Owen is Now a Missionary! - Sept 29

I had a fun chat with Scorchi first thing in the morning. We get to talk about all kinds of things and encourage each other and help each other find solutions to problems. It's always fun. 

Faralee texted to tell me that Owen would be set apart at his home at 7 PM. So I planned my time around that, and drove over there a little before seven. They invited me to enjoy hotdogs and baked beans with them, but I had already eaten.

The stake president (or one of his counselors, I'm not sure which), arrived right on time. We gathered in the living room and he set Owen apart as a missionary. He gave a beautiful blessing to him, and when he was done, there were hugs all around.

Owen put on one of his missionary badges and then the stake president asked everyone to give Owen any words of a device that they felt impressed to do. He started with the youngest, Max, and then went to Arturo. Then he went to the grandparents, and Charlie's dad gave Owen some counsel in Spanish. He spoke at quite a length, for 10 or 15 minutes. Since I didn't understand it, it seemed to go on and on. I'm sure it was very good advice. Faralee told me that that was typical of Juan Carlos. Then Maria gave some wonderful advice in English to Owen and then I told him two things. To listen carefully to his mission president, and to be perfectly obedient to the mission rules. Faralee was next, and then Charlie. It was very sweet.

Then the stake president summed everything up and Faralee and I slipped out because we were already late to Chorale.

We arrived at Chorale about 15 minutes late and got into our chairs as quietly as we could. We are rehearsing Christmas music now and there's something very special about singing Christmas music.

I had driven my car and I dropped Faralee off at home and came home and set my folder where I can easily get at it to mark music during general conference. There's quite a few places that I will need to put highlighter paper on, and erase other peoples marks, and tape the fold where it's starting to tear.

Monday - Sept 28

One of the first things I did was go to Amazon and look at three ring binders. I found some that looked like they would work for us. I chose black, but I didn't order them yet. I texted Brother Priest and asked if the ward would be willing to reimburse me for 24 binders. He got back to me pretty quickly and said yes that I could go ahead and order those. That's so exciting! But I don't know how I will transport them back-and-forth, because with the paper folders I've been able to just carry a large bag with all the music in it. Now I have to come up with a new plan.

Arringtons came over at 3 PM and we had a good discussion. We finished up the whole conference edition of the Liahona just in time for the next conference.

It rained quite heavily part of the time that they were here, and when they were ready to go home, it was still raining pretty hard, so I opened up the garage and they ran out that way to their car and didn't get quite so wet

I had made a breakfast casserole of eggs and cottage cheese and baby spinach and chicken, which I baked in the oven. It turned out quite yummy and I ate it for breakfast and dinner. I cooked some tortillas in the air fryer and they turned out very crispy.

I watched TV and I did a little reading. I had finished reading Rebecca on Saturday night after I got home from FanX.

Fast Sunday - Sept 27

Now that Candace is back, she taught our primary class. I was glad not to have to worry about it.

I got to church early enough that I was sitting on the stand just before the meeting started, in case Lucinda didn't make it in time. But she did get there about one minute before the meeting started.

It was a wonderful testimony meeting, although there were a few minutes when no one came up to bear their testimony, which is almost unheard of in our ward. I bore my testimony right at the first and talked about the song, The Spirit of God. It holds such a special place in my heart and I wanted to help people think about what the words are telling us

The main theme of Candace' lesson was preparing the kids for General Conference. She had pictures of all 12 of the apostles and told them a little about each one and tried to help them recognize their face and learn their name so that when they watch conference the following Sunday, they might remember them just a little bit. 

I had dropped off some music at the library, and I picked it up as I left the church. There's just a few minutes between church and choir practice for me to change clothes and be ready.

We had been so concerned about having enough women in the choir, especially sopranos, and some of us had reached out to women in the ward that we knew sang. But I was still very surprised when four new women turned up at choir practice. We had to scramble around a little bit to get enough folders for everyone. We had a good practice. We will be singing in Ward conference on October 11, but won't have any practices between now and then.

When I came home, it wasn't quite time to break my fast, so I worked on choir music. I opened all of the folders and looked through the music. I added the new song by Sally DeFord that I had copies made in church. By the time I was done, I had to make six more copies, and add name labels to three or four choir folders.

So I basically spent Sunday afternoon and evening getting the choir music in order. I had a niggling thought that those blue manila folders were too flimsy and that I needed to buy some three ring binders for the choir members.

FanX Saturday - Sept 26

Taio and I had arranged to catch the 9:45 AM Frontrunner again, and she just barely caught it. She rode the bus from home so she wouldn't have to park, but the bus was running late and she got on Frontrunner just barely before it left. Actually it left about 10 minutes later than usual or she wouldn't have caught it at all.

She made her way to the back of the train, and we sat together. She was in a cute costume, and I don't know who her character was, but she said several people recognized her and asked to take her picture.

It was so crowded on this day at FanX! When I was going from one area to another in a hurry, I was always afraid that I would crash into a person who was going the opposite direction, but it never happened. I wanted to attend a session about Greek myth on stage and screen, presented by Utah Symphony. I was a little late and just slipped into the back. I didn't catch everything that was said and probably didn't care about female characters in music and screen, but I loved the little musical selections played on the violin by a gal in a costume. 

Taio and I had decided to meet at a panel called Top 10 Movies That Changed the World. Of course, the panel members didn't all agree on all of the selections, but they mostly chose movies that changed the industry. I had actually only seen three or four of their choices.

Then we went to the food area and bought crêpes. They were very yummy, but expensive. But I guess all the food at FanX was expensive.

I went to the Brandon Sanderson Spotlight in the Grand Ballroom. He talked a bit about his upcoming movies that are being produced by Apple, and then took a lot of questions and then read selection from a story he wrote. I slipped out during the story part and went out into the vendor hall, looking for a pendant necklace. I finally found one that has a little tiny light insert that flashes different colors. You can take it out and turn it off, so I am quite happy about that. 

I also stood in line at a Korean barbecue place, Cupbop, and got some food for my dinner, knowing that the next day was fast Sunday. I carried it around and its takeaway container

I made my way to the room where Boydell would be on the panel discussing Building a Better Droid.

Taio and I got right up in the second row where we had a good view of everything. Taio recorded the whole discussion on her phone. It was kind of technical as far as how to build your first droid and where to find instructions and what materials to use and how much it might cost, but it was pretty entertaining.

After the panel was over, all of the builder/presenters took their droids out into the hallway. Boydell was the first one there and opened up the top so that people could look inside at the electronics. There must've been seven oe eight people looking and taking photos of the inside of R2-D2.

Taio had gone to her next class and I said goodbye to Boydell and left the Salt Palace. I didn't have a terribly long wait this time at the TRAX stop, and probably had a half hour wait before the Frontrunner train came. But it was mild weather and I had brought Rebecca to read and I was happy to wait.

I got home before dark and started getting ready for Sunday.

FanX Friday - Sept 25

Scorchi's birthday! I hope it was a great one.

Taio and I had arranged to meet at the Provo Frontrunner station for the 9:45 train again, but she overslept, so I was on my own again. 

