DRIVIN' AND DREAMIN'

THURSDAY, APRIL 01, 2010 The other day we ate at Won Won Wok. As usual when they brought the check they gave us fortune cookies. I didn’t open mine right away but waited until I had gotten behind the steering wheel of our van, buckled up and started the engine. Then is when I opened it. It read, “Your place in life is in the driver’s seat!” That is doubly appropriate as there isn’t much in life I enjoy more than in the drivers seat taking a long trip. Being in the passenger seat is OK too!

A WRITE-UP FOR RELIEF SOCIETY

JUDITH ANN DEAN JEPSON Born October 17, 1948 Minneapolis, Minnesota Judy grew up in a semi-rural farming area south of Minneapolis called Eagan Township, Minnesota. She attended school 7 miles away in a small town named Rosemount. This area is not far south of the Mall of America. When she was a junior in high school her mother, Bev, asked her along with her two brothers, Bill and Bob, if they wanted to take skiing lessons. Bob especially became pretty good at it and hockey. Judy said she would rather take harp lessons. Her Aunt Carman, in Chicago, was a professional harpist. Her mother was surprised but said, OK! For a long time Judy took lessons from Frances Aspnes who was known as ‘Minnesota’s first lady of harp’ and who taught for over 60 years to numerous accolades. Judy had taken piano lessons from her step-grandmother, Winona Balcom, and was one of the accompanists for her junior and senior high choirs. At Rosemont High School Judy was on the cheerleading squad and from her pictures, she was pretty “hot.” Judy met her future husband Fred when he was first on his mission. Once a week or so his companion Elder Skeen, who was district leader, along with another district leader would drive “all the way to Rosemont” to teach this “young girl.” All Fred knew was that it was south and over a bunch of bridges over some rivers. He was clueless. He and the other companion, both greenies were left to “track” on there own not knowing what to say if they were invited into a home. Judy and Fred (Elder Jepson) finally met when Judy showed up at church. They met again at her baptism. On that occasion she announced that she was going out to BYU that fall. Fred gave her his home address and phone number; and when he returned home from his mission, low and behold Judy was dating Fred’s Brother’s best friend who was just leaving for his mission. When he saw that Fred was home he nearly didn’t go. But he did; he he he. Judy’s main interest at BYU was in the music department where she continued with her harp lessons. Judy and Fred were married on 13 February 1968. Their first child, Christopher was born that November, almost nine months to the day after their wedding. Jim was born less than a year after Chris. Then they figured out what caused this phenomenon and they waited six years to have Corey, with Niki coming nearly three years after him. They lived in a variety of locations in their early married years. Chris was born in San Gabriel, California. Jim was born in Minneapolis. Corey and Niki were born in Murray, Utah. The family lived in what is now West Valley City. After a couple of years they moved to Bennion/Taylorsville. This is where the children grew up and called home. In Minneapolis Judy had the opportunity to play her harp with the orchestra at the Minneapolis Children’s Theater. Judy and Fred moved on to Marina Circle in Saratoga Springs in February 2001 which they love very much. Judy is very talented and intelligent and becomes pretty much an expert at everything she tackles. She is almost indispensable at her work and when she returns from vacations she is always inundated with a backlog of work no one else can do or at least wants to tackle. She puts in many hours on her own time as she is salaried. Thanks to Fred’s working forty years at Western/Delta Airlines they have been able to see many parts of the world and have had many experiences they would not otherwise have had.

A BUTT SMACKIN' GOOD TIME

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 Yesterday while I was with Jayden and Bailey after they got off school, Sabrina, the lady across the street came over with a paper for Corey. She asked for me, I guess she thought it would more likely get to him if she told me rather than just handing it to one of the kids. I told Sabrina ok, then, joking said that "I have a memory from here to the door." She, in all seriousness said, “Have you tried patting your butt? It works for me” I gave her a “Huh?” look and she went on to explain that she has the same problem (not remembering) but she heard or read somewhere that while you are sitting it is easier to remember things and that when you stand up it is common to forget. The study went on to explain that if, when you forget, just pat yourself on the fanny and you will likely remember the thing you had forgotten. I laughed and said, “I will try that.” So! If you see walking around patting my butt you will know that I am just trying to remember something. I am sure my neighbors will just look out their windows and say, “There goes that crazy Fred Jepson. He’s the one that walks over to the pool in snowstorms wearing nothing but his swimsuit!” Hmm? I wonder if I were to pat Judy on her butt it would help her memory. I know it would do something for me! He he he

