We are fortunate to have an exercise room in our building. Elder Millet and I get up at 6:30 and go walk for a mile or so. It's a good time to think, contemplate, and thank our Father in Heaven for his many blessings.


This little lady on the 4th floor almost always beats us up and is walking when we go down to exercise. She walks a little then leans on the rail to rest. She is very diligent.

At Family Home Evening we are talking about gratitude for our ancestors. We are to choose someone to talk about and share something with the group. I chose my mother and decided to make gingerbread boys. Marie helped with the recipe and Elder Millet did the frosting. Instead of red hots we added mini M&M's. They were so good that it took me back 55 years or more. Mother never failed to have gingerbread boys for each person in our classes for Valentine's Day. Now, with 5 children and 25-30 in each class that's a lot of cookies. On the day before the holiday we came home from school and found every surface in the house covered with cookies. What a great mom we had.

November 6 brought snow. The flakes were so big they came down in "families." What a beautiful sight. We were glad it did not last long.

A beautiful spot along the Chagrin River. The bank just fell away. We wondered if they had a fence at the top. We did not notice an ambulance down in the valley.

Beautiful fall tree right below our bedroom.

Fall in Ohio is very beautiful. We have been negligent about taking our camera to snap the beautiful colors. The traffic does not allow one to stop by the side of the road. So - we will settle with the view from our balcony.


With many of the leaves gone we are able to see the school kids play soccer. The other morning when we were going to visit a seminary we saw deer along this road. When we started the car in the parking lot about where the big white van is parked they simply looked up at us. As we drove out we saw that there were 5 of them.


Our car is parked near the building as you can see. When we come home late at night the only parking spaces are clear to the end of the lot.

Our dear President Stewart with whom we served our first year at Temple Square passed away on October 15. President and Sister Stewart were outstanding examples of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We loved them very much.


He loved to tell the story of lifting the horse and how by how doing every day strengthens us. He loved football. The football picture is in the hole of the tree. Click to see a bigger image. The pigs are very special. He told of his mother snoring when he was little and how he thought pigs were after him. All our fears about missionary work were refered to as pigs. He constantly asked that we kill the pigs. We even had a wonderful kill the pig barbecue. The train reminded us about how small a change can take you where you do not want to go. Let's fly with the eagles.

What a great man. What a great experience our Temple Square Mission was.

We came home from Institute late and found a message that a box had arrived and was at the office. Well, this morning Elder Millet went and got it. Marie sent Gumdrop Cakes - three of them. What a treat. Happy Birthday, Joyce.




Mother made gumdrop cake for my birthday for years. The main ingredients gum drops and pecans. I would cut it in very small pieces, vacuum pack, and freeze them. That way I had treats all year long.

Mother had a "secret ingredient" that Marie did not have, but, Marie's tasted just as good as Mothers. Thank you, Marie, for the fond memories.

The UPS man rang our bell and 2 birthday boxes arrived. We were so excited. The one on top was from my sister Marla - RHUBARB! We began making dumplings immediately!


As you can see the trip from Utah did not harm the rhubarb. Ed cut it up with very little waste.


Make the pie dough: 1 Pound Margarine, 8 oz. Cream Cheese, 4 cups flour. Mix well and then roll into little circles.


Put a hand full of rhubarb in the center and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.


Fold over.


Place upside down in a 9x13 baking dish.


Fill the pan and gently press the dumplings to level out.


The syrup is about 1 1/2 cups water, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 4 T Margarine. Bring to a boil and pour over the dumplings.


Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. You can eat them hot, warm, or cold. Delicious.


Add a little ice cream.


Happy Birthday, Joyce.


We had enough rhubarb left over for a rhubarb custard pie. Thanks again, Marla.

Another wonderful surprise - Mrs. Prindable's Chocolate Apples from Roger, Troy and their families. Wow! Thank you. Thank you. Again, Happy Birthday, Joyce.

We love to visit the "dump site" in back of our building and have found some very nice and useful things. The lamp was the only light in our bedroom and came in very handy. We also found lots of candles for our 72 hour kits.


Our kitchen is kept clean by the broom and mop we found. You can't imagine the nice serving dishes and glassware that was thrown away. We took most of it, and anything else we find that is good but not useable by us, to the Salvation Army Thrift Store.


The picture adds to the atmosphere in our apartmet because "nice matters".


