Good Luck on your mission Willi! When did you get so tall? This was taken literally minutes before he went into the MTC, as were saying good-bye at Grandma Vernon's. After you endure the monotanous MTC, you will love Taiwan even more! Julia promised she'd hold off on any wedding plans until you got back. JK, but maybe Parley will wait for you to be back. Oh yeah, and I will beat you at racquetball when you get back-even if you are playing right handed! 

Bye Bye Oldie, Hello Jim

When I got my oldsmobile from my cousin Maryilyn, she told me her name was Goldie, but I changed it to Oldie. She was a great old car, with nice, comfy, soft benches that moved with controls, lots of room to nurse Logan in the back seat, and it could even seat six people for when Hallie and her kids needed a ride. But I suffered through some hot summers with no AC and only one window working, some ridicule over my window crack that was letting snow in and so got some ugly duct tape all over it, and I had to learn to use the makeup mirror for a rearview mirror - Thanks, Dad, for glueing the rearview mirror back on, it but it just wouldn't stay. Then a couple weeks ago Oldie started lurching and not accelerating when I was trying to get onto the freeway. A little scary. The last time I was going to Provo in her, she lurched as I was accelerating, and turned off completely, which made it really hard to steer and brake, especialy trying to U turn on highway 6. We got home, but I knew it was time to say bye to Oldie - plus she has 234,000 miles, which is really good for an oldsmobile. But the biggest reason is that I had already purchased a replacement for Oldie.

Meet Jim -named by his previous owner- a reliable Honda Civic with way better gas mileage, turning radius, AC (a first for me), and low miles. He has a few rust spots on the outside, but what does it matter what a car looks like if its got a good engine? Plus, a couple of my neighbors would definitely agree that Jim is better looking than Oldie, as my friend told me I was moving up in the world.

The first time I saw Jim on KSL early Sat morning I knew he woud be my car. I called and magically got an appointment to see him that morning before anyone else even though twenty people had called the day before and people kept calling all while I was buying Jim. Dozens were lined up to see him that afternoon. I trusted the U of U student selling the car, who told me that Jim had a lot of life left in him, and had been well taken care of. He did, however, get made fun of by friends for driving a car made with no right side mirror. Who looks at those anyways?
I really needed to get rid of Oldie, but I couldn't just give her to the junk yard, so I listed her for 200.00 on KSL. Explaining her current condition I was suprised to get a lot of calls, but it made me happy that Oldie was wanted. So, late last evening a black guy drove down from Bountiful to take her to his friend's shop, and fix her up. I had a nagging feeling as he was on his way that I should do something, so I remembered to take off the license plate, but I wasn't sure that was it.
Then the guy drove up in his friend's flatbed towtruck with pretty lights all down the sides and came to look at Oldie. As he took Oldie for a test drive, I went in to get the title, which he had specifically asked for before he came all the way here. Suprise, it wasn't in our important file folder binder like I thought! Now I knew why I fet like I should have been doing something. I couldn't believe it wasn't there, and thought it was just between some other papers. But after checking three times and not finding it, I was devastated. I scrambled to any place in the house I could think of, and spread all the papers out of the phonebook cupboard on the floor, out from under the bed, all over the computer desk. I had no idea where it was and it would take hours to go through everything, but by this time the guy was back and standing in the garage waiting. I felt really bad that he had driven so far because I had told him I had the title. I am sure he wouldn't have come if he had known I didn't have it. Several more minutes passed, as I was frantically searching, so I made Pete go out to apologize for me taking so long.

FINALLY, I thought to say a prayer, and then I right away I got help. As I headed downstairs, I felt like I shouldn't go down there, but to the computer room. As I entered the room I remembered a gold colored BYU folder I had put some housing papers in, and I knew the title was in there. I looked around the room thinking gold folder, gold folder, and then I thought to look under the bed, where I had already looked. I found it, and inside was the title (I forgotten I had scanned it for something last fall). I quickly ran outside, scared that the buyer had left, but he was still there. We made a quick exchange of the title for 200 cash, he loaded up Oldie -which was fun to watch with Logan - and left. Then as I closed the garage door, I realized how thankful I was to Heavenly Father for telling me where to look for that one important piece of paper.