Fourth Week of January

We are entering the final month before Erika gets married and it seems like scheduling will just continue to get busier until the wedding date arrives. The wedding and preparations for it are a major priority right now but there are also other things that are going on as well—so we just feel quite busy. We have been working on the invitations to the wedding this week. We picked them up on Monday and they are just a cute as can be. The pictures that will be inserted in the invitations came on Saturday. This week we will finish addressing the envelops and stuff and they will go out at the beginning of next week. It is beginning to feel like it is really going to happen. This week is also the first bridal shower that will be held in Erika’s honor. This one is being held by the book club that Julie Bult, Jono’s mother, belongs to. Apparently the club puts on a shower for the children of the members when they become engaged. It will be a small shower, there are only twelve or so members of the club, but it looks like a nice event with a dinner. I received an invitation as well and will be attending. This group assigns out a “theme gift” to each guest. I was assigned “Compnay coming to dinner”. So I am supposed to bring a gift that Erika could use on an evening when company was coming to dinner. This worked out perfectly for me, because since Erika was in Elementary School, I have been collecting silver plate table ware, serving pieces and a silver box. I talked to her about it when she was young, but haven’t mentioned to her for years. I’m not sure she even remembers. So I will give her the silverware, and a tablecloth and eight napkins at this shower. I just wrapped it up this weekend and so I am all set to go. Friday night Paul and I hosted a dinner for some friends of ours that we knew when we were living in Frankfurt. They have a complicated living arrangement, since Marsha lives in Provo with two of their children and Mike works in Singapore. I see Marsha frequently, but it is hard to catch Mike when he is in town. He has been here since Christmas, but we just managed to get together. They came on Friday night we had a really nice evening with dinner and conversation. Mike and Marsha are one of our couple friends and we enjoy them very much—their experience is similar to ours in that they lived as a family in Europe for many years and they localized their children in the public schools and attended the local wards and learned the language. Paul and Mike have many similar interests and Marsha belongs now to one of my book clubs. They have been a couple friends for many years. It is fun to get together with old friends. Erika was just a lifesaver that night. I was in the middle of some really fussy work activities and didn't leave work until after 5:00. I still had to stop at the store to pick up a few things for dinner and I didn’t get home until about 5:55. When I got home Erika had set the dining table for me and had spiffed up the bathroom and then helped me get the appetizer tray ready and generally moved the meal along. Mike and Marsha were a little late and by the time they arrived everything was ready to go. It made me think how helpful Erika has been while she has been living at home. I appreciate all the ways that she has been helpful and this time that we have had to spend together. Sunday night, my mother hosted a family dinner at their home. Invited were my brother Stephen and his son, Steve, Paul and I, Philip, Camille, Jonathan and Andrew, Peter, Kortney and Eleanor, Erika and Jono and my brother David’s son, Crawford who is a student at BYU. We were disappointed that Jonathan and Andrew were both under the weather, Andrew had fever and so Camille stayed home with the children, but Philip came. It was the first time that we had a chance to really talk with Philip since he came back about some of the experience in Djibouti and it was very interesting and entertaining. He gave us some insight into what he is anticipating with his time in Washington D.C. and also his next assignment in Ukraine. It was just plain a fun family evening. Eleanor is becoming such a funny little person. We tended her overnight last week and it was fun to see her again this week. I just finished making the dress that she will wear at the wedding and passed it off at the dinner and we think she is just going to look darling as a “Junior Bridesmaid”. The dress is the same color scheme as the bridesmaids with a red skirt and a white top and matching jewelry. I just ordered some fleshtone tights for her so she will match all the other girls in the party. This last week was our Sundance week with our Westgate Condo in Park City. Paul and I share it with the local family members and try to slip in a couple of days ourselves. This year we gave Sunday and Monday to Peter and Courtney, Tuesday was going to be for Paul and me, Wednesday was for my parents, Thursday and Friday were for Philip and Camille and Paul and I had Saturday to Sunday morning. Even before the day arrived, it was clear that Tuesday was going to be complicated for Paul and me. In the first place, because that was the day that Philip and Camille flew in from Djibouti and we planned to see them at the airport. The plan was to go straight up to the condo. It is a busy work evening for Paul because he makes two, one hour long calls to the Philippines and Japan on that evening, but we thought that we could get to Park before it was time to place the calls. As it turned out, Camille’s mom who came to pick them up didn’t have room enough in her car for four people (two car seats) and all their luggage—so I ended up driving to their rental house in Ogden that evening while Paul went to do horses and then go home. By the time I drove to Ogden in rush hour traffic and then drove back, Paul had started his calls and we just didn’t make it to Park City. So one of the two days assigned to us went unused, but all the other days were filled with contented and happy vacationers, including Paul and me. Everyone had a great time, we have gotten reports from everyone. Paul and I arrived on Saturday about fwo o’clock. We settled in and had some lunch and then went to the relaxation area where there is a steam room, a sauna, a hot tub and a relaxation pool. It is a particularly nice area because it is adults only, so there aren't children or teens playing loudly. It is just adults relaxing and it was very relaxing and soothing for Paul and me. It is one of the things that we enjoy most about our trip to Park City.

