Uncle Steve's Obituary

Uncle Steve's obituary is online here at the Salt Lake Tribune. It's nice to read, especially if you didn't know much about his life (I didn't).

I'm not sure how long this link will work--my guess is a week or two.

You can also read the guest book and sign it for others to read.

He will be and already is missed.

Wedding bells are ringing all around the town!!

Joey Frederickson and Mercy Johnson have chosen May 26th, 2007, to be married in the Bountiful Utah Temple.

Break out the Marinelli's everyone and toast the happy couple!!

In Memorium

Charles Edward Stevens, Uncle Steve

Born April 22, 1916 - Died February 24, 2007

Married Dorothy Jackson, who died February, 2003

Mom said, upon hearing the news of his death, "He's happy now that he is back with Dorothy."

Another Trip Update

Here are more pictures from the trip. I thought I'd really taken a ton, but I mostly took several of the same shot. And I think I left out certain people. Like I'm not sure if I got Joan and Fred except in the group shots.

So here's a group shot outside the temple. (and I think Lyn hid himself on purpose!) And a shot of Ellen at the MOA Cafe - and a shot of the snowy day we enjoyed. And shot of Sam the Navigator. And the entrance to the MOA exhibition.

Pretty exciting!! (actually, it was a very nice trip - it's always good to get away - and hard to go back to the "grind" that is the daily job!)

I didn't get a picture of it, but we ran into Elder Holland at the Rite Aid on 7th East. He was very pleasant and friendly and we had a nice conversation about the World Wide Training Meeting. I love running into General Authorities - well, it's happened 3 times to me!!

"When the family gets together . . ."

It was a busy, whirlwind kind of last few days. Mom and I flew out Wednesday night - the traffic was light, the airport was not crowded, the flight came in early - Charley found us by the luggage carousel - and then we ran into Leslie, Tom and family as we were calling Donna to get Leslie's cell phone number! The stars were all lined up just right!

We stayed at the downtown Salt Lake Hilton Hotel in nice accommodations - at very reasonable rates, thanks to Fred's sister Linda, who works for Hilton. Tom, Leslie and crew and Joan and Fred were on the Executive floor - while Mom and I were 8 floors down- but with the speedy elevators, we hardly noticed.

I took lots of pictures - and lots happened - but it's late - and we have Stake Conference tomorrow, so I will just start with a few pix and go into detail tomorrow.

On a sad note, Uncle Steve did die today - shortly after we arrived back in Long Beach. But Mom was able to see him every day we were there, and she said her goodbyes today just before we left. What is sad is the void his death leaves in the lives of his children. We pray that they will find peace and comfort in many good memories.

On a very happy note, the wedding was lovely, Anthony looked great, the reception was fun and Joey announced his engagement. I've included a picture of the bride and groom, a family shot from the reception, with Anthony on the left, a shot of Joey and Mercy, his bride-to-be, with Grandma Clayton, and a shot of Grandma with our good friend Kay Gavin - it was great to visit with her and Nancy.

Stay tuned!

e&a

i think esme' looks rather regal here, or maybe she's just suspicious.

cracks me up

Mei Mei

This is my favorite picture of Esmé.


I'm sorry that she doesn't have bangs lately. But Happy Birthday, anyway! I can't believe she is five.

Uncle Steve

Mom and I are heading to Utah Wednesday night for Clarissa's wedding, to visit Anthony, to see Mom's friend Kay, to visit Hannah and explore the Museum of Art with her, to visit my old roommates, to stay in the hotel with Leslie, Tom, kids and Joan and Fred, and to see her brother Steve, who will be 91 in April. We are really cramming a lot into 2 1/2 days.

Steve has double pneumonia and is not doing very well.

Steve's son, my cousin Chas, (Steve's name is Charles Edward -but he's always been Uncle Steve to me - his son, Charles Edward Jr. was often called Stevie, but is now called Chas) reports that he is "dying" but wants to hang on until his sister comes.

So our visit seems to be well-timed - one way or another. I thought about my Uncle Steve and how he's always been a favorite of mine. I actually have liked all of my uncles, but I haven't really known them all really well.

Steve I did know though, because Alice and I often went and spent a week with Uncle Steve and Aunt Dorothy. They lived near my Grandma Stevens, so when we went there, we could go see Steve and Dorothy too.

My favorite memory of Uncle Steve, however, took place in Salt Lake City 37 years ago when they paid a visit to Harry and me at our place on Douglas St., near the U. Dorothy had crocheted a baby blanket, a sweater, a cap and a pair of booties for the baby we were expecting in the fall. The baby turned out to be Bonny, and the blanket became Bonny's "lovey" and it's the one she burned on the heater in the rock house in Centerville - I believe I've posted that story a time or two.

