Books of December 2023

 Well, it is New Year's Eve! I can't believe we are one year short of a quarter of the way through a new century! 

So, to start with: about me--I am still daily walking for 20 minutes. Except for that one day I missed the day the plumber came I have walked daily for 1,094 days. (It should be 1, 095, but I guess I can forgive myself for missing one day!) I am also still planking for 2 min. 10 sec. but I am thinking of instead doing one minute twice? I might do that. I have until tomorrow to decide! And I am still balancing on each leg, and am at one minute per leg. Up from ten seconds per leg when I started, and 35 seconds per leg in August.

As for books, after the last few months of reading only six books, I read NINE this month!! It could have been because of holidays, but it wasn't--I read six of them before the holidays started! This was because of my arm. I mentioned how my left arm prevented me from putting up Christmas lights, but it also prevented me from doing other things. So to rest my arm, I was reading a lot. Because even typing hurt a lot. (I worked on an entire spreadsheet for work typing only one-handed!) 

Then on Christmas Eve, I was trying to prepare a meal using some breadsticks. (When we had Michelle's family here, I had ordered breadsticks with our pizza, only they neglected to season them. I just stuck them in the freezer to use later because they were not very good.) I had looked up a pizza casserole recipe that used breadsticks. I needed to slice them in half. I tried with my regular knives, but the pain of just holding the breadstick down to cut it was too much for my left arm. So I decided that if I used Josie's sharp knife, I could do it more easily. And it worked--for the first three or four cuts. Until I cut my finger! So I wrapped it and kept cutting, and all was going well until I cut another finger!! I had to sit down and cry for awhile. Now my left hand was well and truly out of commission. Sigh. 

Well, it is better on all fronts now. The cuts are healing, the arm is healing. Look at me--typing with both hands!!

So, without further ado, here are the 9 books read this month:

1. Antsy does time by Neil Shusterman (2008) -- Antsy's friend Gunnar Umlaut has only six months to live, dying of some obscure disease. Antsy "gives" Gunnar some of his time, and this grows into a happening in which Antsy is getting people to sign contracts giving a few days or weeks or months or years of their lives to Gunnar. When, after donating two years to Gunnar, Antsy's dad has a heart attack--well! Let me just quote from this lovely passage on page 209/10: "I'll never really know if prayer changes the outcome of things. Lots of people believe it does. I know I'd like to believe it, but there's no guarantee. Some people pray and their prayers are rewarded...Others pray and they get refused. Sometimes they lose their faith, all because they lost the roll of the dice. / That night, as I prayed, I wasn't praying for my own wants and needs. I prayed for my father, and for my mother, I prayed for my whole family. Not because I was supposed to--not because I was afraid of what would happen if I didn't. I was doing it because I truly wanted to do it with all my heart, and believe it or not, for the first time ever, I didn't want it to end / ...that's when I realized that prayer isn't for God. After all, He doesn't need it. He's out there, or in there, or sitting up there in His firmament, whatever that is, all-knowing and all-powerful, right?...If He's there, sure, I'll bet He's listening, but it doesn't change Him, one way or the other, / Instead, we're the ones who are changed by it."

2. The true gift by Patricia MacLachlan (2009) -- this short little book by the author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, was our book group's December read. As a farm girl, I enjoyed this little cow story very much. I know that animals are pretty smart and that they have emotions. The children in this story know that too, and set about to give poor little lonely white cow the best Christmas ever.

3. Buffalo Flats by Martine Leavitt (2023) -- carrying on with the farm theme, I remembered that Marti's newest book came out in April and that I had not remembered to read it! Our library had one, so I placed a hold and had the delight of spending a few days with Marti. Because I know her, when I read her books, it is her voice I hear in my head telling the story to me. This story is based on ancestors of Marti's husband Greg, who migrated to Southern Alberta (establishing a town called Leavitt! but the book doesn't say that!) from Utah. (So, also ancestors of our cousin Lavon's children, conincidentally.) This is not a "Mormon" book--like, it is not written for that audience. It is just a story that happens to happen to some Mormon people. It is full of happy things and hard things. Many hard issues--abuse, natural disasters, illness and death--are dealt with as Rebecca Leavitt tries to assert her independance during a time when women were not allowed much of that.

4. Royal Crown (from the notebooks of a middle school princess) by Meg Cabot (2019)--This was one of the books I got free from Rachel's cart of books she had reviewed but not added to the library collection. And I must say!! I had no idea that the Princess Diaries franchise was carrying on with a bazillion books in a bazillion series. I had to look it up to figure out how Princess Olivia could be Princess Mia's sister--and found all the fan sites, and whole lists of the family tree of this imaginary family. I was not too impressed with the way Mia's father went around leaving children here and there, I have to say. But--he isn't real, so...

5. Peace for a Palestinian: One woman's story of faith amidst war in the Holy Land by Sahar Qumsiyeh (2018) -- This book was very good and made me so sad. I mean, her experiences did not take place during an actual war, because she is a statistician who lives in the US now, but life was hard for Palestinians living, as she did, in the area of Bethlehem. Getting into and out of Jerusalem, or going pretty much anywhere was so, so difficult. Sahar had to plan her life around trips of 50-60 miles taking five to eight hours with checkpoints and road closures and bullying behavior. They were at war even in "peace" times. My heart hurt for her now because how must she be feeling now, watching helplessly from afar?