Third week in January

We have returned from our getaway in St. George and we had a really lovely time. Marilyn and Howard were the most gracious and wonderful hosts. Paul and I left after work on Friday and arrived at the Arrington’s spacious and beautiful home at about 9:00 p.m. Marilyn met us warmly and welcomingly and showed us around their new St. George home. Paul and I stayed in the upstairs guest room, but we got a tour of the downstairs accommodations as well. They seem well situated there and comfortable. Paul and I came to St. George not only to visit with Marilyn and Howard, but also for Paul to attend Back Country Horsemen of Utah State meetings, which ran pretty much all morning and early afternoon on Saturday. I was going to drive him and then go to a session in the St. George Temple, but he ended up taking our car and Marilyn and I went to a session together. I attended an open house in that temple years ago in the mid 1970 are when they did a major remodel and then had an open house. My grandmother was living in Hurricane at that time and some girls from my BYU apartment and I drove down and stayed with her and went to the open house. It was a fun weekend back then. And last weekend was the first time I had been in that temple since then. They had converted it back then to a temple with the film and so we didn’t move from room to room, except at the very end when everyone moved to a “veil” room. After the session, Marilyn and I had a quick lunch in the temple cafeteria and then went to a fun community concert in the St. George Tabernacle. That was a lot of fun. It was two performers—a pianist, sort of a cocktail, jazz style pianist and a woman---a cabaret style singer. They performed separately and together. It was so entertaining and very fun. I gave me a few ideas for our Gates Family performing evenings. I was really glad to have attended. The performers were entertainers “of a certain age”. I’d say the man was in his seventies and the woman maybe late fifties or early sixties. But they were seasoned performers and as I said it was really fun to watch and see all the conventions that they used. They had some spiffy costumes and did their songs in groups of songs associated with a certain period, they did some Big Band songs, a Country and Western Set, a “Diva” collection and some contemporary songs. It was a fun activity for Marilyn and me. Originally we planned to leave St. George and come home on Saturday night, but Paul was asked to perform at a campfire the Saturday evening. So we stayed and Paul and another performer Don Bradshaw performed together, taking turns. Paul did a nice job and the fire was beautiful, it was a clear windless night so the smoke when straight up. There were marshmallows and the fixings for s’mores. Lots of light conversation and funny stories and laughing. We were there until about 9:00 and then went home and visited with Marilyn and Howard a bit more and then another really good night sleep in their comfortable home. Marilyn outdid herself with fabulous meals. We had a ranch hand breakfast both mornings with eggs, bacon, juice, hot cereal, waffles, fruit and Marilyn was very attentive to Paul’s gluten-free needs. For dinner she made a terrific squash soup made from squash frozen from her garden in Idaho Falls. We were well served by all the kind and generous attentions of both Howard and Marilyn. Howard and I had a very informative conversation about family history and he shared some of the ways that he is preserving family history and showed me some of his projects. And, of course, Marilyn and I had lots of opportunities to talk about quilting, decorating, crafts, cooking and homemaking. We had a really great weekend. Paul found out about a horse boarding—there is a location about six miles from where Marilyn and Howard live and now that we have broken the ice with a trip to St. George, Paul may bring the horses down for a ride and we can stay with Marilyn and Howard again. It probably won’t happen this winter because of all the demands of getting Erika’s wedding taken care of, but it is a possibility for the future and that is nice to think about, too. Last night, Philip and Camille with Jonathan and Andrew flew into Utah. They are totally finished with Djibouti, though Philip said it was harder to leave than they expected, that have made many good friends there. The woman who has been their housekeeper and nanny was very hard to leave. She loved the boys and had become a part of their family. They had been in transit for two days. They did have a nice break in Paris, but it is still a way long period of transit. They have rented a house in Ogden for the next five weeks. They will be here until February 23rd when they head to Washington D.C. The boys are just a cute as can be. Andrew is no longer a newborn, but a a smiley six month old. Jonathan is chatty and delightful and we had a nice little chat. We brought a bag with gifts to augment the Christmas and birthday gifts that we had already sent. They didn’t open it at the airport and of course were anxious to get to their house and get settled in and get those boys into beds—so we didn’t have a very long visit, but they are here now and that makes other opportunities possible. Jono and Erika have been working on building their nest. They have bought a sectional sofa set and a kitchen table and are starting to move things into their new place. It is fun to watch. Erika and I picked up the announcements on Monday and the next step will be putting the address on them and getting them ready to mail. That will be a big job—but many of the big jobs have been completed now. We have got most of the decorating things finished now and today we got the proofs from the bridal shoot. We now need to sort through them and decide which ones to put on display.

