Christmas Lights from our house and Chocolate Pie Recipe

Some Christmas sights from our house for your enjoyment.



Our candy canes are actually red this year. We also have a flood light on the manger-so you can see them better. This year, we also don't have the extra lights in the trees.

Here's my traditional Chocolate Cream Pie recipe-improved thru the years.

2 or 3 pkgs. of 8 oz. cream cheese 1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sugar 2-3 lg. tubs of Cool Whip
1 cup cocoa powder 3 teaspoons of vanilla
6-10 cooked pie crusts. Grated semi-sweet chocolate chips or candy bar

Combine cream cheese, sugar, & vanilla in lg. mixing bowl. Add cocoa alternately with milk, beating until smooth. Gradually add & fold in Cool Whip until well combined. Pour or scoop into pie shells quickly. The more cream cheese you use, the quicker it sets up. However, I prefer the more cream cheese. Garnish with grated semi-sweet chocolate chips. Freeze until ready to serve. (Stephanie prefers to let it thaw a little before serving.) Depending on how full you make the pies, you may or may not have leftover filling. If you do, just freeze it-for more pies later.

Our Christmas traditions: peanut clusters and my chocolate cream pie.

SOME FAMILY PICTURES & CATCHING UP.

Well, it's been quite awhile since I posted anything new. I finshed work in mid-October. Life is really busy. I'm trying to get ready for the holidays now. I'm going to post some pictures and let you catch up with our family.

Tyler, "Bekha", & Jacob
These are Heather's kids. Tyler is 10 years old. He loves riding our 4 wheeler and his own motorcycle. He's in the 6th grade and was in football this fall. He is Bonka's guy. "Bekha" is 8 years old. She has enjoyed dancing the last few years. She's pretty good at it. She's a "girly" girl. Howeve, she surprised me. This next summer, she wants to play baseball. Jacob is 6 years old. He's quite mischievious. He's grandma's guy.

Stephanie's kids, Arianna, "Mady", & "Kenna"
The group picture of Stephanie's kids was taken in the summer sometime. Traci, Jacob, Kari, Arianna, "Kenna" & "Mady". They don't get many times when all of the kids are there at the same time. Arianna is in the 8th grade. This is her first day of school picture. She's had another knee surgery. This was her good knee. She's doing good. This is "Mady's" first day of school picture also. Don't you just love her smile? She was asked to participate in a drug-free "to do" for the whole state of Idaho. She was the only one asked out of her school. The governor spoke at this function. I didn't get to watch her, because it was a Friday. Rick went with his parents. They said the audience loved her the best. Maybe, that's because she had her talk mostly memorized and her great smile. "Kenna" and daddy are going to her first day of school also (Pre-school) . She is pretty independent and starting to be quite the shatter box. The problem is that I can't understand everything she says. She calls us sometimes, just to talk.

This was taken the first part of November. They are Stephanie's step-kids. Traci, Kari, & Jacob. Kari also had a knee surgery. She is doing very well and is a sophmore in High School. Traci is in volleyball and is trying our for the "Jump" acting production that goes on every year for the kids in Magic Valley. She was in it once before. Jacob just continues to get taller.

Heather & Stephanie's brother and his wife (Andy & Stacy) came down for an early Thanksgiving visit. They were here for almost a week. We were invited to a family gathering to spend some time with them. They're a cute couple. They live in California. Andy is in a band. He is the lead singer. Both of them work for her relatives in construction.

Well, I've been substituting in the Temple on a pretty regular basis-besides my own shift. I substiture on Friday evenings after working all day on Friday. I substitute on Thursday days also. That's fun, but time consuming.

There is a chance that Rick may get to work at the Recommend Desk soon. He's on the list 2 times and the guy in charge of recruiting others works on my shift. My friend visited with the President of theTemple about getting Rick on. The President said that Rick needs to make an effort to go to the Temple on a regular basis. That's how they pick the new ones. We did go to the Temple this last week. An older couple in our ward that has been married for 30 years were sealed. Rick was his escort. That's the first time I got Rick to the Temple in almost 2 years. His depression has gotten extremely worse in the last 2 years. It's hard to get him out of the house anymore. If he gets to work at the Recommend desk, that would be such a great "lift" to both of us.

I just got put into the Primary Presidency. I've been the President once before. I've been the 1st Counselor twice and the Secretary once. This time, I am the 2nd Counselor. I'm a little intimidated. I've never been over the older kids. I'm not real excited about being in charge of the scouts. I keep reminding myself what the Temple President says: "Those that are called, become qualified." I guess that's what Heavenly Father wants me to do. I conducted the opening exercises yesterday-our first day. Luckily, I don't have to to Sharing Time until the first Sunday in December. Maybe by then, I'll feel more comfortable in this new calling.

