Which way to go?

Click on this, enlarge it, and take a look at the signs on either side of our lane.

It took 20 minutes for this video to load. Won't be doing this again any time soon.

Poor Bunny!

I love that my family has a "Bunny Cake for Easter" tradition.  It's fun.  I borrowed this nice, spring-time cake stand for our cake this year.  My mother-in-law ended up gifting it to me.  It's nice, but I won't be able to use it for a bunny cake.  There's no room for the tail.  I did find a different recipe/pattern for a slight variation of this cake, but couldn't go against tradition.  So I made it with the fluffy icing, jelly beans, paper ears, etc.  I noticed that Donna made the other version I found online.  It looked nice.  Well, I guess Angie gets credit for assembling hers. This one's all mine and you can see the fast demise as the afternoon wore on.  So sad.

Wait a minute!! Wat are those black things doing there where the tail is (or where the tail should be)??

Ooooh!  Pretty!  It's getting closer to Spring time around here.  All the apricot trees in town are in full bloom.  Silly trees.  Don't they know it's still gotta snow at LEAST two more times--probably three!!

But I just love this pink hyacinth.  So fragrant.  Never mind that I never cleaned out the flower bed last fall and got rid of the old dead iris leaves.  It still thrives each year, even though I always forget about it and seldom ever even water it!

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day.   We brought these out a day early and shared them at dinner.  They were a pain and didn't turn out nearly as good-looking as they should have.  Don't bother. They are a waste of time and energy.

Then the bunny cake got cut into for dessert and it went downhill from there.  It slid all over the place, so I just laid it down and placed it in the fridge to spend the night.  Poor Bunny.

Lest you think we all just eat jelly beans and chocolate cake to celebrate Easter, we do not.  I went to Sacrament meeting today and listened to some great talks.  One was by my dear friend, Nancy.  She talked about the blessings of the resurrection and the atonement in the context of the loss that her family had a little over 20 years ago when her husband was killed in an accident. So many members, but particularly our bishop at the time (President Kevin Bulloch) were such a great help to her family.  I was kind of teary.  We moved into the ward shortly after that happened.  Then the other speaker also spoke of Nancy and her great faith in the Atonement and Resurrection.  He was a friend and neighbor of hers for many years and he, a visiting Seventy, was classmates of many of our ward members (there are a lot of us the same age).  It was just a really good meeting.  I was quite touched, and I really do know that because of Christ, we will ALL be resurrected!  I just can't imagine going through life and not knowing, not having that kind of hope.

Random-ness

 

Above is a nice little display in my library.  It says "Write your Own Story" and it's made from books, hanging in the stacks.  It was someones assignment in a Typography class.  So, this is for all you "Font Geeks" out there. :-)

We have other random things in our Library, too.  I don't recall just when these photos (below) were taken.  Quite a while ago.

Yes, those are Teletubbies wandering through the library one night.  Very strange.  I think it was during finals.  Maybe they were trying to relieve tension or something.  I dunno.

Oh!  Well, obviously they were taken around Christmas time, judging from the tree in our lobby!

Below is the cataloging room. They had to work by window light and lamplight for a couple of months while a construction project was on-going. And it was so crowded!

They took an office, moved walls over, divided it in to three areas.  Now it's all completed and we have a "Pre-Medical" department residing in the Library. Who'd a thunk it?

Above.  Another bit of random-ness. This is the paper that came out of two drugs.  One was the antibiotic I took for my ear infection (which is still in the process of getting back to "normal"!).  Is this what Nick has been having to study so hard the past 2 years?  That's a LOT of words!!  Both sides are covered with teeny-tiny print.  None of which I read--thus the crumples, as it was on it's way to the trash. I needed some random things to blog about.

I also thought I needed to take a photo of my pretty little tulip bulbs that were springing up in my front flower bed.  We'd re-planted everything last fall.  But then it snowed before I could snap a photo.

I made some of these for co-workers, friends and neighbors.

The tulips leaves--they REALLY are there!!

This was an odd apparition.  There was a jet just to the west of us in the afternoon, flying around in circles.  Great, big, loop-de-loops.  We don't know who or why, but it made some interesting jet trails to see in the sky.

Ahhhh.  This is for ERIC.  His "23B423" bucket list of things to do includes eating a dozen donuts from "Beyond Glaze" in SLC.  So, since we were in salt lake city (and he was in Provo), I picked them up for him and brought them home.  He really did eat all of them himself with minimal sharing.  I got a bite here and a bit there, but it took him a few days to get all the way through them.  Aren't they pretty?  Yep, they look good enough to eat!

OK, here we are back in Arizona for Jessica and Lynn's wedding.  There was a lot of road construction going on in Gilbert and Mesa.  Wait--There is ALWAYS road construction going on EVERYwhere--who are we kidding!?  The photo below is for Texans who think that everything is big in Texas.  Well, here were some very BIG things in Arizona.  That "snort" on the side of the road was quite large.  And in the distance--the far distance--is a palm-tree-disguised cell tower that was by far the largest I'd EVER seen!  It was the size of a water tower.  Truly.

