It's Who Is Around the Table

 

The older I get the more truth I see in this statement!  Although what is ON the table for Thanksgiving dinner is definitely wonderful, it is those beloved faces in the chairs that makes me the happiest.

I used the china that my Daddy bought back from occupied Japan at the end of World War II, George's mother's silver bread bowl, my aunt Mary's table runner and the silver flatware that belonged to my mother.  That makes those loved people feel a part of our celebration.

I must tease Scott a little. He said that he was very excited to have some of my mashed potatoes.  

Here's his plate!

I cooked 6 pounds of potatoes and all were gone by mid day on Friday.  

The highlight of the day was playing games with Isabella.  Scott challenged her to a Go Fish tournament

And Scott won!!!! We know how much she likes to WIN  but she still loved Scott!

And a big shout out to George who spent almost 2 hours doing dishes. There were a LOT of dishes and all those antiques can't go in the dishwasher!  

This Thanksgiving was definitely better than our quarantined celebration in 2020.

And it made me super excited for our Christmas celebration in just a few short weeks.  There will be 3 more beloved faces in the chairs for that!  Mary, Mark and Jackson!!!

Grandpa, Grandma and Isabella Date

It's been way too long since we enjoyed a 'Date' with Isabella without her parents so on Saturday we took her to the Discovery Center of Idaho for a little one on one time.   

The special exhibit was called 'Exquisite Creatures' by Christopher Marley.  His work consists of geometric patterns created from animals, minerals and plants.  The colors were truly 'exquisite'! I had no idea that beetles came in such colors.

Isabella stayed interested for awhile and did enjoy looking under the microscope to see details  of the tiny creatures. 

She never tired of posing for photos however!

Shells  - which made her want to go back to Hawaii...

Snakes made her remember that her Daddy was scared of snakes when he was a little boy..

She liked this beautiful geometric creation made entirely of beetles.

Of course the colorful fish made her want to go snorkeling in Hawaii...

Her kindergarten teacher likes polka dots so she wanted me to take a close up of these polka dot fish!

Isabella preferred the 'hands on' exhibit called 'Matter Splatter' - as most any 6 year old would.  She loved racing cars and of course loved winning.  The magnet experiments were interesting and she loved using the random weight machine to draw pictures.  

Her two favorites were our last activities of the afternoon.  Our weather obsessed little girl was just thrilled to be a weather announcer with the help of a prompter and a green screen.  If I walked too close and was visible in the TV, she pushed me out of the way.

Our last stop was Guru Donuts, which I believe is Boise's answer to Portland's Voodoo Donuts.

The doughnuts were just as good and we didn't have to stand in a long line.  Naturally Isabella had one with sprinkles while George and I each had a Boston Cream.  Yum!  On our way home I asked her what was her favorite part of the afternoon and she quickly said, "Getting a doughnut" and next 'being a weather girl'.

A perfect afternoon with our darling Isabella.  I echo what her kindergarten teacher said about her, "Isabella is a delight".

Tammy - Alumni of the Year

 I have known George's sister, Tammy since she was an 11 year old girl and I a 21 year old newly engaged young woman.  As I remember, she was quite excited at the prospect of adding a new sister - ME! And I was really happy to gain a husband plus 2 sisters and a brother!

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I've watched her grow up and become a fantastic aunt to our children and our nieces and nephews.  I have had a front row seat to her educational journey from high school to a bachelors at BYU, then graduating from the University of Utah Medical School.  After that she  added two more advanced degrees - a Masters in Public Administration and Masters in Public Health.  Pretty impressive education!  

Most impressive of all is how she adapted to adding the initials - Mrs. to her name when she married Richard in 2009.  With her lovely personality and with total trust and faith, she entered the Salt Lake Temple a single woman and came out with a husband, 7 children, 3 children-in-law, and 4 grandchildren.  To that mix, more in-laws and more grandchildren have been added.  Tammy has thrived in the chaos of a big family.  Of all her academic and career accolades, I know becoming a wife, mother and grandma is the one she treasures the most. 

