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.
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