Poem- Gordon B. Hinckley

Prophetic Passing

I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,
Yes, running, not waving his cane.
I see him embracing his father and mother
While they keep repeating his name.

I see him now meeting his forebears,
Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.
Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service
That only such noble men share.

I see him embraced by the Savior
While Father says, "Good and well done.
So faithful in stalwart endurance, I welcome
My noble, most excellent son."

I then hear the ripples of laughter
As he says the reception's just fine,
But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two
Since there's no need to waste any time.

I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward ! there's work to be done.
President Hinckley would want it that way.

Anna M. Molgard
January 27, 2008

President Hinckley passes away tonight

While I was flying home from Denver tonight, President Hinckley passed away. He was 97. We got a text from Sean, from BYU, as we were driving back from the Cody airport tonight. Sean said he passed away around 7 p.m. We got Sean's text at about 8:30 p.m. Sean said news spread through BYU within 10 minutes of his passing. Karie (in Orem, UT) also called us while still driving home from the airport, and I ended up calling my Mom in California who had not heard yet, so the Mormon grapevine is alive and well.

I love President Hinckley. He did so much to advance the church around the world, increasing the missions, building more temples than ever before, and reaching out to the world. He was truly a prophet of God. He is now rejoined with his beloved wife. I'm sure that he is having a happy reunion with her... that puts a smile on my face, but I am sure as the church members learn about this news, there will be much sadness too. Gordon B. Hinckley will be missed, but will always be loved by many. I feel fortunate I was able to go to the Priesthood session of general conference with Sean last Oct. to hear him at his last conference.

Our thoughts and prayers will be with the Hinckley family and also with Thomas S. Monson and his family as he takes on his new responsibilities as prophet, seer and revelator and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Alan Simpson

Well I was coming home tonight from my MGMA Leadership Conference in Denver tonight and got on the plane at about 6:10 p.m. I was in seat 2C. I helped this lady with her bags in the overhead (I have to admit, I helped because I didn't want her to smash the three carmel apples I bought at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in the airport). She sat down and I realized it was Ann Simpson! I knew that because she was sitting down next to Senator Alan Simpson, the former U.S. Senator from Wyoming. He was in seat 1C. He was reading the whole trip. I kept trying to see what it was, because he was saying he was flying home today from Washington DC. I just knew he was reading top secret materials. But my eyes are so bad anymore, I couldn't see anything! I wanted to ask him if he was sick of the phoney conservative McCain yet, and if he was proud that our state of Wyoming is supporting Romney..... but remember he was into his top secret documents so I left him alone.

I got a kick out of him when we landed. He took out his bank card and was using the ATM machine, just like us regular people. I wonder why that seemed strange to me. I guess he needed some fast cash. It was pretty cool.

The price for missionary work

Sean went to a dentist near BYU yesterday to get his dental check up so he can turn in his missionary papers next month. Well it appears he needs to fill 7 cavities and pull 4 wisdom teeth! This is a kid who has only had one cavity his whole life. The doc said some were not too bad and he would normally just keep an eye on them each visit, but since Sean would be gone in less than 6 months, he felt he should go ahead and take care of them now to avoid problems in the mission field. His wisdom teeth on the bottom are a little crooked. They almost were not bad enough to pull- he was told, but of course, the dentist wants to pull them. And since he wont have bottom wisdom teeth the dentist thinks we should pull the top ones too so when he choose they wont be hitting gum. Oh boy! How is he going to do all that work and still maintain going to class and such? Some people have told us that their kids bounce back the next day after pulling wisdom teeth. Lacey was out of school for a week when she had hers pulled. So what is your experience with this?

Well at least Sean had a nice trip to southern California last weekend to see all his grandparents. BYU had not classes on Monday, so we took advantage of that and sent Sean to Cali for a belated Christmas present for my mom and Page's parents. They won't have a lot of opportunity to spend time with Sean before his mission. Sean had a great trip and the grandparents had big smiles on their faces. We are glad he was able to spend time with them. However, Sean kept teasing us that it was a balmy 60 degrees there, while we were experiencing snow and 16 below zero temperatures.

I head out early tomorrow morning to Denver for a business conference. Will be back on Sunday.

Activities Chairman

I received a new calling at church this morning. I am the Ward Activities Chairman. I think I am going to like this calling as long as it doesn't turn out I have to do all the setting up and cleaning up before and after every ward activity. They only expect one activity per quarter. That is only 4 a year! I think the members of our ward need more activities than that. Don't you? Well nothing is in the planning stages so I doubt I will throw together a Valentine's Dance or anything. But I could have some fun with St. Patrick's Day just around the corner. Anybody have any good Patty Day Activity ideas? I doubt we can serve green beer! Also I would love to hear about Ward Activities you have really enjoyed. Might give me some good ideas through out the year. Wish me luck!

USC knocks off UCLA

Way to go USC Trojans!. We upset our rival and 4th ranked team in the nation today 72-63. The sweet thing about it was that it was a UCLA home game. Poor Bruins!

I guess it's back to Politics

Well, Andy Roddick lost a close match in the 3rd round of the Australian. Seems like his opponent played the match of his life and beat Andy in the 5th set. Is it just me or does it seem this is always the story. Somebody plays beyond their abilities to beat Roddick. Oh well, I guess that was a short lived diversion from politics.

