Jan Jenkins did take pictures~ Good!

Jan Jenkins, Vern's wife, did take pictures and they are so nice. Hope you can check that out.

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Vonn Jess Jenkins

We will miss him. He had such an infectious laugh, and he saw humor in just about everything. He died of brain cancer. He had been known, they said, as “the come back kid” because he had survived so many ailments over the years. I will tell you more about that at the end when I retell some of the stories that were told about him.

Vonn was the twin son of Bob and Rose Jenkins, Grandma Cecile Huntzinger’s older brother. Vonn has three older brothers, Kim (and Jeannie, they live in Las Vegas), Montel (and Jackie live in Renton Washington. LaVar and Monty were born the same day, same hospital in Farmington NM. They call themselves twin cousins. Kim and Montel were born 11 months apart. They were in the same grade at school and LaVar rounded out the threesome.) Nate (and Carol live in Reno). Vonn Jess has a twin cousin Vern Wes. They don’t look much alike and their personalities are different too. Vonn married Jani and Vern married Jan, funny tidbit, Vern lives in Washington I think. They have a son that lives in Alexandria so maybe we will get to see them again. Many stories have been told over the years about these brothers and the mischief they caused together. On the other hand even alone Vonn could cause the shaking of the head and a giggle. Added to this family there is Neena the long awaited girl who with her family lives in Branson Missouri, Brother Dean Dutton is her Bishop and Hardy ( who with his wife Renea live in Bountiful Ut.)

Vonn and Jani have three children, Jess E. that shows some humor there because a few of us always called him, Jessie and thought that was his name. Jess and his wife Sarah have 2 children. Jess just started medical school somewhere in the Caribbean. Elizabeth is in her last semester at BYU and Allie is a senior in High School.

You will notice that Mark (Kim and Jeannie’s son) played his Euphonium. I would never know about this instrument if it wasn’t for him. I dare to say that no one else could ever play it like he can. I have been moved to tears every time I have heard him play. The first time was in our home in Fredericksburg when he came to our home to stay during auditions for the Marine Corps band, which he made and still plays in. He then played “Be Still My Soul” for a fireside that we had, he came to our home for Thanksgiving that year and played again. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” was the request Vonn asked him to play. It touched many people. Mark and his wife Agatha live in Fairfax, we are hoping to get together with them and Micah and Stephanie sometime soon

Grandma and Grandpa Huntzinger are looking good and are still very much enjoying Fallon. She is still collecting fabric and gives it away generously. She is still making quilts, several a month, and enjoying it. They still have chickens that Grandpa lets out into the back of the yard everyday. He says the chickens give him a reason to get up in the morning.

We went to Reno to the house Brad and Kate own for their business and had a family get- together. That is where Jani and the kids are staying. They served very good and wonderful looking food. I couldn’t decide whether to eat or talk since they weren’t consistent to do both. So some of the food I didn’t get to try but the coconut macaroons were very good. Grandpa was ready to go before anyone else was so Brett wrapped him in bubble wrap to keep him warm while waiting.

We all rode from Fallon to Reno together. Brad had asked Terry if she would help Jani with the casket spray of flowers. Because she wanted to we all stayed and hopefully helped. It was a beautiful arrangement of blue hydrangeas, roses, ivy, fern, protea, lilies and a wonderful mix of wild flowers. It was a gift of love from Jani to Vonn. It didn’t seem appropriate at the time, but I would have loved to have pictures of these people greeting each other, the wonderful stories they told and the enjoyable experience it was even in the sadness of the time. It was great to see this wonderful out pouring of love from the family. All of Vonn’s brothers and sister were there, all of their spouses and many of their children, Vonn’s nieces and nephews. Hardy had all of his 8 children and grandchildren there from Utah. Many of them came long distances. In the Relief Society room before the service there were perhaps more than 50 people, many standing filling the room. All related in one way or another. The chapel was filled to the back with relatives, friends, law associates, and members of their wards.

I want to remember the scene of Jani in her beautiful cream colored suit, hugging each distinguished looking brother after they lifted Vonn’s coffin. She seemed so small compared to them and yet it was her and her husband that were the peacemakers among the group.

All of Grandma’s children were there except Tammy because they were on their way to Tim and Tricia’s for the birth of their second son. Terry had heard that Vonn was failing but hadn’t heard that he had passed away until she called that Saturday afternoon and LaVar answered. He told her why we were there. Terry and Linda got on the road right away and were there before church let out on Sunday morning. Bryce (Cecile’s brother Dan’s son) came right after the wedding of their daughter on Friday in Arizona. Dick Wilson who is Lynn’s son is in the picture. Lynn is Cecile’s sister, Lynn passed away July 4 this year.

