Remote Area Medical

Remote area medical is a program started here in Virginia which takes medical teams to the hills of Virginia to bring free medical care to those in need.

The professor who is in charge of the Pre-med program here at the school has been very involved in this over the years and takes students into the field every year. This year they decided to hold it here to see how it did. It took the volunteer efforts of many at the school and in the community and church to make it possible but it was a great experience. They did over 1400 proceedures on people that traveled miles to get here. They did fee eye exams and glasses and all the frames are brand new given to the program when styles change. This is the area I worked in and we did glaucoma tests,then the eye exam, picked out the frames and then they actually had a van where the lenses were ground to their prescriptions. Amazing!


They had physical exams, womens exams and even a veterinary clinic for cats.
The largest and most popular was the dental clinic. People would spend hours in the chairs as they had work done that they had never had done before, especially basic cleaning. One person had 22 teeth pulled!

this is JJ's friend Baden who is going to be a Dentist.

They then do follow up care with some of the folks that need it. The Doctors,nurses and out of town volunteers were housed in our main hall dorm rooms since they all voulunteer their time. All of this was possible because our students were mostly gone on spring break. Some actually stayed just to help.
It is great to be in a situation where we can help others and the tremendous work on the part of those who put it on is inspiring.It actually helped build a good feeling with the town and the campus which was nice.

My mother was right-unfortunately

My mother always claimed that "Bad news comes in threes" and it seems to be true in the last few weeks. I would like to pay tribute to three people who have touched my life in various ways that passed away in the last few weeks.
First of all is Clay Finch.

He passed away on Feb 10 after having bad health for the last several years. Clay came into my life because of his wife, Barb. She is one of my dearest friends and a tremendous blessing in my life. We worked together to build up Curves of Newberg and Barb and Clay joined the church after we had known each other for around a year. Their conversion story was wonderful and Clay grabbed hold of the Iron Rod and never let go. We had the privilege of going to the Temple with Barb and Clay and hosting a "wedding party" for them at our house. What wonderful memories we have together!

Clay was one of the kindest people I know and would do anything for anyone. He had a great sense of humor and lived life to the fullest. He had an Indian burial in New Mexico that was fitting of his heritage.He loved the statue "end of the trail"and he loved,Mick,his dog and Mick loved him! I look forward to the day we meet again.

On March 1st Phyllis Parrott past away after a very quick illness. She was my visiting teacher and a wonderful friend. she was totally devoted to her family and especially her husband Arnold. Arnold came to help out at SVU as the director of career development after working at BYU for many years and is loved by the students and an invaluable help to them. Phyllis volunteered at the front desk in main hall and everyone appreciated her ever present smile and happy disposition. Phyllis and Arnold are converts to the church and had a great love of the temple. It is on our trips to the temple that we got to know them. She had a wonderful sense of humor and I will miss her very much.


Last is John Andrews Sr who died on March 2. He is John Andrews father and he was a wonderful, kind gentle man. All you need to do is know his son to know what kind of person he was.He has been such a loving father in law to Hope and a wonderful grandfather to Sarah and a good friend to our family. Go to Hope's blog hopescraps@blogspot.com to read a beautiful tribute to him.


All of these wonderful people have passed through my life at different times to enrich my life, to teach me things and to remind me that life is very fragile and that we never know when our time will be over or that of someone we love. How wonderful the plan of happiness is and the comfort it gives us in times such as these.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines day to everyone! It has been a very nice day for me. It started with Papa giving me a beautiful card and a box of truffles from a local chocolatier called Cocoa Mill over in Lexington. They are really good!
We were actually able to go to our own ward today and it was so nice to get to mingle with everyone again and to discuss the Old Testament (Cain and Abel and Noah) and to discuss the great plan of salvation and the war in Heaven. I am really enjoying this new course of study of simple gospel principles.
When Emilie and Logan got out of church they dropped by and it is always so good to see them and get to be with the boys.
I didn't think we would see them today since we spent all day yesterday together on a family Temple trip. Emilie, Logan and Papa went on a session while JJ and I watched the boys and then we switched (except for Dad who stayed in the Temple to do the veil). While JJ and I had the boys we took them to the Mall and what a zoo that was! All those DC people had been trapped inside for days and so they were all out on the streets and it took a half hour to go 3 miles!
I took the camera but forgot to take pictures until it was dark so Dad took a few. Hopefully you can see the 32 inches of snow plowed up to over 5 feet in the parking lot! It was amazing! And to think we thought we got a lot! Fortunately the Temple wasn't crowded so we were able to get a parking place!



