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.

Life in the bubble

Bob and I frequently comment on how nice it is to live in this particular "bubble," where things are mostly wonderful and the outside doesn't intrude unless we invite it to. So we were spared much of the anguish and all of the work pertaining to a pretty bad water leak that occurred last November. We were sitting pretty here in SLC, and our dear daughter and son-in-law were in McKinney handling the whole thing for us. How we apprciate them!! I'll post pictures at the end of this entry. I understand that it's all done now, and the carpet is in place and water damage to the wall all fixed up. I have no idea how many hours Christi spent at our house supervising. But at least one good thing happened -- she got to give a Book of Mormon to an interested worker. Nice!

I haven't posted for quite a while, and I'm embarrassed. It's not that things aren't happening -- they definitely are -- but I can't think of anything interesting to say about them. We just keep chugging along, doing the things we do best -- Bob produces beautiful images, and I produce some "do-able" music. I do mostly arrangements, but I've written some original things when asked. I've also been doing a lot of lyrics lately, and that's been fun. So glad that Cameron introduced me to rhyming dictionaries! Of course, the music is in addition to my regular duties, which don't change much. We were released from one of the activity planning committees and we're happy about that, although the activity we just completed went very well. Bob was the emcee and he was a big Wow and is still getting compliments on what a good job he did. They really enjoyed him and he had a ball.

On the downside, Bob caught the cold that's been going through our Zone, and he has just been laying low this weekend, hoping to get better enough to go to work on Tuesday. I think tomorrow will be another layabout day, which is driving him batty, but will hopefully do the trick for him. I believe he'll come over for lunch, though, because it's our Zone birthday social and we're having a wonderful soloist from the Tab Choir, Alex Boyer, entertaining us. He sings spirituals like no one else can and is wonderful. So there will be at least one good thing happening for Bob tomorrow.

Love you all -- miss you greatly -- can't wait to see you!!!

Something old (friends), something new (pvc's)

Those of you who get Bob's journal are already aware of how we spent our week: Monday, the ER; Tuesday, the cardiologist (the dreaded stress test); Wednesday, the Holter monitor for 24 hours; and Friday, the cardiologist who is the arrythmia specialist. To make a long story short, nothing here is life-threatening, and there is a very simple procedure to fix the problem of too many PVCs. It's called Catheter Ablation, and is done as an outpatient procedure, except that Bob will have to stay one night in the hospital. There is so little urgency about it that we are going to put it off until the next edition Mission Memories is off the press and in our hands (since he can't do any heavy lifting for 2 weeks after the procedure), so about the middle of May is when we'll do it. It will be good for me as well -- since he won't be able to lift my mobility scooter components in an out of the car, I'll just walk and use my cane. I think I can handle it just fine.

We had a lovely time this evening with Phill and Pat Catherall, old friends from Simi Valley, who took us out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. It was their first exposure to this place as they don't have any in California, to the best of my knowledge, but they have them all over the Dallas area and we were sure glad to be back inside one. Aside from the delicious food, it was so wonderful to get caught up with old and dear friends. To quote my husband: "You have cool friends!" I do indeed, and so does he.

Life is good and we are happy!

The milestones keep shifting!

A big one just shifted for us this morning, and as of a week from tomorrow, we will have reached what missionaries fondly refer to as "hump day;" the half-way point in our mission. Yep, we have added 4 months on to our service. They've never had as good a photographer as Bob in this slot before and they are loathe to let him go. He President Halverson) would like for us to have extended 2 years but was willing to settle for whatever we could give, and he would still have given us time off for our trip to Hawaii. But now we're leaving the mission at the end of September, so we'll still go to Hawaii with the Smiths, and it won't kill me to miss a flute convention. I've done it before.

It was lovely to hear Bob so fulsomely praised by such a taciturn individual, but I know that he meant every word he said, and Bob has done some beautiful work for the mission. It solves a dilemma for us, because while we were anxious to see our home (and piano) again we hated the thought of leaving "the bubble" we've been living and working in. But now the suspense is over and we know our future course and direction. I may even get my job right one of these days!

We would have had to endure the entire winter here regardless, and we are a tad less than thrilled about going to the Little Theater in the freezing rain this afternoon to sing with the choir for a family history devotional. It's worth it to hear Richard G. Scott, though, so we only feel like complaining when our teeth begin to chatter (which they do on that particular stage).

So that's all the news that's fit to print at this moment. We haven't quite absorbed it yet, and hope that everyone is okay with it. We love you all dearly!!

Here's some music on a different plane --

Here's a link to the devotional we had Monday morning. At about 50 minutes in the Women's Choir sang my arrangement of "My Redeemer Lives," with yourstruly on the piano: http://stream.lds.org/fh/devotional/missionary_devotional_12jan_09_engish300asf
We've really been quite busy this January. I was hoping for a little letup after December, but our new publishing deadline is looming and there seems to be much to do. The snow is almost all melted away, to my relief, but it's still plenty cold. I'll sure never complain about Texas winters anymore (I reserve the option of complaining about Texas summers). We're greatly looking forward to my brother and sister-in-law visiting in March and would sure welcome any other company that felt the urge to visit. We'll be heading for home the end of May as far as we know, but we have an interview with the mission president next week and we may re-think our options after that. I confess to being a little trunky, as much as I love it here.

Here's another link for any of my kiddos who may be interested: my cousin Nannette is about to publish a book, and has a blog about it. Here's the link:
http://www.comeautumn.blogspot.com/. She told me several months ago that she based her main romantic character on none other than Deane, so you may be sure that I'm very anxious to read the book. I would be anyway but that seems too good to miss.

Update and apology: I just tried the link and it got me to the player, but refused to play the video. I have no idea what will happen if you try it. Sorry about that!