It was wonderful to be with so many family members. See the relationship and hear their memories. These are the things I wanted to share with you and remember. Since this is such a long blog I will write the stories others shared about Vonn tomorrow. That is what I wrote on the back page with Neena’s poem.

Tap dancing class

Dug a hole

Age 6 double barreled gun/ crayons

7 yrs. Tractor

Driving simulator

Vonn dating 2 girls

Bronco Mendenhall~ footballs

Be Aware of the Smallest Thing

This is a small note that I found in my scriptures:

"Lord counsels us not to murmur because it is then difficult for the Spirit to work with us"

Sister Parkin then encouraged us to, "Be aware of the smallest thing which gladden our hearts with their message of God's love."

Good thought for this Thursday morning!

ONe GrEAt MemMory

One day before we left Norfolk Helena Andelin invited me to come to her house for breakfast. This house belonged to a 103 year old lady that Helena left Salt Lake City to come and care for. Helena's sister and her husband Bob went on a mission for the church, and he needed someone to come and watch over his mother. Winnie died last October and Helena has remained in the house fixing it up and keeping care of it. Helena is originally from Finland.
The yard is fabulous. It has rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and beautiful trees of all kinds, pine, dogwood, redwood and I can't remember what else. It backed onto a wonderful pond, a finger of the Elizabeth River. That morning there were water fowl, ducks and geese. Helena fix us an omelette and orange juice. The only thing was it was early in the morning in early October and I was dressed for the beach, of course, so I was a little chilly. Helena went inside to get me something to wear, she brought back this fabulous fur coat and we both got a good laugh at that! I was more comfortable of course.

Thanks you Helena for the beautiful breakfast and the wonderful memory!

ad~JUST~ments

I thought "Liberating" would be spelled "Relief" but right now if feels more like "Loss".

We have worked at getting rid of stuff for eighteen days now and there is still, too much for this small space. We have a storage unit stuffed full also so it's not that we are nearly finished. I mentioned what we are trying to do, to get rid of stuff, to our Bishop and he was amazed to think I would not understand people here need stuff. He took an outdoor table and chairs somewhere and seemed happy to have them. So that is the emotional part of it. I have known people to have their things sold at auctioned in their front yards to pay debts. I have heard of a guy that just called the Salvation Army to come and get all he didn't want to move "one more time". I heard of a family that had a large truck backed into their garage and the thieves took everything. A neighbor lost everything in a fire, not to mention the DeHarts fiasco with their fire..... I think we have the best of all worlds with giving it away, thanks Stephanie and Micah, but I guess this adjustment is just what I need to let go of all my "precious lovelys".

Our next move will not be 14,500 lbs and take a semi. That's a good thing right? I tried in Fallon to be surrounded by only the things "we loved" well that is now a step farther, giving even the loved things away. M&S said they are only storing these things for us and we could have then back anytime, that is a nice way to think about it.
I have loaded these pictures backwards. Well starting from the hallway, it looks like a nice hotel hall but people have personalized their doors with wreaths, door mats and some decorations that is kind of fun.

Our Bishop/Real Estate agent and LaVar
View from the front windows. The fountain runs all the time making a peaceful sound. LaVar woke up one morning thinking it was really raining hard to realize he was hearing the fountain. A most pleasant place.
These are very small but HORIZONTAL spin ( my favorite!) washer and drier. The washer takes only 10 articles, or it will not spin. Huh, they are like toys, but do the job.
Just to get an idea of the size of the living room. Kitchen has granite counter tops also our favorite. All wood floors except for the bedrooms are carpeted, and bathrooms are tiled.


The papers are our attempt to get the movers to place furniture where we had planned. In the end we were just glad to get it in at all where ever. Without a plan though maybe that wouldn't have been possible.

This is what was worked out.

Jim Dodd sat at one trailer watching the loading, we hired two guys from the ward to help. Stephanie was the director and LaVar loaded the Penske truck for the storage unit. That stuff never needed to touch the ground they took it from one truck to another. Guess they have done things like this before.
Our friend Sandy Dodd helped unpack the kitchen which looks horrible now but without that head start we wouldn't have found anything and would have not been able to move around, not an exaggeration really.