I had thought I would park at the Provo city Center mall and get on a UVX bus so that I didn't have to park at the station, but the bus stop I had planned to use was closed, so I went ahead and drove to the Frontrunner station. I found a parking place using my handicapped parking plackard.

On Thursday, I had brought my book that I was trying to finish for the Payson Book Club, Rebecca, but on Friday I decided to just carry my little purse. So I left the book at home. I did some spend some time reading Harry Potter on my phone.

I went to see Alec Baldwin in the grand ballroom, but I only stayed for a little while. I wanted to be sure to get to the next presentation, which was Mistborn and Stormlight on Screen in room 255E. That's quite a hike from the ballroom.

It seemed to be a good panel, but it's been ages since I read the Mistborn trilogy and I'm only partway through the Stormlight series, so there was a lot of stuff that they talked about that I wasn't familiar with. They did suggest locations for the two series of books, and had some pictures of possible actors that might be cast in the lead roles. That was kind of fun.

I went back in the other direction to room 251A to be at a discussion of a game, Baldur's Gate 3, which I wasn't familiar with at all. But my strategy was to be one of the first ones there ready for a panel called Battle of the Tropes in the next panel. This one had Brandon Sanderson and Brandon Mull and four women authors on two teams, improvising about tropes that the audience suggested. At the end of each round, the audience would vote by cheering. It was really hilarious.

After that, back to room 255 to see some presenters discuss Labyrinth. I enjoyed this one a lot because unlike some of the others, I've seen Labyrinth enough times to be able to quote many of the lines. So it was fun to see them discuss the various characters.

Leaving that area was very slow because there was a big crowd that I had to push my way through. Or rather, just shuffle along behind them. But Taio was holding a chair for me at a panel called The Writing Advice I'd Give to My Best Friend. By the time I got there, they had just started. This was featuring Brandon Mull and Marie Lu. They had a lot of good tips and many people got in line to ask them writing questions.

Taio and I decided to get some food, so we went into the main food court and got some Hawaiian barbecue. I had decided that I was pretty much done for the day, so after Taio ate some of her food, I encouraged her to go to her next class, because they don't have any restrictions on eating in the various rooms.

When I was done eating, I wandered over into the area where I figured that the Star Wars booth would be to see if Boydell happened to be there. There was a huge booth, if you can call it that, for Sanderson's Dragonsteel, and next to it was the Star Wars area. They always have a lot of people dressed up as Star Wars characters, and I found there Boydell and R2, who seem to be driving itself. Boydell told me that Lydia had asked if she could drive it, and that's what she was doing. She was way in the background, being very unobtrusive with moving R2 around. She asked if I had said hi to Owen, and I hadn't realized that the Spider-Man who was finishing putting on his costume was Owen.

From their I sort of headed toward the main exit. I thought I had plenty of time because I had about half an hour before front runner left the station. So I looked at some vendors and the vendor area. So much stuff! So many people!

I did get to TRAX in good time, but for some reason that train was delayed, and by the time it got there I had missed the 6:30 Frontrunner.

Luckily, another Frontrunner train came at 7 o'clock, so I didn't have to wait for very long.

It was past dark by the time I got back to the Provo Frontrunner station, and back home. I walked 8,441 steps total.

Brandon Mull

Boydell's R2

Lydia controlling R2

Owen, alias Spider-man

The Salt Lake Temple and Church Office Building from the TRAX stop.

FanX Thursday - Sept 24

The Frontrunner train leaves every half hour during rush-hour in the morning and evenings, but during the day it only runs once per hour. I had planned to go to the 11 o'clock presentation, but I needed to work things out with Taio because she had my wristband. She had to work during the morning, but we at first arranged that I would get on Frontrunner for the 12:45 o'clock train and she would catch the train at Vineyard.

Then I guess she got off work a little early and decided to meet me at the Provo station. The only problem was that there was absolutely no parking within miles of the station, and it took her a very long time to find a parking place. By that time the train had left. The same thing happened to Owen and Lydia and Owen's girlfriend. They got left at Provo and had to wait for an hour.

The problem for me now was that I couldn't get in because I didn't have the wristband that Taio was holding for me. Taio hoped to solve the problem by sending me the QR code for my wristband, so I hoped that I would be able to get in without her, since she was an hour behind me.

The train was very crowded with FanX people, and TRAX was absolutely crammed each time I rode on it to the convention. 

The main entry point at the Salt Palace is on West Temple, about 100 South. But if you don't have a wristband, you have to go all the way down to 200 S. and around to the south entrance. Salt Lake blocks are very long blocks, but I was able to finally go in and when I got to the desk, they scanned the QR code on my phone and gave me a wristband. Hooray!

Faralee had driven up with Arturo and Max, and they found me at a panel called Opening Knights – Theatrical Role-play. Taio found me there as well and we sat together. This was a D&D role-playing presentation. It didn't make much sense to me because I don't know anything about Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing.

We went our separate ways, and I don't remember for sure what I went to next, but I did go to one at 5 o'clock called The Court Jester: The Most Noble Profession. The presenters thought they were funny, but mostly they really weren't.

I took a break from panels and got in line and got a crêpe that had bananas and strawberries and Nutella and whipped cream. It was delicious!

At 7 PM I met Lydia and Owen and Lila, and discovered Faralee and her kids behind me when we went to one called Multiverse Comedy Show. Sis, presentation was really packed, and the presenters were all comedians and were debating various sci-fi quiz show questions. It was very enjoyable.

Owen and Lyla dressed up as old people. I should've told them that I did too.

The last panel of the day was in the grand ballroom, and was presented by Angel Studios. Zachary Levi was the moderator, and they had John Rhys-Davies, Wes Chatham, and Alkaio Thiele as guests. It was mostly a questions and answers, but it was worth staying late. I got to see my friends, Ali and Misty and Cathy and give them hugs there.

When we got out of there, we tried to figure out how to get everyone back home. It hadn't ended until after 9 PM, and Charlie and Faralee had Max and Arturo in their car, so they had room for only three more. Lydia had already left and they ended up taking Taio to the Frontrunner station and I rode in their car, along with Owen and Lila.

They dropped me off at the Provo Frontrunner station and took Lyla to her car. Taio got home much later. I think I got home around 11:30 PM.

My Car - Sept 23

I had an appointment for 11 AM at Tried And True Auto to get my car serviced. I had arranged for Faralee to pick me up there after I dropped the car off, and that's what happened. I gave them the key fob and they pulled it right in and Faralee came and took me home. 

Demi and I got on FaceTime together and had a very nice chat. She was making rings, of course, and after a little while, she went to the front door to be ready when Xenia got home from school. She told me some fascinating things that a vision specialist had discovered about Xenia's vision problems that were caused by her brain damage in utero.

Similar to hearing loss, which makes it so that the person, even with hearing aids, has a hard time discerning between background sounds and things that you want to focus on, Xenia's brain damage causes her to not be able to discern depth perception, and foreground objects, as opposed to objects in the background. She has a hard time with stairs, and can't tell in stepping off a curb, when to step down. It's truly fascinating, and helps us understand a little better some of the problems that she has to deal with every day.

I did various things to get ready for FanX and worried just a little bit about whether they would get the car done before Faralee needed to be at work. 4 o'clock came and went, so I knew that Faralee was at work. But I got a message about 4:10 PM saying that the car was ready.

