Oh my...part 3

At the end of January I went to a Women's Conference orientation meeting. It was very interesting to see how they do things. Apparently about 200 women will be speaking over the two day conference on various topics that relate to the overall theme. They described the process of how we came to sit in the room among those 200 women. We were put in small groups with a general board member leader. After listening to Sister Beck, President Samuelson, Sandra Rogers and a beautiful musical number, we were given a packet of information and some time to coordinate with our partner speaker. My partner wasn't able to attend, so I chatted with Sister Cook of the RS general presidency about Mongolia since she and her husband were the first mission president to start missionary work in that land. It was a lovely evening and a great chance to find out what is going to happen and how things work.

Here's some info I found out:

• Our topic "The Humble Seeker of Happiness (Alma 27:18): Finding Joy
  

• I share a 50 minute session with a woman named Betty G. We will each speak for 25 minutes. She starts and I follow. Her little bio states: Mother; University of Utah graduate, wife of cancer survivor, Relief Society Counselor, mother of former drug addict, depression survivor, happy. On the way home from Logan a few weeks ago, I stopped at her home and met her. We figured out how we will divide our topic and what we would each like to talk about. She is a very fine woman and it will be a privilege to speak with her.
  
• On both Thursday and Friday of the conference, they start and end the day with general sessions in the Marriott Center at 9:00 am and 3:45 pm. In between the two general sessions, there are concurrent sessions at 11:00, 12:30 and 2:00. During the concurrent session hours, participants select between 16 venues offering sessions on a variety of topics.
  
• Our room assignment is in the BYU Conference center room 2258-2260 with a room capacity of 400. We will speak on Friday, April 30 from 2:00-3:00.
• I will be given one additional complimentary full-conference badge and five free one-session guest passes. I've already promised these guest passes to my family. Additional guest passes may be purchased at $8.00 each before April 2. If you would like to purchase one of these one-session guest passes, please let me know and I'll order one for you. Everyone has to have a conference pass to attend any sessions of the conference.
  
• The cost of the full conference is $42. A one day ticket $25. Prices rise to $49 and $29 after April 2. (I'm not sure why they charge so much, but they didn't ask me.)

I think it would be fun to have lunch that day (Friday) with whoever is in town for the conference. We can meet in my office conference room and chat from 12:00-12:30 or 1:00. I'll order in some food from Brick Oven. Let me know if you're interested in coming to lunch that day.

News from Chile

Another huge earthquake in the world last night. 8.8 in Conception, Chile. We just got this email from our friends Ted and Cheryl who live in Santiago, Chile. He is the temple President there. We served with them at the MTC for about a year before they got their new calling in Chile. What a terrible experience for them and all the people in Chile. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them.

We can state unequivocally that we're fine. We can also state with the same emphasis that riding through that quake in our rocking fourth-floor apartment was for me the scariest experience I've ever been through! I was sure we were about to die - that either the ceiling would fall on us or that we'd collapse through the floor. It truly was an emotion I'd never experienced before. My whole body shook for the next two hours, and after that I couldn't stop crying. We didn't even have the presence of mind to get out of bed during the quake. I felt paralyzed, staring at the ceiling and wondering when the earth would stop rolling. It was the longest two minutes of our lives! We could hear things falling out of cupboards, and pictures falling off the walls. But the sound and the movement was the worst.

Our sturdy building held up fine. Just lots of dust and a few broken dishes. But elsewhere, as I'm sure you've seen on the news, people didn't fare as well. Lots of damage. Virtually no stores open. Most parts of Santiago still have no electricity. Collapsed overpasses have closed major highways. The airport is closed because of damage, and planes have been rerouted to northern Chile or to Argentina. Our new missionary doctor was to arrive this morning, so I don't know where he and his wife have ended up.

What a joy to walk into the temple and find it in perfect condition. We just had to close a few drawers and straighten a few crooked pictures. It felt so good to be there in that peaceful refuge and find normality. Moroni did lose his trumpet, however! That was the only noticeable damage.

How grateful we are for how well the Church takes care of us. We've often thought the 24-hour emergency lights in our building were excessive, but we were surely thankful for them at 3:30 this morning as everyone was evacuating the building - including the missionaries downstairs in the MTC. It was so disconcerting to get out of bed in the dark and stumble over fallen items in the bathroom. We got just a taste of what the Haitians have suffered, though their damage and deaths have been so much more devastating, even though their quake a weaker one. So far here they're reporting 123 deaths, but we assume the toll will climb.

