Coming Home is one of life's best moments. I believe it will be one of the next life's best moments also. So this blog is dedicated to what I view as the best moments of life.
Don't get me wrong. I'm sheltering with the best of them. Well, there are those that are probably sheltering better, but I've been sheltering more than I'd like. After 6 weeks, I was lucky enough to get to drive my mom to her Oral Surgery appointment. And guess who her Oral Surgeon is? My brother. So guess what I got? A road trip to visit family. Woo hoo! We breezed through Atlanta traffic like it was early on a Sunday morning. Thank you quarantine, although we are in phase 1, so there were some people on the road. The world looks great. We pulled into Greer, South Carolina and were greeted by the sweetest faces. And look at the awesome welcome notes we received. If you want to feel special, hang out with the Millers
It was wonderful being in someone else's house for a change. We had an impressive Family Home evening lesson where Charlie amazed us with milk and soap and food coloring. Surprisingly it demonstrated very well the importance of the promises we make at baptism and dedicating our life to following Jesus Christ.
We ate delicious food, most of it created from the "Six Sisters copycat recipe book." We learned that Charlie's P.F. Chang's Mongolian beef, the chicken Meg made, and Disney snickerdoodles were yummy. The coconut shrimp that I tried to make was a lot of effort and not as tasty as those packages you can buy at the freezer section of the grocery store. And there was a lot of orange sauce left over. This is me sharing just in case you were thinking about cooking up some Six Sisters copycat food.
Mom had to go to the office for her procedure on Tuesday morning, but she had a great experience. She raved about the care she received from the staff and the Doctor was the best she ever had, great shot, no pain, a job well done. She was a proud Mom.
The fun escalated for me when Meg asked me to go plant shopping with her at the local nursery. It's only my favorite activity in the world. We had a lovely time exploring the hydrangeas and camellias etc. After dinner, the whole family joined in the planting extravaganza. Who knew how fun it is to plant when there are water carriers, peat retrievers, and enthusiastic diggers. Once again, life is fun with the Miller girls.
Mom taught her granddaughters "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" from the State Show she put on when she was a teacher. And we all enjoyed cuddles from Briggs, the happiest, chillest baby on the planet. It was a great visit. Just what we needed.
I love a long story so today I'm going to tell you why I'm creating this post. I have had many conversations with family members where we start reminiscing about this musical number or that performance or some video or other and then I can't find it. So today I'm going to put all my favorites that I can find right here. I won't have to blow up facebook and annoy the casual acquaintance or dear friend that has no interest in viewing hours of Stoker sharing. It will be safely hidden and preserved for posterity as long as the internet shall live.
Nathan, Jacob, Aaron, and Trevor "Short Skirt and Long Jacket" Miller reunion 2002
Miller reunion 2002 Ninja Andrew, Adorable Rebecca and rockin' Gabe
"Who Let the Dog's Out?"
Minnesota Talent Show
3 Little Pig Rap
Music Man-The Train
You've Got a Friend in Me
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Lids
Gabe and Nathan dancing 2008
3 Little Pig Rap Alabama
Rebecca and Eliza silly "Sleep Tight" 7-2012
Aaron and Rebecca "Devil went Down to Georgia" Dec. 2012
Andrew's original song "We are just good friends" performed at the July 2013 family reunion talent show
Nathan and Jacob performing "Lids" at the same talent show:
Girl's skit 7-13
Eliza and Joseph country dancing:
Brandon and Daniel Goober peas 7-13
Group "Livin' on a prayer "
Rebecca fiddling at Pioneer day 7-2013
Rebecca's Concert
Dec. 2013 Rebecca's violin
Trimming the Tree 2013
Winter Wonderland with the Jones12-2013
Cute Aaron and Clarissa 12-2013
Newsie groomsmen at Jacob's wedding 12-13
Johnson/Stoker dance party Jan 2014
Rebecca all county orchestra Jan, 2014
Rebecca strings attached May 2014
Sweet "Happy Mother's Day" from Andrew 2014
"Take me Home Country Roads" June 2014
Dooley June 2014
Happy Birthday Aaron
Rebecca Happy Father's Day 2014
"Bring Him Home" Becca and Jefferson Downs 2014
Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel
Happy Birthday Daniel Sept. 2014
Happy Birthday Andrew 2014
There's No Business Like Show Business
Man Has a Dream 2014
Christmas 2014 Alexa and Rebecca
Jingle Bells
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
GABE-the song Rebecca wrote for Gabe Spring 2015
Cup Song practice in FL 2015
Lids July 2019
More Holiness Give Me Aug. 2015
Crayola Doesn't Make a Color for Your Eyes Sep. 2015
Let's start this post by giving a shout out to the people with the plan. Not the people like me who say, "Wouldn't it be fun to ...." or "We should...", but the people who say, "We've booked a vrbo at Folly beach for these days, would you like to join us?" Those are the powerful people who make the world go round. So that happened in our family, my daughter-in-law being the awesome one. Once I knew where I was supposed to be and when, I got myself there.
It was a joyful gathering with 3 sons and 2 daughter-in-laws, 4 grandchildren, 1 brother and his wife and 3 nieces. I was happy as a clam in the house surrounded by merry loved ones full of energy and happiness. I was so happy that the thought occurred to me, "Do we really need to go to the beach to make this day great? I mean, there will be traffic and parking and sand all over the place." That was the known, we also had to deal with the unknown, and we all know how scary that can be. Bravely, I recognized that the beach was the reason we had driven 5 hours and if I wanted to be with the people I loved, I needed to push through inconvenience and possible discomfort to the beach.
