Conference Center

These are some of the women I served with at the Conference Center on my Monday shift. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I downloaded this photo. Just LOOK at those faces! The first time I met the elderly woman, Krista, (second from the right), I let her physical frailties color my impression. Oh my goodness was I wrong. She has the energy of someone half her age and is the BEST story teller. She's a kind, gifted woman full of light, with a sparkle in her eyes and a keen wit. Her frame is hunched over and she walks r-e-e-e-e-a-l-l-y slowly, but her husband Joe sits tall in the saddle - like Dennis will when we're old and I'm hunched over like Krista. The blonde lady seated on the left is a gospel doctrine teacher just like me. One day we were sharing some thoughts about an upcoming lesson, and the topic of Joseph Smith translating using a seerstone in a hat came up. She said "My son just wrote a book about that."  I gasped and responded "MY son just illustrated a book about that!" Turns out it was the same book!! We were giddy to find out that our sons not only teach together at BYU but amazingly had recently worked together on a book. Both of us immediately texted our respective boys, and they both responded with "He's a genius" (I guess it's a running joke between the two of them. Although Tony later said to me, "No, mom, Michael Mackay really IS a genius"). The lady standing on the far left never had children. She was a down to earth person of few words, five foot two (like I swear 90% of the women were, accompanied by 90% of the men who were all 5 foot 7, I felt like a giant). She had the most brilliant blue eyes, like little blue marbles, that were actually quite startling if you looked directly into them. I always wondered what she looked like as a little girl. The lady seated second from the left, Jane, is as full of goodness as she looks. She was the designated "Resource Specialist" before she got a new responsibility and I replaced her and was such a good "resource" for me. She was one of those people who immediately decides to call me "Barb." The lady third from the left is one of those people whose smile and face immediately drew me in. She seemed familiar the first time I met her. I feel like we're related somewhere down the line, because something about her instantly reminded me of my Aunt Barbara, so all pretenses were down from the get-go. She has nine children and is as sturdy and buoyant and curious and no-nonsense as a farm girl in a novel (at least in a novel I would write? Are farm girls curious and/or buoyant?). Interestingly, she had eight boys and one girl- and so did a lady on my Friday shift have nine children, eight boys and one girl! I always wanted to get them together. The lady on the far right, Cindy, was someone I didn't get to know very well at first and then got really close to toward the end of my time at the conference center. She brought her husband to the Christmas party and he was so handsome and debonair! He reminded me of Celine Deon's husband, although I know next to nothing about Celine Deon's husband. She was so open-hearted and vulnerable and loved to talk when we had slow days. Both of her sons had hemophilia and unbelievably one of them died of AIDS after receiving blood transfusions from someone with AIDS during the unknown and uncertain days when the AIDS epidemic began.

This is a "snapshot" of a few of the people I got to serve with over the almost three years I was at the Conference Center. I could include 10 more snapshots of all of the others. I wanted to get this down on my blog because I want to remember it. After I was released in November, it was so transforming to have two whole extra days to get everything done that I wanted to do during the holidays. And I was kind of surprised that I didn't miss it more, but I honestly didn't miss it! Although, now that it's the middle of bleak mid-winter, I have little pangs of wondering if I might want to do it again. Crazy! Or, I might want to just be a piano player one day a week at the conference center, that would be fun, and not exhausting at all, and serving at the conference center is - ex-haus-ting! But also great missionary experiences almost every day which are a blessing beyond measure.  I might also look into playing the organ at the temple one day a week. Who knows! But Amy just moved to Logan YESTERDAY!!!! and we are going to ROME in JUNE! So, I will probably continue enjoying this stretch of time with no responsibilities -  for now :-)

November, 2018

I've updated this blog with some additional photos recently but haven't had the wherewithall to write too much. I'm a "General Conference Blogger" I do it semi-annually!

To start the month of November we got a bonus visit from Ethan and Forrest. They stayed over night with us en route to Los Angeles where Ethan is going to pursue his dream of working in the entertainment industry. What an opportunity. I know these next few years will be so valuable for him as he grows into the fine man he is already becoming! The phrase "blew my mind" is the only thing I can use to describe how it felt to hear Ethan play the piano! Oh my gosh! Mind blown! He's fabulous! And although he took lessons in elementary school, he's mostly self taught now. He's so talented and has musicality as a natural gift. The songs he learns are from background music for video games. Who knew? I guess it's kind of like classical music that was behind lots of the cartoons I grew up watching. And they're so beautiful!

So far I've never been able to upload videos to the blog but I'll try again :-)Nope, it didn't work.