We had to decide what to do about the temple. We had every session booked for the day, and wondered if people would arrive. We met with one of Ted's counselors - who had arrived at 5:00 for the early shift, as faithful as ever - and our registrar. We knew it would be difficult for the employees and workers to get to the temple and there was not electricity at the time. One faithful laundry sister came a great distance to help, but there was no gas for the dryers, so she had baptismal clothes from last night lying out all over the laundry. The temple has an emergency generator which roars into action the second the power goes out. But we learned that it runs on petroleum which lasts only four hours. By 8 a.m. we knew we were about to go dark again, so we made the decision to simply close the temple for the day. Then, just in the second that the lights began to dim, the power came back on! (We've learned since that we're the only section of Santiago that has power yet.) So then we decided to hold just one session, since we had three out-of-town couples staying in the hospedaje who were expecting to receive their endowments and be sealed today. We mustered all the missionary couples, along with a group of faithful sisters who work the late shift on Fridays and then stay over for the Sat morning shift. We had a most moving morning. The quake had brought such a sense of unity to workers and patrons, and the Spirit was amazing. I've seldom had such a moving experience at the veil - with three consecutive young sisters who were receiving their endowments.

Right now we're sleep-deprived, and Ted has already gone back to bed. We were out until 1 a.m. at a wedding reception. We try our best not to go to those, since they last so long, and involve some really weird traditions where the bride and groom don't arrive until two hours or so after the appointed time. You're expected to stay, to eat a major meal at midnight, etc. So we only got a couple hours of sleep. Then the stress of the rest of the night has left us exhausted - but we're alive and well! We're still feeling aftershocks - called "replicas" in Spanish. They're reported about 25 of them. One just rolled by as I was writing this.

So, that's the report. After some rest we may venture out and about to see what we can see.

Thanks for your love and concern.

Ted and Cheryl

Simply delicious

These juices are simply the BEST juice I have ever tasted. Rick and I are addicted. My personal favorite? Simply Limeade of course! I LOVE that tart tangy taste. They tasted almost like I had made them myself, chock full of zesty and tangy citrus flavor and very refreshing.

Now February isn't the time of year I would normally talk about lemon and limeade but these make great drinks for any time of year. With their tart, real citrus flavor they bring some excitement to what would normally be a boring drink. They're on sale this week at Macey's grocery store, so stock up!

Mongolia, here we come

Check out the interesting information HERE to learn more about Mongolia on their official tourism website. We're leaving in a couple of weeks! I can hardly stand it I'm so excited.

This from their website:

Mongolia is located in the heart of Asian Landscape in which has immeasurable huge grass of steppes, sand dunes, rocky and forest Mountain ranges. Traditionally, Mongolian lifestyle is based on nomadic lifestyle in which consists of vary kind of nomadic tribes. Moreover, we are the people who live under the blue sky that is remarkable sunny country enjoying 280 sunny days per year. The climate is such extremely wide open and because of the location, Mongolia is far from seas and oceans in the lee of surrounding Mountains, so that it is very dry and cold as well as diversity of natural environmental country. In summer time, average temperature 20 celcius and – 24 Celsius in a winter. In each part of areas has its own different feature that you will never forget if you visit there once.
Territory: 603908 square miles Population: 2,951,786Highest Elevation: 14350 feet Terrain: Vast semi –desert and plains, mountains are in the west and southwest, the Gobi Desert is south and southeast.

Climate: There are four well-defined seasons, and on average, the sun shines for well over 250 days a year. The climate is extremely continental with low precipitation. Average summer temperature is +20’C, average winter temperature is -26’C, average rainfall -200-220 mm. winter lasts from November to late April. Although winter is cold with lot of snowfall, it also has many sunny days.

Government: Parliamentary republic State structure: Unitary state administratively divided into 22 provinces and a capital city.

Capital: Ulaanbaatar (population approx 1 million)

Economy: It is traditional based on agriculture livestock breeding and also mining (mainly gold, coal, copper)

Language: Mongolian Language. Common spoken foreign languages –English and Russian

Religions: Buddhism is dominant, but traditionally we accustomed to have focused more attention on shamanism. Some elements of Christians and Muslims are available as well.

Currency: Tugrik, All major currencies can be exchange at banks and licensed exchange centers in Ulaanbaatar. Credit cards are accepted at biggest hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. Food: There are varieties of restaurants in Ulaanbaatar serving Mongolian, Chinese, Russian, European, Japanese, and Korean, Thai and Latin American foods.