However, in all this chaos the Lord still was able to work a miracle. One of the movers saw an article I had set out for Sandy to read if she had time, "Lessons from the Liberty Jail" by Elder Holland ( a wonderful article by the way!). Nothing about "Mormon" or Joseph Smith on the cover, so how did he know?? Anyway he asked Sandy if we were Mormon or Jewish? She answered him and he told her that he had been dating a member and he had been trying to get someone to come and talk with him about the church and couldn't find anyway to do that. So the Lord helped him. By the end of the day we had given him a Book of Mormon and I got his information to give to the missionaries. Missionary opportunities come at the most unexpected times. We knew where the Book of Mormon was because Micah had asked for one I had to give a co-worker and Stephanie had it in the truck. Just a series of orchestrated miracles that leads us to see a bigger picture.
Pictures of our beautiful foyers, they have heavy potporri (that's close to the spelling). That can be good and bad, but I am saying they work at trying to keep it nice.

Our doorway with a call box something like Seinfeld's only you scroll to find the number it calls me and I push 9 on my cell phone to let them in. Actually I could be in some place else and still let someone into the building.
Grand front of the building I don't know if anyone uses this entrance. I think it is beautiful.
This is a school that is right out of the garage and we see it as we go out and think of our precious grandsons. Hey, Sam and Tucker this is for you!

So all in all we are adjusting and making strides with arranging things. LaVar really likes his 10-15 minute commute to work.

I see that I have to make a catch up blog with the last visits in Norfolk and some fun pictures from Corpus, Fredericksburg and Michigan.

Until then, still looking for the liberating feeling............. maybe its just ME needing an adjustment.

Our NEW adventure!!

Finally we were able to decide on a place to live!! It has been a long 2 1/2 months. The beach house was great, that wasn't the bug. It was the feeling of not belonging anywhere. Not having plans for the future and absolutely no roots. Not to mention the 3 1/2 hour trip or longer, you know DC and the Hampton tunnels can clog anytime and a 6 mile back-up is not uncommon, several times. AAAAAaaah, our new Bishop a RealEstate agent, helped us find a place to call home. The journey took us through a Craig's List scam with Nigerians, many trips around to see homes that wouldn't do for whatever reason, we made an offer on one that was undercut by another agent, :0) and so forth, but finally we decided. We went for the "liberating feeling" of getting a Condo, thanks Tyler for the suggestion and Stephanie for helping figure out just how one would move from a seven room, four bedroom, double car garage into 1,103 sq ft. This condo has a big room, kitchen, living, diningroom, whatever, and two bedrooms each with their own bathroom. It is on the 3rd floor, so the elevator phobia has to go ( well phobia is a little strong, worry, concern?) If it gets too bad I can walk up 3 floors right?? Right. It looks over a little courtyard with a fountain. We will get a storage unit for the gardening things and other things that we can't give away.
So yup that is the plan. There is an exercise room, a mail room, a pool in the summer and an underground parking garage for our car and truck (didn't see any other of those in the garage). It is a multi-use community, ie. condos, townhouses, single family homes, businesses and a day care center. Dogs, almost everyone has a dog, so I may be able to "borrow" a few of those. Our ward has mostly young families and many singles. After church a lady came up to me and after asking my name and telling me hers ask how old I was? I haven't gotten that question for many years..... so what was she driving at anyway? if I said the wrong thing she wouldn't become my friend, Huh?? She ended up quite friendly and said she was glad someone else their age move in.... whatever.
So on the 8th of October we will be sorting our belongings on the street. We are praying for no rain that day. We have had quite the downpours if it does that it will be a miserable day.
Just so you'll know I did desperately try to get rid of a lot of things while we were still in our home, but it just didn't seem to get done!
I will tell you about the "LIBERATING FEELING" when it happens okay?
Pictures later.

Feet, Feet and more FEATS

Mr. Greg with his darling new daughter, Naomi Avalie.
New mama and the fruit of her labor.
What she did best! Completely comfortable.
Then on to Corpus Christi Texas and a visit with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa they only live 2 hours away. They have visited two times. They love having family close.

On to Austin for Anna's gymnastic meet. Aynsley had a cross country meet here and we split the audience between them. We were in Austin for the official end of their drought. It was the worst rain storm I have ever been in severe flooding and we were glad to get home.
Feet, Feet and more FEATS
We went on a drive along the coast we caught a ferry back and saw this name on another ferry.
Here we are in the mosquito restaurant we were the meal. One of the draw backs to the end of the drought.
All smiles

I forgot that the videos load last but this is Anna on the beam, she did a floor routine, and the vault and bars. She got her best score on the vault.