Bits and Boogers in the Blattman Family

December 31, 2011

2012-01-04T19:52:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
December 31, 2011

As the Christmas season approached we stayed pretty busy with ward and class activities. Nancy did a lot of cooking and baking in her tiny oven during the month of December. She made some great treats and the cranberry salsa was a hit everywhere we went. Christmas is a great season for doing kind things for others and many people were especially nice to us as well. We are grateful for the many cards, letters, hugs, and rembrances we received. These really helped us overcome our home sickness. Some of our students are far from home and they hung out later after classes to talk as well. It made us feel good that they wanted to share that time with us.
On the first Sunday in December our Singles Branch was responsible for the main course of the YSA dinner before the Ist Presidency Broadcast. As the YSA advisors we didn’t have a lot to do but help and fret that all would work out. Three young men had car problems so they came to our apartment with us, had snacks, and then rode along with us to and from the dinner & broadcast .
On the third Sunday evening we took a young woman from our building to a sing along performance of Messiah at the stake center. Several members of our classes were either playing in the orchestra or singing in the choir. The chapel was tightly packed with music lovers, the music was beautiful, refreshment were sweet, and the feelings tender that evening.
Here’s some photos of our Christmas zone meeting. We had a class that morning so we got there just in time for the luncheon and talent show.

How quickly a year passes! We were as Matt and Kathy were here that just one year ago they were helping us shampoo carpets and getting the house ready to rent out before we left for the MTC. Matt, Kathy, Daniel and Kylie arrived on the 22nd, Matt’s birthday. We celebrated with a little cake in their hotel room. While they were here we saw a lot of the great city of Philadelphia’s historical landmarks. Here we are at Valley Forge National Park.

Here we are at the Camden, New Jersey, Aquarium. Nancy said, “Jim, stand under that tree and catch some poop!”

Here we are at Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware for the Christmas Day reinactment. The boat is just over Kylie’s head.

Here we are at Constitutional Hall and the Liberty Bell.

Nancy and Ben are very best friends at the Franklin Institute. Daniel is riding the high wire.

Matt and Kathy are watching the fountains at Longwood Gardens. Kylie is putting the scarlet topiary to shame.

Everyone looks happy for the photos!

December 7, 2011

2011-12-19T10:35:00.001-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
December 7, 2011

From our journal it might appear that we don’t do any missionary work. It looks like we spend all our time sightseeing from the photos we post. But we want everyone to know that we are working hard. That being said, last week we had some time while we waited for the return bus after attending an inservice & Christmas get-together with the other CES missionaries from New York and New Jersey in Manhattan.
As far as we know we are the only CES missionaries from Eastern Pennsylvania. At the Manhattan CES center we met with about 12 other couples and swapped war stories. Everyone wants to know how many classes other the couples are teaching, what their apartments are like, extra duties, and class sizes. It was a lot like any other teacher conference except that we start with prayer and are extra polite to each other. Talking with other people doing much the same thing we are was comforting and reaffirming.
We walked from the 42nd Street bus station to the CES building on 15th Street and helped get the place ready for the program and luncheon. On the way back we went by Union Square, Times Square, Macys, and the Rockefeller Center. If we had been thinking we might have gone that way early with a poster and gotten on the Today Show.
First, a photo for my sisters who may be wondering “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”:

The Empire State Building was in the background when we took the photo but it magically disappeared. Was there an illusion of the building? We were sure it was in behind us.

Nancy at a Macy’s animated window display. Even the windows are busy here.

Jim and Nancy in Times Square.

Large decorations for the Big Apple.

It’s hard to believe but we were relieved to get back to the comparative relaxed pace of Philadelphia that night. We were glad that we didn’t have to drive in New York City. Public transportation is the way to go. Some of the missionaries who did have a car in New York told us they paid as much as $400 a month just for parking.

2011-12-05T10:10:00.001-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
November 22, 2011
“Moving On Up” along with the Jeffersons.

We are now on the 11th floor after it was determined that the apartment management would not fix the heat in our old apartment. What these are views from the top and like you, Sister Blattman has never actually seen them because of her fear of heights. First, the view of nearly straight down:

The photo below takes in the view to the South East. The upper arrow points to the famous Jewish synagogue, Beth Shalom, the only synagogue designed by Frank Loyd Wright. In this synagogue the seats of the congregation are in 12 tribal groups that face somewhat towards the central ark and are on an undulating floor with tan carpet that mimics sanddunes as if the congregation is gathered in the desert about the Tabernacle of the Exodus.
The lower arrow points to Kenneth Israel, another of the three synagogues along this road. There is also a rabbinical college nearby.

Leaning out the window and looking to the North East, the shopping center is visible in the distance just past the edge of the brick edge of our great and spacious building.

Here is Sister Blattman’s ‘kitchen in a closet’. Cooking is a one woman operation. The oven is just large enough for a cookie sheet. As you can see, the frig could hold a few more photos should anyone want to send us some.

November 15, 2011

2011-11-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
November 15, 2011

The color and beauty of the trees in Philadelphia in the Fall are best described in pictures. Sister Blattman looks like she could be singing, “I could take a handful and make a treat!” of bright red maple leaves. Sister Blattman is showing off some of the splendor in a park near our apartment.

Here she is with another of the seemingly endless number of hardwood trees. We are reminded of the scripture:
“And out of the ground made I, the Lord God, to grow every tree, naturally, that is pleasant to the sight of man; and man could behold it.”

Elder Blattman is less outwardly exuberant about having his picture taken but inwardly he is of course very thrilled.

November 4, 2011

2011-11-16T21:11:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
November 4, 2011

The Elders often tell us that they feel safe on the streets of the inner city in Philly because of their
conspicuous missionary appearance, especially their name tags. They have many stories of instances when someone is hasseling them on the street or subways that many of the locals will quickly come forward to their defense. They report that when a new Elder transferrs
into an area he is often welcomed by the many men who hangout on the streets.
The Elders are always friendly and are well liked. As a result they are sometimes asked for a
good word, a prayer, or they are given a friendly ribbing when they pass by.
However,that being said, the streets of Philly and Camden are anything but
safe. One Elder told us that two of the men he had been teaching in Camden were
shot, one of them fatally in his presence. Another woman spoke in sacrament
meeting last spring and recounted the many sons of her friends and relatives
who had been killed by gunfire. Stitches and bullet holds trace out violent
histories on the skin of some of the living.
We are not nervous when we drive in these
neighborhoods. The rates of many types of crimes are actually not that much
greater than in a rural area like Winnemucca but there are tens of thousands of
people living closely together here. The
chances of being involed in a violent act may not be that much greater, but the
chance of witnessing one is much more likely. In our forrays into the inner
city we have become acustomed to the screaming sirens and flashing lights of
ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. Last Thursday was a first however, as
a pack of emergency vehicles streamed past us on a main street, they came to a
stop a couple blocks ahead, blocking the entrance to a side street. Just as we
passed along the same road we heard a shot fired. We don’t know who or what it
was about. It didn’t seem prudent for us to turn back and gawk (although I
really wanted to). There were other reports of shootings in the news the next
day but nothing of this event. It was
just another night in the city.
On a brighter note, we have
begun a new class with wives of medical or dental students
who have small children. We were
not able to entice them to the chapel for a class, whether due to having to
bring their children or due to the fact that the going to the chapel without
their husbands made them feel unsafe. So
if Mohammed won’t go to the mountain, then bring the mountain to Mohammed. We are having class in their apartments with
various ones taking their turn with hosting.
Some apartments are quite small and class size plus children equal a lot
of bodies in a compact area. Needless to
say, we don’t do chalkboard talks or power point presentations, but do a lot of
discussing. These sisters are really
quite delightful to teach and have a lot on the ball. Many are returned missionaries and well
founded in the Gospel. I have to admit,
though, last week the apartment was on the fifth floor and had a balcony. I
spent a lot of time worrying about the small children out on the balcony
playing and thinking somehow they would fall over the edge. You know me and the fear of heights. Anyway
it may develop into two classes pretty soon with so many coming. Great!!!

October 26, 2011

2011-11-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
October 26, 2011

Our cultural excursion this month took us to the Mennonite Tabernacle Museum in Lancaster, PA, with our CES director, Brother Muldowney. The Mennonite Tabernacle Museum has a full size mock-up of the Israelite inner sanctuary and other interesting recreations of the portable temple. We were asked not to photograph the inside of the building so I clipped the image of the motorized high priest and Ark of the Covenant from their internet brochure.

The rolling hills around Lancaster and the well-kept Amish farms made for a lovely countryside. The homes were mostly white, many with clothes hanging on lines stretched across the wide porches. Much of the corn was still standing, tall and thick in straight rows making rectangular blankets over the rolling hills. Busy men in black clothing looked like they were standing on the wagon tongues of farm equipment drawn by horses through the fields. We passed by a small white school building with boys dressed in black, some wearing flat topped straw hats, and girls in blue cotton dresses playing in the grass outside. There were several small black carriages handled by bearded men in black hats and pulled by ponies at a surprisingly fast trot along the roadway. The auto traffic swerves around the horse drawn equipment barely noticing its modern incongruity.

We stopped briefly at a railroad museum to watch some steam locomotives chug back and forth in a switchyard as they rearranged some cars for their daily tours about the area. Water vapor from the steam engines plumed up from their stacks and the smell of burning coal and grease tinged the cool air.
Here is a photo of one of the farms as seen behind the railroad museum

October 7, 2011

2011-10-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
October 7, 2011

The colors of Fall in Pennsylvania are beginning to paint the upper leaves of the trees like the colors of the dipping evening sun. There are yellows in the locusts, pinks and reds in the maples, and dark purples in some magnificent ones that might be beech trees. We travel to our classes along the tree lined lanes oooing and ahhing to each other like children watching the first sprays of 4th of July fireworks. Fall’s full show of color will not begin for a couple weeks but we are anxiously watching for it. Here’s a little maple tree outside our apartment and a maple leaf from a trail we walked today.

We took our exercise this afternoon by walking the paths in a nearby park to get some photos of the trees before they lose all their leaves.

Mitt Romney’s presidential bid has focused a lot of attention on the Church here. When Rick Perry’s minister friend declared that Mormons are not Christian he sparked a furor of response that has put the Church in the spotlight in the papers and on the news shows. The strong Jewish population in Philly took immediate offense at the Baptist minister’s remarks because it smacked of intolerance and bigotry towards all but evangelicals. Our class members report that conversations are springing up with neighbors and coworkers about the Church. Yesterday at WalMart, while we were helping a woman from our building buy tires, the service manager wanted to know where he could go to attend our church and the woman we were helping had a similar conversation with someone else.
We have been inspecting missionary apartments. Some apartments are fairly nice and well kept, others are worse than a frat house on Monday morning. Some apartment buildings are obviously very old. The woodwork on the stair rails, door casings, and other moldings in the older apartments is interesting to see. Nineteenth century craftsmen did some beautiful and lasting work. As I admire the moldings I can’t help but think that the lead based paints are just a few layers down on the thickly coated woodwork. We ran into one pair of elders just as they were coming home for lunch. As we entered their apartment they presented us with a Ziplock bag with some bed bugs that they had captured on their mattresses. Nancy choked back her disgust to take a good look in the bags so she could confirm that we don’t have of that kind of bug in our apartment. Yet. It was hard not to walk around the infested apartment on tiptoe and we didn’t sit down on the furniture while there. We are getting bites from something in our apartment but we don’t think its bed bugs.
Enrollment in our classes has much improved with the start of a new school year. Our subjects this semester are Doctrines of the Gospel and Pearl of Great Price. At the moment we are trying to add another daytime class to be taught in a circuit in the homes of young mothers whose husbands are in school.
Sports reign here in Philadelphia. Walking down the halls of church or along city sidewalks one can here the teams: The Phillies, the Eagles, the Flyers, and the 76ers sprinkled in nearly every conversation. Go Phillies! Sister Blattman holds her own about the players and on the latest standings of the ball teams. Elder Blattman often pretends to follow the conversation, sagely nodding his head, and hoping he won’t be required to know if the conversation is about football or baseball. In Philly the newsstands don’t carry much in the way of woodworking magazines and around the city the outdoor sporting goods stores are few and far between.
Rock walls, stacked and mortared, are found everywhere in Philadelphia. Scarcely any home is not built of rock or surrounded by rock fences and retaining walls. Even brick walls are sometimes struck with a stone here and there to break the regularity of it. Watching some contractors build some new walls also shows that it is done with great effort and expense. For modern construction, a regular concrete block wall is built on a wide footing with drainage pipes and gravel backfill. Then another 16 inch layer of stone is mortared to the blocks to create a very thick decorative wall. And here in Philly they often like to go back and fill the gaps with mortar to create a smooth wall. Mosses, ferns, and lichens grow on the rocks to make a very pleasing landscape.

September 28, 2011

2011-09-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
September 28, 2011
The Angel Moroni will Descend upon Philadelphia

The ground breaking ceremony was held last Saturday for the new Philadelphia Temple and it was televised at each of the chapels in the 8 stakes in this area. The event was reported widely and one of the local papers headlined that the “Angel Moroni will descend on Philadelphia.” We picked up a couple women from one of our classes who don’t have a car and we watched it at one of the downtown chapels. There are about 1.5 million people in Philadelphia and we would guess there are at least 10 times that many people in the cities nearby.