The girls around the piano after a Sunday dinner. I cherish the wonderful routine of being able to enjoy occasional Sunday dinners with Tony's family. Just the ritual of setting a proper table; the squeaky wheels of the extra dining room table as we wheel it in from the laundry room (it belonged to my mom and dad); the sound of the front door bursting open and nine people all streaming into our house saying "Graaaandmaaa!" "it smells sooooo good" and giving us hugs; putting out the Sunday funnies for Jane to read (although I always borrowed them from my dad because he still took the newspaper and now that he's no longer with us, there's no Sunday paper to borrow); listening to the girls play the piano and sing after dinner; somebody maybe falling asleep on the couch; ping pong in the basement; maybe Uncle Wiggley or Old Maid or if I can talk them into it Rack-O; Dennis doing the dishes, with everyone pitching in to help him; then after the evening is over standing with Dennis out on the driveway in stocking feet in the darkened night and hearing them all yell "byyyyyyyyyeeeeee!!!!!" in unison as they head down toward home...............then Dennis wheels the garbage cans out to the curb because it's Sunday night...........and I don't have to get up in the morning because.............I'M RETIRED! And I am finished serving at the Conference Center on Mondays and Fridays. I am as free as a bird!

Another fun moment in time for November, 2018 - five of the nine Springville Sweats are all basically the same height!! And that height is around 5-3!!

Reagan and I matched! And FYI for all women younger than me, apparently age 66 is when your neck starts to wrinkle! There's a book by Nora Ephron titled "I Feel Bad About my Neck!" and when I read it when I 50 and thought it was funny, now I don't think it's so funny!


NOW FLY WITH ME ACROSS THE UNITED STATES TO BEAUTIFUL MINNESOTA.....

We got to attend East Ridge High School's production of "Les Miserables" and see Jonas perform on stage - FINALLY! We were all set to go last year, but Dennis was recovering from quadruple bypass surgery so we had to wait until this year and I'm so glad we did because Oh.My.GOSH! I remarked that I would have paid to see this production - and then was reminded that we did (well, Angie did, thank you!!). They have so much talent at that High School and Jonas shines with all of the rest of them. It's so fun to pick out "our" personal family favorite performer throughout the play. Jonas is a great actor and a fabulous singer. It was just, well, epic!

And he looks pretty good in the "beard" too! They have single red roses that you can buy to give to cast members and I think they should have big pepepperoni sticks tied with red ribbons or something for the boys?

The blur to my left is Hugo.He is literally the cutest dog I've ever known. and Kodiak is giving us a "look" from high above on her perch. Wherever she deigns to go, that is her perch. Maybe Kodiak is a boy huh. I still think cats are girls and dogs are boys.

Angie and Forrest have a bird feeder directly outside the kitchen door and oh the Minnesotan birds are almost tropical they're so gorgeous. These bright red ones! When we lived in Minnesota one of the things that struck me was how much the songs of the birds was different than the ones here in Utah. And it made me immediately feel nostalgic for Iowa when I lived there as a little girl, the birds must be a lot of the same varieties.

Dennis - in HIS perch assuming the Dennis position.

Angie on HER office perch filling the world with her genius. She has to be a genius because she was talking in full sentences at nine months of age! Really!  The opportunity she has to be part of the Saints team is breathtaking in its scope to me. The things she's able to accomplish and assimilate and then create this substantial work that will stand for generations is just awesome. My gosh she works hard!

I had to take a picture of the sticky notes on the wall Angie was using to organize all of the different stories and historical timelines for whatever chapter she was working on!!!

And Jonas works hard too - he was sooooo busy while we were there - plays exact a huge commitment from all who are part of the process. Plus he's a genius too!

This is the map of Michigan that's on the door in their kitchen. It shows all the places Elise is or will be serving during her mission! I'm just so proud of her, and she's having such a great experience. I love reading her weekly emails, and love emailing her too!

This photo of Wyatt embraces Elise's room where I got to sleep. He was the first thing I saw every morning, and the last thing I saw every night. He is always with us, always near.

Here is Hugo's cute face. I mean, really, he's got the cutest Chewbacca face in the universe!

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Angie loves Yoga and she let me "do" some with her. She was so gentle in her instructions and in what she asked me to do. Pretty sure the downward dog was not part of it. I liked it though! My problem is one of laziness and age. Lazy just because, and age because now I think "Oh what the heck, what's the point at this stage of the game?" But I don't really mean it, there's always hope that I'll change my mind.....I think I'll go lift my 5-pound weights 13 times right now. Be right back.....