The news is already reporting a Romney landslide in Nevada today. But also downplaying it by saying he won 90% of the Mormon vote there. McCain was way back in 2nd place. I wonder if they will make a big issue that he (McCain) lost a neighboring state like they did when Mitt lost New Hampshire. But Mitt also won more Evangelical vote today in NV than Huckabee did! Mitt is not expected to do any better than 3rd or 4th in South Carolina today. Pundits will only focus on SC results today, is my hunch.... But Mitt is still leading in vote count and delegate count.

Well I guess I'm going to go clean the garage now. Happy Saturday!

Australian Open

The Australian Open is underway and like usual, I am backing Andy Roddick to win. He beat his first opponent (Dlouhy) on Monday 6-3,6-4, 7-5. There was some concern that Federer might be out because he has been battling food poisoning, but he was on fire during the first round too. Andy plays Berrer tomorrow (actually in about 2 hours). Good luck Andy!

With all the politics going on, I haven't followed the Australian Open too closely. Did you see the HUGE win for Romney in Michigan? I was very happy and hope he can gain some momentum out of it. One thing is for sure, this is a crazy contest, on both sides. Hate to see the Democrats using the race card against each other. Just as I have hated people using the religion card on the Republican side.

Hey Michigan, Vote for Mitt !!!

Michigan needs Mitt. Who else knows how to turn around things better than Mitt? Huckabee isn't going to put effort into Michigan's problems if he wins. Did you hear Huckabee is contacting every pastor in Michigan to get their parishioners to the polls? The memo says to go to all churches except for the Mormons and Catholics. Why is that? Because in Iowa, Mitt won every Catholic dominated county. And McCain has a lot of momentum from New Hampshire and like New Hampshire, Michigan's independents can vote in the Michigan primary, which tends to imply McCain is in the driver's seat in Michigan. But McCain already is writing off the auto industry saying it will never come back. His solution? Send all the auto workers to community college. Is there enough room for all of them? Can they take time to go to college and not provide for their families? The Romney's know and love Michigan. They will not let Michigan down. So go vote for Mitt!

Sean heading back to BYU

With Sean leaving back to Utah in a couple days we tried to get some family time in. On Friday night we drove up to Billings to watch a movie at the mall. After the movie, we stopped at IHOP for a bite to eat and to enjoy each other. Here is Lacey and Sean playing as we get back to the car to head back to Powell. Tomorrow we have a day in Cody planned at the museum, then Sean is off to Utah on Sunday to start a new semester at BYU on Monday.

It's nice to see the kids getting along....

Sean, posing with a moose outside the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.
Page, Lacey, Sean and I spent some time at the museum. It is a wonderful place. They have 5 museums: natural history, buffalo bill history, Native American history, Western Art and Firearms. You should stop and see it if you ever get the chance.

After a day at the museum, we had dinner at the Irma in Cody

We got Sean to the airport with plenty of time to spare this morning.

There Sean goes, leaving Cody, WY, heading to SLC, UT. The flight was delayed about an hour and a half because the airport in SLC shut down due to poor weather. The skies were clear here in WY. He lands in SLC around 4 p.m. then shuttles down to BYU. Good luck this semester, Sean! We already miss you a lot!!!

Romney wins Wyoming

Today, we had our caucuses in Wyoming. Mitt Romney won almost all of Wyomings delegates. It was a landslide! He won 67% of the vote. No big evangelical base like in Iowa, and really not a big LDS base either. LDS is only 10% of WY population. Mitt did campaign a few times in Wyoming and I think that helped him a lot. Huckabee ignored us and didn't get a single delegate. Neither did McCain.

Some observations about Iowa: in Iowa, in the non-evangelical counties, Mitt won the vote 2-1. So he is still getting a lot of support despite how the media is painting things. But clearly, Huckabee had the evangelical vote in Iowa. We can all agree with that, right?. Good for him. Now lets hope Mitt can turn it around in New Hampshire. I'm glad my state (YEAH WYOMING!) is backing Romney. Romney even though he came in second in Iowa, and if he comes in second in New Hampshire, he is still racking up delegates and probably will be leading the delegate count at that time. Keep an eye on the delegate count... that's what wins you the nomination.

What I loved most about Iowa was the defeat of Hillary to Obama. Was that sweet or what?

Rose Bowl Champions

USC beat Illinois today in the Rose Bowl. We won big 49-17. 49 points ties for the most points scored in the Rose Bowl. It never even got close except when IL made a TD in the 3rd quarter to pull to within 11 points. I think USC is the best team in the country at the moment. The team is finally healthy and looks like a championship team.

Well, I eat, sleep and drink USC football. Now the season is over and I have to find other things to do with my time now. I am happy how USC finished their season with a bang.

New Year's Eve and Day were enjoyable. I made tacos for New Year's Eve and we played some games and watched movies. This morning I made the kid's favorite, "Piggy Pudding" It is a Paula Deen recipe with cornbread, apples and sausage. I also put on a big pot of black eyed peas with ham. It is a family tradition. I have been eating black eyed peas all my life, every New Year's Day. It is supposed to give you good luck throughout the rest of the year. I do it to keep the tradition alive.

I got up early to watch the Rose Parade too. Everybody was asleep, but this is another tradition that I cannot break. Besides, I had to watch the USC Trojan Marching Band march down Colorado Blvd.

Fight On, Trojans!