We had a cat, Amado, whom we loved dearly. There's a post or two in that story too - maybe I will do that one soon - but Amado leaped on to Steve's lap and stayed there the whole time. Steve seemed fine with it, even stroked his head and tail.

When they stood up to leave, Steve said, "I don't like cats." Harry said, "Oh, you should have said something." Steve said, "Well, he's not so bad."

Maybe I have more Stevens in me than I realize!

The pictures are of Steve, Dorothy and Grandma Stevens in 1964, Chas and Dottie Lee, his sister, in 1964, and Mom with her brother Steve last year when we visited.

Duly Blogged

East-coast Clayton party! On Saturday night the Virginia contingent met up with the Tennessee contingent at Union Station downtown. Joan and Fred treated us all to a very nice dinner at a restaurant in the Main Hall of Union Station. It was fun to catch up, chat, and have a nice little meal together. Conversation ranged from bridges to Davis to Germany to babies to blogging to Hannah's hair (everyone's a fan--of all of those things, actually).

I had never met BriAnna or Craig and I hadn't seen Scott in I don't know, maybe 10 years. They live in VA now, near Richmond while Scott is earning a master's degree in Fort Lee. Their second baby is due in May. Matt and Scott had never met. I hadn't seen Uncle Fred since our wedding or Aunt Joan in over a year, and I hadn't seen Kirsten since earlier that morning at my baby shower (which unfortunately I do not have pictures of, but it was fun and we got lots of great stuff).

If you're wondering where Kirsten is, she's behind the camera.

If you're wondering who everyone is, Bryan and Kirsten's kids are Isaac and Clara, and you can probably figure the rest out.

Thanks for dinner and a fun time, Joan and Fred!

Happy happy birthday, David dear

Happy birthday to David!

Happy days will come to you all year...

How nice to have the day off on your birthday. At least, I hope you got the day off. My birthday wish to you is that you can do whatever you want. That's what I like to do on my birthday...eat ice cream for lunch, etc.

Have a happy one!

(and really, have ice cream for lunch.)

Like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter . . .

Since I'm leaving Wednesday for Utah, Dad and I went to visit Esme - and the rest of her family - to wish her an early Happy Birthday. And to give her the gift I was so excited to give her!

She was as delighted as I had hoped. I gave her a dress with a matching dress for her American Girl doll - something I always wanted but never had - a doll with a dress that matched mine!

She raced downstairs to try on the dress - and to dress her doll - the kind of response that warms the cockles of your heart!

Like Bonny says, it's never too late to have a happy childhood! (When Bonny was little I made her quite a few dresses and outfits - and matching ones for her dolls - and Dad would say something like "Are you doing that for Bonny or for you?" The answer is a little of both!)

I loved playing with dolls - and loved having different clothes for them to wear. But we didn't have lots of store-bought doll clothes. We would take scraps of fabric and cut slits in them for the arms! Or we used old baby clothes - but they didn't fit well - dolls were not so lifelike then.

Maybe that's why I loved paper dolls - they had lots of clothes!!

Here's a shot of Esme and me and her doll and the dresses. And some old shots from the 70's of Bonny with dolls that had matching dresses. There are two shots including Harry - and a rather strange stuffed animal I made that matched his overalls. It didn't have quite the attraction that matching doll dresses did! And do you recognize Alice, Erika and Betsy under the Christmas tree - in the Rock House in Centerville?

The Year of the Boar

The Chinese Ward in our stake put on a Chinese New Year's celebration tonight - it was a lot of fun. There was chicken, egg rolls, chow mein, fried rice, vegetables - and lots of "Western" desserts! (I asked the president of the Mountain View Ward Relief Society how we could help her, and she said we could bring "American desserts.")

They also did a very nice program of dancing, skits, a young lady playing a kind of zither, and even a Chinese Elvis impersonater (I'm not at all sure on the spelling of that.) A little Primary chorus sang "It's A Small World" and were pretty cute. Another choral group sang "Love One Another" in Chinese while the audience sang in English or Chinese, depending on your language of choice!

We took one of Dad's home teaching families - the wife is less-active and the husband is a non-member, and they are really great. We'd love to see them get more involved.

We took Eve with us - Harry had to work and Dawn didn't feel like taking 3 little ones. Eve figured out that she had eaten Chinese food before and so was delighted to go. She told everyone she met that she'd eaten Chinese food at the mall! She kept the Kelly's entertained too.