I feel blessed to know all these wonderful people.  I call them our 'bonus' family.

When the Romney Institute  picked Tammy as the Alumni of the Year for the Masters of Public Administration program, I was not at all surprised.  She has had a stellar career with Intermountain Health Care.  Here is her quick bio.

Dr. Tamara Sheffield is the Medical Director for Community Health and Prevention and the Medical Director for the Community Pharmacy Immunization Program at Intermountain Healthcare and oversees Intermountain’s immunization efforts.

 

Dr. Sheffield is a past liaison to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and is currently a member of the ACIP Influenza Work Group. She chaired the group that developed the Utah State immunization registry and currently chairs the Utah Adult Immunization Coalition and Intermountain’s Immunization Community Collaborative focused on increasing Utah rates of influenza vaccine, HPV vaccine and vaccine confidence.

 

As Medical Director for Community Health and Prevention, she is responsible for developing the policy, guidelines, tools, and programs necessary to integrate prevention into primary care clinical practice within Intermountain clinics and hospitals, and for providing clinical guidance to SelectHealth’s efforts to improve quality in the provision of preventive care to its members.

If you live in Utah, you may have seen her on TV or heard her on the radio as she is a frequent 'expert' on immunizations, influenza, COVID, exercise, diet....anything that is considered 'preventative." 

Her speech at her awards luncheon was based on one phrase from the story of Queen Esther in the Bible, "Who knoweth but what thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this.?"

Quoting Tammy, "The COVID pandemic has brought a lot of things into perspective for many of us. During a time of great challenge, I’ve seen people step up and fill roles they never would have expected. And I’ve marveled at the many small miracles put in place over the years that have allowed us to manage and survive in this difficult time. These miracles were brought about by people who were in the right place at the right time doing the right thing “for such a time as this”. 

She then proceeded to list a few of these people:

Former Utah Governor Leavitt's wife Jacquelyn who championed the Utah immunization on-line registries, "can you imagine what our immunization coordination and documentation efforts would have been for the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic where we gave influenza vaccines to our whole state or our current COVID pandemic where almost 3.8 million doses of COVID vaccines have been given in Utah the past 10 months? Jacqueline Leavitt was where she was in the 1990s “for such a time as this.”

Utah Governor Herbert who created a state-wide pandemic planning task force, 2 years before COVID-19 and who was still at the helm when COVID-19 did hit, and with his past experience was leading our public health efforts in Utah, “for such a time as this.”

Sharon Eubank, Director of Latter-day Saints Charities for the past 10 years, is also currently part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Relief Society presidency and had all the right channels at her disposal to distribute oxygen, medical supplies, and personal protective equipment (specifically masks and gowns) when they were in short supply. She had the resources of the Relief Society to sew those mask and Beehive Clothing to make the gowns. Through the partnership between the Relief Society, Intermountain Healthcare and U of U Health, Project Protect sewed 6 million medical grade masks at a time when that was the only protection we had against the virus. Sister Eubank was in place “for such a time as this.”

 Dr. Linda Leckman had been the voice for Intermountain’s weekly 'Healing for Life' radio spot, and when she retired, she asked Tammy to take her place with the KSL program. Because of that, Tammy was a recognized media voice, so when she needed to provide trusted medical advice about these new COVID vaccines, she had a relationship with KSL and with the listeners, and was able to provide medical advice through the media “for such a time as this”.

When Intermountain’s current CEO, Dr. Marc Harrison came to the organization five years ago, he dramatically changed Intermoutain’s leadership style and structure to promote nimble decision making. The new structure he put in place for daily huddles, and incident command have allowed IHC to take system-wide decisions up and down a tiered chain of command and get them communicated throughout the organization in a matter of hours throughout this pandemic. Dr. Harrison truly came to Intermountain “for such a time as this.”

Tammy ended her speech with these inspiring words, "I am confident you will be changing the world, and am excited for you to have those moments in your life’s work where you can say, “Oh – who knows but I was put here for such a time 

as this.”

Proud brother and sister-in-law at the luncheon.

