This and That

I have one more assignment for my biography class.  It is simply one more edit and send it off.  My last edit earned me 100%, so I'm not sure what more I can do, but I'll see what my instructor has to say.  I have to say that I am feeling a lot less stressed these days knowing that I'm almost finished with this class.  I have decided that I am not taking any more classes until I get back home to Utah.  I am helping Sister DeGraffenried with the Fort Lauderdale history, so I will focus on that, plus I have some personal projects I would like to work on and complete before we return home.

Speaking of which, we will not be returning back to Utah until April.  We've been asked to stay until after the dedication.  It has not been officially announced when the dedication will be, but hopefully sometime before General Conference in April.

Our stake conference is coming up in October.  We are privileged to have Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve to come.  We know he will want to see the temple, so Mark and I will be looking forward to meeting him and going through the temple with him.  I'm so excited!

I'm also excited because I will be directing some of the choral music for our stake conference and the congregational music as well.  I'm really looking forward to that.  We've had two rehearsals so far and have had over 80 people show up!  We're not quite sure how logistically it's going to work, but it sure is fun directing that many people.  I am loving it!

We enjoyed meeting with the senior missionaries and President and Sister Anderson last Monday for Family Home Evening.  Sister Anderson prepared a thank you dinner for the senior missionaries; chicken parmesean, salad and garlic bread and a lovely dessert.  President Anderson always gives us a great message and this one was no different.  We talked about stress missionaries go through and how to deal with it.  It is something that can be applied to all of us.  I have to say that these last few months have been and will continue to be very stressful as things wrap up at the temple. So the things we talked about, especially the importance of taking care of ourselves, was helpful.

Afterwards we took another group picture.  President Anderson always loves to take a straight picture and a funny picture.  Here we are:

Friday night Mark and I attended a football game between Miramar and St. Thomas Aquinas (a Catholic school).  I understand St. Thomas is rated very high in the nation.  I don't love football the way Mark does, probably because I don't completely understand everything, but Mark is good to explain things to me.  Miramar is a predominantly black student body, so the majority of the cheerleaders and other participants and parents are black, so it was different and interesting to me to sit in the stands.  It was a really exciting game.  The funniest part was the rain.  It rained for a while, then stopped.  Then it rained again for awhile and stopped again.  The umbrellas went up, but it hadn't even occurred to Mark and me to bring an umbrella.  By the time the game was over, we were pretty soaked.  But the most exciting thing was Miramar won!  22-20.  Good game!  Everyone was really nice.  It was fun.  We had a good time.

Mom

August 26th, the day I got out to Connecticut, I got a phone call telling me Mom was in the hospital.  Dad always works at the Bishop's Storehouse on Mondays and since Mom always slept in a chair in the living room, he didn't worry about waking her when he left. 

However, when he got back and she still wasn't awake, he tried to wake her, but couldn't.  He called my sister Patti.  She was unable to wake her as well, so they called 911.  When the paramedics came, they found her blood pressure to be around 70/30 and her oxygen around 54.

When I heard that, I really thought "This is it.  She's going to die."  I really thought I would cutting my trip to Connecticut short to fly out for her funeral.

At first the doctors thought she had had a heart attack in the night, but as time went on, it was believed she might have mistakenly over-medicated herself.  They also found elemental nutrients very low, like potassium, magnesium etc.

Michael and I called every day to see how things were progressing.  At first she was in intensive care, but miraculously, the doctors were able to pull her back, and in a few days, I was amazed that she was talking to me again and, in fact, sounded really good.

After she was moved to a room away from the ICU, she got some physical therapy and started walking.  Later, she was moved to a hospital in Blackfoot that dealt with patients who needed physical therapy.  She was there for two weeks and is now home.  She has been walking every day and is getting physical therapy three times a week.

Last Saturday, my parents celebrated their 80th birthdays with a party my siblings gave them.  I was not able to go, but I understand they had a very good time and many, many people came to wish them well, including their old gang from Hillview Village (Ammon).

I'm grateful to the doctors and nurses who helped my mom recuperate from a life-threatening situation.  Every day my parents are here is a gift.  I love them very much!

