Heather told us today that she and Brandon's time off is approved, and they want to spend about 10 days with us over Christmas!
They will fly into Jackson Christmas Eve and fly back on January 4!
We are brainstorming on some fun things to do while they are here - some ideas are skiing at Grand Targhee, cross country skiing, sledding, tubing, seeing the Elk over in Jackson again, playing games, lots of yummy food, etc.
For Family Home Evening, Blaine and I sprayed the whole outside of our house, on the siding. We had lots of cobwebs and dirt on the siding. We used a power head and sprayed all that down, soaped up the windows with a special brew, soaped the siding where it needed it, and then went back and sprayed the soap off. It looks much better. We haven't done that in years.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Missoula, MT Cross Country Races and Re-Cap of our Wedding Open House, Sept. 24, 2016
September 24, 2016
Blaine, Carl and I are headed to Missoula, MT this Saturday
morning. We slept in Dillon last
night. Blaine had to work until 5
yesterday, so we only made it to Dillon last night, it was about 3 hours
drive. We were able to stop in Rexburg
at 6 and eat at Costa Vida with Nikole, Breanna and Derek. It was fun to see and talk to each of them.
Elizabeth left yesterday morning, with her XC Varsity Team;
they arrived in Missoula last evening.
Mr. Gleichman is a great coach, and he always allows extra time to get
there. They were going to check in and
get the team’s race numbers and walk the course, etc.
Mr. Gleichman is going to pick up Carl’s number for us this
morning, since we won’t get there til about 9:30 and you’re supposed to pick it
up before that.
The Women’s General Broadcast is tonight at 6. I’m hoping we will be back, or else I’ll have
to listen to a recoding. I always love
those meetings.
The three of us listened to Marie Osmond’s song, Meet Me in
Montana. The words in the song are
actually true of Montana. There is a lot
of wide open space and big skies.
It rained most of the way to Dillon last night. We had hardly any rain all summer and now
it’s rained almost non stop for a few days.
Carl is playing the cello in his middle school orchestra
with Mrs. Schindler. This is his first
year playing that. He’s still taking
violin lessons with Melanie Moulton. He
is running first place on Teton Middle School’s Cross Country team. He ran a race on Thursday at Ririe. It was one of the hardest races, as far as
one huge hill that was very steep, that he had to run up and then later
down. It reminded me of the Grand
Targhee race, which is horrid. Heather
got first place in that one way back in 8th grade!
Carl did really well, but it was hard.
So, it will be fun to watch Elizabeth and Carl run today in
Missoula. I was surprised that Blaine
wanted to come. He has missed a couple
of Elizabeth’s races due to work or the week of Derek’s sealing, so I think he
was feeling guilty.
I just got a call from Elizabeth. It’s 8:10 here and they are already up and
have been to the grocery store to get food for the day. She said that last night, they arrived in Missoula,
walked the course, went to eat a nice Asian restaurant, then went back to their
motel. She says Mr. Gleichman is having
the whole Varsity Team stay and watch Carl race! He told Lizzie he wants to watch Carl!
Elizabeth is doing pretty well, but did “catch a cold” this
past week and got her pinky finger squished between a weight and the floor on
Thursday evening. Other than that she
had been doing really, really well as far as her health. You had to be Varsity to come to this Montana
race, so she was very excited to be third woman on her team last week. She’s been cutting time off each race.
Nikole absolutely loves college in Rexburg at BYU-I! It has been such a joy to see and hear her
talk about the happenings in her life.
She loves her classes, she loves being on her own, she loves dating
young men that are mature. She enjoys
her roommates. She rides the shuttle bus
that the Ivy provides. It goes all
around campus and down to Wal Mart twice a week. I’m impressed with The Ivy. Nikole’s been on
several dates. She is smart with
men. She was called to be the ward
pianist. I guess the Bishop interviewed
all his ward members that first Sunday before classes started. He found out Nikole can play the piano.
They asked her to play the next Sunday. She’s funny, and she said that they only
asked her to be the pianist for that sacrament meeting, because she
believed they were “trying her out” to
see if she could really play, and then they might ask her to be the ward
pianist, after they proofed her. She was
right : )
April Smotherman is in her room room. Nikole really likes her a a lot. I guess they are the two studiers in the
apartment. The others said they know
they will probably get bad grades, because they plan on playing. Blessedly, Nikole does both.