I texted Jen, but she didn't respond. I called my ministering sister, but she and her husband were watching grandchildren in Lehi. Faralee told me to check with Owen and Lydia and see if either of them was available. I tried to call Owen, but he didn't answer, (turns out that he was out with the missionaries) so I called Lydia and she came and picked me up and took me to get the car. I found out that she is going to take her exam for her pilot's license in October! That's pretty exciting.

I had all my tires replaced and aligned and several other things done to the car. I think they washed it too. It rides very nicely. My new tires will do well in snow, but are not made for going on snow in the mountains. The whole thing cost over $2,000, but I'm very glad to have it done and not have to worry. Besides that, the one tire was slowly leaking air and would've needed to be replaced anyway. Now I have four new tires!

I debated what to wear and what to carry for the three days that I will be in FanX. I had bought a multi pass for all three days, but I transferred that to Owen because Taio had a wristband for me already. The only problem was getting it from her. She was at the Salt Palace during the day setting up the quiet room for those neurodivergent who needed to get away from the chaos. She called me on her way home at Asia's house and we arranged to meet at Frontrunner for the 1 PM train the next day.

At the Provo City Center Temple With Owen - Sept 22

Owen had an appointment to get his own endowments at noon at the Provo City Center Temple. He and Charlie had to be there early, so I reached out to Faralee the night before and asked if she wanted to ride up with me and she said yes.

So she and I left about 11 o'clock and after driving around a bit in the parking lot, finally found a place to park the car.

When I got in the dressing room and got my temple clothes on, I realized that I had forgotten my packet, so I had to find a place to rent one there at the temple.

When we arrived in the chapel, we found Charlie's parents and Fae and Elesa and Richard. So we were definitely in good company.

The Provo temple is beautiful and they do have a creation room, and then you go up some stairs to the terrestrial room for the next part of the ceremony.

When everyone came into the celestial room, there were hugs and kisses and we stayed in there a while, pondering or reading scriptures. There was a little quiet talking as well. I'm so relieved that Owen finally has his endowment.

After we left the temple, we drove to Chuck a Rama in East Bay and gathered together for some lunch. It was definitely a happy occasion! A couple of Owen's friends who are already missionaries were able to be with us for the temple and the lunch. I've seen both of them before in stage play productions at Spanish Fork high school. The girl is on a Service mission, serving at handicap schools and at the Payson Temple.

After lunch, I went home and took it easy and read and watched TV and did more getting ready for FanX.

FHE With Arringtons - Sept 21

My focus for the week is pretty much been getting ready and going to FanX. I drove down to Payson and we had a good discussion together with Arrington's.

We are having beautiful, mild weather right now, but now and then a storm will blow in. Some areas in Utah have had heavy rain and violent storms, but we haven't had much of that in Salem.

I debated going to Walmart and getting snacks to take to FanX, but didn't feel much like those kinds of snacks. So I came home from Arrington's and pondered what to pack in my bag for Thursday and got laundry done. 

Unexpected Changes - Sept 20

When I got up, I had time to slice the zucchini loaves and place them on a serving tray and cover them with plastic wrap to take to Owen's open house.

Owen's farewell started at 10:30 AM which worked perfectly for me. When I first went in, I couldn't see any family members, so I scooted into one of the side pews. Pretty soon Gwyn and Jon with Zoey came in and sat by me. Before the meeting was over, Faralee's family and Owen arrived. Charlie's parents were there and some of Charlie's siblings also. I think Elesa and Richard were there too. And Boydell and Jen came up after the meeting, so apparently they were there also.

Arturo was already there and I'm assuming he was preparing the sacrament or something. He gave the opening prayer and did a nice job. There was a youth speaker and a woman who spoke before Owen, and Owen gave a really nice talk. All of the talks and prayers mentioned Owen, which I thought was a little strange since we're not supposed to have missionary farewell anymore.

Their ward choir sang and it was lovely. 

After the meeting, I greeted a few people and assigned Arturo to take my zucchini bread over to Pozo's house for the open house. Then I drove to my meetinghouse.

I was surprised when about 10 minutes before church started, a couple of members of the bishopric came up and started changing the hymns on the hymn board. I went up to talk to them and show them what was on the schedule from my phone, but they just changed the numbers on my phone as well. No word of explanation was ever given.

The programs finally got printed, and I took one up to Jon, our organist, so that he would know the what the hymns were, since three of the four had been changed

It was hard not to stew about it during the meeting. I could see no explanation of why they would do that and felt quite offended. The opening song was The Day Dawn is Breaking, which is a hard hymn to direct. It goes from 3/4 to 9/8 in each verse. Peyton did the best she could with it. But I won't suggest that she would've done any better with the song that was originally scheduled, which was Be Still My Soul.

I took the time on the way to primary class to drop off some choir music to be copied.

During singing time the music leader asked the kids who our current prophet and president of the church was. One kid yelled out "Elijah!" Well, it was a good effort.

Susan Mikesell came into my primary class to help out. There were five kids there. The lesson went pretty well, except that Vandy was a little disruptive. I showed a video and told them a little about Isaiah the prophet and gave them the stickers and cardstock pages that I had prepared for them to put the stickers on. They all did pretty well. I had made a sample one that we set up on the chalkboard. Several of them were more interested in peeling off the metallic stars from the sheets and putting those on than putting on the Isaiah sticker and the trees and sun.

There was still quite a bit of time left, so I passed out a coloring page and crayons, and also a puzzle page. I hadn't brought any treats, but in singing time, the leader passed out treats of little cookies for everyone and I gave them to the kids as they left class.

Then I had to stop back in the library and get the music and hurry home and change clothes and go to choir practice.

All of a sudden, we have six altos attending! A year ago, Faralee was coming from her ward because we didn't have any altos. Now we only have one soprano who comes every time. Tyson brought two of his little daughters, who are still in primary I think. We went through the music for ward conference, and then sang The First Noel, and sightread through the music that I just picked up from the library. They did pretty well.

When I got home from choir, I gathered up my stuff and drove over to Faralee's house. I figured there was probably still partying going on from the open house. Sure enough, there was food set out on the island and Owen and some friends were in the backyard, and Hagbergs and Fae and Pozos were playing a game. They were just barely starting this game and it seemed that it took about half an hour to read through the rules and pass out all the cards and pieces. Then we played it until time to go home. I had to have Elesa figure out my score for me, but I didn't lose spectacularly, which was my main goal with the game. (Not to lose spectacularly) I mostly caught on to what was happening. I really prefer a simpler game with shorter rounds.

I took what was left of the zucchini bread home with me. Most of it had been eaten and people enjoyed it.

My sample

Vandy was a little haphazard with his. He didn't even want to take it home

This is Vandy's coloring. I'm pretty sure he can do better than this if he wants to.

Lunch with CharLee and Vic - Sept 19

CharLee called me and was quite urgent that she needed to meet with Vic and I to update us on what was going on, so we set the date for Saturday at noon in Lehi at One Man Band. 

Vic volunteered to drive so that I could see his new car that he got for the family reunion last July. Just as he arrived, I got a text from CharLee saying that she was delayed because she has to spoon feed her dog since he's getting so old. So Vic and I visited for a little while in my living room room.

