Mormon Prom

Our cover photo is of the Seven Nauvoo Beauties who broke the hearts of hundreds of Missouri young men when they returned home on Saturday. Before the dance in Columbia, we see: Ande, Natasha, Alexis, Sarah, Amber, Bryce and Amanda. We drove two cars (both Nauvoo Ward YW Presidents--I followed Lisa who had GPS in her Prius!) and spent a fabulous time together, connected by walkie talkies. Such a giggly, hyper group, and So Much Fun!
At the entrance to the dance, our Beauties pose under the balloon arch.
Eventually we met up with the three "guys" from our ward: Josh, Rick & Joseph. They truly are not as serious as this pose would suggest!
The back view of Bryce's beautiful dress--she looked MARVELOUS (though she really wasn't feeling very well!)
And the back view of Amber's lovely gown. Aren't they all the picture of modesty and virtue?
Close-ups of the four girls from Nauvoo 1st Ward: Ande
Amber and Bryce
Amber and Amanda (catching them "normal" is difficult--silly is always fun!)
And one shot of the driver taken from the back seat as we pulled away from the gas station. The ride home was much more mellow, with about an hour spent joining Inside Out in many successive renditions of "I'm Peanut Butter and You Are Jelly" and "Once There Was a Snowman." The girls may decide to choose one of those for our upcoming Lip Sync night!
I'd go again. Loss of sleep and 24 hours away from home is more than made up by the closeness developed with "my" girls. Working in Young Women is THE BEST!!!

What Have I Been Up To?

You'd think I could come up with some great topic to blog about--but my thinker's sore. I seem to run constantly but am I making any progress? Here are a few things I have been filling up my hours with lately:

1. I watched 8 hours of General Conference on Saturday and Sunday....does that count for anything? Probably not, since many others did exactly that

2. I got out the crystal, china, linens and silver to feed four Priests and Laurels a nice dinner this evening. I purposely made the menu to consist of things a little difficult to eat (Chicken Parmesan over angel hair, and cream puffs) and set the table with multiple forks and spoons. We had a great time taking some dating/etiquette quizzes during the main course. The YM president wore a towel over his arm and was the waiter while I put food onto the plates. It turned out fabulously!

3. I have made it to the Temple AS A PATRON 14 times already this year, as well as spending each Saturday from 5:45 am until 2:30 pm there as a worker. Add to that the time spent making the schedule and you will know that my heart is full to the brim with Temple Feelings. Our youth have a baptism trip next Wednesday, and I love seeing them in the Temple as well.

4. I drove a vanful of young women to a basketball tournament in Macomb, an hour east of Nauvoo. They took second place in the tourney, which meant we stayed until the bitter end--then I faced a near mutiny as the girls disagreed over where they wanted to eat dinner. Some pleaded for a Chinese Buffet. Others wanted Pizza Hut, but I hated the thought of waiting 45 minutes to get our dinner. Finally I ordered the girls into the two vans and told the other driver to follow me: wherever I turned in, that was my decision. I headed into town and saw a Taco Bell. I squealed into the parking lot and the girls trooped in behind Tina and Me--only to see two of the referees from the basketball games there at a table, still dressed in their black & white shirts. The girls all found something they could live with for dinner and I was proud of them: I did not hear a single complaint from the entire bunch

5. I realized I was out of balance and needed to read. So besides Aisling of Eire, I have read a half dozen other books in the past couple of weeks. I really had fun with The Bishop's Bride, and loved the volume 4 Fablehaven--though I read it so fast I am sure I couldn't tell you many details (my sister had it checked out from the library and I felt guilty short-stopping it before it was turned back in). I would like to re-read all four of them just before volume five comes out. Good Job, Brandon Mull!

Nothing earthshattering, right? Just life running a full tilt, and loving it.

I See the Light!

I have been very tired of late. Lots of reasons--but they don't matter much. I have figured out (again) how to beat the doldrums: PICK UP A GOOD BOOK AND READ IT! I mean a book where you get lost in the story and live in another world for a while. And it has made all the difference for me this week.

The book, you ask? Aisling of Eire by Dorothy Keddington. Traci went on a Dorothy Keddington rampage a few years ago, and I happened upon this book in a used book store a little bit ago. It has all the elements of a terrific airplane or beach read: a great romance, a bit of mystery (someone is trying to kill her--and though you know who it is, it's still a bit anxiety-inducing) and A TRIP TO THE FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY IN SALT LAKE CITY.

Aisling of Eire reminds me a little of the books by G. G. Vandagriff, whom I very much appreciate, with her Family History sleuths digging through family trees. One very appealing thing with Aisling is the Irish connection--and I spent a fair amount of time trying to find my Irish family, only I didn't get to travel there (YET).

Yes, I am feeling alive and well this morning. 'Tis great what a good book will do for you!

17,000+ Steps on a CRAZY MONDAY!

Sorry, no photos today. Just a sort of stream of consciousness report (See, Marci, how you rub off on me!).

First of all, according to my pedometer, I walked over 17,000 steps yesterday--that clocks out to way more than 7 miles. I started out at the church where I meet each Monday/ Wednesday/ Friday with several women for our "Walk and Talk" exercise opportunity. It accomplishes the same purpose as my walking on my treadmill, however, it is not in my freezing cold garage, and the walk is made much more pleasant by conversation with Betty or Annee or Tina or Rosemary or somebody! I highly recommend this!

