From My Valentine

My Valentine

My Valentine and I have been together for 35 years.  Since I got ALS  he has been my rock.  He's kind and loving and serving me all the time.  He has always been a good provider, but now he makes phone calls for me (something I've always done in our relationship) and serves me in more ways than I can name.  He tucks me in at night after putting my bipap machine on and praying with me.  He is always the voice in those prayers since I can't talk any more.  He feeds me and puts water in my feeding tube and generally just takes care of me, more than I deserve.  I'm sorry that he has had to become my caregiver, but I'm so grateful that he does it with loving kindness.

The Sibling Gift that Keeps on Giving

This year my children didn't give each other gifts, instead they spent the money they would have spent on sibling gifts, giving $200 dollars in my honor to an ALS research.  I'm overwhelmed by their generosity and gift!  And they gave me other gifts as well! My children are awesome!

And my husband always spoils me for Christmas and my birthday.  He gave me lots of clothes from Nordstrom, earring of the month, (the gift that keeps on giving every month) jeans from Gap, the book "Walk with Me."   I'm blessed to have married such a generous and giving man!

Our Own Santa!

with Ryker Miller at the Ward Christmas Party

Rich prepared a comedy routine as Santa and had the whole crowd laughing.  He also shared this thought from President Faust:

"No one can measure the effect of an unselfish act of kindness. By small, simple things great things do indeed come to pass. Of course, gifts given and gifts received make Christmas special. For many children Christmas Eve is a very long night as they look forward with eager anticipation to the gifts Santa brings, which is why children love Santa Claus. Let me sare what someone once said about Santa Claus: First of all, he's a joyous individual . . . Next, Santa is interested in making others happy. He increased the happy moments in the life of everyone he meets. He loves his work; he gets fun out of his job. He is childlike, simple, humble , sincere and forgiving. Finally, he is a giver. His philosophy is to give himself away in service. He is a friend to everyone. He smiles, perhaps you and I could attain greater happiness if we emulated Santa Claus a little more, for this is the way of the Infant Jesus."

35th Anniversary in San Diego

Before I got sick, we decided to spend our 35th anniversary at the Hotel del Coronado. It's our favorite hotel! Right on the best beach in the world. The book "Bid Time Return" was set there, which was made into the movie "Somewhere in Time." Unfortunately, they filmed the movie in Chicago instead of at the Hotel del Coronado, and it was the worse for it, in my opinion.

We love San Diego! We had a great time going to Seaport Village, Fresh Produce store in La Jolla, Horton Plaza (where we saw Breaking Dawn, Part one). Rich spoiled me with gifts of new clothing (my favorite) and we had some delicious meals - with Rich waiting patiently for me to finish each meal - I'm so slow at eating now! We enjoyed having a perfect view of the ocean from our hotel room.

the poinsettia tree at Seaport Village

I love the clouds in San Diego

the view from our bed!

Hotel del Coronado

We had visitors on our balcony, there's two birds there!

the tree in the lobby

the beautiful Christmas decorations

Christmas lights on Hotel del Coronado

this is the new dolphin arena at Seaworld

so many beautiful sunsets, from our room!

seagull on our balcony

our bathroom

our perfect hotel room

clouds from our balcony

our picture at Seaworld

balcony view

I love the restroom doors at the San Diego Airport

Rich speaks at USU Institute

the poster that was hanging at the institute

our reserved parking spot

On Friday, October 14th Rich spoke at the USU Institute. He gave an excellent talk on kindness.

I was supposed to introduce Rich, but since I'm not speaking so well these days, Jenny came along and read what I wrote. As a bonus, we got to have lunch with Tom and Mary Cherrington. They grew up with Rich in Springville. We reconnected with them when we were on our mission in Korea and they were presiding over a mission in Japan. It was great to visit with them over lunch.

I've included Rich's talk for you to read:

USU Talk I Have Never Regretted Being Too Kindv8.doc 66K View Download

Richard is 57!

