For the past 6 months I have felt extremely blessed with good health! I feel like it has been a direct blessing from my Heavenly Father which has allowed me to be the kind of
"mother-of-the-bride" that I wanted to be!
Below are some pictures of what the Lord blessed me to do.
I made 8 bridesmaids skirts and
12 junior bridesmaids skirts for the wedding.
Here's a sneak preview of some of the skirts!
I was also able to remake these little boy outfits to fit my grandsons which are 1 year, 18 months, 2 years and 4 years old.
Here are the Bride & Groom with all 11 of my Grandchildren
The Wedding Cake
Here is the wedding cake Tauna was going to order.
When I saw this picture I said,
"We can make the cake and do a better job!"
So we did!
Here are some pictures of the group effort it became.
Here I am working on the wedding cake at the church.
I saw this the other day and thought how true it was. So I thought I'd share it with you. The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived.
Having coffee with friends
Cheering on your team
A day at the Beach
Having a conversation with you BFF
A trip to the Museum
Out on an intimate date
Dinner with friends
Let's make sure that we don't forget the importance of human interaction! For so many it is a looky-look world and they never communicate a word. They just spend their time browsing on facebook and the internet and texting. Here's a challenge: If you see or read something that touches you....take a moment to comment and touch someone else's life.
Well it's been a wild and wonderful holiday season and now we are all on to the new year. Life seems to get busier the healthier that I am. I am so grateful for my good health! I begin this year with many things on my plate. The biggest is planning a wedding and trying to finish my life history. I am still working on a book on prayer, but that has been put on the back burner until I get these other things up and running.
Because I am doing so well in regards to my cancer, I have decided to only write posts when something noteworthy comes along. If you would like to know when I do post, click on the right where it says, "follow by email" and it will send you an email when I write a new post.
Writing in this blog has been a huge blessing for me. I'm so grateful that the Lord has given me the energy to write my feelings as I've progressed through my illness. This last Christmas, I received a most valuable gift from my kids. It was a hard back copy of "The Garvin Chronicles!" My son-in-law, Steve took the time to go through all of my old posts during the last year and compile it into this 224 page book. Here is the book cover and a few pages of the book.
When they presented the book to me and read the following words, I cried!
Mom, This has been one crazy year! We are so glad you've documented and shared with us your thoughts and experiences through this period of your life. You are one amazing lady, and we're so lucky to be able to call you Mom! We hope you enjoy your very own copy of your personal scriptures..."The Book of Michele!" Love, Steve, Amy, Natalie, Brook, Mya, and Ryan Rindlisbacher
This is an absolutely priceless gift! There is nothing more important to me right now than preserving my life for my posterity to read later when I am gone, that's why I am working so hard on my life history.
Thanks to all of you who continue to remember me and my husband in your prayers. We have felt your prayers and are so thankful to be alive and doing so well. We pray that your new year will also be prosperous.
We have a Tradition in my Tenney extended family called, 'The Apple of Love'.
Here is the story behind how this tradition began.
My great grandpa, Samuel Benjamin Tenney had been very hurt when his daughter, Ida ran away and married Uncle Todd the cowboy. However the first Christmas she was away from home she sent a box of delicious red applesand expressed her love for Grandpa and her love for her husband who was a fine man.
(Ida in black dress on the right of Grandpa Tenney)
It was also at this time that the Saints were being driven out of Old Mexico. General Pancho Villa, head of the rebels in Mexico had driven the Americans from their comfortable homes. Many of them had to flee for their lives, some of them left with only 15 minutes notice. Grandpa’s brother, Ammon M. Tenney was in Mexico with one of his wives and children. Grandpa was very concerned for his safety.
Uncle Ammon came from the Colonies through Douglas where Grandpa lived. He arrived at about the same time as theapples arrived from Aunt Ida. Grandpa, being a very tender hearted and forgiving man, his heart was touched. He was so grateful for the uniting of his brother’s family and the love of his daughter, Ida, that when the apples arrived he wept. After the banquet, he served the apples and christened them the 'Apples of Love'.
He gathered the family around and related both incidents and said, “With all my heart I forgive my daughter, Ida for any offence against me. And I thank My Heavenly Father for the safe return of my brother and his family”.