Baskets for magazines and to carry most things are very useful. We keep the stroller in the car. It is good when we have too many groceries to carry.

Where does one put all the keepable lessons? I thought, "A file would be nice." Well the very next day we were coming home and there on a neighbors lawn was a desk and a file cabinet. We rushed our groceries home and when we got back another couple was eyeing our find. They were interested in the desk - so we took the file. It fit perfectly.


Yesterday I was working on two lessons and the pile of books was unmanageable. I thought, "If I only had a little table that could go next to my chair." Well, this morning there it was. Couldn't be better. It's about 18" high and as you can see it holds a variety of study materials within easy reach.

At Zone Conference last week the sisters from Chardon Branch furnished our lunch. They had a most wonderful sliced tomatoes they had purchased from the Amish in Burton. Since we teach Insitiute in Chardon on Wednesdays we decided to make a day of it and see the sights. This was the first indication we found the right area.

It was fun to see buggies parked at the stores and horse droppings across the parking lot.


Wal-Mart had nice covered buggy parking areas.


Since it was a nice sunny summer day not very many farmers were in town. The produce stand we visited was doing a booming business.

Yes, we're in Amish country.

We had an authenic lunch at Mary Yoder's. We had a hard time finding it and asked two little ladies. They gave us directions and then said, "It's really expensive, but, you it will be OK if you go there once."

We had noodles on mashed potatoes smothered with chicken gravy. It sounder gross but Martha Mae, our server, said it was delicious - and it was. It filled us up and after a couple hours we had room for a Blizzard at Dairy Queen.

What a great day!

The Middlefield Cheese factory is famous for its Swiss cheese. We went through the museum and saw the film on cheesemaking. Elder Millet liked the sharp Swiss and I went for the mild. I think I like his best. The factory is on Nauvoo Road. It is neat that an Amish community would chose a Hebrew name for its street.

This brought back lots of memories. Growing up we had a cow and separated the milk. Mother used the cream as her bartering tool. The town seamstress really liked cream and made lovely dresses for us in exchange.

It took quite a while and a bit of muscle to work the separator but the worse part was washing it. There was about 25 little parts that stacked together and each had to be washed individually. Mother checked up on us to make sure it was done properly. If I had a choice of the two jobs I would do the turning and Marie would have to wash it.

Leslie wrote, "This is how big the tomato plants were when we got back from Utah. They were huge and we picked 25 pounds that I used to can tomato sauce. We picked several more pounds for eating. And I'm sure there is plenty more waiting. The kids had a great time picking. Thanks for the yummy garden!"


Yes, we have tomataoes too - by the bushel. Thanks to the Amish produce stand. What will we ever do with so many? We also got a bushel of peaches, many zucchini, onions, a huge green pepper, and fresh basil. No pineapple pie - shucks.

The most important thing about Family Home Evening (we are the shepherds for our YSA Ward) is the treats. Well, I got the great idea of making bread and baking it at the building. We put the dough in the fix and mix and started out. We stopped to get gas and at the gas station I opened the back of the car and punched the bread down. Remember it is HOT in Ohio.

By the time we got to the building the dough was way over the top of the bowl again. Thank goodness it was stuck to the lid or we would have had a real mess. Shaping the loaves was like working with air and the loaves were very, very lumpy.

I made 8 loaves and even before the lesson started and I had time to take a picture over 2 had been eaten.


The YSA loved the bread and jam regardless and ate and ate. Ed was lucky to get a loaf to take home. We'll try this again in the winter.

After sleeping on a blow-up bed for two weeks we were thrilled to get a beautiful bedroom set from the Mission Home. The bed is a king pillow top and is soooooo comfortable. The highboy fits in the bedroom and the night stands are here and there. We have lots of drawers and cubbies. We are now set.

The dresser is awesome and fits in the living room. Please notice that the family pictures could be updated.

Our work is done here. We not only teach classes but I seem to be the Insitiute secretary. We work with 5 Stakes and each Bishop needs to know something about every activity, etc. We are so thankful for computers.

We have a place to sit and study. Our couch also makes into a bed. So come and visit. We have room for you.

Our kitchen is small but adequate. We have a good sized pantry, very large closets, and a storage closet.

Our bathroom is definately a one-man/onewoman setup, but it has the essentials.