Second Week in January

The weather here has been cold, grey and stormy for the last week. Maybe the storms that have been rotating through us have moved on to you as well. We haven’t had a lot of snow at least not in the valley, but three different storms have come through this week, leaving an inch or so each time, but nothing really terrible. We were supposed to get a big storm on Sunday, and it warmed up a lot on Saturday in advance of the front. It was 50 degrees on Saturday. All the snow and ice at the pasture melted and then froze solid overnight. Sunday the paddock area was like an ice rink—smooth and slick as can be according to Paul. As it turns out I’ve been under the weather for the last four days. I started out on Thursday with a tickle in my throat on Thursday. Friday I was feeling rather ill, and coughing and I stayed in bed all day on Saturday and didn’t go to my meetings yesterday. But by the evening I was beginning to feel better and I went to work on Monday morning same as usual. I feel like I am on the mend, thanks to Nyquil and Robitussin and Cherry Menthol Cough Drops. I haven’t had a cold for several years now, and I worried that I might have gotten the flu, but I think the days in bed nipped the cold in the bud and I have dodged that “nine-day” cold—you know, three days coming, three days here and three days going. We are working away on the many details to get ready for Erika’s wedding. There is something that we are doing nearly every day to get ready. This week the big push is to get the address list finalized so that we can order the invitations. We have already had an appointment with the invitation people and have the invitation designed and the details worked out. Now we just have to order them. And make sure we have enough. Everyday something comes up which reminds us of one more person who needs to be invited. We hope we haven’t forgotten someone important. Paul and I are looking forward to this coming weekend. We are going down to St. George. Paul has a Back Country Horseman State Meeting that he has to attend on Saturday. I want to go to a session in the St. George Temple. I sent Marilyn an email telling her we were going to be in St. George for the weekend and she invited us to stay with them. We haven’t seen their house in St. George yet, so we are looking forward to seeing that and it will be fun to have a chance to visit with Marilyn and Howard. They are scheduled to arrive on the same day that we are traveling so they will probably arrive at their home only a few hours before we do. (Paul and I both have to finish our workday before we leave, but we are traveling from the South end of the valley and not from Idaho Falls. I think that Marilyn is a very good sport to host us when she is just arriving herself, but we are happy that we will have this chance to connect. I have wanted to make a visit to the St. George Temple. It is one of the Utah temples that I haven’t visited, so this will be nice for me this weekend, too. Philip and Camille are spending their last week in Africa. They fly out on Sunday the 19th. They will overnight in Paris and then fly in the next day, arriving actually on the 21st—what with all the time changes. They have rented a house again, like they did last summer, and will also rent a car. They had a house very close to us last summer when they were here and this time the house is in the Ogden area nearer to Camille’s parents. We are happy that everything has worked out so that they can be here in this area when Erika gets married. We have already arranged for K.C.’s ticket and he will come in on Thursday and leaves on Sunday. So all the children will be here for one brief moment. We will have a family picture taken at the same time that Erika does her wedding pictures. And that will be our family picture for this year. I think it is going to be increasingly difficult for us to have an annual family picture, but I will keep working at it for as long as I can.