When we arrived in Lehi, CharLee texted that she was already there, and we found a booth and sat down and decided what to order. This is the One Man Band where Carma and I used to meet CharLee for lunch.

We talked about incidental things until our food arrived, and then I asked CharLee what was going on. It turned out that nothing had changed since I last visited with her.

One of her problems is that she doesn't own the plot of land that her trailer is parked on. It is in Paul's name and needs to be transferred to her name. The same problem applies to her car, which is also in Paul's name, and is kind of falling apart. Unfortunately, she still has two years worth of payments to make on the car. She was scheduled to meet with a lawyer friend of hers a couple of weeks ago, but they have not been able to work that out yet, so that problem is still up in the air

Her other big concern is that she has been attending a ward that is not her own for quite some time. Shortly after Paul's death, she had some very traumatic experiences in her ward with some of the bishopric and now she is too traumatized to attend that ward. So she's been going to a rest home to attend church and has made friends with the missionary couple who were assigned there. Their mission has now ended, and she wants to attend their home ward. But she wants her bishop in the ward that she lives in to transfer her membership.

I don't know if he will do it or not. Her friend Rosemary is coming with her to give her moral support. Every time she talks about her ward she freaks out and starts crying. 

So basically, we didn't achieve anything. Vic tried to convince CharLee not to have the broken air conditioner replaced in her house, but just sell the house as is. I agree that's probably good advice. It's hard for me to have compassion and deal with her when she never moves forward.

When I got home, I made some zucchini bread to take to Owen's open house after his missionary farewell. I had bought some small zucchinis and a few other things earlier in the week.

I found a zucchini bread recipe that looked good and started making it. It turned out that it needed some oil, rather than butter or shortening. The recipe called for neutral oil. When I looked in my pantry, all I could find was olive oil. So that's what I used. I also substituted plain yogurt for the sour cream that was called for, and when I went to add the spices, I discovered that I was nearly out of cinnamon. I had about half teaspoon and it called for two full teaspoons. So I did the best I could with what I had. I put a heavy layer of cinnamon sugar, which I already had premixed, on top and doubled the recipe so that I had two loaves.

Apparently, I didn't start the baking process until around 8 PM, because the zucchini bread was not quite cool when it was time for me to go to bed. I did all of my bedtime routine, and when I was almost ready to climb into bed the loaves were barely warm at all. So I put it them plastic bags and went to bed.

Doctor's Appointment Was a Bust - Sept 18

My appointment with Dr. Voss was at 1 PM. It had originally been for the week of FanX, but I moved it so there wouldn't be a conflict. On the phone, I asked if this was my yearly wellness check and they said no, I had already had that this year. I'm sorry that I didn't follow up to find out why I was going.

When I arrived and got checked in and went into the exam room, the MA who took my temperature, etc. asked how I was doing with the medication Pantoprazole. I was astonished because it was the prescription for nausea that I quit taking months ago. My nausea gradually went away and hasn't come back, and I have most of a bottle of Pantoprazole just sitting there. I'll be glad to have it if I have problems with nausea again, but I surely didn't need to come in to the doctor's office for that. The MA was a little embarrassed and went to check with Dr. Voss to see if there was anything else he needed to see me for, and he and I both agreed that there wasn't. So I went home.

As for what I did for the rest of the day, it's a little unclear at this point. I probably watched TV and read.

 

Constitution Concert - Sept 17

I worried a bit all day about the weather for the evening's concert, because it was predicted that it might rain. I pulled up the music on my computer and sometimes my phone and listened to the songs and made sure everything was thoroughly marked in my music.

There were dark clouds in the sky, but it was still clear by evening. I changed my mind several times about what outfit I should wear. We had been instructed to wear red, white, or blue tops. I thought I might wear a velvet blazer I have that I wear at Christmas, but when I went to pull it out of the closet, it was more deep cranberry colored than red, so I chose one of my blue tops. I wore a white shirt under the top because I was afraid of getting cold since the concert was outside.

I picked Faralee up at her house and we arrived in time to get a decent parking place across from the park. I was surprised to see that the choir and the orchestra were all going to be seated on the stage.

Faralee and I had had some debate about whether we would be seated on risers or on bleachers. It turned out that she was right and that we were on bleachers, so I said that I would be OK to sit on the bleacher with her. I sure couldn't have sat on a riser and stood up, rising from that low point.

However, after we rehearsed the first number, I decided that the bleacher wouldn't work for me either. It felt like the board I was standing on was moving, and I was trying to stand on a wobbly surface. So I moved down into the sitting row in front of Faralee. We discussed during our brief break before the concert how heartbreaking it is to a child to be abandoned by their mother and that she might need professional counseling later.

As we prepared for the concert, we touched several measures of most of the songs, and all of the narration and solos were included. It wasn't a comprehensive rehearsal, but just a brief summary of what would be happening so that we were sure we were ready.

The altos were seated right behind the French horns and trumpets. I think there were three trumpets and four French horns. We were just a arm's reach away from the orchestra and it was pretty deafening! But also really fun to be in the midst of the orchestra like that. I enjoyed watching the trumpets as they switched mute or the French horn emptying his spit valve.

I thought the concert itself was a total success! We really couldn't see the audience at all, especially after it got dark outside. There were stage lights aimed at us that blinded us as to almost everything outside the stage. I think we had a reasonable size audience, at least for the first half.

But the narration and the solos and the band numbers and the choral numbers all fit together into a beautiful program. We sang songs about the birth of our nation and songs about pioneers and songs from were World War I. We took a 15 minute intermission and got to stand up briefly.

It was quite a lovely evening and at the end of it Faralee went and got her kids from the audience. They were wrapped in blankets and were quite cold, but we never got cold on the stage, probably because of the stage lights. Charlie's parents had been in the audience, and Owen was there for a while before he had to leave for his stake president's temple recommend interview. So there were just a two little boys with Faralee, and they all rode home with me. It was nearly 10 o'clock when I dropped them off.

The music, of course, is still running through my head and I'm very glad that I was able to participate and that concert. I thought it was wonderful! 

Rehearsal for Constitution Concert - Sept 16

Once I got the brace home and started wearing it, I found some things that were not comfortable for me. Specifically. trying to use my right hand to pick up something or hold something was very painful. It seemed obvious that the thumb hole needed to be made larger, so I had more freedom of movement.

So I called Revere Health physical therapy and made an appointment to come in and talk to Brad. I showed him what the problems were and he was able to enlarge that thumb hole so I have more freedom of movement to pick up something without pain. He did leave a bump that rubs against the inside of my thumb. I think I'm going to try to see if there's any chance I can file it off and smooth it myself.

I worked on my primary lesson. I got the idea of printing on sticky paper the pictures of the Prophet Isaiah and trees and flowers and sun. Then I will cut those shapes out and the kids can stick them on a paper that I will bring for that. I bought some metallic star stickers from Walmart and they can put stars all over everything.

I cut them out during the afternoon and now I need to peel off the paper backing and put them on wax paper so that the kids can peel them off that wax paper and put it on their papers.

