Another Nice Weekend

Friday I went to the Reno Temple with Mary Anne and Jean. Lovely day but ate too much at the Pizza Buffet on the way home. They have these wonderful cinnamon twists with frosting on them for dessert and I can't get enough of them. Reminds me of the cinnamon rolls my Mom made almost every week. I had it so much better in the food department than my children did. My Mom was a fantastic cook.

Saturday I surveyed the work the chipmunks did while I was gone. It is hilarious. They have these holes all over the yard (not in my iris bed anymore, though) and they have put these large green pine cones in them. Of course, they can't get them all the way down the holes so they sit on top, in plain sight. My dilemma--should I rake them away when I clean up the yard tomorrow or should I leave them, just in case they really do need them this winter. I don't know how a chipmunk thinks so is he going to be in the hole, coming in from another side and just eat off of the pine cone when he needs it, since it will be under the snow. I wish I knew. I really have sympathy for them, and the snow will cover them in a few months and no one really cares if my yard is messy looking except me...hmm, big decision.

Today we had a wonderful chili and cornbread dinner after Sacrament Meeting. Because on the third week of the month a visiting High Councilman and his speaking partners come from quite a distance to our chapel, we prepare a nice dinner for them and invite the whole ward to stay. We all contribute, of course. I took brownies and my raisen bars. I really thought the raisen bars would be left but every one was eaten and Pres. Struve said he loved them, so did Bishop Martin and Jean said she was taking a couple home. Older generation treat, I think.

I taught the lesson in Relief Society and it was on being a good friend. I don't know how great the lesson was but I surely enjoyed remembering all the really great friends I have had the privilege of having in my life over the years. Too numerous to count, too many to name but I really appreciate all the friends I have and have had--some since childhood. There is really nothing more precious in life than our friends, of which I mean family members as well. After all, we get along in life...but only with a little help from our friends.

I have really been enjoying reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" and that surprises me very much. I only have about another 1000 pages to go but it is really a page turner, honestly. It went along with my lesson when Dante realizes that the friendship he has had with Faria in prison is far more precious than his dream of escape. There were beautiful paragraphs on the value of friendship in our life. And Dumas, the author, makes you realize what the mind is really capable of. However, Faria admitted he would not have been able to develop it so intrically if he had been free, but being imprisoned he forced himself to recall and remember and continually develop his memory to perfection. Could you write word for word whole books you have read? I remember many stories from WWII of how prisoners survived by forcing their minds to recall and continually develop to a higher plane rather than succumb to their surroundings.

I wonder what exciting events await Dante tonight--I read in bed.