SOME CATCHING UP.

Well it's been at least 3 weeks since I've added anything. That's because I'm working Seneca (Green Giant). I work 6 days a week 10-12 hours a day. The 7th day of the week, I serve at the Temple. Not much time to do anything else. When I get done with work, I'll try to post some pictures.
It's so-o- o nice to be serving in the Temple again. Mostly, I have been serving in Iniatory. That is where my heart is. I hope to be able to at least experience the other assignments since it's a brand new Temple. I will in time. It's nice not traveling 2 hours to the Temple and 2 hours to drive back home. The Temple has been full most of the time since it opened. It has even added extra chairs for the sessions for the first 3 months. Most of them have also been full. That's great.
All of my grandkids have started school. Stephanie's oldest (Mike's oldest) is in high school. Stephanie's oldest of her own should be in high school except she was held back one year because of her having a knee surgery. Stephanie's youngest-Kennedi started pre-school this year. The rest of Stephanie's kids are stretched out in between the ones that I mentioned. Heather's oldest-Tyler is in the 6th grade this year and had his first football game this last Saturday. Heather's youngest -Jacob started 1st grade this year. I guess with all of my grandkids in school, that makes me getting old.
Rick is always fighting his depression-(our whole married life). At times it gets slightly better. That always helps.
We've taken our 4 wheelers out 4 times this summer. We're getting better an learning how to steer them. They are still harder to steer than out motorcycles were. It's been fun doing something.
Talk to you later. 4:30 a.m. comes early.

TEMPLE YOUTH CELEBRATION & TEMPLE DEDICATION.

Last night was the Youth Cultural Celebration for the Temple. It was held at the fairgrounds and also broadcast to all of the Stake Centers. Most people were not invited to go to the fairgrounds. We had to watch it at the Stake Center. In a way, it was better, because we got to see President Monson a lot closer than the people in the bleachers. He rode into the area on a golf cart and had his only daughter with him. He visited with the youth as he was walking on stage. The sound wasn't turned on yet, so we couldn't hear what he was saying. There was a temporary stand with a podium set up for him. Since it was temporary, because he would be in the bleachers later, he was facing the sun. He had been setting down and put a pair of sun glasses on. When he got up to speak, he forgot about the sunglasses. I guess he realized that he still had them on and didn't know what to do. Leave it to him to do something cute. He took them off and put them on Elder Brent Nielson. Elder Nielson kept the sunglasses on until President Monson finished talking. When President Monson went into the bleachers, he took time to shake the hand of each Stake President and their wives.
The celebration was about the history of Idaho and the cultures of the people that came to Idaho. It lasted about 1 & 1/2 hours. They did a good job. One sad note about the event. The man in charge of this had cancer. He was in remission when he was first asked to be in charge of the event. He passed away on the 21st. (That is Rick's birthday and also President Monson's birthday.) He was able to see the kids perform in their dress rehearsalbefore he died.
I don't know about any of you that don't live in our area and what you got to see for the Temple dedication. But in our area, we were assigned 2 times to watch it-either 9:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. I had Rick get tickets to the 2:00 session in case I got to work, I could get in a half day at least. I don't know if the 9:00 a.m. actually showed the cornerstone ceremony or not. (When I've watched other dedications-they have.) Well, the 2:00 session did not show the cornerstone ceremony. I was a little bummed about that. Then I looked at the Times News on line. They have a short video of the cornerstone ceremony. If you didn't get to see it when you watched the dedication-click on the Times News link that I have on my blog.
This coming Friday-the 29th of August is my first time for serving in the Temple ! I'm excited.

Our last day serving at the Temple Open House and other information about the Temple.

