Today's Special

Megan met me for lunch today and after eating we still had lots of time to spare before she needed to be at school and I needed to check on my next meeting. So we walked over to Deseret Book on South Temple. My favorite section of that store is always the Bargain Buys and look what I found there today...

I was so excited to see this book on the shelf...and on sale (plus with my church employee discount and rewards points it was a great deal)! It's a picture book jam-packed with random facts about all 50 States. For example, did you know that McIlhenny Tabasco sauce has been made in Avery Island, Louisiana from a secret family recipe since 1868? Or that the pipe organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle has 11,623 pipes? (Truly, this book is a must-read for all of you auditioning with Jeopardy.)

It is by Lynne Cheney (wife of Vice President Dick Cheney). I also love and highly recommend her two other children's books if you want fun, informative, coffee table-type books about the United States and its history.

Happy Reading!

No, I Haven't Fallen off the Face of the Earth

I promise, I am still alive and well (though "well" is a relative term) after my trip to Rexburg. My only excuse for silence the last 15 days is that I have been SOOO busy.

In less than two weeks I have had to coordinate five big emergency meetings, babysit missionaries at three 6:00 a.m. rehearsals, host three Apostles and four members of the Seventies, disinvite one individual from singing in the visiting choir for the priesthood session of general conference (he didn't clear the security check), coordinate another score-plus of small meetings, and attend more staff and production meetings than I care to count. And that is just life at the office.

I have also endured a check up at the dentist, threw a ward activity (indoor soccer -- it was tons of fun...you missed out!), attended a dance concert, put together an Amazing Race game for the youth city councils' annual conference in Logan, went on a date with Kedrick, managed somehow to fit in two endowment sessions at the Bountiful temple, cleaned the house, babysat the nieces and nephew, etc., etc., etc. Let me assure you that all of this did not occur without incident. I have fought plenty of fires, certain impertinent missionaries, and held back many tears, but I do see the end in sight (only to have general conference looming as the next obstacle in the way, of course)!

Part of my reason for posting today is to be the first to announce Daniel and Megan's good news (just because I like to be first). They went for the first ultrasound this morning and found out they are having TWIN BOYS!

The doctor says they are identical. We are all excited and yet not too surprised. I think we all started wondering and thinking it could be a possibility, especially when Megan mentioned last week a similar thing happening to Dan's coworker. I don't know if Megan has any twins in her family but they will be the first in our family. It is very exciting! Now we'll have all sorts of identical numbers: 3 nieces, 3 nephews; 3 children per couple. . . . . . . . I really think it is time to break such monotonous equality -- Jill and Megan-Di, you'd better get married and start your families right away!

You Can Check Off That Goal

Megan and I took a little road trip up to Rexburg, Idaho over the weekend. She went to visit a high school friend who attends BYU-Idaho and I went up for the ride. We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday. With Megan at her friend's dorm on campus I was left in a very quiet hotel room so I jumped in the car and drove 25 miles back to Idaho Falls and went to a session in the temple. (New temple #1 for 2008.)

Saturday I took the two girls to breakfast and a little shopping. Back in my hotel I tried to figure out what you do in this small town for fun. Coming up blank I picked up the girls again and we dropped in at the Rexburg temple; they did baptisms and I snuck into a session 2 1/2 hours earlier than my appointment. (New temple #2 for 2008.)

But now Megan and I had the whole evening open and nothing to do. We searched through the local phone book and tourist guide in the hotel room. We took a gander at the brochure rack in the lobby which was filled with pamphlets for activities in Utah. What to do? What to do? Luckily, this sleepy town did have a movie theater.

We ended up at "27 Dresses" with Katherine Heigl. The theater filled up fast, mostly with women: many college coeds and many married women out with the girls on a Saturday night. (Wonder what the husbands do while the wives are out in sleepy Rexburg...). I enjoyed the movie but I had to listen to commentaries from the girls behind us throughout the show, "That is the ugliest shirt I've ever seen!" "Oh, he is sooooo cute!" "They swore!" It got kind of annoying.

I'm glad to be home and back in a city that offers a bit more than a temple and a movie theater. However, I am also very grateful to have accomplished the goal I made in my last post of doing ordinance work in two never-before-visited temples. Check mark on that one...now to move on to the several that remain.

The Place I Go

Call me "Molly Mormon" but one of my favorite things to do is go to the temple. It is a place for me to sit and relax and shut out the cares of the world. No cell phone or email or bosses or clients or coworkers -- just me and my thoughts and the Spirit.

A couple of years ago I typed up a list of all the temples of the world and I began recording the date I first performed ordinance work in each temple that I've been to. Last night I pulled out my list in preparation to go to the Rexburg Temple this weekend and I realized that I have way too many blank spaces.

