Nauvoo

We have now been a week in Nauvoo and are half way finished with our Nauvoo experience.  The 16 hour days have been grueling but joyful. The weather has been very wet and very hot. We have battled heat, humidity, mud and insects, and yet, to us, this is the most beautiful place on earth.  We have met a lot of new families and have felt an instant love for them as we have served and sweated together.   There is a real zion feeling here where we all work hard at encouraging and supporting one another. Hearing a negative comment or criticism is rare.

As we have been learning to tell the story of these early saints, we have received great blessings and support. We have felt well for the most part, and more importantly, our minds have been made sharp and clear so that we are remembering in the very moment what the next dance move is, or where we need to be on the stage, or what we need to do. There is a great pouring out of God's blessings all around us.

Our hearts and thoughts have turned to these people who gave so much to live the way they believed.  We've learned a lot about our English ancestors that we didn't know before, and we are reminded again of those pioneers that loved the gospel, and this place, so much.

We have each been learning our own personal lessons and going on our own journeys here.  I've been posting a lot of what I've been thinking about on facebook and have been posting lots of pictures there, so I don't feel to go into a great amount of detail here, just know that we are exhausted and loving every minute of it! 

New Job!

How could I forget the most important news of the week!  Chuck has gotten a new job and will start as soon as we get home from Nauvoo.  He will be working for a solar panel company that has just moved into the area doing similar work to what he was doing for eBay.  It's close to the pay range he was making before, but the office is located downtown which will add a lot of time to his commute each day. Still, it is a job, and Chuck feels very happy and relieved to have secured employment.

Shots

You learn a lot of new things when you are getting a missionary ready. For example, did you know that there are only a few clinics authorized to give you a yellow fever and typhoid immunization?   It's true. You can't just march down to your local drug store and get them.  So on Monday we drove downtown to the health department for Kaitlin to get her shots.  She did a great job and was very brave, but it all went down hill from there.  In all fairness, Kaitlin was already feeling sick that morning, so we are not totally sure if it's the shots or not that has made Kaitlin run a fever and feel totally aweful for the past week.  We suspect that it is a combination of both.  The nurse told us that she would feel sick from the typhoid shot for the first few days, and then a week later she would feel sick from the yellow fever shot. So about today Kaitlin is moving from one sickness to the next one.  We are assured by our neighbor, who had typhoid, that being a little sick for a few days is much better than having the real sickness.

The Cyberman

I pushed hard this week to finish the cyberman costume I've been working on, in time for the Barnes and Noble Doctor Who night.   I've been working on this costume for months and experienced several setbacks in the final hours, however, it did get finished and Ruth and I dressed up and went to the event.  The event itself was kind of dumb, but the workers there really liked the costume and gave me a little gift as a reward. We also took a bunch of photos to enter into their costume contest online.  I learned a lot from this first expedition as a cyberman, and ended up doing some damage to the suit that I'll need to repair and sort out. All in all a good first experience in the cyber suit.  (Kaitlin took some pictures of me in the suit that turned out pretty cool)

I failed to mention last week that I learned that two photos of me in the Sanctuary Base Space Suit and a very abbreviated selection of my article was published in the Doctor Who Magazine this month.  The magazine won't be on sale here in the US until August, but a cosplay friend from the UK posted a scan of the article on Facebook.  I was super excited!

Happy Independence Day

We took our annual trek up to my  mom's house for the 4th of July this year.  Her town parade was a little disappointing this year, but Jared was able to catch some candy in the candy drop so that was a success.  We had a nice lunch with family and a good visit. In the evening our friends invited us over for dinner, where they fed us excellent food and we had a good time visiting and lighting fireworks in the circle.  Our neighborhood was crazy alive with fireworks of all kinds, including professional type aerial fireworks, right over our house.  There were so many fireworks that this morning, diving to church,  the road was covered with a fine layer of sand/gravel (from the fireworks) that clinked against the bottom of our car as we drove down the neighborhood streets.