We served our last day at the Open House on Friday the 8th of August. Elder Nielson said that we're averaging between 4,000 and 5,000 visitors a day. Fridays and Saturdays are averaging between 5,000 and 6,000 visitors. As of 7:00 a.m. that morning, there have been 295 self-referrals to the church. That's pretty exciting. He didn't have any neat stories to share this time. (Some of the neat stories will be written down and put into the cornerstone-to be opened in 100 years from now.)
Both of the other times, we were able to serve in the Temple for at least part of the time. This time, Rick served in the Temple, but I volunteered to serve in the Stake Center. ( I was directing traffic flow in the chapel. We were so busy for about 2 1/2 hours, that even the choir seats were full besides the chapel being full. Everyone came at once and had to go on a first come basis.)
I was aware of 2 situations that I know happened because Heavenly Father wanted them to happen. There was a small group of people that had at least one Japenese with them. They wanted someone to translate for him. One of our security people from our Stake that was assigned to work - just happened to have gone to Japan on his mission. He was their translator. Another incident like that: A small group came in that had a deaf person. He wanted someone that could sign for him. I told them that I would find out if we had someone. Sure enough, we did. The wife of our 1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency knew how to sign. She was actually one of our tour guides. We had to do a little switching around of people, but she ended up being their translator. Heavenly Father makes things happen in such a natural way, that many people don't realize that He has a hand in all things-but I know He wanted these people to be there when we could best serve them.
We were only assigned to work the early morning shift. That's all Rick served. When it got time for my replacement to come, not many people showed up. I volunteered to work a double shift-after we got some food for Rick. It's a good thing that I did go back. Almost all of the ushers that were assigned to the early morning shift (in the Stake House) ended up staying for all or most of the next shift. At first, the afternoon wasn't as busy as the morning. It ended up being almost as busy for about an 1 1/2 hours. I caught a ride home with someone from our Ward.
My girlfriend is in the choir that sings for the dedication. She gets to see the Prophet. She is allowed to take her family. Both Rick & I told her that we thought we were part of her family-so she should invite us also. I don't think she's falling for that line.
I can hardly wait for the Temple to be open. My first day of serving is Friday, August 29th.
There's some confusion about the times that people can go. At first, we were told that it was by appointment only. I don't think that's right-but I'm not sure. Now, my understanding is that appointments are taken for the 1:30 session only. All other sessions, they will reserve 10 seats for out of town patrons. The rest of the room is filled by first come-first serve. The sessions will be every 2 hours, iniatory will be every 2 hours also. If needed afterwards, the sessions will be every hour instead of every 2 hours. The sessions start at 7:30 a.m. except on Wednesdays. That day, they will start at 5:30 a.m. The last session starts at 7 :30 p.m.
Baptism sessions: Weekdays will be at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays at 7:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and also 1:30 p.m.

4 wheeling adventure

We took our 4 wheelers out for the first "real" ride. We've taken them out for a few short rides before. We went up to the South Hills (near Hansen). We went on the back side from the Rogerson area. We had never seen that area before. We're always looking for new scenery. We went up the back side of Deadline Ridge near Fawn Springs. WE ADVICE YOU NOT TO TAKE THIS AREA - UNLESS YOU ARE VERY EXPERIENCED IN DRIVING! This was the worst road we've ever been on. It was very steep and also very rocky. Really, the road was full of 2-3-4 foot boulders all over. We figured it would be just a little ways. No, it went on for quite a ways. Of course, once you've started up one of these areas, there's no turning around. You just have to keep going. Everytime we thought we were to the top of it, it got worse and more steep. A few times we thought we were going to tip over. Thank Heavens for experience in driving. However, we're still learning on the 4 wheelers. They steer a lot different than motorcycles do. Motorcycles are easier to steer. Needless, to say, we went down the hill the other direction.
Even though the road was terribly rough (part of it), we still enjoyed the day. It slightly rained on us. That's kind of nice. We've been rained on (or snowed on) so often, that we've come to expect it. It was good to take advantage of one of my last free days before work starts again.

