Calm before the Storm

We have been kept busy this past week with extra trainings in the ins and outs of this mission experience.  In preparation for next week, we were given about 30 knowledge articles to read so that when we are "turned loose" by our trainer to answer real calls, we will be 'primed' with the correct answers and encouraged to  impart the correct answers to help patrons with the solutions to the problems they face in Family History.
I saw a bumper sticker recently that said  "You can't scare me - I have children".
and so it goes.  I not only have children, I have grandchildren - scared yet?
What is really scary is to go to the YMCA here in Prescott.  It has a very established clientele and over the years, I have come to know some of them and others to recognize by sight.
This YMCA has a coffee urn always brewing coffee and there is a group of people who gather a round the central table and discuss the latest happenings in Politics, antique cars, recent operations, among other earth shattering topics.  When it comes to fitness, I wonder if they get into the gym at all or if they just sit and drink coffee and chat.  I did notice one man from the group standing over in the Stretch Area (used by buff dudes flexing muscles in the mirror.........) and this man was holding a 3 pound  weight in his right hand, and with his arm up in a right angle he was bending his fore arm up and down in a waving motion.  Later on I saw him walking on the treadmill at a leisurely pace while holding a heated conversation with the man on the next treadmill.  Imagine my surprise when I saw him in my Zumba Class - latest jazzy looking Zumba clothes to boot.  He must have changed from gym wear to Zumba wear.
There is a sign up at the YMCA that says "Fit is the new SKINNY" - I guess if you can holdout for one hour in the Zumba class you get to be considered FIT and arrived at the new SKINNY.
We decided to go to the Beatles Show in town.  There is a band called "Paper Back Writer" and they put on this show of Beatles music.  As I looked around the theatre I saw that 98% of the people there were my age - yep, I've found my niche.  So along with the rest of them, Bill and I and our friend Margo sang along with the band and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The first part of the concert the band members wore the classic Beatle Black suits and white shirts and ties.  For the second part of the concert, they dressed up in the Sgt. Peppers outfits.  A great time was had by all.

Here we are at the mission reunion.  The other couple with us had served at the Joseph Smith Memorial in Sharon, Vermont.  We served in Augusta, Maine.  It was good to see that another senior couple showed up and kept us company.

 August got new shoes.  I really would like to have a picture of the rest of the boy, but I guess he sat still long enough to get the pictures of his shoes.

 It was not a very bright sunny day, but I walked the Pea Vine Trail to catch this picture of the totally still water in the very full Watson Lake.

 It will soon be garden time again.  These are my grow boxes, ready to receive new potting soil and then have the veggies planted in them  I cannot wait to have my own home grown tomatoes again.  Below are the first flowers of the Nectarine tree blooming.  I am hopeful that we will not get a freeze when the fruit is forming.  Need to get at least one nectarine from this 15 year old tree that has not had one nectarine form on in yet.

The new module

We have been "blessed" with a new module.  Somehow I think we were supposed to receive training before we attacked the online module, but alas, we had to muddle through on our own.  Oh well, next week will be better.  Just got a positive feedback from our leader - seems like I did well in the post test.  doing well is always good.
We have not been going to shows at the movies - they are either violent, sexually explicit, crude language etc.etc. and I do not need that stuff to enter my head.
We chose to go to live theatre recently and attended a performance of "The Grapes of Wrath".  when I was in college in Hawaii it was a movie that they showed us in our American Heritage (U.S. History) class.  I did not understand it then, and now since seeing it on the stage, still do not understand what was going on.  So a friend took me aside and told me what some of the highlights of the play said about the Dust Bowl Days in American History.  It would seem that some rather unscrupulous people sent around flyers to all the areas hard hit by the drought, promising lots of work and high wages.  It turns out that they printed thousands of those flyers and the people who made the trek in high hopes of striking it rich, found that there was work, but for a miserably low wage.  Many died of starvation and I am sure some died of a broken heart and spirit.  It reminds me of the Heuschele brothers who went or sent to Germany, glowing reports of plentiful land for cultivation, freedom and other perks to the impoverished Germans and they flocked to Australia.  My own ancestor went as an assisted passage and his piece of land was filled with Mulga and his job was to clean it, and improve it within a year.  Clearing Mulga is back breaking work.  Another story from a distant relative talks about the back breaking work she had to do because she was an indentured servant and was treated as less than human by the "missus".  All because she was a German and did not speak the language of Australia.
The theatre where this play was held is an interesting place.  It is a converted church.  The whole first floor, as you walk in off the street, has been taken out and terraces go down to what used to be the basement and that is where the stage is located.  The balcony is the old choir loft.  For the play we saw, all they had was a painted back drop of a road going off to the horizon, with four risers, two on each side of the stage that alternately served as buildings, houses, platforms for speeches, protection from the elements and we used our imagination to conjure up what the scene demanded.  One part of the play depicted the family leaving Oklahoma in a jalopy - it was made of boxes arranged to represent a cab and tray in the back but the front was represented by a bedstead with two lanterns hung on each side to represent headlights.  A lot of the play depended on this jalopy to add credence to the play.  Very well done, but I still am not much wiser about the conditions that spawned the dust bowl days and its backlash and impact on the populace of the early USA history.
We went to another show, this time at the Auditorium on the campus of Yavapai college.  This most recent one was of Celtic Dance and Celtic music - performed by Riverdance type performers and an absolutely wonderful Irish Tenor.  He talked a lot about St. Patricks Day and what it means to the people of his area of Ireland, Wexford.  He said that Wexford had contributed greatly to the USA by sending the Kennedy family over here.  (that opens a whole can of worms for me).  He told of going to his grandmother's home and seeing a picture of three wonderful people, Jack Kennedy, his brother Bobby Kennedy and the Pope....all in one picture.....then he joked - yes the holy trinity that he and his family worshipped as he was growing up. Oh and By the Way, this fellow now lives in Chicago!
This morning we left around 7.15 am to go to Mesa.  Our mission president from the New Hampshire Manchester Mission and his wife were holding a missionary reunion.  Since many of us cannot go to Utah for the annual mission reunion gathering, President Wilkey and his wife came to Arizona, because there are quite a few missionaries who served in the New Hampshire mission who call Arizona home.  About 20 of them came.  There was one other Senior Missionary couple who came so we were not alone. This couple had served in the Joseph Smith Memorial grounds in Sharon, Vermont.  When we were in Maine, we drove over to Sharon, Vermont, for a senior missionary couples weekend.
At this mission reunion, the host family had pizza dough balls in plastic bags, and we had to roll out our own pizza dough, add the toppings and they put them in a Brick Oven to bake them.  What a novelty that turned out to be.  The house and grounds were pristine and fabulous.  Obviously they are well off but I know that I do not ever want to have a house that big - it would take an absolute army of maids to keep it picked up and cleaned. I have more to do with my time than clean house.

