Hello people:

Bet you've never seen a more well organized post have you? Yeah, eat your heart out Heidi! As you can see I have literally ripped these pictures from off the desktop and plopped then down right where I wanted them to be. Why spread them out throughout the blog, anyone can do that but what talent to just glob them all together at the front of the blog. It is an attention grabber so you'll read on and learn all the fascinating things that have happened and are happening at Chez Carl/Marilyn.

These pictures that have been so masterfully done are of girls retreat. Outside of the Cheesecake factory. We asked Linzi to please "suck it up" but she just was stubborn. You can see a distinct lack of sons wives. We were sorry none could make it but we are hopeful that another year will bring another opportunity to see you.

The other two are of our pre easter visit with Heather, Trent and family. The boys told Marilyn when she left them in Feb. that they would see her around Easter. Heather had no idea what they were planning but it shows the power of positive thinking. We had fun. I was working most of the time but the rest played at redrock, around the house, did some swimming and we played Careers at night. Quinn was a good sport even when her went 10 turns trapped in one of the corner traps.

Today is Saturday and Marilyn went back to Provo with Courts and John who came down Wed. for a seminar. They left today and took your mother with them as Linzi is threatening to go into labor and your mother wants to help them as they both have finals to take next week. I suppose it might be hard for Linzi if she is delivering but "c'est la vie"!

I am at home with nothing to do but Laundry and the last batch of that is in the dryer. The weather is marvelous. Not a breath of wind and 80 degrees. My garden is growing and I have Corn coming up, Peas, Beans, carrots, chard, tomatoes with some already having set, cucumbers, cantelope, squash, and artichokes. Anyway, I think I've finally figured out how to get water to everything. WE shall see.

The fruit trees all have fruit on them. Grapes are starting to set as well. WE might have a bounteous harvest. I can't believe that my garden that was all sand ten years ago is rock hard now. I put some compost in it last year and still it is hard. So much for long carrots!

We are looking forward to a vacation to Florida in the next two weeks. It will be nice to get away. I have been seeing lots of patients and doing lots of work so I feel a need for a break.

Hope this finds all well. LOve to all, Dad

Hello, once

Hello, I'm just trying you out! Love, DAd

Christmas with Norwegians of a very special nature!

We had a great time with our ex exchange student and her family from Norway. They came to spend Christmas with us and we had a wonderful time. She has two girls and her husband Alex came as well. It was hard for the younger ones to get aclimated to the time warp but after a couple of days they did just great. Towards the end of the week we were so proud of the girls they were starting to express themselves in English!

This is Victoria(11 yrs old) with Heidi's Ivy and Spencer. The Christmas tree in the background. It was Xmas eve as noted by the new Prison issue pj's on the Hadley kids. I almost forgot about the 4th in the picture, Punka. Victoria bought a build yourself dog and named it after Punka, our dog.

Katarina and Victoria on Chistmas morning. We had a wonderful time with them. They were the cutest visitors anyone could ask for. They were very good "troopers" for the traveling they had been doing.

Alex and Kristine on Xmas morning. THey were looking good. They both speak fluent English, German, Norwegian and understand and speak some Swedish and Danish. Alex's mother is Russian and so he understands alot of that language as well. Very accomplished people. Kristine is an attorney and Alex is a day trader! He just gave up a job with a computer firm and is starting to invest on his own.

Our Organ Geek

Well, I've mentioned Josh in a couple of my posts but haven't really given the world a picture, well this is Josh in front of his piano at the Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown that he uses to teach up and coming Padarevsky's(sp). He is standing with the prettiest girl in the whole wide world, his mother! Note how they color coordinated before leaving home that day! Someone forgot to tell miz Marilyn that red is not a pastel color! or is it? Anyway, they make a wonderful couple even if they have a generation gap, in age only!

I have to tease Josh about his master organ, 270,000 rank Bernucci pipe and totally tubular organ. This is in the overflow room at his church and is used for a few masses each weekend, and yes Josh can even play this beauty!! I didn't dress to match Josh but I do look nice in the room decor...don't you think? This room was one of the original rooms of the original church and is a very special place for the congregation.