6. The Grandmother Plot by Caroline B. Cooney (2021) -- I very much enjoyed this book about Freddy, who is pretty much a slacker pot-head, but he loves his grandmother dearly. When a suspicious death occures in grandma's memory care center, Freddy is on alert. Who did it? Is it the drug enforcers who are after Freddy? Is it the husband of the dead woman? One of the workers in the care center? Freddy, who is himself under suspicion by the police, only knows that he didn't do it, and he needs to keep his grandma safe. His three sisters, who live far away, are always texting and calling and saying he needs to get grandma out of there so she isn't murdered next! But Freddy knows he can't take her home--home is not safe for a person with her level of dementia. Very interesting how Freddy inventories the house, because he will bring her home if he has to, but his inventory reveals too much danger at home. Who knew that The Face on the Milk Carton author was still writing so prolifically? A very good read.

7. Your guide to not getting murdered in a quaint English village by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper (2021) -- Huh. Okay. So this was a picture book for adults, and it was Jay Cooper's illustrations that compelled me to keep reading. Because the story was, well, kind of stupid. This book had a yellow "Humor" sticker on it, so I don't know what it says about me to admit that I did not laugh once or even smile, really. I was always just "huh."

8. 6 events: The restoration model for solving life's problems by Stephen R. Covey (2004) -- we were studying this book in a faculty group I belong to (with my brother) on campus. It was very good. I read it slowly over the past few months, finishing on Dec. 26. In a very sorry and wholly inadequate nutshell, the model teaches Who you are, whose you are, how you are those things, where to find support, what to do, why to do it, and when to do it. All to be approached with love, respect, and kindness to our fellow travelers on this crazy planet earth.

9. Holly Jolly Summer by Tiffany Stewart (2018) -- was another book I got from Rachel's cart of library rejects. Although, it was pretty good. Christmas themed, so an appropriate read for the only book I read during the actual Christmas break, and just finished yesterday. Changes are afoot in Christmas, Kentucky, and the mayor's daughter, Darby Peacher, learns about herself, and how to let people in, and how a team of misfits can work together to make things better. I really liked when St. Nick, the crusty veteran who runs Holly Jolly Land (an amusement park) tells Darby that we are all misfits--because aren't we? Don't we go through life feeling like misfits from time to time or even always? So we find common ground with other misfits and can help each other out. 

Arlene!

 It has been awhile since I had a nightmare from which I woke up myself by yelling out, but early this morning, I did. I don't remember much of the dream, apart from the abrupt ending.

Dream me suddenly became aware that I was not alone in my room, and that there was an animal there. Dream me thought that a cat must have gotten upstairs somehow. But then dream me "knew" that it was a big, vicious dog, and a zillion thoughts came all at once: where did it come from?, how did it get inside?, was a door open to the ouside and were there other dangers of which I was unaware? And then the dog pounced on me. Real me could feel the weight of both the dog and the fear! Dream me knew that I was alone upstairs and that I needed to get help from Josie, who was asleep downstairs, if she was not also in trouble herself! And dream me tried so hard to call for help, crying :"Arlene! Help!" but no sound came. Dream me, who by now was becoming also actual me tried as hard as hard can be, and shouted out, "Arlene!"

And that woke me up! There was no dog. No weight on me. And I was left to wonder why I called out for my sister, hundreds of miles away, instead of Josie! I know that in my dream I was aware that it was Josie who was also in the house, but in that moment of dream terror, it was Arlene's name I called.

Bloggity Blog Blog Blog

 Random things on my mind:

1. It is not beginning to feel a lot like Christmas--I should have put up the Christmas lights on the weekend of Thanksgiving, but I was sleeping off my COVID booster shot. Then I should have put them up the first weekend in December, but Saturday was very busy (although the play (musical) I went to, "Hattie's Echo" by Charlotte Westover was most excellent) but sometime after I got home, I hurt my left arm, and it was not fit to put up anything, including Christmas lights. At this point, I have no tree, no lights, and no desire to do anything about it. 

2. Also Bruce has lost five teeth this year. When he lost the first one, I was like, "Well, you now have only 31 teeth. Big deal. I have only ever had 24. So." Then he had to have two surgically removed. 29. Then he lost one in August. 28. Then another one in early December. 27. Only the placement of the lost teeth makes eating difficult. So--no nuts or raw veggies, not to even think about candy. So, our Christmas celebration will not have a food focus, either.

3. It just feels so--off--to be celebrating while innocent children (and people in general) are being killed in a hateful genocide that leaves me aghast and appalled and also feeling completely helpless. I think about my one Palestinian friend every day. Wondering if she is still alive today...It makes my heart hurt. Knowing of Palestinian friends of my children who have lost dozens of members of their families. Imagine that--losing your parents, and uncles and aunts, and grandparents, and cousins, and siblings, and niblings...all at once. Like, last year you had family and this year you don't. It is mind-blowing and sad-making.  Well, I know that the Savior came to atone for all of this evil and suffering, so I feel grateful for him, and so therefore I can also be happy that he was born to be our Savior, but in a low-key, humble way. So I expect a quiet Christmas at our house, and that is just fine with me. 

4. And then--yesterday, my cousin Myrna Lusk Montenegro McLean's son Alban Montenegro flew from Las Vegas to Kansas City to be home for Christmas with his mom and step-dad. And in the airport, some random person attacked him! So badly that instead of home, his destination was the emergency ward. When the guy was arrested, he said that the reason he did it was because--get this--he didn't like Alban's glasses. Like seriously? (And also, Alban's glasses are completely normal.) But it made me wonder if it was racially motivated in our hateful white supremist world. Alban is of mixed race, which means he is brown like his father with dark hair and eyes like his father. And if a person attacked a person from a racial motivation, they would not be very likely to tell the police, "He is a brown man, so..." Instead, he might say "I didn't like his glasses," which just makes him sound stupid and not like a hate-crime-offender. Anyway, Alban will be fine. He has a fractured lower orbital bone. Which means his face is banged up and broken and hurts, but he should be fine to fly back to Las Vegas next week. Where he is a military dude. He was not wearing his uniform while traveling; he was in civvies. Maybe if he had been in uniform, the stupid attacker would not have stupidly attacked? 