Christmas and New Year Holiday 2013

We had a very nice Christmas holiday full of interesting and lovely activities. We stayed very busy and we got a lot done. Erika and I both had two full weeks of vacation which was very nice and Paul had a full week and two weekends—so he had a longish vacation as well. Erika had made a calendar with undertakings that she wanted to accomplish before the vacation was through to get ready for her wedding and the attendant activities associated with it. We shopped and we crafted and we shopped and we crafted and we stayed very busy. But additionally we had some really fun activities. We like to attend at least one Christmas theatrical experience during the season and this year Erika and I (neither Paul nor Jono went with us) attended the Odyssey Dance Company’s version of The Nutcracker. It was held at Kingsbury Hall and it was really interesting and modern. Odyssey Dance Theatre is a very contemporary dance company and does its own version of many classic dance pieces. They brought the Nutcracker to life in the present day still using a smartly updated version of Tchaikovsky’s original score and with the dancing arranged in a pop/hip-hop style with a tiny bit of ballet thrown in. Imagine Clara as the young lady whose imagination is not inspired by a nutcracker, but is drawn into a magical world inspired by her smartphone. There were some really fun costumes and fabulous backdrops that changed like someone moving through screens of a smartphone or ipad. The “toy soldiers” were robots with really imaginative lighted panels on their costumes which changed colors and the “mice” were dressed and costumed in “gangsta” style with a hip-hop swagga. It was so interesting, imaginative and delightful. Erika and I really enjoyed it. If you have seen one too many Nutcrackers, this is the one you would want to see. It was familiar at the same time being very new and interesting. There were still the ethnic dances, the Chinese dance, the Russian Dance but also very smartly updated, and some really cute costumes for them too. The Waltz of the Flowers was done with a corps de ballet in the traditional form, but augmented with “Angry Birds” inserts, very cute and funny. We had a very nice evening. As promised in their publicity bulletin it was a “visual feast full of surprises.” I worked really hard in the weeks before Christmas to finish the fourth and last of my genealogical compilations. This year it was my maternal grandmother’s family the Gordon Book. During those last days before Christmas I finished the book, got it printed and bound and then sent to my siblings and wrapped for my parents and children. It was a great feeling to have the majority of that project behind me. I am still planning this year to move all the histories and associated pictures to The Church’s Family Tree website so that everyone can access to the work that I have done. There will not be books for grandchildren or cousins or nieces and nephews—but the histories will all be available on the website perpetually. And then my work will be done. This has been a very satisfying project and I am glad that I did it, I know my own ancestors better now than ever before, there are a lot of them and I have to really concentrate now to keep the various family lines separated. One of the things that happened over the vacation was that Erika had her bridal pictures taken. This was a huge project all on its own. She didn’t just have solo bridal pictures but pictures with her and Jono. We got a bridal bouquet, she had her hair done at a salon, had her make-up applied professionally with special foundation that kept her skin from “shining” in the flash photography, the wedding dress altered and steamed and pressed, her cute red shoes, Jono’s new suit and tie, and boutonniere, and both of them looking wonderful happy and beautiful and in love. This was the first time that I met the photographer. He is the same one who did their engagement pictures and is a very relaxed and comfortable photographer. It was a freezing cold day, about 37 degrees and Erika was in her dress and Jono in his suit with no extra clothing for the pictures. Between shots they put on coats and tried to warm up. The photo shoot took place at Salt Lake Temple square and City Creek Center with some shots on the upper floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with the giant chandelier in the background. Both Erika and Jono were frozen half to death at the end of the two and a half hour photo shoot. I was there serving as the beast of burden, carrying Erika’s coat, touch-up bag with make-up and comb and change of shoes and purse, and holding Jono’s wallet and phone and keys. So I got to see the whole thing. It was kind of fun. I got plenty cold and I was wearing long pants, a coat and gloves. The two of them were covered with goose bumps by the end. One of Erika’s friends came to watch part of it and took a really cute photo of Jono helping Erika retouch her lipstick. Her hands were so cold she could hardly hold the lipstick so Jono tried his hand (his gloved hands) at retouching it instead. We started the shoot at about 3:00, because Erika especially wanted some photographs with the lights of temple square in the background. (The shoot had to take place before January 1st because after that they don’t turn the lights on anymore. The photographer told us that we would have about a half an hour