BYU Television

I don't know if many of you are aware of BYU - TV. It has so much to offer and is a great channel to watch. It's available as a cable TV station in most areas, as well as being available to watch live over the Internet. I watch the BYU weekly devotionals in my office each Tuesday at 10:00 am over the Internet. I know, I'm lazy because I don't walk over to the Marriott center, but having it available over the Internet makes it very convenient. If you're busy doing work around the house at 10:00 on Tuesdays, just turn it on and listen while you work! You can learn something new and have great ideas to think about. It's an amazing service and very good programming. A new building is going up to house the expansion of BYU television. It is located just north of the Bean museum and the framing was just finished on the project. It's going to be a great addition to BYU and a great way to get quality programming into more homes. Give it a look!
BYU Television is celebrating 10 years of success and in 2010 will be expanding their vision. BYU Television, a service provided by BYU Broadcasting, is often confused with KBYU TV. While KBYU TV is a public service limited to Utah, BYU Television reaches audiences across the world on 650 cable systems–reaching more than 50 million households in the USA and millions more internationally.
BYU-TV’s new tagline, “See the Good in the World,” describes their mission to provide good content with LDS values, including content from BYU campuses and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Programs often include BYU devotionals, BYU sports, General Conference, and various religious and educational series. Four original series produced by BYU-TV will launch in January:
The Generations Project is a genealogy-based show where individuals with compelling stories trace their roots. In this reality show, individuals discover things about their own family at the same time the audience does.
Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God follows the life and mission of Jesus Christ from the pre-mortal life to the final judgment.
Iris is a documentary biography series.
The Food Nanny is a make-over show where family mealtimes are rescued in order to help families connect more.
BYU-TV has about 70 full-time staff and over 200 student employees. The station will also be overhauling their Web sites and reaching out through social media to better connect to audiences and to make a richer BYU-TV experience.
BYU-TV is a good source of family-friendly television programming.
Learn more about BYU-TV’s new strategy at LDS Living.

An historic day

Today, his Eminence Francis Cardinal George, OMI, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke at a Brigham Young University forum in the Marriott Center. His topic: "Catholics and Latter-day Saint: Partners in the Defence of Religious Freedom."

His talk was powerful and thought provoking. I'll link to the online version or a summary of the talk when it comes out in print. (The online version is now available to watch. Go to the link given and then to "conferences and addresses" where you will find the talk by the Cardinal.) Francis Cardinal George holds a prominent position among U.S. Cardinals as the president of the United States conference of Catholic Bishops.

Religious liberty is being challenged worldwide. Article here. in the Church News.

The arts

...if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things ~ 13th Article of Faith.

I love the arts. Almost every aspect of them (with a few exceptions.) Especially well done works in dance, music, visual art, theater, & good films that lift and inspire. I admire people who can create outstanding art of any variety. Last night we attended the annual SCERA gala and once again artists in our state were honored for their contribution to the arts. Many have made such important contributions to the arts in our area and because of their skill and hard work, many other people have been enriched and lifted to a higher plane.
Those honored were these groups or individuals.

The local paper did a nice write up in the paper about each one being honored. It's a fun night to get dressed up (and to wear my Grandma F's antique rhinestone choker necklace!) to raise money for SCERA and to celebrate the expression of good art in our community.

Concerning the arts, a recommend three different aspects that we really enjoyed this last week:

Music: The amazing new CD from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Choir’s new album, Heavensong, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Classical Crossover chart this week. The album is unlike anything the Choir has recorded before, and includes a choral arrangement of the hit song, "The Prayer," by Grammy Award winner David Foster. "We particularly enjoyed working with our friend, David Foster," said Choir Music Director Mack Wilberg. "We're very pleased to see the music's popularity and hope that many more people will have the chance to enjoy this music."
Theater: "Twelve Angry Men" at Pioneer Theater Company really makes you think. The acting was incredible and Rick especially enjoyed the courtroom drama.

Most legal thrillers take place in the courtroom — with the defense, the prosecution and the rapid fire back and forth. But "Twelve Angry Men" flips the camera to the jury room. A man has just been tried for killing his father, the jury files into the room, and the door is locked behind them. Twelve nameless men from 12 varied backgrounds must now decide the fate of the young man; a fate that could possibly end in the electric chair.

Well done film: We really enjoy seeing "The Young Victoria" movie yesterday. The film is a romantic dramatization of some of the events preceding and following the coronation of Queen Victoria, focusing on her early reign and romance with Prince Albert in the 1830s.

Check out Mr. Wickham of P&P fame as Prince Albert.

Aunt Marilyn's cheescake

This cheesecake recipe is amazing. It comes from Aunt Marilyn G. and I've been making it for years. It's incredibly good. I made one for Valentines day and it was a hit. Top it off with chilled cherry or blueberry pie filling and you have a no fail dessert. (I wish I had a spring form cheesecake pan. Maybe someday.) Enjoy!

