If I don't use lots of exclamation points, AnnMarie, no one will read this.‏

Myrna wrote: I have to make a decision and I need help. All of you who are somewhat tech-wise, please respond. You may respond to all or to just me, depending on how you feel about it. 

Allan has a 3-year old MacPro that he would like to sell to me for $600. It comes loaded with the necessary programs, as always. He will take monthly payments. It has a lot of memory and my old machine, downstairs, has little. Also the old machine is now 15-years old and has had one repair. Dad and I have actually, however, been talking about buying another lap top. It is really hard for us to share this one. We both need/want it at the same time. I have begun doing my writing from the laptop because it is easier on my back. However, ALL the photo stuff is on the old tower.

There you have it. Dad went down and looked at it and he says it seems nice but he doesn't know much about the tech stuff. I have to decide by tomorrow or it will go on KSL and then, on Tuesday, in the paper.

AnnMarie wrote: $600 for a 3 year old machine seems steep.  Todd and Shawn will know better. 

I am deleting Braden and Megan and Jason from the email chain.

The best rule of thumb for all sales (and one I have learned to trust) if it has to be now, it has to be no.  

Ams

 

P.S. You got my attention using words and no exclamation marks.  It really is the same thing I tell my kids - use words with no emoticons and no excessive punctuation and I will reply quicker.

Todd wrote: I agree with AnnMarie. 

Kirsten wrote: So if you want a price comparison, check either apple's site under refurbished section (they actually warranty them) or this site www.macofalltrades.com.

You know my deep love for macs, but I don't understand why Allan always pressures you.  He's had to know he was getting a new computer for longer than just today.  Did you check KSL to see what was already listed?

I hate pressured choices.  I personally prefer iMacs vs MacPros.

Jared wrote: For $400 more you can get a new lap top that probably has just as much space and is just as fast and has a full warranty.  I would not go for the $600 option.  My 2 cents. Jared

Brigitta wrote: Definitely not worth it. Macs are expensive and that's not actually a bad price unfortunately, but you would be better off buying a brand new hp for around 400-500 and then getting the programs you want and owning the user licences yourself, plus with a new laptop you'll have a warranty.

Let me know what you decide and if you go for a new one I'll help you find a good price.

 

Sundra's Son's Book Free on Kindle

Saundra wrote: Hi Everyone!

Some of you may receive this message twice, because you are on a couple of my mailing lists.  If you do, I apologize.  You can ignore the second one.

Our son, Todd, now has a series of three books out; Max and the Gatekeeper, The Hourglass of Souls and The Descendants and the Demon's Fork which are young adult fantasies.  The first book is on the AP list and was selected for Alaska's Battle of the Books.  There is nothing offensive in them and are appropriate reading for all ages.  Teachers and librarians have found that they capture the attention of their classes and holds it.  They have been especially good for reluctant readers (mainly boys).

As a means of getting the books better known to the public, he is making the first book, Max and the Gatekeeper, available free this weekend, March 2 - 4 through Amazon to Kindle owners.

If you have a Kindle, we would greatly appreciate your ordering it (even if you have a hard copy), to help him get the books better recognition.

Thank you so much for supporting him in this endeavor.

Saundra Cochrane

Myrna wrote: It's called envy (on my part). Tell him congratulations. I will send this on to my family as well.


Saundra wrote: Thank you!

They are a fun read and each book gets a little better than the last.  I found some of the twists the third book had to be quite imaginative and was impressed.  (We all take turns editing them).  They would be fun for your grandchildren.  And he gets a little bit of gospel teachings in them.  The fourth one is going political against - you-know-who.

Head squeezer removal 101‏ Performed by Natalie

Myrna wrote: Dad always said they were uncomfortable. I guess he now has proof. Hehehe!

I need your help again.‏

Aunt Viola Smith Wing was anti-Mormon for many, many years. Her daughter, Verna, however, was very active and Weston was a sealer in the Provo Temple for more than 20 years. I  cannot make the funeral. I think Gordon is disappointed in me. I am sending Verna a card with money from all of us. If any of you, in Utah, can make the viewing tonight, please tell Gordon and Roberta that you are there in my behalf. If Deloris is there, tell her hello from me as well. Sorry. Thanks, Mom


Verna (Mrs. Weston) Garrett
795 East 150 North
Provo, Utah  84606

Phone 801-373-4425

Melanie: Love you. Sorry that you had such a tough decision. I would love to have gone, but unfortunately, I would have been late.
 Mel

Shawn: Sorry. I did not see this until late Friday night.