Connecticut

This picture insists on being first!!  So...this was in Mystic.  Apparently it is pretty famous.  Does anyone remember the movie?  I never saw it.

As I said in my last post, I flew to Connecticut to see Michael's art show and spend some time with him.  I went out on August 26th, and flew back on September 6th.  He has a home in New London, so I was able to stay there.  His roommate kindly moved out temporarily so I could have his room (he went to his parents' house.)

I had a wonderful time.

While school started and he was gone a lot with teaching, we were still able to spend enough time together.  Michael was great to drive me to different places.  We went to Mystic, Stonington, Essex, Norwich.  I love New England it is so green and beautiful!  Here are some of the pictures from my trip:

Michael walks his dog, Buddy, in an area near the bay where an old mental hospital is, now abandoned and empty.  It's a bit spooky.  The area is huge and Michael can let his dog run.  There are deer and other animals plus Buddy loves to play in the water.

Boy, this would make an awesome spook alley for Halloween!!

There's a lot of open areas like this.

I think this used to be where the staff stayed.  Obviously abandoned as well.

Michael's dog Buddy.  He loves the water.

Mystic was once a thriving sea port town.  It has a lot of wonderful shops.  The fog was starting to roll in the afternoon we went there.

Michael put my camera on top of his car so we could take this picture.  There was a little ice cream place there, so we enjoyed a "Blizzard"-like ice cream treat with, of course, Reeces Peanut Butter Cups.  Delicious!

On our way to Stonington

Looking up the street in Stonington.

So many of the homes are so amazing!  I love the architecture of the homes in New England!

We stopped at an old cemetary.  The headstones and buildings are so old, 1700s, 1800s.  Loved it!

Wow!  Look at that mausoleum!  It would have been interesting to look inside!  Creepy maybe, but interesting.

As I walked Buddy one day, I came upon this. 

Eugene O'Neil's boyhood home is now a museum.  Michael has a couple of paintings hanging there.  I wish I had been able to see inside.

This is one of the ferrys that will take you and your car to Long Island.  Michael and I talked about going, but in the end, it was just too expensive.  Too bad.  I would have loved to see it.

Fun outlet mall in Clinton.  We had gone to Madison to visit a friend of Michael's and ended up here.  This is Michael's favorite store.  I went for the Lindt chocolate store!

Another shot of the Clinton outlet mall.

There are so many beautiful old churches there!  This one is in New London.

We have ducks here in Florida, they have Canadian geese.  They were everywhere in New London.

The Municiple building in New London.  So beautiful!

Another beautiful church!  Love the architecture!

New London is another sea port town.  I walked to the pier and took this picture.

View from the pier across the water.

The ferry was just leaving. 

Michael's Art Show

My youngest brother Michael has lived on the east coast for about 20 years, first in New York and now in Connecticut.  He is an artist and adjunct professor at three different colleges, one in Connecticut and the other two in Providence, Rhode Island.

Since I have been living in Florida, I have wanted to visit Michael.  I thought it would be a lot easier (and cheaper) to visit while here than back in Utah.  So when he told me about the opening of his art show I thought it would be the perfect time.


I'm so glad I did!  The art show turned out to be wonderful and well attended.  The event was held at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, Connecticut in their art gallery.  Everyone was so complimentary and

He has two wonderful friends who provided the food for the event.

Here are some of the pictures from the event:  Enjoy.

 After the event was over, and everything cleaned up, a group of us went to Chapple's, a restaurant owned by Michael's friend, Jack, who also provided most of the food for his event.  Non gratis.  Jack is a wonderful, generous man!  It was a pleasure to meet him.  The food at Chapple's is excellent!

Jack Chapple and Michael

Michael was so wonderful to introduce me to all of his friends.  Everyone was so friendly and gracious!  I enjoyed myself immensely and I'm so glad I got to go.  I am so proud of him.

Everyone seemed to have a great time.  Michael was very happy with how everything went.

This and below are the rest of the paintings Michael did.  Enjoy.