San Marcos - San Antonio

The Memorial day Weekend the Employment center closed so we headed down to San Antonio. I had to stop in Abbott Tx to visit uncle Willie and asked why he cut off his braids? Gruene Tx has the oldest continually operating dance hall in the state of Texas. George Strait and Willie Nelson has both performed here,
Texas State University at San Marcos the Alma Mater of LB Johnson

The Chapel in San Marcos where we visited Sunday Morning.

the river walk in San Antonio

What a fun place to visit and learn about the History of San Antonio

The State of Texas answer to Venice, Italy

We sat by a young lady from Logan Utah who said her Grandparents were Yardley's from Panguitch Utah.

Lunch on the River Walk in San Antonio

Knocking on the Alamo door, they won't answer till 9:00 am.
Let's find out about Davy Crockett and Col. Travis and Ol Jim Bowie

I had it pictured much larger

I loved the old well under the huge Oak Tree

A sit on the poach and watch the boats go by

San Marcos Texas, San Marcos River People and families enjoying the river and the long weekend.

Sister Nelson and I visited the memorial trees planted in remembrance of Steve, Amber and Opal taken in 2005. Steve's friends had planted 3 trees in San Marcos Park.

We placed a bouquet of flowers and signed the plaque

Sunday Morning we visited the San Marcos 3rd Ward. Met some great folks there.

Next stop some of the missions in San Antonio.

The Amazing history of the great state of Texas

Mission Concepción de San Antonio

the most famous mission, the Alamo

That would have been a real Tough Mission!

Jack n Gaye

Morell - Lake Lavon Adventure

Kayaking is the great stress reliever! What great friends to spend time with on our day off! We Kayaked into the shallow arm of the lake where we could see much Texas wildlife
This is Lake Lavon, the water supply for Plano Texas. Great Thursday activity Kayaking across the lake. Sister Gaye did Great!
The Morell yard is beautiful
This is our Texas family the Morell's that reside in Plano Texas



Here is the result of the Harpsichord Master and the Recorder performer. Click the above link to listen to Sister Nelson and Brother Morell play their performance number.

Jack n Gaye

The Owens - Houston Connection

Wednesday evening after the center closed we met the Owens family (thanks to my sister June Ann Miller) at the Dallas Temple. This is Uncle Jim Miller's Aunt Christine Houston Owens.
These good folks took us out to the Macaroni Grill down near SMU. We enjoyed such a wonderful evening with these good people talking about Panguitch and all the home town people we knew.
Brother Owens is the last of the Owens family. His brother Wayne just passed not long ago. I had worked on Wayne Campaign when he ran against Bangerter for governor of Utah.

We made it back from the heart of Dallas to our home away from home. It is always fun to meet family and friends from the heartland. Uncle Ern's son Fenn married Christine's Sister Rowen Houston. The Church makes us all a small family! What a great evening.

Jack n Gaye

Fireside - Bike ride Lake Lewisville

Oh look at this, not one single E-mail from any of the kids! Sunday evening we did a fireside with the youth of the Frisco 3rd ward 10 miles North of us.
Beautiful Lake Lewisville between us and Plano Tx

It has a beautiful bike trail around the entire lake. We have not made all 23 miles yet!

A few miles more each evening after the Center closes, has been our motto!

Those that are more rotund shall we say, often lag behind!

As the sun set on the water it make a beautiful evening.

A bonus that Brian and Jill would enjoy, wild blackberries along the path

Must be Stan out there dragging the daughters behind the bayliner

Ah the end of another beautiful Bike adventure and another Texas sunset!

Jack n Gaye

May 23, 2010

23 May 2010

This month is going by so very fast, but yet last Monday seems like such a long time ago. How does the work?
Jack has really been helping more and more people with interviewing. He will meet with them and go over questions that would be asked in an interview, give feedback, help with questions that might be hard to answer etc. etc. A couple of fellows have had had good interviews and have gotten the job. So that’s always exciting!!
It’s always wonderful when the timing is so right. A company will call and need an employee and then someone comes in looking for that exact kind of job and has the skills needed.
One morning a company called needing some help in the afternoon passing out flyers for a few hours, just a temporary thing. So I spent time calling people in that Stake/area and found a couple of people willing to go out and earn a few dollars for the day.
Not just a few times we meet with people who have left their previous jobs because they were asked to do something that they thought was morally wrong, be unfair or not truthful with customers etc. I admire them for standing by their values when it is such a tough job market out there. We know the Lord will bless them for remaining faithful, sometimes you just don’t know when or how.
It’s interesting that a couple of days ago a young man from Hawaii called and wanted some help with a particular job he had seen on the ldsjobs website. It seemed odd to help someone in Hawaii, but I was able to search for the jobs from here and give him a bit of guidance as to what to do. He said he could never get in touch with the Center over there.