Derek and Breanna seem to be doing pretty well. They look radiant and happy. Breanna worries us with her health. A tender mercy is that our prayers were heard
and she was able to be healthy and whole during the wedding and their
honeymoon. They loved their trip to the
Cayman Islands and Cozumel Mexico – a cruise that was almost a week long.
Derek is working on an application for an internship this
coming summer at Nielsen Research, where Brandon works. These days it is very competitive to get
into good internships. He is working on
campus for 7 hours per week at the Career Office place he worked at last
year. Then he still works for Hal, but
it’s in spurts. Better spurts than not
at all, right? He is organized and works
hard and is enjoying his classes this semester.
I know that he’s had some really “bad” or difficult semeters, so I count
this as a tender mercy – perhaps that Breanna brought the blessing of comfort
and happiness, even during a semester.
He said that it’s because she feeds him good dinners J
We had them meet us at Costa Vida with Nikole for dinner
last night, because we needed to keep going towards Dillon, so we didn’t get to
see their apartment. The last time we
saw it was one day after they got home from their honeymoon, so it was just like
we left it – full of their wedding presents, one couch, one table and chairs
and we helped them set up their new memory foam bed.
Their apartment is really nice. I think it’s called Stone Brooke.
So, let’s go back to the open house in Driggs. So, we had a wondrous, beautiful day at the Ogden
temple, witnessing the sealing and feeling Heaven near. The weather was warm,
even hot at the temple for pictures. The
luncheon went beautifully and the reception at the Marcum residence back yard
was just fabulous.
Then our couple made it to Salt Lake that night, made it to
the Salt Lake airport very early the next morning, then made it to Miami and
later on to their crusie.
While they were gone, we brought her belongings and the
wedding gifts from Utah to their apartment while they were gone. Brandon and Heather drove a moving truck and
unpacked the whole thing, including packing her parent’s old, nice, heavy couch
up 3 flights of stairs. Blaine and I and
Carl brought another load from Driggs with their table and chairs they
refurbished, their filing cabinet and their bed parts that had come in long
boxes.
After they got home, we went back and took one of those last
items, helped them set up their bed, watched them open their presents.
Derek started classes the next morning. Breanna is off track this time, this end up
on the same track as Derek, but I think she wanted to get her health back into
normal order. She is tending 2 children
for her uncle’s family, as a job. She
works Monday through Friday from 10 to 2.
I told her it sounds like she is their mom, she runs errands for the
mom, tends the children, cleans house, does laundry, etc.
On Friday, after Derek’s first week back in classes, they
came to our home, and we had our “Open House”.
It turned out beautifully and we had many tender mercies with it. First was the weather. We had forgotten, when we planned it months
ago, that the weather the end of August and early September is
unpredictable. Sometimes it rains,
snows, or is nice and warm. The week of
the open house it rained almost every day.
It had not rained all summer, hardly, and now it turned cold and it
rained.
However, we
had been praying fervently that the weather would be nice for just one day and
evening, so we could do our open house on Blaine’s mother’s lawn. Our prayers were heard. It was windy and rainy the day before, but
when we woke up that Friday morning, it was clear and blue skies.
The second tender mercy of our open house was that my
co-worker, Rubi Valdez, came into my office a few days before the open house. She does wedding decorations, too. She told me she had a dream that she helped
me with my decorations for the open house.
She said that she does weddings for the Hispanic community, but the
white people don’t know who she is. She
figured that if she helped with decorations for ours, it would be free
advertising, and she wanted to do it for free!
Well, I’m not crazy, so I told her what I had from the luncheon we put
on , and then said I’d be happy to have her help.
So, Thursday night, Blaine and I took our Suburban and
loaded 6 round tables, 2 long banquet tables and 65 chairs and took them up to
Grandma’s lawn and set them up.
Friday, Blaine went to work, but I had the day off. I went to the yard at 11;00 and wiped all the
tables and chairs off with hot soapy water.
Around 2, Rubi came with her horse trailer full of
decorating things – beautiful shabby chic looking wooden doors for the
backdrop, a desk with drawers that pull out and mirror on it for cards, sign
in, etc., an old juke box, an old telephone, old windows and screen doors that
we spread all around. It turned out to
be very classy, shabby chic looking. We
worked on it all afternoon. Rubi brought
another friend form work, Jenny.