As you can see from the buildings in the background at the dedication, the temple will be built right downtown.
Two of the speakers at our summer seminary, Vai Sikahema and Ahmed Corbitt participated in the temple dedication program. They are from the Cherry Hill New Jersey Stake Presidency. Vai Sikahema is a popular sportscaster on TV and Ahmed Corbitt (stake president) is the Church’s public relations director. We were much impressed by their willingness to come talk to the few kids at summer seminary. President Sikahema’s talk about how his family went to the New Zealand temple was inspiring. He is a frequent contributor to the Deseret News.

Vai Sikahema with summer seminary and with Elder Eyring.
We forgot our camera on the day President Corbitt came to our summer seminary dressed in character as a Chautauqua impersonation of Joseph Smith Jr. Here is a photo of him giving a similar performance at a youth conference. To our little band quoted the whole of Doctrine & Covenants section 1 and played a game with them where he would tell them the section from the D&C if they read to him any verse at random.

September 21, 2011

2011-09-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
September 21, 2011

Monday we had our monthly cultural excursion at the Brandywine Art Museum. This museum is built inside an old mill on the Brandywine River in one of the most beautiful river valleys we have seen. Brother Muldowney, our CES director was our tour guide. He still teaches some art classes in the summertime for the National Academy of Arts so we received a wonderful amount of information.
The Brandywine Museum features the art of Andrew Wyeth who is famous for his illustrations for Treasure Island, Kidnaped, The Last of the Mohicans, and many other books. You may recognize these illustrations from Treasure Island. The actual paintings are very large, the size of a kitchen table, and they are most impressive and very colorful.

These next photos are of Nancy standing beside the old Brandywine Mill and of us together by the river. The area near the museum is also a battlefield of the revolutionary war. The British, under the command of General Howe, landed their forces at the mouth of the Delaware and began to march north towards Philadelphia (then the capital of the United States). Washington sent his forces to head them off by holding the fords on the Brandywine River. The British had superior numbers and knowledge of the area and defeated the continental army in this battle. We were told that there were a lot of Tories among the settlers along the Brandywine and perhaps that had an influence on the outcome of the battle as well.

September 15, 2011

2011-09-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
September 15, 2011

We are back to our usual routine, studying making, Power-Point slides, fighting traffic to get to one of the chapels to teach a class, and then coming home late to collapse at the apartment only to repeat it all again perhaps but with an umbrella in hand the next day. Nancy bakes cookies every other day. Nothing invites the spirit like homemade oatmeal and raison cookies. The Elders from next door have a standing dinner appointment every Wednesday. They are such well-mannered and hardworking puppies.

We really look forward to being with each group of students. One young mother broke into tears on Monday morning as she recounted the relief she felt in being able to have a spiritual break in her week by attending institute class. The ladies all rushed to comfort her and Elder B. looked for a door to escape through. On Wednesday evenings we have a large class of mostly elderly students. These geriatric students, as we fondly call them, do share one thing with the younger students in that most of them are single. Many of the women have outlived their spouses. They too crave the feelings of shared spirituality that institute classes provide. We are sometimes a little hoarse after class from shouting because several don’t hear well. “Eh? What did he say?” is a frequent refrain in that class. Our class from the inner city also has unique individuals but the same sense of finding comfort in sharing the scriptures with others. One young man from the city ward has started attending community college. He is a little nervous about his English class and sent us a paper he wrote so we could correct errors. Reading his experiences was a reminder that most of us have no idea of the difficulties of growing up in impoverished cities.

We have our fun days. We went to the movie ‘Contagion’ this week. It made us more conscious of the practice that Mormons shake hands with everybody which pretty much negates opening doors with your elbow and wiping the handles of shopping carts. So we also went to WalMart and got our flu shots soon after seeing the movie.

These two photos are taken from the “Rocky Steps” at the Philadelphia Art Museum after we had seen the Rembrandt exhibit on “The Faces of Jesus.” Next week we will be going to the Brandywine Art Museum. At this rate we shall be some of the most cultured people we know pretty soon. Perhaps we can become more discriminating yard sailors when we get home and find great art treasures.

And this is the view from our apartment window during one of the most recent rain storms. We love the rain. Besides being refreshing, the rain keeps the college kids from partying in the parking lot.

updated email on request for recipes

2011-09-09T14:07:00.001-07:00

Wanted to provide a reminder that we wanted to gather recipes by Oct 1 so that I could get them all in a book and printed up.

So start sending them to me via email (spyrah@charter.net or cns9554@charter.net).

thanks!

Start sending me some recipes!

2011-09-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

Wanted to provide a reminder that we wanted to gather recipes by Oct 1 so that I could get them all in a book and printed up.

So start sending them to me via email (spyrah@lgifs.com or cns9554@charter.net).

thanks!

September 6, 2011

2011-09-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
September 6, 2011

The last two weeks have been busy. As a friend used to say of his days playing shuffleboard in a wintertime retirement community in Arizona, “I don’t know how someone with nothing to do can stay so busy doing it.”
Jake stayed with us on the weekend before Irene came to visit, Hurricane Irene that is. We packed a lot of pleasant times into 1½ days together with Jake, including stake conference where he graciously endured being introduced to many of our Philly friends and then going to Valley Forge where we are becoming expert Revolutionary War history guides. The streets of North Philly can be more dangerous than a war zone in Afghanistan and we kept jokingly threatening to take him downtown into North Philadelphia at night for a real survival battle but we spared him for his upcoming desert challenge.
Hurricane Irene came and went leaving behind a lot of rain and some downed trees. As we drive through the tree lined streets of Philadelphia we are like kids watching fireworks on the 4th of July – “Ooo, look at that one! Those roots must have rotted away,” or “Look, it brought down the cable TV lines for a whole block.” An arcing power line downed on a driveway on the street behind our building bored a hole in the concrete and left a puddle of green glass behind. Abby, a young African immigrant woman who lives on the 12th (top) floor had her apartment flooded during the hurricane. The ceiling bowed down and her carpet became sour with the water. She has been sleeping on our couch until another apartment becomes ready – today we hope. She is fairly tall and our couch is, as Jake can attest, short and not very comfy. Abby is an ‘Au Pair’, a foreign nanny, who works and is planning to go to school. We have met a number of nannies including Elena, a Russian au pair, who we recently taught the temple preparation lessons, and now who has now left the singles ward to marry some guy she met online from Utah.

For our cultural immersion this month we went to the Philadelphia Art Museum to see “The Faces of Jesus.” The museum was pricey, probably in most part for the security guards in every room, but it was well worth it and worth going again. It is strange and almost overwhelming to be in room after room, many rooms with paintings worth in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. This was a special exhibition of paintings of Jesus, many of them by Rembrandt. It has been interesting for us to see paintings of Jesus as a Black man, a Jew, (as in the Rembrandt paintings), as iconic figures, and as various types of Europeans. Rembrandt’s paintings had the most realism and feeling of expression of all that we saw. He used young Jewish men as models. The many students in his studio and other artists were influenced by his realistic
We have gotten together with the other senior missionaries several times now for dinners and family home evenings. It’s nice to commiserate (that’s a nice word for the scripturally condemned ‘murmuring’) with the other old geezers in the mission field. It turns out that they are all pretty normal folk.
These are the Larsen’s who just went home last month. They traded in their Dodge Caravan and bought a little Sion Box while they were here. It was an impressive feat to get all the way home in it.

This is our latest group: The Johnsons, Houses, Baileys, Smiths, Drinkwaters, Blattmans, Ashbys, Schaefermeyers, and Moyers.

August 25, 2011

2011-08-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
August 25, 2011

Today’s news had an article about the expected Alzheimer’s epidemic in the U.S. as Baby Boomers age into their waining years. So we have discovered a new business plan for Sarah. This business is located on the West block of apartments where we live. When we’ve looked in through the windows there are a perpetual number of elderly folks bent over staring at a plate of food. The expressions on their faces are never evocative of “Yum!” but more of puzzlement, like “What is this stuff, Soilent Green?” If our Sarah had this business there surely would be some brightly decorated cupcakes or something else to brighten their meal.

Sister B. wouldn’t go close to take the photo. Perhaps she thought that someone would rush out and capture her. We thought it would be fun to photo-shop our pictures in the window but it was a step beyond our tech level.

It’s raining again today – 14 inches so far this month. Hurricane Irene is projected to dump a lot of rain by the end of the week to create an all-time record monthly rainfall. That happened while we were in Australia nearly 40 years ago. We are excited to use our umbrellas. Sister Blattman made a demonstration emergency pack for Zone Conferences last week. We may need it this week if Irene becomes belligerent.

Jake stopped in for a visit on the weekend. We picked him up at the airport and whisked him right over to the Liberty Bell and historic area downtown. After stake conference Sunday morning we went to Valley Forge and Bryn Athyn Cathedral. We really enjoyed the visit and break from our routine.

We are studying in preparation for our presentation prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament at the Seminaries and Institutes conference on Saturday. Our lesson may not be very sophisticated but it will be heartfelt. Sometimes we think we are better at demonstrating teaching techniques than explaining doctrines.

August 18, 2011

2011-08-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
August 18, 2011

Summer Seminary is completed this week. It kept us hopping and the summer went by very quickly as a result. At the end two of the boys got up and thanked Sister Blattman for the excellent lunches. We know they liked that part. We had a lot of fun with them, memorizing scriptures, playing games, and eating Sister Blatman’s fine lunches. Tuesday, this week, we went downtown to the State Historical Society where the kids each got to read from an 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon and learn about Thomas Kane who befriended the Saints and who lived nearby in Philly.

Then we went to the Independence Mall where we stood near the place where the church rented a carpet store and held services. The actual spot is now occupied by the Independence Visitors Center where you get tickets to go see the Liberty Bell. On that corner, in 1840, Orson Hyde preached and requested help to send him to Palestine to dedicate it for the return of the Jews. A man came forward and gave him a purse containing gold coins for his trip, requesting only that he be remembered in his prayer. In his prayer, Orson Hyde said:
“Do Thou also look with favor upon all those through whose liberality I have been enabled to come to this land. Particularly do Thou bless the stranger in Philadelphia, whom I never saw, but who sent me gold, with a request that I should pray for him in Jerusalem. Now, O Lord, let blessings come upon him from an unexpected quarter, and let his basket be filled, and his storehouse abound with plenty.”
After that we went by a chapel where Joseph Smith delivered a sermon to 3,000 people in January of 1840. The building is now a Jewish Synagogue and we just looked at it as we drove by.
As part of our final class we had ‘Brother Joseph,’ speak. He was the first member to join the Church in Haiti, the first missionary from Haiti, and then the first mission president to Haiti. He worked for the Church for a number of years as a CES director for the Caribbean area. Before he came we expected an older man but he turned out to be about 10 years younger than us. (It seems like everyone is younger than us nowadays.) A humble man, he now works for Target and spoke gently with the kids about their goals.
There is a lot of brown in the photo. Perhaps we should have chosen a lighter background. The old white guy really stands out.

July 25, 2011

2011-07-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
July 25, 2011

Summer Seminary
Uku is from Liberia and he came and spoke to our seminary class who are also Liberians. There is a large population of Liberians in Philly. There is even a ward that is mostly West Africans. Uku has been a member for a little over a year and he is getting ready to leave on a mission to Seattle in a week or so. We forgot to take his photo until after the kids left but we have the seminary teacher, Alex Alton, in the photo with us.

The next day, while visiting the Morris Arboretum, Sister Blattman is pictured standing on an elevated walkway in the trees. Notice the white knuckles. This is step one of aversion therapy as a way to curing her fear of heights.

Here we are with our seminary class at the Arch at Valley Forge.

Sister B. is either boxing with gargoyles or she is imitating stone carvers.

Prince and Phillip (twins) want to be gargoyle models for sculptors.
The record heat wave passed by for now. The Elders were told to stay in on the 100+ degree days. We did just the opposite and drove around in our car’s air conditioning for relief and then went to the Harry Potter Movie. Senior Missionaries have a lot more freedom than the young Elders. Back at the apartment we finally got the management to give us an air conditioner. The ones we had just weren’t doing the job and we are a lot more comfortable now.

July 18, 2011

2011-07-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
July 18, 2011

Senior Missionary Luncheon

Us, the Ashby’s, the Larsons, the Johnsons, Sister Bailey, the Schaefermeyers, Elder Bailey.

We drove to Allentown to have lunch with other senior couples in the Philadelphia mission. We ate at Ruby Tuesday’s and the waitress apparently didn’t know much about Mormons because she kept pointing out the drinks on the menu. The Larsons and Baileys are in the mission office. The Ashby’s and Johnsons are up in the North part of Pennsylvania and Southern New York working on member and leader support. The Johnsons told us they drive 3,000 miles a month visiting people. When it comes to miles traveled, I thought we were trying to give them a run for their money this last Sunday as we traveled downtown three times in one day. It is about a 45 minute trip one way for us to go downtown.