Myrna: That's why I said: "any of you, in Utah." I knew you would be too late and that it would really have been "Mormon time." ;) Love you!

Melanie: I hope it went really well. I am going to use your story of your life in my young women lesson tomorrow. I was thinking about you all day today. We had Stake Women's Conference and the Stake Relief Society President was telling about average women, who are more than average their families. The story she related was so like your own, that it brought tears to my eyes. I remember hearing one of the church leaders tell from the pulpit the story of their average mother. I was totally offended when he said that most of us had average mothers. I have never felt like you were average. I had to repent, because I realized he said, "most" of the congregation...that meant that some of us had above average mothers. As I was telling my Beehives last week about all the things that we watched you do, I made my 60 year old advisor smile and tear up...she said her mother was just like you...but, much older. :)


Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for teaching me how to cook, sew, clean, and sing.

I love you.
Mel

Myrna: You are my amazing woman. I honestly don't think, that if we were both your age, I could begin to keep up with you. I think Heavenly Father knew I needed a daughter just like you to bolster me up, hold my hand, dry my tears and calm me down. But most of all, I think He knew that I needed a good friend and you have always been that. Even when you were a little girl, you were my friend as well as my daughter. I am thankful that you paid me such a tribute. I have wondered so much the past few months if being what I am, and am still becoming, was good enough. I see so many things in my life that I need to repent for and so many days that I would like to live again hoping that I could take my experience back with me and would have the wisdom to do better. Garth, when he was on his death bed, said to me: "Myrn, do you think I have been good enough?" I told him, "You have been an idol of mine all of our lives together. How could you have been better and not have been translated?" I feel that way about you. How could you possibly be better than you are and not be translated? I do love you and admire you. Mom

Melanie Bolton: It's funny...I always have felt that way as well. Am I good enough? Do I do things that matter most? When my children are struggling, I think about the time I spent with them and wonder if I taught love enough, if I taught patience, diligence, perseverance enough. I remember hearing one of the leaders in our Stake remind us that we need to be patient with ourselves as well. I have often said that I was totally amazed that you turned out as well as you did. You had no real righteous father figure in your life, except Uncle Fred and some of your local leaders. There were good fathers who helped you to understand that you wanted a man like our Dad, one devoted to you and to our family. I know first hand how hard it is to make a marriage work. I am grateful that I had parents that prayed me to righteousness. Yes, you did the best you could with what you had. As we age, we get wiser and our decisions about what matters most change. I would have let Siovhan sing as loud as she wanted, the same note over and over and over, if I had known how much I would miss it when she wasn't home. I try to remember these lessons with Mikaela and I think that is why sometimes the older ones think the younger ones are spoiled, because with age comes the reality that not all things matter, some things are completely not worth the fight.


I hope you had an enjoyable day at the Temple. My advisor was just called to be a coordinator. I told her that I would do whatever I can to help her not feel too stressed, because I know what a hard calling that is. She serves all day at the temple, then helps me out on Wednesday nights for activities. I told her that she didn't need to kill herself to always be there, but she said that the activity nights are her favorite part of the calling....so of course she was going to come. That reminded me of you. :)

I hope that everything went well with the funeral and that you will be able to attend Kyle's court of honor. What a great legacy for you all to have four Eagle Scout grandsons, and a few more very close.
I love you.
Good night.
Mel

Shawn: Sorry, I didn't see the email until late Friday night.


Myrna wrote: I'm sorry also. The funeral was on Saturday morning and the viewing was Friday evening and Saturday a.m. I was hoping that you might get there because you are always so good to do that. I love you, Mom 

From Gordon About Kilroy Was Here

For the WWII generation, this will bring back memories. For you younger folks, it's trivia that is part of our American history. Anyone born in the mid-thirties is familiar with Kilroy. We didn't know why, but we had lapel pins with his nose hanging over the label and the top of his face above his nose with his hands hanging over the label. No one knew why he was so well known, but we all joined in! 

So who the heck was Kilroy?

