We love quakies

This has been a wild and crazy week, and what else is new? Joanne is back in UT visiting Aunt Sharon & "Auntie Em" and doing Ottley family business and having fun. I am studying for the Technician Class Amateur Radio License, which test I hope to pass on November 1 so I can qualify for a radio for my birthday or Christmas or something. As you know, we love quakies, so feeling kind of "Utahy", I thought I'd post some pictures I have run across on the internet for your viewing pleasure.

Summer Fun?

Dad had to replace the water pipe that runs from the street to the house. He had patched it a few times hoping it would hold but finally decided to just replace the whole thing.

He got the pipe all dug up and mostly replaced and then James came for a visit and got to have some good bonding time with his Dad. We really appreciated his help. Now the job is done and hopefully won't have to be replaced again.

General Conference

Well, it has come and gone like a flash - like always - General Conference weekend always seems to be so short. I suppose it is because it is so uplifting that we would just like it to linger on. And this was a particularly great Conference, if there can be such a thing. From Elder Perry's sermon to Elder Cook's, it seemed that they all spoke to me and delivered a message that I need - and in a way that I needed to hear it. I began taking very good notes, but finally just gave up and listened, relying on the written word that will become available later this week.

Of all the aspects of the restored gospel of Christ that I love, and have a strong testimony of, the blessing of living prophets & apostles is foremost. As I have been known to say, if I could only leave my posterity a single phrase to guide them, it would be "Follow the Brethren." If we do this, we'll be okay. I suppose this will become more and more difficult as times go on, but the only way the perilous times that surround us can get at us is if we "get off the train." As long as we stay on the train, we'll be okay, even if we pass through hard times. And we never have to worry about losing the train, because we have been promised that it will never go away now until the Savior returns.

In addition to the great sermons we have heard this weekend, there have been some other shows aired on BYU-TV that are worth looking up. Thank heaven for Move networks that allows us to go back in time to watch things we missed the first time. World Report is always good, and the presentation on the life of President Monson is superb. Then this evening we watched a very interesting program entitled "Journey of Faith". It was on at 5:00 p.m. MDT and follows a likely route that Lehi & Co. took after leaving Jerusalem as commanded in 600 BC. I am usually not much on these kinds of shows, considering them very speculative. But I was impressed by the level of professionalism and research upon which this show is founded. In the beginning of the show, Truman Madsen quotes the Prophet Joseph as saying to a colleague, "If you live into the next century you will see evidence for the Book of Mormon come forth in droves." One of the most interesting points made in the show is the archealogical confirmation of 1 Nephi 16:34 which identifies a place called Nahom as where Ishmael died and was buried. I encourage you to go back and watch this show, as it is very interesting.

What's with the name?

Perhaps all of you have heard the story of the words that make up the name of our blog, but I thought it would be okay to go over it anyway. Those are the words that reportedly John Sutter exclaimed after testing the metal brought to him by Marshall from where the Mormons building his mill at Coloma found it, and found it to be gold. We first saw these words at Sutter's Fort not long after we were married, sealed so that by Joanne it would always be Rich - a blessing more precious than gold.

Just 9 months later!

Guess what? I found my original gmail id and password, and so became able once again to work on our blog! I figure that I'll just throw it out there now, even though it is not completed yet, and work on it over the next while. Please give me your feedback to help me improve it.

As you can see, the last post was in January when we were visiting Brooke & her folks (I just had to say that). So I have thought of a lot of things to post here in the interim, but most of them I have just emailed to you. But now that I have this here I need to throw up some of the videos I have been saving for this occasion, and maybe some photos too.

For now, because I am really not ready to "go live" with this, but didn't want to exclude my favoritest people, I am limiting access to invitees only. I know that won't make some of you happy, but I guess you can take it out of my hide next time you see me (if you can catch me).

Just a brief note on what we have been up to lately, tonight we watched a bit of The Wizard of Oz. I got this incredibly great DVD for father's day from Becca, Saramarie, and Emily - that includes about 4 DVDs of features, including 3 or 4 other versions of the movie. Great stuff. Last Tuesday we went to the temple for a sealing session and stayed for about 2.5 hours doing sealings. A long and joyful night. We got to work with Pres. Greer, the first president of the Fair Oaks Stake and a great man. Last Sunday we gave a youth fireside at Bp. Grimes' place. Your mother did wonderfully & I batted clean up. Today it cooled way down and tomorrow & Saturday it is supposed to rain. Here comes Fall, and we are ecstatic.

Okay, 'nuff talk. Here's the good stuff. We start off with my whipping the audience into a frenzy some time last Summer:

And here we are in Redding a couple of weeks ago at the Sundial Bridge:

Here's happy Tyler on his visit to Grandpa II (& Grandma too):

And here's the fallout from Swiss Days in Midway:

Well, that's going to have to do it for now. Although we're working backwards, we'll have to add more later, including that great trip to Boise & Jerome! Stay tuned.

G'bye folks!