I love to see the temple + our 34th Anniversary.

 For a period of time once temples reopened after the pandemic closure, we could only schedule a single appointment per temple at a time. I couldn't schedule another appointment until I had completed a previously scheduled appointment at any given temple. I only mention this because SOMEDAY I might not remember this little tidbit of info. One of the wonderful blessings of living in UT during this time is that we are so close to so many temples! I had decided to attend weekly if possible, and was able to schedule appointments at different temples. This was such a great experience.

February 8 - Jordan River Temple

February 18 - Payson Temple

February 22 - Provo City Center Temple

March 1 - Oquirrh Mountain Temple

March 10 - Provo Temple

March 12 (our 34th Anniversary) - Mt. Timpanogos Temple

We invited any of our family that could join us to come along for a sealing session.

I'm loving those beautiful blue skies!

(We may or may not have finished the day off at Apollo Burger, which was somewhat reminiscent of finishing off our wedding reception at Burger King 34 years earlier haha.)

March 22 - Mt. Timpanogos Temple

March 29 - Provo City Center Temple

April 5 - Draper Temple

April 30 - Mt. Timpanogos Temple

On February 19th Bill and I started our service as Temple Ordinance Workers in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple on the Saturday 2nd shift (10am - 2pm). Our temple attendance as patrons has slowed a little since working each week. We have LOVED being able to serve in the temple, even though we are realizing the sacrifice of giving up most of our Saturdays. We are hoping to receive a more convenient shift once the Saratoga Springs Temple opens up.

We are excited to live so close and talk frequently about the convenience of being able to walk to the temple if needed. I can't wait!

Life is sweet.

I had to share a few quick favorite FB finds today

(yes, there are some really great benefits to occasionally perusing!)

This...

and this:

and this:

These two short clips are worth the time watching, I promise.

Have a beautiful day!

Keeping on.

A quick update today.

My parents called yesterday to make sure Bill was still doing okay and that we were doing okay overall. They had been worried and concerned for us, had offered prayers in our behalf, and had put our names in the temple. We have been surrounded by tender mercies, which I don't doubt are the result of such care.

It is a huge blessing that Bill is doing as well as he is. He is still sore around the right side of his torso where the seatbelt restrained him so well. Possibly a torn muscle or a bruised/cracked rib. He spent Saturday morning working in the yard, and gave an excellent talk in church yesterday, so hooray for being able to keep on keeping on. 

As we video chatted with our UT kids yesterday, he shared a few more details that I hadn't heard:

He was briefly in a state of shock immediately following the accident, and it took him a minute or two to grasp what was going on. Initially, he said, he didn't want to even move. The car was full of smoke and steam, and he was worried that it might start on fire, which finally got him going. It took concerted effort to open his door. Once he was out and had communicated with the other drivers, he realized he didn't have his glasses on. Upon a thorough search of his car, he finally found them in the back seat. I am grateful for 18-year-old airbags and seatbelts that still function properly, despite the fact that the airbag light has blinked incessantly at the driver since the first year we owned the car (2008) hahaha. (We had it checked over the years and were told the driver airbag was FOR SURE still in functioning order, but the passenger airbag may or may not be.)

This week I started in on a project for baby E, and found this uplifting thought on the edge of the fabric:

I can't help but think of this little proverb in terms of Jesus Christ.
"I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

I've also been blessed through my personal scripture reading. Here are a couple amazingly relatable scriptures I read today in Mosiah 29:

"...the judgments of God are always just, but the judgments of man are not always just." (v 12)

"But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him." (v 20)


I also felt that our lesson in Relief Society yesterday was a tender mercy. The teacher focused for a bit on President Hinckley's counsel to "stand a little taller," which led to a discussion about what happens when we do that... if we always had a stool to stand on to make us taller...? It gives us perspective. A better vantage point. It helps remove the daily worldly clutter we can get buried in and allows us to focus on the things that are most important. A sister made the comment about how, after driving around in her large SUV, she hates to drive her husband's smaller car because she can't see anything.  She doesn't know me, and no one in the ward knew about Bill's accident (which that exact circumstance played a part in). Coincidence? I think not. ("I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real, and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord's timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them." ~ Elder Bednar)

I know everything will be okay.


I've continued working on this little project... it's looking SO MUCH BETTER!