This is the major organ in the loft at his church. His back is to the larger chapel which was pictured in a previous blog. This organ can blast it out with all of them. When Josh was doing his final organ recital upon graduating from BYU, he did it in the cathedral of the Madeleine in SLC. Reason, has the best organ for playing Bach and other music of the time in the city of SLC. Yes, I know the mormon organ purists among you will argue that nothing is better than the tabernacle organ for music, well, that is an opinion not shared by Josh or Dr. Bush. The reason I bring this up is that while talking with Dr. Bush about the recital afterwards, I suggested to him that one of the pieces seemed to bring a great deal of "confusion" into the room. I was meaning the numerous notes created and then the echoing of the notes for seconds after having been played. Now most of you will be gasping that such a nonorganophile like myself has no right to suggest that to Dr. Bush. Well, I call him a good friend and a wonderful example of a christian human being, I can quote reasons and give examples but that isn't what I was getting at. Anyway, Dr. Bush in all of his kindness and patience with my ramblings, paused a moment and relieved the tension you are all feeling as I write this by saying, "I know what you mean, the organ can be right at home in confusion."
That enlightened me in a way to not deflate my organophilic ego. So here we are in The Holy Trinity Church listening to Josh create confusion...I mean music! One note on his poor skills in matching his leather this day(brown belt and black shoes) a definite "no-no" among the fashinistas like my daughter Ginnie. Those are his organ shoes and I don't think he was thinking he would be playing that day or I'm sure he would have run right out and bought a brown pair of organ shoes or at least wore a black belt.
In closing, have you ever wondered why they call those black pullerbobs with the white caps "stops"? Well, I'm not going to tell you. But the word seems silly when one thinks that pulling one actually starts something rather than stops it! So, I'm going to bring to your attention all the lovely "starts" that this particular organ has. It has another bank of starts on Josh's left side as well. So in conclusion , have a good day and may all your stops be starts!

Graduation time.

The pictures aren't the best but I at least got them to the blog. Daniel looks like Leonardo Da Vinci incognito with the interesting hat/cap/head protector. Chris is wearing the old version of the graduation gowns that he had and the blue one dan is wearing is the revised edition. Most of the faculty haven't changed over because they cost 800.00 dollars.
We did enjoy the opportunities and it was good to get together with our sons and family members . Life is very good to us. It seems to have so much for us to learn and try to find application. Perhaps that is a one line explanation of why we are sojourning on the earth.

Washington DC/Cleveland/

Well, we went to Wash. DC to see Josh. He is organist for the Holy Trinity Catholic church in Georgetown, Maryland and they have a very active catholic presence in the area. He has to play for masses on Sunday and Saturday. About 5 on Sunday and 2or3 on Saturday. These are the two chapels that they use. The larger is the main chapel and the smaller is the over flow. The larger chapel is the one with the major organ. He played it for us and it sounds wonderful. The smaller one has a smaller type organ that is just to the left of my picture. It is good to see religion is still a part of our social structure.














Following our visit with Josh we went to Cleveland to help Dan and Janene move from Cleveland to Gainesville Florida where Dan will be doing his residency in pediatric dentistry. It was a fun trip as Dan, Chris, Brayden and I went in Dan's car and a Penske truck that did have a governor at 70 mph. It made for interesting races down the freeway with Semi's. Most of the time we lost but it wasn't because the petal wasn't to the metal. We accidently got in 96 holes of golf along the way. The weather was semi cooperative in that it wasn't too cold to keep us from golfing but it wasn't exactly perfect the first two days, the last two was exceptional weather and lovely golf courses. We all had fun and Brayden seemed to catch the golfing fanatacism that reigns supreme witht he Smith brothers.
The graduation exercises took up an entire Sunday. It was good to get it out of the way and brings special meaning because Chris was able to give Daniel his diploma. I have tried to get a picture from my folders but haven't been able too. So much for my technical abilities or lack thereof. Needless to say it seemed like a very significant time.
So much for our last weeks activities. Life is very constant and consistent while we are in Las Vegas but it seems to be drawing us out of town more and more frequently. Our travels are appreciated especially when one is 38,000 feet in the air and taking all of 5 hours to get across the country. What wonders this must be to early settlers and pioneers. While we were in Jacksonville, we went to a movie,
Indiana Jones and the crystal skull... whatever. Very much like the original three and fun to watch. It was interesting enough that the fear of an exploding bladder hardly even surfaced until the credits started rolling. Then watch out, Katy bar the door, I've gotta get outta there fast!!! Whoa, made it just in time. My bladder will live to get bloated another day.

hawaii cont.