It's Celebration Week!!!

Sunday May 14....It's Mother's Day and it's a beautiful day in Nauvoo!!

Sixteen (and a cast of thousands) call

her Grandma now....a title she wears proudly.  She has earned it!! She loves those grandkids with all her heart and would do anything for them.  And they know it!!

Five proudly call her Mom.....a title she wears and honors.  They are here greatest accomplishment.  She has done everything possible to nurture, teach, inspire, and support.  She loves them with all her heart and shares their successes and sorrows.  She would do anything for them....And they know it!!!

One calls her Sweetheart and is eternally grateful for a magic kiss that temporarily blinded and deafened her until after they were married.  She has made me a far...far...far better man than I would have been!! 
And I know it!!!

Birthday Boy Celebrates.......

                .....at the Witches Rib!!

     So the ol' Birthday celebration rolls again....some say that's a good thing....beats the alternative of not having one.  Turns out our beloved director of Sunset cancelled practice so she could work with the new missionaries  (apparently she didn't realize that the 40 "old" missionaries would forget more in three days than the  6 new ones would learn....6 steps forward....80 backward...that's Nauvoo progress). 

     Sister Hughes celebrated her birthday this week so we conjured up a trip to the soon to be infamous Witches Rib in La Harpe....thirty miles NE of Nauvoo.  Good eating places are a premium here so when one gets rumor of a new one it's time to head out.  This time it was a winner!!  One thing....don't blink or you'll miss it....While it is bigger than a Mexican taco trailer it looks more like a garage sitting on the side of the road...it took Elder Hughes and his lightning quick reflexes a block to stop (at 60mph) after we said "You just passed it". 

     If you came for the smoked bar-b-Q you were in luck...it was great.  I had the ribs, Sister Gibson had the brisket, and we all got smoked as we sat there and ate.  The ribs were big enough that I only ate 3...took 2 home.  Since it was my birthday I celebrated with an Apple Cobbler desert that came to big a baseball size scoop of ice cream looked like a golf ball on top.  It was so good I ate the whole thing....and for the first time in many many years I developed a case of heartburn the size of the great Chicago Fire.  Good news is....it's been three days and I think I have finally digested it as there is no longer the lingering taste of smoked ribs.  We will be taking our clothes to the dry cleaners this week also!! 

     Schenk....   After All is Said and Done.........

                .....It Does Look Like a Silk Purse!!

     We are now to the point we can call the Schenk House finished but there are still some cabinet parts (not my job) to go in....insignificant things like doors and drawers....nothing overly important.  There are places to put things...what else to you need.  It finished out like expected and looks greats.

The new occupants are our mission doctor and wife the Oldroyd's.  They are very excited to be the first residents of the newly remodeled house...I am somewhat hesitant to show them what really lies under those walls.

         It became apparent from the beginning that the beautiful cabinets contained a design flaw that could pose to be a problem.  Experience has now taught me (most of the time)  to keep my mouth shut...there are people here who are "in charge" and know best.   It seems the cabinet openings on the sink side are so small it is difficult, in not impossible, to get a  full size dinner plate on them.  FM to the rescue(?) Elder Lindeburg, upon seeing the problem, went to work on a prototype dish to solve the problem.

     His unique prototype includes stainless steel hinges applied to a plate that has been cut in half.

The unique fold up style allows for the dishes to be folded and stacked.  The initial version is not self sealing so liquids can be drained upon service....broths and  soups are not recommended.  We are expecting an order from the Oldroyds soon....perhaps a trade might be practical as he is  a Urologist.

At any rate the Oldroyds seemed grateful for the FM efforts to accommodate.

Forget The Pageant Trailer...... (For Now)

     ....It's On to The Trail of Hope Fence!!!

     It's been over  two weeks since the Pageant Trailer remodel project hit my plate.  And for two weeks I have asked "where are my materials (outside metal sheeting) ?"  ....and for two weeks I have been told "I don't know...I'll check on it and let you know.  "OK, then what are we using for materials to finish the inside..."I don't know...I'll check on it and let you know".  This has pretty much been the on going conversation with two FM employees on a daily basis......  We worked a little on the Engle house, and a bench project for the C of C before moving on to replacing the fencing along the trail of hope.  This requires tearing out and removing the old and installing new.  So most of the week we worked on it and it's going along well.  So far we have done 150 feet of what might be a 1000' project.  Down at the bottom we saw some geese and their goslings.  I'm pretty sure they will be fully grown or even Christmas dinner before we get to the end of the project (LOL).   I am sure this will be a less important project sooner or later...but then what do I know?

     Her Chariot Serves Her Well.....

                .......And Even Requires a Little Feed!!

     Now that Sister Lee Master has rode off into the sunset, Sister Gibson has now been assigned the Conservation Van and its care.  As you can see, those years of fueling the Tahoe have paid off as she

can gas the car....the pumps are another story as they require codes, switches, and coordination.  All is well....the task was mastered. 

      The van has worked out well for us as my truck blew a transmission (1st one in my life) and was

taken out of service a couple of weeks ago pending a decision as to whether it was worth repairing.  So I have been driving around using our truck as a work truck.  Looks like the powers that be have ultimately decided to replace the trans so I could get an FM truck back.  Yippppppppeeeeeeeee!!

On the Road Again........

       .....Springfield Calls....Lincoln Speaks...
                         .....And I Pontificate

     One of the things we have always planned on doing in the spring was a trip to Springfield, Ill to visit the home and museum of Abraham Lincoln. Off we went with the Lindeburg's and two and one half hours on the road through the rural farmlands of Illinois.....no freeways here...just two lane roads and lots of corn fields yet to come.  We didn't even see a store or gas station for over 90 minutes.

     The highlight of the morning was trying to figure out how to negotiate travel across the streets that were crowded with thousands of 5K runners participating in the annual "Fat Ass" charity run...no one seemed to be too bashful about the name and many wore the shirt proudly as their personal symbol.

What the heck...it was for a good cause....it wasn't pretty but it was entertaining.  On every corner was donated food, water, entertainment.....yes that is an overweight singing Elvis.

     Once we negotiated the racers and got to the house and museum it was worth the effort.  There was a feeling there that enlightened and portrayed his life in a way that brought into play the difficulty of preserving the union as well as granting freedom and dignity to all men regardless of their station in life or the color of their skin.  His years in Springfield were filled with his early family life and his successes as a lawyer were many as he provided for his family.  Yet he was driven by desires and causes that pulled him toward something that was even greater than himself. 
     Being on the back end of life rather than the beginning or middle certainly gives me cause to reflect and ponder those good and bad decisions I have made.  We are constantly trying to reconcile the past with the present and sometimes get caught up with the things we cannot change rather than focus on the fewer and fewer things we can effect.  This was brought to a forefront on Sunday night as we assembled for dinner with our MTC group for a Mother's Day dinner in the evening.  After dinner we sat around outside as the evening sun set and soon the conversation began to fall back to early childhood misadventures and how lucky we were to have survived them.  From there it went on to our children, their successes, misadventures, good and bad experiences  and failures, and our feelings that would range from extreme pride to suffocating guilt.  It was painfully obvious to us that one of our group carried extreme guilt for the decisions of their children even though, for the most part, they were similar in circumstance and outcome of others.  Agency is  a part of the plan we must all learn to accept....ours and those of others.  Hopefully their pain will mitigate... but it may be something they will choose to carry around the rest of their lives.....that is their agency and choice.