Great Grandpa Hanke

We are really enjoying our time here in Yuma with Sherry’s Dad. The weather has been really nice and his home here is a monument to his life of hard work and endless energy. Sherry and her sisters have been working on Russ and Shirley’s family history and story.

It is not always easy to get him talking but once they can get him started his stories are fascinating. It will be great to get them recorded so they can be passed on to his posterity. At the dinner table the other night he was telling us about when he left home as a teenager to hitchhike around the western states working on farms and ranches to feed himself and friend he was traveling with.

He talked about sleeping along side the road and crawling into a culvert for warmth. Working long hours in the fields and traveling on foot in the snow. Grandpa Hanke is not afraid of hard work.

When Grandma Hanke first saw this place and it was for sale, she went home and brough Grandpa back to see it. When they bought this house it had wooden fences and a gravel front yard. Grandpa Hanke had the wooden fences replaced with brick and laid the bricks in the court yard, planted the shrubs and trees and re built most of the house including the various decks and awnings.



















I hope all the grandkids will get a chance to visit Russ and Shirley's beautiful Yuma home in the near future and experiance the history here.

It is 5 o’clock in Yuma and it is cooling down from 86 degrees. Grandma and I attended Yuma 7th Ward this morning and enjoyed the sun and warmth during an afternoon drive around town.

Grandma is reading in the shade, Great Grandpa Hanke is watching the Daytona 500 on TV with Aunt Lynn, Debbie and Uncle Jack.

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I am on my computer (as usual), having just reviewed the recent posts on the families many blogs so I decided it was past time for an entry from us. After diner we will be watching the Winter Olympics.

As a family we have seen some mighty changes in our lives and in our country over the last year. We have spent the last year tying-up loose ends and preparing to face our future. Many unexpected things have happened to reinforce the realization that Grandma and I are entering a new phase in our life. It has been very emotional for both of us, but the spirit has been strong and our testimonies continue to grow.

Grandma and I arrived in Yuma Feb 1st, only 11 days ago (it seems much longer) and it has been great to relax, regroup and start dreaming again. Today we both read Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s article in the Ensign where he discusses the importance of looking forward rather than backward in life. We highly recommend his remarks if you have not read them (Ensign, Jan 2010, 22–27). What he says put’s into prospective the changes world is facing today.

In his remarks he quotes from the poet Robert Browning.

Two years ago (when we celabrated our 40th aniversity) Grandma gave me a plaque that I have on my destktop to this day which has the first line of the same poem

Grow old along with me!The best is yet to be,The last of life, for which the first was made:Our times are in his handWho saith, “A whole I planned,Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!”

Well it’s down to 60 degrees time to post this and go watch TV. Goodnight.

Boxing Day

Today is “BOXING DAY” the 26th of December (the day after Christmas).

In England, where I served my first mission, Boxing Day is celebrated as a national holiday. It is the day that you give gifts to those that serve you. Such as the postman, the garbage man, the bus driver, the local policeman, etc. It is also the day that you clean-up from Christmas day. The day you “box things up”, today we had lots of things to box up.

Grandma and I had a great Christmas. We held our traditional family Christmas Eve dinner and program at the Bush home, with Amanda & Brady, Katrina, Carter and Tyler. We were joined by Becky & Ray, Lily, Gaby, Kaden, Kyle and Grandpa Mac. Also Megan & Ben, Thomas and Addie along with Elizabeth & Allen and Miles.

We are so grateful to have this time to get to know the “Utah tribe” and meet the sweet spirits that have joined our family. It has been especially fun to get to know Miles and Thomas. They cannot yet talk but “sing and swing” to music with gusto. It is obvious that they are “Saturday’s Warriors’ fresh from the throne of God.

Our First GRANDmissionary!

Last Sunday Grandma and I witnessed Christopher's ordination as a Elder and yesterday we got to attand the Temple and witness him receive his endowment.

W ELL IVE TRIED 3TIMES TO TITLE THIS BUT I KEEP SCREWING UP. ITS SATURDAY NIGHT AND WE JUST FINISHED PUTTING HANDLES ON THE KITCHEN CUPBOARDS. WE SPENT THE DAY WORKING ON SIGNS . THEN DAY WENT AND DELIVERED THEM. YESTERDAY I WASNT FEELING VERY GOOD MY KIDNEY WAS HURTING REAL BAD I HOPE ITS NOT A STONE ITS NOT TO BAD TODAY. last NIGHT THERE WAS A STAKE HIGH PRIEST DINNER, SO DAD WENT BY HIMSELF. TOMORROW CHRISTOPHER IS GETTING THE MEL PRIESTHOOD. SO WE ARE GOING TO THEIR MEETING TOMORROW, THEN OF COURSE DAD HAS TO BE AT OUR MEETINGS BECAUSE HE IS TEACHING THE FAMILY HISTORY CLASS AND THEN PRIESTHOOD. ALWAYS GOING 500 MILES PER HOUR. I HOPE TO GET HIM OUT OF HERE SOON I CANT WAIT TO. HE NEEDS SOME TIME OFF. WE ARE BOTH LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING ALL OUR LOVED ONES SOON. GET READY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!! WELL I HOPE YOU CAN READ THIS BECAUSE IM NOT MAKING ANY CORRECTIONS.

just another weekend

When did you first realize you were you?

My earliest memory was of eating breakfast with my sister Corrie. She and I were sitting at a kitchen table eating cold cereal with milk. Corrie was pretending to read the ads on the cereal box. I couldn’t read and I knew she couldn’t. She told me I could read the milk carton, but I knew I couldn’t.

I’m not sure how old I was, but I know I was living in Arizona where my dad was in the Army Air Corps so I must have been under two years old. At that very young age I was me. I was an individual with feelings, desires, hopes and fears. Now over 60 years have passed and I am still an individual with feelings, desires, hopes and fears.

I share this thought because I believe it is the key to being a good parent.

Although children know they are individuals many parents don’t really think about it, and assume their children view things the way they (the parents) do and as a result fail to really understand their children.

A child’s limited experience makes it impossible for the child to understand what the parent understands and to see things they way their parents do. The good news is that since the parent was once a child, it is possible for the parent to see things the way the child does.

When parents make that attempt, miracles can happen and true communication will take place.

I don’t suggest that parent think and act like children, rather parents need to take the time to remember what it was like when they were children. They are then able to lead their children and enable them (the children) to learn from their (the parents) mistakes.

That requires that the parents admit their weaknesses and the mistakes they have made especially to their children. This simple act will inspire our children and allow them to become better than the previous generations.

To quote Winston Churchill, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. This applies to families as well as nations.