5. And now for a happy memory! My cousin ('s wife) Ellen is in charge of a Facebook group called "Taber AB Local and Family History," and today she posted about dial telephones and asked the question "who remembers their telephone number from Taber" during the era of dial telephones. Many people responded. I responded that our family phone number (223-8207) and my uncle's phone number (223-8592) are indelibly stamped in my brain. Another person wrote about how we had party lines, so, to quote her, "we had to listen for conversations before dialing. Occasionally someone would actually interrupt to say, “will you get off the line”. This is true!

6. And I thought of, and wrote this: "Two of my sister's best friends were on our same party line. They would pre-arrange with a fourth friend to call one of them--the others knew the approx. time and what series of rings to listen for--and the four of them would have a group chat long before anybody knew what a "group chat" was! My dad was the troubleshooter for all the rural telephone lines, so he would get the complaints about people tying up the line--he was not happy when it was his daughter and her friends who were the culprits, as they sometimes were." I did not post the names, but for the sake of my personal history, when Arlene was in upper elementary school, the two best friends on our party line were Karen Haynes and Jeannie Ferguson. Pat Odland was the fourth friend who would call them. Dad would get irritated because the four of them could indeed keep the conversation rolling!

Happy Birthday to me and you! (Dec. 12)

 Although David and Ruth's second child was due on Dec. 6, and they had been anticipating his birth since the beginning of December, he made his appearance at 8:27 AM on Dec. 12. A birthday buddy for me!

Ruth is a small person, so I do not envy her birthing this 8 lb. 6 oz. boy! I know that 8 lbs. is a normal size for a baby, but for me that seems big, because mine ranged from 6 lbs. 2 oz. (Patrick) to 7 lbs. 8 oz. (Josie) with David and Nancy both about 6.5 lbs. So this baby--seems big to me!

And here he is swaddled and cradled by his dad:

We are glad he is here safely, that he is healthy; and we hope his Mama can recover from the labour that is childbirth as quickly as possible! And he does have a name--it is Ethan. No middle name yet, but that will be decided.

And hopefully, I will be able to remember his birthday. My sister, in keeping with thoughts of a new baby on this day, posted this picture from 1957 (though on Christmas Day, so I was 13 days old):

We both had lots of dark hair! Welcome to the world, baby Ethan!

November Books

 It was a six book month again.

1. The audacity of Sara Grayson by Joani Elliott (2021) -- Sara Grayson is divorced, 32, and teaches writing in a college while writing greeting card messages as a side job. But her mother is a best-selling novelist. The world is anxiously awaiting book five in her latest series, when the author dies. In her will, part of her bequest to Sara is that she finish her mother's contracted novel. The publisher is not exactly thrilled to have an unknown take on the task. Can Sara do it?

2. Dreams and thunder: Stories, poems and the Sun Dance Opera by Zitkala-Ša, edited by Jane Hafen (2005) -- Reading for the exhibit we are doing in the Spring...this book uses only the authors own words, but edited by Hafen from her published writings and her writings in the Bonnin Collection in the BYU Library. So the actual libretto for the opera, besides stories, poems, and diary entries.

3. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (2002) was our book group's reading choice for this month. A very good book! However, our meet-up was on the same day that I went with Michelle and family to the park, and afterwards (mostly because of the booster shot, probably) I completely forgot to go. This is a novel in letters, which is not my favorite story-telling tactic, but it is also a novel in LETTERS ( for example LMNOP). Super interesting premise! Recommend. 

4. The library of lost things by Laura Taylor Namey (2020) was her first book, and it was very good. Darcy Wells is trying to be a normal girl, though she has a fabulous memory and is a "literary genius" but how can she be any kind of normal while trying to hide the fact that her mother is a hoarder? Few of her friends have walked the goat trails of the Wells apartment.

5. The Schwa was here by Neal Shusterman (2006) -- This author visited Josie's library, and she was talking about him, so I looked for one of his books, since I had never heard of him. (He is very prolific--what rock have I been hiding under?!) The story of Antsy Bonano and his friendship with Calvin Schwa and Old Man Crawley's 14 afghan hounds and blind granddaughter was a very fun read!! (I am reading book two in the Antsy series right now!)

6. The flight of Red Bird: The life of Zitkala-Ša by Doreen Rappaport (1997) is another book I have been reading to help me towards the exhibit. Again, based on Gertrude Bonnin's own writings and the materials in the Bonnin Collection at BYU, this telling was intended for younger chapter book readers.

Quail Orchard Park

 Over the past couple of years, as Josie and I have driven down Canyon Road on our way to and from Orem Public Library, we have dealt with construction traffic and watched housing developments spring up where orchards once were. One welcome development recently--this summer--was watching the creation of a new park, with the interesting and puzzling name of Quail Orchard Park. (The orchard was growing quail--quail trees? There were a lot of quail who lived in the orchard, who no longer can because people shooed them out to make a park?) 

When Nancy and family were in Utah, the park was not close to completion, and once it was, I could see that it was a spectacular park that the kids would have really liked. So many play areas! Such a variety of cool things to do! And that was just looking at it while driving by!

When Michelle and I were texting prior to their family's visit to Utah, I found a little video of the park and sent it to Michelle, and her kids, particularly Rachael, were pretty excited to go there. That outing was planned for today, so we planned to meet at the park at 3 pm. I went a little bit early to do my twenty minute walk at the park. (I took the day off work to take Josie to the airport--the timing was awkward; I worked from home in the morning, including a Zoom call with a student.)

I drove on Canyon Road, just like I was taking Josie to work, and drove past much of the park, finally parking my car facing east near the last covered picnic area--there are three or four of those in the park. And I set off walking east, being able to see from this vantage point that there was a walking path (or running, as some people were doing) around the entire park. And I was surprised to find that the street on the east side of the park was Timpview Drive, which is the street that our little loopy street opens onto!! I had no clue the park covered all that area.

