I want to be like my Grandma Hess–patient, loving, fun, kind, willing to endure all things to the very end . . .

I doubt that I will ever be able to completely fill her size 9 shoes (Naturalizer seemed to be her favorite brand), but I take pride in the fact that I am like my grandma in a few ways.  She was a worrywart just like me, and we both love inspirational quotes, poems and stories.

One of my favorite memories of Grandma Hess is sitting on her bed with her while she watched Lawrence Welk and I culled through some of the spiral-bound volumes of treasures she had collected over the years.

Separated by the miles between CA and UT or CA and AU (while she and Grandpa Hess served in the Sidney Temple), she was so diligent in writing me (even weekly while I attended BYU), and she would frequently close her letters with a quote or two selected just for me based on challenges or experiences I may have been going through at the time.  Now, separated by the thin veil between here and eternity, I may not get letters from her, but once in a while, I feel her influence in my life and pause to contemplate how I can be more like her.  I had one such experience yesterday . . .

During Sunday School yesterday, our fabulous instructor (Katie Morphew) shared this quote that really hit home and reminded me of my grandma.

“Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.

He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace.

Whoever will lose his life to God will find he has eternal life.”

Ezra Taft Benson

(Thank you, Lindsay, for providing the pictures!)

As I walked in to the bathroom this morning to check on Vivi, this is what I found:

I wish that I could say that potty training was “in the bag.”

Once upon a time there were three bears . . .

Apparently very upset that Goldilocks would dare move into THEIR house, these three units have been BEARS all summer.  But you see, unlike the bedtime story, it’s Goldilocks’ name on the deed to the home.  And as she eats HER porridge, sits in HER chair, and sleeps in HER bed, by dang, she doesn’t want to have beads of sweat dripping down her brow because one or more of these three bears is grumpy.

So, when Goldilocks came home on Saturday evening to find her cottage HOT, she almost cried.  Four AC malfunctions in the last three months (some of the hottest months since moving to TX) was simply more than she could BEAR.  But gathering her wits about her, she tromped off to the side of the house, avoiding a rat as he scurried by, and confronted Papa Bear, the current offender.  Thankfully, past problems with Baby Bear helped Goldilocks zero in on the likely problem–

A Monday morning trip to Baker Distributing Co. in McKinney (the only local HVAC supply company I could find that will sell to the public) confirmed the diagnosis.  The ‘fan’ terminal on the old capacitor tested bad, a new part was purchased, and upon returning home, Goldilocks managed to quickly restore Papa Bear to an operational condition without electrocuting herself in the process.

Goldilocks estimates that she saved BT $157.26 by fixing the unit herself, and with his blessing, she promptly applied this $ toward the purchase of a CORDLESS drill.

Thanks, honey!