Sunday we attended a fireside by Keith Hamilton, the first African American bishop of the Church and the first African American to graduate from BYU Law School. His parents both died when he was a child and because of that he had a desire to learn more about the doctrine of eternal families when he listened to the missionaries when he was a senior in college. In his fireside he discussed Jesus healing the man blind from birth of whom his disciples asked “…who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind.” He compared this to the often repeated doctrine regarding Blacks that they were less valiant in the spirit world and like the blind man, sinned before they came to earth. Or the similar repeated doctrine that they are cursed because of Cain (their parents sinned). Christ’s answer in John 9:3 is “Neither hat this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” That is, each of us had a choice in our station in life and each of us has a destiny to fulfill. Everyone has certain talents and abilities or opportunities to give and receive service that make us valuable in God’s eyes.

2011-07-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
July 11, 2011

Summer Seminary Class

Briton, Celestine, Phillip, Courage, Prince, Vai Sikahema, Garry, Emmanuel, Alex Alton
Vai Sikahema, a local sports news caster, came and spoke to our summer seminary class. He is a Tongan who played for BYU and the NFL (Phoenix Cardinals then Green Bay Packers then Philadelphia Eagles). He is a member of the Stake Presidency in the Cherry Hill New Jersey Stake. The boy in the black shirt walked about 5 miles to get to class that morning. All of the kids except him are from Liberia or Ghana. When they talk - which is a lot and often and fast – we can’t understand them. They tell us they are speaking English but we’re not convinced.
When we get downtown to the church to set up for seminary we first go into a control room to open the gate and exterior doors. It feels kind of like the prison or jail one sees in movies where the doors and gates are computer controlled. Then we bring in the lunch and set up the chairs, etc. The building is air conditioned so we don’t mind getting there early and enjoying some cool air.

First day of school!

2011-07-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Emily is in 6th grade!

Morgan's is in 4th grade!

Jake's Talk - minus the grand finale he was planning

2011-07-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

Jake's Primary Talk Age 4 (CTR 4):

I like to build buildings with my blocks.
Sometimese my buildings are tall like Temples.
But Temples are different and special, and beautiful.
Temples are the House of God.
The Temple is a place where we make promises with Heavenly Father.
If we keep our promises we can live with Him again.
I am preparing to go to the Temple by also preparing to be baptized.
And when I am 12 and I am worthy, I can go to the Temple to do work and fee the Holy Spirit.

and to this point it was going REALLY WELL!
and then he grabbed the microphone....I felt like it was in slow motion....I saw his mouth stretch WIDE OPEN and his nose scrunch and he took a deep breath....do you see what he was planning?
I felt my hand fly up and clamp over his mouth and I said "Amen" and "helped" him down....sigh...we ALMOST made it throught the talk :)

July 5, 2011

2011-07-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
July 5, 2011

The 4th of July is well celebrated here in the birthplace of the constitution. We considered going downtown to the big parades, reenactments, and crowds but then chose to go local and watch a parade in our township. We left out any photos of what seemed to be hundreds of fire trucks.

The costumes are pretty wild on the two groups that must be part of the ‘Mummers Parade’ later on this year in Philadelphia.

Stake President Corbitt, from the Cherry Hill New Jersey Stake was our speaker in summer seminary today. He came and had lunch with the kids, joked around, and got to know them a little. Then he left and came back dressed up as Joseph Smith. His costume was great and it really grabbed the kid's attention. Then he played a game where the kids took their new scriptures and could look up and read any verse in the Doctrine and Covenants and he had to guess the section. If he missed they got a point and if he guessed the section correctly he got a point. First to five wins. The rule was also that he could ask them to read the verse before and the verse after if necessary. He won 5 to 3. Then he went back into character and recited section 1 as if the Prophet was dictating it to a scribe while we read along. The kids loved it.

June 27, 2011

2011-07-05T09:33:00.001-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
June 27, 2011

Last week we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert here in Philadelphia. It was at a covered outdoor arena and Nancy and I had seats in the balcony “nose-bleed” section. One poor woman sitting behind us went into acrophobic hysterics. Her husband kept telling her with no success that she was okay and to quiet down. Some kind people took pity on her and helped her leave. To Nancy’s credit, she held her fear of heights in check.

The Choir has become quite diverse in the music they present. This isn’t your grandmother’s church choir anymore. The African number with many bongo drummers came as a surprise. Some of the leaders who went on and on about music with a primitive beat when Nancy and I were teenagers may have rolled over in their graves over that one. Our favorites were the Negro Spirituals with Alex Boye as soloist. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nvslgRx2sE to see Alex Boye.

During the concert I sat next to a man who generously filled me in on much of the sports, popular music artists, and politicians in and about Philadelphia. This fellow and I come from different worlds so I learned a lot, or at least I pretended I knew what he was talking about.

Summer seminary started well with 5 boys. Four of them are African, Liberians I think, and the other African American. We have a hard time understanding them so we just smile and shake hands a lot. We took this week off because of Scout Camp and we are promised 5 additional students starting next week. We are contacting Via Sikahema, the sports caster to be one of our afternoon speakers. We’ll have to remember to take our camera and get some photos to show.

June 16, 2011

2011-06-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
June 16, 2011

Mixed Metaphors:

To enter the synagogue I had to cover my head with the Jewish cap called a kippah or yarmulke. Honestly, that doesn’t sound like what the woman called it but Wikipedia has never failed me before. Anyway I got to keep the hat as part of the $10 tour fee.

Nancy may turn violent and hurt someone if the AC doesn’t get fixed in our apartment. One can just imagine the headline: “Missionary Momma Slays Husband in Hot Apartment.” We have been assured that we are ‘on the list’ to get things fixed. On the roof of our apartment building there are some large refrigeration units that cool water which is then pumped through the heating system. Ours and the Elders in the apartment next door haven’t worked yet. “Da pump no worka, gotta geta new pumpa, I tella my boss,” according to Frank, the Italian maintenance man, after he bled out more buckets full of thick sludge this week. We got a couple small AC window units from the mission office but they blow the breakers if we run them together. Fortunately the weather has turned pleasant again.

We watch fireflies shoot up like tiny bottle rockets from the grass as we walk in the evenings. This is a lovely country. We continually appreciate the beautiful foliage of the trees. Everyone has trees in their yards that are gigantic by Nevada standards. The trees and thick shrubbery shield homes from the noise of traffic. Almost immediately after stepping off the busy streets it becomes quiet and pleasant.

We are looking forward to attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert next week. We will be taking the Elders from the apartment next door.

June 7, 2011

2011-06-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
June 7, 2011

This week’s journal entry is a story. It is more about “It’s not where you go so much as who you meet when you get there.”

Sister R____ and two of the Three Nephites

There is no evidence that God loves the rational person more than the rest of us. Each of us is subject to periods of varying shades of insanity during the different periods of our lives. Surely, we all have looked back over some event in our lives and thought, “What was I thinking?” A similar phrase, “What were you thinking,” was sometimes accompanied with a cuff to the side of the head when I was an errant boy. And if any of you think you have always been a perfectly rational person, your parents can probably recall periods of temporary insanity during your adolescence.

Sister R____ is in her mid-60’s. She is short and heavy. She wears a brace on one knee, and sweat band on the left wrist under her watch. Her hair, always appears freshly washed and still wet, is combed back. Her piercing eyes are a color of light gray and they seem to bore a hole through your chest when she fixes them on you. Think of a picture of Wilford Woodruff and you have a good likeness. In her younger days she drove big rig trucks. Now she totters back and forth a bit as she maneuvers her wheeled walker along the hallways at church, shoving it along in front of her. In one’s imagination it isn’t hard to replace the walker with a grocery cart to see how she looked nineteen years ago when she was a homeless person on the streets of Philadelphia. Of her faith after becoming a member, Sister R____ once said she had wanted to pay her tithing. Lord, she said, helped her remember where bits of money were hidden around the house.

Sister R____ is a woman without guile. Bluntly honest, she tells the truth with persistence that makes ‘normal’ folks squirm a little. “Dear God,” she volunteers to pray each week in Sunday School, “Bless these people to answer the teacher’s questions today so I’m not the only one” [who responds in class.] Or to Sister Blattman, “You forgot your name tag.” Sister B. mumbles something about she forgot but hoped that no one would notice. “I noticed,” said Sister R____ loudly, “You need to wear you name tag all the time.” A glance at Sister R____ ‘s quadruple scripture combination shows it to be tabbed with little pieces of tape and well-worn from frequent use. Indeed, her answers given in Sunday School class show she knows well what the scriptures say and her answers, like those who people read to learn rather than are taught, are not just the typical Mormon-speak but show a real understanding.

So, Sister R____’s story of meeting two men who she claimed may have been two of the three Nephites piqued my interest. I’ve heard and read a lot of stories over the years that left me more skeptical than Sister R____’s account. You see, her story simple: She ran into two men who said and did nothing out of the ordinary, but the encounter, she said, “Made my heart leap in my chest.” It was the same feeling she had in a similar experience near the time that she joined the church nineteen years ago.

It was the morning of the Broad Street Run, and annual event. The North Philly church where Nancy and I attend is on Wyoming (Wyoming is a Pennsylvania name by the way) and Broad Street. We had to park on the wrong side of Broad Street and wait while 30,000+ people ran past, or most of them anyway, so we could at last thread our way between the less fit and gasping lagging runners without fear of being trampled. That morning, Sister R____ said she had to take three different busses to get to church -a considerable struggle to negotiate with her walker and bad knee. At one bus stop, two men approached her and asked, “Sister, what church do you attend?” She replied, “The Broad and Wyoming Chapel.” The men kindly wished her well. She labored onto the bus. When she turned back they were gone. That’s it! These were her angelic visitors.

She described the men as very old, dressed in heavy old coats, and they both had deeply lined faces. “But their eyes!,” she said, “Their eyes were bright! And when I looked into them my heart leaped in my chest. I knew they were messengers from God!” She needed no more affirmation, she simply knew who they were.

An old woman was moved to grateful tears by kindly passing remarks made by two old men at a bus stop in inner city North Philadelphia. North Philly is a place where as Nancy and I drive along and gape at so many disheveled persons hobbling along the sidewalks, we often remark about how many people we see limping. It is a place of row houses, asphalt, and trash; of poor people, people with canes, walkers, wheel chairs, and what looks like an abundance of hopelessness. What more likely place would angels come to lighten the heart of a faithful old woman?

May 28, 2011

2011-06-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
May 28, 2011

After working at the library we walked on down the road past our apartment building to the Beth Shalom Synagogue. The admission was $10 each but, hey! you only live once! So, after watching a film that we were told that everyone wants a copy of after viewing we were taken on a fascinating tour of the only synagogue designed by Frank Loyd Wright. The building is an amazing combination of triangles built over a floor that simulates great cupping hands holding the congregation of about 1000. We were told that one could also imagine a great tent over gently sloping sand dunes. The sand colored carpet gives an additional effect of the Tabernacle carried by the Children of Israel in the Sinai Desert.

When Dan & Kim were here we looked through the window and wondered at the red lights. Those red lights are the perpetual flames over the ark of the covenants (center of photo on right) where their Torah scrolls are stored. At the end of our tour conducted by one of the rabbis we got to see and even touch a Torah scroll. The velum that the Torah was written on was bright white and soft like thick paper The lettering, all hand done, was perfect. They were each wrapped in velvet and covered with a silver breastplate. We were as impressed with the Torah scrolls as with the building.
Saturday evening we went to see The Damnation of Faust, by Hector Berlioz in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center in downtown Philly. Thanks Joe & Negin for the tickets. It was really something. The music was beautiful. In addition to the Philadelphia Orchestra there was a big choir and at the end even a boys choir that filed in to sing the finale. As you may have guessed, we borrowed both the photos of the Beth Shalom Synagogue and the Kimmel Center from the internet.
Just before the program started a short and plump little man came rushing in and sat beside us. He threw his cane down across two seats and tossed his canvas purse onto one of them and plopped his ample backside into the other. Starting from his feet, he was wearing tan and red saddle shoes, stripped stockings the color of Neapolitan ice cream, bright blue and white striped trousers, a black vest, pink shirt, and purple tie. The conductor (a rather odd man himself) turned to him and smiled before the performance. Nancy thought he might have been a music critic. If so, I hope his taste in music is more discriminating than his taste in clothing.

And today, (you all probably are thinking that we goofing around all the time and aren’t doing any missionary work), our director took us to the museum of the Academy of Fine Arts. Our director did his graduate work there and taught classes so he was still on the faculty there and he got us in free. It was a treat to go to a great museum of fine art with an art history professor as a guide. A fair amount of it went right over our heads but we did get to appreciate some beautiful paintings. Again, thanks to Google, I’ve clipped a couple some the great works there that we saw. I thought these were interesting because I’ve seen some of them in history books. The first is Walt Whitman, the second is called Hailing a Ferry, and then Ben Franklin and George Washington.

Jim and Nancy Blattman Family cookbook

2011-05-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

I want to organize and get a Jim & Nancy Family Cookbook printed. I looked and I think I can get them printed for about $7 a book.

I wanted to include sections like:

Grilling

Camping recipes

Family Heritage recipes (from all lines of our family and in-laws)

and also the standards:

sides and salads

breads

main dishes

desserts

If you like this idea leave a comment and begin compiling your recipes! You can send to me via email!

