578. "All these days that came and went, I didn't know that it was life!" Swedish wall hanging -- we received in Sweden! Also family pictures, and news.

It is after 10:30 p.m. on January 14th, and for some strange reason, I can't sleep.  My mind is thinking on so many of our dear family and friends that are having challenges in their lives.

This is a beautiful embroidered wall hanging that was given to us when we left Sweden, on a Senior couple mission there in 1994-1996.  Our daughter Angela now has it. It has a special message: ---- 

  

All these days that came and went, I didn't know that it was life! 

Isn't it true that we probably all expected life to be different than it actually is?  But "This is your life!" And we need to make the best of it!

 I just wish I could be of help and comfort to others.  First of all, my dear husband, Wayne.  Today I had to puree everything he ate.  Thanks to the vita-mix my sister gave us, and a smaller blender our son gave us, they together are able to help blend up small or large items of food.  Today he ate dry cereal and milk, with protein powder in it, blended.  He had a Nepro, which is a high protein drink, for lunch, put in his stomach feeding tube.  For dinner tonight, I blended everything he ate also, as he couldn't swallow anything but liquid.

 I've seen him have problems like this before, and then the next day he was able to eat soft foods.  Hopefully he will be better tomorrow.  But we do know that his esophageal cancer isn't gone, and may be growing.  He still does his indexing several hours a day, and dialysis Mon. Wed. and Fri 4 hours each time.  He will be doing that as long as he lives.  Three doctors have told him that when he has had about all that he can take, that if he stops dialysis, he will go to sleep in just a few days, and pass on peacefully.  He is hoping to survive at least until our grandson Jake comes home from his mission in Indonesia next August.  His picture is below.

This was my handsome husband, Wayne, on his first mission to Sweden in 1950 to 1953.  Then people often said he resembled Elvis Presley!

This picture is of our wedding on September 24, 1955, 60 years ago.

     This is me (Pal) and Wayne, while we were on our mission to Sweden 
             in 1994-1995 after Wayne retired, over 20 years ago!

We have other family members who have challenges also.  Don't we all?  I'm sure any of you reading this will know several in your family, and/or friends who are really facing some difficult circumstances, either financial, emotional, work-related, health related, etc.  Yesterday I attended a Stake adult Institute class taught by Brother Wayne Brickey, who has written several really great LDS Church books, and who lives in our stake.  He is a retired Institute and Seminary teacher.  One statement he made in the class yesterday is  "The Lord doesn't usually balance the books in this life.  But the Lord will balance the books in the Spirit World.  It was never the Lord's purpose to balance the books in this life."  We all may feel that life isn't fair to us, or our loved ones, but someday all will be fair, and Heavenly Father will give us all our righteous desires, especially if we continue to live in faith and goodness.  It may not come until the next life!  If we didn't believe that, we could become very bitter, as we all see some people who have much greater problems in life than perhaps we ourselves do.  The Lord will be fair with all!

Tonight, I think I will post a few family pictures which may be interesting to some of you.  I haven't done that for quite a while.  They remind us of very happy times together, and the loving family ties we all have for eternity! 

This is like a "blast from the past!"  Taken many years ago, with 4 of our children and 2 cousins.  From left, McKay, Tacy, Karen, Angie, Shirley, and Jeremy.  Probably taken in about 1980.

This was many years later when Jeremy was playing in a concert in the Tabernacle, about 5+ years ago.

A Christmas when we had just 2 children, and Wayne was in college.

This is another blast from the past, with Angie, her husband Mike, and Brittani about 4 or 5.

This was taken this last winter, with Mike, Angie, and their children Cameron, Brittani, and Austin.

And this is Angie (Angela) and Mike, taken just last weekend, when Angie received best teacher in her district award.  She teaches Junior High English.  Mike has a very successful residential high school, which helps give counseling and stability to troubled youth, most with anxiety problems.

This was taken in September 2014, at my 80th birthday celebration, right after I had a rotator cuff operation, and Wayne was on oxygen after having pneumonia, and being in the hospital.  These are our 9 children with the oldest to youngest, left to right.  Wayne M., Delsy, Anita, Allen, Wayne and me, McKay, Angela Tacy, Pamela, and Jeremy.

Our 5 daughters at that time, L. to R: Delsy, Anita, Angela, Tacy, and Pamela.

This is our dear grandson, Jake (Jacob) Lieske, who is now on his mission in Indonesia, and will be home in August this year, 2016.  He is on the opposite end of the island where Jakarta had a terrorist attack yesterday.

This is the crowd on the steps of the St. George Temple, where Sam (Jake's oldest brother) and Becca (Rebecca) were married this last May 15th.  Jake and also Ben, 2 brothers were on their missions and weren't able to be there!  Sam filled his mission in Redlands, California, and Ben was in Taiwan, and Jake in Indonesia.  

This is Wayne and me, and our grandson Josh, (son of our oldest son Wayne M.) with Josh and Tiffany's (his wife) 4 darling children, Ruby, Grace, Luke, and Spencer (our great grandchildren.)

Our oldest son Wayne Miles, father of the son Josh above, sings in the Tabernacle Choir, and is a State Farm Agent.

There are so many family pictures we have on our computer, and we would love to include all of them.  I'll have to do this again soon.  I hope you enjoy seeing them, and knowing some people in our family a bit better.