Crazy Weather, Crazy Days--Love it All!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Last Monday, the 15th, was the Aloha dinner at the stake center.  We had missed the last two, in October and December, when we had company, so we were excited to get to go to this one. I made chicken and noodles alfredo and we took Sister Isaacson. We got there early enough to help set up a little--putting out utensils and water, etc. Our favorite part of the evening was the band. They were a group of senior missionaries who had played together in Nauvoo and are all from this area, so they've stayed together and play for lots of occasions.  There had to be 9 or 10 in the band and they were very good. They played mostly "swing/big band" type numbers. When they started, you could hardly sit still. One of the single sisters got up front and started dancing away and the Robinson's daughter, Kara, went to the back and started dancing. It made everyone smile to see them both having so much fun. Sister Klopfer got up and started dancing with Kara. She's only 79 and they were great. We all loved it. A few others joined in. I told Robert if they played a slow number, we could dance, too, and they did! So we danced and quite a few others joined in. It was really fun. We all enjoyed it. We laughed and visited and danced and had a great evening. Of course, we don't like the part where they call up the ones who are leaving--why can't they all just stay? It's so hard to say good-by to those we've come to love and the ones who know the most at the library, the ones we depend on and look to for answers to all of our questions! It was truly a lovely evening.

Tuesday I spent quite a bit of time updating our Ancestry account and putting sources on it. I'm hoping when we get our DNA results back that we'll match up to people who will give us leads on our Frances Ruggles line and my John Turner line, so I needed to have the account back to them. I don't know if it'll make any difference of not. I can't really figure out how all of this works. Then we got groceries and all the Valentine's Day candy and flowers were on sale. The good candy was gone, but they had dozens and dozens of bouquets of flowers, so I found some pretty white roses and then asked Robert if we could go to City Cemetery and put one at the statue of the Christmas Box Angel.

That's such a sweet place to visit and I left with a good feeling. I'm not at home to put anything on Katie's grave there, but I can do this here and it gives me a feeling of comfort.

We stayed busy the rest of the week at the library. I'm surprised by how many people are coming in. Some come to ski and need a day off and come to the library. Some come for work conferences and come in on breaks. Some are travelling and just come in. For whatever reason, we've been busy.

Thursday the weather people had predicted a warm morning, then some rain and a drop in temperature, then the storm would pass through, and warm up again in the evening. It was pretty close to that--we walked to the library in relatively warm weather. About 11:00 I went downstairs to the exit desk and there were big, dark clouds outside. The wind picked up like crazy. The guy came who sweeps our entry way and he couldn't sweep out the leaves as fast as the doors would open and the wind would blow them in! There was a whirlwind outside our doors and the rain started in--huge, big raindrops--splat, splat, splat! It rained really hard and blew like crazy. Later when I was back upstairs, I looked out the window and the branches of the trees were covered in snow!  What a crazy day! By the time we left, it was still, dry, and cool, but not freezing.

But Saturday, the 20th, was crazy inside! We had every computer full and groups kept coming in--groups of 4, of 6, what's going on?  At ll:00 I was on the info desk and Robert was the floor manager and he finally went to the second floor and asked if we could send some to them!  They said yes, but then they got packed, too. Finally, it started to thin out a little, but we were just busy all day. We had some really fun people who loved what they were doing and finding. It's so fun to work with those folks.

We came home exhausted, ate a bite, and just fell into our chairs. At 6:45, there was a knock on the door and Robert had to run. I answered the door and it was Sister Conlin. She had two tickets to the Young Ambassador show at the conference center at 7:30, some of their family had gotten sick and couldn't go, so we gladly accepted and grabbed our coats. It was titled "Heartsongs" and was all love songs. The costuming, singing and dancing were all great. I was surprised that I didn't recognize some of the songs. But I loved the Beetles medley and some of my favorites were songs from Mama Mia and Can't Take my Eyes off of You. They ended with Love at Home and the one we did in primary a year ago--"whenever I touch a velvet rose or walk by a lilac bush,"--love it. What a wonderful evening.

Sunday we had good lessons in relief society and Sunday school. By sacrament meeting I can hardly keep my eyes open--that's well into my usual nap time and it's terribly hard to break a 40-year habit, no matter how good the speakers are. I'm trying...

