VETERANS DAY, NOVEMBER 11. 2011

Dear Family,

Today on 11/11/2011 we celebrate Veteran's Day which date was selected to remember the end of the First World War on November 11th and to remember all veterans and their service..  Here is a photo of the Dad in his dress Navy Blue officers uniform showing the rank of Lieutenant in the Medical Corp.

I only thought about it again today because we were invited to Cheryl's kids performance at their Cardon School.  Each of her five girls either had a signing or reading part in a performance remembering past and current veterans of conflicts.

It was quite a nice program which opened with a prayer, pledge of allegiance, salute to the flag, the choral singing of the National Anthem and readings from each conflict going back to the First World War.

It was very nice and I was moved.  They had each veteran stand and say in which service he served, during what conflict and what branch of the service.  I stood up and said, "US Navy, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Medical Corp during the Vietnam conflict".  They had two men there who were Navy who had fought in the WWII in New Guinea, a few from Vietnam and several from the current conflicts.

I have never talked much about this in the family so this is a short note.  They had a doctor draft during the Vietnam war and you had to serve two years either in the Peace Corp or in the armed services.  Instead of being drafted, I volunteered in the Navy and a friend got me into the School of Aviation Medicine, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida where we served from 1964-1966.  Pensacola was a training command so they were strict about uniforms, saluting, and inspections.  I had to wear a sword with my dress whites during an inspection.

I did not see conflict.  I saw more conflict and gun shot wounds in Boston and Detroit.  The school of Aviation Medicine trained Navy flight surgeons and did a lot of basic research related to the space program..  I was in a pulmonary lab where we measured oxygen consumption and pulmonary functions on the Mercury Astronauts and I  met several of them.  The computation of oxygen consumption involved a series of calculations so I wrote a program in Fortan to solve this, the data was punched on IBM sort cards and run through one of the real old huge computers we had in the school.

We did basic research on vestibular function in hypobaric conditions, (altitude).  This was for the space program where there were problems with vertigo.  I set up a lab where we studied coronary artery flow in awake greyhound dogs at altitude and wrote a a couple of papers. I also had to stand watch in the base medical dispensary at night and you could not leave that watch.  I had to stand watch the day Bryan was born; we had our neighbor who was the Naval Obstetrician pick Mom up when she started labor, deliver Bryan and then he called me on my watch.

The base trained Naval Aviators and the Enterprise was the carrier that they qualified on.  I had such respect for these men and for what they gave.  It is so appropriate that we remember those who have served, those who have fallen  and those who have returned to guarantee our freedom and safety.

Love, Dad

CREPES ON SUNDAY

Dear Family,

Sunday was very busy.  Paul invited me over to his ward to give his Priest class the lesson on Patriarchal Blessings. So we drove over to Holiday and when I got there, they had assembled the Priests, Teachers, Laurels and MIA Maids for the lesson.  there were about 30 - 40 kids,

They were sharp and knew a lot about the House of Israel and the concept of birthright. I gave a half hour lesson and Mom said it was good. (Some adult leaders were taking notes.}

After church, Paul took us  up to his parents for brunch in his new huge van.  Many of his family were there and it was quite a sight with Karen constantly cooking and providing for all the grand kids as they came.  I  had a chance to visit with Paul's Dad.  It was a very good time.

I had a Patriarchal Blessing that evening and after felt kinda tired. .We got a call from Paul Jr. that Cheryl and Paul were having a special Family Night and could we come. Also we think you should  make some crepes.

Well we had spent the afternoon with them but OK, we will gladly come over for Family Night and bring my crepe recipe and special pan. It could be that the kids were behind this request.  After a Family Night, they all pitched in and wanted to help with the crepes.  Someone broke the eggs, others measured the milk, another measured the flour, another the water.  Mary Clare melted the butter, I added a little vanilla flavored Kefir milk for zest and we turned on the blender and viola, perfect crepe batter.

I cooked crepes one at a time for at least a half an hour and they kept coming back for ,more. Finally after the second batch of batter, they were full and wandered off to bed.

The next night I get a call from Loren,  "Grandpa, we are having scriptures now, can you come over for that and make some more crepes?"  I guess they figured out that I am a sucker for Family Home Evening and scripture reading and can easily be talked into making crepes. " I can't come now because it is too late and we are in the Temple Tuesday and Wednesday night but how about Thursday night?"  "Cool Grandpa!" So we have a date for Thursday night.

I guess I like doing sweet things.

Love, Opa

FAMILY FUN AT HALLOWEEN

Dear Family,

We had a busy weekend with Rick and Gemina's visit and many get togethers,  Saturday, Doug and I went to Farmington to watch Rebecca in her La Cross game. She did well and scored the first goal and her team won.  Did not quite understand the game as it was the first one I had seen but there were a bunch of little gitsl with sticks raised high and screaming at each other. But it was fun!

After that, Doug and I made our way to the Bountiful Lyons Club shooting range and sighted in a couple of hunting rifles.  Then it was home.. Mom dropped me off at the University of Utah football game and picked up Rick and Gemina.  Rick joined me in the box and watched the game.  They stayed at Cheryl's so we went there, stayed late, watched a movie.

