Hmmph!

We had a few days of spring last week. The gardeners were busy planting color in the flower beds; we see buds on the trees; the tulips are beginning to bloom; we had shirt sleeve weather in the afternoons; we even had the official first day of Spring.

Today it's SNOWING! What is it with Utah weather? Will I ever be able to send my boots and mufflers home? It just can't be right to have daffodils with snow perched on top.

And today Bob goes in to the hospital for his procedure, but we're feeling very calm about it. We got up early like always for choir practice and to sing for the devotional, and went up to the office afterwards so Bob could get a blessing, and he got a lovely one. I'll post again when it's all over with, but rest assured that all will be well and he'll be home tomorrow feeling fine.

I'm going to try to post some pictures of what we've been up to lately. We were in charge of the Zone birthday social this month, which had me in a lather for about 3 months -- I am most definitely NOT my mother's daughter when it comes to entertaining -- but we survived and even had fun. The next day was incredibly wonderful with a visit from Don and Julie, and a whole afternoon and evening together. And Don treated us all to dinner at Maddox BBQ in Perry -- well worth the drive. And prior to their arrival we had lunch with a group from our Zone in the Garden on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith building. It's 20% discount week for missionaries all week, so we took advantage. Delicious and fun!

I'll bet you think all we do in this mission is eat, socialize, and sing. Wrong! We are in the process of putting out the next edition of Mission Memories and we are behind the curve a little bit because of the days we missed with Bob's troubles. We'll miss 2 more days next week when he goes in for his heart procedure, but we'll be back in the saddle on Wednesday and rarin' to go. And I'm cross-training with the other assistant editor, who is going to be transferred after this book is put to bed. It will probably prevent me from being able to take my computer to work with me to do music on, but I'd rather have lots of work to do than worry about filling up free time. Besides, I like editing and I think it will be fun.

I'm about to attach pictures. Wish me luck!

Today's thrill (for me & Bob anyway)

Here's picture proof that we actually got to sit in the tabernacle choir seats and sing. I never know where these pictures are going to land and don't seem to have any control over them, but maybe I can post them first and then edit later or something (Amy? Help?)

The first picture is of Herbert Klopfer, our organist for today. He's the one who checked me out on the organ that I play in the Joseph Smith building. He's the nicest man in the world. The next picture shows 5 of the ladies in our sextet. The two gals to my right, the lady behind the first empty seat to my left, and the lady on her left are 5/6ths of --- TA DA!! -- The Silvertones. Our most recent hit performance was "Your Cheatin' Heart" with different (genealogy research) words and we rocked. Sort of. The last picture I took and I apologize for my horrible camera technique. That's our director, Something-Something Cramer, a lovely lady and a wonderful musician. She sings in the Tab choir. And you all know the handsome gent standing with her, Something-Something Zornes. Oh wait -- HIS name I remember. It's Robert.

The most difficult part of today was that I lost half of a front tooth this morning and I was trying hard not to smile -- and it was hard, because I was happy to be there!

Gee, I've been bad

I haven't done so well on my blogging since I got on Facebook. The interaction there is so immediate, along with hearing from people I haven't touched base with for a long, long time, that it's very appealing. But I don't want to let the blog go for too long.

We are 3 days past our end-of-February cut-off date for the next Mission Memories book, so now we are into production big time. We are totally on our own this time, but are feeling fairly optimistic. We slipped schedule a little bit because Bob was quite sick for a couple of weeks with a nasty cold, but I think we can recover nicely. We still hope to get it to the printer before the end of March . . . we'll let you know how that turns out! Our "In" group (the group we entered the mission with) is going to tour the bindery next Tuesday, and I'm looking forward to it. I love books, and love to see how they're made and repaired. We have a wonderful conservation lab in the library that repairs the books and manuscripts that have had tough treatment. I think that would be a fascinating job.

I don't know if we mentioned that we extended our mission another 4 months (I probably did) and for the most part we're happy about that, but occasionally we get a little homesick. But now we have a week-end back home to look forward to: Jake, Christi's oldest son, is turning 12 in July and will be getting the priesthood. That's too special to miss out on, so we're going to go back for it. Aside from the tickle we feel inside about seeing our wonderful family again, it will just be nice to spend a few hours in our sweet little home. It should set us up nicely for the last 2 months of our mission. We are also looking forward to visits from family during the time we're still here. My brother Don and wife Julie, my son Greg and his family, and hopefully Cameron. I feel sad that the economy has ruined so many vacation (and other) plans and hope it doesn't take too long to get rectified. The Woods will be going back to Minnesota for a very special occasion -- the baptism of Greg & Cindy's granddaughter, Tamara, who has been praying very hard about this big decision. We're all so very happy about that. They'll make a stop in SLC as part of their trip.

This has certainly been a most wonderful experience and has exceeded my expectations beyond my ability to describe. I have never for one moment, even when the snow was yucky, regretted our coming here. It's hard to put into words the special spirit that permeates this place and this work. It's a great privilege.

Love you all! Bye for now.