The BYU Management Society has a Chapter here in Dallas. Friday they had a ‘networking’ breakfast that Jack & I attended. We signed up a couple of weeks ago, which was good because it filled up fast. Garry Riding, a VP in T-Mobil, was the speaker. We had to have a security clearance and get a badge etc to be admitted into the building.
He shared some of the things that he found important in his career development. It was very positive and good. Good to hear testimonials of some of the points that we talk about and encourage people to do in their job search. It gives it all more meaning to what we say. It helps us know how to encourage people more.
We were also able to meet a couple of Stake Employment Specialist in person that up to this point we’ve only emailed back and forth or spoken on the telephone – so that was really great. Warner Blair from Fort Worth and Jeanette Giles from out at Gilmer are both great people.
We have actually had several of those really busy days this week. Never finishing up anything before moving onto another activity, answering the phone or helping someone who walks in etc. Donna T. had a couple of emails that she had to get out Wednesday. During the day she had been able to open up her email account, been disrupted, by the time she got back to it had been timed out and had to start again. By 5:00 closing time she had not accomplished even one sentence. Some days are like that. And to think I was worried that I wouldn’t be busy out here.
Our P-day was………… good. We went to the Pioneer Village in Fort Worth and then we headed to the same type of thing in Dallas. However it started raining so hard that we decided it wouldn’t be much fun walking around in outside, not to mention the driving. There were tornado watches and warnings through out the afternoon and evening but the rain was the worst that we got into. However there were some tornados in some unpopulated areas that occurred that evening.
There is a choral group that I have heard of recently in the area that I’m interested in. They are not an LDS group but the conductor and most members are LDS. They seem to be similar in nature to Zephyr Singers in Logandale. Last Sunday I was mentioning to Jack that I wish I could find a contact within the group to learn more about them.
Monday morning a gal came in to do volunteer work at the Center from one of the Single Adult Wards. She is also looking for a job. I visited with her, about her background and what she would like to be doing. She recently graduated from BYU-I in choral music. I asked her if she was involved in any music groups currently – she is a member of ‘Evening Song!’, the group I’m interested in. I was so excited. They are doing a fireside this evening in one of the Stakes that we were planning on going to. However, Friday Julie P. asked Jack & I to take care of an assignment this evening – so maybe another time we will have opportunity to hear ‘Evening Song.’
This evening we are going to The Colony Ward in Frisco and doing a fireside for the youth about – you guessed, it jobs and careers. They have many activities and resources already prepared at the Center so that it was easy to plan and prepare. It should just be a fun thing to go share with the youth.
And in fact that is coming up pretty soon so I best be getting ready for that. Jack is over to the Carrollton Stake Center helping set up chairs for a Single Adult fireside there tonight. He’s always willing to help out!
We hope you have had a good week too. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.
Our Love,
Mom & Dad

Jack n Gaye

Turtle Creek - Highland Park

Act on a tip from Cousin Jane Rizzone we drove down into the heart of Dallas and found Turtle Creek Parkway. This is a affluent section of the City.

You didn't didn't see allot of Ford 4-wheel drive trucks in this area.

There was however, many beautiful bike paths along the river walk

Part of the trail is boardwalk, great fun for bikes.

Highland Park has maintained strict zoning ordinances. Known for its quality housing, the town still has many parks running along Turtle Creek and is home to the Dallas Country Club.

Highland Park investors chose this name as it was located on high land that overlooked downtown Dallas.

The Highland Park Village became somewhat famous in the early 1980s when the popular television show Dallas used to shoot on location there.

We just enjoyed the afternoon after the Employment Center had closed.

The Water Lillies were just starting to bloom

Many of the street are tree lined creating a canopy effect

A beautiful section of Dallas, thanks for the tip Jane!

We will return another afternoon!

Jack n Gaye