I Repent!!

I take back all the bad things I said about Salt Lake City weather. Any city that provides this kind of beauty can be forgiven everything. Bob needed exercise today, so after conference we took a walk through Temple Square and the Plaza (Zornes version: he hobbles, I scoot on the scooter). It made me feel bad that we've had to drive to work so many days this spring because we have missed a lot of the beauty around here. We'll take another walk during lunch tomorrow, this time with Bob's camera, and get some even better pictures. In the meantime -- Happy Spring!!

I'm speechless . . .

. . .and delighted, and sad, all at the same time. We got to visit with our Frisco stake president and his lovely wife and absolutely delightful mother yesterday afternoon, and today we find out that we were soundly hugged and kissed by a General Authority!! Jonathan C. Roberts, Frisco, Texas was announced today as a new Area Seventy. Quite a few months ago, I posted a picture of his mother, Sister Tessie Roberts, who serves with us in this mission. I'll post it again, and we're both shaking our heads that we didn't have the presence of mind to take his picture yesterday when he was here -- and Bob is the photographer! But we were so happy to see him -- we love him very much and are so extremely proud to know him. He's a lovely man. But we wanted him to be there as stake president when we returned, and now he won't be. (In the photo, his mother is the one standing next to me. The other lady is also serving in this mission, Arvilla Finlayson, formerly of Frisco, Texas, whom I used to visit teach.)

Why I'll never be a snow bunny . . .

I will forever after equate snow storms with trips down I-15 to the hospital, or back again. There was a snowstorm the day we drove Bob in for his procedure; there was a snowstorm the day I drove Bob in to the Emergency Room (on Sunday); and there was a storm Wednesday morning, when I drove to the hospital to pick him up (I thought!) and bring him home. The snow cleared during the day and there was some discussion about whether he should be released or not, because they wanted to do a CT scan and make sure there wasn't a bleed somewhere. But during the afternoon some snow began falling again and I took it as a positive sign that we would be going out in it later on. Sure enough -- he got to come home. Not to a comfortable, restful night, but to more pain and misery from bowel impaction due to the pain meds he'd been taking. It took about 24 hours for that situation to get corrected, but he's feeling pretty good now, and even worked a full day today, for the first time in two weeks.

Utah natives have assured me that once General Conference weekend is past, winter will be over for good, and I can only hope this is so but it has snowed the last 2 days, so I'm not holding my breath. My son Cameron is coming for a visit next week and I would love for the weather to be good. I believe the outlook is favorable, although temps will stay in the 50's all week. Still -- if family is here and if Bob feels better my sun will be shining regardless. We have missed essentially 2 weeks of work and by this time should have had the book at the printer's, but it will be very delayed this issue. Too bad -- Bob's health is more important. As regards his procedure, it was very successful and his heart is as steady as a rock now. We didn't expect the pain, swelling, and bruising, which were extensive and which is what sent him back to the hospital for re-admission, but by now the bruising is significantly better and the pain is at least bearable. He doesn't want to take any more pain medication after last night's ordeal. The swelling will just take a long time to go down. His right thigh is twice the size of his left.Bob took a picture of the two of us with my little camera, and I took a video of the snow because it seemed so unreasonable to me. (I see that the snow doesn't show up on the blog video. It shows up clearly on my computer. You would have been impressed!) Needless to say, Bob is back to his old handsome self by now.

The sun did shine for us today, however. Bob went back to work, but the nicest thing about the day was a visit from our beloved Frisco stake president, Jonathan Roberts and his wife Beverly. They were here for General Conference, staying with his mother, Tessie Roberts, a fellow missionary here. We do love those people so dearly and it was so wonderful to see them.

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.