Loves,

Sarah

Remembering on Memorial Day

2011-05-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

we were able to get to the Mountain View Cemetary today and put some floweres on the name markers for Grandpa and Gramma Markham, Ward and Gramma Dee. I think Pam and Grant may have also been there because there were some lovely flowers already there. It was a nice warm day and sunny. It was quite impressive and inspiring to see the waves of flags placed on the veterens graves.

We searched for Benny's gravestone also but I could not find it. I hope to return this week and try again. So many markers were grown over and I am sure it is there, I just need to look harder.

If you have a good memory of our loved ones, please share it in comments!

May 21, 2011

2011-05-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
May 21, 2011

6:00 (Family Radio’s Rapture Event deadline)has come and gone. Even accounting for Daylight Savings Time we are still earthbound. The jokes will continue through tomorrow, I’m sure. “Never thought I’d see you still here on the day after Rapture,” sort of thing. So what’s our lesson about for Monday? The End of the World. Naturally. Fortunately, as Mormons, we understand it to be the end of the wicked, that is: the end of the worldly, so we won’t have to account why we are all still here.
We took an hour or so off during the time we were inspecting missionary apartments for bedbugs and mold yesterday to check out Penns Landing. It’s the Delaware River dock area reminiscent of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. We checked out a clipper ship turned into a restaurant, a submarine (subs are tough to turn into anything more interesting than long black cylinders of death), and a Teddy Roosevelt era Navy Cruiser. Then we watched tugboats bring the USS Kaufman up the Delaware, turn it around in front of the Ben Franklin Bridge, and dock it right next to where we were watching. Then a thunderstorm drenched us so we ran back to the car. Sorry, no photos of Nana next to some handsome sailor in a white uniform.
Nana got to shake hands with Julie B. Beck, the General Relief Society President last night. Sister Beck came to speak at a fireside. She seemed a very kind and unpretentious person. There was no fire and brimstone – little use for that on the day before Rapture- only a kindly question and answer session with about 500 people attending. That woman was brave to let the microphone wander through the audience to let them ask and comment as they pleased.
People of our age always remark about the weather. It is wet. It seems like it is always wet here. Just out of the blue, well out of the grey anyway, the sky seems to suddenly dump buckets of water. Other days when it’s not pouring from the sky it has been foggy and misty, but the rain hasn’t missed a day for weeks. With the rain has come more green that we’ve ever seen in our long senior missionary lives. Even many of the rocks and sidewalks are covered with green moss and or tinged with algae. The lovely flowering dogwood trees gave way to the sweet smelling locusts and also the bright azaleas have now been trumped by the rhododendrons. We walk a mile or two most mornings and again in the evenings through the suburban rainforests of Jenkintown. I’d say it was like walking through the Garden of Eden but the doves are gray and we are far from innocent. Unreasonably, some days we crave the lone and dreary world of home where the rain is infrequent and dirty, our skin is dry, and the wind sometimes blows sand in our eyes.

I was not part of the rapture...

2011-05-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

But I was read for blast off!

Trip to San Diego

2011-05-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

I finally was able to get a time nailed down to go and see the San Diego Blattmans! and what fun we had!

May 14th

2011-05-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
May 14, 2011

We went on an adventure this week with our Doctrine and Covenants classes. Well, not all of them but we took 2 class members for each of the two classes. And then there was the mother and the three children too. We drove to the site of the Aaronic Priesthood Restoration in Harmony,(now called Oakland), PA. The church apparently is planning to develop this site and has bought some of the lots close by the Susquehanna River. This is the monument showing John the Baptist ordaining Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

It was a beautiful sunny warm day and we sat on the stone benches around the monument eating our lunches. There was another couple with a child there when we arrived and we found out they were LDS and traveling through. While we sat there eating our lunch, a pick-up truck with 2 missionaries and another man pulled up rather quickly. I guess the missionaries were with their Elders Quorum president and saw the crowd at the monument and had high expectations of converting lots of people. They were pretty sad as they walked up and noticed our missionary badges.

At this same site were the footings of Joseph and Emma’s home at Harmony.

Across the road from their home is the site of Emma’s parent’s home. Also just a few yards up the road is a graveyard where Emma and Joseph buried their first child that died at birth and Emma’s parents. It was quite a beautiful place with the Susquehanna River in the background. It was very awe inspiring to stand where these great people had lived, worked and had had joy and sorrow. From here we drove a little further to where we could access the river. We had to walk just a short distance down to the banks. And it is a much wider river and faster than we had anticipated. It would seem difficult for someone to easily step into this river and keep their balance easily. But we were there---approximately where Joseph and Oliver baptized each other.

This is on the spot where their house stood.

These are the two sisters Frazier that come to our classes regularly. They are part Ramapo Indian. They live in the inner city and seemed to be excited to go on this trip with us.

May 14, 2011 continued

2011-05-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

Here we are walking down the trail to the Susquehanna River. Somewhere here in the wooded area is where Joseph and Oliver knelt and prayed and received the visit of John the Baptist.

The water was pretty muddy and didn’t look that inviting. But I guess that was all they had. They had a man get baptized here in January. They had to chop a whole in the ice for him to be able to do it, but he was determined he was going to be baptized where Joseph Smith was.

So do you think Elder Blattman looks like he’s already standing in the water waiting for someone to come along to baptize?

So from there we went to the Newel K. Knight home where the Colesville Branch met for a while. The house is still standing. It is said that the persecution in this area was pretty strong and one night while Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were visiting here a mob came for them and they had to escape out the back and race along the river all the way to Harmony which took them all night. It isn’t verified but the story is that perhaps while on this flight is when the Melchezidek priesthood was restored. There is no exact date or place for that ordination and visitation.

So we had a lovely adventure and got to see some beautiful countryside. We are grateful to that these things came to pass and that we are blessed to stand in “holy places”.

Who has two thumbs...

2011-05-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

and loves me?

This GUY!

Love this guy who works so hard, does so much and loves me.

***disclaimer: no, I did not do anything wrong, spent too much money or wreck the car. This is just a note to say how much I love Chris.

The garden

2011-05-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

So this post is for Mom and Dad - but WARNING - this contain images that may cause homesickness!
My friend in our ward that is cousins with the people renting Mom and Dad's home and posted some pics of them getting the garden ready!

Check out the Carrots! holy cow!
http://16-watts.blogspot.com/2011/03/spring-fever.html

I thought it was hilarious! they said they were football size

May 6, 2011

2011-05-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
May 6, 2011

We are overcome with the beauty of this country in the springtime. It’s a wonderful place to visit. The flowering trees have lost their blossoms now and the sidewalks are carpeted in places with pink and white petals that scatter in our footsteps like the flakes of snow in winter. The greens are bright, with almost none of the grey, tan, or brown that we are so used to seeing. Each morning we walk for an hour along the neighborhood streets and admire the azaleas with vibrant hues of red, purple, and white. Stone retaining walls along the tree shaded sidewalks are covered with mosses and little flowers. The dogwood trees are blooming in bright whites and pinks right now. Homeowners and crews of gardeners care for the yards. It’s unusual to find any home not well kept. Our exercise is much more pleasant nowadays than puffing on the stationary machines in the basement while watching Korean News on the TV wall-screens.
Yard sales are a great temptation to one of us. Elder Blattman picked up a mint condition monkey wrench for 25 cents last week and the seller threw in a nice metal tool box with two pipe wrenches and a turn of the century screwdriver. We may have to rent a U-Haul trailer to get our treasures home. We keep our eye out for unusual stores. Dan and I went in one in downtown Philly that was full of African fertility idols – stacked floor to ceiling with the most hideous (they are supposed to be grotesque to frighten away evil spirits) wooden carvings that anyone could imagine. The man wanted to sell us the whole store. These things are incredibly valuable according to him. It was hard to imagine why anyone would want to display in their homes things so bizarre and repulsive. This week we found a little store operated by a retired psychology professor which was full of odd items retrieved from estate sales. Again, it was difficult to tell if we were in a museum or a store, but we opted for the store and purchased an old glass inkwell/paper weight with an old brass pen. –One more irresistible pound to pack in the car when we go home. While looking in a thrift store for ‘anticipatory sets’, or object lessons as most people call them, we noticed there were a number of if not antique, at least classic, furniture sets that would be fun to restore. Elder B. again was drooling over these trying to conjure ways to tie them onto the car to get them home and into the shop. What for? Just say the word anyone and he’d love to be your purchasing agent. You may have to arrange for shipping.
Next week we are taking the Frazier sisters on a trip with one of our classes to Harmony, Pennsylvania. It’s a long way but still in our mission and there is little to actually see at the site, but it is the nature of visitors like us to an area to go around and try to experience everything. Perhaps we’ll have more photos to share.

Apri l 12 -24

2011-04-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
April 12 - 24

We are having challenges keeping up with our journaling. Sorry, for two people with so little to do it takes us a long time to get it all done.
Dan, Kim, Henry, and Synnova came to see us last week for three days. We got a substitute for one of our classes and took some time off from our monastic pursuits to see the patriotic and historic sites of Philadelphia. We went to Valley Forge, Independence Mall, the Natural History Museum, and we saw Rodin’s “The Thinker”, and we had a quick tour of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. We did a lot of walking. Synnova and Henry were good sports. They liked the Natural History Museum and riding the train into town the best.

Christ Church – Founded 1695

Synnova Bell Blattman and the Liberty Bell

Carriage Ride on a slow horse through town

Cannon at Valley Forge

Proof that Tyrannosaurus’ were female

George Washington’s head quarters

The original Rodin sculpture

William Penn, George Washington, and Nancy

Rocky Balboa Blattman

He’s clearly the brains behind this outfit

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

HaPpY EaStEr from the Pyrahs! Chris had the weekend off, kids were home, mom was sewing, baking and it was all fun!

This is a picture of Morgan and Chris before going to a Morgan's friend birthday party. It was a Daddy and Daughte theme party!

Just a little bed time story for all the kids

2011-04-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

March 27 – April 11, 2011

2011-04-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal March 27 – April 11, 2011

Again, it’s not about where you go so much as the people you meet. The members here in Philly are truly friendly, living up to the name as the City of Brotherly Love. It’s common to get a hug from a stranger in the hallway at church. As we exited the chapel after watching the Sunday morning session of conference a woman walked over to Sister Blattman and gave her a hug, introducing herself as ‘Sister Barry’ and then referred to her husband saying, “And this is the famous Brother Barry.” We were too shy to ask what she meant by ‘famous’ so when we had the Elders over for dinner Wednesday night we asked and they told us that this was the first black man to be ordained to the priesthood in 1978. Apparently there was another man ordained that day in the West but because of the time difference, Bro. Berry is usually given the distinction. The Elders apparently each have their photos taken with him. Our CES director gives us in-service lessons each week that are inspiring. His grasp of history and of the scriptures is remarkable. I don’t think I’ve ever known a professor who has impressed me more. He is a humble and pleasant man with a strong testimony of the gospel. Each week just Nancy and I and sometimes his secretary receive an hour and a half lesson on the content and meaning of scriptural passages. We have taken to studying the information and scriptural passages he gives us during the week. We have discovered much that we had otherwise just passed over. It makes our job much richer and he has left us astonished as to the symbolism and meaning of passages. We count Brother Muldowney’s teaching as one of the highlights of our week. You can check out an article he wrote for the Ensign: September 2002, “Hezekiah’s Tunnel Vision.” Our Mission President, Willaim Schaefermeyer, produced movies for the Seminary and Institute department until he was called last year to be the mission president for Philadelphia. I noticed during the intermission between conferences that some of these videos are being promoted for family use. You can order them for family home evenings and Sunday alternatives to ‘LOST’ from the church website for less than the movies at Wal-Mart. Maybe if you procrastinate Nana and Papa will send you a family copy for Christmas. This week he told Sister Blattman to relax. There really aren’t any rules for senior missionaries. If she wants to watch a little TV, go to a movie, or sleep in, it’s okay. We don’t have a TV but it’s good to know. We had Zakiyah, a grandmother with waist-long dreadlocks, and a church member, for dinner this week. She had a few good laughs at our naiveté about Black people. She is definitely no ‘shrinking violet’ when it comes to expressing how she feels. We showed her all the photos of our children and grandchildren, telling her all the good things, and that took long into the evening. There are two sisters, middle-aged Black women, Paulette and Stephanie, who attend our classes at the North Philly (inner-city) chapel. Two of Paulette’s granddaughters, who aren’t really her granddaughters but among the several waifs and grandnieces that she has taken in over the years, took her car and wrapped it around a telephone pole. As I walk in the morning I notice that this is a popular sport in Philly and the poles are placed right along the roadways to make it easier. Because the girls ran away from the scene – a good thing considering that they were not hurt – the insurance company would not pay in that the car was now involved in a crime, leaving the scene of an ‘axident’. So we give Paulette and Stephanie, her sister, a ride home two or three times a week. These two sisters take care of a pile of kids, none of them their own, in a tiny row house in North Philly. It’s hard to describe these houses or why they were built the way they are, but picture houses squeezed so tightly that all the walls at their sides touch and they are about 15 feet wide at the most. Each is two stories tall, further giving a squeezed look, with a porch wide enough for a single rocking chair. There might be 40 or more of them in one block. The streets are often so narrow that cars are parked on one side half on the sidewalk and there is barely room for a thin car to fit on the remaining pavement. There is no front yard other than the sidewalk and most have no back yard either. Anyway, Paulette is another outspoken Black matriarch who is not afraid of letting anyone know what she thinks and when you aren’t towing your line with enough pull. Her sister Stephanie rarely speaks. We are told that until she joined the church a few years ago, she never spoke. Yet, when called upon, and when we wait patiently for time enough to toast bread, she will respond. And although sometimes terse, like when asked if she knows anything about a certain subject, she is likely to simply reply, “Yes,” with no elaboration, she will read fluently from the scriptures when asked and she will offer beautiful prayers. We are beginning to realize that the ‘riches’ and ‘treasures’ received in missionary work are all about the people we meet and the life stories the

Sam at the Park

2011-04-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

I need one of these in the house....