Back to my conference in Salt Lake City for the library.  COSUGI conference, if you want specifics.  Customers of SirsiDynix User Groups, Inc.  I was admiring one of the Vender's fresh flowers on display with their stuff.  It was the last day and she GAVE them to me!  How sweet. Unfortunately, the 6 large light pink tulips did not survive the trip, but the lilies, roses, iris did, and I enjoyed these beauties in my home the rest of the week.

Who knows why these photos do not load in order?  This is a poor cataloger, working in the dark.  He has a few scattered lamps, light from the window and a temporary wall separating him from the work area.  It's been an interesting year in the Library.

And I have interesting bike rides on occasion.  These stains never would come all the way out, and I'm sad. It was one of my best shirts.  I just didn't realized that I didn't zip up my coat and the splashes landed on me.  Well, I actually HAD zipped my coat, but didn't realize the zipper didn't really zip any more--it broke. I couldn't tell because there are snaps over part of the zipper on the top half. I've washed (never dried) this many times, used bleach pen--the whole nine yards.  It's a little less than the picture, but still shows three big splotches. This is right on the front. So sad.

So much for randomness.  Oh, and the library will continue to change and shift an evolve, as one of our key players in the Access Services Department just passed away this morning.  Oh my.  Thankfully, he died peacefully in his sleep at home.  We will miss Phil Dillard.

New Arizona Temple in Gilbert

We stopped by the construction site of the new Gilbert, AZ temple to try to take a few pictures.  It's a lovely temple (aren't they all?)

Arizona. 2013

Here is the reason that we went to Arizona this weekend:

Jessica Shulke married Lynn Shawcroft in the Mesa Arizona Temple on Saturday the 23rd.  I was able to attend their sealing.  It was lovely.  They are such a sweet couple and seem so happy!  Cute kids, and many loving and supporting family members and friends were in attendance.

 The grounds of the Mesa, Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is just gorgeous.  This is the perfect time of year, too.  Not too hot, not too cold.  The fountains and reflecting ponds and flowers were stunning.  Green, lush grass everywhere and the fragrance of all kinds of flowers were in the air. When we left  Cedar City, things were still pretty brown (although my tulip bulbs are peeking up out of the ground!)

 Oh, dear.  I forgot to turn this photo before posting it.  Sorry.  Jessica is marrying into a ranching/farming family.  So, she wore cowboy boots!  I understand they took a little spin around the temple block on a tractor after the picture-taking, too.  I missed that part. I'll bet it was cute.

 Kirk and Suzanne came from California with their family, too.

Aunt Tuny and Uncle Gary--we missed seeing you there!!

 This bottle brush tree was huge!  It's behind Suz in the photo just two above.  Really pretty.  The daffodils were pretty, too.  And the citrus tree blossoms smelled the best!  Mmmmm.

 The exterior of the Mesa temple has friezes around the four exterior corners that are representative of the pioneers of the area who originally settled.

Besides having spring-y flowers in abundance, there was also a really cool cactus garden on the grounds.

We had nice visits with Mike's grand nieces and grand nephew who live in Gilbert--and THEIR kids!  Wow. We have Great Grand nieces and nephews.  Yeah, we're old.  We stayed with Massiel and Andre and had had our dinner with Logan and Lindy on Saturday night.  We ended up with TWO dinners on Saturday.  Well, I suppose you could consider one a late lunch.  Jessica and Lynn had their reception at 2 pm on Saturday and served lots of really yummy Mexican food--tacos, enchiladas, chips and salsa.  Good stuff. Then we went to Logan and Lindy's and had MORE food.  It IS vacation after all. [and we'd been so good with our eating habits before!!!]

We also decided to attend the Easter Pageant on the grounds of the Mesa Temple that evening.  It was a bit nippy, but we borrowed some blankies from Logan and Lindy, and we were comfortable.  It happened to be one of the nights that the pageant was presented in Spanish.  We figured we could still enjoy the music and pageantry of the thing since we are very familiar with the story of Jesus's life.  But a nice missionary person offered us translation headpieces, so Mike and I listened in English.  Berenice tried, but gave up.  All she could hear was the Spanish that was broadcast over the large speakers.  But it was a very nice pageant, as all of the Church Pageants are.  Lovely music and great costumes, sound and lighting.  I saw Jesus get bucked off his "Colt" that he was riding into Jerusalem during his triumphal entry, though!  That was kind of scarey.  All was well, and the show went on.  All the waving palm fronds spooked his mount.  I didn't have my camera with me at the pageant, but there are lots of pictures if you search "Mesa Temple Easter Pageant" and select "images" from the top menu bar, Mom. :-)

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1179&bih=708&q=mesa+temple+easter+pageant&oq=mesa+temple+easter+pageant&gs_l=img.3..0i24.2384.8046.0.8238.26.12.0.14.14.0.70.757.12.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.7.img.1Wm45oA_XUM

(That will take you to Google Images)

We had a nice, uneventful trip home to Utah on Sunday.  We attended church with Massiel's family and left after Sacrament meeting.  They have an 8:00 a.m. Sacrament meeting. EIGHT O'CLOCK A.M. !!   With kids?  Mike and I were kind of sleepy and had to trade off driving a couple of times.  Even listening to recorded books, it was hard to stay awake.  And because I was navigator and wasn't always paying attention (because my eyes were closed), we actually missed a few turns and had to back track or "Re-calculate" as the GPS would say [if we had one].  That was a little awkward.  I suppose you could call that an event, but we were still home by 7 pm or so.  Long drive.  Still takes 8 hours of driving to get home.