So, by 6:30, there we were, up in the tops of mountains, on
our Mom Ripp’s own front lawn, across from the Tetons, with a wonderful view,
ready to go. Marcums had arrived – all
but Jamison, who had some sports activities, and our Elizabeth who was at a
cross country race in Pocatello.
People started to trickle in. It was steady all night. Breanna’s mission president and his wife came
right at the very end. They are from
Utah, somewhere by Breanna’s parent’s home, but they couldn’t make it to the
wedding or the reception down there, so they drove clear to ours. That was
another tender mercy.
That Friday night, we later found out, was also Homecoming
foot ball game night at our local high school, so we feel very blessed that as
many people dropped by as did. It turns
out that people loved the cheesecake.
After trying to get them from Costco, where they were supposed to be
splendid, but that didn’t work, and then trying Sam’s Club – but that didn’t
work either, Blaine told me to just order them from Broulim’s, even though they
were about $150 more. He figured it
would take that much effort and gas money to drive to Pocatello or Idaho Falls,
so I listend. The cheese cake was
wonderful. It had either raspberries or
strawberries on top, chocolate syrup had been drizzled over the cake before the
berries were added. It was luscious.
The decorations were beautiful, our Derek and Breanna were
gorgeous, and the company that came through was great. My parents, Tad and Kortny, and Christian
and Jennifer and their families all came for a short while. That was nice. None of the Ripplingers came, they had all
come to the sealing or reception in Ogden.
So, the whole evening was as if another dream come true.
Grandma Ripp, Blaine’s mom, was so thrilled over the open
house on her lawn. She is kind of a home
body the whole time I’ve known her. She
has her children come over, but that’s about it. She doesn’t invite other people over. Well, she was so thrilled that now people
know where she lives. President and Sister McKellar were the first ones
there. He talked to her a lot about her
good family, and her continued good grand children, etc. That made her really happy. She stayed on the front lawn clear until the
end of the reception, which is unheard of for her. She usually has to go in and lie down, whenever
she is having a normal day. So, it made
me happy that she was so thrilled over it.
Words from the Sealer by Blaine, Nikki, Brandon and Heather Pilcher, September 3 or 4, 2016
Words from the
Sealer to Derek & Breanna Sealing
September 2, 2016
These are things that Mom, Dad, Brandon or Heather
remembered
No other place on
earth that the sealer would rather be…
Your challenge
will not be loving each other, you already love each other more than any couple
the sealer has seen… You are going to be a happy and valiant couple… You will
be blessed to have a happy life…
There will be a
lot of council provided by those in the room to be given outside the temple
that you should listen to but the greatest council is provided in their example
as they are keeping commandments and by how they are living their lives…
Parents and
grandparents in the room… this is one of the joyful moments for them
I know you think
you love her today but that will grow even more profound as you have
experiences in life and children
Jesus was there –
it is his house, the house of the Lord
Don’t have to wait for the Second
Coming to see him – come to the house of the Lord anytime and he will be here.
The savior was present in the temple during the sealing…
People on the
other side of the veil that were promised they could be here
God, angels, witnesses… these angels
are family/friends on the other side of the veil and are present
Remember the veil
ceremony. You will be passing through the veil one day - Derek bringing Breanna
through the veil one day, remember the name your whole life…
Authority and
keys of sealing from President Monson directly… When the prophets is prompted
by spirit to be the sealers… They sit down with Prophet at Salt Lake HQ.
Come to the
temple often and remember what is said by doing work for the dead as a reminder
of the covenants that you are making…
You are lucky to
have the promise to come forth in the first resurrection…
Remember to keep
the commitments and covenants that you have made
You are commanded
/ ‘encouraged’ to have children… your greatest joy will come from your children
Derek and Breanna's Wedding/Sealing Memories, September 2 and 3, 2016
September 3, 2016
I need to write about several tender mercies in our lives
the last few weeks, before the vivid memories are gone.
We experienced one of the most splendid blessings a person
can have yesterday, as our son, Derek Ripplinger ,was sealed for time and all
eternity to Breanna Marcum in the Ogden Temple.
He is 22, she just turned 21 in July.
It was one of those days that you just thrill over again and again.