Week 12

2011-03-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal March 20-26, 2011

It’s not about where you go so much as the people you meet. Sister Rennie, the wife one of the counselors in the bishopric in the downtown Independence Ward is one of the friendliest and kindest persons we have met. She makes everyone feel loved and she is especially kind to missionaries. She invited us to dinner Sunday evening and while we were waiting for the four Elders to arrive to eat with us, and as she was pulling pan after pan from the oven for a meal that was more like a feast, we talked and Nancy asked her about her family and how she came to be a member of the Church. We already knew that Sister Rennie is Cambodian and the only member of the Church in her family. Nancy was also intrigued because in Relief Society meeting Sister Renny had said that her mother had never spoken the words “I love you” to her or her siblings but that she knew that her mother loved her deeply. Brother Rennie began the story by telling of her father, a teacher at a university in Cambodia. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge over took their city. Her father was warned at school that if he went home he would be killed. (The Khmer Rouge killed all intellectuals knowing that this group would oppose them. The Khmer Rouge would kill 1.7 million of their own citizens, more than 1 in 5, in what was one of the bloodiest genocides of the 20th century.) Her father said he could not leave his family, knowing also that if he did not go home, his family would be killed. He could not be dissuaded by his friends to try to escape. He went home, was beaten and arrested. He and his wife and seven children were marched to an open field where he was forced to dig his grave. The family was told that if they cried or showed any emotion towards this traitor they would be shot too. They all stood there stoically as their father was shot and pushed into the grave he had dug. For the next several nights soldiers sneaked up to their hut by night to listen to hear if anyone cried or mourned for their father. Her brothers were forced to go away to work and the family became desperate for food. Each morning the soldiers would drag a body through the streets in their town to show what happened to someone who was caught foraging for food. When the boys were allowed to come home for a visit her mother took them away into the jungle to escape. She tied the seven children together in a line with string so no one would be lost. Sister Rennie was only two years old. She said she didn’t remember much except the big thorns that cut her barefeet and made them bleed. She also remembered hiding in the leaves looking at the feet of soldiers as they walked by just inches away. Later in summer time she recalled the blisters on her feet from the hot pavement. The trip to a refugee camp should have taken a couple months but it took the family three years to get out because they were caught and put back in different detention camps in Cambodia. As a tiny child Sister Rennie ate centipedes, crickets, and termites to supplement her meager diet. At one point she said she remembered eating dirt because she was so hungry. They made it to a Seventh Day Adventist refugee camp after three years of walking. There her mother was taught to be a cook. At the end of her shift she was allowed to take one donut and a piece of banana bread home with her. This she sold and bought vegetable which she pickled and then sold. With this income she bought rice for the children. In the refugee camp the family received a weekly ration of a small bowl of rice (she showed us a bowl like we would eat breakfast cereal) and a small fish. They were always desperately hungry. Sister Rennie scoured the dirt along walkways looking for any bit of dropped food. She laughed when she told us that once a year, for a birthday, children were given just one grape. Eventually, a sponsor was found and the family was found be healthy enough to emigrate. When they got to the United States, the sponsoring family in Philadelphia stole the money they would have received for clothing, bedding, etc. She started school in Philadelphia in the winter without shoes and was sent home because you have to have shoes to go to school. The Elders arrived at this point and she would have quit her story but we asked her to continue. When she was 20 years old she was sitting on the steps of her apartment with her sister and two Mormon missionaries walked by. She turned to her sister and spoke in Cambodian that she thought they were cute. To her surprise one of the Elders turned to her and greeted her in Cambodian. At an earlier time we had remarked to her about meeting Elder Ang at the MTC, also a Cambodian who was going to Boston, that he must be the only Cambodian missionary and she had said that there was at least one other one years before who had taught her the gospel. After joining the Church she went on a mission to California. Her biggest challenge was eating American food. Cheese and dairy products in particular made her gag. Mac & Cheese was impossible for her to swallow so she kept a little zip-lock bag in her skirt to discretely slip away the American food. With prearranged stealth, when her host wasn’t looking she would plop the dessert from her plate to her companion’s. At that point we asked her about all the food she had prepared that night for us and the Elders; chicken pot pie – a real pie with a special sauce, a big pan of funeral potatoes, piles of handmade Philly cheese steak egg rolls, a rich chocolate & cream cake with sliced strawberries decoratively laid on the frosting and drizzled with chocolate sauce, and food on and on. “Oh no, I can’t eat this food. I make myself some rice later. I guess I have a food fixation. I have to make sure that everyone has plenty to eat.” Her husband didn’t seem to mind but he confessed he had a hard time keeping his weight down. Her children, we noticed, were kind of picky eaters but she didn’t seem to mind. As she finished her story and told of meeting her husband at the Philly singles ward, the house they had just bought and how she was remodeling it, we realized the only time she teared up was when she talked about getting her father’s temple work completed. We understood why she said that her mother, who also now lives here in Philly loves her and brothers and sisters even though she had never repeated those words.

Week 11

2011-03-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
March 13-19, 2011

Sunday, we spoke in sacrament meeting in the inner-city ward, named the ‘Independence Ward.’ The name probably derives from the historic area, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and Independence Mall, but it might also reflect the independent nature of the people. There are certainly a lot of distinct individuals. I guess you’ve got to be tough to be a church member in a war-torn area. The crazy guy who calls himself the ‘ward president’ wasn’t there to tell everyone to sit down and be quiet, but all were fairly reverent even without his coercion.
Tuesday we went to Valley Forge with our director for CES as part of our ‘cultural excursions’. He is very thoughtful and kind to us. (no photos yet) We went to the home that George Washington rented for his headquarters and saw the area of encampment. It is a beautiful park with open areas, deer, walking paths, monuments, etc. We plan to go back and get more detail now that we’ve figured out how to get there. We are close to many of important historic sites but it isn’t like Nevada where you can see it for 40 miles away or you are on the only road in the valley and know it will get you there.
Salt Lake City has LDS chapels almost on every block. Jenkintown, PA, has Jewish synagogues at about the same frequency. There are two stores in town that exclusively sell Jewish items. The grocery store has displays of foods for Passover. Libraries and bookstores have tables with books about Jewish traditions. It is all very interesting but also very complicated. The synagogue across the street from our apartment has a museum associated with it. We’ll have to check it out.
Good news this week: Our apartment building will have air conditioning. We are told that they shut off the boilers for hot water to the radiators and switch over to cold water pumped through the system. I’ve never heard of such a thing. It is especially nice in that we won’t have to pay extra utilities for the AC.

Checkers = chicken, Liberty Man = taxi advertisement

Week 10

2011-03-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
March 6-12, 2011

Saturday we left our mission boundaries – to go to the Washington DC temple. We took a couple young adults from the Susquehanna Branch along to do baptisms while we enjoyed an endowment session. We didn’t do any sightseeing beyond the temple. It’s a very impressive building, much larger and imposing than it appears in photographs. The smooth marble exterior shoots straight up out of the hilltop like a building from the Crystal City. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera.
On Friday we took the train down to the city center to see the Liberty Bell. There was no way I was going to discard my pocketknife to enter the building so we stood outside and pressed our faces against the glass to peer at it between the bodies of the weaponless wimps inside. Anyway, the real fun of this trip was riding the train and finding our way around the maze of buildings. Next time, to emulate Nicholas Cage and ‘National Treasure’ we’ll go out onto the grass of the mall, triangulate a position from landmarks, and bury the pocketknife. Then make a map…. Unfortunately, we again forgot the camera, another reason to return.
Here are some other photos from when we did remember to bring our camera. The first picture is of the library where we volunteer on Thursday mornings. The little part of the building in front was erected in 1810. All of the churches in Jenkintown started in that little building before they built their own churches. The next photo “Divine Lorraine”, we have no idea of what it means except it shines over North Philly. The last photo is of the William Penn statue which was supposed to be the highest point in Philly until they build lots of taller buildings around him. We drove down town after our Wednesday morning class but stopping and getting out seemed out of the question at the time.

some birthdays!

2011-03-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

We have had some birthdays in our home these last few weeks.

Morgan turned 9 and Emily turned 11.

I have started to realize that my girls are turning into beautiful Young Women. I get a little misty eyed thinking about them in this way...where did the time go?

But then I realize this has been happening before my very eyes...

Emily came home the other day and ask me where I thought she should go to college...I stumbled a little since I had not even began to think about this. "Well," she says, "I think I want to go to BYU Idaho. That is a good place, right?"

You know, it is a good place and if there is her goal in the 5th grade....well, I say a prayer of thanks!

Morgan said in the car that one of her guy friends and her decided that "it was a Christian thing".

"What is?" I replied.

"I can't even remember now," she says, "But then my friend said 'But you are Morman...'"

"Oh?" says I...

Morgan says, "I told him I was Christian, TOO...and he said NO I wasn't cause I was Morman..."

She paused a little as if she was a little uncertain of what to make of this, so I said, "Well, you are a Christian since you believe in Jesus Christ. Next time he talks about this with you, you should let him know."

"Ok, that makes sense..." says Morgan.

I was pleased that Morgan had some foundation to say she was a Christian and help her little friend understand. But even more amazed that she was having what I consider a large conversation in the 3rd grade...guess that is a sign of the times.

Week 9

2011-03-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
February 28 – March 5, 2011

The New Church – the Swedenborgs
Last Saturday we went to the Bryn Athyn Cathedral of The New Church, the Pitcairn castle like homes; Glencairn, and Cairnwood. Imagine being so wealthy that you could build a castle to keep your collection of medieval artifacts and Christian relics. Imagine that you could take the pictures of a castle from a fairy tale book and turn it into your home. Then, on the rolling hills down from your castle on the hill, build yourself a real gothic cathedral and fill it with the most beautiful stained glass (you do own PPG – Pittsburg Plate Glass), intricate wood carvings, and marvelous metal castings. Then to complete the picture, you have your own farm, school, and lovely little community for the people who attend the cathedral services. It is truly a beautiful place, idyllic like old European made new in America in the first half of the 20th century. In all its beauty and pomp, there is a hollow tone to the place.
We toured the grounds amazed at the art, Egyptian, Greek, Byzantine, French, German, and English artifacts. In some cases, carved shrines were lifted along with the surrounding castle stones from their European castles and put right in to the walls of Glencairn. We were given a tour of the cathedral by a member of the New Church and the members seemed to be largely devoted to worship of the beautiful architecture and ceremony of the cathedral and that any specific church doctrines mentioned were bland and almost incidental to the worship. It certainly would be an awe inspiring place to attend Sunday services. The grounds and buildings are kept immaculately clean and in good repair. There is free gourmet coffee (how I hate to miss out on free stuff) and there are no fees except for one special tour. There must yet be a large endowment from the Pitcairn family or other rich church members still in place.
We took these photos.

Week 8

2011-03-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
February 21-27, 2011

Apartment Living
As we drove home from class last night I commented that I don’t worry about passing up our apartment building because we approach in the darkness it looms up in my imagination in front of us like a great ocean liner. Nana, steeped as she is in the scriptures lately, remarked that it looks to her like the ‘great and spacious building’ from Lehi’s dream. There is an iron fence around the complex but it’s nothing a person can hold on to.
Apartment buildings are ‘great and spacious buildings’ where strangers live closely without interacting very often. We try to break the unspoken rules of apartment anonymity of non-engaging each other and we give a cherry ‘Hello!’ in the elevator once in a while. At first we grinned at everyone and ‘Hello-ed’ like the fresh country bumpkins we really are, but now we give more business-like greetings, “Good Morning”, etc. Otherwise, in quiet mode, we all just stand so close in the elevator we can smell each other’s deodorant yet we pretend the others are not there.
The doors in our hallway all have louvers that vent the smell of what’s cooking among the 25 families on our floor. Stepping out of the elevator reveals tantalizing aromas of corned beef & cabbage, exotic Korean dishes, & baking cookies (that’s Nana). It’s a mystery how can we all be so intimate and yet so distant. Some days when we enter our floor it’s like coming into the church for a potluck dinner only everyone has taken their hot-dish into separate classrooms.
Down Town
Saturday Nancy had a Relief Society service project to make blankets to give to the hospitals for new-borns. I used the time to clean trash from around the building. The church really is a lighthouse in this area of the city. People really seem to want to just come in and relax with other members. In the evenings the foyer often has people sitting there talking as if they were in a living room at home. We’ve had two non-members who have come in to our classes and take part like everyone else. The basketball court is especially important in the inner-city. It’s in use most every evening.
We took a sister home after class the other night. It turned out to be quite a distance that she would have had to ride the bus and then walk through a neighborhood that was pretty scary. In the daylight the streets look just narrow and dirty. At night, they look dark and ominous. Every corner has imagined menaces. Last night Nana made dinner for a woman who was bedridden after surgery and we again made the journey into the dark streets of North Philly. When we got to the public housing, Nana hopped right out and went over to a group of young men to ask for directions to the correct apartment. The boys were friendly and helpful. The bedridden woman’s door wasn’t locked (she couldn’t have gotten up to open it) and Nana went right up. I think our fears are generated from watching too many episodes of “COPS” on TV. Sister B is in front of the church. Brother B is on the road behind the church.