Kaitlin at the Temple

On Wednesday morning I went with Kaitlin to the temple, just her and I.  We had a very nice experience there together.  Chuck was able to join us for the session.  We were worried that it would be busy, but it ended up being a quiet and nice day.  Kaitlin got extra special attention from all the temple workers because it didn't say on any of her paperwork that she was going on a mission so they were all quietly wondering about why we were at the temple that day, but were too polite to ask.  Finally, one of them asked me and word of Kaitlin's mission call spread really quickly.   There is a lot to take in the first time you go to the temple, so Kaitlin was glad she had decided to keep it very simple and low key.  Afterwards we offered to take Kaitlin out for a nice lunch, but she asked if we could go home and pick up Ruth and Jared and all go out for hamburgers, so that's what we did.

Youth Conference

Chuck and I served this weekend as group leaders at our church's three day youth conference.  We were assigned 8 kids from other churches in the area to be in our group and we all came together and had a fun time.  We did some service, played a lot of games, ate good food, and did a strenuous hike up a hill at night.  Ruth participated in the conference as well, and she was assigned to another group with kids she didn't know. She says she had some good times but didn't love it.  I thought also that the conference had some really great moments, but my organizing brain makes it difficult for me to totally enjoy functions like these. What impressed me the most was how great all the youth were, in our group, and in general.  These were all clean cut, positive youth, who were kind and friendly and worked hard.  After an exhausting day on Friday, I expected half of them to sleep on on Saturday, but they surprised me by all being there the next morning at 8am for the day's activities.

Chuck and I with some of our group. We named ourselves "The Unicorns" (put hand to forehead to form a horn).

Our Week in Pictures

*Note: I lost my camera on Thursday, so I'm missing photos of some key events. I've done my best to recreate them here. My camera was found and is getting mailed to me, so I should have the actual pictures soon.

On Tuesday we had another rehearsal for the British Pageant workshop. This time on the Conference Center stage.  Including this rehearsal, we learned three dance numbers in seven hours.  In the video find the very best dancers and then pretend they are us. If you get this blog via email, you'll have to visit the blog to view it.

*Wednesday was Kaitlin's one day off work this week so we had a birthday celebration.  Because she will miss Christmas with our family this year we had a Christmas party. We listened to Christmas carols, ate Christmas dinner, and made and decorated Christmas cut-out cookies. 

*Thursday was our British Pageant performance.  Have you ever had that dream where you are on the stage in front of a crowd but you've forgotten the lines, or don't know the dance, or forgot to show up at rehearsal all month?  No?  Maybe it's a drama person dream.  Anyway, that was sort of our experience performing the British Pageant this week.  We had only ever performed the dances; we had never seen the pageant itself. We didn't even know what it was about exactly. So here we are sitting backstage seeing the pageant for the first time, and then when we see other people getting ready to go on stage, we go on stage too.  That's about how it went all night.  It was a little bit of a beautiful mess but we sang and smiled and did our best.  At least now we are a little more prepared for when we go to Nauvoo.

Thursday was the first day of our town days celebration.  We went to our annual "Touch a Truck" and old car show.  A friend of ours restored this 1972 VW. Whenever we see bugs we think of Aunt Laura.

On Saturday our whole town came out to celebrate Kaitlin's birthday.  We went to a parade in the morning and saw dancers, high school students, and princesses.

We celebrated Kaitlin's birthday some more before went to work. For gifts she got mostly things she will need in Paraguay.  That night we visited Kaitlin at work and brought her a cupcake.  After her shift some of her friends surprised her with pizza and cake.  We wrapped up the evening attending our city fireworks.

Today is Father's day.  Chuck is a great dad in our home. TV today would make you think that dads are lazy and incompetent, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Chuck will mow the lawn and fix the car, and then fold the laundry and do the dishes.  He is an all around great dad, and we are lucky to have him.

