36th Wedding Anniversary Tomorrow

To all (now 6 followers) of my blog,

I must say that I have increased my followers by 200%. A great rush of sentiment to all my loyal long-time followers and a jolly welcome to you new ones. (I am having too much fun with this)

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and my 36th wedding anniversary. You can see the most important event (for me) by the title of this post.

I won't go on long but I do need to say something about my wife today.

I have been truly blessed to have married such a wonderful woman. She is hard-working, diligent in her service, loving of her children. passionate about family and "super" supportive of me and the numerous paths I have taken in this life.

Laurie is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I look forward to being with her forever (if I can keep improving that is.) Laurie's love of the Savior is admirable. She keeps striving to increase all those Christ-like qualities in her life. I provide her an ample amount of experience in order to increase her patience. I also am helping her along the way trust more in the Savior based on my inadequacies. She is very forgiving.

I thought I would throw in a few pictures of my lovely wife over the years that I can find out here. Most of them are from 2005 on but I might try and find one of her in her High School Indianette outfit and post that a little later. Oh, and yes, there are a few from the wedding reception in Pocatello. Since it is memorial day, I will put the one with Dad in there too. I put in a few from our 30th anniversary trip to Ireland, Paris and London. She will be most happy of one with her grandchildren in it. I love the one of her at Disneyworld. As you can see, she is a very beautiful woman. I love her with all of my heart.

A little gushy post this time but it is rare that I am ever called gushy..... Though I am not a great writer, I do enjoy putting pictures in. Pictures tell a far better story than my writing.

Love you Laurie,
Bruce

Happy Mother's Day!

I am sitting here in my Hampton Inn and Suites hotel room in downtown Baton Rouge, LA. I am definitely missing Laurie and wish I were in La Center with her. I am doing some consulting work for my old company, RevQ. The State of Louisiana is going live tomorrow so I am here.

Last night I told Laurie I would write on my blog. This blog has meant so much to me...., that I write in it almost semi-annually.

Laurie is the best. I love her so much. It will be 36 years of marriage on May 30th and I am pretty sure I won't be blogging on that day so I wanted to say, "you are the most beautiful woman in the world" Thank you so much for saying yes, continually. You have stayed by my side through thick and thin. I look forward to continuing this wonderful marriage forever.

To my mother, thank you for continuing to pray for me. I know you do so, very often. I try not to cause you too much anxiety. Don't worry, my faith in Jesus Christ continues to increase.

This past 18 months has been a stretch of "real growth" for Laurie and I. We have become much more dependent on the Savior. What a great experience but boy it sure can be exhausting. My views on change have "changed" dramatically in the last 4+ years. I smile as I write this because it really has been a change for the better and the peace Laurie and I feel comes from knowing all will be well as we just stay on the path.

I was able to go through an a "spanish speaking" endowment session yesterday in the Baton Rouge temple. It was a wonderful experience. Attendance there brought me joy.

Well, time for a few pictures.

The love of my live

 The loves of my life

The time of my life

I certainly was not the best father but these kids have grown up well in the face of adversity (me). They have a great Mother in Laurie. 

I wish all the wonderful Mother's out there a joyous day and hold you all in high esteem.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanksgiving

Well, 50% of my followers are waiting in suspense for my next post so I better not make them wait too long... I am hoping that someday this will be included in my journal of my life.

Today is Thanksgiving. What a wonderful day. To have a day set aside by the United States to recognize the fact that we should be thankful for "_____". The space provided there is to be filled in by each of us each day. Beyond one day a year, which I am grateful for, each day we should be counting our blessings for each day we have to live on this earth.

Our ability to choose, reason, call it whatever you would like, is why we have come to this earth. It is what helps us improve ourselves and serve others. The ability to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, is part of the plan of happiness. I believe it gives us the ability to choose to go home to live with my loving Heavenly Father. What a great gift this is for us.

Through the following pictures, I will share my thoughts of gratitude with you. I know I am missing many pictures that should be included but I am limited in my time, and patience...  Please enjoy these few pictures. Some words of gratitude first:

• I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father
• I am grateful to have been born into the Randall family
• I am grateful to be married to my lovely wife Laurie
• I am grateful to have had five children, who care about others
• I am grateful to have had good health
• I am grateful for my testimony of Jesus Christ
• I am grateful I am still here on this earth

Note: These pictures are in no particular order - just the way they came up. I initially tried to be a bit fancy in their placement and then realized I was taking up way too much time learning that skill. You will see where I stopped trying.... Happy Thanksgiving!