Week 7

2011-02-23T17:09:00.001-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
February 14-20, 2011

Sister Blattman has been cooking up a storm this week. She fed the Elders who live next door, made refreshments for our classes, baked loads of cookies for Zone Conference, and finished off with cream puffs for the singles branch ‘Munch and Mingle’ this afternoon. With all this baking our apartment has been toasty warm. And even though she isn’t excited about cooking, the both of us are still quite fond of eating.
Our service time at the library was short this week. We will have to build some trust there so the librarians will let us work during the hours the library is open to the public. The librarian has us enter by the back door before hours and as soon as it opens we are ushered out. Maybe they think we’ll be peeping through the stacks at people and saying stuff like, “Hey buddy, want a free Book of Mormon?”
Joseph Bannano was baptized Sunday (20th) in our branch. He claims he is no relation to the Italian mobsters from New Jersey but he’s a big guy, he looks tough, and he definitely speaks with a Jersey accent. There seems to be lots of converts in this mission compared to home. There are many Africans, African Americans (not the same groups and not always friendly to each other) as well as Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Koreans, and other nationalities that predominate some of the wards here.
A couple times for our daily exercise we have walked about the neighborhood and admired the big old turn of the century homes. There must once have been some sort of zoning ordinance that homes had to be made of stone, 3 stories over basements, and about 40’ wide x 40’ deep. Even subtracting for the thick stone walls, these homes must all have over 6000 sq. ft. of living space. The narrow roads in the neighborhood were built, we are told, following cow trails along creeks between rolling hills. When we walk along we are often on sidewalks with stone retaining walls and we look even farther up on the hillsides to see the big stone homes surrounded by huge trees. Some trees have branches that stretch over the roadway and shade the neighbor’s yards.
A minor miracle has happened to Elder Blattman this week. The dentist’s office manager called at the last minute and said there was a problem with too many appointments and could he wait a few days for the root canal. It felt like the governor calling at 5 minutes before midnight to reprieve an inmate on death row. Meanwhile, although tender to cold, the pain has all but disappeared. It may not be on the scale of raising Lazarus from the dead but we are counting it down as at least a tender (pun okay) mercy. More than the healing miracle, it saved us $1200 since we no longer have dental insurance.
We’ve picked up more students in our classes, nearly doubling the numbers from last week. Some of our students are from the poorer part of Philly and ride a train to get to class. We are starting to feel the pressure to keep up in lesson preparation. If we were smarter it wouldn’t take us so long to develop our plans and make our power point slides.
Keep up the letters and art work. Our apartment walls and cupboards are starting to look more homey. If we get enough children’s art work on our walls we can call our apartment a gallery and charge admission.

Week 6

2011-02-13T19:38:00.001-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
February 7-13, 2011

We went in to volunteer at the Jenkintown library this week. Starting next week we’ll help out on Thursday mornings. The place isn’t exactly Hogwarts-like, but there are really old portraits hanging above the bookshelves on the walls and at the bottom of each frame there is a little brass plaque that probably has a name of the person in the portrait but both the painting and the plaque are so darkened with the soot of age it is impossible to figure out who are these people. There is a big double sided fireplace in the middle of the library that must have once been very inviting on these cold winter days. The cracked varnish on the ancient looking library tables has been scratched with the names and notes of thousands of people who must have studied there over the years. Mounted on the tables there are 1920’s style reading lights with green shades. I think we will enjoy working there even if there are no magical or secret books.
We went for dinner at a member of the branch presidency’s home. They invited another couple. We were the oldest but not by so much and we had a nice visit. They were vegetarians apparently. They didn’t want us to bring anything but we brought along some flowers and who knows but we might have eaten them too..
Sister Blattman made an impression at the beauty parlor when she got her hair cut yesterday. She overheard the woman at the desk tell the stylist that the ’nun’ wanted her hair cut. Everywhere we go we are like walking billboards for the church, but our name tags are so small that it sometimes comical to watch people keep making furtive glances at our chests, or screw up their faces trying to focus on the small lettering. I guess small badges make for second looks.
The car needed new motor mounts and one can spend only so much time at PepBoys looking at car magazines so we took a walk. We climbed over piles of snow and ice, shivering in the wind until we found a Hoagie shop run by an Indian or Pakistani where we had our second Philly Cheese. So far Arby’s wins the contest for sliced meat sandwiches. It was so cold with the wind that on the way back we ducked from store to store trying to warm up. When we finally got back, Sister Blattman made a friend in the waiting room at PepBoys and gave her a Mormon.org card.
We had dinner with three other senior couples at the mission president’s home last night. We felt like the odd ones out in what could only be described as an odd group. Double negatives in this case do not make a positive. Nonetheless, the food was good and the company was pleasant. One senior couple is planning to recycle and serve what will be, if one counts their mission as youth, their fifth time.
Class size is increasing slowly but steadily. We went from zero to two in one class, and one to two in another with a promise of more people coming this week. Our students range from graduate dental students to unemployed young people living in pretty ghetto conditions. But all seem to have a testimony of the gospel and hope in the future.

Week 5

2011-02-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
January 30-February 6, 2011

After feeding the Elders yesterday evening they split up and we took one of the Elders to meet Milton and his family. Milton could easily have been named ‘Rocky’ as his small living room in a crowded Philly suburb was filled with trophies and belts from boxing. Both the dad and the oldest boy were Miltons and both had impressive boxing records. The younger Milton, just 10 years old, had recently returned from Puerto Rico where he had won his third world boxing championship.
At first the dad sat slumped on the couch still in his work clothes, perhaps just tired, but letting his wife answer all the Elder’s questions. He occasionally gave short one word responses. The missionary was explaining many of the things from Preach My Gospel about enduring to the end, that is, the temple, patriarical blessings, the priesthood, etc. Sister Blattman asked them how they came to join the Church. The mom first started to tell the story and then he took over the thread of the story in a strong Philly accent. It was like listening to a humble Sylvester Stallone. He had read the Bible as a youth and had an intuitive understanding of the plan of salvation. His Pentecostal minister couldn’t answer his questions. One day after a big snow storm, the Elders were shoveling snow in his neighborhood and they met on the sidewalk. When they taught him the plan of salvation he knew the Church was true. He read the Book of Mormon and they became active for a time but had drifted into inactivity until recently. During the lesson the missionary mentioned father’s blessings and one of the little boys asked for a blessing to help him win his wrestling match. The Elder stuttered a moment, perhaps concerned that Milton didn’t have the Melchezidec Priesthood, and I jumped in and said, “Sure, you can have a blessing.” The father responded to the invitation to stand in and we ended up giving a blessing to two of the boys. Milton opened up after that and told us about growing up, moving away, and then returning to the neighborhood. He had been a sober young man who, unlike his friends, read the Bible often, and he attended the Pentecostal church. As a young man, a coach took an interest in him and sponsored him in wrestling and boxing and even paid his way to tournaments. That saved him from some of the trouble that could have entangled him. We enjoyed making friends with this family.

Week 4

2011-01-27T11:51:00.001-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
January 23-29, 2011

We made it. The GPS only had to say, “Turn around as soon as possible,” a few times. Once, just outside the Mortenson’s house in Louisville, KY, an exit ramp was parallel to the roadway we were to turn on and Elder Blattman started up the freeway the wrong way but God protects missionaries and blesses their mistakes so we don’t have to sing “…and should we die before our journey’s through,” nor do Elder and Sister Blattman’s children have to suffer the humiliation if their parents had made national news for causing a massive traffic pileup as confused aged drivers going the wrong way on the freeway.
Our apartment is lovely. The Elders proudly brought us a desk without legs, a dining table without chairs, and a dresser without handles. Sister Blattman is enduring it with all the cheeriness of a newly minted-fresh-from-the-MTC missionary. The second night when we slept in the bedroom we awoke to a noise and Sister Blattman said it was just the heater fan. Elder Blattman checked and found the heater fan control door was painted shut so it couldn’t be that. In fact, there was little and no heat from the radiator. The wind from outside was blowing the blinds. The windows are old and loose with gaps for the wind to howl through. Last evening the maintenance man came again, banged on the radiator pipes, twisted a few valves, put his tools back in his bag, threw up his hands and said, “I dunno, it just laughs at me,” and left. Meantime, the plastic on the windows and the space heater is keeping us warm. And between Home Depot and Wal-Mart, we have everything we need to be happy.
Elder Blattman is a little embarrassed at the comfort he felt when walking into Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is universal; the same funny looking people, the same cheap stuff, and for us old folks, our prescriptions can be filled at any Wal-Mart in the USA. Ahhh! There’s a little of Homer S. in all of us.
There was a bit of culture shock for us at the inner-city ward meeting Sunday. A nicely dressed black man with a headband greeted us at the door saying he was president of the ward and to be seated, the other leaders would be here soon. Someone whispered to us, “Don’t mind him, he’s harmless. He thinks he runs the place.” We sat across the aisle from an evidently homeless man who could not quite make words to speak but waved his hands about in a friendly, welcoming way. We were expecting racial diversity but surprised at the mental problems. The Church’s Addiction Recovery Program was mentioned several times in the talks and lessons. The Bishop told stories of in the past having to post men in the hallways to protect the building during sacrament meeting. As we prepared for our class there this morning I shoveled snow on the sidewalk out front and cleaned off a brass plaque in the cement commemorating a policeman killed in the line of duty, presumably on that spot. Sister Blattman is comforted by the gated parking lot surrounded by a tall iron fence. There is a Burger King adjacent to the church so after class next week she will find solace in a Coca-Cola and I’ll find mine in a double Whopper.
We are on the internet now. We got a stick for the computer that connects us on 4G. We have no idea what 4G is, but it sounds impressive to tell people. We’ve Skyped to Matt and Heather so far. Sister Blattman is the tech wizard on that one. Feel free to email us or try Skype. Keep in mind we go to bed about 6:30 PM PST.
Home Sweet Home:
Elder and Sister Blattman
100 Old York Road APT E204
Jenkintown, PA 19046

Week 3

2011-01-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
January 17-23, 2011

Here’s our CES group on the first week. Some couples in the group were leaving to be coordinators and office staff, others left to run programs on military bases, some were called to operate youth centers in Europe, a couple couples were teacher trainers in the South Pacific, and only a few were called specifically as teachers for Seminary and Institutes. There were all sorts of personalities in this group. The couple going to New Zealand were very pleased with their assignment. The couple that didn’t get selected for that assignment seemed a little miffed. For many couples this was their second or third mission.

The next photo is of our MTC district taken at the traditional world-wide photo spot. In the photo it looks like there’s a UFO sighting on the map somewhere in the South Pacific just below Elder Curtis’ right ear. Which reminds me that I realized during training that old men are generally not very funny. Our jokes are often in a context no one else is sharing or part of some obscure reference that hardly anyone understands. For example, if I were to call some wattled and jowled old codger with deep creases that push the edges of his mouth together so he looks like one of those wooden soldier nutcrackers a (I’ve lost you already haven’t i); well, if I were to call this old guy a ‘’Howdy Doody” it’s likely you might think I was just saying a quaint “Hello.” And then to explain it with, “Well, when I was a boy there was a black and white TV program for children...” I’m sure there would be some great arcing eye-rolls or that the squinty-eyed-tight-jawed look of someone stifling a yawn. We aren’t dumb, us old farts, we can see those stifled looks just like we could tell when you were getting ready to poop in your diaper, but we tell the joke anyway. Some of us old guys can’t slap you young folks anymore for your insolence, but we can still inflict pain with pithy jokes.
The newly minted Elder and Sister Blattman have been feeling somewhat like fish out of water so we’re adapting to walk on land. Here’s Elder Blattman prepared to go to the gym to exercise. Sister Blattman took to the circular track while her companion tried the machines.