1/3 - 1/2 c. melted butter mixed with 1 package of crushed graham crackers - press into pie pan with the bottom of a measuring cup.

Cream 2 t. vanilla (I only use real vanilla, not imitation) 2 eggs, 2 - 8 oz. cream cheese packages (I use reduced fat cream cheese and it still tastes the same!) add 1/4 c. powdered sugar and 3/4 c. granulated sugar. Mix all ingredients until smooth. Pour into graham cracker crust and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take cheesecake out of oven and spread mixture of 1 1/2 c. sour cream mixed with 5 T. sugar and 1 t. vanilla on top of hot cheesecake. Return to oven and bake 10 more minutes. Cool. Refrigerate when cooled. Serve cold with toppings.
YUM!

the nicest nieces

Seriously, I love my nieces. It's so fun to have friendships with them as they get older and are mothers themselves. Lindsey, Emma and Lydia came for to visit for a few days while Ryan had a business partner in town. We had a great time. When we opened the door Emma said "Hi, I'm Emma. Thanks for inviting us over to your house for a sleepover." She was so well mannered and behaved so well. Take a look at the video to see her in action. She turns 4 in a couple of weeks. Lindsey is a conscientious mother who is teaching and training her little daughters so well.
Sydney and Daelynn came over with McKynlee for a visit and we had a good time chatting. Dustin was in the area attending meetings and it was great to see Daelynn and her little daughter, and always a delight to see Syd.
I was able to go to Logan the weekend of Makayla's blessing. I'm so glad I got to spend some time with Carol and her family and that I was able to be there to support Madi. Makayla is a sweetheart and she is loved by her mommy and so many others.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Beads galore

Last fall this wonderful friend named Marlene demonstrated for a group of us how to crochet beads onto the edges of socks for little girls. Marlene is a pro and has made many dozen pairs of socks as you can see from the pictures below. I got into it and made my four granddaughters several pairs of socks with dangling beads. Yesterday some of my nieces visited along with their little girls. I whipped up a pair of socks for each of the three little girls. I think they were happy with their new socks with beads that click a little when they walk. They're kinda crazy, kinda fun.
I learned to crochet when I was a young girl in primary. I've made several items during the years, even getting into making hair-pin lace baby blankets for Jordan and Claire when they were babies. I enjoy doing it. It's something I can do while I'm watching a movie or while traveling in the car. It doesn't take a lot of concentration. Let me know if you want me to whip some up for your little daughter or granddaughter. I'd be happy to do it!

Love is in the air

Sweets & activities for my little Valentines mailed out last week. No Valentines Day would be complete without some hot lips cinnamon candies. Love em.





Dinner with the extended family yesterday. Yum!



Double batch of Patsy's famous sugar cookies made for our HT families, the sister missionaries at the MTC and the family. Wow, that was a lot of cookies baked.

Attended the "New World Symphony" by Dvorak at Abravanell Hall. The audience gave the symphony a standing ovation at the conclusion for many minutes. It was a marvel indeed. It's one of our favorite symphonies that we've listened to for years.


Chef's Table has amazing food and service. The best in town! What an evening out. So fun.




We had a fabulous Valentines Day. My Valentine took me on a surprise date to dinner and the Utah Symphony on Friday night. Wow, seriously, wow. Here's some pictures from the weekend.

Another piece of heaven

I can't even tell you how this makes me feel. It's so moving and powerful. Two of my favorites, Andrea Bocelli and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir combine to deliver a powerful prayer to our Father in Heaven who loves us all. Each and every one of us without reservation, without limitations. Hollowed be His name.

\

David Foster is speaking at the beginning introducing the song. He appeared today with the MTC and the Spoken Word, playing the piano as they sang his song, The Prayer. Beautiful, beautiful music.

Great CPR info

Blogs

I was looking back over my blog the other day and I came to the conclusion that I really do like to blog. Claire called it correctly when she encouraged me to start my own blog over a year ago. She said I would probably like it. I do like it. I like to have a place to put down my random thoughts. I like a place to share some of our family goings on. Since we're far removed from most of our family and extended family, I do like to know how everyone is doing. I like to have a place to share interesting things I come across and I like to have a place that is uniquely mine. I like to have a place to put into words what really does matter to me in life. It is a creative outlet for sharing, writing and exploring. In my advancing years I have time and inclination to write my thoughts and experiences and to use graphics and pictures to make it more interesting. I've learned how to do it quickly and easily. I blog mostly for myself. Others can read it if they want to, but I'm not driven to have a large reader base. Thanks to Google Analytics, I think I have a core group of readers who are followers and I appreciate their support. Comments are appreciated but not expected. I think it's interesting that I probably have more friends than family members who are readers. I do wonder who some of you are though!