The weather was good, sometimes even hot, but we were
grateful, because we had passed through some rain and wind storms on the way to
Layton the evening before. It was crazy
to have rain, because we have only had rain twice the whole summer, and it was
just a light rain, then. The rain of the
night before the wedding was heavy, and when it was a dust storm, you could
barely see and it rocked our Suburban.
We took Blaine’s mother, Helen, with us. She is 83 years old. She was a “Trooper” and really seemed to
enjoy the whole trip. She was very close
to Derek – she always felt a connection with him, since he was a baby, and
since we lived less than ¼ mile from her for Derek’s whole life, since he was
about 18 moths old, they did have the chance to get to know each other well.
The wedding plans took a lot of tender care for both sides
of the families. We ended up buying the
table linens for our Luncheon online – Gaylynn Bean gave me the name of the
website. It cost us less to buy than to
rent. We borrowed white table cloths
from our ward, and then used the mint green table toppers that we had bought,
with a few table runners for the head table and coral sashes for the back of
each chair. We had ordered ahead the
food from Café Rio in Layton – homemade tortillas, black beans, sweet pork and
plain chicken, their yummy cilantro ranch salad dressing, lettuce, cheese, pico
sauce and brownies from Albertson’s that had mint green leaves with a little
coral rosebud of frosting on each square.
Breanna’s sweet family had put a lot of time and effort and
love into her wedding dress, the videographer, two photographers, they had
their beautiful reception in their backyard.
They had put new bark in their flower beds, replaced their back door,
which was wood to a nicer one, decorated their yard with white lites. The caterers had beautiful doors for a
backdrop, beautiful old looking drawers with the video playing on them, a big
central table with about five popcorn flavors and Italian ice in mango,
strawberry lemonade and one other. They
hired a DJ, who played music and kind of narrated the activities at the end –
like the bouquet toss, the cutting of the wedding cake, the first dance, the
dance with Breanna’s Dad, Derek’s dance with me, the group dance, the
sparklers, etc. Marcums went to a lot of
planning and work.
I can’t fully describe the beauty of the wedding day. Both families had put lots of tender time and
effort into the planning. Of course, the
beautiful sealing was the best part of the day.
Tracey Ripplinger works in that temple, and she had volunteered to help
us get a great sealer assigned to our wedding.
We will have to look his name up, but he is in the Ogden Temple
Presidency. He did a great job. Heather, Brandon , Blaine and I wrote down as
much of the words of the sealer, as we could remember, so they can have that.
The feeling in the temple was pure peace, love and joy for
us. Breanna’s mother, Bonnie, got to go
early with Breanna, like I did with Heather, but the rest of us could come
later. We woke up that morning at Lori
and Bruce Schiess’s home. They were kind
enough to offer to let all of us stay there – Helen, Blaine and I, Brandon and
Heather, Nikole, Elizabeth, Carl and Derek.
They are empty nesters now. It
was greatly appreciated and saved us so much money. Lori is Blaine’ first cousin. They grew up in houses right next door,
though Lori was several years older than Bruce.
We woke up that morning, Sept. 2 and the sun was out!
Carl and I actually went for a walk around Lori’s
neighborhood first thing. Then everyone
started to wake up. Blaine took us all
to McDonald’s for some breakfast – Bruce and Lori both went to work. Derek thought he was starving : )
We let him go, after breakfast, or Brandon and Heather took
him to Breanna’s home.
We stopped at WalMart, because three of our children needed
to get their “sibling” gift for the luncheon.
We all found out our feet hurt in our fancy higher than normal heeled
shoes.
We went back to Lori’s for a brief rest, and then headed
towards the Ogden Temple! Lori lives in
Kaysville, so we had a little drive.
But let me back up. A
couple of weeks ago, I made the long trip down to Marcums, so I could attend
Breanna’s second bridal shower. Her ward
friends gave her this one. So, I had
seen her neighborhood, met some of her young friends, and her neighbors and
ward members. I probably wrote about
that, but it was very nice and enjoyable.
In the two weeks since then, Derek and Breanna had their
“First Look”, which is when a hired photographer takes pictures of the groom
seeing the bride for the first time, in her wedding gown/dress. They did this at a park in Salt Lake.
Those photos are gorgeous.
They have spent a lot of time in our home or with Marcums,
so we’ve had the chance to get to know her really well. We adore and love her. Her family is great, as well.
So, the five weeks somehow passed by, with them seeing each
other most of the time. They were so fun
and sweet to have near. They are one of
those few, beloved couples that you can just tell really, really, really love
each other. They remind me of the pictures
of my mother and father, when they got married.