Sunday was church and then a get together at Paul and Cheryls.  Gemina and Cheryl prepared a healthy meal.     Gemina prepared a hearty soup in California, froze it and brought it up on the plane in addition to a salad.  Mike and Rayanne, Emily and John, Doug and Kristina, and Cathy and Pete and all the kids came for a great visit.  Here is Cathy, Rayanne, Emily and Cheryl enjoying the goodies.

Once fed, all the cousins break up into age groups, the little kids get into the toy room, the teen age boys shoot a few hoops in the basement and the teenage girls get into Madeline's bed and just talk.  Here is Madeline B., Natalie H. and Madeline H. 

The  trick of climbing into bed was not limited to the teenagers.  With the main TV screen out, we had to go to Cheryl's bedroom to watch a movie.   

Here is Mom, Gemina, little Johnny, Rick on the Droid smartphone and Paul Jr. watching Midway.  Cheryl kicked everyone out at 10 PM.  Well it was really fun and Mom says her bed is comfortable.


The next night was Halloween and the family everywhere had a great time.

The next night was Halloween.  I do not have pictures ow what all the family was doing but here is a sampler.  Here is Al and her kids.  They went to Bloomfield Hills and hit our old neighborhood on Kingsgateway. The Breer's emptied all their candy into the kids bags!  All used to start at the Breer's and then work their way to the end of the block, then put on sheets and work their way back up the street.  It was most effecient and they always got the most.

Here is Becca but no matter what she puts on, she will never look like a witch.

Here is Libby, Mary Claire, Madeline and Loren as a 

Popcorn box.  Here they are in front of the house.

Here is Cheryl's gang in front of the house. It was a ;lot of fun.

Mom and I met the kids at the door as ourselves and that was scary enough 

Alles Gute und alles Liebe, 

Dad and Mom

HUNTSMAN EXPANSION DEDICATION

Dear Family,

We had a busy weekend with many get togethers.  We are always finding the smallest excise to assemble and  visit.

This weekend, we were invited to the dedication of the Huntsman Cancer Center Expansion, John, Karen, family and staff built this gorgeous expansion of the Huntsman Cancer Center.  They added 50 more inpatient beds and expanded the outpatient treatment center.  There is also a new OR with MRS capability during surgery.  It allows the Neurosurgeons to check the margins of cranial tumor resections.  They can tell during surgery by wheeling in an overhead MRS imaging device if they got all the tumor.  Fantastic!

 They built a most beautiful outpatient facility with the comfort and needs of the patient uppermost in mind.  Paul took us around the new infusion outpatient ward where patients receive outpatient chemotherapy.  There are individual cubicles outfitted with TV, computer access and comfortable chairs and beds.  It was fantastic!  It has a full floor to ceiling glass view of the valley and this is stunning.

He showed us where He and Cheryl plan to dedicate a nurses station to the memory Julie .  It will have her name aboe the nurses station for outpatient chemotherapy.  If anyone wants to contribute, contact Cheryl.

The dedication was impressive.  The picture shows John and Karen giving their remarks.  There were four members of the Quorum of the Twelve, the Governor of Utah, Senator Orin Hatch and many dignitaries from the University of Utah.  John Huntsman Jr. who still is running for the [presidency in 2012,  gave the keynote address and did a very nice job.  It is such an outsanding accomplishment ot have built that unit with its research facility here in Utah.  I was impressed out of my mind.

Later that night, Rick and  Gemina came for a visit.  We went to the Football game and
Rick came in the box.  We went over to Cheryl and Pauls after and "hung out". So much fun there.

Well that is about all for now.  Love you all.. Dad

STAKE CONFERENCE, STYLE 2011

Dear Family.

We had Stake Conference this weekend. One of the things about my calling is that I do not have to go to any meetings such as High Council or Stake PEC.  This is always nice in one way but we are a little out of the loop.

I got a call about Thursday from our Stake President informing me of the Stake conference coming this weekend.  I had seen it on the Stake calender and put it on my calender but did not know where the various meetings were to be held..

The "Evening Adult Meeting" was held last night in the Jordan River Institute building which has this huge hall.  Mom and I finally found the place (it was on a street that did not exist on any of my GPS devices).  We went to the Jordan River Temple and asked for directions.  The place was packed with hundreds of Single Adult members.  President Plumb always asked for me and Mom to sit on the stand in front.  I looked at the program and it was outlined the same way they did it in Germany.  There was the list of participants and the exact time allotted each one.  I did not have an assignment and we sat back to enjoy the meeting.  At the end, just before President Plumb was to speak, he turns to me and says, "You have two to three minutes!"

Well I have always had the rule that a good five minute talk in the church had three essentials; one scripture, one story and one main point.  In a two minute, you can still get in one scripture and make a short point but have to leave out the story.  The councilor in the Stake Presidency talked about his Patriarchal Blessing and I tied it in with that.

