of people I have not seen for years. Marvelle's friend, Sharon (Jensen) Caldwell was there and very surprised to see me. Art and Merle Hough, and their daughter Sharon and Rod Gibb were there too. Then Joan and Wayne Greep came with Tom and Cathy Needham. It was sure good to visit and talk with all of them.

Ardell and I and Ashley stayed with Marvelle & Clifford over night. Ashley got to sleep in her own private bedroom, the closet - it was so big she thought it was made just for her to sleep in. We rolled her up in a quilt and she went right off to sleep. She thought Marvelle's new dog was real cute. Her and Maggie got along quite well. Maggie just likes to lay on your lap and be petted. She is a sweet little dog. She was Scott's little dog and Marvelle and Clifford inherited her out the three dogs that David and Scott had at the house. David felt he needed to get rid of the dogs because he is away so much and could not devote his time to the dogs. He had a neighbour lady looking after them when he was not home, but then she couldn't do it for some reason. So Nickee got two of them and Marvelle & Clifford got Maggie.

On Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast and it was snowing in Cardston, so we headed for home early. The roads were wet till we got to Fort MacLeod, then it was quite windy around the pass area till we got to Nanton.

Today is Thanksgiving Day and I am cooking two pumpkin pies in the oven. When they are done then our Turkey is going into the oven for dinner tonight. Ardell and I are having a dinner alone. Paula and Garry are having her dad over for dinner.

Garry got home from his week of hunting with Roy, on Saturday night with three deer and a moose. Now they will have lots of meat for the winter time. They eat a lot of venison and like it. Garry loves to hunt and get his animals. They will make a lot of the meat into sausages mixed with pepperoni and salami. It is very good. A German butcher makes for him.

Ardell is very busy with his work and he gets so stressed out with having to work. My work has slowed down some but it is all day to day work at the bank. It seems we just work and come home and sleep and go to work again. Ardell gets up early at 3:30 am and I get up at 4:30 and take him to his office. Then I come home and have a little nap and get to work by 7 am. So we are usually in bed early by 8:30 or 9 o'clock in the evenings. That way the days pass quickly.

We hope all the family have a very good Thanksgiving weekend and get all rested up for the next weeks work.

Love you all.

Shirley

Peace River

I cameup to Peace River on Sept 27 after going with Colleen and Dave, Ryan and Beth, Kara, Heidi, and Colleen's friend to Terry Wasden's presentation called Awesome Journey. It gave us lots to think about. After the presentation I went to Colleen's house and stocked up on stories to listen to in the car and started my 8 hour trip to Peace River. It was a pretty drive but very long. After arriving in Peace River and look all over for Gayle, (He decided to go out to the edge of town where there is a detour and show me how to find the hotel. It was dark.) Well I made the wrong turn and got into town without being stopped by the detour. He couldn't figure out where I was and I didn't have a clue where he was. I tried calling his cell. No answer. He had left his cell in the hotel room. After much running around I finally found him and brought him home. That was about 10:00 p.m.

The next morning we went to church. They have a little branch with a beautiful new chapel. It brought back memories of Hinton when we were in Jasper. All the members are really friendly and they were all very happy that I had finally arrived. Gayle introduced me to everyone and I can't remember most of them. There was another new couple there and they sat next to us. We chatted with them and found they were connected to people we know. He is a brother to Ellis Stonehocker, our old bishop when we lived in Bonavista and she was a daughter to Gayle Johnson, the man Gayle was named after. It was really neat to meet them and we had lunch at the hotel together.

Since arriving, I have done a lot of reading, a lot of writing on the computer, a lot of knitting, and sewing (That is without my machine. I am doing as much as I can and will finish when I get home to my sewing machine. ) some home teaching with Gayle (he is doing a lot of that as it helps to pass the time when he isn't at work.), a lot of walking, photographing, and most of all a lot of sleeping. (I have a lot to catch up on after the summer. I don't go to bed very early when Gayle isn't home, gonna have to break that habit.) This past Saturday we went to Grand Prairie for the day. Boy is that a bustling town and it was a really pretty drive. The colored leaves are just about gone now. The wind blew some the other day and most of the leaves are gone now. No wonder we don't have many fall colors in Southern Alberta.

So now we are waiting for Dawn and Allen to come for Thanksgiving. That will be fun!! We have some activities planned for the kids. There is a predominately French speaking town a few miles away. We would like to take Jill and Peirce there. There is a good movie for kids at the local theatre. It is about Chihuahuas We figure they will enjoy that. We will see what else we can find
to do with them. Then I will go back to Calgary with them and try to find a ride home from
there. Gotta work on that one.

When I get home I have the Convention for Hospital Auxiliaries on Oct 20 - 22. I will be glad to have that one over with.