Here is a picture of one of the covered picnic areas:

This is the one that is attached to the public restrooms (which are closed for the season, since it is winter. Though a lovely 45 F day today!) I thought it was interesting because this is how all the roofs are constructed on each of the picnic areas--unattached like you can see in the picture. But overlapping the open edge, so theoretically, the rain would be kept off, but there would be a breeze.

There are three large areas of playground equipment, with a nice variety of things to climb on and do, though I honestly do not remember seeing any swings. Here is one of them:

People who are familiar with this area know that scattered throughout neighborhoods there are green spaces that are shaped like bowls where children can run and play, but if there is a flood, these bowl things are places where excess water can run, a low spot to collect water so that it can do less damage to homes. Well, in this park they created that kind of space (and when  you are standing and looking towards the mountains, you can see that the park is directly in front of a crevice where it looks like water would potentially flow from if there was serious spring melting taking place) only they used the slope of it on the higher side to build a variety of slides coming off the slope. Very cool. No need for ladders to climb--children can just walk right up to the slides and go down them. There are also climbing apparatuses in that area of various kinds. Here are two views of this play area:

Scattered in various places, there are musical toys to play with. This xylophone has very resonant sound, and like a gangsa, you have to dampen after playing if you don't want the sound to bleed.

There are bongo drums in the corner of one of the play areas.

I had taken all of these pictures of things, and no people! Because Michelle and her family did arrive, and the kids were very busy playing!! Also Michelle's friend Elizabeth, who has recently moved from Fargo to Spanish Fork, brought her three boys and the kids were having a blast! Not so much the older two, who both needed the restrooms (which were locked) and finally consented to coming to my house to use the facilities, after which playing was easier. Matthew, who does cross-country, went for a run. I told Michelle and Alice to climb onto a play structure so I could take a picture with people in it!! Michelle looked at me in surprise and said, "Me?" (I would so have been climbing around on these things if I was the mom!! Weird to do it when I am not the grandma of the children that were there!)

She was glad she did, because there were these awesome bells to play, again with really resonant sound. Like, they sounded real, not tinny or cheap. Here are Michelle and Alice experimenting with the sound.

My goodness! Alice's profile looks very like Rachel's (Heiss) profile, I think. On this same play structure, if I am not mistaken, there is a hydraulic elevator that carries children to the top, and then goes back down again. It works so slick!! 

Now for some action shots of Michelle's other children. Here is Benny:

And here is Leon, with Rachael visible in the background, too. Leon had been very cold, and finally consented to go to their vehicle and get his coat. But I notice that he did not decide that shoes were necessary! 

Rachael was very busy noticing things that were lost and setting things right. She found a lost cell phone, and went to all the adults at the park (there were many) until she found the owner. She found a lost child, and stayed with him until other moms helped her to figure out that the child's mother was playing on the pickle ball courts. (What even is pickle ball? I know it is all the rage in these parts, but I am clueless. Those just look like tennis courts to me!--I have no pictures of them, but there are four of them.)

Here are several of the children climbing around together. Rachael is set to go down the slide; Alice is directly behind her, and Leon and one of Elizabeth's sons are behind her.

And Matthew is such a good sport! He was feeling too grown up for the park, preferring to run, but climbed on the play equipment gamely so that I could take an action shot of him! He is certainly growing into a very handsome young man.

The children had so much fun at this park! The kids were getting hungry. I had brought fun-size Wunder bars to share, but those did not amount to much. Michelle was planning to make spaghetti at their AirBnB, but Leon said, "Go and make the spaghetti and bring it here to eat!" Even though it was kind of chilly, he did not want to leave! This space with so many things to play on made these children very easy to handle--go play! And they did!

Michelle and I decided to take some selfies. 

This one is pretty good of both of us, I think. Except--look at my neck skin! I forgot to do the tongue trick that Rosie and Josie taught me. I asked for a do-over.

Better neck! The tongue trick really works!

And then I bid them adieu, with a few hugs for Michelle--the children were too busy having fun to interrupt their play to hug an old great-aunt they hardly know! And then I left, stopping at Edgemont Pharmacy to get my Covid booster on my way home. (I like them because no appointment necessary! CVS makes you go online to make an appointment. I do not like to go online to make appointments!) 

It was fun to see Michelle and her children again, and to be able to experience the new park, which is so big and beautiful and filled with fun things to do! (There are dry creek beds around too--I think there may be some water features during the summer season.) I will go back again--I need to. Michelle, the person who majored in landscape design, or at least that was part of her studies, wants to know what they are going to do about the gravel on the slopes. Clearly, this design choice is not working now that children are actually playing there. She asked me to report back about what they will do. They use also rubber that is shredded to look like wood chips, but is actually rubber and very springy to walk on. But not on some of the slopes. So I will be back to check out the changes in the future!

Family Night

 Hey, everybody, it's Family Night!

We had a fun family night last night. Michelle and her five children are in town from Fargo, North Dakota. (Their professor dad is at an academic conference.) I wanted to get together with her while Josie was still here--she leaves to visit Patrick in Austria today. So I contacted Kelli and my brother Bruce, and so we were able to spend a fun evening together.

I was super grateful for how much help Kelli and Josie were, because the three youngest children are quite an exuberant handful!! They were so nice to help with games, and allowing the children to play the pump organ, and calming them down sometimes. 

We had pizza--which Josie ordered for me because doing so is extremely stressful for me (thank you!)--and fruits and vegetables. I got small water bottles so I didn't have to have a pitcher or anything. It worked well, and people had a chance to visit.

