Yosemite Falls

Orton effect layout

Liv@ the Spraground says,"Wow, Joanie, this photo looks ethereal!! Great job with the challenge!"

My niece, Cindy, made a post to her blog recently about Yosemite. That wonderful place has deep roots in this girls heart!

I grew up hearing wonderful stories from both my parents, but my mom in particular, always accomodated me with requests for my favorites: ie "Tell me about when I was born." ,"Tell me about when I was 2.", etc.

But there is one story that didn't get told too often but stuck in my brain. I'm not even sure my mom told me... I may have read it in my Granddad's (William Munce) writings. It is the story of him being told by his wife (Elsie Marie Ernestine Pump Munce) that "you planted a seed under Royal Arch!" That baby was my mom... the love affair with Yosemite started.

My grand parents- Bill & El Munce

Rebekah lives only an hour south of Yosemite in (aptly named)Yosemite Lake Park aka YLP. So now when I go to Yosemite to that place where so long ago Bill and El sealed their love I come with their great-great-grandsons! I love this circle of life.

The Flynns and Grammie 2/06 (also w/Orton effect)

Don't you dare try this!!
Granddad Bill Munce handfeeding bears at Yosemite
summer 1912
(when Elsie Louise Munce was conceived!)

More Girls-getaway layouts

OK... can I just say that this is stressing me out? I love to be organized and having random photos all over my blog that belong together in one album... I can't like that! So I am going to go back and edit that old post and put all of the photos there... in one place. I will still do individual posts, maybe... I don't know... probably...

My View from here... daughter & friend

The NWR class is wrapping up this weekend. I am a little sad to already be at the end. But today's challenge sparked this layout.

It was several years ago that Bek and I were chatting on the phone and she said, "You know, Mom, just after Caden was born and we started hanging out."

It was said in such a casual way but it had a very profound impact on my heart. In those few short words was all the meaning - You are my friend, you are my buddy, you aren't just my mom! (and if computers could show tear-stains you would see them here!)

As a mother I've worked so hard to let my kids know that I love them so very much while still being the "heavy" and teaching them to do the right things. One of my favorite quotes is, "You teach your kids to grow-up and lead independent, responsible, adult lives... and then darned if they just don't go and DO IT!"

I am so grateful to call Rebekah my daughter, but more importantly, my friend.

Last week of NWR class

So... very sad... this is the last week of my class over at JessicaSprague.com. I have learned so much. Now I hope that I will be able to take what I have learned and use it productively. I tend to be quite slow when I am doing the lesson. I guess I will see.



I decided to work on some photos from our trip to Disneyland last October. What fun we had! But I have already gone on record with Bek that next time Grammie is only in for 2 days.(they did 4!)

You decide... (Sat Challenge)

Saturday (is a special day...) is always start to finish challenge at NWR. The idea is to take a photo (using the prompt as your guide) and then scrap the layout in 30 minutes! Can I just say that I only accomplished that the first week when I stayed up way too late (hmmm... I'm seeing a trend here!)

This week's prompt was our "nerdy little secret". The first thing that popped into my mind was my desire to organize everything especially by color. It all goes back to when I was a child... the first thing I wanted to do was get all of my crayons in color sequence (hence the background photo)

As I have gotten older this carried over into my quilting stash. I have a box (sometimes two) for every color with the fabric folded just so and standing on edge so it is like looking in that old box of crayons.

Then a few years ago when I was looking for my favorite red T-shirt and couldn't find it because it was hiding I decided my closet needed this same treatment. Now all I have to do it look through 4-5 shirts instead of the whole bunch... well, except for white. (Can anyone have too many white T-shirts?)

So the answer to "You Decide..." is "It just makes me happy..." Now some may say this is OCD but it is just so much easier to find things if they are color grouped!

The need to play

This week's class didn't include the normal Wednesday challenge so I decided I needed to play a little on my own. First I spent about half a day Thursday (always when I am able to get to the Wed challenge) getting all of my digi-scrapping elements reorganized. When I first started downloading all of the fun 2Ps freebie kits I renamed them! That makes for a nightmare now that I have a whole googalin of them!! I found some more kits that I'd passed up the first time around and added them as well.