We hope all is well with everyone.
Love'
LA and Gayle

Sunday Dinner with the Stills

This Sunday we had our good friends over for dinner.  We always have a nice time with them and our kids all get along really well.  This dinner turned out to be a tad bit crazy near the end.  Our home teachers came over as well as the missonaries.  I really can't tell you what happened but something exploded and Kathy and I were covered in banana cream pie and chocolate pie as well as apple pie!  I must remind you that these pictures are a bit on the scary side!  

I had banana's in place that there isn't suppose to be 

All in all it was a wonderful dinner that I made....

Update from the Jensens

I guess it is time I reported on what our family has been doing. The summer has been nothing short of a zoo. I have been working for Brad as he tries to dig himself out of a mass of claims following the flash flood we had in Lethbridge on July 1st and the hail storms that pounded Southern Alberta most of the summer. I have enjoyed working with him. I have learned much about the insurance industry and have a new found respect for those who work in that industry. Gayle has been up north in Peace River. He is loving his work there. He says it is the nicest hotel and group of people he has ever worked for. The only drawback is the distance between him and I. He has been home three times since June 18th and we keep in touch on the phone at least a couple of times a day. It is hard but this too shall pass and it will put us in a much better finanaicl situation for when we retire. I am going up there this week end and will be there until Thanksgiving week end.

So summer just seems to have passed us by. We had Grandma Camp and the kids were here quite a bit. It made being alone much more tolerable. It is wonderful to have good kids and amazing grandkids who make your life that much more enjoyable. Christmas is only three months away and it seems like we just had Christmas. We hope that the next two years will go by just as quickly.

I promised to post more photos from Grandma camp and I also have photos from Dusty's wedding that I am sure everyone would like to see. He married a beautiful girl and their wedding day was beautiful and full of wonderful experiences.

NOBLE NEWS #70 - MARVELLE REPORTER

This last FridayDustyn John married Julia Valgardson from Barnwell. She is the daughter or Sherman and Glenda Valgardson. It was beautiful. We had Nickee and Dustyn & Jessey here]to stay overnight. It was wonderful. Then we got up early and went to the temple where we went to a sealing room and Dustyn was sealed to his bride.

We then went to the Cobblestone where Brad and Lani hosted the dinner. Then we went to their recption in Taber. It was at Valhalla Place. Is it ever nice. Two gardners keep the place looking like a show place. Nickee brought Maggie on the plane with her and so we now have a doggie. We got homw on Friday night at about 9:30pm and we done in.

We had been going for so early. Then on Sat. night Mrs. Kromm and Brad and Helen came for supper. it was great.

Nickee went home on mONDAY. We loved havin her. The only person who wasn't there was Adam and he is in Agentina. Only 7 months to go.

love Marvelle

Noble New # 69 - Marvelle - Reporter

On the long week-end we went to Great Falls. It is a family tradition now. We've done it three years in a row. Clifford & I didn't go until Sat morning. It was a real nice drive down there. When we got there we had lunch at Appleby's with Brad and Helen and the kids. Dustyn and Jessey didn't get there until late afternoon and we went to Jakers' for supper. It was great. Our last week-end with Dustyn being single. Of course we went shopping too. Shelbi got lots of Clothes for school. We stayed at LaQuinta - had two rooms. Brad, Helen, Gideon and Shelbi stayed in one room while Clifford, I and Jessey and Dustyn stayed in the other room. We drove leisurely back thru Del Bonita. It took l l/2 hours at the border, It was a great week-end.

love Marvelle

My holiday

I have just returned home from my wonderful restful and peaceful vacation out to Vancouver Island. I flew out to Victoria and Melanie met me at the airport. We stopped at some farms along the way back into the city and she bought vegetables. We then went to Rebar restaurant for brunch. Then we went back to her apartment and rested for a while and then drove down by the beach and watched the ships and boats in the waters. It was so peaceful there by the ocean. There was a nice little breeze coming off the water and the sun was so nice and warm. Then we drove out to Buchart Gardens. I got the brilliant idea that maybe I should rent a scooter wheelchair to scoot around the gardens, and I am sure glad I did. They brought it to the gardens from Medichair in Sidney, B.C. and had it waiting for me when we arrived. It sure saved me a whole bunch of walking on my leg. Every Saturday night at the Gardens they have a fire works display and so we didn't go out to the Gardens till around 3:30 pm so that we could walk around and see all the gorgeous flowers and then stayed for the fire works display. It was quite the show. It would put the Calgary Stampede fireworks to shame. The whole sky lit up for the whole show with spinners and some going off at the left hand side and then they would travel across the horizon to the right side and by the time they got to the right side they would start again at the left hand side. It took an hour and a half for the whole show. It was marvellous. The traffiic getting out of the park wasn't so marvelous, but we endured. I took lots of pictures of the beautiful flowers and shrubs in the gardens. I even took a picture of a bee in one flower. It was late when we arrived back to the apartment.

