Easter Week & General Conference...

Monday, March 30th, Claude finally had his implant tooth finished. It seems to fit well and his bite is good. Hallelujah!

I enjoyed a productive day at home. Walked my treadmill. Enjoyed a phone call with our eldest, Nissa. Watched two Northern Disclosure episodes. And, began plotting a trip to Michigan to visit with family. 

We also received notice that, starting September 6th, there will be a change to our Sunday meeting schedule. The Church produced this cute picture of the now structure.

Basically, we will still have a 2-hour block of meetings. The first hour will be Sacrament Meeting. The second hour will be divided into two 25 minutes blocks with 5 minute passing time between blocks. Each week we will now have Sunday School in one of the 25 minute blocks and Relief Society/Priesthood/Young Men/Young Women during the other 25 minute block. Primary will meet during all of this last hour. Facebook was abuzz with all the possibilities. I see it as shorter class times meaning home instruction is even more important with the Church supporting that. 

Aubrey Anne, who wants to be called Bre, posted this cute picture of Nelson. A man a the gas station gave him a thrill on his motorcycle. Bre works at the station.

Tuesday, March 31st, Claude started his day with PT. He went for a biscuit after and brought a biscuit home to me. Does not fit into my intermittent fasting diet but I will not ever turn down a biscuit from Bojangles. Thank you my Dear Hubby.

I walked my treadmill, sent out the April Relief Society Newsletter by eMail and posted on Facebook, ordered Kennedi and Emelia's birthday gifts. I also enjoyed sitting quietly and reading. I read all the of Easter week articles on the Church website and another Come, Follow Me lesson. 

The struggling part of my day came when trying to book a hotel for our trip back home after going to Michigan. I decided to use my Wyndham Rewards points for a free hotel night. I entered everything on line and checked it, then pressed purchase the room. When I got the confirming eMail from Wyndham, it had the reservation for March 31st. I was past the cancellation time. I researched the Wyndham website and could find no way to make a change to a different date. I called the hotel directly and the rudest man came on the phone. I explained why I was calling and asked if he could change the date on the reservation. He assured me I needed to call Wyndham. I asked for a number. He assured me I had to Google Wyndham and find it for myself. I worked at a hotel and know how a front desk works. There is always a list of numbers for quick reference for callers. I hung up and researched the website and found a number for reservations. When I called it, they informed me I had to speak with the rewards department. They gave me their number and told me I had to call them. Then person actually hung up on me as we were talking. I called and the answering system said if I wanted to book a 'flight' to press "1", if I wanted to cancel or change a 'flight' to press "2". Oh my, I was asking about a room not a flight. I waited and got someone on the line. I explained what had happened and asked if they could simply change the stay date on the reservation. No, they would not. They could cancel it but I would have to pay the taxes. How much are the taxes? $239.00. I was aghast. I assured him that was way more that the cost of renting the room for one night. He assured me it would have cost $750.00 to rent the room. I assured him he was wrong. He hung up on me. I was at the point of loosing the point but decided to try one more phone call. This time I got a nice lady. She heard my dilemma and put me on hold to call the rude man at the hotel and talk with him. She came back on the line several times and each time I tried to tell her I had talked with him and he would do nothing. She would hang up before I could tell her. Finally she got him and he said he would refund the points. I thanked her kindly and determined to get a room through a different hotel chain. Then I wonder if the reservation was really canceled. I checked back with Wyndham Rewards. They did not have my credit card on file. Hallelujah. I called the rude man at the hotel to be sure the room was made available for them to make another reservation. He assured me it was. Whew. I went back to the Wyndham website to exactly what that room would have cost had I originally booked it with a card. Only $79 for that one night. Goodness. What a grind.

I then checked with Choice Privileges and got a hotel the first try, no problems at all. 

The Roper family has an exchange student from Spain. His name is Ramon. His parents came into Muskegon to meet the Ropers. Katelyn posted this picture of their family with Ramon's family.

Wednesday, April 1st, I decided to get my hair cut. Well, actually, trimmed. I have a hard time working with my hair with my right arm not turning as it did before. My hairstyle is a direct result of 'this is what I can do'. However, I felt like I want to see what it would like a little longer. That means the ends need trimmed to take away split ends so that the hair can grow in a more healthy fashion. I have been using Great Clips since Jenna had her babies and can no longer cut hair. I love that you schedule yourself in the queue online. They have an app that simply shows you how long till a stylist is available to take care of your hair. You can check back every now and then and see where you have moved up in the queue. They will send you an alert to head to the shop or I simply watch every now and then and head to the shop when it gets close to time. The lady who cut my hair this time was extremely nice. Very pleasant and she did a nice job. 

