Glen's new calling and mine

Glen:

Two Sundays ago, Glen and I were called to the Stake President's office. While waiting we were guessing what we were going to be told. We were joking that since our youngest is 12 and no longer in Primary that it was time for them to kick Glen out of Elder's Quorum and make him a High Priest. After all, Glen will be 50 in May and has gray hair.

Yep. Glen was released as the 1st counselor in the Stake Young Men's Presidency and called to be a High Councilor.   To be on the High Council one needs to be a High Priest.

So, this past Sunday he was ordained a High Priest by his father and then set apart to be a high councilor by his brother, Alan, who is in the Stake Presidency. Pretty cool. Very cool.

Glen's assignment on the high council is to be over the youth programs.  He will continue as the District Commissioner for the Pony Express District in the Nevada Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Since he is keeping his scouting position, I don't know that this change in callings will change his time commitment to his calling. It just changes when he's gone. He'll have stake meetings on Fast Sundays and speaking assignments on the 3rd Sundays...and this next Sunday is a 3rd Sunday and he'll be speaking in our ward. Good luck, Hon.

Mine:

I mentioned in my previous post that for the New Year's Eve Party, we had been asked to give one of the mini-Family Home Evening lessons they had that night. What our family did is that each of us shared a quote that inspired us. My quote was one I've always liked, but there was also another motive behind sharing it--I would soon be living it.

The quote:


Use what talent you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang best. ~Henry Van Dyke

I first used that quote back in 1989 when I had to teach a lesson for the Relief Society sisters on how to lead music. The idea was that we all share what we can do even if there are those who could do it better...we just do the best we can and contribute what we can, even if we don't consider it perfect. We all have something to share. 

Yes, I am now "sharing" my "talent" of playing the organ every 2nd Sunday during Sacrament Meeting at church. (sharing = inflicting   talent = semi-talent). Our ward is a bit short in the available musician department, so 4 of us are sharing the organist duty along with keeping our other callings. I'm the least musical of the bunch.

Last Sunday was my first time playing in Sacrament Meeting in a long time. I've filled in before and it was always a nerve-racking thing...I get nervous like I don't get nervous for anything else I've done except for giving birth. So, playing the organ in church is like laying on the operating table waiting for the knife. And I'm not really exaggerating here.

The thing is, there are so many notes...3 to 4 for each word and then some. Each one is an opportunity to make a mistake. Even if I can play a song perfectly at home, I get to church and it's a different story. No joke--I was playing one of the hymns last Sunday and for a moment I had to play by memory (which is really like a mini-miracle every time it happens...the brain is awesome).  I had to play from memory because the notes on the page looked like gibberish and I couldn't "read" them for a bit.

So, my main prayer when I play is that I don't distract from the Spirit. I apologize to the tenors who can't follow along well because I drop their note. That's always the first note to get skipped.

I want to develop this talent. But I feel bad for the congregation who has to put up with my mistakes.

Though, I don't think I made too many on Sunday. And some mistakes are less distracting than others. And I know the more I play, the better I'll get. I found a neat blog that posted lessons for lds pianists who are trying to be organists:
 http://organlessons.blogspot.com/2010/01/lesson-1-acquiring-essentials.html

And, I know it's what I should be doing. That's why we have talents--so we can share them and serve with them.

So, I'm suffering, but I'm happy about it (Harry Potter reference...).

kids home, broken camera, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Harry Potter party, missing cat

Well, the title of this post sums it all up.

Andrew made it home safely from Provo, so we are all here except for Eric. Plus various other cousins have been around. It's been fabulous.

My camera broke on Sunday the 23rd. My dad said he had a similar problem and that it might be that I needed to replace my battery (which was acting funny). $13 later I can say it wasn't the battery. It's a sad thing to not have a camera at Christmas time. Ryan took a few photos on his cell phone and Alex took some on his camera--conclusion is that Alex needs a camera that takes pictures you can actually see.

The one picture I really wanted was the "pickle" picture. Years ago Eric made a paper maché pickle that gets hidden on the tree every Christmas. The first child to find the pickle gets to be the first to play Santa (they wear a Santa's hat) and take a gift from under the tree and give it to the first recipient, who puts on the hat and opens the gift. Then he/she grabs another gift from under the tree and gives it to the next recipient.

We love this tradition, only this time we didn't find the paper maché pickle to hide...so unbeknownst to the kids, I took a real mini-gherkin and put it on a hook and hung it up. Hannah found it...and about freaked out upon discovering she was squishing a real pickle in her fingers. It was funny.

But, even without good pictures, Christmas was great anyway. It was just the 6 of us since it was my sister's turn to have my parents for the holidays. We did have Glen's parents here for a little bit when Eric called for his allotted Christmas call. Eric is enjoying his mission and his new assignment is Data Quality. He works on the 6th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in a restricted area. He didn't have any details yet since he had just received the assignment and hadn't really started working there yet due to the holidays. We hope to hear more on Saturday when we get his email.

We spent the next week (and since then) playing games. Lots and lots of games. Of which I lost 99% of them, but that's OK.

We got an expander pack for our Dominion game (Dark Ages), a quick and funny card game called "We Didn't Playtest This At All," and my favorite "7 Wonders" and its expansion pack "7 Cities."

For New Year's Eve, we went to the church dance, but we spent the time playing games and giving a mini-lesson and attending the other mini-lessons. Nothing too exciting, but we were together, and I'm not into excitement anyway.

Today and tomorrow, Hannah is having a Harry Potter movie marathon. The first 4 movies are on today's list and we'll finish up with the other 4 tomorrow. She dipped pretzel rods in white chocolate and different sprinkles as magic wands. We cut into the necks of gummy bears so they can represent the character Nearly Headless Nick. Hannah made butterbeer (cream soda and butterscotch with rum flavoring--I think I'd rather just have the cream soda, though). We have chocolate brownies so we are ready for dementor attacks. Best of all--we used the cake pop machine that my parents gave us for Christmas to make doughnut hole Golden Snitches. During this enterprise Glen learned the difference between apple cider (which the recipe called for) and apple cider vinegar (which is what Glen put in the batter). It was quite funny.

However, after the marathon started, we discovered that Steve the Cat is missing...we think he might have gotten out yesterday when we were taking the Christmas decorations outside. He was our stand-in for the orange tabby Crookshanks. Oh well. Just hope he's safe and turns up.

So, we are having a great time and it's been a wonderful vacation. We have Ryan until the 5th and Andrew until the 6th when they will head back to school for the start of a new semester. We will miss them, but then I'll have a better chance of winning the games...maybe...as long as Hannah isn't playing...or Alex.

UPDATE: We found the missing cat...under a drawer in a cabinet in the kitchen! We heard a meowing and then it took us 5-10 minutes to figure out where it was coming from. Steve is safe and sound.