Here are some pictures:

Clockwise starting with Kelli, we have Josie, Alice, Rachael, Matthew, Leon and Benny.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Bruce and Michelle were having a good chin wag. So I thought I should memorialize that moment. It has been many years since they have had the chance to chat.

Then, Matthew B. arrived. Matthew R. was playing the organ, and I called out "Hi, Matthew!" which startled Matthew R. momentarily, and then I introduced the Matthews to each other.  I thought it would be fun to get a picture of two Matthews with their two Mothers.

Because we were doing this, of course the other children noticed, so they scurried into the kitchen so they could be a part of a photo opportunity.

But not Benny--maybe this was when he took advantage of a moment to sneak off in search of the nerf guns (which Kelli had brought in case it was nice enough to play outside, but then we secreted them away in another room) which I found evidence of later at night, when all had gone home and I found a nerf gun in my house where no nerf gun had gone before!

Later, Allen took a picture of the group except for my husband and himself. (Bruce was hiding out because it was a tad loud and action-filled in the house! I was proud of him that he didn't just leave! And when he did leave for work, he did take a moment to say farewell to people. I missed a photo opportunity.)

It was a fun Family Night!

Good days.

 I had a couple of good days this weekend.

On Saturday, I went to a dance concert in the afternoon that was pretty unique. It was all contemporary dance, but they were doing King Lear. See Better Lear, to be exact. There was a play, too, in which a Shakespeare Reading Club was reading "King Lear"--they pretended that the audience members were new members of the reading group, so we all were given books, and they would sometimes tell us page and speech citation, and also pass around Starburst from time to time. It was kind of cool and immersive. They were discussing the question "who is deserving of redemption." (Answer: EVERYONE.) One of the players was deaf, or that was the premise (no actually, he is IRL a deaf actor), so the whole show had ASL translators, sometimes as a part of the play, sometimes on the side. Like, if the dancers danced to a song with lyrics, the translator was translating that. And the president of the club was an older man who could also juggle! And they used juggling to explain the relationship of Lear with his daughters and Gloucester with his sons. I didn't always understand how the dances done related to the storyline (although sometimes I did) but all in all, it was pretty cool.

It had been a BYU football day, so I drove over and parked in the School of Music parking lot, and walked to the RB (15 minutes) and then walked around down there for 5 more minutes before going in (to my front row, center, seat) and then just a 15 minute walk back to the car.

Last night, my nephew Michael texted me to see if I wanted to watch their stake conference today--well, he said specifically "Josie or anyone"--but I decided that I would do that. He also sent their Saturday session link (it was by then over), which I watched this morning at 8, and then went straight into their Sunday session.

I guess it is because I usually go to church alone that it was so nice to recognize Craig's head behind the organ, and Jocelyn sang in a trio. 

And I knew some of the speakers, like all my life, so there is just that feeling of connection. It was just a very good meeting, very uplifting. And I needed that.

And then straight on to this morning's meeting, where I also caught a glimpse of Michael (with whom I was texting during the whole thing!) because after the children sang, they did a slide show of all the children in the stake--individually or in small groups--accompanied by beautiful piano music played by Corbyn Pilling, our cousin Malissa Navratil's husband. And I just felt that feeling of connection again. It was very beautiful. (They had the children go sit in the audience so they could watch the slide show, too.)

I could not stop the film for that brief millisecond when you could see Michael's face, but here on the far left is the back of Michael's head, and on the far right is the top half of Craig's face:

This was just as Michael was handling the tech to run the slide show, and all the people are turned to look above and behind their heads at the screen.

So. I really enjoyed the feeling of being at home, surrounded by my people for a few hours today.

I had had a disheartening communication with one daughter, and felt in need of a pick-me-up--but then the tables got turned and prayers got answered, and the same daughter sent me a positive communication in the morning, and she had actually listened, thought, and acted upon my words. Which was both surprising and made me very hopeful. Because, you know, when I was this daughter's age, my mother was about halfway into her process of dying. I know that all my kids need to learn to be resilient and to stand on their own two feet, but just thinking about her age now and my age then--that brings it home. But today, I feel hopeful.

UDEO Conference 2023

 Today was Remembrance Day, and I didn't even wear a poppy or celebrate the day at all. I forgot to be silent for two minutes at 11 AM because I was at a conference.

It was the Utah Dance Educators Organization conference, and it was the best conference I have gone to in person in a long time! Every session was interesting and refreshing.

The conference was held at Westminster University--which until recently was Westminster College--in Salt Lake City. I have been there for a UDEO conference once before, but this year the program was much more enriching for someone like me, who is not a dance educator, but instead a librarian who partners with dance educators. 

I had to leave home at 8 AM, which I did, and drove and parked more easily this year than last, since I sort of knew my way, though I found a better parking lot. Well, except that last year on this day it was snowing, and I found covered parking, so that was better then. But the uncovered lot was perfect for the sunny day it was today.

The opening session, by Ashley Anderson, was on the conference theme: Shaping the Future of Dance. She talked about some of her own experiences, and then she had us do this exercise around "Imaginary Dance." This exercise came about because once upon a time, she had a group of dancers on the stage of a dark auditorium when the lights went out, and they had no light and no sound, so while people were waiting and wondering what to do, she told the audience, "I know the dance! I will describe it to you and you can imagine it." That kept people engaged until the power came on and then the dance continued, but it was of course different from how the audience had imagined it. Then, in another experience, when the lights went out, the backstage crew found flashlights. They, dressed in black as backstage crews do, followed the dancers around shining light on them. So, again, there was the dance they had hoped to do but couldn't, the dance they actually did, and the bonus dance created by the movement of the backstage crew with their flashlights. So, she started deliberately using this idea with classes.