I did it! And that took some effort (not weight lifting, but taking a photo with one hand, downloading the photo and adding it to the blog!).

Cats are so predictable in some ways, and so smart too. They love to sit on piles of clean laundry, get into boxes and sacks, and sit on completed jigsaw puzzles. I think every cat does this. I am no good at Jigsaw puzzles, but I LIKE them! My mom and dad often had one up, and it's a huge part of my memories of these past few years before Grandpa passed away last May. I remember placing some puzzle pieces on dad's bed tray one night during the last few days of his life and he did a little bit of sorting. Until a few months ago it was one of the things I could do with Grandma Hiatt, but now she is too far gone into the gripping fog of Ahlzheimers to do them. I loved doing them with her! When she found a piece she would  exclaim --- I can't remember what it was now - it wasn't "BINGO" but it was something like that.

We took Hugo on a walk at their dog park, which like everything in Minnesota's great outdoors, is just gorgeous. It was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g.

Angie is serving in the nursery - AND THEY HAVE 15 LITTLE ONES IN THE NURSERY! Each one of them cuter than CUTE because that age is just ridiculously delicious. (and part of their pure darling nature is they are blissfully unaware that some day they will have wrinkled necks :-).


WE HAD SUCH A GREAT VISIT! I love Minnesota and our Minnesota kids soooo much.



and then we were back home to Utah for THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Forrest and Angie taught me how to make fresh cranberries and it's one of the happiest, most colorful, most amazing things I ever enjoy cooking! Pop pop pop!

Amy's family have made the over the river and through the woods trip from Colorado to Utah for Thanksgiving the last few years and it makes my heart sing! All the "adults" go Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving night, and Dennis and I stay home and put the little kids to bed and listen to them play together in the basement. This picture is the "younger" table. Jane took one for the team and sat with the kids. I make grape juice and spike it with 7-up just like my Grandmother did for us when I was young.

Hurrah for the CHOCOLATE pie! These little girls have such fun together. We miss having cute  Caroline to add to this age group of grandkids.

Calvin is a hoot. I don't think he's ever taken a picture with a normal look on his face!

And this isn't a normal look for Jack either he was acting it out for me and did a great job! The Huish's eat "first" Thanksgiving with the Huish side and then come to our house for "second" Thanksgiving so those kids are stuffed to the gills by the time desert is served!

Seriously the chocolate pie eating!!!

SERIOUSLY THE CHOCOLATE PIE EATING! I think Dennis and I are the only pumpkin pie aficionados and lucky for us DAVE makes us a home made pumpkin pie! I don't have pictures.

Amy is a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, piano teacher, and small business owner AND can juggle!

We started making this turkey last Thanksgiving but it got lost in the chaos. And I needed help again this year. I think Vivi actually put it together for me. The kids wrote all sorts of things they were thankful for on the feathers.

And then there was singing around the piano - pretty sure there was some Hamilton going on here....

Jack and Eli helping Truman with the Christmas train....and they put together this puzzle pictured below. 300 piece puzzle with lots of figures and colors, I like this one!

and I love Macy and Carly in all their cuteness in these colorful costumes. I've had these for 15 years and they fit the girls just PERFECTLY right now. A couple of more years and I'll have to put them away and save them for great-grandkids - or...... wait......should I Kondo-ize them? Horrors, NO!

Truman has "his" pile of books he brings to me now.....Blueberries for Sal is his favorite. He loves the bear. Do any of you kids remember when Grandpa Hiatt recorded Blueberries for Sal for you? He read it out loud and you could turn the pages.

When I think of where all of you kids live - Castle Rock, Colorado, Greensboro, North Carolina, Woodbury, Minnesota and Springville, Utah, you live in such beautiful cities and surroundings. and WE, although I love love LOVE our house and neighborhood, and Utah in general, well, we are by the kinda non-beautifulness of the Jordan River. BUT this Thanksgiving walk photographs sooooo well every year! I just adore the fact that it's a walking path so I can drag out the scooters for the kids and they can zip all around without me having to freak out about cars. I'm so sorry I was not worried about a THING when you were growing up. Now I'm worried about everything.

Cute little faces (the kids, not the ducks)!

Carly loves the ducks! And the ponds are right around the bend, it's a brisk walk and we're there.

Ahhhh Thanksgiving. Truly one of my favorite holidays of the year. It's so beautifully melancholy outside and smells so good inside with roasting turkey and the celery and onion sauteing for the stuffing and the pungent smell of marshmallows going up in flames on the sweet potato casserole! XOXOXOX Mama