He then cut the biggest apple into slices and said, “The whole is made of many parts, just as our family is. However forgiveness is the adhesive that puts families back together. And now I’m going to serve these apple pieces to each of you. Will you each in your hearts forgive anyone in the family who has offended you in anyway, just as I forgive my beloved daughter, Ida?"
It was Grandpa's desire that every member of his family serve the ‘Apple of Love’ at Christmas time and as we eat, have a desire in our hearts to promote more LOVE, more UNDERSTANDING and FORGIVENESS for all mankind and especially for our immediate family.
For many years I remember having the 'Apple of Love' at Christmas time as we gathered together with all of our cousins. As years have gone by and we've all grown up, we now look forward to this special tradition at our family reunions.
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My Aunt Dode and cousin Princess put together a special song, entitled 'The Apple of Love'.
I want to share this special message with you this Christmas.
If you have any bad feelings towards anyone you love,
Please forgive them so that the love of the Savior
When I was a little girl, every Christmas morning we would wake up with great excitement to open all of our presents. However, we had a special tradition that we did BEFORE any presents were ever even touched! We all gathered in a line, youngest to oldest and walked into the living room singing a very special song, written by my Grandma Vilate Lee Romney.
We lived in Arizona and most of my Romney relatives lived in Utah. Because of finances we didn't get to see them very often. One Christmas my grandma mailed us a "record" with her talking to us and singing this very special song. I can still picture that black record and oh how I loved hearing grandma's voice. I must have listened to it hundreds of times, because I still have the words she said to us memorized. Below are the words in BLUE that my grandma said on the record, and then below that, is a sound clip of my grandma actually singing this special song, "Wish you Merry Christmas" to us all.
"At this glorious Christmas time, my heart is full of love and appreciation for you and all my blessings. It seems but yesterday that you were just my little children. Eagerly anticipating the thrill of Christmas morning. It seems that I can hear your father say, "The fire in the fireplace is crackling hot mother." Then Sankie blows the whistle and what a scampering down the stairway, then you call, "Merry Christmas". Then listen we hear.... (click on the link below to listen to my sweet Grandma Romney)
After she finished singing, she ended with these words that we have quoted through the years.
"A very Merry Christmas to you all. May peace fill your heart,
and may the Love of Him, whose birth we celebrate, abide in your home."
All my love, Mother
Now, fast forward 20 years later, and I am a mother with 5 growing children. What has happened to this special Christmas morning tradition? Watch this video clip and see for yourself.
As you can see, the tradition is still alive in my family, however I have a family of non-singers. Too bad I don't have a clip of some of my sister's families who harmonize and make the song actually sound beautiful!
Below is a clip of when some of my kids were older and married. The tradition is passed on yet a another generation, with the birth of my first grand daughter, Allie.
So here you have it, FIVE GENERATIONS of family passing on this special Christmas Tradition.
Wish you Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas all.
May the richest blessings, ever on you fall.
Every year be brighter, than the one before.
And your Christmas mornings many, many more.
Wish you merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry merry, Christmas all.
Wish you merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry merry, Christmas all!
Yep, that's right, there are ten different Merry's!
(If you are receiving this as an email and can't view it, click on the blue highlighted name of the post and it will take you to my blog where you will be able to view the video.)
The Wise men present Jesus with gifts.
Last week I went to our Relief Society Christmas Dinner and we had a wonderful speaker who has a doctorate in Judaism. She talked of the significance of who the wise men were and what they brought. She said that they were from the east, which was probably Babylon and that they were most likely Jewish, (taken captive when Jerusalem had been overthrown) because who else would have been reading the Talmud to know that the "King of the Jews" had been born?
She said that the gifts that they brought of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were very significant for Mary and Joseph and Christ. When the wise men found Jesus he was two years old. King Herod being threatened by news that the "King of the Jews" had been born, sent out a decree that all baby boys two and under be killed. So Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt to save Jesus' life. Egypt was a center for learning for the Jews and what better place for the Jesus to taught then here. However education was expensive and so the Gold that they received from the wise men paid for his "tuition" (if you will) for higher learning.
Frankincense was used for temple worship, to be burned at the candle of shrew-bread and other places in the temple. Myrrh was like an oil that could be used to anoint Jesus with.
I never realized that these gifts actually had a significant use for Jesus and his family.
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