Claude and I opted for an outing. He drove us to Hobby Lobby in Lexington. He would search for a wood painting project for the great grandmonsters and I was searching for orange yarn. We had success. I found orange yarn to crochet the afghan for Christmas for Joel. His favorite color is orange. Claude found butterflies for the great grandmonsters to paint when we visit them. When we had Camp Christensen, Claude always had a paint project for the kids to do with him. This is a throwback to that fun experience. We also shopped at Half-Price Books. I had no more backup Sudoku books and Claude was looking for a replacement for my DaVinci Code DVD. I got Sudoku books. Claude found three DVD's we didn't have but no DaVinci Code. I must keep looking for that. I love the Dan Brown Books and, consequently, the movies made from them. We ended our outing with dinner at BD Mongolian Grill. Their prices have gone up (like everything). It is now $18 a bowl for us. Yike!!

We made it home in time to miss the thunderstorms that rolled over us for the rest of the evening. 

Claude found the Artemis II launch and we enjoyed watching it. Amazing to watch those rockets roar into space. This one is headed for the moon. The commentator shared this picture during the start of the flight. He pointed out the numbers on the top right hand corner. I immediately thought of all the trips with children. You know the questions, "Are we there yet?" I also thought about those long flight over the oceans when traveling out of country. I like to watch the flight on the monitor in front of me. Seeing the mileage go down helps me light for 12 hours or more. This was kind of like those experiences. The block reads 18030 M/H (I'm guessing that is the speed), 237 miles from Earth, 241,522 miles to the Moon. 

Katelyn posted this great picture of Raelyn with her recorder hanging around her neck. There were also video clips of Raelyn playing the recorder in her 4th Grade Concert. Love these kids performing like this. 

Thursday, April 2nd, after another bad night's sleep, I awoke to accomplish good things. When I couldn't sleep, I used that time to work on a to-do list for Thursday. Claude headed to PT. I put together a box of wooden butterflies, paints, paint brushes and old t-shirts for our fun with the great grandmonsters. I finished crocheting a burp pad, this time with a purple edge. Kennedi's birthday gift arrived and I wrapped it to take with us. I also updated our DVD list for my Google Drive. 

Friday, April 3rd, was a clean the bathroom, sweep and vacuum day. It amazes me how exhausting that is. Claude rewarded my efforts with 5 Guys for dinner. I had an electronic coupon for $10 off. It was nice to have a really good burger. 

Saturday, April 4th, we set aside our weekend to watch General Conference. This would a two 2-hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday. They would start at Noon and 4pm. Claude would spend Saturday morning cutting the back yard grass. Between sessions he would do the edging. Not sure what is going on with our back yard grass but it is growing tall and thick very fast. I walked the treadmill before the first session. I also started that orange afghan for Joel for Christmas. 

Sunday, April 5th, was Easter Sunday. In preparation for our trip, I did the laundry. This is not something I do on the Sabbath Day. However we would need to pack on Monday and I wanted all clothes clean for the packing. Hence, Sunday laundry. 

We enjoyed the morning session of General Conference. Then made a quick run to Jimmy Johns for a nice lunch. We ate in the car in the parking lot. It was a cooler day but it was nice to be outside. When we returned home, Claude headed for his nap. I headed to work on my Blog. Somehow, I don't have any clue how, I was locked out of my Blog for editing it. I received an invitation to view it but can't seem to login to it to create a new post. Ugh!! I simply started a new Blog so I have all my life recorded. Then I will work on getting back into the original Blog in the future. 

Here are a few of my thoughts from the Saturday sessions of General Conference:

• We serve (callings in the Church) to pursue Christ and His virtues. (Kearon)

• It isn't important where we serve but HOW we serve. (Kearon)

• Every calling is about His work. (Kearon)

• When you bless the one, you bless the whole (ministering to others). (Yee)

• Choose to care for someone rather that something. (Yee)

• It is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it. (Quoting someone but I didn't catch who as I wrote the quote) (Clark)

• Elder David Bednar explained the correlation between 'enduring' and 'charity'.

• We can possess charity but ultimately charity should possess us. (Bednar)

• Charity is the end of what we are becoming. (Bednar)

• Euduring to the end is being possessed of the pure love of Christ. (Bednar)

• Walk with Jesus Christ. (Wunderli) This phrase was repeated by most of the speakers in some form.