SUCKER PUNCHED

MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010 Being Monday I picked up Bailey and Jayden from school. For a change they weren’t walking together though Bailey and Gracie weren’t too far behind. Bailey and Gracie are best friends and as usual, when Bailey left Gracie to get into my car they yelled their good-byes back and forth several times. Gracie is a very cute Hispanic girl. When they got in the car I asked them where they wanted to go. Jayden wanted to go to Wal-Mart. He wanted to look at the lazar sabers. Bailey didn’t want to go at first and put up a fuss but soon changed her mind. When we got to Wal-Mart, the two of them headed right for the toy department. There were three different types/sizes of Star Wars lazar sabers and I suggested I could maybe afford the least expensive one. Jayden of course wanted the most expensive. It was the Star Wars, The Clone Wars Force action Lightsaber with a spring action blade and was about eighteen dollars. With a long face he said something like, “I guess I could save my money and come back next year and get it.” About that time Bailey came around the corner with a set that included a Barbie Doll and several puppies. There was a syringe for putting water into the puppies, and when you do the puppies "pee" on some special paper which turns yellow to look like the real thing. Guess what; it was about eighteen dollars also. I felt like I had been sucker punched. Finally Jayden came up with a solution. He said, “Does Grandma take care of the money?” “Yes.” “Tell Grandma we tortured you.” Little did he understand that, that is pretty much what they did, or I guess I should say that that is how I would have felt if I hadn’t thought it was so darn funny. They had me and we bought them. When they first got in the car after school, Jayden turned to me and said, “Lucky Charms hit me in the jaw and made me bite my tongue.” I gave him a “Huh!?” kind of look and he explained that “Lucky Charms” is the name of one of his friends. They were playing around and I guess Jayden was letting “Lucky Charms” hit him in the stomach. This time “when I took a deep breath, he hit me in the jaw and I bit my tongue.” I am assuming the taking the big breath made him bend over or at least that is what I used to do. (When I was in high school my stomach was so strong I used to let everyone hit me as hard as they could.) I asked both Jayden and Bailey if there was anything new in their love lives. They both said no, but later Jayden said, “I like a sixth grader. I’m only in the forth, that’s two grade higher than me.” I told him, “Yes, but only about one year older.” He said, “Oh, yea.” I asked him how they met and he said that she is the girl that visited, “My Dad’s (Primary) class.” He went on to say, “She is a drama queen-big mouth!” (I did remember him mentioning her being in his primary class last week.) Later this evening I called to talk to Jayden to make sure I had the story straight. He asked my why. I cautiously said “To put in my journal so you can read it when you get older.” I thought I was safe doing it that way but he surprised me and said, “Put it in your blog so my dad can read it.”

CAFE RIO for Lunch

Monday, March 29, 2010 Today Greg and Niki and Alexa and Gavin met Jim and Corey and me at Café Rio on 123rd for lunch. For my part it was quite by accident. I had gone to Southtowne Mall to walk and afterwards drove into the boy’s parking lot since it was nearby. I was sure they would all be gone to lunch since it was after twelve o’clock. As I was driving by their building, Greg and Corey were just walking out the door and waved me down and invited me to eat with them. We had a good visit. Alexa and Gavin, as usual ate very little, and as usual, Gavin was down out of his highchair and running around though today he stayed near our table.

CHRIST IS RISEN

Sunday, March 28, 2010 Today was ours and the Seventh Ward’s choir’s combined Easter program which went off very well. It all started when Judy and I ran into Fred and Chris (Christina) Finlinson in Costco a few months past. They used to be in our ward. We got talking and Judy (or was it Chris?) mentioned that it would be nice if our two wards could get together and do a combined program. The Finlinsons, and many members of their ward where in our ward prior to a realignment. Chris is now the choir director of their ward. Fred said, “I can arrange that. I am now the bishop of our ward.” One thing led to another and soon they were having meetings, picking out music and arranging a cellist and getting our Jim to play the flute. Judy played the harp for one hymn. That almost fell through when she cut her finger and got a blister on the end of another one; but she figured it out, persevered and made it work. We had many practices, sometimes combined and often in our respective wards, Judy leading ours and Chris, hers. Judy put in so much energy today, leading, that I wondered if she was going to collapse from exhaustion. Of the eight numbers, Judy led five and Chris led three. Judy played her harp for one of those. Today we sang in our ward first at nine a.m. then the seventh ward a one. One of the choir members from the other ward came up to Judy after the second performance and said how much he enjoyed singing under leadership. He asked her if she was a professional conductor, and Judy laughed. Nevertheless it made her feel really good. She has been conducting for over thirty years.

YE OL' CUPCAKE PARTY

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010 Niki threw a cupcake decorating party at four this afternoon for Alexa and some of her friends. Niki called and asked if I would “come over” and help take care of her kids while she cleaned house and finished getting ready for the gala. In the last little while Gavin has gotten really clingy and whiny and Niki is finding it difficult if not impossible to get anything done. When I got there Alexa was at pre-school and Niki and Gavin had gotten some yellow and some pink snapdragons. I put some in the two planters on her front porch. I put yellow ones in the center and the pink around the edges. They look nice. With eight of the remaining pink flowers, I put one each in some cute, cup-sized pails Niki had gotten from Shannon, Greg’s sister. They have pink ribbons on the outside and really look cute. There are still a half dozen or so pink snapdragons left over, though two of them are dwarf sized and have no flowers on them. From there, I picked Alexa up from school. She squealed when she saw me and chattered all the way home. I think if she had it her way, I would pick her up every day. She had a little toy doggie in her bag and we talked about what to call it. I suggested “Kitty” but Alex(She prefers Alex to Alexa) thought that was a lame idea. She kept sticking it out in my direction then pulling it back, saying, “No doggie, don’t bite grandpa!” Alexa announce that she has a ten-year old sister named Rock Star. She said that on her next birthday, Rock Star will be seventeen. On the way home we got a Little Casers’ pizza and some breadsticks and dipping sauce. I tried to take care of Gavin while Niki cleaned etc, but he screamed and screamed and finally Niki put him in her lap and sat on the couch and tried to get him to go to sleep. I left at that point so who knows how that turned out.