Bailey's Blog

On Sunday 12 January we attended our Ellijay branch. President and Sister Boland spoke in sacrament meeting. I chatted with Sisters Barbara Bishop and Peggy Espersen about them being on my church cleaning team.

At home I finished reading the January Ensign, our LDS Church magazine. That is one of my 2014 goals!

I posted the following to Facebook:

'I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that I totally agree with. "Abortion the Ultimate Child Abuse".

“Abortion is a growing evil that we speak against. Certainly the terrible sin of premeditated abortion would be hard to justify. It is almost inconceivable that an abortion would ever be committed to save face or embarrassment, to save trouble or inconvenience, or to escape responsibility. How could one submit to such an operation or be party in any way by financing or encouraging? If special rare cases could be justified, certainly they would be rare indeed. We place it high on the list of sins against which we strongly warn the people.

“‘Abortion must be considered one of the most revolting and sinful practices in this day, when we are witnessing the frightful evidence of permissiveness leading to sexual immorality."

President Spencer W. Kimball

President Kimball (1895-1985)

Here is an excerpt from Victor Hugo's “Toilers of the Sea.”

I considerate it an excellent description of my wife!

“There is in this world no function more important than that of being charming The forest glade would be incomplete without the humming-bird. To shed joy around, to radiate happiness, to cast light upon dark days, to be the golden thread of our destiny, and the very spirit of grace and harmony, is not this to render a service? Does not beauty confer a benefit upon us, even by the simple fact of being beautiful? Here and there we meet with one who possesses that fairy-like power of enchanting all about her; sometimes she is ignorant herself of this magical influence, which is, however, for that reason, only the more perfect. Her presence lights up the home; her approach is like a cheerful warmth; she passes by, and we are content; she stays awhile, and we are happy. To behold her is to live: she is the Aurora with a human face. She has no need to do more than simply to be: she makes an Eden of the house; Paradise breathes from her; and she communicates this delight to all, without taking any greater trouble than that of existing beside them. Is it not a thing divine to have a smile which, none know how, has the power to lighten the weight of that enormous chain which all the living, in common, drag behind them?”

We watched a goodly portion of the Denver Broncos - San Diego Chargers football game won by Denver 24-17.

On Monday 13 January we went to our six-month checkup at dermatologist Dr. Alan Gardner's in Ellijay in the morning and to our family doctor Dr. William Raisig in the afternoon.

Dr. Gardner's

Dr. Raisig's

Dr. Raisig agreed with me that, due to the higher blood glucose readings, Eileen should start on metformin medication.

We were delighted to receive what is almost surely our last Christmas card of the year from the Thompson's in Milford, Nebraska. We home taught them prior to our mission and two more daughters have joined their beautiful family since we left for our mission. We visited them in Dublin, Georgia, before they moved to Milford, Nebraska.

Aaron and Bethany Thompson and family

I finished reading "Genealogical Research in England and Wales (Vol. 2)" by Frank Smith and David Gardner and began Vol. 3.

We watched another episode of "Lark Rise to Candleford" and "America's Test Kitchen."

Christmas decorations are starting to be put away. I unplugged the outside lights :(

On Tuesday 14 January we were up early as Eileen had her beauty parlor appointment at 9:30 at Barbara’s Hair Designers.

Barbara's

I mailed more family file cards for LDS temple work to Bud and Jan Farr in Mesa, Arizona. They were part of our missionary group on our mission and we visit them whenever we get out West. They help us a lot with temple work for our ancestors.

Jan and LaMarr "Bud" Farr

We visited Darlene Burgess in Blue Ridge and enjoyed stopping at the Taste of Amish store for several varieties of cheese and pickled asparagus.

Taste of Amish in Blue Ridge

At home Christmas decorations continued to come down as we put away the larger items such as the two nativity scenes, nutcrackers and Santas atop the wall unit, the ceramic Christmas tree on the deck, Joseph and Mary into Egypt statues, etc.

On Wednesday 15 January we picked up the sister missionaries, Sisters Childs and Wilcox, at Ingles (this helps save them mileage on the mission car) and went to the new food pantry location for the first time. It was very nice and spacious! We helped about 130 families. A police car sits across Georgia 52 with its lights going as so many cars will be turning in there. I wonder how long that will go on?

Gilmer Community Food Pantry on GA 52

As we were in the Ingles parking lot after dropping off the sisters at their car, we did some shopping there.

We mailed the application to Kids Ferst in Madison, Georgia, for our grandson Liam to begin getting a book a month for his parents to read to him until age 5.

At home Christmas decorations continued to come down as Eileen began working on the smaller items on the counter and the credenza.

Thanks to correspondence with my cousin, Ed Grice, in British Columbia, I worked on the Stubbs genealogy. They had married into the Frith family, my maternal grandmother's maiden name.

After supper we enjoyed watching "Rick Steve's Europe." This episode was all about London, i.e., "London: Historic and Dynamic."

Then we watched "Fabulous Fox" about the Fox Theater in Atlanta that we visited in September 2012.

Fox Theater

On Thursday 16 January we went to our monthly Kids Ferst meeting at the Head Start building in Ellijay at 10 am. We made a donation to Kids Ferst.

Gilmer County Head Start Building

Then we met Ralph and Holly Hughes for lunch at the Happy Family II Chinese restaurant in Ellijay at 11:30.

Happy Family II

Inside Happy Family II

Holly, Ralph, and Eileen
in Happy Family II

We shopped for the menu for dinner tomorrow when the sister missionaries are coming here. When we got home Eileen realized we had not bought some nice bread, so she made her own!

Homemade bread

The Christmas decorations are all put away! The tree and its decorations were last. How sad :(

In the evening we watched "Unlocking Sherlock" that I had recorded.

"Unlocking Sherlock"

Then I finished reading "The Mill on the Floss" by George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) after 9 1/2 months. What a sad ending that almost brought tears to my eyes!

George Eliot (1819-1881)

On Friday 17 January Eileen began her smoked sausage cassoulet for dinner.

Smoked sausage cassoulet

I took down the outside Christmas lights and put them away until next December.

Next Eileen made the shrimp chowder for dinner.

Shrimp chowder

So we would have two courses along with the leafy salad and yummy "sand" brownies for dessert.

I finished reading "Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling. I was amazed that Kipling, who has been called “the great chronicler of the British Empire,” wrote about fishermen off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

I picked up the sister missionaries in the Ingles parking lot and brought them home for dinner which was delicious! After dinner we had a spiritual thought and prayer, and I took the sister missionaries back to Ingles.

In the evening we watched part one of three about "Appalachia."

Then we enjoyed two episodes of "Father Brown."

On Saturday 18 January I finished reading "The Life of Lord Byron" by Scottish novelist John Galt. Poet George Gordon Byron, known simply as Lord Byron, lived from 1788 to 1824.

Lord Byron

John Galt (1779-1839)

While Eileen was working on materials for Primary for Sunday, I caught up on the blogs of some of our friends on their missions, i.e., Moulder's in Borneo, Powell's in Landshut, Germany, Metallo's in Armenia, and Brown's in Hungary, the Flynn's now home from their mission and back on the British floor of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and Kathy Kidd whom we served with as workers in the Washington D.C. Temple years ago.

Washington D.C. Temple

We enjoyed watching "Rick Steve's Europe." This episode was all about North Wales, i.e., "North Wales: Feisty and Poetic," including a trip to Liverpool.