• Jesus Christ is the Way. (Wunderli)

• Covenant blessings flow from ongoing faithfulness. (Holmes)

• Abide in Christ. (Soares)

Sunday, April 5th, was Easter Sunday. In preparation for our trip, I did the laundry. This is not something I do on the Sabbath Day. However we would need to pack on Monday and I wanted all clothes clean for the packing. Hence, Sunday laundry.

We enjoyed the morning session of General Conference. Then made a quick run to Jimmy Johns for a nice lunch. We ate in the car in the parking lot. It was a cooler day but it was nice to be outside. When we returned home, Claude headed for his nap. I headed to work on my Blog. Somehow, I don't have any clue how, I was locked out of my Blog for editing it. I received an invitation to view it but can't seem to login to it to create a new post. Ugh!! I simply started a new Blog so I have all my life recorded. Then I will work on getting back into the original Blog in the future.

These are some thought form the two Sunday sessions of General Conference:

• The Savior has entrusted us with sacred experiences. (Uchtdorf)

• In speaking of our best day and our worst days...Joy is not the absence of trials in your life, Joy is the presence of Jesus Christ in your life. (Freeman)

• The sacrament was given for our benefit. (Larreal)

• The gift of the Holy Ghost is a compass for us. (Larreal)

• Not all matters of earth are of equal value. (Renlund)

• Jesus Christ has power and desire to save us from our sins. If everyone, then anyone. If anyone, then just one. If just one, then you! (Renlund)

• Reference the Resurrection...On dark days remember that Sunday will come. (Mutombo)

• When the Lord spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai, he called us his treasure. The Lord's covenant people are his treasure. Covenants bind us to God. (Walker)

• Living worthy to meet Christ is no easy task. (Oaks)

• In answer to the scriptural question "What manner of persons ought ye to be?, the answer is to be after the character of Christ. (Christofferson)

• Adopting the character of Christ prepares us and the world for the 

• Second Coming. (Christofferson)

• What names of Jesus Christ help you glory in Him? (Hall)

• The Savior never forces, He invites. (Wakolo)

In the evening, Crystal McLeod brought Jack over to look at our yard. Claude is looking for some help with cutting. Jack is a youth from Church and thinks he can handle the cutting just fine.

Claude recorded The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille. We spent our evening watching this movie.

Hayden, Riverdance, Birthdays, Cirque Italia, A Walk with Jesus...

Monday, March 23rd, Claude had a rough start to his week. He had a PT appointment. He left and came back twice because he forgot something. They tried new exercises at PT and he came home very sore. His troubles would continue throughout the day.

I was up early with him changed and washed the linens on both beds, walked my treadmill, finished the Blog for the week before. Then I got my shower and was ready to travel when Claude returned home. 

This day we would drive to LaGrange to pick up Hayden who made a surprise trip home over his spring break at De Paul University. We left to go to LaGrange. Claude remembered he forgot something he needed at home. We returned home and then headed out again. We had a traffic jam to get through in the Frankfort area. 

 

We have made this run to LaGrange for many years. I was playing on my Kindle. I paused to look up and didn't recognize the usual buildings and landscape. I looked at it for a minute, trying to get my bearings. Then I said the Claude, "Where are we?" I pulled up Google Maps and, sure enough, we were driving to the Icelandic Horses area. We missed our turn completely onto Freedom Way. I told Claude what happened, he found a spot and turned around and headed back to where we should have turned. He said to me, "You better watch me closely today, I'm not having a great day!" Poor Guy.

We got Hayden. He wanted to eat at Chick-filA. We stopped in Frankfort for that meal. Then on the Georgetown to Kroger. Since we had been gone for a week, we needed a few things from the grocery store and we wanted Hayden to pick out what he wanted in the way of food and snacks. 

Once home, Hayden set up the guest bedroom and then his place in the kitchen area. We asked how he wanted to spend his time with us. He suggested watching Castle. We spent our evening watching Castle. We headed to be about 11:30pm. Hayden always stays up much later than that. He is a night owl, just like his mom.

Todd posted this picture of Nissa on Facebook. She is wearing the socks we sent her for her birthday. The package arrived early and she was in her usual evening place after a hard day of work with Baby on her lap. The socks say "The dog is on my lap". Nissa reads books off her cellphone and holds Baby every evening.

Tuesday, March 24th, when I woke up and headed to the kitchen area, this was my view. Vintage Hayden. This has really become his spot when he visits. He used to curl up in one of our chairs. Now he plugs in his laptop and sits in one of the bar stools. He is writing scripts. This is how Hayden likes to visit. He chooses good foods and then sweets and has a quiet, good visit with us doing what he loves. 