between the time that the lights turned on and the time when it would be too dark to get good photographs. Erika especially wanted to get a shot of her and Jono in front of the fountains and twinkle lights of the City Creek South Temple entrance. It was on her most wished for photograph list. And her photographer came through for her. We haven’t seen the collection of pictures yet. The photographer is still doing post-production on them, but he did send Erika the picture of her and Jono in front of the entrance to City Creek with the fountains and the twinkle lights. Jono is dipping Erika and it looks like something that you would see in a movie. Erika is so pleased that the picture there worked out. We had a couple of really nice horse activities over the Christmas holiday, too. On Christmas eve afternoon, Paul brought out the surrey and trailered Rory to our house and we had surrey rides. Jono’s parents and sisters came for rides, and my parents had their traditional Christmas Eve ride. Paul and I took a ride together. It was a cold evening, but with a warm coat and gloves and the buffalo robes it was rather fun. Jono’s parents and sisters had never had a ride in a horse drawn vehicle so it was a new experience for them. (We like them a lot—they are really nice people). We have been having my parents for dinner on Christmas Eve for a number of years and they have us for dinner on Christmas day. It is a nice arrangement. And who knows how many more years we will be able to do it. On Saturday Paul and I went by ourselves to the pasture and had a sleigh ride with Rory in the pasture. We just made a large loop several times and had fun just the two of us. Rory really likes doing the surrey, but has to work a bit harder with the sleigh. There was a sprinkling of fresh snow on Saturday morning and so the pasture had that sparkling look of new snow. But there was hard crusty snow underneath that had to be cut through with the sleigh and it looked like work to me for Rory. I was determined to get Christmas put away before I went back to work and was successful at that. And so now our dining room is a workshop for the decorations for Erika’s reception. We have some of the parts of the centerpieces for the reception finished and the ribbon wristbands and necklaces for the bridesmaids and boutonnieres for the groomsmen and lots of other miscellaneous wedding stuff in our “workshop” there. Things are coming together and we are feeling quite accomplished after this time of concentrated work on Erika’s wedding preparation. I need to hem two of the bridesmaid skirts and my own skirt and I have just about finished a little dress for Eleanor—there will always be something to keep us busy. And so we press on.

Peter's Birthday and The Wall Street Scandal--Preparing for December Events

We have made it through the first of the holiday festivities with much activity and involvement. It began the weekend before Thanksgiving week. Peter’s birthday was on Thanksgiving Day, but Kortney wanted to put on a big surprise for him and scheduled a surprise party for him on November 23, the Saturday before his birthday. She rented a soft serve ice cream machine and set up a really cute ice cream bar, with toppings of all varieties and syrups and sauces, and cookies and other treats. She arranged to have it in the club house of one of the student apartment complexes in Provo. When he was in high school, Peter cut a CD called Pete Plays the Classics where he played music on his recorder, and had collaborations with a number of his friends. The music really wasn't strictly classics in the classical music sense, but they were silly songs that he and his friends had made up, and traditional songs like “Oh Suzanna” and other folk tunes appropriate to the recorder. There were also numbers that had been original works. Peter had written a poem called: Ode to My Belt, which had been set to music, and a song that he and a friend had written to perform at EFY called Modest Girl. Kortney’s idea was to have these collaborators come and play and sing in a sort of concert honoring the creation of this project. The response to Kortney’s idea to have a concert of the music from the CD was very good initially, although four of the performers dropped out the day before. One of the numbers on the CD was a poem that Paul wrote which Peter recited and for this “concert” Paul performed it. He did a nice job and because it is a humorous poem—got a big laugh. It was a really fun party. There were guests from a lot of different areas of his life. Old friends, of course, family on all sides, people from work, from Humor U, and extras, too. It came off really well, even if some of the performers weren't able to attend. Kortney enlisted the help of some family members to perform some of the numbers not represented by their original artists. Kortney had a photographer (her sister) take pictures of the guests and they are a souvenir of the evening. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving week because I only had to work on Monday and Tuesday and I had the rest of the week off. It is something quite divine to have a five day weekend. I had a few projects that I was working on. I am changing the sleeves on Erika’s wedding dress and a couple of other alterations. And I got much of that alteration done. I am finishing up the last of my genealogical books and I worked on that. I did some of the cooking for Thanksgiving even though it was at mom’s home—I worked on that. And so the days passed away. Paul and I went to Petersboro and put down some grass seed on Wednesday and had a trip into Logan for lunch. On the Saturday night after Thanksgiving, Peter’s friend group held their 10th annual murder mystery party. As it turned out one of the couples wasn’t able to attend and so Erika and Jono made up the fourth set of players. This murder mystery was set in 1987 and was called Wall Street Scandal –harkening back to the market crash in September of 1987. The costumes were an eclectic group of with some characters dressed very casually and some very dressy. This turned out to be the most appropriate time to use the dress that came from Aunt Lela’s collection. Erika looked very lovely in it and it fit her perfectly. She didn't love it, actually didn't want to wear it, but I talked her into it and Jono though it was such an interesting dress that she had to wear it. These murder mystery parties are always a lot of fun. They are work for me because I put on the dinners, but the kids anticipate them very much and there is so much laughter and animated chatter that I just have as much fun as they do vicariously. It is always very interesting to see what the players will be wearing and how close to they are to the costume suggestions that they get with their invitations. It has also been fun to see the participants grow up. We started doing this when the four main boys were juniors in high school and now they are in their late twenties married with children. And still trying to figure out what their lives are going to turn out like. Some are still in school, some just graduating, some working. Erika has been around for much of the years these murder mysteries have been going on. She has never attended one of Peter’s group because in the beginning she was too young and later she was away at school. She has had her own Murder Mystery parties with her own friends, but this is the first time that the two worlds have intersected. She knows Peter and Kortney well, but Peter’s friends have just been acquaintances for all these years. This was the first experience where she has been one of the group. I think that was nice for both Erika and Peter, but I don’t think either of them thought much about it. It just was that was the way it was. This is the end of the November activities and now we are looking forward to December activities. Dad has landed four tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert so we will be going to that. Tonight is my first Christmas Party of the season. It will be a dinner at the home of the head counselor at Corner Canyon High School and will be the five counselors, their husbands and/or wives, and the secretary and her husband (that would be me.) I am bringing the vegetables. Desserts, drinks, appetizers, and vegetables are being brought by the guests and Allyson is providing the meat. She has a lovely home and it will be an enjoyable evening to be sure. We will be having a number of parties, activities and concerts as part of the season. (Which is my favorite part) I will host one of my bookclub Christmas parties. The other one will be at a restaurant. The ward Christmas Party is on Saturday. We also have the Back Country Horseman Christmas Party. I am not doing the dinner this year—but I am in charge of the table decorations so I am thinking about that. I have started getting our Christmas decorations out. I have the tree up and most of the inside decorations up, but still have to put out the outside decorations and that may be a bit tricky now, since we had our first big snow storm today.

Family Dinners, New Calling, Activities, Wedding Plans

This week I put on three family dinners. It is something that I enjoy doing and which doesn't stress me out—so it was just enjoyable and fun for me. The first was the family dinner on Sunday associated with my birthday. The second was with Paul’s mom, Rae and Lynn and Erma and the third was one that was in the planning for quite a long time. It was a dinner that I hosted to meet Scott and Julie Bult, Jono’s parents. Erika, of course, had known them for a long time, and I had met Julie when we went to the caterer’s for a tasting of the menu that we were thinking of for the wedding reception. Neither Paul nor I had met Scott Bult. They were lovely and charming people and we had a great time. I served raclette—. It was the first time for the Bults and we all had a fun time with it. It was new for Jono, too and he loved it. He says a raclette machine is in his and Erika’s future. On Sunday I got some sad and disappointing news. I am in my favorite job in the church, Primary Music Leader, but I was asked to come in for an appointment on Sunday morning and in December I will taking on a new calling and will be released from my current one as Primary Music Leader. This was very bad news—because I was very happy in my present calling. I am going to be one of a revolving set of Gospel Doctrine teachers. I will only have to teach every three weeks or so—so that will give Paul and me a certain amount of flexibility to travel and go to the cabin and make other trips—like the one we have planned to New England in the spring. Paul teaches the high priest group on a rotation as well, so if our weeks are coordinated that will be nice—but I will really miss this calling and being with the children and enjoying