 On Wednesday I plan to start putting the finish coat on, and then hopefully start painting the balusters on Thursday. We've invited some friends to dinner and FHE next Monday night... always great motivation to complete projects hahaha. However, if I would have known how much joy and satisfaction just painting the railing would bring me, I would have done it much sooner {wink}.

And here's where the dogs love to hang out every morning:

I don't mind, except for when I need to go up and down the stairs. Ava will ALWAYS move the second she thinks you're heading her way. Jack, on the other hand, refuses to move a muscle, which means I have to carefully step in the small spaces around him. It's so funny how different those two are. I discovered today that the house directly behind us has two long-haired mini dachshunds, too... a brown and a black one. Coincidence? Who knows! The dog commonality has given us a good reason to go meet them, at least.


I love love love snaps of my favorite grandgirls...
they bring a smile to my face no matter what's going on.

Bill and I are doing some car shopping this week in the hopes we can secure another amazing used vehicle that will serve it's purpose as well as our dear departed '99 Maxima. He has classes W-F, so I guess we have... today and tomorrow. I'd better get hoppin'.

Burdens and patience.

Happy July 5th.

This morning as I was reading my scriptures, my phone kept ringing.
Bill's phone had literally kicked-the-bucket yesterday morning, and he had gone sans phone for a whole day, but had used my phone this morning to make a few work and business calls. He had left for work, telling me he needed to get to the office asap to... take care of business haha. I figured the calls I was receiving on my phone were follow-ups to his earlier calls that morning, and let most of them slide. I noticed a number that called, then immediately called again, so I decided to pick up to inform them that Bill would be in the office... momentarily.

It was Bill.
He was using {someone else's} phone to call, and he had been in a car wreck.
I asked if he was okay, and he said he thought he was for now, but could I please bring proof of insurance (haha... from the president of an insurance company) and a vehicle for him to use. I grabbed Mar, we hopped into two cars, and headed on our way. When we arrived at the scene of the accident, this is what we found:

 Our 1999 220,000+ miles Nissan Maxima... totaled.
(Believe it or not, a sad day at our house.)

 This white Mercedes SUV is what Bill crashed into.

This silver Lexus SUV is what the white Mercedes crashed into.

And this white Hyundai Santa Fe is what the silver Lexus crashed into.

Bill received the ticket.
Gulp.

I am livid. I am outraged. I am sick.
Let me plead the case, and please let me know your thoughts.

Bill said that the white car had signaled to get into his lane, he let her in, and she almost immediately slammed on her brakes. He had no time to react, thus hitting into her. (*Update: Bill said he never saw brake lights... I think he was using the phrase "slammed on her brakes" because she had come to an abrupt stop.)

According to the policeman who issued the ticket, that means that Bill hit into her so hard that it caused ALL THAT DAMAGE TO TWO SUVS PLUS MINOR DAMAGE TO ANOTHER.

He must have been hauling it, lemme tell ya, and those other people must have been at a dead stop, which is pretty much impossible, as he had just let the white SUV into his lane going his same speed (which had to be somewhere between 35-45 mph).

My theory:
The white SUV pulled into the lane (going, again, 35-45 mph), the driver may have been a bit distracted by... a phone? a child? (she had two little ones - one probably around 6 months old, one under 2 - luckily uninjured) looking away briefly? (or behind... checking rearview mirrors?) then realized the car in front of her was STOPPED, so slammed her brakes JUST AS SHE HIT INTO THE CAR IN FRONT OF HER. There were no visible skid marks to show she hit her brakes before hitting into that car. That action STOPPED her dead in her tracks, which gave Bill no time to react, so he hit into her. (*Update: upon looking at the pictures - over and over - the biggest damage to her car was on the front right, and the biggest damage to the Lexus' rear was on the left. I have since surmised that she tried a last-second swerve to avoid crashing into the Lexus, and that it's likely she didn't even brake at all. There is no way that she was stopped directly behind the Lexus or the damage would be more even to the front of her car and the back of the Lexus.)

I believe SHE WAS AT FAULT.

Bill had absolutely NO distractions (no phone, no kids, no nothing).

Bill had to slow down to let her into the lane.

There is no way a small OLD Maxima could have caused 3 SUVs that much damage unless he was going freeway speeds and they were all completely stopped. Even then, I doubt it.

There is no way she could have been at a complete stop without hitting the cars in front of her in the amount of time between Bill letting her into the lane, and the crash.


Take another look at the damage on the vehicles... does my theory seem logical?