The next morning, our leadership meeting was held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square,  pictured above.  Mom and I sat up front in those big comfortable chairs and we did not have to speak.  At 9:30 AM, we hurried across Temple Square to the Conference center.  This was a regional meeting and 120 Stakes participated in this session.  21 Stakes were invited to meet int he Conference Center and it was packed.  Elder Bednar was the main speaker and it was great. It was televised to the other 100 Stakes in the South Salt Lake Area

When I was growing up Stake Conference was a little more complicated;, there was  always a Saturday night Leadership meeting.  Then on Sunday, it was two two hour sessions, one in the morning from ten to noon and then another one in the afternoon from two to four PM.  The afternoon session was always a bit more sparsely attended.  They are getting this down pretty well.

Lots of visiting in the family this past weekend.  Roy went back to Detroit to talk to people at GM and spent some great fun time with Bryan at the farm fooling around with Bry's new Kabuto ATV.  Then Rob was down in Orlando visiting an ophthalmology meeting and got together with John.  We are starting to think about Thanksgiving when Rob and Eva and crew and even maybe John and Kaley + kids will visit.

We love you all, Mom and Dad

MINI MISSIONARY GET TOGETHER

Dear Family,

We are back in full swing.

We had a little get together last evening with a few of our missionaries.  Dario and Trisha Dzierzon and their kids were in town.  Trisha's parents have moved to Utah so maybe we will see them a little more often

They flew in from Freiberg, Germany, the city in which the East German Temple was built. They came with their four children including the red headed twins.

It was great to see them again.  They wanted to visit with some of their old companions so we had an informal get together.  This is almost like a family picture now complete with the kids.  Front row: Heidi, Mom with one of the boys who speaks fluent German and American English.. Behind is Kristi, Trisha and Dario with the Buben.  Back is Dianne, Daniel T., the pilot in the Air Force), Tommy M., Jordan B. and Elizabeth with hubby.  It is wonderful to see all moving ahead with their lives.

It is school vacation time in Utah so people have taken off.  Cheryl and Paul and their gang drove down to San Francisco.  I took three of Doug's boys down to Cabelas that was packed with families and their children.  I did not buy anything.

Thanksgiving should be fun with Rob and Eva coming and the gang here in Utah.

All is well, Love, Dad

OCTOBER FUN

Dear Family,

I have been getting over a nasty flu and have been grounded for a couple of weeks so there has not been too much going on up at Sherwood Drive.  We did get out on Sunday night to visit old friends from Vienna.  Here we are with the Husz's.  They have been called to preside over the Freiberg Temple in East Germany.  He was my Austrian counselor on our mission to Germany and Austria.  They are great members and his wife is an absolute miracle.  While we were over there, she had an abdominal cancer with spread, had a huge surgery and was sent home to die but her recovery is something that I have never seen before.  They will be great in their Temple service. As we left, I started to sing, "Sag beim Abschied leise Servus", an Austrian song of parting, and at the end we broke out into a duet.  Great friends, great time.

We attended a solemn assembly in the Salt Lake Temple. There are about 5000 who are serving one way or another in the temple and they have these meetings once a year.  They  had two sessions, the first had about 3000 present.  We went to the 11 AM session and there must have been at least 2000 there.  President Eyring gave the address and the whole experience was wonderful.

In the meantime there was plenty going on in the family especially in Michigan.  Rick went back to Michigan.  We have all visited Rick's tree farm in the Sierras and helped with the wood cutting.  This time he came to work with Bryan and Paul in cutting wood.  Here is the doctor of the chain saw, Rick with Paul on their farm getting a winter supply of wood.  He also spent a couple of days with Bryan clearing wood from the additional property that Bry added to our old farm.

Here are the two wood cutters getting a bite  to eat in that hole in the wall place in South Lyon called Chinese Food.  So there is Bryan in his Carhart bib overalls, President of a successful business computer company and there is Rick in his wood cutting outfit, Rick a partner in a Beverly Hills Law firm returning to the earth and.  So great

So while the guys were in the Chinese restaurant in South Lyon, MI, Dr. Doug was actually over in China, eating real Chinese food.  He was there for two weeks on his yearly excursion to better the results of the surgical operation, carotid endarterectomy.  He did not operate on this occasion but gave many talks in many places including Beijing and Shanghai.  We may go back with him next year if I am feeling pretty good.


Here is something that went on at Al's farm.  She went out and bought three Marino sheep who will lamb in December.  Paul put them in the back of their van and hauled them to their farm.  Al wanted this particular sheep for the wool which she will use. There farm goes as far back as you can see in the photo.

Here is Rick and Bryan's daughter, Sarah, going to church in our Bloomfield Hills ward with the Detroit Temple in the background

Then the entire Family clan got together for dinner at Al and Paul's farm in Munci, MI. There was Al, Paul and kids, Mary and Mark with their kids Bryan and Kristina and their kids with visiting guest woodsman, Rick.

I wish we could have been there also.

I will start back in the temple this week.  We have a little get together this weekend with our friends, the Dzierzons who are visiting from Saxony, Germany.

We go to Virginia in November to see our good friends the Manwarings and do a little project in his woods but it won't be wood cutting, ()could be however) . Rick and Gemina come for Halloween and Rob and Eva and their kids will come for Thanksgiving.

Love to all,  Dad