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Halloween

When our children were little, I often thought that Halloween was definitely their 2nd favorite holiday, only being beaten out from the #1 spot by Christmas.  I love having grandchildren so that I can experience that excitement again.  

Well, to be honest, Jackson might not quite be a huge fan of Halloween yet.  He refused to wear his costume to his preschool party.  This little guy has strong opinions.

At least he was willing to wear a Halloween sweatshirt!

And participate in the activities, including eating a popcorn ball!

At their church party, he did agree to wear his costume but only for a photo.  Well Grammy thinks he looks pretty cute!  Definitely a superman!

Now Isabella was totally into Halloween.  First her school party, then a church party and finally trick-or-treating.  

When her class came around the corner for the school Halloween parade, Isabella was 1st in line and totally into waving at her adoring fans! 

And she just kept waving, like a member of the royal family!

The ward trunk or treat was equally as much fun.

She's Bumblebee from DC Super heroes.

On actual Halloween Day and after dinner in a pumpkin at the grandparent's house, she finally got to go trick or treating.

Mom and Dad's participation just added to the fun. 

After they got back from trick-or-treating, she decided that she needed to be in charge of handing out candy and taking photos!

Johnny told me that when they finally left our house, she burst into tears saying, "I don't want Halloween to be over."  Yep, it will be her 2nd favorite holiday as well! And as soon as Jackson gets a bit older it will be his too!  I'm sure of it!

Isabella is 6!

Six years ago on October 21, 2015, this little angel came into our lives!  She is the epitome of JOY. Her kindergarten teacher told Johnny and Monica that she was a delight.  I couldn't agree more!

Her birthday party was perfect with 6 giggly little girls

A fairy cake 

The fanciest candle that I've ever seen

And a new scooter....

Her great aunts and uncles and grandparents were there too, but I didn't get a photo of us all.

George's sister, Karen has a special relationship with Monica since she speaks Spanish fluently.  They talk frequently on the phone.  Monica goes to her for medical advice.  I love Karen for loving this daughter-in-law of ours so much and investing so much time in their relationship.  She spent an afternoon with Monica and Isabella while in Boise. 

I am so happy that we all got to help our darling Isabella celebrate her 6th birthday!

Lewis Family Meeting

 Each year George and his siblings get together for a family meeting.  This year everyone came to Boise.  We started off the weekend with a wonderful bike ride on the Boise Greenbelt.  Five of us rented electric bikes and Tammy and Richard, who are avid bikers, brought their bikes with them.  

I loved the electric bike experience.  And as you can see from this photo, so did Katherine!

Truthfully we all enjoyed it!  The leaves on the greenbelt were still full of color.  The electric bikes made the ride so easy.  George and I both took spills for making the same mistake.  On the handle of the bike there is a throttle which propels the bike rapidly forward.  Both of us accidentally activated that and took flying leaps forward and into the ditch.  Luckily the only thing that was hurt was our pride.

We also had some great meals.  I was successful at finding restaurants that had gluten-free menus.

And the siblings were able to decide on appropriate donations for 2022 from their Walter and Orpha Lewis Foundation funds.

Glad to be a part of the Lewis family!

 

Fall Fun

 Jackson enjoyed a fun afternoon at a local pumpkin patch.  

Of course, he would love driving a big truck!  I think he might need to grow a bit!  He is definitely Daddy's boy with his love of trucks, tractors and anything that you can steer!

I sure love that cheesy grin!

Pumpkins and an old truck!  The stuff of dreams for Jackson. 

Isabella finished another season of soccer.  These two twin boys are her buddies.  They both think that they should marry her!

I taught her how to play 'Go Fish'.

We played 8 games.  I won 1, we tied twice and she won 5.  When I called her the 'Champion of the World' she immediately respond, "And you are the Loser of the World!"  She didn't say it in a mean way, just as a statement of fact.  I am pretty sure that she got this competitive spirit from our side of the family.

Also we were able to celebrate George's 70th birthday with John and family at our favorite ice cream store!

Fall is my favorite time of year!