Since I thought you might be getting as tired of our snow as we are (more is expected tomorrow!)I decided to move on to icicles! These show the front door and the stoop. When I was walking in on Friday one of the icicles fell on my head and each morning Dad has to "break out" of the house from the ice built up in front of the door. It doesn't seem to matter how much salt he puts on it, the ice just keeps mounting. It will be nice to see temperatures get warm enough to melt this but we need it to happen slowly so we don't have flooding!


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Her are a few of my favorite campus icicles!




When we were on the way to the Temple we saw some icicles under a bridge they were building that must have been 5 feet tall! Just think, we'll be able to bore all of our future posterity with "we remember the winter of 09-10 when all the records for snowfall were broken and President Obama called it Snowmagedon!"

On the way home I took this picture of Tommy with his new hat. He is so much fun!


And to end a great day I got to talk to my grandchildren on the west coast! It makes me so happy that they were all together today, safe and sound in Oregon. I just feel such peace having them all in one place even if it is just for a day!

And MORE snow...!

On Friday they preemptively called off school because of the threat of a major snow storm. They were plowing as it was falling unlike the last time and so conditions were much better. We had snow, then sleet, then frozen rain and then snow again so this is a crunchy snow and good for snowmen, forts etc (see Emilie's Blog). Papa and I just hunkered down for the duration and it was kind of fun being snowed in. They canceled our church and so we were going to go to one of the student wards and then they decided to go ahead and have the afternoon family ward meet so we went there. We just had sacrament meeting but it was so nice just to get to be together and hear testimonies.
I thought I would send along a few more snow pictures taken by Papa of some of the other buildings on campus.
Here is Crayton, the dorm where JJ is an RA.


This is the student union where the cafe,game room,dance studio and mail room are located.

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This is a picture of the brick entry and Chandler Hall where the plays and concerts are held.


On Thursday the students put on a benefit for Haiti relief and raised $750,which was pretty good since we were competing with the girls home basketball game! JJ was the emcee and our acapella group, The Fading Point, performed along with Shenanigans, our comedy troupe, of which JJ is a member. Scotty and the Beamers, a rock band started by one of our professors, also performed along with a middle school band named "Rock Mutt" that has children of several of our professors in it. We had pizza and ice cream and a great time was had by all for a worthy cause!

Open House,More Snow, a Surprise and a new book

This weekend was one of our open houses for the school.Papa is in charge of overseeing all the aspects of making sure all goes well at the open houses so he has been a busy guy. We had more students signed up for this one than we had ever had. We had 27 students flying in just from Utah from one high school for a special two day event. When the weather report started showing a coming snow storm we got a little nervous. The out of town people ended up coming in ahead of the storm and roads were cleared by the time they left on Monday so all was good.We ended up with 85 students on campus for the open house and a great time was had by all! The recruiting season is going very well for 2010-2011!

Church was canceled on Sunday for the family wards but the student wards continued with their meetings so we walked over to the institute chapel(almost in our back yard) and attended Sacrament meeting.

I love living in this area and being so close to everything! The snow was beautiful and all were warm and comfy!This is a picture of some students sledding down the front hill. My office is just up over their shoulders looking on to the balcony(mine is the BEST office on campus!)