We left about 3:30pm to take Hayden back to LaGrange. We stopped in Frankfort for dinner at Zaxby's. Then Claude and I were off to The Kentucky Center to watch Riverdance in Whitney Hall. Claude made another wrong turn but we got there in plenty of time. They are doing some constructions. All but one elevator were not working. We had to climb from parking level 2 to the balcony. 

Riverdance was a really good show. We have seen them before when living in Maryland. This is their 30th anniversary. They call it a New Generation. There was the Irish dancing as well as musical instrumental number and vocalist. There were also tap dancers who did a dance off with Irish dancers. It was a good evening of entertainment. The back drop for all of this was phenomenal. It was a dimensional screen with magnificent scenes. One particular one was an enormous tree with huge branches and no leaves. It appears to be a real tree on the stage. The lighting around the tree went from morning to daytime to evening. Amazing. We were asked not to take any pictures or video until the encore. 

Wednesday, March 25th, we were set to have a yard work day. In addition, my car sustained some injuries when we hit the 10-foot pothole in Memphis. Claude called the guys at the tire shop. They said to bring it right in. We drove both cars over, Claude checked mine in and then we headed back to Bojangles for a delicious biscuit breakfast before starting yardwork.

I would weed the flower beds while Claude cut the grass. It was very thick and a bit wet. It would take three charges of the lawn mower battery to get through the mowing. As Claude was cutting the back yard, I took this picture after he made one swipe near the flower beds. You can see how talk it was by the difference between the short mowed grass by the flower beds and the talk grass behind. In addition, the things that look like holes are really stepping stones and that is how deep the grass is around them. I took this picture and posted it on our family Facebook page with the caption "This looks like Easter egg hiding grass to me!"

It took us all day to get this work done. Not a big yard but it was the first time this year to cut grass and weed. We were hoping this wouldn't start until April but the weather had decided to make this very spring-like.

With yardwork done, we defaulted to our tradition of having a burger for dinner. The car people called and said the tires should be replaced. They were very near needing that but one tire broke during the pothole incident. They also said the rim was damaged and they had a call in for a replacement. This would take a few days to get to Georgetown. They suggested we bring the car home and then bring it back when the new rim arrived. Time was good for us to go to Burger King for dinner and then to pick up my car. Then home to our recliners for the evening.

Katelyn let me know that she had her exam on her wrist. She will NOT need surgery. So very happy about that. That means she is behaving pretty well with he plastic cast. I am amazed with four kids, a full time job, going to school on-line, an exchange student, a hubby that works the evening shift, etc. that she has been about to be that good with only one hand. Yeah Katelyn!

I did have to get up at 8:15pm for a Google Meets Relief Society presidency meeting. 

Thursday, March 26th, was Nissa's birthday. I posted this on our family Facebook page. "Todd beat me to the picture of Nissa and Baby. But I will use it again in this post because it is sooo Nissa. Today is our firstborns birthday. The child we affectionately call our "Test Monkey". We hope you have a great day and a year you can fill with fun memories. We Love Ya Bunches!! Happy Birthday!!"

Katelyn posted this picture on our family Facebook page about Emelia. "Millies 1st Grade concert. Somebody came out of her shell tonight. She volunteered to do her speaking part she was very excited to be part of the Do-Re-Mi and at last minute one of our Yankee Doodles wasn't able to make it and she chose to step in because she liked the outfit."

Friday, March 27th, was Paul's birthday. I posted this on our family Facebook page. "March birthdays come to an end for our family with this young man. Paul Zakery Thompson (Jesse James MacTavish) is our firstborn grandson. He has earned a great upcoming year. You keep on keeping on young man. We Love Ya Bunches! Happy Birthday!!"

The rim for my car came in. Claude drove it back to the shop. I stayed home to do the final draft of the Relief Society newsletter.

In the evening, we headed to Florence, Kentucky to see Cirque Italia. Our hope was to have dinner at Smokey Bones. The circus was in the Florence Mall parking lot. Smokey Bones was at the edge. I happened to check Google and learned that Smokey Bones is officially closed. Ugh! Not to worry, we drove a little further down to City Barbeque and enjoyed a nice dinner there. Then it was back to the Mall to watch Cirque Italia. 