Training continues

We are now working on something called "Sales Force".  Sounds scary! Involved! More than that, it sounds like something you would not encounter in a Genealogy arena. Well, it is not as over powering as it may seem.  Sales Force is a program used by many companies to keep track of the calls that come into their facility.  We have to keep track of the name, phone number, email and posted problem we have been asked to help solve.  In return we give the patron a number of the case and if they have to call in again, we can pull up the case and further help if needed.  Pretty magical if you ask me and so careful to give friendly, accurate and timely help to the patrons.
I am learning a lot with this training - just have to keep it in order in my head - but I guess it will become more concrete when we get to use the information in "real time practice."
I must say that I am totally amazed at the use this computer has been put to..........Yay team!
On a personal note I have to report what has happened to my circle of friends.  Had to say goodbye to my friend Portia.  She went into the doctor to have a rather simple, run of the mill clean out of her sinus system, but during the procedure she had a massive stroke and passed away.  It was a real blow to see her name in the paper.  I first met her at a Tai Chi class at the YMCA and went to lunch with her and another friend and had a great time.  I miss her.  Another friend named Claudine passed away suddenly and I was really upset to see that obit in the paper.  I was her visiting teacher for a number of years before we left for Maine.  She loved nature and had a drinking  bowl out in her back yard for the antelope that walked through her property.  I saw them one day when I was there visiting.  I did not know that she was a bow hunter and in her family she is credited with bagging the biggest Javelina on one of their hunting trips.  She was a nursing staff person at the Pioneer Home.  The next one was Bro. Ray Gardner.  He was known in the area as the best fiddle player in cowboy concerts.  I went to the church prior to his funeral and saw that they had his fiddle on display along with his cowboy hat.  He was noted as being a true cowboy.
On a happier note, Ethan is doing well in his Gymnastics.  Recently he went to a big meet in Minneapolis.  It has been the biggest meet so far.  He came home 3rd over all and brought home a lot of medals.  He has many medals now - each event he places in he is awarded a medal.  Go Ethan!
Lyla and Oliver will be starting Soccer on March 31 and Lyla is still taking horse riding lessons.   I guess you can say that Sara and Jacob keep the kids involved - repeating history I suppose - Bill and I kept the kids David and Sara on the move as well.  hectic lives all round.
For Christmas David was given a Superman Pajama with cape and he loved it.  However, it fitted him around the girth but the legs and arms were too long.  So, he insisted that we go to JoAnn's to buy some matching red fabric to put as cuffs on sleeves and legs when we shortened them.  So, he decided he would cut the red band off the leg and attacked it with my scissors.  when it came time to trim the arms and legs, we found that he had cut the arm and not the leg.  Guess he will not be given a job at Armani helping make suits etc.  At least he did not run with the scissors!!!!!
The third motif of the millefiore paper pieces block of the month has arrived and I have done the center block.  Decided to do South West theme for this one.  Yes, it is not a Millefiore like pattern, but  it is my quilt and if I say each block has its own theme then it is ok - it is my quilt.