Monday was our Fireflies dinner. We had decided to go to the Little America Coffee Shop. The Birches were the only ones who had been there and it turned out just fine. We took Sister Isaacson and Sister Murry. Sister Isaacson is going home Thursday for a week. Her renter is moving out of her house the end of the month--he got a job out of town that he couldn't pass up. She's been worried sick about what to do. She lives several miles out of town and doesn't have anyone close around her to keep an eye on her place. The city manager promised to keep an eye on it, but she's still been worried. She finally asked if she could go home for a week to empty it out, put some things in storage, give some away and bring some back with her, then come back and extend through September. They gave her permission, but we've been worried sick about her driving by herself. She's determined to drive straight through--16 hours or more by herself. She's paranoid about going over the mountains, and you just can't get out of Salt Lake without going over a mountain! I wished Robert could drive her to Denver and he'd fly back here and she could go on, but knew the mission presidency would never approve it. When Sister Murry heard about it Sunday, she said she'd see if she could get permission to go--she has a son who lives in Kansas that she'd love to see, and she would help her drive. Her zone leaders are the Roberts, Sister Isaacson's home teachers, so no problem there. We're feeling much better about it.  We had about 18 at dinner and really enjoyed it. They gave us a room and we could visit and laugh without disturbing others.  We have the group in April and we've reserved the social room--no idea what we'll have. Lots of time to plan that.

Yesterday I called Richard about getting together the ones to plan our "reunion" before we go. He had been thinking about it too. So he invited us to come see the condo, get a bite to eat and visit. We did our shopping, went for a ride and went out there. On our ride we went up by the University of Utah. Across the street is the Mt. Olivet Cemetery and there was a whole bunch of deer inside the fence. We went inside and saw group after group of them. They just watched us drive by, take their pictures, and kept on munching. I told Robert they must have read the sign near the front entrance.

We didn't disturb them in the least! There were several groups of 6, 8 or more. Some were eating, some lying in the grass, some just moseying along.

We enjoyed our visit with Richard and Carolyn. They have downsized from about 4000 sq. ft. to about 2000, so it's been quite the process of going through and weeding out. They're very close to settled and everything is very nice. Her office and his "car" room still have work to do, but hey, close the doors, who knows?!  He's trying to work out a planning meeting next Tuesday with Judy, Bev, Teddy and Jim Parkin. We'll see how that goes. Last Saturday at the library I was trying to help a guy delete a picture from his FamilySearch account and noticed his last name was Geurts. Iasked him if he's related to Ted Geurts, and he said, "He's my uncle." I said, "He's my uncle, too!" Love it.

A Birthday, Roots Tech, Dancing and a Day of Love

February 15, 2016

On Tuesday the 2nd, we ran our usual errands, and then I was ready to go for "a ride." I didn't have any place in particular in mind, but it was a clear day, warmer than what we'd been having, and I wanted to get out and go. We rode up by This is the Place Monument and the Zoo. We saw deer, but they got off before we could take a picture. Then we decided to go back up to Antelope Island and see it in the winter. We saw a small herd of antelope, whereas before we'd only seen one, and saw some bison, but not as close as they'd been before. We didn't stay long.

 Then I realized we had come right through Kaysville, which is where my friend Kay Steiner Stewart lives. I feel sure I haven't seen Kay since we graduated from high school. I sent her a message and told her we could be there in about an hour. So she gave us directions and we found her. It was wonderful to see her! She looks great. I love her hair short and curly and she's lost weight. Her home is lovely. She made porcelain dolls for years--mostly dressed them and she has two glass-front china cabinets full of them and more on each side of her fireplace. She also makes quilts and several of them were out. Her living room reminded me of Gwen's--warm and inviting with many examples of a very talented individual living there. We had a great visit. I had never met Kent and he passed away about 15 years ago. We shared stories of our families over the years. I really enjoyed it.

Wednesday was Robert's birthday. We only had to work in the afternoon since it is our research time. We decided to go to Chuck-A-Rama for his birthday dinner. He really likes it--it's a buffet!--and they have good food. He said their pork ribs were excellent--I had roast beef and turkey--and they even had carrot cake for dessert, which he claims is his favorite, but no one can make it like his mother. On the way home Matthew and Mason called and said to look for a package on Friday and Mason was dying to tell Papa what it was and Matthew kept telling him, "No, it's a surprise!"

