Citysliders birthday fun!

For my birthday this year, I didn't have any plans. Mum sent me books from Deseret and I had some chocolate so I was set for the day. 

It was pouring with rain outside and I woke to the news that a friend's beautiful baby girl had passed away so I spent the day very sad and praying for my friend and her husband and family. 

I had decided a few months back that for my birthday I would do something for my family and we would do it altogether in celebration of my birthday. The perfect family fun came up when Lisa told me Citysliders was coming to town and I eagerly bought tickets late last year. It turned out to be the best day on the 21st of Feb ( a week after my birthday) as the weather was super hot (around 30 degrees) which is hot for Tassie and the slide looked enormous and really long. It is a 325m temporary slide that goes around Australian cities setting up somewhere on a hilly street but that can't be too steep or else they may be some injuries with people going too fast and banging into each other.

We had booked for 2 sessions and in the first one, Sarra, Hallie and Oliver went down for an hour. There was a huge line but they seemed to get through it fairly quickly and once you got to the bottom you would run back up to the top and go down again.

In the middle was a flat spot where you would slow and most people would have to get up and walk a little on the slide before going on with their tube. It was so funny to watch as most people who stood in the flat spot to get a run-up for the next dip down the street would be falling over as it was quite slippery.

The second session we booked for was for little kids and parents to take them down so Simon and I took Jonty and Flynn but they didn't really need our help as they had a great time just taking off by themselves. This session was a lot slower as the little kids did not go nearly as fast as the adults. In the middle of the session, the water and power to the slide stopped so we had to stand in line for nearly half an hour waiting for it to come back on again. It was extremely hot standing in the sun with no water but Jonty and Flynn were eager to keep going so we waited it out and they gave us an extra half an hour to make up for lost time.

missionaryMum.10 (Feb 2015)

February was the last month of Mum's first winter in SLC. She celebrated the beginning of the month by going to Farr's for FHE and then on to the North Visitor's Centre to watch a movie on the family.

"Hi Everyone, Well I think we have missed winter. All this week has been lovely and the last three days have been 18 degrees. Very balmy!
This week has been another busy one and on top of the phones and chats we are full on into meetings about the merger and new teams etc. this is the last week of phones and chats for us though, was good to think on Friday as I was trying to put a schedule together it would be the last time. Had our last Historical Records team meeting on Monday.
Monday night FHE we played a card game, I didn't have a clue what it was all about but ended up winning!!!!! and no Collette I didn't cheat!
Wednesday because of a meeting in the afternoon I had T and R in the morning, lucky because at lunch time they closed the washing machines for the rest of the day.
I will be glad when the Temple reopens, 17 th I think. mostly this week I just went to work and then fell into bed???exhausted. I applied for three days out of mission for when Phil and Marilyn come so will see what happens? They want to go to do the Canyons etc down South.
Sister Coleman went home sick on Friday and is still not too good, I took her some soup tonight. She finishes next Friday and then leaves the mission on the 27th. So I guess there will be some celebrations coming up!
Saturday I went to line dancing and the shopping for Tuesdays zone luncheon, I am making bolognaise for 15 people. We have 60 all up but four people make it. Others bring the pasta etc.
The mince...they call it ground beef was expensive $12 for 2 lb which is only a kilo. I got the cheaper one too. They have never heard of beef sausages here, all pork.
In the afternoon I went shopping for birthdays for Nora, Flynn and Emily. Then last night Sister hill rang and wanted to go out! I had already eaten. None of the movies were any good so we went to Crown Burger, I just had a shake, and then back to her apt and watched a couple of old black and white movies on TV. She works every second Saturday and doesn't finish till 5 pm.
Music and the Spoken Word today and church. Tonight I have made the bolognaise. Didn't think I would have time tomorrow night. Now I must have to figure out a way to get it to work.
Well that's about it, not really much to tell this week."

On the 16th of February, Mum went to visit the Logan Temple, about 1 3/4 hours from SLC.

SLC is so flat but the mountains around it look beautiful covered in snow.

And then tea at the Beehive Grill.

And on the way home a random wigwam in someone's front yard.