For us, she had us close our eyes, and she told us a dance in two minutes. Then she asked us to get in pairs, and one person was to tell an imaginary dance in two minutes. Then the partner was asked to retell the dance in only one minutre. Then she asked for volunteers to come up--five people. We, the audience, were asked to furnish the venue of the dance. Someone chose an empty swimming pool with zero level entry. Each person had one minute to add to the imaginary dance. We started with dancers entering the pool at zero level and ended up with dancers lying at the bottom of the pool which was gradually filling with water. Then she switched up the order of the people on stage, and the audience gave another venue--a parking garage empty of cars at night--and another imaginary dance was created.

When the people sat back down, she asked us to talk in our same pairs about what would be the perfect dance class, and we both had to respond. And our last activity was to talk about our current jobs and what would be the one thing that would make them the best for our students. It was very good--people were very engaged, and even I put my hand up and said something!!

The second session were break-out sessions. I chose to attend the one by Roxanne Gray about "Mexican Dance Histories." So interesting! Roxanne is a biracial, bicultural dancer, but she doesn't speak Spanish and was raised to "blend in." She danced Folklorico style as a young girl, but wasn't that interested in the dances of her mother's people until she took a dance history class and chose this as a research topic--which she is now turning into her master's thesis at the U. (of U.) So interesting! She had a bibliography and all the nerdy stuff that librarians love!

The third sessions, I chose to attend "Miracles, Magic, and Method: Supporting Well-being in the studio." This was given by two women representing Arts for Life in Utah. We had to get into groups of two in this one as well, first talking about a really important dance memory. I talked about Alberta Family Dances, and the Butterfly Dance in particular. Then we had to get a new partner and dance the memory instead of tell about it. My partner for this one was a guy (one of only four males at the conference) from UVU, and his story through dance was so good! Ballroom - stop - ballet - stop - contemporary - stop. That had been his path to dance. He started dancing ballroom in junior high to please some neighbor girls, and then stopped. As he tried new dance forms, he kept stopping, until he realized, no really, I love to dance and that is what I want to do. The last partnership, we had to dance and explain at the same time. 

Then it was time for lunch, and I chose to eat in my car because I didn't "know" anybody, even though I had met quite a few. I was glad I made that choice because my veggie wrap was full of impossible to bite pieces that it would have been embarrassing to eat in front of someone!!

So, then I went on my walk, which was about a half hour instead of my usual 20 minutes. Because Westminster's campus, though it is in the middle of the city, is very beautiful and feels very wild, in a cultured way. (Last year, I walked while there but it was snowy, so I didn't venture into the more wild paths, which I could because of the sunny weather today.

Last year I only walked across this long covered bridge, but this year, I went down to the path that I had only seen from above. I love the way those trees, growing with roots down by the creek bed, curve above the road like that. Imagine how pretty this would be earlier in the year, with green leaves!

A close-up view:

Those branches that are growing straight up look to me like watersprouts that were allowed to grow until they are so big that they just look interesting. On a fruit tree in a garden, those would have been nipped in the bud.

 Emigration Creek runs right through the campus--well, across the bridge is student housing, with this lovely trail in the coulee (which in Utah they do not use that word. But that is what it is!) for some natural respite from busy city life.

This little fellow crossed my path, then ran to this tree and stayed there looking at me!

Nice little amphitheater right beside the creek. It would be such a beautiful summer setting for a performance! 

The stairs I walked down to get to the amphitheater, from the bottom looking up:

Some signs explaining what we see on the trail follow:

The trail led back to civilization, and I was at the end of my walk and it was time to return to the conference, hoping the afternoon would be as interesting and engaging as the morning had been. 

By the way, Westminster dates from 1875, and this building is so very lovely.

We first met together as the entire group for the awards ceremony, which this year honored Chris Roberts, an elementary school teacher from Provo and Nebo School Districts. (I swear that one of the pictures looked just like the school Nancy's children attended--it was an interior picture and it looked just like their gym, I thought.) Chris had been an ordinary elementary school teacher when his two daughters took a dance class that was so enriching that Chris felt like all kids needed it. He began to learn to be a dance teacher, and after his first ordinary 12 years, has spent an additional 30 years teaching dance to children. Here is information about him.

My next session was with Kim Luke who spoke on "Building a future: Possibilities for private studios." Everything Kim taught was interesting, but I found things about her personally quite fascinating. She was such an engaging speaker, and even though she was talking about herself, she was never grandiose or stuck up. Just really nice. When she was 14, she had an opportunity (with a scholarship) to go to study in New York (from her home in Kansas) for a month. While she was there, a movie producer visited the class, and Kim was offered the role of the lead in "Flash Dance." Except--they found out she was only 14, and the role was just edgy enough that they were required to have a person who was 18. But they really liked her, and wanted to offer her a supporting role that was less edgy, but it required figure skating. Knowing now that she was a minor, they called her mother, and her mother said NO!!!! Because Kim didn't know how to skate. (Kim would have said yes and then got herself some skates!) When she grew up a bit more, she went off to Oklahoma City University, where her roommate and still good friend was Kristen Chenoweth. 

Last session was Chanel Smith Sorensen teaching "Movement is the Key to Learning" which was all about the brain and the various parts and how movement is so important to brain development. We had to get up and do some moving in this class. Not dancing, but moving around in various ways. Super interesting!

So that was my day! It was a very good, relaxing day of learning. I was glad I went.

PS!!! I learned what "break a leg" means! It is when you extend your arms and take a bow--you bend one leg, ergo "break" it.

More photos from Dia de los muertos 2023

 Photos courtesy of Teresa Gomez

So much participation from the campus community. It was beautiful!

End of an October

 First of all - so many trick or treaters! We had one single person last year. This year: eight!! Huge increase. I only got a box of 20 treats. I should have said "Take two!" But...I didn't want to run out. (No danger of that!)