I got to go to Roots Tech on Friday. What an experience! I loved it!! The Salt Palace is huge and I'm sure I circled it at least twice. I was ready to drop. But the opening was excellent. I especially liked the presentation by David Isay, the founder of StoryCorps. He founded it and people go in a booth and interview someone and they get one copy of it and a copy goes into the Library of Congress. The excerpts he shared were wonderful--so moving. I could have listened to them for another two hours. Then I could only go to four classes and their were dozens to choose from. I went to "Maximizing your use of Evidence" by Tom Jones and he was excellent.

At lunch time I couldn't wait to walk around the exhibit hall. There was so much to see--different software companies, people selling genealogy-related items, people from the library helping folks on computers. I finally decided I was hungry, but when I saw the line, I decided I wasn't spending that much time standing in a line! I went back to this jewelry/beads booth 4 times, trying to decide what I wanted. Aimee's birthday is this month and I wanted to get her something, but couldn't decide between a tree with purple stones and a silver tree with little rings for each child. Paul got her a mother's necklace for Christmas, so I decided on the purple stones--figured she'd love the purple, hoped she'd like the tree. I knew I wanted one with red stones and decided to get Meghan one with green ones. But it took 4 trips to make those decisions! I'd seen a map of the pioneers' trek from Nauvoo to SLC and decided I needed one of those. Then in the evening I found where they were printing off big fan charts in color and decided I'd get that for Robert for his birthday. I even got Owen a key chain that says, "I stop for cemeteries" but haven't sent it to him yet. There was just so much to see I could have spent hours there if I just weren't so exhausted.

In the afternoon I thought I went to a DNA class, but it turned out to be Researching our Foremothers. It was good and I took notes--there probably wasn't a "bad" class. Then I went to "Finding Elusive Records on Family Search" and I thought that was really good. The last one was on the Digital Public Library of America, which I'd never heard of and it'll be interesting to see if anything good shows up there. I had texted Robert and told him I wanted to stay until 7:00 to see the cultural musical groups. They came into the Exhibit Hall and there wasn't seating, so it's not like we could sit and watch each of them, but there were the bagpipes and the Oriental dragon and several others. Mostly I walked around the booths again. That's when I made my purchases. I tried to see everything first and then go back and purchase what I wanted. By 6:30 I was exhausted. It had been almost a 12 hour day. I went to the FHL area (my comfort zone) and asked one of the men I recognize from the library, how to get to the door next to Abravenal Hall, which is where Robert dropped me off. He walked me clear across the exhibit hall and then to the escalator, and I promised him I could make it from there, and I did.What an exhausting, exciting, exhilerating day. I loved it.

Saturday we were busy at the library, as we usually are. But about 11:00 or so they came in by clumps and groups from RootsTech. Wow, good thing some of them could work independently. But of course, some of them were stuck and wanted help. I wanted to say, "Me, too!" But we tried to help them. Robert had gotten his gift in the mail from Mason and he posted this picture. Our friends at the library loved it. They felt that way, too!

Papa said, "This is the way I felt after a week of RootsTech in town--My eyeballs are falling out!"

Our anniversay was on Monday, the 8th, but as usual, unfortunately it kind of gets lost between Robert's birthday and Valentine's Day. I got my hair cut on the 10th and I sure was ready for that.

Friday Aimee called to thank us for her necklace and she truly sounded like she loved it, so that really pleased me. It was good to visit with her. She said James enjoyed his merit badge classes last week. One of them he took was on genealogy and he and Paul had called me the night before and asked me questions. I didn't know if it made sense to him or not, but Paul said it did and he helped him with it. I'm really proud of Paul for his interest in having the kids participate in scouts. I'm glad something "stuck" from his rearing! The snow was nearly gone. We've had about a week and a half of temperatures that have gotten into the 40's, so it has melted most of the snow. It's not clear skies because of what they call "the inversion" around here--the bad air that stays on the ground in the valley's, while up in the mountains it's clear and beautiful.