I found the practice music that Faralee had sent a link to in one of her emails to the Chorale and practiced some with that. It's very helpful.

At 1 o'clock, I had a Book Club meeting in Mona. We met at Jennifer's house and discussed Animal Farm. We also talked to a lot about the community and raising chickens and other local events.

Because the book mentions that the pigs got to eat apples and milk, Jennifer had made apple pie and served ice cream with it to represent the apples and milk.

When I got home from that, I worked on the primary stickers some more.

Faralee and I were due at our final dress rehearsal for the constitution concert at 7:30. We weren't sure at first where we were supposed to be meeting. I picked up Faralee from her house, but had to wait a few minutes for her to get home from work. She has a little motorbike that she rides to take Max to school and run other local errands. While I was waiting for her, here she came on her motorbike to meet me.

We had a good rehearsal, but it was long. In addition to all of the music that the choir sings, there are quite a few orchestra numbers in between. I think we didn't leave there until nearly 10:30 PM.

I dropped Faralee off at home and went right to bed. Charlie's out of town on a business trip so early has to worry a little bit more about the kids while she's gone than when he's home

.

The Brace - Sept 15

Back over to Revere Health to Brad, the physical therapist. He has me come during his lunch hour so that he's not trying to fit me in amongst his regular patients.

He showed me the new brace and had me try it on. He had to make several adjustments, and trim some off the base, but when he was done, it was pretty comfortable, and I was instructed to try to wear it for about three hours per day, but not all in one stretch.

On the way home and almost immediately, I could find some things that needed to have adjustments made. I really can't grip anything with my right hand without it hurting. So that's a problem. I can't really use my pointer finger to type with while the brace is on because it's too painful. So toward the end of the day, I called over to Revere Health and asked if I could come on Wednesday.

Faralee was able to make an appointment for Owen's endowment next Tuesday at Provo City Center Temple. It looks like it's finally all going to come together. Owen had his Bishop's interview on Sunday, and Owen and asked that his limited-use recommend be renewed, so he's able to go to the temple and do baptisms for the next week until he gets his own endowment.

I pulled out the music for Thursday's concert and put highlight sticker strips on the part that I hadn't done previously. Sometimes it's hard to tell what line to sing on, especially when we go to three part women's music.

The other thing I decided to do was to put a small strip of colored sticker on the places where the time changes. We are singing a beautiful arrangement of come come the Saints, and it has so many time changes! I hope this helps.

I watched TV, and that was about it for my day. We didn't have Chorale, even though I was Tuesday night, because we rehearsed Monday and we will rehearse Wednesday and perform on Thursday.

Why Am I So Busy? - Monday, Sept. 14

I had an appointment around noon to go back to the physical therapist, Brad, to be fitted more with the brace he's making for my right hand. When I got there, he had revised his whole plan. He decided that the brace that he had worked on for several days wasn't going to make me happy, and had some other ideas of things to do.

So we started over from scratch with the moldable plastic and he shaped that where he wanted it to go. He added several areas of Velcro, and then some straps, and then soft foam strips for each finger to pull them into position. He wanted me to come back on Tuesday when he figured he would have it ready for me to wear home.

Arrington's came over at 3 PM and we had a good visit and talked about Elder Anderson's conference talk and a little bit about Isaiah.

I ate some food and then Faralee came over and picked me up for Chorale practice.

We are preparing for a concert on constitution day, which is September 17. I asked Faralee if we could go a little early so that we could get a parking place, and that worked out better.

There were more singers and more orchestra members than there had been on Saturday morning. We rehearsed for about two hours, almost two and a half, and I think we got through most of the music. I don't feel particularly prepared for this concert, but it's going to be beautiful.

Sunday - Sept 13

It's a little stressful getting prepared for primary class and choir on a Sunday morning. The choir needed to meet early so that we could run through our song. Somehow, even though I have all morning to get ready, it seems like I'm always scrambling at the end.

The song we were singing was Oh Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me. We've practiced it for a few weeks in choir practice, but some people haven't always been there.

We met at 11:30 and ran through it several times. I wanted all of the men to sing the tenor line for one of the verses, but they kept ending up on the melody with the women. I wish I hadn't had the men sing the melody on the second verse because then it got into their heads.

The rest of the sacrament meeting was really good. Lucinda directed the music and she is doing better and better. There were two youth speakers and one adult and then it was time for the choir.

When we got on the stand, I told Jon to only play the tenor line on the third verse. That actually worked very well. The men all sang tenor while the women sang the melody unaccompanied.

For the fourth verse, I invited the congregation to sing with us. I was very relieved that it turned out so well.

Our main speaker was a young man who is just leaving on his mission. He told about a life-threatening problem he had one day at work. It turned out that he was passing a kidney stone, and it threw him into shock, and he almost passed away on his way to the hospital. But he had confirmed to himself that he would serve his mission faithfully and follow Christ until the end of his life. It was a good example to me of how sometimes the adversary tries really hard to keep these young men from serving their mission. It certainly been hard for Owen. 

After the meeting, I hurried to the car and left the choir music and picked up the primary bag. I also got the folder with the choir music for The First Noel, which I planned to introduce to the choir later in the afternoon. I dropped off the choir music at the library and went into the primary room.

They had just started and Susan was there, who I had asked to sit in my class with me. There were only four kids and the songs that the music director introduced were not ones they knew, so they really didn't try very hard to sing. I'm really tempted to offer her some help with visual aids and tips and tricks but I don't know if that would be appreciated or not.

When it was class time, we set our chairs up in a circle and I showed a little video that I had found on the Church website. Then we talked about the video a little. It was about how some kids were mean to one little girl and how sad it made her. I asked them if they were ever mean to anyone and they were sure that they had never been mean. Then I passed out a coloring sheet and the markers that I had brought, and they colored the page. It's so interesting watching those kids color. You can really see who is older and who is not quite five yet.

I passed out the beanbags I had brought in a Tupperware container and this is where the kids tossed them. They were supposed to name something kind that they could say. They did pretty good at coming up with something, although I couldn't hear well enough to hear what each of them said.

By then it was about time to go. Candace had given me some fortune cookies, which I passed out to the kids. They were a little curious about why these little cookies had a piece of paper in them, and I told them that when they got home, they could open them and have their parents read what the paper said.

Then it was time to put away the chairs and rush home. I almost forgot to go back to the library and pick up my choir music, which was all copied and the holes punched.

At home, I printed a special copy of The First Noel for Jon, printed on card stock and only on one side. I still managed to have time to go to the bathroom and change clothes.

In choir practice, we ran through Come Unto Jesus, which we will sing in Ward conference in October. Then we looked at the arrangement of The First Noel. It's very pretty, and not too difficult. There is an obbligato, or rather a descant, which I will treat as an obbligato by having Tish play it on her flute. We were missing the Peterson guys, which means Tyson, the dad, who's a bass, and Jamesin and Jackson, sons, who are both tenors. When they're not there, we have a big hole in our choir.

But, we had a new alto! She is the one who puts together the ward bulletin and I've communicated with her quite a bit, but never put the name to a face or gotten to know her. I'm excited to have her. I hope she can convince her Hawaiian husband to join us. She says he's very shy.