I need a massage.

Photo from Amazon.com

The audio book we listened to most of the time was "John Ransom's Diary." He was a prisoner of war in Andersonville during the Civil War.  Since Mike and I have been there (Andersonville -- it is in Georgia), I thought it would be particularly interesting.  Sad, but educational and interesting.  And it was!  Mike wasn't sure he really wanted to hear about all the atrocities that occurred (and neither did I), but the man was so optimistic and upbeat, it was a pleasure to listen to his adventures.  Not all of it was at Andersonville, but a lot was.  He was a prisoner for over a year, barely survived Andersonville, stayed at another POW camp, escaped.  Was transferred, escaped...good narrative and glad we chose to listen to it.

Yearning to Hear

Yearning to Hear

Feb 19 I went to the dr’s office to see about an ear infection that I could feel starting that morning.  I’ve not had an ear infection in my adult life.  I knew something was up when I was brushing my teeth in the morning and the sound of the toothbrush differed in the top teeth and in the bottom teeth.  The bottom molars just sounded like a regular “scrubba-scrubba-scrubba” with the tooth brush.  But when I brushed the top molars, it sounded more like “scritchy-scritchy-scritcy.”  It was really odd.

Also odd, and something to be very grateful for, was the fact that the pain was not a very sharp and excruciating pain.  I knew I had an infection, I could feel the pressure of tender tissues filling with affected fluids (paints a pretty picture, doesn’t it?)  , I could tell it was getting a bit feverish as it felt really good to place my stainless steel water bottle on my neck area that morning, but it was mostly just deafness in that ear and the pressure, and a little bit of jaw pain.  But I got into see the Physicians’ Assistant that afternoon, got right on the antibiotics, kept taking the decongestants, etc. that I’d started when I woke up that morning and the nasal discharge had changed to a more infected – looking color.  I had been fighting a cold/cough for over a week by then, and kind of not over it.  Lots of yucky stuff.  Yeah, I know.  Gross.  We’re that way.  You, dear readers, should know that by now.

You might also know that my husband is quite hard of hearing.  I, on the other hand, have quite acute hearing in my normal life.  That, in and of itself, makes it difficult to watch movies together.  If it’s a noisy action flick, I’m forever saying, “Turn it down!!”  And if it’s a chick flick with lots of dialog, “Turn it up. I can’t hear what they are saying,” is his most common request.  (Yes, we alternate the types of films we watch together.  It’s called compromising.)

At my visit with the Physician’s Assistant, she assured me that I did, indeed, have quite a whopper of an ear infection, the drum was red, bulging, and pretty close to bursting.  As a matter of fact, she said it probably would break, and it’d feel better after it had.  But it didn’t burst.  It has remained plugged and stopped and fluid-filled and those tooth-brushing noises have not changed.  Sritchy-scritchy-schritchy STILL, after nearly 2 weeks.  I’ve cleared the infection, I supposed.  But Nick calls it “Cleaning house” and the residue has to be cleared out.  I guess it must have a LOT to clear out, because it’s sure taking a long time to hear in that ear.  But, things could be a lot worse, and I know that.   It was just a simple ear infection and I can tell it’s starting to get some movement and changes.  The organ at church today sounded tinny and gargley instead of just muffled this week.  I guess that’s progress. And sometimes my yawns produces some promising noises/movement, but no real improvement in hearing quite yet.  Another good thing was that it didn't travel to the inner ear and affect my balance.

What’s really odd, though, is what happened the other night.  Eric was out.  Mike and I were laying in our bed, reading.  It was late.  I was laying on  my left side, reading (good ear down, deaf ear up) and was startled by Eric speaking to us in the door way of our room!! Yikes!  I had not heard him come into the house.  Mike said, “I heard him.”  Eric just stood in the doorway, staring. 

“This is SO backward!” he said.  Usually it’s the Momma who hears everything and everyone and the Daddy who is missing out because he hears not so much.   Not the case that night!! We chuckled about it.  Backwards, indeed.  

I do have a greater appreciation for Mike’s hearing loss.  I’ve been a little too impatient with him in the past.  So, we rented “The Avengers” last week at the height of my deafness and I said, “Just go ahead and turn it up as loud as you’d like.  I’m sure the neighbors will be able to hear it, but face it—it’s the only time you’ll be able to crank up a movie LOUD and have me be able to sit in the same room and watch it with you!!”  So we did. 

HUH?