A Weekend in Orange

When Lisa was in Utah Ben and Sharley came down for a visit. While he was here he received a phone call from his Ward secretary asking him to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on February 21. I wrote it on the Calendar because I thought it would be cool if we could go up and listen to him give his talk but then I promptly forgot about it.

Last Wednesday Lisa was looking at the calendar and she said, "Why did you write 'Ben talk' on the calendar?" Aren't calendars a great invention? So somewhat spontaneously we decided to go up and visit Ben and Sharley this weekend. The timing was perfect because it is Ben's birthday this week so we decided to celebrate his birthday while we were up there. Lisa also had a regional convention for her new business so we were able to kill three birds with one stone. We visited, watched movies, ate steaks and pizza's and soaked in the hot tub. It was an all around great weekend.

Our presence I'm afraid caused Ben a bit of anxiety. Because we were there he was too tempted to play rather than prepare his talk so Saturday night after we all watched a movie and went to bed Ben stayed up and worked on his talk. I went to bed at 1:30 and Ben was still working on his talk. I don't know what time it was when I heard his alarm go off but when I got up around 8:00 he was still working on his talk. His hard work did pay off however and he gave a wonderful talk. His topic was basically how we can be happy and enjoy life even during a time of great trials and obstacles such as the economic down turn and the hardship it has created for many of us. We then barbecued steak and had a great birthday dinner after which Ben opened the presents we bought. For several years now Ben has requested a dozen Crispy Creme donuts for a birthday cake. As you can tell, this year was no different. We got him a book, a shirt and tie plus the new Spanish Bible the church recently published with Topical Guide and the Bible dictionary.

And then of course there was Blue. I have scratches all over my hands and arm from playing with that vicious animal. We had a blast. That is definitely one hyper-active cat. She is also vengeful. I seriously believe that I made the cat mad and later when I was unprepared she attacked my foot when I was totally unprepared and then she ran away. I really like Blue. Happy Birthday Ben.

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February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon

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