After choir, I went home and relaxed until it was time to go over to Boydell's for dinner. I didn't know if they would have Brandon and Tyler and their families, or if the girls would have a bunch of friends like they did last time, but it turned out to only be Boydell and Jen and Alli and Lina. I didn't even bring any food to contribute. They had corn on the cob and chicken curry with rice, and fresh cucumbers and celery. Everything was really yummy.

Jen was a little unhappy that we didn't have any dessert but we tried to convince her that we really didn't care. Alli chose an anime movie that she wanted to watch, and they loaded it up on the TV and we watched it. It was pretty good, but we didn't figure all of it out. And Jen mixed up a batch of no bake cookies that were ready in time when the movie was over.

We got to talk about a variety of different things. I really enjoy being with Boydell and Jen and their girls.

Busy Day - Saturday Sept 12

Our Chorale is giving a concert along with several other community choirs for constitution day. That will be on Thursday evening, so we are having a lot of rehearsals in preparation for that.

This one started at 9 AM in Payson which is a little earlier than I usually get up. But I set my alarm and picked up Faralee and we got to the rehearsal just as it was beginning. I wasn't aware until then how many other singers were going to be joining us so I was a bit surprised at how full the room was. There was an orchestra on one side of the room and the singers on the other side, separated by men and women. Faralee and I found seats at the back of the women's section. 

The conductor was situated in the center between the orchestra and the choir with the two groups facing each other. His name is Benjamin Winkler, and I think he teaches choir or orchestra somewhere in one of the schools, or perhaps is retired from that.

We have quite a bit of music that we are performing, and we worked our way through the numbers. Several of them are pretty tricky with time changes and key changes.

I had made an appointment with Asia for a manicure. I thought I needed to be there at noon, which turned out to be mistaken. But I didn't know that until later. So at 11 o'clock, Faralee and I tried to sneak out of the rehearsal quietly because it was probably still going for another half hour or hour.

As I drove to take Faralee home, I noticed that I had a warning light on the dash of my car for tire pressure. That concerned me because I didn't know whether one of the tires was slightly low or dangerously low.

After I dropped Faralee off at home I texted Asia to ask her if it would be all right to come just a little late so that I could get gas and she was surprised that I was already on my way because instead of being there at noon, we had set up the appointment for 2 PM.

After a little back-and-forth, she said to come whenever I was ready. So I got gas at Walmart in Springville and decided to go to their auto shop to have them check the tire problem. They weren't particularly busy and the guy was able to check all the tires and top them up to the required amount. He said that the front left tire was about 10 pounds low and so he had added that air. He said that if the light came on again later, it would probably mean a slow leak and I could bring the car back and they could patch the tire for me. He didn't charge me anything. That was a big relief!

From there I went to IHOP, which is in the same shopping center and bought some breakfast. I got the 55+ breakfast sampler that Acell always used to get. It was good, but not delicious.

Then I headed for Eagle Mountain. It's not a terrible drive, but it's going to be better once they get the Pioneer Crossing Road construction finished.

Asia was ready for me and she and Arlene had just returned from a craft show in Eagle Mountain. They showed me the cute things they got and Arlene wondered if I wanted to go over to it with her after my manicure was done.

Asia was struggling with a headache, but we still managed to have a nice visit and she showed me all the Halloween decorations that she had decorated the house with.

I got blue sparkly nails, and then Arlene and I went over to the craft fair. We took my car and went to a large park in western Eagle Mountain.

There were really a lot of people there, and it was a large craft fair. A section of the booths was devoted to crafts by children, and the children were doing the sales. There were foods and crocheted and knitted items with the big, bulky yarn, including stuffed animals and other things. They were cute and Arlene had bought several items for her grandkids.

Arlene and I wandered up and down the rows. I had picked up a large fruit cup for $9 with cut up fruit and a fork and we both munched on it as we went. It kept us hydrated and kept us from buying too many of the cookies and candies that were prevalent there.

Arlene had bought some cute earrings earlier, so that be booth was one of the first places we went. I bought two pair earrings there and several more earrings at other places we went. Most of the crafts were handmade by the people manning the booth. Many times the craft fairs will only have imported items that are not locally made, but this fair wasn't like that.

It was pretty hot, and for a while there was a strong wind that threatened to blow over some of the booths, but then it calmed down and a cloud cover came. By the time we were done I was very grateful to head for the car. But I had some pretty things that I didn't regret buying.

We went back to Arlene's house and she pulled up some information about a camping site that we are considering for next summer. There are some things we really like about it, but it's quite expensive and misses a few check boxes as far as shaded areas for large groups and cooking facilities for larger groups. And it's as I said, pretty expensive.

On my way home, I turned on gospel library and had it play scriptures for me as I drove. By then it was nearly 5 PM.

I had a few things still to do to get ready for Sunday. I needed to organize choir folders because we would be singing the next day, plus I watched TV and read my book, Rebecca. I was glad to be off my feet.

9/11 Is a Date That We Will Always Remember - Sept 11

I worked on stuff for my primary lesson. I decided to make a set of beanbags, and found some fabric that's metallic looking. It's silver and wasn't awfully hard to sew.

I made the beanbags quite small, and put rice in them, less than half full. I haven't figured out exactly what game I will have them play.

I've been watching Magpie Murders, and then the series that follows it, Moonflower Murders. Each has six episodes. They should've just made different seasons instead of naming each season with a different show name. The newest season is called Marble Hall Murders. But they're about the same main characters.

I discovered that I don't have to watch them on PBS. I don't have anything against PBS, except that they have two or three commercials by their sponsors before each episode. And if I get interrupted in the middle of the episode, I still need to watch the commercials before I can go back to the show.

But these that I've been watching are on Masterpiece Mysteries, which is also available on prime. Then I can do away with a PBS commercials. 

Still trying to Create the Perfect Splint - Sept 10

I didn't really accomplish much during the day. I had an appointment with the Physical therapist to go back and see if he had been able to create a splint for my right hand, where the fingers are lightning so far to the right.

When I went at the time appointed, which was 1230, they said that my therapist had a meeting come up and needed to postpone for an hour. They had tried to call me and I'd left a message, but I had the sound turned off and didn't hear it.

So I went back over at 1:30. Luckily Revere Health is only five minutes from home, so it wasn't a big sacrifice.

Brad had the splint ready to try on. The trick is too cut the finger in place so that they don't have to drift to as their accustomed to doing, but make it comfortable and so that I can still use my hand.

He tried several things and even showed me a premade splint that we could put on immediately, but it has wires that would make it difficult to get dressed. We still weren't quite satisfied with how it was fitting, so we made an appointment for the following Monday.

I did a Google search for braces for ulnar drift and found quite a few variations.

I ordered a chicken burger and fries and cookie dough shake from Wendy's. Unfortunately, I didn't really love any part of the meal. I'm think I'm getting too picky in my old age. Sadly, that's not keeping me from eating too much and gaining weight.

Manti and Ephraim Temples with Owen - Sept 9

I got ready to go to the temple and got my temple bag ready. At the last minute, I printed a name for the endowment that I was planning to do.

My appointment at Manti was for 1:30 PM. Google said it would take about an hour and a quarter to drive there. Owen was interested in coming with me even though he doesn't have a temple recommend. He just figured he would walk around the temple ground and study his scriptures.