I went looking for a fun photo to use for Jessica's Photoshop Friday prompt and ended up with this one from Disneyland last October. It makes me remember what fun we had and now I want to dive in and get the rest of it scrapped.

Riley discovers Gidget

Last Monday I told Gordon I wanted to make a trip to CA to see Auntie P and Spencer, Tricia and Riley. He replied, "Why don't you go this weekend!" And I said... why don't I? That being said... I flew out last Thursday from SLC to Burbank.

I'm having such a marvelous visit. The first night I was here Spencer, Tricia and Riley came over to Auntie P's, where I am staying. Riley has grown so fast. He is not even 7 months yet and already right off the chart! He is proportionate but right off the chart. He is 25 pounds and 33 inches tall. He has such a darling personality. Tricia says he is so dramatic. He throws back his head and laughs. He turns on the charm the minute you point the camera at him.

I love watching Spencer and Tricia with their darling little son. They are such a sweet and lucky family.

Learning SO Much

I am learning SO much with my online class! I am so glad that I decided to take this class. This week I learned about the burn tool. WOW! It is just like using chalk or ink when I paper-scrap. It will also add subtle shadowing (look at the letters that are woven with the ribbon).
Each day a new challenge... what more could I ask?

The only problem is that many of my pages are about the Vegas 2006 Girls' Getaway so I decided just to link each entry back to the original.

Book of Mormon Panel

I went to my friend Vicki’s house today and in her front room is the most beautiful carved wooden panel I think I have ever seen. She allowed me take photos of it. She also told me the story about its origin.

Panel- Full view

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receive the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist

Joseph Smith receives the Melchizdek Priesthood from Peter, James and John

The Salt Lake Temple

Joseph Smith sees God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ in the sacred grove.

Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life and the Iron Rod

The ocean voyage to the Promised Land (America)

Christ appears, as promised, to the people of the America after His resurrection

Her father, Samuel Wilson Black, was raised in a home of strong anti-Mormons. They believe that all Mormons were riff-raff and needed to be driven out. His predecessors bragged they had driven Joseph Smith and his followers from Missouri. As luck would have it, he met Vicki’s mom, Dora Boyce, an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (she was waiting for a missionary), swept her off her feet and the eloped! Dora immediately became inactive to avoid contention in her marriage. Nearly 20 years later when Vicki was about 8-years old her little brother was killed. It rocked Dora’s world to its foundations. She remembered she had a church once. They lived in Sun Valley, California (in the San Fernando Valley). The only church building Dora knew of was in Burbank so she and Vicki went off to church. They found out what ward they really belonged to and started attending that ward. Samuel was none too happy with this turn of events. He didn’t want Dora to go to church nor take the children with her. But that didn’t stop them from going. He remained unsupportive for quite some time and wouldn’t let the children be baptized. Vicki wasn’t baptized until she was 16-years old. Only then it was with the proviso that she couldn’t go to BYU (and marry one of those d___ Mormons). As you have guessed, she not only ended up going to BYU but met her husband there. But by the time this happened though, Samuel had softened and liked Vicki’s new husband. At about this same time that Vicki left for BYU Samuel and Dora moved to Corning, New York to work for Corning Glass. It was there that they ultimately meet Elder John Bailey (say BY-lee) from Sydney, Australia. He was just the latest in a long line of missionaries whom had been fed and entertained by the Blacks. One evening after a wonderful dinner Elder Bailey looked at Samuel and said, “Brother Black, you will never know the hardship you have caused your family by your stiffneckedness! Then Elder Bailey was absolutely mortified that he had said such a thing to this man who had just fed him dinner! But that was what it took for him to admit that he’d known the church was true, but having driven so many stakes, he didn’t know how to back down. He was baptized in 1963 by his new son-in-law. But a bond had been formed between Bro Black and Elder Bailey. Now Brother Black became as adamantly for the church as he had been against it. As part of this whole process Samuel felt he needed to make a penance for his anti- Mormon years. He was a gifted wood worker and carved this beautiful wooden panel. Each pane is carved from a single piece of wood and then set into the larger frame. The detail is exquisite. The tree limbs that surround many of the panes have been carved so the separate from the background. I was so moved by this labor of love. As an aside, Elder Black was introduced the H&R Block company while on his mission in New York. They didn’t have anything like that in Australia. So he went back home and started a similar company. Today he is a millionaire. He saw this beautiful panel and asked Brother Black to make one for him and he would pay him (between $20,000-25,000). The Black then used that money to finance their own mission to Baton Rogue, Louisiana.

