Walter James Burgess, Jr. 1922 - 2014

After living a full life and at the age of 91, on Wednesday, March 12th, at 2:00am, Walter James Burgess, Jr. passed away. The last thing Grandpa ate before he died was ice cream. It was a common occurrence that he ate ice cream before going to bed. Grandpa Burgess was an important part of Tony's life. He regularly gave Tony rides to baseball practice. In fact, Tony and his cousins tribute Grandpa with their love of baseball. Grandpa remembered that differently. He liked baseball because of Tony.

Grandpa also stands out to many others as an excellent teacher and friend. Just a few years ago, Grandpa was inducted to the Dumas High School Hall of Fame where he taught math, physics, and tennis for 37 years.

Before those years as a teacher he served in the Pacific Theater during WWII in the US Coast Guard. His ship was involved in the campaigns that liberated the Philippines from Japanese rule.

The most important thing Grandpa did was accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ when the missionaries came knocking on his door. He and Grandma were baptized 3 November 1957 while living in Dumas, Texas. They left prominence in their prior church to dedicate their lives to building the Kingdom of God in their little community. Grandpa labored with his own hands to build the branch building that is still in use in Dumas. It was known in the community as the church that Walter built. He served several stints as branch president. All of his children were raised in the Church, and all four were married for eternity in the Temple.

Later, each grandson and one granddaughter of Walter and Beth Burgess served a mission. Those missions include Germany, Japan, Pennsylvania, California, Canada, Albania, and Brazil. Grandma and Grandpa served their own mission in the late 1980s as workers in the Dallas Texas Temple. After they followed Tony's parents to Dallas, Grandma and Grandpa continued as weekly ordinance workers in the Dallas Temple until they moved to Houston in about the year 2000 to be near their second daughter and her family. Then they worked regularly in the Houston Texas Temple.

As part of our trip from Arizona to the funeral (which we drove in one day each direction - never again), we visited Tony's parents in Dallas because we didn't think we would have much chance to visit them all year due to tight budgets. Tony had been interviewing for the position as assistant temple engineer for the same Dallas Temple his grandparents had been ordinance workers in for about 20 years. While in Dallas Tony and Mark visited the Temple so Tony could meet his potential new boss, Patrick Snyder. They had a great chat for about an hour. As Tony left the temple, he had a spiritual impression that his grandpa's passing was timed by the Lord specifically to help Tony get the job.

Small things lead to great things.

Below are pictures from the funeral in the Houston National Cemetery:

Location of the grave side service:

Skipping the person I don't know on the far left: Mark Brown, Hyrum Brown, Tony Brown, Patrick Jones.

Carrying the casket:

Trenda Brown received the flag as oldest representative of the children:

Mark Brown and Hyrum Brown

The Houston Texas Temple:

Temple Grounds:

The Asay family (Walter and Beth's youngest daughter, Tammie):

Tony, Lindi, Jeri Lin, Hyrum, Trenda, and Mark Brown

Our little family on Temple grounds:

The three sisters (Annette Jones, Tammie Asay, Trenda Brown) with cousin Carlton:

Me and Lindi:

The Jones family:

Patrick Jones with his bride:

Jeri Lin and Lindi:

Mark and Trenda Brown:

Teenage Lindi and Heat Stroke

Oh what adventures we have had today...

Lindi had her well child visit. How reassuring to know that her eating habits are normal for her age. She's in the teenage years of babyhood. It's time for her to test what she can get away with and what she can't. It's time for me to choose my battles and stick to my guns.

The first battle I chose is her sleeping habits. No more momma bouncing her to sleep. No more climbing in mom's bed at night. The Dr said to start during the day, because if she can't do it during the day, there's no way she'll do it at night. So, when we came home, in her bed she went. I sang to her and talked to her and held her hand and patted her back, but I did not get her out. She cried and made a big scene and it lasted longer than I wanted it to, but she eventually she went to sleep and took a good long nap. We'll see how the next few days go. It could be rough.

This afternoon I got the kids ready for the Wet Zone and we walked the mile over there and discovered they are closed on Tuesday. Well, we had walked all that way, why not go a little farther and play at the lake? Well, the lake is so low that you can't get to it from the road, so we ended up turning around and coming back. We were hot and miserable. Hyrum said, "I'm almost out of poop." Translation: "I'm pooped." Ha! So we filled up the little kiddie pool as soon as we were home and we are enjoying the shade. So far, the mosquitos have left us alone. Whether or not that's true or they are sneaky remains to be seen.

Bloomsday 2014

When my dad told me he was headed up to Spokane to visit family and to run in the Bloomsday race, I was bummed.  I really wanted to visit my grandparents, but I was already scheduled to work.  When Husband accepted his new job, though, our plans changed.  This trip to Washington was a large reason why the kids and I didn't leave for Texas at the same time Husband did.  We made a week long pit stop in Spokane.

After we planned to go with Pops, he invited me to run with him in the Bloomsday race.  It was a 12k race.  I had never done anything like this, and I'm not a runner, but I figured I could keep up with my dad. ;)  Some cousins and my Aunt Mary also ran and another cousin stayed behind to watch my kids.  We had a great time.

It was a good workout.  It was challenging, especially "Doomsday Hill." But, we were saying, "Let's do that again!" before the day was even over.

My official finish time was 1:47:48. My dad beat me by two seconds.

Can't wait until next year, Dad!!