"I will be glad when the merger is over at work and my new team can get on with our work.
All I did last week was attend training meetings for the indexing team.....training them in Historical records. They did not feel prepared to go forward this week so I have another week or two on phones and chats! as have the others who will be in my team too.
The weather has been lovely again, still no rain or snow, it is very dry considering we are nearly to the end of winter. As we drove to Logan yesterday we could notice it. Logan is North nearly two hour drive and is at the very edge of our mission.
It is an old temple! reminded me a bit of Manti....castle like. Down a few blocks there was a beautiful old tabernacle. It is quite a big place, Logan that is. The temple was crowded, sessions every half hour. After the Temple we spent about half an hour driving around trying to find the Loveday residence. Finally found it and delivered Sister Honey's wedding present to them. Met his wife, she was lovely. As I didn't have a phone number they didn't know I was coming.
Had a lovely day, got home about 9.30 after eating and shopping.
FHE Monday we went to the North Visitors Centre, watched a 12 minute video on Gods plan for families. It takes you through about 5 different rooms which represent different rooms in the home. It is lovely. 
Tuesday we had our zone luncheon, spaghetti bolognaise etc. I made two large lots of bolognaise. I got all the leftovers which I froze and tomorrow night we are having it for FHE.
Because of meetings and classes I missed T and R on Wednesday, I have missed about three days worth now!
Wednesday night was a missionary appreciation night, the FHDept put them on every so often. Talks and entertainment followed by dinner. All very nice. So they gave us a brochure which I am sending for you to give to your stake presidents. It's about sponsoring a camera team for digitising. Good way to contribute for people who can't serve a mission.
This week was Roots Tech convention. 21,000 people enrolled. We got to go for one day free so I chose Friday. Laura Bush was the keynote speaker and then her daughter interviewed her on stage. Two hours went very fast she was so good. Very entertaining and down to earth. Very family oriented. Familysearch organize it all, they were preparing for months. It is huge. Every hour we had about 12 things to choose from. The Salt palace convention centre is huge. Then a massive exhibitors hall, took us three hours to walk around that. Night time they have entertainment. It is over three days. Saturday Donny Osmond was one of the keynote speakers.
I did a workshop on Australian research, one on Irish! and one on Ancestry DNA."

A common thread through Mum's photos is always food and Sister Coleman was going home so they had a morning tea to celebrate.

These are all the single sisters in Mum's group.

Then there was a farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Moulton. They spent their first year in Guatemala before coming in with Mum's intake last year. It's winter so there's nothing else to do but eat. ;)

In Feb Mum moved to a new floor of the JSMB (the 6th)and this is her new cubicle. More information about what she is doing now is explained in next month's post as she trains for her new role as a member of the CHurch Headquarters Historical Records Escalation Team.

I said to Mum not many photos for Feb but she said it was cold and winter so not as much going out. :)

The big 10!

On the 4th of March, Oliver turned the big 10 -

double digits - a decade!!

He was so excited the night before his birthday and could not get to sleep.

He decided to go to school until recess time and then come home and have some birthday time at home. His best friend Noah was very excited to see him and with the help of some other mates, had written on the whiteboard.

 Two days later on the Friday after school, Oliver had a sleepover for his birthday with a few of his friends.

On the party invite, I had requested iPods or iPads for some "gaming" time and then I confiscated the technology for the rest of the night. They were all excited to be playing off against each other and doing stuff in each other's worlds on Minecraft.

Oli wanted a computer cake so I gave it a shot and even though it tasted nice it didn't look all that crash hot but the kids didn't seem to mind.

Sarra did a great job helping me out with the cold rock for dessert.

And then they all settled down to watch Night at the Museum 3.

I don't know what time they all got to sleep. I didn't hear much noise after midnight but I was too scared to ask. ;) In the morning I served up waffles and ice-cream and juice and they all sat around the table chatting and laughing.

I only let the kids have a party every second year because having 11 kids in the house takes me a whole two years to recover from. ;)

Oliver got some lovely presents and is very lucky to have such lovely friends.

missionaryMum.9 (Jan 2015)

As winter certainly settled in for 2015, Mum celebrated the beginning of the year with the Temple Square New Year's Eve concert in the JSMB.

The Christmas tree was replaced with a stage in the foyer of the JSMB.

The Andrew Sisters

Sister missionaries who were leaving to go home were singing together on Temple Square.

Then onto the Tabernacle for a concert from the Utah tenors.

And the BYU Vocal Point of 9 acappella.

Out on the street on NYE 2014.

Hi everyone, 
We had a lovely meeting last Sunday with our ward chorister singing with his three sons and his daughter playing, very special. Monday night we had a progressive FHE. I made flying Jacob- the chicken casserole for main course. It is beautiful walking to work in the half light with the snow and lights. They are very good a cleaning the paths and roads. 

