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We've known it's coming for years.  We've known Glo would have to play a recital to fulfill the requirements of her music education degree.  After much effort to align schedules, the date was set: Thursday, November 18, 2021. Years ago (five years to be exact), I bought Glo the music for "The Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams.  I think it is one of the  most beautiful pieces in all of violin literature, and I begged her to study it and play it sometime before she graduated.  Well, when she was thinking about her 45 minute recital, and what she would like to include on it, she took the idea of "Lark" to her teacher, and it was approved!  She also took the suggestion from me that she should invite Mark to play on her recital, seeing as she had played on his recital five years earlier, and she and Mark decided to play the same Brahms horn trio from his recital. It was difficult, hosting a recital in a place where we don't have a lot of friends o...

Yesterday, I went to the temple for an office worker training session.  The temple is slated to open in a week, and the temple presidency is attempting to get things in order before it opens.  Full disclosure: I do NOT enjoy working in the office which is very strange, because I've spent any working years of my life as a receptionist/secretary/switchboard operator, and I love the job.  The problem this time is that there is no clear explanation of how to do anything in the office--as the office manager said when I first hired on, "You'll pick it up."  I want a binder that has tabs for every procedure that needs to be done with clear instructions which would make sense because we have   so many   different workers.  Another problem is that because we don't have clear instructions, several of the women who have done this for years have their own way of doing things, often contrary to each other, and if and when I stray from what one of them has...

Roxy.  The original Aussie.  The puppy we chose from a litter of pups because she was friendly and pretty.    Like Jake, it felt like she would live forever.  15 years old for an Aussie is really  old, but in the end, not even Rox was immortal. When we first moved to PA and were still living in the Residence Inn (waiting for our home to be built), the kids had the idea that we needed a dog.  We were moving to 11 acres, and John was going to be on call a lot.  We took several "which dog is best for you" quizzes online, and every time we received the same result--an Australian Shepherd.  The kids developed a whole presentation for John to convince him that we needed a dog.  In the end, he caved. Back in 2006, dogs were advertised by word of mouth, or in the paper, so I started searching some papers online.  The only Aussie I could find was advertised near Carlisle, a good two hour drive away.  The kids and I loaded up in the van,...