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal Week 1

2011-01-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
January 3-9, 2011

Our first trip to the Missionary Training Center for Church Seminary and Institutes Training
We left Winnemucca on our first trip to the MTC in Provo for Seminary and Institutes Training on Sunday after sacrament meeting in our ward. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas together with everyone. Christmas seemed a bit hurried because we knew we’d have to button everything up in preparation for leaving. I hope we weren’t short with anyone. Everyone helped in one way or another if nothing more than hauling stuff off so we wouldn’t have to pack it. Matt & Kathy were especially kind in helping us clean the refrigerators, mop floors and pack the last few boxes. Many thanks.
Nancy and I talked most of the six hour trip (which always somehow takes us 8 hours), mostly about our children and grandchildren. We proudly hold our own in the senior missionary crowd here at the MTC. After asking where you are from and where you are going, it’s “How many grandchildren do you have?”
Here’s what we looked like in our application photo.

Tuesday evening we attended a devotional where David S. Baxter of the Seventy spoke. His message was one of the basic principles of the church. At the devotional Nancy saw one of her former seminary students, Colton Nielson, who had moved from Winnemucca and is here preparing to go to Bolivia on his mission. She was very pleased to see him.
The CES trainers who taught us through the week were exceptionally good teachers. They were models of good teaching practices as they taught things like lesson planning and classroom techniques. It was one of the best in-service like classes that I have attended.

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal Week 2

2011-01-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
January 10-14, 2011

Saturday morning as we prepared to leave Nancy spotted a drip under the kitchen sink. The more I tightened the leaky fittings the more they leaked so I had to make a trip to the hardware store before we could leave. I turned the valve back on and as I stood up and looked over the sink, there Nancy sat red-eyed on the couch, sadly staring around her empty and faintly echoing house. As much as she desires to serve a mission it was hard to leave the comfort of our home.
The car is overloaded. Not one more piece of clothing, not one more book can be crammed into the trunk. There is an area in the middle where the driver can see through things piled on the back seat. We have sewing machines to mend clothing and a cookie sheet to make refreshments for the single adults, enough books to make a small library, and plenty of stuff that we just can’t live without. I’m reminded how we stepped off the plane when we returned from Australia with four children, a diaper bag, and a didgeridoo. A couple of duffel bags containing our belongings had been lost and came later.
Saturday evening we had dinner at ‘Jim’s Family Diner’ in Springdale with my sisters, Edie, Judy, and Kathy. Jake and Toni were nearby looking at houses and they joined us as well. That was a nice treat. Edie took us back to her home to stay. It happened that Edie had been asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting the next morning, the first time she had been asked in nine years. That was a special treat. Larry, Nancy, and I had our usual back row seats and we didn’t make faces at her or anything. Sunday evening, Chris and his family came over for dinner. Chris shared a lot of information about seminary and the Church Education System. We had a nice last day as civilians.
At the Tuesday evening devotional the chorister casually mentioned as we sang prelude hymns that should an Apostle were to enter the room it would be respectful for everyone to stand. That created a buzz in the senior crowd. Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve, walked in with several other general authorities including Gordon B. Hinkley’s son whom I always give a double take. Elder Holland spoke powerfully about the ‘Preach My Gospel’ handbook and how with its implementation the Church was concerned that missionaries had a firmer foundation in gospel doctrine. He practically thundered on missionaries studying more, being more sensitive to the needs of investigators, and preparation. He made it very clear that we will never be the same after serving a mission nor can we go back to being what we once were.
With that, Nancy and I are experiencing a little culture shock. It’s not that we were not religious but we feel a little like we have joined a monastery full of exuberantly friendly monks. There are no vows of silence here for sure, people are so friendly that sometimes we look for a quiet corner in the cafeteria. I think our faces have some new wrinkles from smiling all the time. But on the other hand, we found Elder Ang in the cafeteria sitting by himself during lunch last week and he really seemed to enjoy our company. Elder Ang is from Cambodia and he earned his way to the MTC by working “lots a jobs in grocery store and selling things on street”. He joined the church as a teenager after reading a missionary pamphlet. He stepped on the pamphlet in a muddy street after playing ball with his friends. He picked it up and instead of throwing it away, he put it in his pocket and read it through several times over the next few days. After reading it he said he knew it was true. He found the missionaries and asked to be baptized, then saved until he could go on a mission himself. It took him a year to get a visa. Out of the 2500 missionaries here we seemed to run into a grinning friendly Elder Ang at least once a day. He left Wednesday morning to serve his mission in Boston. We can’t imagine a Bostonian/Cambodian accent. By the way, I had no idea that there were so many Elder and Sister missionaries that came here from all over the world to learn English before departing on their missions.
Here we are in the traditional MTC map

And the adventure begins

2011-01-02T22:17:00.000-08:00

I wanted to let everyone know about my new project.
I am asking Dad and Mom to send me a weekly letter and photo. I plan to compile them in a book and get each family a copy when they return.

If you have anything you would like to include in this record (ie: letters sent to you, letters you send to them, photos if you visit them, etc) you can also send to me in soft copy and I will archive them in the book.

thanks!

Kiddo update

2010-11-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go? ***sigh***

it feels like just the other day I was dragging my little Emily out of the dishwasher and out of my kitchen cabinets. Now I can hardly get her to help me put away the clean dishes out of the dishwasher.

Emily jumped in the car as I picked them up from school and informed me that she tried out for Honor Choir, and made it - ummmm...ok. Sometimes I marvel as her confidence levels.
Emily is also playing in a 5th & 6th grade league of volleyball and last night I watched her jump to block a ball at the net - what!!....ok....she is growing up. (granted her finger tips barely reached the top of the net) but she was ready. ( the Scott Pyrah family would have been proud)

Morgan has been asking "when is fast sunday?" for serveral months and wondering if she should get up to bear her testimony....each month fast sunday comes and goes as she decides she is too nervous. But last week, I got up and about 2 minutes later Morgan came up all by herself. She gave a great testimony that I think she practiced a million times in her head. Love that kid, that took so much courage for my little shy girl.

Jacob has been asking me things like "where is Jesus?" "Can he come to my birthday party?"
This usually leads to a discussion about earth, planets, and rockets....somehow...

Yesterday we were headed to the church for a Primary Pres. mtg and he said "Mom, Jesus made that church."
I replied, "Yep, He sends so many blessings so we can have the nice church."
Jacob, "Yep, and where is He? Can He come visit?"
"Not yet," I replied, "But Jesus will come again like He promised, and you will be able to meet Him."
Jacob, " I know! let's make a rocket and go visit Jesus!"

Sam is growing fast and has 3 teeth and one more incoming! He is pretty normal, so all systems are go! Loves him some cars and anything else left on the floor to stick in his mouth....my little human vacuum cleaner :)

Butterflies

2010-10-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

Since Mom and Dad were in town I am taking the liberty to share - they got a call from their Bishop that he received a note that their mission call was mailed off.....so they are expecting to see it in the mail Mon. or Tues!

So exciting! Mom confessed the butterflies were setting in and Dad was excited to share the update with everyone!

I sort of feel like "wow, this is really happening...." said in that high operatic voice

looking forward to see what comes!

Oh Say Can You See?

2010-07-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

Photo blog - Themed

2010-07-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

our theme is "Oh Say Can You See"

post your best photo blog pic!!

2010-06-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

Just because we don't know how to say Arboretum, doesn't mean we aren't classy enought to bust a move while we are there.....

a day at the abororoumnumtomy....

2010-06-28T19:46:00.001-07:00

We spent a day at San Rafeal Park with Max, Luke, and Heather. We were not able to observe the "quiet recreation" of the arbore...arbarum...arba...the nature trails.

Max really liked this girl's bike, even going as far as stroking the streamers hanging from her handle bars. But her dad came over to diffuse the negotiation over the bike.

putting the "nature" in nature trails

Just building immune systems while at the park.

Ohhhh, what do you do in the summertime,

2010-06-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

when all the world is green.

Do you fish in a stream or lay on the banks and lazily dream as the clouds go by?

Is that what you doooo? So do I!

Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high?
Is that what you doooo? So do I!

Do you march in a parade or drink lemonade or count the stars in the sky
Is that what you doooo? So do I!

Decide I would keep the kids busy this summer with something to do each day. I even got them each a little book to keep the pictures in and color or write.

I think it was more for me to have proof that they were not bored and put the kabosh on the "there is nothing to doooooo" whine.

77 things to do this summer day 15-28

2010-06-22T09:52:00.001-07:00

Day 15 – Grow a sunflower
Sunflowers are fun to plant because they sprout in about a week, even though it takes a while for them to reach their full height.
Day 16 – Have your kids start a journal
Set aside ten minutes each day for them to write in their journals, and keep up on it through the whole summer.
Day 17 – Pet Cam
Have your child follow around your dog or cat with a camera and see the world from your pet’s point of view
Day 18 – Be chef for a day
Teach your kids to cook a meal. It can be as simple as a peanut butter sandwich for young children, or a casserole or roast for older children.
Day 19- Host an Olympics
Get together with other parents and create a Summer Olympics for all the kids on your block. Te kids can help create different races and events; let them spend a few days “training” and then let the games begin.
Day 20 – Grow butterflies
For $20 dollars you r kids can watch the life cycle of a butterfly in your own home. Go to insectlore.com to purchase a live butterfly garden.
Day 21 – Make an anything goes lunch
For just one day, invite your family to have anything and everything they want for lunch.
Day 22 – Play American Idol
Let your kids spend hours performing their songs and routines to their favorite tunes. Record them and watch them for the next FHE
Day 23 – Play with bubbles
Let your kids make their own bubbles and wands. Also, using powdered tempera paints, dish detergent, and liquid starch, you can make colorful bubbles.
Day 24 – Hold a no-electricity day
Pull the plugs on all your electronics and drag out the board games, have a picnic in your backyard, and spend some time together the old fashioned way. Use candles at night instead of overhead lights.
Day 25 – Enjoy fresh fruit
Different fruits will be available at different times during the summer, so do your homework. Check picyourown.org to see if there is a kid friendly farm in your area or look for a farmer’s market.
Day 26 – Use Workbooks
Many stores sell workbooks that help kids stay on top of their math and reading. Have them do a page a day and reward them with their favorite treat when they finish a book.
Day 27 – Attend a concert in the park
Many cities have a series of free concerts during the summer months, and they often feature many different kinds of music
Day 28 – Go Fish
Grab some fishing poles and head for the nearest lake or stream.

Container Garden

2010-06-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden

The prophet said to plant a garden, so that’s what we’ll do.
For God has given rich brown soil, the rain and sunshine too.
And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully,
Before we know, good things will grow to feed our family.

We’ll plant the seeds to fill our needs, then plant a few to spare,
And show we love our neighbors with the harvest that we share.
Oh, won’t you plant a garden, too, and share the many joys
A garden brings in health and love to happy girls and boys!

77 Things to do this summer - Days 1-14

2010-06-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Days 1-14

Day 1 – Have a pajama day
Start the summer right by letting the kids relax. Make a favorite breakfast, watch cartoons, and enjoy a day of relaxation.
Day 2 – Have a treasure hunt
Hide the clues and include a box of their favorite treats at the end. If it’s a particularly hot day, “X” marks the spot on the popsicles in your freezer.
Day 3 – Grow a Garden
Have your kids be in charge of a plant that water and care for daily.
Day 4 – Hold a family reading competition
Challenge each other to read a certain amount of books before the summer ends, either aloud and together or individually, and then reward yourselves with a fun trip or other family activity if you succeed. Make a simple chart to show progress.
Day 5 – Make a summer to do list
Have your kids cover a poster board with all the things they want to do this summer, and have them put a box next to each idea so they can check it off when finished.
Day 6 – Learn a new skill
Ever wanted to ballroom dance, do yoga, or learn to decorate a fancy cake? Take a class as a family. Many are available through community colleges and private studios
Day 7 – Create water bottle holders
Craft are always a great way to keep kids occupied, and this one is perfect for helping your summer outings. Go to craft.kaboose.com to find this craft.
Day 8 – Host a car wash
Let your kids choose if they want to offer their services free to your neighborhood, or if they think they are professional enough to charge money. Let the kids save their earnings for a fun trip or activity.
Day 9 – Buy a YMCA or community center pass
Kids enjoy having the freedom to learn and try different things, and pass will definitely give them the opportunity to do that. Your younger kids will enjoy attending one of their many day camps, which will give you free time to relax and enjoy your summer, too.
Day 10 – Fly a kite
This has been a family favorite since before Mary Poppins. Have your kids make their own kites.
Day 11 – Knit bandages for leprosy victims
Encourage your kids to serve by teaching them how to knit or crochet bandages for leprosy victims. Plenty of internet sites five instructions for knitting and directions for donating, such as leprosybandage.blogspot.com.
Day 12 – Just add water
Take traditional games or sports and give them a wet, summery twist. Try water balloon volleyball - you can fling the balloons over the net with towels. Or try sponge tag or water limbo with a garden hose.
Day 13 – Take a library trip
Libraries offer many programs and activities during the week that are fun for kids as young as three.
Day 14 – Make frozen treats
Frozen fruit smoothies are simple and nutritious ways to get creative with your kids. Blend together yogurt and milk and your choice of frozen fruit. Or find a recipe on the internet for ice cream in a bag.

Stay tuned for more ideas....
(LDS LIviing May June 2010 Issue)

Mothers Day

2010-05-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Since church was cancelled on Mother's Day (the furnace was on the fritz and smoke filled the building), we needed to find something to do...so we took some pictures. This tied up about 20 minutes.....

so then we decided to play games and crochet. The boys made the ladies dinner and cleaned up!

