Thoughts and stories, by Pal

 Dear Readers, I haven't written here for a month now, and I'm glad the month is over!  Actually I'm glad the last 6 weeks are over -- from February 8th, on which date I had a right hip replacement.  I was exposed to Covid and actually had Covid.  I went to the hospital one day and received 2 liters of fluid because I was so dehydrated!  The narcotic pain medicine after my operation made me so nauseated.  I had three daughters come, each 24 hours at a time, to help me, as I had stayed only one night in the hospital.  One daughter, on day 2 after my operation, didn't know that she had been exposed to Covid.  The day after she came and was with me 24 hours, she had a fever, and tested positive for the virus.  So I went, and also tested positive!  I had the first vaccine 6 days before my operation, and that may have saved my life.  About 10 days ago I had my second vaccine, and doing fine! I've had Home Health coming, with help at firs...

On this morning of my 82nd birthday, I couldn't sleep, and got up soon after 5 a.m.  I have been thinking of so many things.  I remember Larry Barkdull from the year 1989, when he owned Sonos Music, and was willing to publish 3 Simplified Hymns, Primary Songs, and Songs for LDS Women, that I had prepared.  I could write much about our friendship. I am facing an interesting time in my own life.  I still have quite good health, but I am planning at this point, to clean out my home, and prepare in the spring or next summer to sell my home in St. George, where I was born and raised, and where my husband Wayne and I returned in 1981, and have lived since then.  I will probably move up north with my oldest son Wayne M., and his wife Julie.  I have been looking around my home, and all the memories in each picture on the wall, each momento, etc., and realizing that most of them will not go with me.  I plan to simply take many pictures of dear items that t...

I was asked to write a musical biography for "Music House Publications", where I have some music on the internet.  I decided to use that as my entry today.  I hope it is interesting to you readers.                                 MUSIC RUNS IN MY VEINS ! I was blessed to be born to two very musical people, as their first child.  My father, Orson Pratt Miles, had a beautiful tenor voice, and my mother Ruth Allen Miles, had a beautiful soprano voice.   Pratt, as my father was called, grew up in St. George, Utah, without the convenience of television, radio or movies, and groups of young people loved to get together and sing.    On his Church mission to Tennessee he sang in duets and quartets.  One quartet sang over the biggest radio station in Memphis, Tennessee.  He brought a duet music book home from Tennessee and while working in a Church group with Ruth Allen, a...

Thursday, February 20 2014 Are Wayward Children Strategically Placed in Families? By Larry Barkdull Comment on Article In the article in Meridian today, there was another photo.  I saw this on Facebook and decided to add it, because it is so precious, to see Pres. Thomas S. Monson with a baby. (This article was adapted from  Rescuing Wayward Children .  Click here to learn more .) Over the years, I’ve listened to many parents who suffer because their children have departed from the plan of happiness. Some parents have wondered if they are at fault; others wonder if they are being punished: “What did I do to deserve this child?” I’ve answered “Probably a lot. But you weren’t given the child as a punishment. Likely, you chose the assignment.” When we are faced with an overwhelming challenge, we can become myopic. We tend to see the event narrowly, as if it were confined to a brief season in mortality. While we acknowledge that we lived ...