Cassi and her Roommates

Lyndsey (Burley ID), Hannah (CO), Cassi (TX), Ashley (MO)

 The girls ready for their first night on the town.

Look-out Rexburg!

These are darling, brilliant, good girls. They bonded and took to each other right away. They are in a four-girl cooking dorm. So the apartments are bigger than regular dorms and have two girls per bedroom. Cassi's actual roommate is Hannah.

It was fun for me to be there to help her get situated but she didn't need much help. I realize that was more for me than her. We shopped alot since we flew and most of the stuff she took was clothes. There was much to buy. She was beyond ready to spread her wings and fly. But I'll admit the drive back to the airport in Idaho Falls was l-o-n-e-l-y.

When I tell her I miss her beautiful face... she'll text me a pic. She's the BEST!

Cassi auditioned and made the BYUI Women's Choir and they will be singing in the April General Conference in Salt Lake City. She is very excited about that. So watch for her. She has already sung in three shows at BYUI. Her Grandpa has asked her to sing at his and Marilyn's wedding. Thats quite an honor for her. You can see her sing if you go to YouTube and search 2010 Texas All State Choir. She was first chair alto.

Cassi is only one of a few girls in her chemistry class. She's a little perplexed by the lack of females in her science classes. After the professor put fear of failure into his students the first week of chemistry her partner was surprised by her return on Monday morning. He said, "Whoa your still here?" and she said, "Wow, I was just going to say the same thing to you!" He dropped the class and she now has a new partner. LOL. Though gifted musically she wants to be a Dr.

She has not complained about the cold or snow. This seems to bother everyone but Cassi. She has had a few moments of missing Texas (and her car) but lets us know the day or two after the episode not during, which I admire as she pushes through these little bouts of homesickness.

Lyndsey P

We took her to the Orthodontist while I was there and she goes in tomorrow to have all the molds made and spacers put in. Then she gets braces on Feb 7th (after Grandpa's wedding). :)

Funny story: At home I make a tuna noodle casserole we call 'Goulash' and Cassi told me that she can only hack it once every six months. But she told me last week she'd already eaten it three times. LOL. She was hitting the 'yuck' factor. Time to use her Mac to search for a few recipes. LOL.

Well, writing about my sweetie is not just informational but, alas, it is also theraputic for a Momma who misses another one of her darling girls. I'm counting down till we get to see each other for a couple of days in Feb at Grandpa's Wedding. Yay!

The Rexburg Temple

~Momma Dodge

My Dad is getting married!

Marilyn May and Moe Beaujeu

To be married 05 Feb, 2011

Their invitations are in the mail so I am not letting any cats out of the proverbial bag by sharing this tidbit of information. In fact I got mine last week (invite) so I am feeling pretty confident that a bunch of you know this already.

How do I feel about this? Quite frankly...I'm stoked about it. I could NOT be happier.

As many of you know we took the passing of our Mother (23rd Sept, 2007) hard. Her sweet presence has been missed terribly. We love her and respect her so much, and we still miss her EVERY day. But, no-one has taken it harder than our Dad. No-one can dispute the eternal love he feels for his Marlene. That is clear and in full effect...for all of us, and it will never change.

I have taught my children since they were knee-high to a grasshopper, that love is NOT a pie! Remember in kindergarden or first grade when we are introduced to fractions by being given a whole pie? Then the teacher would ask, what if we had two people and we needed to share? Well, we'd take that pie and cut it in half, each to share an equal lesser part. Well, what if we had four people? Then- we take that pie and we basically rob the others of a portion of their pie to accomidate the new people, thus making fourths. As a fifith or sixth person shows up there starts to be a little bit of resentment beginning to build behind the niceties of our communal share (murmur murmur). What happens then when we start inviting our friends, and six become eight, or ten, or more? Well, if my sister can bring a friend and share...then I should be able to make everyone share their pie with MY friend, right? So, you can see that this demonstrates perfectly the example of the limited capacity of pie sharing. The more people who come for pie the smaller the piece given to each person present. Ugh! Pretty soon...why bother...right?

This story was always a great segue to the limitlessness of the capacity of love.

No, love, indeed, is NOT a pie. We do NOT have to rob anyone of their piece of our love. Nor are we given a specific compartment of love with limited capacity. Like a tupperware bowl, where if we pour too much into it it begins to over-flow and make a mess. (Do a subject study in the scriptures using the topic, 'capacity'.) Wow, Heavenly Father is so great!

Love is only limited by fear. As we exercise faith and love others Heavenly Father blesses us with an increased capacity to love more. And no-one in our lives must have one ounce of the love we feel for them compromised or diminished by having someone new come into our lives. The more we give love, the more we are able to recieve it.

That brings me to our sweet Marilyn. She is lovely, and as sweet as they come. Her and her husband were friends with my parents (having a cabin near theirs). Mays sold their cabin and lost touch with my parents until one day at the Huntsman Cancer Institute where my Mom, Dad, and I were sitting in the waiting room waiting to go back for an appointment with her oncologist, Dr. Tudor, and in walked Richard and Marilyn May. Everyone hugged and some tears were shed by my mother as she felt the pain of seeing another friend struggle with the ugly 'C'-word. Richard was there for his chemo treatments. Again, with the all consuming nature of this terrible disease, they again lost touch. Unknown to my family Marilyn lost Richard little more than two months after we lost Mother.