Well, guess what? There was a little traffic, a little trouble parking, (Don't make a mistake when parking in a beach town. You will pay. Luckily we learned from the mistakes of others with their expensive reminders posted on their windshields) sand everywhere and the unknown, that should have been known--getting a little bit lost. But guess what else there was? THE BEST DAY EVER!
The water was so big. I always forget until I remember. It was also warm and easily swimmable. The sand was sandy, but as usual, perfect for sand creations. The sun shone, but not glaringly. We had occasional respite from the clouds. We also had a fairly new beach ingredient, the best ingredient of all--grandchildren. I can't describe the delight of watching the little posterity learn about the waves lapping at their toes, covering their ankles and then pulling the sand from under their miniature feet. We definitely had to jump over the waves and sometimes not so happily learn about how salty ocean water is.
Activities included a beach nap for the 1 year-olds, Frisbee with my son and a stranger, and a special surprise. Number 3 son brilliantly brought his inflatable kayak and took me for an adventure. We headed out past the surf in the direction of the pier. He was patient as I tried to contribute my irregular and sometimes confused but always well-intentioned paddling. I was having a lovely time moving through the gently rocking water when my son saw something. He said, "There's a shark." I thought, "That's cool. Just stay in the boat." And then we realized it was not a shark. It was a dolphin swimming not very far from us. Then two more porpoised on the right. There I was in the Atlantic ocean on a kayak with my son and dolphins swimming and jumping all around us--magical.
So, to apply this to mortal and eternal life, I want to remember to be content and thankful for what I have, but recognize that achieving the higher goal is worth the stretching and working and suffering inconvenience and even a little discomfort. It's nice to rest and gather on the couch, but then we must PUSH TO THE BEACH!
The end of a college semester always brings with it some notable events. This year's events were 2 Miller family grandsons and grandson-in-law graduating from BYU and 2 Miller family grandchildren getting married. I love my large family of siblings and my large family of children. I feel like my team, people who have my back, is full and strong. Some of the challenges of a large team, however, are that having a lot of people means having a lot of schedule conflicts. People live in far away places, so no one expects everyone to come to every event, but those that make it are rewarded with being part of important memories.
Mobilizing a large group can be arduous as we try and decide where we should eat and then wait for everyone to alternately realize that they need to go to the bathroom, or they forgot an item or need to pick up something or someone on the way. Travelling in a convoy means someone's going to get dropped at a light or an exit. And we just have to plan for the fact that some in our family are spatially challenged (me) and will spend at least part of the time being lost. This occurrence has been diminished, however, by our best friend, Garmin. These are the human factors, but like a vein of gold threading through the temporal was the divine.
The whole time I was in UT with these humans I'm related to, I felt the "God loves us and isn't far away" feeling. I found tears escaping at the slightest tender gesture and sometimes just the beautiful sight of people that are mine. This was explained when I heard this wise counsel, "The spirit of Elijah is recognizing the divinity in families.
Joseph F. Smith said, "There can be no genuine happiness separate and apart from the home, and every effort made to sanctify and preserve its influence is uplifting to those who toil and sacrifice for its establishment. There is no happiness without service and there is no greater service than that which converts the home into a divine institution, and which promotes and preserves family life."
I was blessed to spend two of my days with my parents in Manti. They live in a house that my father bought from my Grandpa. It sits on 5 acres at the mouth of the canyon. My mom decorates and beautifies and preserves memories and my dad gardens and tends to his chickens and paints in his cellar and carves images on the dead trees in the yard. They also sacrifice and care for each other and establish happiness in their home. My dad is on dialysis 4 days a week. He receives this treatment hooked up to a machine in his bedroom. Mom is now his nurse. She changes his dressing, makes sure every instruction is followed and tells my Dad to be careful. My heart melted when I saw Mom tenderly caring for Dad. My heart melted again when I saw that Dad, the patient, had gotten up early to prepare and bring his sweetheart breakfast in bed.
And then it was "Happy Mother's Day" to me when I watched my sons with their baby girls. When I saw Jacob with Isla, I asked him if I could hold her. He said, "No." It took me by surprise. My sweet daughter-in-law explained., "Of course you can hold her. He's just not very good at sharing." A son that loves to be with his baby all the time? I love it.
Aaron's wife has a tradition of going to "BYU Women's Conference" with her mom every year. I think it's a lovely tradition. The tricky part was that Women's Conference was on the same day as my niece's sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. Aaron's response was, "Spend the day with my baby girl driving up to SLC and hanging out with family on temple square? Easy." I have to admit I was impressed as I observed him managing baby, stroller, diaper bag, food, diaper changes and conversation with relatives like a champ.
And guess who was at the temple? More family! It's hard to describe how a heart feels when it encounters loved ones it hasn't been with for a while. I love those dear faces of nieces and nephews I've known since they were born, coming home from missions, finishing college, returning after marriage and parenthood, growing up overnight and becoming some excellent citizens. As we all know, one of the best parts of life is coming home and this was coming home.
And then two wonderful people were sealed in the temple of our God for time and all eternity. Thank you, Amanda and Ben for letting us witness your happiness and love.
The fun wasn't over. We took the party north a couple hours to our next rockin' venue- more sisters, more nieces and nephews. I thought I was going to help, but the Christensens had things well in hand. A perfect menu was planned with a perfect strategy in place. The husbands played with the well-behaved children as everything came together beautifully. There was even time for a relaxing game in the backyard. All that cheerfulness and calm attitude was so foreign to me. I thought I should start having a hissy fit so they could experience virtually what a proper day before a wedding should be like.
And then the next wedding happened with all the lovely cherished souls in attendance and then it was time to return to my home to see my husband and little ones. My life is blessed to be sure, and as an added bonus, my journey to see family included detours that reunited me with dear friends. Heavenly Father is kind.
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