primary. This is a sad moment for me. Tonight Paul and I are going out to dinner and then to a play at the Hale Center Theater. It is the theatre that is in the round and we are going to see Brigadoon. We will be meeting Mom and Dad there. It is the final hurrah for my birthday celebration. It was such a busy time the week of my birthday that we didn't try to schedule it until some of the other things that were going on had passed. Erika and I went shopping yesterday for dresses for the bridesmaids to wear. We picked out a skirt that we really liked only to find that it is on clearance and we will probably have a hard time finding enough of them for everyone. Isn’t that just the way things go? Plans and ideas are changing and being adapted regularly as we face the reality as opposed to the fantasy. But we are happy and pleased with the way that things are going and think that it will be a wonderful occasion no matter what happens. Two weeks ago Erika and Jono went to the Main Salt Lake Library for their engagement photo shoot. Yesterday we got the proofs from the photographer. And they are just lovely. There are so many lovely pictures. Erika looks beautiful and radiantly happy—Jono looks so handsome. The photographer did such a great job. I don’t know if you have ever been to the downtown library, it is a modern building with lots of steel and glass, lots of interesting architectural features and angular shapes. It has a very urban look to it with paving stones and tall structural partition. Erika and Jono had two different outfits—one set more dressy and formal and one more relaxed and casual. They looked darling in both of them. It has been fun to be more of a part of the wedding preparations—and I am trying to include Julie Bult in as much as possible because it is her event as well as my event. The library has significance since Erika is an English teacher. Peter’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year. This is the second time that I remember this happening since he was born. Kortney is putting on a surprise birthday party for him on Saturday, Paul and I and my parents are going. It should be a fun event—she is putting on a concert –inviting old high school friends to participate --for him—there will be an ice cream bar and treats. I am looking forward to it—it should a fine event. We are planning on Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad’s home. I offered to hold it at my house this year, but Mom said that she is up to it this year, but maybe not next year so we are off to grandmother’s house for thanksgiving—even though it is not over the river and through the woods.

Busy Week--ACT, Lauper Ladies Luncheon, SLCA Concert and More

Paul has returned from the Far East and Pacific Rim. He had a good and busy trip, but I think he is glad to be home. I am certainly glad that he is home. It has been exhausting to do horses twice a day for ten days in addition to all the other things that have been going on. I enjoy doing horses and the horses seem to be glad to see me---or anyone really who is going to feed them—they are friendly. Indy has become friendlier over the years, and comes up to me to be petted and attended to. Because I have to be at work at 7:00 a.m. and the school where I work is the opposite direction from our house than the pasture, I have had to leave the house at about 5:45-6:00. It has made for very early mornings for me. I have been so tired in the evenings that I have gone to bed consistently earlier than I have for a long time. Saturday was the administration of the ACT Test and we had about 250 students testing. I had twelve testing rooms and a number of proctors who needed to be trained so I spent the afternoons and evenings all week long training the new ones. I use Peter, Kortney and Erika as room supervisors, and then teachers, and college students and even one of my neighbors. I am responsible for hiring them and making sure they are trained so they know what they should be doing. That has been time consuming and fussy since the times are at their convenience and not mine. Thursday Marilyn called and asked if Rusty and Ethan could stay at our house because they were coming on Friday to attend a BYU Football game. I was happy to do it, but pointed out that I would be leaving the house on Saturday morning very early to get over to Brighton High School for the ACT Test. I had to feed the horses before I got there and I had to be there at 6:30a.m. so I was leaving the house at about 5:45. Erika was one of the room supervisors so she had to leave before 7:00 a.m. So there was not going to be anyone at our house to put on a breakfast for them or greet and entertain them or be a host in any way. Also because I had to get up so early and be sharp during the day—I was going to have to go to bed early and didn't know if they would get to our house before I went to bed. As it turned out, I got into my pajamas and robe and went to bed at about 10:30p.m. They hadn't arrived yet. I thought when they arrived I would wake up, but in fact, I didn't. I didn't even hear them come in. Erika came in at mid-night and I was aroused by her moving around in her bathroom. I asked her if she had seen Rusty and Ethan. (I had set up a mattress and sleeping bag for Ethan in the basement and was putting Rusty in Philip’s old room. There were fresh towels and the area was ready for them and I had told Marilyn that I was putting them