I am so angry at a policeman who quickly assesses, makes his own assumptions, and writes out one ticket in such a case, not even recognizing the possibility that more than one person could be at fault. (Oh, and he briefly interviewed drivers in reverse order: Hyundai, Lexus, Mercedes, then Bill... and all the front two drivers can possibly know is that they were hit from behind. Period. They have absolutely NO SAY in who they think caused the accident. The woman who caused the accident would OF COURSE claim that Bill hit into her rather than admitting she made some stupid error and caused the whole thing. And Bill couldn't see anything in front of the Mercedes once she was in his lane, so he could not possibly see a slow down/brake lights, etc... and he couldn't see if she had hit the other car first... I am making that deduction based on the damage to the other vehicles.)

This is Bill's windshield, which, btw, already had a full-window crack in it. I believe the airbag deployment is what probably cracked it more. I honestly can't believe that his vehicle only had the front hood damage, but that he crashed into other vehicles, much larger than his, and caused them to get such major damage.

Too much rehash?? haha. I would seriously appreciate opinions. I am not trying to blame someone not at fault, but don't want to PAY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE (that's what it feels like) for someone else's mistake.


This is what I was reading right before the phone call:

"And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.

And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage."
(Mosiah 24)

As shared in the quote I mentioned yesterday, I truly feel that the scriptures are God speaking to us and giving us direction and comfort about our current problems.  (So current that I was probably reading that at the moment Bill's crash happened haha.)


See? I told you. I'm trying to learn patience.
Trying to improve at learning patience cheerfully, too.

Hope.

Confession time:

I still have a heart wreath on my front door from February.

I still have the letters for "Happy Father's Day" on my magnet board.

(I'll admit I mixed them up just a few days ago due to embarrassment)

I have not walked {for exercise} once this week.

I ate an entire bag of tropical Hi-Chews yesterday on my way from work to the post office to home, even though it was chock full of my least favorite flavor, banana. In my defense, it was 4pm and I hadn't eaten since 6:30am.

Things continue to go non-stop. I suppose that is how life is (which, funny enough, I am constantly reminding my lone child at home that life is work so get used to it...).

I am hopeful, however, about many things:

I've been on a brief organizing binge, getting some junk together that has needed it for a long, long time. There is hope that on some distant day, everything will be in its place.

(And I like to think it counts towards exercise, since I've sweated my booty off doing it, haha)

I'm getting good at countdowns... keeping up with Lolo's days on the mish (the weeks do seem to fly), counting down the days of a child in braces (FOUR), the days until General Conference (NINE), and counting down to my trip to UT to chill with Wonderful Sweet Scarlett (THIRTEEN). I am hopeful that my beloved granddaughter will quickly be endeared to her doting grandma Gigi (so I can hold her, hug her, kiss her), and that I'll have the chance to visit with lots of family while I'm there.

My sister Jana continues to battle cancer. She found out this week that it has spread, but sent a hopeful text of treatment information after meeting with her doctor. Her hope gives me hope. She has maintained an amazing attitude throughout and keeps a smile on her face and a positive outlook. I so admire her.

I love this quote by Elder Scott:

I'm going to miss him.

Here are a few quick, fun pics NOT from Big Mac's defunct iPhoto library:

This is the photo I used for my conference luncheon evites. Sometimes I just crack myself up. We've been gone the past TWO conferences, so I am glad to be able to resume this fun Syddall Family tradition.

I love love love getting snaps from my kids, and I'm getting better at screen-shotting (Big Mac says that is NOT a word - if he knows so much, why can't he open iPhoto?) to save for later.

 Scarlett opening a package from Gigi and Little Billy... decorated in her fave, Daniel Tiger. Britt sent us a video of her playing in the box that was sooooo adorable - totally worth the time to print those out!

Britt and Austin are moving! They are in the exciting process of building a house, and because they sold their townhome in ONE DAY, they will be spending the next 6 months or so living with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson (I'm soooooo jealous).

Yep, this fun little daily update on that sweet girl makes me so so happy.


We've convinced Tay to play along and it's been so great to get some of his fun snaps!

And Lex keeps us updated on her and Jason's furniture additions and dinners.

And even though Mar is around, I love getting snaps from her too:

(from a recent field trip to an authentic Chinese restaurant for her Ancient Civ class - the homework the previous week was to eat at Panda Express for comparison purposes... why didn't I ever have a class like that??)

They all make me smile and can make any day exponentially brighter. Thanks, guys!