This is not Cirque du Soliel. They are not quite as polished but they did a great show. This is water-themed. There is a circular stage with a huge vat of water underneath. High above the stage is a ring that drops water to the stage during certain performances. So, at time you water coming up around the edge of the stage from below the stage and water falling down around the edge of the stage from above the stage. It was a high energy performance. 

This was the clown who did oleo acts between stage sets,

The clown gave three people in the audience red plastic cups. They were asked to put them on their heads. He pulled out a wooden cart with a garbage can laying on its side. The lid end is where he high it to make it fire a puff of smoke out a hole in the bottom of the garbage can. He would get in front of the audience and fire his homemade cannon at one of the audience members until the cup on their head fell off. 

This little guy was sitting beside Claude. He was totally mesmerized by the performance. He never fussed. Just sat wide-eyed watching the show. He was a highlight of the evening for me. I kept catching his father's eye and we would grin at each other at the sweetness of this child and what may have been his first circus experience. The dad grinned when I took the picture. 

This is the Bumblebee. It seems there was a movie made in 2018 and he was a main character. I do not remember the move but it must have made an impression. During the intermission, Bumblebee was on the stage. For a $20 donation, you could come up on stage and have your picture taken with him. There was a very long line of parents and children. Claude and I did not do this.

And suddenly it felt like we were at a Jimmy Buffett concert. The girls came out with beach balls and the audience had fun beating them around. They did come out with one HUGE beachball at the end. It made it all around the big top.

This final act had two wheels that spin around on their one. One is at each end of the rods in the middle. At the very end of the act, one guy is on the outside of his circle as it turns walking with the turn. The other guy is inside his circle walking to keep the entire contraption spinning. As a final act, the guy on the outside puts a bag over his head and walks on the outside as the circle spins. Amazing. 

It was a good circus and we did enjoy ourselves.

Saturday, March 28th, we had a good morning at home getting things done on our to do lists. 

In the afternoon, we drove to Frankfort to see Experience Easter: A Walk to Remember. This was done by the Frankfort Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was so reverent and so very well done. They used the entire inside of the building. You entered and walked through to a place for a short video. Then you had a guide dressed in New Testament clothing who quietly walked through the entire exhibit. There was such attention to detail in all the displays. We were allowed to take pictures without a flash.

I love this statue by Thorvaldsen. The original is in a church in Copenhagen, Denmark. Claude and I have been there. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been given permission to display replicas of this statue in several of their visitor centers near temples. In Rome, Italy, the statue of Christ is also accompanied by eleven of the 12 apostle and Paul as the twelfth apostle. The statues of the apostles and Paul and also in the church in Copenhagen. 

Gethsemane. This was my most tender point in our visit to Israel. It was so good to see these displays and remember the feelings we had in Israel. 

I loved how they had a stone to roll over the door so you felt you were entering the tomb where Jesus was buried. When you went through the door, there was a bench there with a linen cloth folded on it. Very tender. 

This lady had a nice display to give a brief telling of a Seder meal. There is a Haggadah on the plate at the front of the table. The plate in front of the lady has the symbols that are eaten during the seder meal and she shared what each represented. 

This man played Nicodemus. 

We very much enjoyed this experience. Extremely well done. And...the bonus...Laura and Jessie were there with Howard. Howard was working the parking. We got to visit with Laura and Jessie before we went in and after we finished our tour. So good to see Laura driving and out and about.

Claude took me to Cattleman's Roadhouse for dinner. How I enjoy their salmon and steamed broccoli. However, after returning home, it didn't digest as well as it went down. I hurled it all. Did not tell Claude. He was so happy to provide one of my favorite meals. 

In the evening, this add came across my Kindle again. I shared it with my family and asked if they could spot what the editor missed before publishing this ad. (the figure has 6 toes)

Sunday, March 29th, was Palm Sunday. Since we have General Conference next Sunday, we held our Easter Sacrament Meeting program this Sunday. No classes were held after. Claude wrote the program and it was beautiful. The choir sang two numbers. The Primary kids sang Gethsemane. It is such a moving piece of music and to hear it from a child's voice is very special. To top it off, the kids on the right side of the stand started to sway to the music. Claude and I both enjoyed a grin at that. There were scriptures read and other readings as well as many congregational hymns.

After sacrament meeting, Claude helped Bryce Christensen give David Adams a priesthood blessing. David was to have hernia surgery on Monday. It is always moving to watch the priesthood in action. Grateful for this opportunity for Claude and Bryce to use their priesthood power. 

We enjoyed lunch at Schlotsky's. Yum! And...I kept it down just fine.

Other than walking the treadmill, we enjoyed a quiet rest of our day.