Grandchildren                                                                                                                 Humor

                     

                       Temples

Nature

                             

My Parents

My Family

 My Ancestors

 My Children

My Wife

My Savior

Family is important

I got a picture of the family at Nick's wedding and it spurred me to blog. That, and Matt White telling me that he hadn't seen me post anything for a while. Since he is the only follower I have I didn't want to disappoint him.

Here is the picture of Laurie and my immediate children, plus the newest addition.

September 5, 2015

I have been contemplating the last couple of months the importance of family. I will get back to my post in a minute. I have a second follower.

Hard to see

I have been having some trouble seeing things lately. I could relate this to my life also but for now it is just my physical eyes. On February 3rd I am driving over to Steve Walker's place at 9:15am I start getting lightheaded. I had finished my P90X workout with Laurie and Jason, my favorite, Plyometrics, and thought I might not be rejuvenated enough so I stop and get a gatorade and small protein bar. It goes from there.

Saturday I see a regular doctor, Tuesday I see another doctor. Tuesday afternoon I see an optometrist? Wednesday night I have double vision. Thursday I see the Tuesday doctor again. Friday I have double vision again.

This has not been one of my better two weeks physically except for the part where Dr. George, the cardiologist says I am in good shape, except for my visual impairment.

57

One of my favorite cars to look at is a Chevy Bel Air.



This specific car was born in 1957, and so was I. With that little introduction I just wanted to write in my blog today because I have a moment that is all my own, it is my birthday.

So much has been happening in my life this year it will be one of the years I remember most. Some of the happenings will provide more happiness than others. All of what is happening is teaching me something. Some teachings are preferable to others... but all are for my improvement.

This memorable month of October brought to our family twins. Jenny and Matt added identical boys to the Randall family (although they are now Connor and Quinn White). Here I am with holding the two boys a just last weekend on Layla's birthday on the 24th.

A couple of little bundles of joy - and work.

I just want you all to know that I will continue to strive to improve. I don't see me slowing down in that area anytime soon. I am happiest most when I am trying to do what is right. It provides me peace. I actually got this post in the month of October. Improvement.....

Happy Birthday!

It seems like life is passing me by so quickly. Everything I do seems to take forever. I think I can say those two sentences and still have them work together well. It is the next sentence that does not do so well.

Summer for the Randall's has been a busy one, as usual. Having Jason and his two children living with us during this time creates a new level of activity in our home that we haven't had in a while. The grandchildren are fun to get to know better. It is good to be with Jason too.

Nick got home from his mission to Peru (Arequipa) on July 2nd. Having him home also heightened the activity level in our home. It was great to be with him also and see how he had grown in the past two years. Jason and Nick had a pretty good time together during the summer.

We had a Randall family reunion July 9th through the 12th and had a wonderful time at Netarts, Oregon. Laurie and I were the organizers of this one so it was busy but what a fun time. Crabbing at Rockaway is always a highlight.

Stake Conference was August 9th and 10th. It was a wonderful time for me to learn. It was also nice to wrap it up and take what I learned and act upon it. Some I have and some I have yet to.

Laurie and I dropped Nick of at BYU August 25th. We went down and we were able to spend the day with Matt and Angelique who are also at BYU. I have always loved those Wasatch mountains and this trip was no different. Nick was able to quickly get a job as a driver at the MTC. Matt was very instrumental in that connection as Matt used to do that and he now works in the travel office of the MTC.

Laurie and I would normally have driven right back but we decided to stop up and stay with her brother Doug and his wife Nancy for the evening. We then drove over to Joseph, OR and stayed in a bed and breakfast. Laurie had never been there before and we both really liked it. We drove up over the mountain at Elgin and stopped in for lunch at Lacey's on our way home. I needed to be home that night to release Elder Sam Henrikson. We had a great time on our way home. It was nice to talk.

What a wonderful life this is. The gospel sure leads us to a happy life as we live the teachings of the Savior. I have a long way to go.

Here are a few pictures from this summer.

I am grateful for the gospel, my family and my life.