So I told Faralee I would come and pick Owen up just before noon, but she texted and said that he had gone to Provo to do some service and would just come to my house at the appointed time.

When I was ready, I backed the car out of the garage and waited for Owen. It became obvious that he wouldn't get there at the time I had appointed for us to leave, but I reminded myself not to stress out. It would still be OK if I went to the following session. Manti does not have multiple session rooms as the newer temples have, so I would definitely have to wait an hour to go to the next session.

We initially planned for Faralee to bring her other kids and meet us at Ephraim for the open house, so that sounded like fun

When Owen arrived, he apologized that he had gotten lost on the way to my house, and we left about 10 minutes later than I wanted to. It seemed like it still might be possible to get there in time for the 1:30 session.

But as we drove south on I-15 we passed a semi truck that was on fire by the side of the freeway. As we approached slowly with the traffic backed up, all we could see was this pillar of black smoke blowing across the freeway. It wasn't until we got right next to it that we could see that the cab of the truck had pulled forward so so as to not catch on fire, but the trailer itself was a roaring blaze, and some of the flames were blowing across the road. We crept past it and felt the heat and smelled the awful burning smell. I told Owen, "I can't believe you didn't take a picture of that!"

I learned later, after I got home that when the emergency vehicles and the highway patrol had arrived, they had blocked the freeway off completely. Some people sat there for a very long time, while others were rerouted off the freeway onto other roads. I guess we lucked out to have avoided that.

We arrived in Manti at about 1:35. Owen walked up toward the temple with me and went inside the little visitor center, and I went up into the temple to the recommend desk. They said that the next session would be at 2:30, and I decided them to do initiatories rather than wait for the next session. We checked at the office and they did have openings for initiatories, so that's what I did.

Manti is one of the few temples that does their initiatory ordinances all in one booth, rather than moving from compartment to compartment. I did have to wait a little, but then they took me in. There are six booths, and they are quite small. The water and oil and ordinance cards are behind the patron on the wall. Two sisters take turns giving the ordinances of washing, anointing, and clothing. It really only took about half an hour for me to do five temple names.

I changed clothes and went outside and easily found Owen tucked up in a little nook in the shade. I invited him inside to see the beautiful interior in the foyer.

We found out that Faralee had been called into work, so their family wasn't coming to meet us at the Ephraim open house. We stopped at McDonald's and got some food and then found the temple in Ephraim.

I thought that the tour was very well organized from start to finish. Most of the people who had a script to explain some part of the temple did it either totally memorized or with very few references to the card with the script. Everyone was so reverent walking through the temple and all of it was totally beautiful! The stained glass had flowers patterns and it was everywhere! The baptistery is on the entry level and there are stairs leading to the upper levels where the chapel and ordinance rooms and sealing rooms are. There is one baptismal font, three sealing rooms, and four ordinance rooms, which are quite small.

Owen I had a nice visit on the way home from the temple. He plugged in his phone into my car radio, and played a few of his favorite tunes for me.

As we approached the place where the trailer had been on fire, north of the Mona exit, we saw that the trailer was still there. It was a burned-out shell in a couple of pieces, but they hadn't hauled it away yet. I was quite disappointed that we didn't get any pictures because the local news has very little on it.

When we got to my house, Owen thanked me and headed for home. I went inside and took it easy for the rest of the day and watched TV and read my books.

A Physical Therapist Looks at My Hand - Sept 8

I woke up a little earlier than usual and had a very nice chat with Scorchi for a while during the morning. It's always one of the highlights of my week.c

My rheumatologist, Dr. Call, referred me to a hand specialist in physical therapy. Luckily, it was at Revere Health, about a mile away from here. Brad Mangum was the Physical therapist. I sat down with a table by my side, and he examined my hand and got some history on it and checked to see how swollen and twisted the fingers and knuckles were. He suggested a couple of hand braces for me. One would be custom-made there in the office by him and another would be something that I would wear to bed to help the fingers.

He took some thick plastic sheet and heated it up so that it was moldable and wrapped it around my hand. He wanted to be able to straighten the fingers as much as possible, but still allow movement of the hand and fingers so that I could use it as much as possible. We spent the rest of the hour with him trying things and modifying the brace. He wants to put spacers between the fingers to help hold them in place and possibly a strap for the pointer finger. He hoped he could get it done in the hour that he had allotted, but decided to work on it later. We made an appointment for Thursday for me to come back and finish fitting it to my hand.

In the evening, Faralee had a library meeting which made her late for Chorale, so I drove myself and saved her a seat. We are practicing music for a special Constitution Day concert, which will be held on September 17. There's quite a lot of music and although it's generally not too difficult, it's just that they're so much of it to learn.

Faralee arrived just a few minutes after rehearsal started. I told her that I was planning to go to the Manti temple and then visit the Ephraim Temple open house afterwards on Wednesday. She wondered if Owen would be interested in going with me and maybe she would bring her other kids and meet us at in Ephraim for the open house. 

Owen doesn't yet have his temple recommend, and the bishop is out of town until Sunday. Not only that, but his limited use recommend has expired so he can't even do baptisms. He had initially set a goal to go to the temple every day in the month of September until he enters the MTC, but that plan has been frustrated. Sometimes he does go and just sit outside the temple and read his scriptures.

When we both got home from rehearsal, Faralee texted me to say that Owen was very interested in coming with me, but he would bring his scripture and study scriptures somewhere around the Manti Temple. I said I would pick him up a little before noon to get to the 1:30 endowment session on time.

 

FHE with Arringtons - Sept 7

I drove to Payson for Family home evening. We discussed a couple of conference talks and proverbs. But we also talked about what was going on in our lives and our families' lives.

Elesa and Richard had sent some leftover chili from Sunday's dinner home with me, and I had that for my dinner meal. I watched some TV and did some other stuff. 

Surprise! I'm teaching Primary! - Sept 6

I put some copies of Christmas music into my bag to have copies made for the choir. I left home around 11:30 to get to the noon church.

After I got to the church, I got a text from Tish, our new primary president. She told me that the teacher who was supposed to be co-teaching with me and teaching the lesson had been called with her husband to teach a class of their own. So she wouldn't be teaching my class. I was pretty speechless. Tish wasn't at church yet so we carried on quite a conversation over text, discussing what to do about the fact that I was totally unprepared to teach a class and figuring out who would be sitting in the class with me. We went through several different options, and I finally said I would see if I could throw together a lesson.

I picked up some coloring pages from the library and some blank papers and scissors and during singing time I cut out some large hearts, one per page. I ended up only having three of my kids there.

When we got to class, Marlyn and Jeff Kartchner came and joined us. They had been teaching a Sunday School class for the previous half hour.

I passed out some crayons and the coloring pages and the cut out hearts and asked the children to draw a picture of something that they loved on the heart. Then we talked about psalms and I gave them a scripture to memorize. I told them "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." They recited "Trust in the Lord with all my heart." It's actually from proverbs, but I had seen a suggestion somewhere that made me think it would be OK to use it. Marlyn was a big help because she had each child come up to her and pretend that she and Jeff were their parents and to tell them what they had learned in primary. She wrote a big T on the back of their paper heart to remind them that the quote started with a T for trust. They could all recite it without any hesitation.