Through a series of events that some would call coincidental...I do not... Dad and Marilyn were able to find each other and connect in such a sweet, respectful, and loving way. I won't give away all their secrets and share their courting, and how love found it's way blossoming into their lives again. I only know the day I got a voice-mail from my Dad saying he had something to tell me and I heard in his voice on that message a joy that I hadn't heard since my Mother passed from this world. I said to Jerry, "He sounds HAPPY!" How could a loving child of my father not embrace and be excited for this return of joy and the woman who brought it back into his life? He is not dead, and his life is not over. His life is prescious and this life is meant to be LIVED! I am so proud of my Dad. Again he teaches us in the way he is living his life. You go DAD!

I went to Utah a couple of weeks ago (actually it was a lay-over when I took Cassi up to BYUI) and was able to meet Marilyn for the first time. Excuse my comparison, but this is what it reminded me of;  Like the feeling of loving a child before it's born. I knew before I laid eyes on this sweet lady that I would love her. My Dad does, and thats good enough for me. I have talked to Dad on the phone enough and he has shared enough with me to know that she is going to be a wonderful addition to the Beaujeu family. She is considerate, happy, thoughtful, and kind hearted.

I hope you will ALL expand your capacity to love, and embrace the opportunity to increase the love you recieve by loving Dad's Marilyn. We do.

No, love is NOT a pie!

~Sandi Beaujeu Dodge

A quilt for my Missionary!

One of the Sister's that Kristi met in the MTC had a back-pack made by her mother and the material was a lavender Sister Missionary flannel print. So Kristi sent me a picture of it and said how fun the material was and wondered if I could find some.

So when I was in Utah in July part of my vacation quest was searching for this material. And I was triumphant when I came upon a piece (in pink) just large enough to piece a quilt. I was now armed and ready to make my Missionary a surprise for Christmas.

This was a picture of their bedroom in Nov, 2010

Needs a little hug from home...no?

So, I got crackin.

I decided it would add some maturity to the quilt by adding some 9 patch.

My fun work station.

The idea is coming together. I decided to use a large center piece instead of cutting it up to preserve the integrity of the small print, and to keep the focus on the Missionary theme.

I took pieces from Cami & Cassi's quilts and added it to Kristi's. My mother collected teddy bears. So I incorporated a few teddy bears. Also-the butterfly material is Breast Cancer Awareness material. There is also material with the Salt Lake City Temple where me and Jerry were married.

I free-hand embroidered the name of her Mission, her Mission President's name, and all of her companions names (thus far), and her name, of course, on patches of the quilt. (P.S. You can see how the inegrity of a small print is sometimes lost when it is cut up, thus, why I chose to leave the center piece large).

Sister Ward, Sister Kingsford, Sister Kissell, and Sister Gallego

I laid it out on the floor to get some ideas and to begin piecing it together.

I chose brown as the other majority color to add age to the print.

Isn't it a cute print?

I added brown flannel sashing, brown flannel backing and binding.

Lois Schauweker quilted it for me with her long arm machine.

Then I put on the binding.

Then it was finished and ready for Sister Dodge's Christmas box.

I also made flannel pillow cases to match and my friend Melanie Leonard embroidered their names on them...Sister Dodge and Sister Gallego. :) I also made others for Christmas presents. Fun times.

When I went to Utah I snapped a darling pic of my niece Brinley snuggled up in the quilt I made for Shannon last Christmas. You can see the Temple material I also added to Kristi's. :) I love that there are pieces of the same cloth in each other's quilts symbolic of how we are all connected in the fabric of our lives.

I have made some fun quilts. I love making them. It is definately in my genes. My grandmother Rosina Mertz made many many quilts. In fact when she passed away and her bed was disassembled and moved there were several quilts folded up in between the mattress and box springs. Beautiful quilts for 'someday'. This taught me a valuable lesson. Every day is a special day, a day for celebration...today is someday. That is not to say that she didn't use and give away many gorgeous quilts, she certainly did. I was raised snuggled beneath her quilts, and I loved knowing my grandma's hands made them. Oh how I love her and find happiness in knowing she is on the other side with a grin as I continue with her passion.

This is Sister Dodge showing some of her Christmas presents.

She already has put her quilt on her bed. :) Thats my girl!

~Missionary Momma Dodge

Nushin Tea

2 1/4 C Tang
2 pkgs. pre-sweet lemonade
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp ground gloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and store in air tight container.

To make a cup of hot lusciousness:
Mix 2- 2 1/2 tsp of drink mix into 1 C boiling water.

For those frosty mornings....Mmmm

This is one of those recipes that has been in my Moms recipe box since I was knee-high to a grass-hopper. But I had lost touch with it. Thanks for helping me with it Aunt Bev I knew it had to still be bouncing around the family somewhere.

~Sandi

To: My Children