Family Ties April 8 - April 22, 2007

Dear Family,

We spent the last two weeks in St.George performing a service for Susan. who has for a long time been planning what to do when her children left home. Now with Janessa at school in Provo, it leaves only Justin at home. With rooms to spare, she envisioned turning the utility room into a play room for present grandchildren and grandchildren yet to come (which by the way, Natalie has annoucned their baby to come November 24th). This fifteen by twenty foot room houses the furnace, water softner and water heaters and was used mostly as a storage room.
On Monday, April 9th, we loaded the car with necessary tools and work clothes and headed for St. George. We began almost immediately to begin our work. First came the task of finding new place's for the things we removed the room, then many trips to Home Depot, Lowells, Walmart, Target and Michaael's. We are on a first named bases with most of these stores. We lucked out in disguising the equipment. You would hardly know it was there. We found room for a nursery under the stairs, a performing stage in one corner, a puppet theatre at one end and a hut with TV view balcony at the other end. Susan has been accumulating toys for both boys and girls for a long time and what we didn't use, was given to the Deseret Industries. An 8ft. by 10ft. rug with colors that complimented the painting of the walls and furniture was purchased. Her selection of colors for the girls was pink, lavender and yellow. For the boys, it was blue, green and white.
The project was finished within minutes of the ribbon cutting ceremony when Susan's children were invited for their first view at 6p.m. Friday. Mike was so excited not to have to do it, he took us to dinner two or three times and to a free movie at his theater in Hurricane. Our finale dinner was at the Steak House by the airport overlooking the city where we were able to watch the sun set and the lights that lit up the night. On both Thursdays we were able to watch all of the Madsen boys, incuding Mike, play soft ball in a city league.
Each morning Justin awakened us to scripture reading and family prayer, which was a great start for the day. He is one disciplined young man. The frequent visits of all of her children added to the enjoyable time we had and their deep appreciation made it more than worth while for us.
We arose early Saturday morning to get to our Temple assignment in Provo. We returned to our cabin home finding all in order.