So, I've set a new goal: Add at least two new dates to my temple list every year. This goal shouldn't be too hard. There are three never-before-visited temples not even an hour drive from my house currently in operation and another two under construction. Temples in southern Utah and Idaho are a perfect weekend getaway. And I've been wanting to fly down to San Diego, pick up a rental car, and start driving north through California hitting all seven temples along the way for a long time.

Have no fear! I will accomplish my goal and really start filling up that list! The way the Church builds temples I know I'll probably never get to most of them but that won't keep me from trying.

Other little ditties:
* I received my endowment before my mission in the Bountiful Utah Temple.
* My favorite temple so far is the Manhattan New York Temple.
* I have been outside the doors of the Oakland, San Diego, and Chicago Temples but never inside.
* I want to marry my sweetheart in the Salt Lake Temple, following the tradition of my parents and both sets of grandparents.
* I always try to vacation near a temple and go to a session while I am there.

Trauma and Drama, All in a Day's Work

Work today was very traumatic for me. Bear with me as I delineate the issues of the day...




* I was at work for 11 hours and downtown for a total of 13 -- remember that I don't get any overtime.





* I had a meeting in the Church Office Building this morning. It began and all was well but as soon as I arrived at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for my next meeting I received a phone call -- There is a drilling noise; come make it stop! I immediately picked up the phone trying to find the responsible party as I literally ran back to the COB. Of course, by the time I arrived the noise had stopped and the client was happy.

* The Devereaux House was the site of my third meeting of the day, this one with my manager and our director. I arrived to find that nothing was set up and ready for the luncheon. Thankfully, the early-arrivers were more than willing to put things together at the very last minute. Next I went to close the front doors to keep out the rain. I wasn't paying attention as I walked away and suddenly my right index finger caught in the door as it closed. All I could think about was the little girl in my parents' ward who recently had part of her finger cut off by a door. I carefully pulled myself free and luckily have only suffered a bruise and some swelling.

* Because I knew my day would be long I planned to take a break and go to the temple for the 2:00 session. Just before leaving, a phone call to a client revealed that the meeting they had scheduled for next week was accidentally scheduled for May and now the rooms they need are not available. It took a couple more phone calls, negotiating with the scheduler, and a lot of finagling but I finally took care of the problem and missed my session. (Don't worry, I still made it to the 3:00 session.)

* This evening I had to watch over the Temple Square Performances concert: the Wasatch Trio of piano, cello, and flute. I wasn't too happy to find out that I needed to stay in the Assembly Hall throughout the concert to help move chairs and music stands but it's all part of the job. Then three minutes before show time the pianist was in a panic because his page turner hadn't arrived. The Performances Hosts asked if I could read music and suddenly I had a new job. I spent the whole concert on stage turning pages at the piano. It went well but it really is traumatic being on stage when you don't expect or want to be there and you're not dressed properly.

Happily, I survived the day but my finger still hurts and it has a red mark where the door pinched it--all unexpected hazards of event coordinating. Next Friday I am only working a half-day and I say that I more than deserve it after today. I can't wait!

A Pretty Good Day

It's not often that a single woman of my age can say that February 14th is a good day but I do have to admit that my Valentine's Day yesterday was pretty good.

At 8:00 a.m. I found myself rushing through the tunnels under Temple Square to check on a meeting in the Church Office Building, only to arrive and find that the meeting had been cancelled. It was okay though because along the way I passed by Elders David A. Bednar, L. Tom Perry, and Quentin L. Cook who I'm sure were all running a bit late for an 8:00 meeting in the temple with President Monson. As I passed by each of them they smiled and nodded a Good Morning to me. That was pretty cool!

At 12:30 p.m. a big meeting in the Theater finished up and the sister I have been working with took me aside and introduced me to James, a very cute, very available Infrastructure Architect and Engineer with the Family Church History Department. We had a nice little chat and then he said he would email. That was a pretty great ten minutes!

At 1:30 p.m. my coworker Heidi took me to her husband's cafe for lunch. He served up a pot roast sandwich and fries. That was a pretty tasty lunch!

At 3:00 p.m. I left work for the day and went to Costco to pick up some things for upcoming activities. It is always more than pretty wonderful to leave work early!

At 4:00 p.m. I arrived at home and had a long-stem red rose waiting for me on the table. The note said, "Happy Valentine's Day!" and wasn't signed but I have an idea who sent it. That was a pretty (literally) surprise!

At 5:30 p.m. began my Valentine's Day date with Sebastian. I dressed up in my formal dress (for the first time), we went to the Utah Symphony where they played Grieg's Piano Concerto, then we had an Italian dinner by candlelight. That was a pretty fun date!

At 10:30 p.m. back at home my cute mother had left me a little box of chocolates and my favorite trail mix snack. That was a pretty sweet treat!