Our new Governor McDonnell was asked to give the Republican counter to the state of the union message last week. My sister Kathy e-mailed me to make sure that I watched it. I saw both my brother in law, Senator John Watkins, and my sister Kathy in the pictures as he was giving his speech! It's one of those "6 degrees of separation" things so now I practically know the governor! This is Senator Watkins(my brother in law) and the Governor. The second photo is my sister Kathy(red jacket) with John and the Governor! What an exciting event to be part of!






I had mentioned to Hope that I was wanting to make a book from my blog and she directed me to a sight . I did just what it said and ended up with a very nice book of my blog! I am happy with the quality of the pictures and I have an "instant Journal"! There are other sites that i checked out but they all cost the same and even seem to have the same covers. I plan on doing them periodically so I have a good record of my year!

Yesterday I had planned to go to the Temple in DC with our ward but on Friday I came down with another horrendous stuffed head and leaky nose! So instead of a spiritual Saturday I spent most of it watching "Gilmore Girls-season one". I have to admit that it was sort of nice to just sit and not do much of anything. The downside was my head was full and I couldn't really taste food so there was no scrumptious eating going on! I was still coughing away this morning so I had to stay home from church and needed to create my own spiritual atmosphere. I opted to listen to some of my devotional talks that I have recorded and to watch all three "Work and the Glory" in a row!
As I was reading before I turned in I decided that I wanted to share my obsession with Neal a Maxwell that I have been having lately. JJ had a devotional talk of his that I put on my Fuze and I think I have listened to it a dozen times! This talk is amazing because it was given in 1978 and it is so appropriate for today. If you want to read it just put "meeting the challenges of today" in your browser and it will come up. There are places where you can watch it also.
Then tonight as I was reading I decided to read the book "All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience" which is a Maxwell Book published in 1980. It's been a few years since I read it last and as I was reading this paragraph really struck me.
"Staying close to the prophets will be vital since,in some ways,the last days of this dispensation may come to resemble the first days in this dispensation. The middle period through which the Church has recently passed has been essentially a pleasant period-full of growth,understanding, and even some acclaim from the world. But the last days,although they will be characterized by much growth,will also be
characterized by much tribulation and difficulty. While we can be forgiven for not thirsting after conditions of stress,each of us,according to our station,must play well our role in this most glorious of all dispensations."
He then goes on to talk about how the prophets have been raised up for this specific period and will lead us through and then he ends the chapter with this encouragement:
"In like manner, the Lord has measured the parents of the rising generations on whom so much will also depend-all to the end that His work will triumph against odds that would stagger all but the true believers".
I always appreciate how blunt he is and specific!
I want you all to know how grateful I am that I live in this dispensation and that I have been blessed to remain here to see so much fulfillment of prophecy and to see my children living righteous lives and rearing families in the Gospel! There are tough times ahead but we are all equal to the challenge because we are here now for this purpose!
How grateful I am for Prophets and personal revelation to help in our lives!

Birthdays

Another year has come and gone for me and it hardly seems possible! I had a lovely day yesterday because I heard from almost all of my children! Papa brought me a rose and a beautiful card and then took me out to dinner at the "Southern Inn", a very nice restaurant in Lexington. He says that my present will arrive tomorrow in the mail so that is exciting!
Emilie and JJ fixed dinner for me tonight at Emilie's house and we had a tradional dinner of Roast Beef, Mashed potatoes,peas,and a special cake that was given to us by some Brazilian friends. Being surrounded by family always makes me happy!

Last Friday John and I went over the mountain and went to see Avitar with Mary and Bill. It is quite the amazing movie and rather spectacular in 3D! We had a very nice time together.
It is very cold here right now (18 degrees and going down) and they are delaying school 2 hrs in the morning because of the expected high winds and cold. Luckily the college students don't return to classes until Thursday!
I guess now I push on in to 2010 and see what surprises it holds for me!