They’re both stunningly good-looking, and they just look beautiful
together. They also remind me of President
Eyring and his wife – both tall and thin.
The best part is that they are beautiful on the inside, as well – they
both have beautiful spirits.
Derek was sure time would not move fast enough, even when we
said, “Only one week to go, or only three days, or only two days”. It was too long for him to wait for him to be
with his beloved Breannna.
Derek was really receptive to my ideas. I had dreams of a wonderful gentlemanly
courtship, proposal and marriage. He did
not disappoint me. Nor did she.
So, Breanna left our home on Monday, for the last time, as a
single lady.
Our sweet Heather flew into Jackson on Tuesday evening. I have the tender mercy of having my work be
nice to let me use my PTO Paid Time Off to take all but Monday off this week,
for my Heather’s visit and Derek’s wedding.
So, we picked her up at 8:30 Tuesday evening – Derek, Nikole and I while
Blaine took Carl to his scout review. We
had never been to the Jackson airport, so that was a nice, new experience. The Easterneres that were on Heathe’rs flight
coldn’t get over the huge mountains, that were right by the airport.
Of course it was thrilling to have Heather back home – she’s
so beautiful, mature, and wise for her young age. We enjoyed her company, and she helped us
with wedding last day advice, opinnions nad plans.
Brandon had been attending a conference for his Nielsen
business in Chicago. Because his
conference was kind of in the way for his brother in law’s wedding, that
awesome company offered to fly him home to us on Wednesday night, into Jackson,
again, and they will fly him home to Cincinnati on Monday! That is another tender mercy!
Heather’s flight was covered under their frequent flyer
miles, so it didn’t cost them anything, so that is another tender mercy! Heather got a promotion in her Macy’s
company, so she ended her last job there and will begin her new assignment
there on Tuesday.
I can’t say enough about these two helping us with
everything. I had everything planned and
ordered and made for the wedding, but they just helped in so many ways. They are good emotional support, the
appreciate everything we do.
So, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday, first with Heather, then
with Brandon, too, and our Derek. All
five of our children were home together, for the first time in quite a
while. It was wonderful.
Thursday morning, Derek, Brandon and Heather headed out
together, to go spend a little time meeting Breanna – this was B&H’s first
time to meet her. They gave the engaged
couple a “Go-Pro”, which is fairly new technology, at this time. It’s a camera, that you hold on a long, long
stick, which can get wet and it will take pictures of you doing all kinds of
things and record video, so it will be perfect for Derek and Breanna’s
honeymoon, as they are going on a cruise to the Cayman Islands and Jamaica and
Cozumel, Mexico. Brandon and Heather also
helped Marcums put up some lights in the trees in their yard.
So, we arrived at the temple grounds. Mike and Sherry kind of took over helping Mom Ripp, so that
helped us a lot
Our three youngest waited outside, with the Marcums. I guess Nikole did take Elizabeth and Carl to
get ice cream, about a block away, while we were at the sealing.
So, as we went into the temple, I just felt this peaceful,
wonderful feeling. The temple was
gorgeous, outside and inside. We all
were led to an open room, like a huge waiting room. We were able to greet family and friends
there. We met the Marcum grandparents
and great grandpa again. We met Bonnie’s
Glen Parents. They were all
wonderful. All of Blaine’s siblings and
their spouses came. My sweet mom and dad
were there, Bishop and Kayleen Moulton, many of Derek’s Ripplinger cousins,
Christian and Jennifer, David and Alene Breckenridge and many of Breanna’s
relatives.
There is so much symbolism.
When it was our wedding party’s turn, the female worker comes in, she
announced our last name wrong, but after she was corrected, she said it
right. She asked for the mothers of the
bride and groom first, then the fathers, then the grandparents to lead the
company to the sealing room.
Bonnie and I stood in the room, by our special chairs, by
the couch where our bride and groom would sit, until everyone had come into the
sealing room and were seated. Then the
sealer brought the bride and groom in, the sealer came over and greeted me and
Bonnie, then over to the witness’ side to greet Blaine and Bryant. He then met the grandparents.
The room was filled with Heaven’s Light. There was such a sweet, good feeling in the
room. The room itself is so beautiful
and light, that you just feel like you are in Heaven.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)