I'm not a journal writer. Never have been, never will be. I just don't think that many people are interested in reading the journals of others. Maybe the writer themselves and their close family members read them, but most won't take the time to read what was written after the years pass (unless you become famous and your every thought and experience is analyzed by the public.) Of course there are a few exceptions, but mostly I just don't think writing a journal is worth the effort. I've written pages in journals that I have torn out and destroyed after rereading years later. I've mostly written about the high highs and the low lows in my life experiences. Frankly, I don't think anyone really cares reading long journal entries or in knowing the daily minutia of a person's life. For example, I don't think that many people actually read the blog entries that have a lot of words. They tend to skip the words and just look at the pictures. They don't want too much information and they don't want to spend too much time reading long entries. Same thing with journals. I suppose that if you aren't interested in reading a wordy blog now, you won't be interested in reading a journal later. But with a blog, the entries will be on the Internet forever. That is kind of a daunting thought. If my grandchildren and great grandchildren want to see what Grandma Vonnie was up to in February of 2010, they will be able to read all they want. Therefore, I choose my words more carefully. I think through what I really believe and what I really want to convey. I state my options and thoughts, and all might not agree, but I take ownership for what I think and feel.

I take great inspiration from some blogs I read where people I know express their thoughts, feelings and ideas about various topics. I don't read stranger blogs, except for two on occasion. I love to have a glimpse into what other family members and friends are up to. I enjoy the humor and cleverness of some blogs I look at. It doesn't take much time to give a quick perusal of some of my favorites, thanks to Google Reader. New posts show up as they are posted and it is easy to keep up to date.

The blogging world is kind of scary in some ways. As a blogger, you put yourself out there. You share your thoughts and ideas, and people are bound to make judgments about what you share and more than likely make judgments about you as the blogger. I think it's generally understood that many blogs aren't real in the sense that people generally present their best selves, their happy thoughts, their perfect surroundings and their edited family pictures. Real life challenges are seldom presented and problems, dirt, augments, marital problems, children challenges and ugly situations are left out. As in most things in life, we only share what we want others to see and know about us and we keep the undesirable stuff to a minimum. So, we are only presenting our best stuff. I'm guilty of this as well, I'm sure. Who wants to air their dirty laundry? Yet, it's more interesting and real to read about true life experiences and to see how people handle their challenges. Isn't this the appeal to a lot of people of reality shows on TV?

My blog represents what is going on in my head and some of what is going on in my heart as well as what is going on in my surroundings. I don't often mention the hard stuff, even though it is there. Most people don't want to hear too much about others hard stuff because they are generally busy dealing with their own challenges. I have a few extended family relationships that are hard and frustrating for me. I have suffered from rejection in some family relationships that are still painful and hurtful to me. I wish I had more interaction with some of the people I love, but alas, they don't want to. They are aloof and apathetic and they obviously want the relationship to stay that way. I ponder about how people show love in different ways, how to truly forgive, and how to be accepting of others with differences on a daily basis. I think about doing my part and more to improve relationships and build bridges, but I don't often write about these types of things because they're personal.

I've posted most days since I began this blog. I know it's a lot of material. Almost daily posting doesn't appeal to everyone. That's fine. Again, I do it for me. Blogging gives me something to think about. I have A LOT of thoughts (in case you didn't notice) and blogging helps me organize and categorize my opinions and feelings on lots of different topics.

My blog is random and it's totally mine. My sweet husband is my greatest supporter and he often looks forward to seeing what thoughts I've had on any given day. If that were the only reason, it would be reason enough. He decided early on to comment on every post. I think he's kept to that goal.
Thanks for reading.

Lauren is 4 years old today

Our sweet granddaughter Lauren turned four years old today! She is growing into such a big girl. I'm so sad I couldn't be there to celebrate her birthday with her like I did last year. Aunt Claire and cousin Skippy are there visiting this week and that is fun for all involved. They are having a great time. This year Lauren's birthday celebration is on a smaller scale than last year. She was going to preschool, then she had invited three friends over to play and enjoy some birthday cake. In keeping with family tradition, she woke up this morning to open her pile of birthday presents first thing in the morning. I can't wait to see her in some of her new birthday duds. I talked to Lauren on the phone today and I asked her how old she was and she said "I'm four years old now Grandma." Wow! She is such a sweet little girl and a great older sister who helps her mommy & daddy and who loves going to primary. In case you couldn't tell, her favorite color is PINK! Grandma Vonnie loves you sweet girl!!! Hugs & Kisses!!