Rich's 57th birthday came the day after we got home from Disneyland and it was a Sunday so he had a full day of bishoping. But we had a nice dinner and Laura made ice cream pie - Rich's favorite treat.

Happy Birthday to you!

Fun candy bar poster from the Young Women

The Divine Virtues

My husband's second book is now available!

The Divine Virtues is about taking upon ourselves the divine nature. It’s about acquiring the Christlike attributes in our lives, little by little, day by day. It’s not a book that makes you feel guilty, but rather it makes you feel hopeful that you can try to become a little better every day. It will be a part of my scripture study for the rest of my life because when I read it I understand more about the Christlike characteristics that I want to acquire, and hopeful that I can do it.

It’s for sale at amazon.com and at cedarfort.com. It may not be in Deseret Book stores yet, but will be if you ask for it. Actually having people ask for it is what causes Deseret Book to order it.

I am doing a random giveaway of this excellent book to some lucky person who leaves a comment on this post.

I had both of his books framed for his den. Don't they look great?

Good Morning

I spent this morning with him:

Here:

Attending two weddings; one for a ward member and one for one of our missionaries.

Which made me think about a morning I spent with him here:

Thirty-three years and one month ago today.

That was a good morning!
And so many good mornings since then because of that one.
And so many good mornings to look forward to.

It's All Good!

Giveaway!

I'm having my first ever blog giveaway!

This is it:


A random winner will be chosen to receive a copy, signed by the author, himself!

If you already have a copy and would like to give one as a gift, leave the name of the person you are giving it to, and the author will inscribe it to that person.

Comment away!

November 19th

First, Happy Birthday to our dear daughter, Mary Lynn. She's a beautiful woman, a good wife, an amazing mother, she's a good cook/baker, she dances, she makes hair beautiful, and she makes us laugh! I love you, Mary!

Second, Happy 33rd Anniversary to US!

a dozen beautiful roses from my dear husband

Rich took the afternoon off and we spent the rest of the day together. We had lunch, ran some errands and a little shopping in the afternoon. We got new shoes. Who knew "shoes" was the gift for the 33rd year of wedded bliss?!

our new comfy sketcher shoes

In the evening we had a lovely dinner at Outback and then went to the premier of New Moon. Rich as read all the Twilight books and was such a good sport when I told him that we could get tickets on our anniversary. I'll let you read his critique of the show here.


I thought New Moon was better than Twilight and I will enjoy it more the second time without the screaming girls and second-row seats.

On this anniversary I just want to say how thankful I am to be married to such a good, kind, generous, hard-working man. Really, he's "practically perfect in every way!" (like Mary Poppins)

Honoring Christmas in My Heart by RICHARD RIFE

My dear husband has written a Christmas book !


It's a great read to get you into the Christmas spirit!


and you can get it at

Deseret Book
and
Amazon.com

How cool is that?!
I'm so proud of him!

Happy Birthday to My Dear Husband

~ Happy Birthday to My Dear Husband ~
He's 56 years old!

And I love him with all my heart!

Last year's birthday post

A Birthday and A Dedication

Today we had a lovely time in the Springville Cemetery where Rich dedicated the new graves of his parents. Rich gave beautiful prayers and it was nice to be there with my parents, Uncle Bill, cousin Adam and five of our children ~ Laura was there in spirit and on speaker phone so that she could hear the prayers.

{picture taken by Sophie}

Next on our agenda was:

Sophie Lynn's Third Birthday!

Sophie opened presents and we had pasta for dinner (her request) and of course, cake and ice cream. Sophie thought blowing out the candles was so much fun that we lit them again and sang a second time so she could blow them out again! (You will recall that she was quite helpful in the blowing out of candles at both Michael's and Jenny's birthdays)

After dinner the kids started an impromptu game of "toss the water balloon"


Logan to Michael

Michael to Jenny


Jenny to Michelle


Michelle to Trevor




Logan just barely caught that one!


And Jenny is the lucky recipient of the broken balloon!

It was a lovely and delightful day!

It's all good!