My next thousands of steps were taken as I accompanied Jeff to the doctor's office to get back the results of his sleep test taken nearly 2 weeks ago. And SURPRISE!!! He has full-blown apnea (which I have suspected for years). The test also showed a heart irregularity, and since Jeff's dad had fatal heart problems at age 62, he opted to be strapped up for an immediate EKG test there in the doctor's office. This showed some arrhythmia.

Next stop: the hospital in Quincy where he was hooked up to a 24-hour heart monitor which he will return to our local clinic today just before it closes at 5 pm. Jeff is now out in the front yard chipping away at the ice and snow from Friday night's storm (don't get me started on how that storm sabotaged my Saturday!). He is hoping to get the monitor to register some of the strange things he has felt in the past, but never had a name for. He often has a shortness of breath when he works for even short periods in the yard, and goes ashen in color where my face goes so bright red on exertion. We'll keep you posted on the results. Lincare is coming tomorrow to bring a C-PAP machine to see if he can tolerate it and start getting a good night's sleep.

The last few thousand steps were taken as I bee-lined into stores in Quincy for which I save up my errands. Nauvoo, if you didn't know it, is bereft of much convenient shopping. I hit Hy-Vee (a grocery store), Ben Franklin, Hobby Lobby and finally Sam's Club (yes, we have been on Costco withdrawal, with the closest store 3 hours away in St. Louis). Everyone knows there is no way to get milk, sudafed, print cartridges and tomato soup in a warehouse store without walking miles and miles.

I hope not to repeat this any time soon. My goal is to walk 50 miles a month, hoping it will make a difference in my health and well-being. But I never intended to do 1/7 of it in just ONE DAY!

Ruins at Tulum (Cozumel, Mexico)

Our final Port of Call was Cozumel, Mexico--a small island off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. We then took a "tender" to the mainland (through POURING rain) and then in Playa del Carmen we boarded a bus for a two-hour ride to the Mayan ruins at Tulum (tu-loom, accent on second syllable). When we arrived, we left the bus in the parking lot and took a tram about 2 miles further, to the ruins. Kathy & Randy were on a different tram car and met two young LDS boys named Lehi and Abinadi, who told them a few things about the temples at Tulum. For instance, on April 6, there is a direct beam of light through opposite windows in one of the buildings.



This thatch-covered building marks the entrance to the ruins--and then we ducked under a stone arch (very old! and in very good shape!) and there we were: Mayan Ruins 101.

This is the main Mayan Temple at Tulum.

Look carefully at the entire building, not trying to concentrate on any specific carving. It forms a face--side view, with the lowest projection (pokes out between levels) forming a mustache of sorts between the beaked nose and the chin.

Here's Jeff in front of the main Temple. Hell is a small town in Cayman Islands with lots of room for plays on words. Jeff's T-shirt says: Heaven is full and Hell doesn't want me!

A view of some "out buildings" with the Caribbean in the background.

A modern structure built to access the water from the steep cliff at the edge of the city.

Randy, Kathy, Gwen and Jeff, with the Caribbean as a backdrop.

One final look at the entire plaza--the village complex.

Outside the ruins a man offered to take our photograph holding his HUGE iguana (for a $5 fee, mind you--no freebies here!) What a riot it was. A tremendous learning experience. Pull out a map, find Cozumel and look for the ruins of Tulum a "short distance" away. Chichen Itza is a little further west.

Back to the Cruise--TOWEL ANIMALS

On the phone with Janyse the other day, I mentioned that I had scrapbooked some photos from our cruise in October. I realized my family & friends might like to see some more, and I'd like to document things in more than one way. Each evening when we returned to our cabin, the steward had left us an animal made of towels, sitting on our bed. This one was my absolute favorite, complete with Jeff's sunglasses! I've tried to put headings centered underneath each picture, but I keep having the words positioned elsewhere. So here are SUN BUNNY, HEART, ELEPHANT, STINGRAY, and MONKEY


Each night's offering also included a chocolate for our bedtime enjoyment!

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Winter Wonderland

Right after Church yesterday we loaded up to drive the 3 hours to St. Louis to bring Marci "home" for Christmas--with of course, an equally long drive back home. We saw the most breath-taking scenery with the Winter Wonderland Mother Nature has created for us. Of course I didn't have the camera with me, but this morning as we did errands we backtracked a few miles to shoot the photos of the frozen fields and trees.
The icicles on the side of the house have lengthened a bit since Saturday afternoon.

I wish I could have captured the light coming through this tree completely. It was VERY dangerous to even step foot out of my car--but I did so, tromping heavily through the layer of ice on top of the snow.

I was completely enchanged by the frozen fence line. Joanne, you'd have loved this photo shoot!

Talk about "Frosted Windowpanes" -- well these look like glass, don't they?

A ridge of poles, connected by a continuous tube of ice.

Here's the place to purchase what everyone in the neighborhood needs most today: Rock Salt and Sand in a tube. Not too expensive, I thought: 70 # of sand for about $4. But we used the entire bag, safety-fying the walk to my mom's house 2 doors away. And very expensive considering you can get a whole truckload for a couple hundred dollars.

Close-up of the bottom rail of that same sign: Everything in sight is decorated for Christmas!

More snow is expected tonight; we have Marci safely here; there's tons of food in the house; and we can now hunker down to ride it out until warmer weather removes all traces of Mother Nature's beauty!