In 1946 the American Transit Association sponsored a nationwide contest to find the real Kilroy, offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person who could prove himself to be the genuine article. Almost 40 men stepped forward to make that claim, but only James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts, had provable identity.

Mr. Kilroy was a 46-year old shipyard worker during the war who worked as a checker at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. His job was to go around and check on the number of rivets completed. Riveters were on piecework and got paid by the rivet. He would count a block of rivets and put a check mark in semi-waxed lumber chalk, so the rivets wouldn't be counted twice. When Kilroy went off duty, the riveters would erase the mark. Later on, an off-shift inspector would come through and count the rivets a second time, which resulted in double pay for the riveters.

One day Kilroy's boss called him into his office. The foreman was upset about all the wages being paid to riveters, and asked him to investigate. It was then he realized what had been going on. The tight spaces he had to crawl in to check the rivets didn't lend themselves to lugging around a paint can and brush, so Kilroy decided to stick with the waxy chalk. He continued to put his checkmark on each job he inspected, but added KILROY WAS HERE in king-sized letters next to the check mark, and eventually added the sketch of the long nose peering over the fence. That nose became part of the Kilroy message.

Once he did that, the riveters stopped trying to wipe away his marks.  Ordinarily the rivets and chalk marks would have been covered up when the hull was painted. With the war on, however, ships were leaving the Yard so fast that there wasn't time to paint them. As a result, Kilroy's inspection "trademark" was seen by thousands of servicemen who boarded the troopships the yard produced.

His message apparently rang a bell with the servicemen, because they picked it up and spread it all over Europe and the South Pacific. Before war's end, "Kilroy" had been here, there, and everywhere on the long overseas hauls to the war zones and beyond. To the troops outbound in those ships, however, it was a complete mystery; all they knew for sure was that someone named Kilroy had "been there first." As a joke, U.S. servicemen began placing the graffiti wherever they landed, (then saying it was already there when they arrived.) 

Kilroy became the U.S. super-GI who had "already been" wherever GIs went. It became a challenge to place the logo in the most unlikely places imaginable.... (it is said to be atop Mt. Everest , the Statue of Liberty, the underside of l'Arc De Triomphe, and even scrawled in the dust on the moon !

As the war went on, the legend grew. Underwater demolition teams routinely sneaked ashore on Japanese-held islands in the Pacific to map the terrain for coming invasions by U.S. troops (and thus, presumably, were the first GI's there). On one occasion U.S. servicemen reported seeing enemy troops painting-over the Kilroy logo!

In 1945, an outhouse was built for the exclusive use of Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill at the Potsdam conference. Its' first occupant was Stalin, who emerged and asked his aide (in Russian), "Who is this Kilroy, anyway?"

To help prove his authenticity in 1946, James Kilroy brought along officials from the shipyard and some of the riveters. He won the trolley car, which he gave to his nine children as a Christmas gift and set it up as a playhouse in the Kilroy front yard in Halifax, Massachusetts.

So, now you know!

Knight Coat of Arms

Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen

Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale
Jane Yolen

I am thinking of a fairy tale,
Cinder Elephant,
Sleeping Tubby,
Snow Weight,
where the princess is not
anorexic, wasp-waisted,
flinging herself down the stairs.

I am thinking of a fairy tale,
Hansel and Great,
Repoundsel,
Bounty and the Beast,
where the beauty
has a pillowed breast,
and fingers plump as sausage.

I am thinking of a fairy tale
that is not yet written,
for a teller not yet born,
for a listener not yet conceived,
for a world not yet won,
where everything round is good:
the sun, wheels, cookies, and the princess.

Melanie wrote: Clever. Just how I feel about it, especially after eating a bag of
Cadbury's Mini Eggs.

Kirsten's Friend is a Relative by Marriage

Myrna wrote: Kirsten, Tammy Howard Rasmussen was at the funeral yesterday. She would like to get in touch with you. Since she is married to Jacquelyn Ann Cunningham Rasmussen's son, then that would make her a sort of relative, right? 

Jacquelyn is the daughter of Harold and Francis Cunningham. Francis is your dad's relative because she was a Blackham before she married Harold. I know Francis and Harold because they both worked at Manti Temple and, of course, because they live in Carbonville. 

