This will be a unique post in that it is going to give you a short history of the life of Sharol Linden McUne MacArthur, my wife. More commonly known to those who know her as "Sherri".

Today is June 1,2014--and it is our 46th wedding anniversary.  Maybe there will be something in my view of her life history that will be of benefit to you and your family.

I hope she does not "hang" me for doing this as she is a very private person and does not like nor seek attention for herself--unlike her blabbermouth husband!

Sharol Linden McUne was born Dec. 28, 1942 in Richmond, Contra Costa, California to Haswell "Hal" Ross McUne and Linden Ida Knight.  Her nickname quickly became "Sherri" due to a dream her mother had prior to her birth. 

Her father worked in the shipyards of Richmond building ships during the war as WWII was in full swing when Sherri was born.  They were a family of very limited means  so when she was about 5 they moved to some ranch property in Burns, Oregon that was given to them by Hal's mother.  It was unimproved and there was no ranch house so they improvised and hooked up a tractor to an old wooden building with no windows in it and hauled it over onto a hill by some trees and cleaned it out so they could try to live in it.  Life was not easy.
They had horses, cattle, did farming and mom and dad worked in the local saw mill full-time.
Sherri had three siblings--Hap, Sheila and Steve.  Steve passed away while we were on our mission in Chile recently.

Sherri went to the Burns public schools.  Her father was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (he finally was baptized at age 60 and the family went to the temple to be sealed) and her mother did not drive so there was no way to get in to "town" (12 miles away) to the small branch of the Church there in Burns.  Finally an older senior couple serving as stake missionaries came out to the ranch and helped Sherri and Sheila get baptized at about age 10 and 8.  Sherri was 10.  She always loved attending Church and had natural faith in Christ.
Life was often pretty rough on the ranch with no running water and no electricity. No electricity until she was in high school and no running water until she had gone off to college at BYU.  She remembers pumping water at 35 below zero to feed the cows.
She and Sheila used to go up on the "rim" and play their flutes together--no neighbors to bother.
She was chosen to go to Girls State while in high school which was a great honor--it was a student leadership conference at the Capitol.
She was accepted to BYU in 1961 and attended there until she went on her mission to Chile 1964-67.  She served under the second and third presidents of the Chilean Mission.  There was only one mission in Chile at that time and no stakes.  The closest temple for Chilean members was located in Mesa, Arizona.
Upon her return home she went back to BYU to finish her degree in English and Spanish,  She met Jim MacArthur while at BYU. She graduated from BYU May 31, 1968 and married Jim in the Manti Temple June 1, the next morning!
Jim taught special education in the public schools in California after his graduation from BYU in 1969 so they lived in Vista, CA.  They arrived there to begin Jim's teaching career with just one son, Toran who was a year old.  Jim's income was $6900 per year...so the family joke has always been that she married him for his money and his car (he had a 1961 VW bug with one head light that worked).

Jim taught there three years during which time David and Paul were born and Jim and Sherri returned every summer to BYU so he could work on and finish his Masters Degree in School Psychology which he did in 1973.  As they were getting ready to return to teach again in Southern California BYU offered Jim a full time position and they decided to stay "for a few years" to have the unique experience of working for BYU.  Those "few years" ended up lasting 38 years until Jim retired as a Clinical Professor in 2010.
During his early years at BYU Jim earned his doctor's degree in Counseling Psychology and was a psychologist and clinical teaching professor in the Counseling Center.
So, what was Sherri up to during those years?  Toran was born, as I said, in 1969...David in 1970, Paul in 1971, Mike in 1973, Lindi and Lori (twins) in 1974, Don and Debbie (also twins) in 1976, Mark in 1978 and Sharolyn in 1981.  That is what Sherri "was up to" from 68 to 81.
She is a super intelligent woman and could have done anything academically in her university work.  Well, she did graduate from BYU, as I said, in English and Spanish...but she put aside plans for graduate work "until later" while she had her ten children and gave her entire attention to them. Due to complex family demands "later for more education" never came.  Just grandkids came!

She did try out for Mrs Universe in 1980 but she lost out in the muscle building section and never made it to the finals (that is a joke in case you do not know my struggling sense of humor)...
But she has always been our Mrs Universe.  With such an awesome posterity she will truly have her own "universe".
At one point she had 8 children with the oldest being just 7.  Then Mark was born and she had 9 under 9.  Sharolyn's birth brought us to ten under twelve.  Keeping up with everything was nearly impossible.  She claims she only did it due to the flawless and amazing help of her husband, Sparky.  Actually, she never said that!
When the two sets of twins were born in 74 and 76 (in a span of 23 months) the bishop had to send several Laurels over every Sunday morning to help us get all the babies ready for church as the oldest ones were still so little they could not help too much.  That was Bishop Bob Parsons; a great bishop.

Here is a great closing story about when we had 9 children and due to health problems Sherri had experienced we felt we should stop at 9.  One day, our oldest, Toran, age 11, came to Sherri and said "Mom, don't you think we could have just one more baby?"  Sherri explained we already had our hands full and we had to consider if we could afford another one and how we take care of another baby etc.  Then Toran uttered his immortal words that ring through the halls of our family history... "But, mom, I am sure we would ALL be willing to eat less so we could have one more baby."  Pretty good for an 11 year old boy.
We did have Sharolyn after that..and we are glad we did as she is such an awesome person...as are all of "Sherri's kids".....who are now all grown up ranging now in age from 32 to 45 with forty grandkids.
That is Sherri's story, actually in abbreviated form...there is much more....the night she sat up all night at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City with Kim Johnson, an 18 year old neighbor of ours who had been involved in a terrible car accident coming home from Dixie College to take care of her brother Dustin.  Sherri sat up all night at the hospital with Kim, holding her hand while she was dying...so Kim would have "a mom" with her until Nancy, her real mom, could get there the next morning on a flight from California where she and her husband, Ralph were on a trip for BYU.  Sherri did not want Kim to be alone while she was dying so she sat right by her all night to give her what comfort she could until Nancy got there.
And the night Sherri rocked our grandson Parker all night long so his mom could get some much needed sleep for a few hours...until Sherri called Lindi in the very early hours of the morning as she could sense Parker's time was short. Lindi came out and took her son in her arms and held him and rocked him, as Sherri had done...until he passed away in his mother's arms just before noon almost 9 years ago now.

So, Sherri is just a woman who quietly "gets the job done" and sets a beautiful example for her children and grandchildren.  She is not perfect, and as I said, is a very private person...but she is one her family can ALWAYS count on to show them a Christlike example.  I love her and wish I could be more like her.

Why did I write all this, rambling as I am?  Today, June 1, 2014 is our 46th wedding anniversary.  So I thought maybe you would like to share in a little history on a wonderful person who is known by her family, her neighbors, church members we have known for many years, our BYU friends, and now our awesome missionary family...hundreds of missionaries from 20 different countries we were privileged to work with in Chile from 2010 to 2013.  Your mission mother sends her love to each one of you and wishes you were here to share a hug.  Have a nice day.  Jim