Mom and Dad gave me a tutorial on New Family Search and that was really fun!

What a great Mother's Day!

Sam - growing up fast!

2010-05-11T11:19:00.001-07:00

Will is great

2010-03-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

as if you didn't know this already!
check out our website Will has developed and designed for Heather and I

www.whatthecupcake.com

this website has given me a new boost of encouragement -
if you think about it, encouragement is just giving someone else some courage to face the challenge!

thanks Lil Brother

Birthday, Baptism and Blessing

2010-03-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

Whew!! what a weekend!

we are so blessed

8 is Great!

2010-02-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

Morgan is 8! MY! How the time flies! She got to go bowling, have pizza and some special cupcakes. Morgan got roller blades but only got to use for a minute or two as it started to snow. 2 1/2 feet later, she is still waiting for the snow to stop so she can get out there!

Morgan is looking forward to being baptized in 2 weeks and she will get to go to Activity Days with her sister each week!

Emily's Valentine wishes....early

2010-02-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

We worked on valentines early this year and Emily choose this design for the boys in her class. I don't know if the 10 yr old boys will find this funny, cute, or just plain scary....

March goings on

2010-02-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

family and friends,

wanted to let you know about some upcoming dates and activities for the Pyrahs.

Emily will be celebrating her 10th Birthday March 5th (Friday) and Morgan will be baptized on March 6th. Sam will be blessed on March 7th.

We wanted to extend an invite to those of you who would like to come. We realize it is some distance for a lot of you and we understand if you cannot make it. If you can, please let us know so we can help make some arrangements for your stay.

Emily's party will be in the evening of March 5th and Morgan's baptism is on Saturday at 5pm at the Rock Blvd chapel. We will have a little dinner afterwards at our church bldg. Sam will be blessed on the Sunday morning (9am sacrament meeting) at our chapel in Spanish Springs. We are happy to carravan to these locations so no one is lost.

love and miss you all
Sarah

Jacob's impression of Chris' driving

2010-01-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

Samuel David

2010-01-20T15:56:00.000-08:00

Time sure flies. I realized I had not posted any pics of Sam and then realized he was 4 weeks old already!
I just made the birth announcements and should be able to get those out before he turns 30 yrs old. Just seems like I get further and further behind.

the countdown for the arrival of...

2009-12-17T19:05:00.001-08:00

Met with my Dr. today and she was able to take into consideration the holidays with the arrival of our new boy...so we are planning for a delivery on Dec 22nd (sharing a b-day with Uncle Matt!) if not before.
We will keep you updated and post some pics!

Sarah

Emily's Piano Recital

2009-12-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

Emily recently had her piano recital. She played "Oh Christmas Tree". Morgan apparently was having her own humming recital during Emily's number. But we had heard the song so often at home, I can't really get too upset with Morgan.

She did really well, and played the whole number without her sheet music. I think she has Gramma Raine's long fingers and is able to play really well. She isn't afraid to play loudly either :)

Good Job Emily!

Happy Thanksgiving - sorry it took so long to upload these

2009-12-14T09:05:00.000-08:00

2009-11-16T20:17:00.000-08:00

Please excuse the error in putting Heather Blattmans s/b Heather Lights. Sorry Joey. Nothing personal I promise. Just some old people have a hard time changing. We love you, Joey.

2009-11-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not very good at all this, but I will try to post a blog. Some of you have been questioning whether we will have a Christmas exchange this year. So in my infinite wisdom, I have decided we will, and I am here posting it. Hope it meets with your approval. I am assuming that since Matt & Kathy were not able to participate last due to their far and distant home, that they will not participate this year. Listed are the families that you will be buying a gift for, and that is one gift for the entire family listed with a limit of $50.00 per family. That is the high limit--doesn't mean you have to spend that much. Here goes:
Joseph Blattmans buy for Jacob Blattmans
Jacob Blattmans buy for Dan Blattmans
Dan Blattmans buy for Sarah Pyrahs
Sarah Pyrahs buy for Will Blattmans
Will Blattmans buy for Heather Blattmans
Heather Blattmans buy for Joseph Blattmans

Any questions, send them to our legal department 1-800-I don't know.

Tonsil update

2009-11-12T14:09:00.001-08:00

Jakey is home and doing well. He enjoyed every part of the pre-op: wagon ride, stuffed animals, movie and getting to blow up the green "balloon" for the anesethia. But waking up was another story and took about 3 hours. He was pretty sad yesterday, but had a good night. He is managing today with head nods/shakes and whispers. He is still having a hard time swallowing and tends to let the drool roll. He seems more alert and is eating otter pops, and drinking some juice. I think we can start the ice cream tomorrow.

I have chalked yesterday up to "one of the hardest Mommy days of my life". But I made it through, whew.

thanks to everyone for more happy thoughts and Mom and Dad for helping. Emily and Morgan were sure wore out after hanging with the g-parents.

2009-11-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

Jakey goes in for his tonsillectomy on Wed at 6am. We just wanted to ask if each family could remember him in your family prayers Tues night. We would appreciate your prayers, positive vibes and happy thoughts.

thanks
Sarah and Chris

Belly shot

2009-11-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

I thought I would post a belly shot just for fun.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T21:40:00.001-08:00

we wanted it to be obvious that we dressed up for Halloween. heather and I noticed as we walked through Scheels that it was increasingly difficult to figure out who was in costume or who was just wearing something interesting...ie: 6 inch red high heals or the furry furry boots.

christmas exchange

2009-10-19T10:21:00.001-07:00

What are we doing? does any one know?

Choose This Day

2009-10-12T19:30:00.001-07:00

Choose This Day

Shared via AddThis

Max's special present

2009-10-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

I will give you 3 hints...

1.

2.

Happy 2nd birthday Max!

2009-10-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Amigo

After the Party we took Max and Joey to the pumpkin/goat farm

Smiles and curls

2009-10-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

Emily and Morgan endured a night of sponge rollers to have special "do's" for the Primary program a couple weeks ago (I am a bit behind). They had each memorized their parts on their own. And Jakey behaved enough that I was able to sit and smile, wave and listen to them say their parts.

I always thought parenting was about milestones. First steps, first day of school, etc. Now I try to just savor the minutes or the seconds. I was so proud of them that day!

Family outing Frenchmans Lake

2009-10-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

This is Chris off in the distance.

The kids, so many rocks, so much water, lots of throwing and splashing to be done.

Jakey was in love with the lake, so much world, so little time...

This is pretty much what I did the whole time...notice my piggies and ankles are swollen to a lovely cankle effect.

canning and camping

2009-08-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Worked on some canning with my mom. We had the camp stove set up outside and it worked well to keep the temp. down inside. We ended up doing 35 jars of Peaches and 12 jars of Apple pie filling, only getting through half of the peach harvest, and barely a dent in the apples. In two weeks we will be doing 50 lbs. of pears I bought through the church orchard and probably more apples. I am pioneer woman, hear me roar!
I was pretty sore today just from all the standing (my hips are a bit wider these days) but was pretty excited to fill some shelves.

The girls, the boy and Chris all camped out Friday night in the back yard and also roasted marshmellows. I was tucked away in a real bed due to my present condition ;). Saturday night was less successful with the sleeping in a tent when Morgan had a panic attack and tears over a discovery of a spider in the tent. The a kids stampede came running inside sleeping bags and all. (eye roll), wimps. The kids also went catfish and cradad (sp?) fishing with grandpa and Jakey managed to fall in the stream.

overall a successful weekend! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Crazy Hair Day

2009-08-28T08:01:00.001-07:00

We had fun this morning doing crazy hairdos!

I felt like this was written about me...you may feel the same

2009-08-19T08:51:00.001-07:00

Thinking of Having Kids?

Lesson 1
Go to the grocery store.
Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
Go home.
Pick up the paper.
Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their…
Methods of discipline.
Lack of patience.
Appallingly low tolerance levels.
Allowing their children to run wild.
Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior. Enjoy it, because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
To discover how the nights will feel…
Walk around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
At 10PM, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
Set the alarm for 3AM.
As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink.
Go to bed at 2:45AM.
Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
Sing songs in the dark until 4AM.
Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years.
Look cheerful.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out…
Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
Then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this – all morning.

Lesson 6
Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a jar of paint, turn it into an alligator.
Now take the tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using only Scotch tape and a piece of aluminum foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas candle.
Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty packet of Cocoa Puffs.
Make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Lesson 7
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don’t think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look like that.
Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
Get a dime. Stick it in the cassette player.
Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat.
Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
There. Perfect.

Lesson 8
Get ready to go out.
Wait outside the bathroom for half an hour.
Go out the front door.
Come in again.Go out.
Come back in.
Go out again.
Walk down the front path.
Walk back up it.
Walk down it again.
Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
Stop, inspect minutely, and ask at least 6 questions about every cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect along the way.
Retrace your steps.
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbors come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.
You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 9
Repeat everything at least, if not more than, five times.

Lesson 10
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-
school child. (A full- grown goat is excellent). If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat.
Buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.
Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 11
Hollow out a melon.
Make a small hole in the side.
Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a nine- month old baby.

Lesson 12
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV for at least five years.

Lesson 13
Move to the tropics. Find or make a compost pile. Dig down about halfway and stick your nose in it. Do this 3-5 times a day for at least two years.

Lesson 14
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying “mommy” repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each “mommy”; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years.
You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 15
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the “mommy” tape made from Lesson 14 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Picture Day!

2009-08-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

Morgan Age 7 2nd grade

Emily age 9 4th Grade

I am never quite confident that the clothes will remain clean or the hair managed by the time they step in front of the photographers, so I thought I would snap one or two before they headed out the door.

Pyrah Baby Farm

2009-08-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

Life is much the same on the baby farm. I am growing in the mid section, slowly and surely. I think my belly is not so large this time since I am not grazing at the vendor machine in the office. (MOO!)

Today we found out that we will welcome a Baby Boy to our family. The dates continue to be up and down. My "dates" say Dec 27th, the first ultra sound at 18 weeks said Dec 25th, the new ultrasound at 20 weeks say Dec 28th.

At any rate it looks like it will be a Christmas baby and we won't be traveling away from home for the holidays.

The kids are excited to figure out a name for the new baby, so if you have suggestions let me know.

Also, we are starting a baby pool, you submit a date and time of the baby arrival. Winner will get a gift card!

Mark your calendars

2009-08-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

Attention Blattmans (and Pyrahs):

We are going to bless Luke on September 6th, here in Dayton. We'd love for everyone to come, if you can.
Come for the blessing, stay for the food. Church starts at 11am. Let us know if you can make it.

The Lights

My present from Heather

2009-07-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

brownie points for creativity!

Picnic at the Pyrahs - woot woot

2009-07-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

Happy 40 th Anniversary!

2009-07-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

Forty years, forty wonderful years!

First day of school...where does the time go?

2009-07-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Emily is in 4th grade and Morgan is in 2nd grade this year. The school year began July 6th. Short summer, but we will have a wonderful break in Sept.

Emily was a bit jittery that day and asked me to stand with her in line and take a walk to see where her classroom door was, etc. I was surprised that my independent little energy bug was so nervous.

However, Morgan also surprised by telling me that she thought it best if I did not wait with her in line because I was embarrassing...(humph)

Catching up

2009-07-10T21:02:00.001-07:00

We had a great 4th of July. Celebrated in the morning by cleaning up our rooms and house....or maybe celebrated isn't the right word...
But after lunch we headed to the new outdoor Mall by Scheels to putz around with some friends from out Ward. We ended up playing the shoot um up games in Scheels and playing in the fountains in the outdoor mall. The kids got some face painting done and that seemed "so 4th of July" per Emily.
We headed home for BBQ and yard games. I mostly just laid on the grass and watched, Lazy Mommy.
Then at dark (9pm) we headed to the Scheel's parking lot to watch the fireworks above the Nugget towers. Morgan made it through half and then disappeared into the car to snooze. I was nearly successful in eating a whole grocery bag of carmel corn myself. I was inspired by the Hot Dog eating contest we watched on ESPN, and I think I will be ready next year.

We had been the receipients of dinner from a lovely family and decided to give a gift back with this home made gum ball machine...tasty and the kids helped paint and put together!

Yummiest Soup on the block!

2009-06-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

So I was the recipient of this soup one night from a lovely friend.

I don't normally eat left overs as I have a strong feeling about them rooted in my fear of what my Dad could make from leftovers.
BUT I hid the soup left overs behind containers in my fridge so I could enjoy them on Day 2...bwhahahaha

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

2 Pkg. Wild Rice Mix (Uncle Ben's; cooked)
5 Chicken breasts (cooked and cubed)
4 or 5 Cups of water
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 chopped onion
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped carrots
2 can chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups of milk
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 Cup Flour

Cook rice and chicken and combine in pot with water. Saute veggies in saucepan with olive oil. Add to pot. Melt margarine in saucepan and add flour. Wisk in milk until bubbly and thick. Add milk mixture and chicken broth to pot and give it a stir.

Simmer soup for 15 minutes or so.

I just made half this recipe and it makes a LOAD of soup. SO if you make the full recipe plan to be a lovely friend and pass it own to another family for dinner.