The Conlin's gave us tickets to the BYU Ballroom Dance team performance at the Conference Center on Saturday, the 13th. It was a great show, nearly an hour and a half of one number after another. The costumes were beautiful--so much better than the ones on "Dancing with the Stars!", the special effects were so clever and loved the music. Probably my favorite number was the beautiful one they did to "If you could hie to Kolob" which was done with fog on the floor and a huge picture of outer space in the background. The one they did with black lights and florescent costumes to the video game bleeps and blips with Pac Man and Mario Brothers and Ninja Turtles was really clever. I thought our kids would have enjoyed it. It was a wonderful evening.

Sunday morning I checked my e-mail and Aimee had sent her results and Paul's from their DNA testing. Ours isn't back yet, but I was excited to see theirs.  Aimee has a lot from Great Britain and Ireland. I told her she'd have to brush up on her Irish clogging. Paul's really blew me away--77% Native American! What seemed so especially amazing about it is that before Robert and I were married I had decided I wanted to adopt two children, hopefully an Indian boy and a Chinese girl. , Why? I don't know, except that I feel some kind of special pull or kinship with the Lamanite people. When I told Robert, he said, "Why are you marrying me?" Then when Markett called us about Paul and I told Robert he would be Hispanic, he said, "I don't care if he's polka dotted!" People always commented that he looked Indian. I don't know if they thought that or just knew what I'd hoped for. Anyway, after all these years, to find out he's more than 3/4 Native American feels like an extra gift from Heavenly Father, one we might never have discovered if we hadn't come on this mission. We came, I met the girl from Ancestry, she offered us the sale on the DNA kits, I felt so strongly impressed to have Paul's done, and this is what we discover! It doesn't make any difference really, he's our child, and we love him the way we always have, but to realize my wish was granted so many years ago and I had no idea. What a blessing.

Sunday was Valentine's Day and our branch conference. It snowed again that morning--just about the time I had decided winter was inching out! Oh, well, it was o.k. the sidewalks were clear. In Relief Society, a member of the stake relief society presidence spoke. She was excellent. She was a nurse by profession. Then when she was 50 she went back to school in Mandarin Chinese! O.K. I'm impressed. She said she doesn't recommend it--it's a lot easier when you're a missionary and are given the gift of tongues, than when you're 50--yeah, no kidding. She volunteers quite a bit at the library on B1. I'm sure they need her daily in the summertime--we had oodles and scads of Chinese people come in last summer. Then Pres. Richards spoke. He's a descendant of LeGrand Richards and a very impressive speaker. The conference theme was from the BofM about holding to the iron rod and they both gave good talks on it. Then in Sunday School they spoke again and in Sacrament Meeting Pres. Klopfer spoke and all three members of the stake presidency. The stake pres. likened the branch to the group in Mosiah 18 who were of one heart and joined the church--240 of them and their are 227 members in the branch who are serving full time missions! That's us.  Robert said in priesthood meeting they were told there are 3 general authorities in the stake and 2 scouts--more general authorities than scouts. This really is a unique area!

We had purposely invited the young elders for dinner.  We fixed a roast with potatoes and carrots and made cupcakes and frosted them with chocolate and put Hershey's kisses on top. We gave them a box to take with them and share. On the way to church, we found out the two who were coming are roommates of Elder Stewart and Elder Bain. Stewart is a favorite of ours from the library--such a great young man. One of those who came was Elder Hansen, and he came out with us, so Robert printed him a picture they sent to us of the group from the JSMB that looks like we just got off the ship at Ellis Island. He's a very sweet, quiet young man. The other one was from the Woodlands--so we had things to talk about with each of them.

We're off today for President's day, so we're off on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I told Robert my goal is to not have to get dressed today--my ideal day! But tonight is an Aloha Dinner and we need to take something for that, so Robert is going shopping and I'll cook when he gets back.

Robert's been cutting out temples and painting them. Meghan sent us lettering for them and he has given several away already to friends at the library. I love them. The saw doesn't do well on the think boards, so he got some thinner board at Michael's several weeks ago and then got some more at Lowe's last week. I think they'll make a great keepsake of our time here. He's putting his DI saw to good use. The other night my hairdresser said she'd buy it when we leave! She does lots of crafts and we have one at home.