For many years, the Chinese New Year's celebration was a regular activity in our stake, but in recent years it's been missing, so we were glad to see it come back.

Just another day in paradise . . .

Today was the 6th grade Reward Party. They usually just bring in pizza or Wendy's or something and distribute it at lunch to the students who have no D's, F's, U's or N's (for Needs Improvement.)

The gal in charge this year went the "extra mile" and planned an afternoon of fun and games at Library Park. I went over 6th period, when I don't have students, and they all seemed to be having a great time. There was pizza, fruit, cookies, cake, Frisbees, Hula Hoops, Limbo, soccer, flag football, jump rope and lots of water tossing!

Parents and teachers were there supervising. No one got hurt. A wonderful time was had by all.
It was February 16th.

And it was 86 degrees!

Dad - the HANDyman!!

During his regular Tuesday night basketball game, Dad broke his hand. In all my interrogations, I neglected to ask him how it actually happened. I was in bed when he got home, left in the morning before he got up and found out he was injured from Susanne, who was here watching Eve and Porter.

He went to the doctor Wednesday a.m., and they x-rayed his hand and said, yep, it's broken. Then they said, well, we have to get authorization to set it. Don't you just love the logic of the HMO??? They said they'd try to get it done that day! Dad left to take care of some things, and when he called back, they said that the ortho guys had closed up shop early for Valentine's Day!

So today, Thursday, he got it set. He's not letting it slow him down much - it comes off two days before Moab.

It's a plastic cast wrapped with a bandage - so he can at least keep it clean. And he managed to get a suit coat over it.

Now, if it was me, I'd be figuring out a way to get to sit on the couch and read for two weeks.

Forty Winks, Forty Weeks

On December 22nd of this year, Dad and I will have been married for 40 years. In honor of the occasion, Dad came up with the idea of celebrating for the whole year. He came up with this idea last week, and obviously the year has already begun. So I was thinking it might be catchy to say we were going to celebrate 40 years in 40 weeks. But when I checked the calendar, our anniversary is about 44 weeks away. Close enough for me!

The idea is to celebrate frequently - maybe to make up for the all the anniversaries we have had neither the time, energy or resources to celebrate - the natural result of getting married 3 days before Christmas!

The celebrating will not just be for the two of us - many of the readers of this blog are an integral part of our lives and should be included in some of the events. (We will have some exclusive Harry/Barb events of course - which will be duly documented.)

We plan to dedicate this year's Ides of March festivities to the Anniversary Venue - and you're all invited! Other events will include Hollywood Bowl nights, hikes in local canyons, barbeques, movies, picnics, Dutch oven meals, Messiah Sing Alongs, beach trips, marathons, 10K's, maybe a crepe party or waffle night - the possibilities are endless - stay tuned!!

40 years, 40 winks - it will be here before you know it!

From all of us

to all of you

Happy Valentine's Day

Sorry...

So, Blogger finally made me switch over. I don't know why I resisted it so much, maybe just because I don't like feeling like I don't have a choice in the matter. Anyway, so since Hannah and I are the administrators for this blog and we have now both been forced into the new Blogger, in order to post on this blog, you'll need to switch too, I think. That's what they told me anyway. I think you get one "grace" sign-in before you need to switch.

Not that it's a big deal, because it's really not. But I often resist change.

And, I'm a tiny bit concerned about Google taking over the world.

There Stands Jackson like a Stone Wall

Today was Theo's 1-month birthday, as well as my first day back at church (and T's first day ever). To celebrate (okay, honestly it was more just to have something to do after church), we went with our friends Sterling and Jessica to Manassas to check out Bull Run.



Does it look cold?

It was COLD.

But fun.



And besides, I'm not complaining. I can button my coat now!

A Night at Grandma's

Ara is ten now - and that means I might not know just what to give her for her birthday. So we had her come and spend the night so we could go shopping and find the perfect gift.

We had a fun excursion to the Santa Anita Mall - found some funky shoes in pink and brown plaid and a pink and brown "hoodie" tee shirt. And a cool brown shirt that was on the clearance rack!! (Ara said, "What's a clearance rack?" Bonny, are you slipping??)

We also hit Borders and had fun browsing for books.

We went to the Krikorian and saw "Night at the Museum." The critics have panned it, but it's a laugh- out- loud romp that I really enjoyed. The Hoopes were sitting next to us, and Henriette L. sold us our tickets. Don't you love a small town??