4.30 we went to the JSMB to start the festivities for new Year. It was something else...entertainment all night. Good stuff too. We finished at the Tabernacle and then went down the street to see the light show. We missed the big ball falling..we were too slow. Anyway it was fun, we got home around 12.45. I was going to sleep in Thursday but Sister Hill rang at 9.30 to see what was happening for the day!!!!! We ended up going for a meal at 3 pm and then to see The Hobbitt. Friday back to work for one day...weird. It was reasonably busy actually.
Sister Coleman and I went to lunch at the Blue Lemon and then to Deseret where I bought Jesus The Christ and the study guide. Friday night we had tickets to the Symphony But Sister Snowden didn't feel up,to it so we didn't go. Hot drink, warm bed and movie on Netflix!!
Saturday wasn't much either, line dancing, swap meet and a repeat of Friday. It is still cold but no more snow has fallen since Tuesday! they say it is too cold!! There is still 4-5 inches on the ground, that hasn't melted.
And that brings me back to Sunday. I will notice it this week having to get up five days!!
Hope Collette has a lovely birthday. My power bill for December was $40 so I am pleased with that, some people hit over the $100 a month. My apt. is on the warm side.
They had turned the lights off on Friday! such a shame and now quite dark walking to work. They keep warning us about slipping.
Sister Coleman has eight weeks left so I think I will be in training for earnest this month as team leader.

Hail and Farewell fell in the middle of the month ands Mum said goodbye to her good friend, Sister Coleman.

The reception area of the JSMB on the 3rd floor - for Worldwide Patron Services. Elcer Seitz and Warden.

Since Christmas Week, there has been hardly any snow and some days have been around 16-18 degrees celsius. Mum says all the locals are commenting on the mild winter and are worried that there will not be enough water in summer now because of the lack of snow.

Wednesday I did 5 baptisms, confirmations and initiatories. How are all the male names coming along??? I have lots waiting for sealings.
Elder and Sister Aukschun are off to Hawaii for a month so that means extra shifts on the phones for me. Our team is getting quite depleted.
Thursday had to call and placate my first upset patron as team leader. Someone had been rude to her and hung up on her!!!!
Friday night was the symphony again. Tchaikovskys nutcracker and Shostakovich....he was Russian in the time of Stalin. Stalin sent most of the creative people to outer Siberia or executed them! Saturday was the usual, line dancing, washing. Went to the FHL for a couple of hours....found two more children, then went shopping.
Today we fed the missionaries at the cultural hall. Supposed to be six but ended up with ten. Lucky we had plenty of food. Tacos with all the stuff.
Well not a very busy week, no photos either I don't think!!!!!!

Of course in January we celebrate Australia Day so Mum helped with a little Australia Day celebration. I can spy fellow Tasmanians Fran Ross and Sister Pat Barwick in this pic with Mum.

This man playing the didgeridoo served in Launceston 40 years ago on his mission. Now how about that!!

I said to Mum there were not many photos sent for January and she said "that's because it's winer!!"

Monday sister Snowden started with us half days as her job is diminishing and so she will eventually move to us. Monday night Hail and farewell. The entertainment was excellent, one of the nurses did it on how laughter keeps you healthy. She had also written two songs her husband sang one about the North Pole being for sale and then she sang the other called Hold On Tight a tribute to her father.

Tuesday I started a family tree class. Once a week for seven weeks. Goes for 1 1/2 hours.

Mission conference is the second week of each month and this week it was on Rare Possessions and then the scriptures...Daniel. After work we went to the Spaghetti factory for tea. It was in a place called Trolley Square, this was originally the main shopping centre, then they had the gateway and then City Creek. It was very nice. Elder Aukschun is in Hawaii for a month so that means I have to do his shift Tuesday and Thursday, so with my class Tuesday and his shift I won't get a lunch hour for four weeks. Also no Asl class for four weeks. Wednesday had my half day in the morning as I needed to be there in the afternoon. The temple is closed for the next four weeks so that's not good. Thursday watched Dowton Abbey!!

Friday I spent six hours on P/Cs lucky it wasn't too busy. People sick and away at the moment.

So big news.....our team in the JSMB are going off P/Cs by 12th February and becoming an escalation team, that means we get all,the emails no one else can answer!!!! The field missionaries on our team are combining with indexing and they together will do P/Cs for both historical records and indexing. My team will be much smaller as it will only consist of those in the JSMB....should be interesting, no more talking to,people...I will miss that!

Saturday was a lazy day, we went to the Olive Garden for tea? Italian and very nice food and service. 

The weather is still mild, frosty mornings and lovely days. A bit like home really. There has been snow on the mountains but no more has settled here. Last week ranged from -3 to 5, one day was even 8 so we can all cope very well with that.