In the library, we (and by we I mean Matt and Teresa and their committee) made a bigger display for Dia de los Muertos, and also started earlier, and are leaving it up for an entire week, Oct. 27 through Nov. 4.

This year, there are two ofrendas, so that people on campus can add their own pictures and remembrances, which some people are doing.

As for October reading, I managed to read six books again this month.

1. My reading got off to a fitting start for the month of Halloween--Thirteen Witches book 1: The memory thief (2021) by Jodi Lynn Anderson. Rosie Oaks discovers that there is more to herself than she supposed. She thought her mother was just terribly negligent, but it turns out that all of her memories of Rosie had been stolen! Further, she learns that her mother was a witch hunter, and so is she!! She, her friend Germ (Gemma) and a ghost boy named Ebb try to set things right. One interesting concept this book introduced from p.219: "made up things make up the world." Rosie doubts herself--all she can do is write stories, and that's just making things up. But...all the things we have in the world started out as just an idea that someone thought up, and then worked to make it real. Isn't that so?

2. I was very glad that I picked up A tale of highly unusual magic (2017) by Lisa Papademetriou. What a well-told tale. The author's choice of narration--to have the narrator sometimes apparent and other times not--was very interesting and suitable to the telling of this story. Two girls, one in Texas and the other in India, somehow have copies of the same unusual book. How the auther joined these tales, and brought characters and places together--masterful story telling! The unusual book the girls have is called "The Exquisite Corpse." A quote from p.218 really rang true to me for reasons outside of the scope of the book, but in life: "Somehow, she always managed to say the wrong thing to Rabeea. It was more than just a language barrier; it was that Rabeea always assumed the worst possible interpretation for Leila's words." Quote from the author's website: Two girls on opposite sides of the world each find a magic book, and each becomes entangled in a story that seems to be writing itself.

3. Gina Capaldi and Q.L. Pearce retold the life of Zitkala-Ša in Red Bird Sings: The story of Zitkala-Ša, native American author, musician and activist (2019). I am reading several books about her because we are working on a small case exhibit for next Spring, hopefully to coincide with the release of the new quarter which comes out in 2024. This book was important to me for the illustrations that I might be able to use in the exhibit, relating to her career as a musician. This telling is adapted from her own articles that appeared in the Atlantic, and making use of materials in our special collections at BYU. 

4. Thirteen Witches book 2: The sea of always (2023) by Jodi Lynn Anderson continues the tale of Rosie Oaks, witch hunter. She and Germ and another (! Who knew?!) witch hunter named Aria continue their quest to free the world of the enroaching darkness the witches are inflicting on the world. Will they find Ebb? Will they find Rosie's missing brother? A thought-provoking quote for me, on p. 199 "Beings misfits is, maybe, what everyone in the world has in common most of all." Josie is always saying our entire family is neuro-divergent. Nancy calls us neuro-spicy. Maybe everyone is? 

5. Stranger than we can imagine: making sense of the twentieth century (2015) by John Higgs was probably one of my favorite non-fiction reads of this year. By the time I got to the last chapter, I was filled with hope for the future of the planet. I mean, so many terrible things happened in the last century, but also many wonderful things. And young people, who tend to be more skeptical and less materialistic, seeing the rampant greed they are surrounded with--I think that if they will step up and start leading, they will take us better places. I hope so. Chapters on relativity, modernism, war, the Id, capitalism etc. I learned that the 14th amendment, meant to give freedom to the slaves, also resulted in corporations being interpreted as "individuals" with too many rights to protect us from their greed. Also, while individual people die, and make way for new people and ideas, corporations live on and that is not always a good thing. Well, I can't tell it very well. Read the book.

6. A Cuban girl's guide to tea and tomorrow (2020) by Laura Taylor Namey introduces readers to Lila Reyes, sent to spent the entire summer in England with a relative to soothe her soul after a trio of losses left her spinning off-kilter. Lila learns to know herself, and to appreciate those around her while baking her way into the hearts and minds of new friends.

So--on to November! All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, the end of daylight savings time...

Six for September (Books, that is)

 Six September Books

1.       The adventures of a girl called Bicycle by Christina Uss (2018) – Bicycle was left at, and raised in, a monastery. When she is 12, she gets on her old clunk of a bicycle and sets off to for San Francisco from her home in Washington, D.C. Her goal is to meet an important bicyclist. Along the way she meets interesting people (and ghosts) and learns a lot. This was a fun read and well-told story. No reason for reading this book—I just found it in the library, and was intrigued by the title.

2.       The sky is falling by Sidney Sheldon (2001) – Dana, a newscaster, is trying to figure out why the entire Winthrop family, parents and three grown children, have all died accidentally in the course of about a year. It seems too coincidental! Someone does not like her investigation! I read this book because Bruce and I have been watching I Dream of Jeannie reruns. When I was young, I never paid attention to writers and producers; when we watched this series about twenty years ago, I realized this show was a Sidney Sheldon production, and as a librarian, I knew that he was a best-selling author. I thought, “Huh!” This time of watching the show, I thought “I have never read a Sidney Sheldon book.” So I thought I would correct that. It was a well-told story.

3.       The great dead body teachers by Jackie Dent (2023) – Australian journalist Jackie Dent got interested in body donation because her grandparents, Julie and Ruby Dent, both donated their bodies. She wondered why they did it—her grandmother died before she was born, and her grandfather when she was quite young—and nobody seemed to know why. (And yes, her grandfather’s name was indeed Julie. Julie Kelly Dent. When I looked him up in Family Search, someone had tagged him as a female. He is not. But his name, let’s face it, sounds female.) I read an article by Jackie Dent in The Atlantic about the book, and so I asked our library to purchase it. It was so interesting. I learned a lot!!! A friend of mine donated her body a few years ago, so I was also interested in the why and what happens after because of her. They are called “great body teachers” because doctors NEED them in order to learn. While the technology now perhaps renders real dead bodies less important, there are things you can only learn from an actual body or body part. Every operation that is successful—thank the great dead body teachers from whom your surgeons learned.