The plan was to use my gift card for Olive Garden, but when we got there, the wait was an hour!! So we thought we'd try Soup Plantation - where the line snaked out onto the street. Dad thought of Spaghetti Factory, but the crowds there were forbidding too. After about an hour of driving around, we settled on Teri and Yaki right there on Myrtle - we could have walked for the whole adventure!!

The evening ended at Pavilions - where we got some Ben and Jerry's for the "midnight" snack. Dad fell asleep over his computer (he and Bruce had run about 10 trail miles this a.m.) Ara did a little "reading in bed" in the living room and then called it a night.

Bonny said it was the first time Ara had been away alone - without one of her sisters with her. We hope that there will be many more times she will want to come - with or without her sisters. It's fun to have them all here, but it's fun to have them one at a time too.

Hooray for Hollywood!!

One of Monrovia's claims to fame is her attraction for filmakers to ply their wares here. Our fair city has provided the backdrops for many commericials, films like Mask, Father of the Bride, Beethoven 2, and others.

I personally abhor the movie people. Not them personally, I personally hate having them around. They used to come around with a permission form for the neighbors to sign - I always refused to sign and the filming went on anyway.

I don't like the way they take over the neighborhood. One time their catering truck was blocking our driveway! I was in a hurry to go to the dentist, and they said they couldn't move the truck because filming was going on and they couldn't have the noise. I think I laid on my horn - and that got the truck out of the way.

Another time I had to park way up on Scenic and haul kids and groceries half a block to my own house!

Once they did come and ask why I objected. When I complained that "If I had a yard sale and blocked off the street, the neighbors would have a fit" they offerred me money. I found that I could be bought!!

But that only happened twice. And once we got a fruit basket. And they aren't around as much anymore, so I actually forgot about them.

Until my walking buddy and I passed this the other morning. They weren't there long. It's a trailer for some new show coming up. I don't remember the title.

Just thought I'd put this all down for posterity.

And to let you know that it's not all glitter and glamor. Usually someone gets inconvenienced to make these movies and commercials. And someone else makes good money.

Therein lies the problem!

I am going

To live in the birthplace of our nation in the fall!

(Translation--I was accepted to BYU's Washington Seminar, which is a program that facilitates students getting an internship out in DC... exciting, yes!)

Alone, but not lonely

Dad and I went to the show last Wednesday. Saw "Freedom Writers." It was pretty good - I like feel- good teacher movies though. (I guess the critics don't!) Rene gave us free passes, so it was even more of a treat.

When we got into the theater, we were the only ones there. And we weren't early! We joked that we should have brought in our cell phones and let them ring - since they wouldn't bother anyone.

Then last night we used our Empanada's Gourmet gift certificate that Majorie had given us. We hustled down a blocked and barricaded Myrtle Avenue - there is all this "renovation-type facelifting " that is going on - and there were no people around. And each restaurant we passed was shuttered and dark, so we were concerned that Empanada's would be too.

They were open - but once again we were the only folks in the establishment. And it stayed that way through our whole meal. It was a great meal - and I had flan for dessert too.

There's nothing wrong with an empty restaurant - or an empty theater for that matter. It just seemed a little odd that each time we went to enjoy a "free" treat we were the only ones there.

But I will take that over standing in line outside Olive Garden! (And we do have a gift card to use there - we're waiting for some "slow"night!!)

Change is good . . .

I went out to visit Mom today - and saw for myself the massive changes being made to the front yard. There is no more front sidewalk leading up to the porch.

On an unpleasant note, Donna and I had to massacre a hoarde of roaches that apparently were living under the concrete - when they broke it up, the roaches thought they could move in to the house. We corrected that notion!

The plan is for a brick wall at the side, a circular driveway in the front, new trees, sprinklers, lawn and flowers. A fence may surround the property again - but that is in the more distant future according to Mom.

It should be pretty nice - and won't be too hard to get used to. Maybe Mom will even paint the house some color besides beige. Now that would be change!

Heard in the teacher's lounge . . .

We were talking about difficult, problem students at lunch today. Marcie said, "I told him, honey, I'm canceling my subscription to your issues."

I thought it was pretty funny. And very "on the mark."

More than worthy of an English teacher - which Marcie is!

Happy Day to the Cousin Karls!!

All of us here at the Primrose Hotel and Presidential Suite want to convey our heartiest congratulations to the Cousin Karls on reaching another milestone year!

May the upcoming year be all you want it to be!!

Feliz Cumpleanos!!

(The staff was busy working so we couldn't get them in the picture!! ha, ha!!)

I CAN'T WAIT!

for this