Loss of a Good Friend

The last week has been a very emotional one. First, last Sunday morning we recieved the shocking news that Julie's boyfriend Kelly had passed away in his sleep. Kelly was in his early 30's. We had a family reunion on Sunday, and Julie and the boys came. Mike and his family came up to be with the boys. My son and daughter in law came home for the week. That was great. They are leaving tomorrow to go back home. I will miss them. It was nice having them around again. Then this morning when I went to take my shower I discovered our 19 year old blind cat had passed away during the night. His name was Crusher, because he was an orange tabby cat and he looked like orange crush. I am going to miss him. He was a good cat. He never went near the road. We couldn't let him out after he went blind this winter, because we were afraid he would wander away and not be able to find home again. He got really skinny this spring, although he was eating well most days. He had his days where he didn't move much because I think he had arthritis. I have posted a picture of me and him when he was about 15 yrs. old.

I have been off this week. I have been learning some things on my scanner/printer. I have been able to make prints from negatives (35mm) and I can make prints from slides also. I have not done that yet. I have been learning how to make slide shows from my photos also, and have been trying to make dvds of them too.

We went to Nauvoo in mid March. Nauvoo is in Illinois on the Mississippi River. Nauvoo is where the saints went after the exermination order was put out by Missouri Governor against the Mormons(Latter Day Saints). They had quite the city, that rivaled Chicago at the time. We had to leave a day late because a huge snowstorm went through and dumped 3-4 feet of snow on us. We got up Sunday after it ended and dug out the driveway enough to get our car out and packed and left. When we got to Wrights Corners though it had stopped snowing totally and it was sunny and beautiful the rest of the way.

We stayed at the Nauvoo Villas and Condos. We had a 1 bedroom condo with a kitchenette and a living room. It was very nice. Off season it was only $59 a day. I compared it to the hotel rooms around Nauvoo and it cost the same but we got the added features of the kitchenette and living room.

The first day we were there we drove down Parley St. just as the 1800's saints did when they were driven from Nauvoo, and looked back at the temple. It was very moving.
We also went to the show that the Missionaries put on every night. It was excellent. I took some pics of it. I am posting one here. You click on it and see a larger pic of it. You can see the orbs around the characters. These are spirits. I knew they were there before I started taking pictures. I could feel them all around. It was awesome. No my camera did not have any dust or water on the lens. I clean it off before each picture. And if I take two pics of the same thing, the orbs will have moved about, so it isn't lighting or shadows either.

I guess the graph doesn't update automatically on my blog. I am up to page 25 now.

We have a new presidency in the Church now. It is President Monson, Henry Eyring 1st Councilor, and President Uckdorf (not sure on spelling) as second councilor.

This week has been a little tough. We lost our beloved Prophet last Sunday night. Gordon B. Hinckley was 97 years old. He is now with his beloved wife now. And I am sure that the other prophets who have gone before him greeted him as he passed throgh the veil, as well as Jesus and our Heavenly Father. He was a great man. He had a great sense of humor. He was very humble, and you always felt better after you heard him speak. We are going to miss him here in the mortal world, But we will be blessed to see him again on the other side. There is a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. I am taking that challenge, even though it means reading 5 and a half pages a day. I am posting my progress chart here so you all can see how I am doing. I hope it works. The challenge starts tomorrow - Feb. 4th.