With love for President Hinckley

I knew this day would come... the day when we had to let President Hinckley go. But that doesn't always make the letting go any easier. How grateful I am for the Gospel of Jesus Christ! How grateful I am to know that we are led by His Prophet. How grateful I am to say that I knew and loved Gordon B. Hinckley.

No, I don't know him personally or have a daily interaction with him... but that is not important in my knowing with all my heart and soul that he was the Lord's prophet! He has made such a profound impact in my life.

The first strong impact President Hinckley had in my life came in the spring of 1993. He came to Los Angeles for an Area Conference. The Saturday night meeting was held in our Palmdale Stake Center. (In preparation for this meeting we got a whole new pulpit and A NEW ORGAN. Hooray, the old one was a nightmare to play!) Sunday's session was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was at this conference that President Hinckley challenged us all to read the Book of Mormon - 4 (four) times in the coming year.

This was a pivotal time in our lives. Our little children, Stuart, Camille and Spencer, were only 8 & 9. Stuart had already shown that he too had dyslexia like is Mama. We accepted President Hinckley's challenge. I made cool bookmarks, each with a different little DJ Inkers clipart to suit our individual personalities, to keep us on track for reading the Book of Mormon not once, but four times in the coming year. What a wonderful blessing in our lives! I can testify to the power of that great book and the blessings that come from following the Lord's Prophet. Through our daily reading together, not only did we reap the spiritual blessings, but there was a hidden blessing in that Stuart was able, at a very young age, to get a handle on coping with dyslexia. It made a world of difference for him!

The second pivotal moment came when President Hinckley spoke to the Relief Society in September 2000. He stated, "We--the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve--have taken the position, and I quote, that "the Church discourages tattoos. It also discourages the piercing of the body for other than medical purposes, although it takes no position on the minimal piercing of the ears by women for one pair of earrings." " ( From Your Greatest Challenge, Mother ) I can still see his characteristic mannerism of waving his arm to emphasize each word (and for me there is a memory of him saying, "...one pair of earring, only one." but that doesn't appear in this text).

I had multiple earrings (as you can see in the 1999 photo with my friend Jaquelle). I was the YW President in my ward. These earrings defined who I was! I was hip... I was Joanie... JB! I am ashamed to admit that I didn't immediately take out my extra earrings. It took getting the November Ensign and reading that address again. I had to ask myself, "What has the Prophet asked me to do?"

With tears of sadness (hmmm... pride that I was losing this identity) and repentance (what took me so long?), I asked Camille, then 14, to help me get out the top hoop because I couldn't do it myself. I told her why I was taking out my top earrings. She said, "Mom what should I do?" (She too had top piercings). I told her we knew what the Prophet had asked, but it was her choice. Sweet, sweet girl... with no trouble at all she removed her earring as well.

Because I had set the example of cartilage piecing in our ward, I felt that it was my responsibility to share my experience with the YW and other members of our ward. I told them that I didn't think the Lord really cares how many earrings I have, but he does care about me being obedient to the counsels of his Prophet. I have since come to realize that that this was a line in the sand, so to speak. It was a dividing line between being obedient and drawing our selves away from worldly practices and joining in.

So much has already been said by so many writers who can express it so much better than me. But I loved him for his wit, his candor, his courage (He did not take counsel from his fears).
What a marvelous man... a man raised up by the Lord to carry out His great latter-day work here on the earth during this last dispensation. To use a quote I have heard about Joseph Smith, "I want to shout hooray that I ever knew such a man as Gordon Bintner Hinckley!)

President Hinckley "knighting" Pres. Eyring after his call to the First Presidency in Oct 2007