Last night I went to a Relief Society activity... I took pics for the Ward History.
I'm so grateful to be among these great sisters.

Those two cute sister missionaries in the front-and-center moved in with us on Tuesday night (part of the reason for my organization + reorganization projects). I hope our service to them will be returned in kind for Lolo in London... the missionaries don't live with members there (Shi said it would be really difficult because everything is sooooooo small), but I know there are wonderful members who go out of their way to serve her and her fellow missionaries. I am so grateful for them!

Good Keeping.

My iphoto library has become unreadable. AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!

I think it's time to call a computer expert to finally get this Mac baby functional again.

I have made a goal to start walking {for exercise} again, despite the repercussions I may (or may not) suffer for the rest of the day. Honestly, I think the plantar fasciitis and the RA in my knees and hips will bother me regardless of whether I have walked the 3.34 mile loop around my neighborhood or not. So I'm walking - I could use the calorie burn + the energy that comes along with it, and the aches and pains happen just the same, even when I restrict my daily activity. (My goal, to clarify, is to walk 3x a week {not 7... or 5...} in favor of moderation and common sense. I have absolutely no desire to run a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or anything else. I am considering taking up swimming in the near future if I can get over the anxiety of being seen publicly in a swim suit.) 

I took an amazing bike ride with Bill and Mar last Friday... bonus pat on the back for doing something active for date night!

Sometimes I walk by myself, I often walk with Billy-my-hero, and I occasionally walk with my friend Jeanne. Today as I walked alone, listening to some of my favorite messages from conference, the word keep stood out to me.


keep {verb} - (1) have or retain possession of. (2) continue or cause to continue in a specified condition, position, course, etc.


"Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man..."
(Ecclesiastes 12:13, shared in this talk)

"And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; ... and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever." 

(From Abraham 3:26, shared in this talk)

"If you're not hearing the music of the gospel in your home, 

please remember these two words: keep practicing." 

(from this talk)

"God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were. 

He cares that we keep on trying." 

(from this talk)

I am encouraged to keep on keeping on.

Optimistic.

I hate leaving a "down" post up too long without adding something more positive, but it's been hard finding a snippet of time to redirect my thoughts (and written text) to the "up" side of things. I'm stealing a few moments tonight before we head off to the Call Family Reunion early tomorrow morning.

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I randomly chose a conference talk to listen to. I can't tell you how many times I have done that and heard exactly what I needed to hear. Today was no exception. 

"The spirit of the gospel is optimistic; it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things. The opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God, looks on the dark side, murmurs, complains, and is slow to yield obedience." 

(Elder Orson F. Whitney, quoted by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland)

"Speak hopefully. Speak encouragingly, including about yourself. Try not to complain and moan incessantly... Yes, life has it's problems, and yes, there are negative things to face, but please accept one of Elder Holland's maxims for living -- no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse." 

(Elder Holland's complete message here.)

A quick rundown of "the rest of the story" (since I left you hanging in my "down" post):

Mar DID get to swim at the All-star meet (which we learned via text message at 5:45 the morning of).

Lane 8 both events, and with the boys for the 100.

We'll take what we can get.

She did not let it throw her, swam well, and placed 12th in the 200Free, 14th in the 100Free. She was just supa happy to have placed well enough to get ribbons.

And guess who was helping pass out medals and ribbons??
Some awesome Castle Rock elders.

I thought it was so cool I had to take their picture, and of course tell them my daughter was serving a mission, too.
I love missionaries!


Bill was here for the better part of last week:

I am glad he had the opportunity to spend some quality time with some great young men in such a beautiful place. {Even though I really really missed him.}


Lolo is really in London as of today! (Well, yesterday in London time.)
She was traveling to the mission home today to get her first assignment. I have thought of her all day, and can't wait for her next email, which I think is coming Monday. So long to wait!


Little Mama has kept the snapchats comin'.
I was able to successfully screenshot one of them (I am pathetic at screen shots on my phone and usually end up losing the snapchat FOREVER, so I take a huge risk every time I try).

Love this baby girl!

Whelp, it's taken me a lot longer than needed to finish this post thanks to my stingy computer (but I'll try not to whine). I'm looking forward to our BIG family reunion, even if mi madre has requested that I portray an ancestor... by acting like I'm her... I'm not a fan of acting, but I'll do it for my mama. I have told Mar on several occasions that I hope she internalizes my example and is willing to do whatever her mamita requests in the far distant future, just because I asked and she loves me.