Francis has written a few books on the history of Kenilworth and other mining areas of Carbon County. I enjoy her writings, because I am a history buff, and have most of the books she has published. 

Kirsten wrote: Tammy and I are friends on facebook.  At least, I think we still are. Kirsten


Myrna wrote: She didn't think you still were. Look and see. Thanks!

Kirsten: We weren't friends on Facebook anymore.  I re-friended her. 

Myrna wrote: She sat with her kids and her mother at the same table that we did at the dinner after the funeral so we were able to talk to each other a bit. 

From Saundra

Dear Classmates,

 

Just received the following information from Don Butler about another classmate whom we've lost.

I'm sorry but have more sad news to report.   We learned that Ronald Oster, ECHS Class of 1960, passed away last week.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.   May he rest in peace.   Here's a link to his obituary in today's Sun Advocate:

 

http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=24288

 

Don

Myrna wrote: Just this month, my 96-year old neighbor, a 96-year old friend of Leonard's, my 61-year old friend in our ward, Leonard's cousin and a cousin of mine all passed away. I thought February was for celebrating. However, I suppose all of those folks are celebrating on the other side. It is our earthly viewpoint that keeps us from seeing that.

William Weston Garrett (husband of the first cousin of Elaine and Renee)

William Weston Garrett

1916 ~ 2012

William Weston Garrett passed away on February 17, 2012 at his home in Provo at the age of 95. He was born November 8, 1916 to Joseph Oscar and Stella Paxman Garrett in Provo, Utah. Growing up he worked in the family grocery store where he could make change before he could see over the counter. He graduated from Provo High School in 1934 then attended BYU for 3 1/2 years. In 1937 he started his career as an abstractor at Intermountain Title & Guaranty Co. in Provo. The name was later changed to Security Title & Abstract Co. Weston was part owner/owner of the company for over 50 years before selling it to his employees. After his mission he returned to work for his former company until he retired in 2008 at the age of 91.

He married Verna Mae Wing on June 30, 1939 in Springville, Utah. The family was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on Dec. 10, 1964. They enjoyed many family get-togethers and rejoiced in their large posterity. As a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he and his wife served a mission in the Texas Dallas Mission July 1986-87. He served in several leadership positions in the church and was an ordinance worker and Sealer in the Provo Utah Temple for over 20 years.

He served his country as a Lieutenant in the Utah National Guard which he joined right out of high school. Later he was drafted into the US Army where he served as a Sergeant during WWII and a Warrant Officer in the Korean Conflict where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

He was a founding member and former Vice-Pres. of Riverside Country Club; member of the Provo Chamber of Commerce; Pres. of the Provo Jaycees; Vice-Pres. of the Utah State Jaycees; Pres. of the Provo Kiwanis Club; Pres. of the Utah Land Title Assn.; Pres. of the Provo Baseball Pony League; and a tenor in the Skyline chorus of the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A.

He loved life and lived it to the fullest. He leaves a great legacy of love, integrity, and service for a family that adored him. After spending time with his family, his greatest love was golf. He played with friends, wife, sons, grandsons and great-grandsons until age 94. He enjoyed bowling, watching his family play sports, BYU basketball games, singing, and peanut M&M's.

Weston is survived by his wife Verna, their 4 children: Russell W. (Kathryn Graehl), Paso Robles, California; Kent L. (Ann Collins), St. George, Utah.; Bruce K. (Patricia Spreckelsen), North Salt Lake, Utah; Diane (Michael) Allred, Sandy, Utah; 21 grandchildren, 43 great grandchildren, 1 great-great grandson, and his brother DeLane Garrett, Kent, Washington. He was preceded in death by his sisters Mignon Pratt and Norma Robison, brother Jay Garrett, and grandson Jacob Bruce Garrett.

Funeral services will be held at 1:00 pm, Saturday, February 25, 2012 at the Bonneville 5th Ward chapel, 85 South 900 East, Provo. Friends may call at the Berg Mortuary of Provo, 185 East Center St., Friday evening from 6 until 8 and at the church Saturday from 11:30-12:45 prior to the service. Interment, with military honors, at the Provo City Cemetery. Condolences to the family may be emailed to info@bergmortuary.com.

Read more: http://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/william-weston-garrett/article_6c40e91f-8231-5861-9e99-685b231d526b.html#ixzz1nEopVybm