mike and ruth

I have finished the bathroom with the exception of a couple of 5-minute jobs that I hope to do during the day Saturday: caulking the bottom of the tile along the bottom of the walls, and installing and caulking the spalsh around the sink. Mom wants to thoroughly wash the sink and spalsh components before I glue them in. I wanted you to see how nice the tile along the wall looks in place of the oak baseboard. No vent cover installed yet, so that looks a little unfinished.

Plumbing is something I can do but requires quite a bit of patience. Mom and I were trying to get the bathtub drain back in and it wasn’t working well. She asked me if we’d had our prayer for the day and I said we hadn’t, because I went straight to our house from work that day and the next. We prayed and asked for help getting the drain installed. After our prayer we tried again and it worked quickly and properly, which rather surprised me that we would get an answer so quickly. No task is too trivial to ask for divine help with. I am grateful that Mom would suggest that we pray about it; the result was that we were successful and the drain is now installed and working.

We heard today that Aunt Carma was up during the night in a lot of pain but waited about 4 hours to call her daughter Jeannine at about 6am. When examined at the hospital they found she had an apparent aortic dissection. Wikipedia explains, “Aortic dissection is a tear in the wall of the aorta that causes blood to flow between the layers of the wall of the aorta and force the layers apart. Aortic dissection is a medical emergency and can quickly lead to death, even with optimal treatment. If the dissection tears the aorta completely open (through all three layers), massive and rapid blood loss occurs. Aortic dissections resulting in rupture have an 80% mortality rate, and 50% of patients die before they even reach the hospital. If the dissection reaches 6 cm, the patient must be taken for emergency surgery.” My best friend from high school, Doug Buhler, had this same condition only a few months ago and is reported to be doing extremely well now after his open-heart surgery. It is frequently a condition shared by siblings; his sister also had this same condition a few years ago and is also doing fine after treatment.

Aunt Carma went in for open-heart surgery this afternoon and is reported to be doing well after some extensive procedures that took about 8 hours. Although her age (82) is against her she is very healthy so this is something that is advantageous for her. Please pray for her speedy recovery with the rest of us!

It is a custom in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to give infants a name and a father’s blessing shortly after birth.

This can be compared in some ways to what is known as “christening” of other faiths, but is not a baptism. It is an official ordinance and is recorded on the records of the church, and a certificate is also created for the event. We were thrilled to participate with Andrew and Charlotte in the blessing of Daphne today.
Andrew’s family very kindly invited us to dinner at their home after the meeting and we took a few photos of the occasion. It was a very happy day for us all. Melodie took this picture of the proud parents and grandparents that we share with you.

I have sent a 3/4 size violin with Grandpa and Grandma Dastrup who are traveling to Cincinnati to help David and Tamara take care of their family during Tamara’s upcoming oral surgery and removal of a cyst from her wrist. The violin is for Sanja to use. This is a precious keepsake that I hope she will cherish and take good care of. I want to tell her a little bit about it here.

This is the very instrument I used as a young boy myself when I was a beginner. I started taking lessons when I was just a few years younger then you, at the age of eight. I was already taking piano lessons. I believe this violin belonged to my grandpa Hendriksen but I don’t know where or when he got it. This probably means that it is close to 100 years old. (I got you a nice, new case from Uncle Tom because the old one was not in very good condition for taking to school or lessons.)

When we got this instrument it needed some work so it was taken to Dale Stevens for the job. I bought a new violin from him many years later in my junior year of high school which I still play.

This 3/4 size violin has wonderful tone for an instrument of its size. It does not look like a nice new instrument, but that is one if its beauties: it has been well-used but still plays very well. (We probably need to get you some new strings and will sometime soon.) I believe that a few of your relatives have played this instrument also, including Aunt Kristen. They enjoyed playing it, and we hope you will too. You will also notice on this photo that the old case with green interior is shown. The case has served its purpose well and has protected the violin through these many years. Be careful with it and it will serve you well. Then when you get a full-size violin maybe someone else can use it so it retains its usefulness for the future. Love, Grandpa.

Last weekend we went to the last night of this year’s Martin Harris Pageant, called “The Man Who Knew”.

This is the story of a man who was misunderstood by his neighbors and peers (and his wife) as he came to understand and accept the teachings of the LDS faith. He fell away from the faithful for many years after the trek to the west, but rejoined them very late in his life.
He never recanted his witness as one of three persons who saw the plates, saw the engravings, and heard the voice of God commanding him to bear witness of what he saw. The pageant used to be over three hours in length and has been shortened to under 1.5 hours which was about right. I understand that it is only presented every-other year, so make your plans soon if you are interested in seeing it in 2011. It requires tickets to control the size of the crowds. We enjoyed it very much. Clarkston UT is only a few miles south of the Idaho/Utah border, west of Logan.

The kitchen is finally done and Mom is moving in dishes and other things that were moved out for the demolition that had to take place before the remodeling and improvements after the flood. This photo was taken before the floor was finished. We still need to purchase a light fixture for the kitcen and install it, but otherwise it is virtually complete.

Last week Rosie’s kids were at Grandma’s for lessons and were quite pleased that Charlotte let them hold Daphne for a few minutes. They were very cute as they held her and watched her reaction when they took her from her mother. She was really good and seemed to enjoy getting to know her cousins. We wish all of her cousins could get to know her better but they are scattered around the globe at the moment.

The early fall sky is really fascinating to me, especially when the clouds are lightly dispersed like wisps of cotton up in the air. The early morning sunshine lights up the sky and the clouds in such a beautiful manner that I needed to have a photo of it. I hope you enjoy this.