4. As long as the rivers flow: the stories of nine Native Americans by Paula Gunn Allen & Patricia Clark Smith (1996) – two native scholars collaborated on this book. The nine people featured were Weetamoo, Geronimo, Will Rogers, Jim Thorpe, Maria Tallchief, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Wilma Pearl Mankiller, Michael Naranjo, Louise Erdrich. I was most familiar already with Jim Thorpe (having watched the movie about him) and Maria Tallchief (who was featured in the first biography I ever read, To Dance, To Dream). I had no clue that Will Rogers was a native! I had no clue that Maria Tallchief was Osage, the “rich” Indians. This was an interesting read.

5.       The other side of me by Sidney Sheldon (2005) – This is Sidney Sheldon’s biography, which I read because I like biographies, and I was still interested in the life and career of Sidney Sheldon. The title is a play on the title of his successful (NYT #1 best selling) novel The other side of midnight (1973) which was made into a successful movie in 1977. We sometimes think that the lives of celebrities are smooth sailing, and biographies help us to understand that life is hard for everyone. Mr. Sheldon was bipolar and had mental health struggles his entire life. He only has one daughter, Mary, because a second daughter, Alexandra, died after a few months of struggle with spina bifida, and a third daughter, Elizabeth Aprille, was adopted and loved, but her birth mother took her back just as the deadline for doing so approached. The family was heartbroken. Sheldon discusses his successes and failures frankly and with good humor.

6.       Pandora Brown by Mary Sheldon (2004) – Since Sidney Sheldon’s only daughter, Mary, is also a novelist, I wanted to see if she was also a good writer. And she was! Interesting modern take on the Greek myth Pandora’s Box. The story is told from three points of view—Pandora, Gary, and Lori each act as narrators as the story unfolds. I disliked Lori sooooo much that sometimes I would stop reading for a couple of days because I knew a Lori chapter was next!! I guess that is also good writing—that my reaction to that character was so visceral!

Summer and September in Review

Aug. 3, Kelli was nice enough to invite Josie and I to join her in meeting up with the Oklahoma Barkers for brunch. It was fun to see Rosie and Austin and the two cute great-granddaughters, Ireland and Oaklyn!

Aug 26: Bruce and I with three of our children and three of our grandchildren. Three children are David, Nancy, Josie. Three grandchildren are Amy, Miriam, Phoebe

The Torries (Colleen & LeRon), Heisses (Nancy + 3), Howes (Deklan & Holly), Laytons (Bruce & I, David, Josie)

Bruce and I with four of our children: Josie, Nancy (+ Phoebe), Abra, David.

Our newest great-granddaughter, Iah, is very close in age to our granddaughter Zoë. With the addition of Iah, we have six great-grands. Iah is the latest, but second oldest of the six.

Navratil cousins gathering on Aug. 25 at Darrel & Dixie's house. Rod & Heather and Lori & Jim joined us. We have fun together.

Lonnie arrived just as we were leaving, so Nancy and I ran to have a quick chat with her.

Aug. 28, at the Torries. Me and three granddaughters (Miriam, Zoë, Phoebe) with Colleen, LeRon, Craig

Aug. 29 David and Nancy with their cousin Heather. They are stairstep cousins, born in 1983, 1984, 1985.

Same day: David and Nancy with their dad.

Aug. 23 

Bruce with granddaughter Amy and her two youngest children, sons Arthur and Rowan.

I adore this photo of Miriam with Millie.

The two almost twoers: Phoebe and Millie.

Four of our beautiful granddaughters: Millie, Phoebe, Miriam, Zoë.

This is not from our trip. But I just love this photo of David and his daughter Millie that he snapped a couple of days ago! Aren't they so cute?

And this is from today! Colleen, despite recovering from the car accident, flew with LeRon for their mission reunion. They arrived yesterday, and are flying back home tomorrow. They stopped at our house for a short visit, and to have Josie help Colleen do her hair. She relies on others for many things, and she didn't think LeRon had the touch, so Josie, who also took this picture, helped her with her hair before they went to their reunion. It was nice to be together with my brother Bruce (his wife Sara also came for a short bit, but did not feel ready to be in a picture) and my sister Colleen.

I mentioned my sister's accident, which was a few weeks ago. She was a passenger in a car driven by Glenda, an older friend (about 81 years old) and they were on the way to visit another friend, Martha, for her birthday, and had a sweetbread loaf of some kind in the back seat to take her as a birthday gift. They were driving on gravel country roads, and at an unmarked intersection came into sudden impact with a heavy half ton truck. Glenda's car was a compact. Neither of them saw each other, and since these roads have very little traffic, it was a complete surprise to everyone. Colleen thought she stayed conscious the entire time, but now she wonders if she blacked out for a bit because of what little she can remember. Despite the desertion of the area, one neighbor actually saw the crash and called 911, and so help came quickly. But, funny story, the ladies' view had become completely obscured by the deployment of the air bags, so they could not see the front end of the car at all. If they could see, they would have seen that it was not there. The entire front end had been obliterated. Colleen's car door would open, so the first responders could get her out and load her into the ambulance. But Glenda's door could not be opened, so they were getting out the needed tool to cut the frame and extract her, and she protested, "Don't ruin my car!" And they were all like, "Lady, I am very sorry, but your car is already ruined!" (When LeRon got to the crash site, he retrieved that loaf of sweetbread and it was not damaged much. So he took it to Martha on Colleen's behalf, so her birthday was remembered!)