there. So they knew where to go.) She said that she hadn’t seen them, but that their car was parked out in front. So I guess they made it sometime in the later evening, and had found their way to our basement. In the morning I put out some spoons and bowls and boxes of cold cereal, but Erika and I both left before they came upstairs. I was gone all day on Saturday. I left at 5:45. I supervised the ACT at Brighton and when the test was over, I spent about 1 ½ hours sorting through the documents and test booklets packing them up and getting them ready to ship back. Kortney stayed and helped me get them ready. Then there was a stop at the UPS store to mail back the test booklets and a trip to the Post Office to mail the test documents. On top of that on Saturday afternoon, Mom was hosting the annual Lauper Ladies Luncheon. It is a luncheon she host every year with all the women from the Lauper family who live in the area. Usually between fifteen and twenty women and young women and sometimes a few little girls. She serves a buffet style lunch—usually a couple of salads, a fruit tray, breads, and some desserts. Light and quite easy. Some years I do the desserts—but not this year because I was doing ACT and coming late. Everyone visits, they we go around the room and update our lives in a few sentences and catch up with everyone. There are some silly prizes each year for those who have never missed, who came the furthest and other notable things. Then everyone gets a prize for coming. We sing the Lauper Family Song, (written years ago by my Aunt Paulie) and then more visiting until people want to leave. It began at 1:00, but Kortney and I didn't get there until 3:30, with the work of finishing up the test and getting everything mailed. We didn't arrive until 3:30, but everyone was still there visiting and having seconds on the desserts. I was glad that we had made the effort because it is the only time that I see some of these extended family members. Erika missed this year because she and Jono were having their engagement pictures taken. They had them done outside with fall foliage in casual clothing. Next Saturday they are having a second set done in more dressed up clothing at the Salt Lake Library. And a few shots downtown in a more urban setting. Erika was happy with the fall colors shoot but I haven’t seen any of the pictures yet. They are in post-production now and she will get a digital copy of them later. We haven’t really done much more yet getting ready. This week Erika and I will visit a few possibilities for her reception and then make a decision about that. Jono’s mother is starting to plan the wedding dinner for the evening before the wedding. We will not be inviting every extended family member—some of our extended family members will just be invited to the reception—not to the wedding dinner. Erika and Jono have a large wedding party to begin with and both of our families have large extended groups and the dinner could soon be overly large if there aren't a few limits on it. The wedding is planned for 12:20 in the Salt Lake Temple and the reception will be that evening. Anyway, we are beginning to move forward toward the marriage of Erika and Jono—and happily. This will be a fun time. As if ACT and Lauper Ladies Luncheon wasn't enough for one evening, Erika’s Salt Lake Choral Artists Concert also fell on Saturday night. After Lauper Ladies, I had to drive Kortney out to about 14300 to meet Peter who had picked up Eleanor in Herriman. Kortney’s parents who live out there watched Eleanor while Peter and Kortney did the ACT. So, Peter went to pick up Eleanor while Kortney helped me and went to Lauper Ladies. Then we met on the Bangerter Highway to get Kortney back together with Peter and Eleanor. Then I had to go back to 6200 South to feed the horses, they were out of water so I had to fill the troughs, and then home to pick up the tickets to the concert. I had left home at 5:45a.m. and it was after 6:15p.m. when I got home. I was home for 15 minutes and then left to pick up Mom and Dad to go to Erika’s concert. Paul wasn't home yet so he missed this one. When I was home, I saw evidence that Rusty and Ethan had actually been at our house, they had deflated the mattress and folded it up and the sleeping bag and made the bed and left everything very tidy. And there were a couple of bowls in the sink which seemed to indicate that they had eaten a meager breakfast—not the one I would have served had I been at home—but anyway they had eaten something. Erika’s concert was in a different hall than the one that you attended-- a beautiful and very acoustically live building that made the concert excellent. It was wonderful music and a terrific concert. I really enjoyed it. I thought I would fall asleep, it had been such a long and busy day—but it was so good that I was awake and attentive the whole time. Mom and Dad enjoyed it very much, too. When it was over, though, I went home and went to bed. I had to meet Paul at the airport at 7:10 the next morning, so it meant another early morning for me. But went happily to pick him up. So glad that he is home and safe. He brought home some fun surprises from Japan and the pacific rim. For me he brought some beautiful Noritake plates. (I am a softie when it comes to dishes. They will always please me.) They are lovely fine bone China in a blue pattern with gold trim—and they go with other China patterns that I have.