Eightieth Birthday

We had a fun celebration for my mom's 80th birthday.  All six of my siblings were there, my brothers flying in for the day.   We had a display table, a big cake, an art show, and kids games.  All afternoon we had a steady stream of well wishers, including two of my mom's siblings, cousins, and friends.  It was a great day to visit with family.  I set a goal to talk with every family member and ask them one thing about their lives. This led to a lot of good conversation and enjoyable interactions.   It was a really nice day, and I think my mom had a nice time as well.

British Pageant Workshops

We received an email a week ago asking us if we were available to take part in dancing workshop for the British Pageant.  They were reworking some of the major dance numbers and needed fifty or so people -to come and learn them and give them feedback, culminating in a performance of the British Pageant.   Even though I had won tickets to the premier of Jurassic Park, I forfeited my tickets so we could dance the night away with other volunteers in a church gym. We rehearsed on Thursday and Friday of last week, and have another rehearsal and then a performance in the Conference Center Theater next week.   Chuck and I are really excited to be learning some of the dances early, Ruth is having a good time, and Jared is hating it, but still doing it. Kaitlin, unfortunately, has to work so isn't participating.

No More Reading Charts

Jared attended his last day of elementary school this week. He will go to the middle school next year, which means no more reading charts or room mothers or Halloween parades for us.

Calling #3

I was called into the stake (our regional church offices) a couple weeks ago and given an additional church assignment as stake music chairman.  Since my stake has never had a music chair before I have been tasked with starting a stake music library, compiling lists of organists and music conductors from the different churches in the area, and forming a stake choir that will perform twice a year at our regional meetings.   I have a lot on my emotional plate right now, so I'm going to just tuck this assignment away in the back of my mind and tackle it after I get Kaitlin off on her mission.

Bonus picture: Our six year old mini rex Summer has enjoyed the warmer weather and sunshine.

Happy Anniversary

Chuck and I didn't have much planned for our anniversary this year.  We just have a lot of other things on our mind, that the anniversary just kind of snuck up on us. But as luck had it, Chuck had the day off of work ;), so we decided to make a day of it.

We started by hiking a local trail not far from our home.  It was a five mile loop that is popular with mountain bikers, and it started off pleasant enough, but about half way on the loop we found a sign that said "Gunslinger Slope".  Little did we know that Gunslinger Slope means that the next quarter mile is going to be hiking hell.  The trail took a super steep upward turn, with loose gravel and rocks all the way to the top. We did make it, and down the other side, with frequent stops, as we are not as young as we used to be.

That evening, I had some coupons, so we went to our local rodeo.  Kaitlin was working, and Ruth was at a party, so we took Jared along with us. Overall the rodeo was pretty fun. We saw some kids ridding sheep, and some horses fall on the bronc riders, normal rodeo stuff.  Jared did not like the rodeo. He thought the music was too loud (it was) and that the events were dumb.  We ended up leaving early because two hours was enough for all of us.

End of School Awards

Ruth has gotten a few awards at the end of the year, but she is so chill about them that I don't have a picture of any of them.  She got her certificate from a year of seminary, she earned the Presidential Academic Excellence award for having all A's this year but one, she also received the "Most Outstanding Spanish Student" award (Ruth says it's because the teacher likes her, not because she is good at Spanish) and she also received the "Most Improved Drama Student" award.    On Thursday her class went to our local amusement park, and she had a great time.  She is now done with middle school and ready to start at the high school in the fall.

New Trampoline

We have been watching the want-ads for used trampolines for weeks, but haven't found one.  So Chuck and I decided that we would buy a new trampoline for our anniversary this year. Chuck found a good deal from guy that sells them out of the warehouse, and he and Jared spent most of Saturday setting it up.

We've had this trampoline for maybe 8 years and it was on its last legs. It was totally unsafe, but I still let Jared jump on it because it's the only out side activity he will do.

Here is our new one. I hope it is the last one we will ever buy. Happy anniversary to us.