Temple Open House experiences

Hi,
We just served the 2nd day at the Twin Falls Temple Open House.
I want to share some of the experiences that have happened.
Last Saturday, Our area had our first baptism from the open house of the Temple. There are a few more scheduled in the next few weeks.
One of the best stories just happened last week. There was a family visiting the Carthage jail and the Nauvoo Temple grounds. They are not members. They wanted to see inside the Temple and asked if there was any way that they could see the inside of the Temple without being members. They were told that during an Open House was the only time. This family asked if there was an Open House going on right now. Of course they were told about the Twin Falls Temple. They had never even heard of Twin Falls, Idaho. Needless to say, they made the trip out to Idaho last week. They went thru the Temple and asked if they could go thru again the same day. This time, Elder Brent Nielson (of the area seventy) took this family thru on a special tour.
This family was so impressed that they have made arrangements for the Missionaries to meet with them when they get back home.
Just this morning, Elder Nielson said that another neat situation happened. He had known the man-member for a long time. His dad and step-mom came to the Open House. Apparently, the younger man is a convert. His parents were not one bit happy about their son joining the Mormon Church. When the parents came, the mother was mad because she came to see the Temple- not that other church house also. I gathered she was throwing a fit. Anyhow, Elder Nielson was asked to take them on a personal tour also. It was at the end of the day and he could take as long as needed. He said that before they finished, the mother's attitude had softened deeply. She happened to be the mother-in-law of a friend's daughter. Therefore, I got the rest of the story. The mother-in-law called and said how grateful she was for this experience.
Yesterday, we had 20 self referrals. I believe that maybe we saw one of them. We had taken one of the gals that Rick Home Teaches. (His partner went with us.) I was watching this one particular man during the tour. He was "drinking in" everything. He purposely was the last one out of each room. As we were getting ready to leave sealing room, I asked him if he noticed the mirrors. (The tour guides did not bring that to our attention.) The man seemed impressed. Then as we were in the hosting center again, he was just about the last one. I visited with the Sister Missionary. I told her that he seemed very interested. She said she would visit with him. We were probably there for about 20 minutes. The 2 of them were still visiting as we left.
One of the first stories that I heard was about a family from Sweden that was visiting Sun Valley. They read in the paper that the Open House was going on and decided to come on down. Their native language isn't English. They did speak English, but preferred to have the tour in their own language. Luckily, someone that was helping with ushering that day had been on a mission in their area. He was their personal tour guide translator. All of us know that Heavenly Father had a hand in that happening.
I am so excited for our Temple to open.
I may not get to serve at the next scheduled Open House for our Stake, because I may be back to work. Other years, I would already be back to work. This year-work is starting late. I know that's just because Heavenly Father knows that I needed the time off to serve at the Open House. I need a few more days off between now and when it opens. I'm going on faith that a way will be provided that I can do what is asked off me and also work.

Listening to the promptings of the Spirit.

I need to share with you a neat experience. About a month ago when I was at the Temple, the session had just started. I got an inspiration from the Spirit. It was that Rick's Grandpa Todd wanted his Temple work finished-and if we get his work done, it will get Rick's Dad baptized. I first thought it was just my wishful thinking, but I asked Heavenly Father to help me shake the feeling if it was wrong. I could not shake this feeling. Thru out the session and all thru the Iniatory Session, I still had this feeling. When I got home, I asked Rick if his sister & her husband had finished the work. (They had said they were going to.) Rick didn't know. The next weekend, Terry was visiting. I asked her. She said they had not got around to finishing the work. Well, this last Saturday, they finished the work. They had Rick's grandparents sealed to each other. I was so excited about it, that I had to call Rick's folks. Rick's Dad answered the phone. He was o.k. with this. Most of the work had already been done on his grandma but only the baptisim on his Grandpa. So, Rick's siter and her husband really had a great day. Rick's dad is the only child. I'm sure his grandparents are anxiously waiting for Melvin to decide to be baptized. Melvin basically is a member. He supports us in everything. He lives the life of a member, but feels responsibility to his church. I think when they all die off-which is happening-he will decide to be baptized. Then, he won't feel a responsibility to them anymore.

(The picture is Rick's grandparents and his dad. George & Pearl Todd and Melvin Todd.)

Check out my Slide Show!

How we celebrated the 4th of July.

We had a picnic with Mom (Grandma Bodily) and the twins on the Monday before the 4th. She didn't want to be around the crowds. She thought it would be easier. We met at Niagra Springs about 1/2 way between Jerome and Buhl. It really is nice. A lot nicer than the last time we were there. Mom really enjoyed being outside and hearing the sounds of nature-birds, water flowing, etc. Ric & I and the twins played 2 games of sling ball while Mom watched.
Then on the 4th, Grant treated us to a float trip down the river near Hagerman. He wanted to take us up near Yellowstone, but we couldn't afford the extra gas. He said that river would have had rapids or about 3 miles solid-level 3. That would have been extremely fun. We still enjoyed the float trip. It had some fun times and a long, slow area also. It finished up with rapids. During the fun times, James was smiling from ear to ear. We packed a lunch and stopped about 1/2 way during the float to eat.
James absolutely loves Uncle Rick. They stayed the afternoon and early evening. We BBQ'd steaks and finshed off the potato salad. Thanks Grant for treating us to a fun day. (It was a lot more fun than the usual boring parade that Buhl provides.)

Our viewing of the Temple

Well, we were able to see the inside of the Temple on the 29th of June. It was actually a practice session for the tour guides. Since Diane is an officiator, we were included. It's very plain-compared to many Temples. It has the prettiest chandelier that I've ever seen. (It was neat going into the Celestial Room. The tour guide didn't speak in here. He just let everyone "drink in" the feeling.) It has the largest Sealing Room in a Temple that the church has. It has seating for either 70 or 75-with enough extra space for approxiamatley 30 more chairs.
We will be ushers for the Open House on the 14th and 30th of July and also on the 8th of August. We will serve for about 3-4 hours each day. We are not sure what we will be doing or what time.