Overall, my Valentine's Day was a pretty good day, filled with all the things a girl loves (cute men, flowers, chocolate, piano concertos, and Costco)!

Good Night, Sweet Prince

This week will go down in history as the absolute busiest week ever in the Conference Center Ticket Office. We printed 5 sessions of General Conference tickets and mailed them to 1485 stakes in the United States and Canada; prepared funeral seating passes for the Conference Center Auditorium, Theater, Tabernacle, Assembly Hall, Joseph Smith Memorial Building Chapel and Legacy Theater; copied and counted 3,000 parking passes for the funeral; created cortège passes for the cemetery; cleaned our office from top to bottom; lived for two days without our ailing ticket manager; and trained a new assistant ticket manager...oh, and the week isn't over yet.

As we all know, President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away on Sunday night and immediately our events staff jumped into action. I was placed back in the Ticket Office for the week because I'm the only one right now who knows how to make the funeral tickets and I've worked long and hard to get them done. It has been a wonderful experience to have such an important hand in this process and it's my small way of paying homage and respect to our beloved Prophet and also my beloved uncle.

This is a little example of what I've been working on the last few days back in the ticket office.


The public viewing began today. President Hinckley is lying in state in an open casket in the Hall of the Prophets of the Conference Center. It is a beautiful setting with busts of all the past prophets surrounding the room, overlooking the Temple. The atmosphere of the entire, huge Conference Center has been very subdued; today it is a most holy and sacred building. Members of the Church are coming to say goodbye to the Prophet in their Sunday best, bringing their little children and making this an opportunity to teach their little ones about the Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Plan of Salvation.

This afternoon I called Jennie and convinced her to come down with her kids. Though they are young, I think this was a very unique and special experience for Colette and Jamison. I hope they remember it for the rest of their lives. Jamison was so enthralled in the occasion he noticed the little things, like President Hinckley's ring and glasses. Colette is beginning to understand what a Prophet is and what it means to die. I'm glad they came to see him and that I tagged along with them. It was a special experience for me too.

I've often heard President Hinckley close funerals with these words and now I use them to close this entry..."Good night, sweet prince." How we will miss you; how grateful we are to have known you, to be led by you; how much we love you and we will always remember you. Thank you for your lasting legacy.

Cleaning Up

Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity of cleaning the Salt Lake Temple. Our ward was assigned to take it's turn sprucing it up during it's winter cleaning closure and I jumped at the chance to serve. On our shift we dismantled scaffolding in the Celestial Room and carried it through the World Room out the big wooden door just across from the Tabernacle. Then we headed up to the third floor with the three big sealing rooms and cleaned up scraps from the newly laid carpet, vacuumed, washed the walls, dusted the gold trim, polished the chandeliers, and replaced the altar, couch, and chairs in Sealing Room C, and got half-way through that list in Sealing Room A. Next we headed back to the Celestial Room where they lowered the eight chandeliers for us to dust and wash and we moved all the furniture around a few times. All too soon our four-hour shift came to an end (I could have stayed for another four hours it was that much fun).


It really was an amazing experience just to be in the Temple, to help clean it, to see it out of it's usual state of perfection, to feel the Spirit that continues to reside in it despite it's current state of chaos. But to top off the afternoon, we saw Elders Scott, Perry, Uchtdorf, Holland, and Bednar pass through a hallway in front of us and they each stopped, looked our way and waved to us (well, Elder Holland saluted). Seriously, if you ever get the chance to help clean the temple near you, do not pass it up. It will be hard work but it will definitely be worth it!

Got Talent?

Last Monday at 7:00 p.m. I decided I wanted to spring out my rarely-used talent of sewing and make a scripture bag. The new thick Joseph Smith manual just doesn't fit in my old scripture bag so I set out to create a new one. I rummaged through the scraps of material and found a cute pink floral print and some matching muslin. I sketched out a Chelsea-original pattern, selected some thread, and began. Three and a half hours later I emerged with this beauty.

Yes, it is way too big for a scripture bag and looks a whole lot like a beach bag but I am darn proud of my craftsmanship! Maybe this weekend I'll try that scripture bag again.

Two Tributes

I ran across these two videos tonight and even though they are old I had to post them because they are hilarious.

This clip is a tribute to one of Mom's favorite movies, "Bride and Prejudice" out of Baliwood. Hopefully the words to the song will get through to those aging elders in my singles ward. Remember, brethren, it's no life without a wife. (Special thanks to the unique vocal stylings of Jamison, Colette, and Jennie Mabey and my apologies I couldn't get it to rotate.)

And this last clip is a tribute to our massive slide in the backyard. You know it is one of a very few man-made objects visible from outer space. All hail the mighty slide!