After class, Marlyn returned the scissors and crayons to the library for me. I decided that I'm going to bring my own crayons or markers and a dry erase marker for the whiteboard.

I left the church resolving that I would always be prepared to teach the class in case I was needed. Candace will be gone for two more weeks, so I definitely need to be prepared for those Sundays.

I never got my choir music copied.

When I got home, I ate something and changed clothes. I got a text from the Executive Secretary saying that if I wanted to come early for my tithing declaration appointment, they had some openings earlier than I had signed up for. So I finished eating and rushed back over to the church. I had a nice visit with the bishop and he asked what blessings I had seen as a result of paying tithing.

When I got back from the church, I stirred up a recipe for apple biscuits that I had found somewhere. When it was done cooking, I loaded it into a collapsible container and took it over to Hagberg's.

Fairly and Charlie and Arturo and Max came to dinner. Soon Fais arrived and Cameo and Mike. We don't usually get to see Mike, so that was fun.

There was a lot of delicious food. After we ate, we played Bananagrams and then Swoop, and after Cameo and Mike left, we played Skip the Salad, which we've only played once before. It was fun and I was losing very spectacularly until the very last round when Arturo ended up with a huge score. He had been saying that when you lose you win and when you win, you lose, and that turned out to be true for him. Having the highest score meant that he lost the game. It was a fun evening.

Fast Saturday - Sept 5

One thing I like about serving at the temple on Friday is that I get to have Saturday to decompress before Sunday. I don't think I did anything very useful.

There was one thing, however. I had ordered a color printer from Amazon, and it arrived. It is a Canon color printer. I wanted to wait to set it up until I had finished all of the Grantchester episodes. I had three left to watch, and I watched them all, so I'm done with the series. I enjoyed them, but was pretty frustrated that the Vicars couldn't be more righteous. 

It was a bit of a challenge to get the printer box inside and get the printer out. The first challenge was clearing off my desk enough to put another printer there. There was a pile of magazines and papers and receipts and recipes and music. I had to work my way through all of it, but I managed it.

I finally got the printer onto the desk and plugged in. There was a tutorial online telling how to set up the printer. It went pretty well until it was supposed to download the Canon driver software. I downloaded it several times and tried to install it, but just got an error message.

I tried various things and finally did a Google search for Canon drivers and found one and clicked on it and then it installed the driver and it worked! It actually worked! I had been pondering on whether or not I needed to call Boydell to come and help, but I did it without any help. Happy happy day!

On Fast Saturday, I have decided to eat my last meal at about the same time that I would get home from church on Sunday and eat a meal. So I ate something at 2:30 on Saturday and then fasted for the rest of the day.

Last Shift Before the Temple Closes for a Month - Sept 4

 I directed the music again in preparation meeting at the temple. This time was a little frustrating because the sisters struggled with the three part arrangement of The Lord Is My Shepherd and some of them kept talking while we were singing. That was really frustrating!

My first assignment was at the veil, where I helped four or five young Sister Missionaries through the veil. I'm so grateful that we have switched to having cards that the people going through the veil can read from. I was initially very opposed to the idea, but as usual, I was kicking against the pricks for an inspired modification.

Then I was at Name Issue, then Initiatory, then bride & groom door, and lastly, on the sealing floor.

When I got home from the temple, I was grateful to have a savory hand pie and half of a caramel apple pie hand pie there for my dinner.

I watched more Grantchester.

Payson Book Club - Sept 3

Our Roomies' Zoom is supposed to be on the first Thursday of the month.  Judy has been in charge of scheduling the two Zoom meetings in advance, one after the other, since also, a free Zoom account only allows us 40 minutes. She usually sends us the links the day before the meeting.

At the appointed time, Marsha and I clicked on the first link and got on Zoom and started visiting, but we wondered where Judy was. We weren't that surprised that Janet wasn't with us, because for some reason she often forgets. But since Judy was the one that scheduled the meeting, we assumed she would be there.

After we had chatted for a few minutes, Judy showed up, but she couldn't hear us. We could hear her talking, but she couldn't hear anything we were saying. Then she closed the meeting. There was a little confusion and then Marsha and I got back on and Judy tried to get back on, but her name was there with no sound and no picture. It stayed that way for the rest of the time. She texted later to say that she was having problems and couldn't figure out how to get on Zoom. So Marsha and I had a nice visit for almost an hour, but no one else joined us. Janet sent an email later apologizing for forgetting.

I dropped off a package at the post office and then went to the library to turn in some books. I checked out a couple of Murderbot books. Then I went to The Pie Sisters and bought a couple of savory hand pies and one sweet one. That will feed me for a couple of days and they are so delicious!

I needed to do quite a bit of cleaning and straightening in preparation for my Payson Book Club meeting. My problem area is always the island. I don't keep up on the dishes, and I let piles of mail accumulate. But I got it all cleaned up and everything looking nice in time for the meeting to start.

I appreciate these ladies being willing to drive over to Salem for the meetings. We had Bonnie B and Bonnie, W, and Ali and Misty and Diann.

We talked about the book, which was Song of the Gargoyle. Everyone agreed that it was a charming book. We talked about other books that we have read and Bonnie B took notes.

I noticed someone in my backyard, and when I looked more closely, it was Boydell and Jen and the guy who has mowed the lawn the last couple of times. I guess they were analyzing the backyard and figuring out what needs to be done. They pulled up a bunch of weeds that were trying to become trees, but didn't haul them off. They came in for just a minute before going home and I got to introduce them to my Book Club friends.

It was a fun meeting, and nice to have my kitchen actually clean.

Choosing Christmas Music - September 2

I'm planning on having the choir sing three Christmas songs, but haven't decided for sure what they should be. I found a song, an arrangement of The First Noel by AnnMarie Murdoch that I printed out. I really like it. 

Then I decided that we should do a Sally DeFord arrangement, so I listened to several of them. She has so many and they are all beautiful, but I found one that I like and printed it out as well. 

I wanted to find some music from the Church's music that's been submitted to competitions. There's no way to listen to those songs so that makes it a little more complicated. I did find one or two that might be good, but since I can't hear them, it definitely makes it harder. Then my printer went on strike, so I had to go do something else for a while.

I signed up for a health site called Svelte. They do a combination of exercise and diet and supplements and they wanted me to make an appointment for a phone consultation. So I finally did it and at 4 o'clock they called me and I had a consultation with the health coach. It lasted about 40 or 45 minutes and turned out to be mostly a sales pitch to get me to sign up for their complete program for around $2500. I said I would need a few days to think about it and requested that they not call me back to follow up.

I really want to exercise and to eat better, so I have signed up for several different programs that I haven't followed up on. Plus, I have the opportunity to go to the Spanish Fork Fit Center and have my health insurance pay for most of the membership fee. But signing up and actually going are two different things. I think I'm stuck at the decision and follow up stage and just need to decide what to do and move forward with commitment.

The weather has definitely turned cooler. There have been some major destructive storms in Utah, but luckily not in our area.

I've been watching Grantchester, and only have a season or two left.