Then on Sunday we rested up before we took a tour in a double decker bus all around the City Tour. It wa snicely narrated and I learned lots about the city of Victoria. There is one golf course that the greens fees are $150 a game, and a dress code is strongly adhered to or you don't get to play on the greens. The greens in the course were prestinely groomed. The City of Victoria pride themselves as being call the City of Gardens, so if the home owners do not keep their yard clean and cut and just to the tee the city will come along and keep up your yards and gardens and of course send you a little bill at the end of it. So everyone, even in the ordinary neighbourhoods look after their yards or else. They took up through some of the ritzy areas of the city and the gardens were all topriary on the bushes and hedges. The driver narrated all along the way. The tour took 90 mines from start to finish, so it was well worth the trip and we learned lots about their city. Then on Monday we took another drive down to the beaches and went for lunch downtown and then Mell dropped me at the bus station and I took the Greyhound up to Nanaimo where Marilyn Smith met me and I visited with them for the next three days.

Marilyn is a busy little gal. She works so hard. She cares for mental handicapped people. She at one time had three of them living with her, but two of the men died. One had meliomytheosis, which is a lung disease from working with asbethos in the ship yards of B.C. His name was Jeff and he was an english fellow. Very nice fellow, but just needed assistance in taking his medications until he got so sick he had to be hospitalized and then he finally passed away last year. Donald had the complusive syndrome where he had to wash his hands all the time. Marilyn gave him the job of waching the chicken eggs, so her eggs were always nice and clean to sell to her egg customers. Donald just passed away two weeks ago with cancer. Now Marilyn only has Sally. She is quite the Sally. She has a kitty cat named Hilda. Hilda is the best looked after cat you ever did see. Marilyn really doesn't like cats in the house, so Sally picks up the cat and take her outside to go wee wee, and trapes her back to the bedroom and stays there and babysits her all day long. She either rests on her bed or just sits and watches TV in her room with Hilda. Then she will come out of her room to help set the table and wash up the dishes for Marilyn. She does the laundry and just little jobs around the house. I wanted to put her in my suitcase and bring Sally home with me. She is a very clean and lovely lady. She told me she was 72 years old but only looks like she should be around 50. Every morning she get up and showers and put on her make up for her cat. Once in a while she goes to a community program for these people who get together to coffee and chat. Every day she goes out for a walk and come back to the house. She is quite the Sally.

Marilyn is a busy lady looking after her people and feeding her chickens and ducks and turkeys, so she has chores to do night and morning. Then she keeps her prestine yard up too. Leo is not well any more to help outside with things. He has gained a lot of weight and so he just can't do a lot, which leaves a lot on Marilyn's shoulders to cut the grass and look after the acreage. She has a small little cabin 12 x 12 feet in the yard that she rents out. She had a old guy living there, but they finally kicked him out cause he was so cantancuous. Marilyn would always fix him a supper and one day he threw the plate back at Donald when he took it out to him, and told him to quit bringing that SH__T. He only had one leg as he lost one leg to diabetis. So he really didn't need much room to get around in. He had a single bed, a bathroom and a kitchen was all he really needed. Marilyn had the cottage fixed up real cute, but he was too hard to handle any more, so Marilyn kicked him out and sent him to a home for cantancuous old men. He surely will not get fed as good as Marilyn fed him ever in the home. If Marilyn made a peach pie she would always share a piece with him or Thankgiving turkey dinner or Christmas dinner. The old guy's kids didn't look after him at all.

Then on Thursday Marilyn, her friend Bernie and daughter Kerri drove me up to Courtney, where I met up with Jackie West. Jackie is an old friend from Southminister United Young Couples club we used to belong to. She has divorced twice and has married the third husband. So we had a lot of catching up to do. Her and Jack are very involved in senior lawn bowling. She was hosting a bowling tournament for the Canadian Blind Sports Association. You wouldn't think those people could lawn bowl but they woulld put the other sighted people to shame with their scores. They lay a string down the middle of the lanes and they can judge their distance by their sighted director telling them where the jack was laid. It was quite the thing to sit and watch for two days. The weather was perfect with no rain. Jackie was very busy keeping everyone in line for the whole week. Then they ended off with a banquet and awards presentations on Friday night.

Then on Saturday, Jackie had to go to Parksville with a novice lady bowler from their club to coach her at the Provincial championships there. So she called her daughter Tamara and asked if she would come and take me out for the day touring the signs of Courtney and Comox. She drove me up the Mt. Washington where they ski in the winter time, and the kids ride mountain bikes and quads in the summer time. We rode the ski lift up to the top of the mountain and seen the gorgeous sights from the top. You could look over the whole strait to the mainland and all the little islands in the ocean. It was goregous up there. Then I caught my flight back to Calgary at 7 pm last night.

Now tomorrow it will be back to work once again, but I have had a real restful vacation and will be ready to go back to work in the morning. Now I have to go for groceries so I better scoot.

Love you all.

Shirley