Mystery of Missing Mission Call Starts with M

I just talked to the kind Bro Godfrey from the mission department, having called him because we needed to change our address from Chris's to Rye Court, Anacortes.

He said, funny thing you should have called - I have just talked to your stake president....

It turns out that they had processed our papers, and knew that I was probably related to John, an astronomer...

But they couldn't send us our call because of our photo.

!!!!!!

What was wrong with our photo?

The MUSTACHE! One has a choice: mustache or mission.

He said if I would cross my heart and hope to die, he would go ahead and send our call along with the others for processing, and that it would go out in the mail next Tuesday. He laughed and said it could not go out today no matter what.

But I had to promise to provide a new photo with no mustache!

I said I would but that it would take a few days while we were in transit. He was ok w/ that.

So next Thursday or so, we should get our call. We are having it sent to our home address so we don't have to hang out at the post office. It has been cleared by the Apostles already.

The actual mustache-bearer is not overjoyed, but will comply. Right before we do the photo, I think...

Sad...

...to say, the call did not arrive in the mail today. Thanks for checking in.

An Hour Later...

The mail just came!

The spirit of prophecy is upon me.

Did I mention yesterday at this time that ...

I didn't think it would come today? Actually, I was pretty sure it wouldn't come today.

Of course we're talking here about our MISSION CALL!

Well....

It didn't come today.

The mail comes at 10 am tomorrow....

:)

Actually, I don't think it's going to come then, either. :-

Mail Comes at 10 am MT...

...and right now it is...10:04!

And it hasn't come yet.

Just thought you'd like to know...

Sealings

After much planning and careful coordination with Chris and the Romneys, today we had our long-planned family sealing session. Much thanks to our special friends!

It was a spirit-filled event, with many happy family members in attendance, too many to count. Humility, hope, and repentance filled some hearts, and also relief.

Babies (Leslie, William Edward, Teresa, Charles H, Chauncey) were made part of their forever-families, and parents were joined to receive them. Couples greeted each other with open arms.

The work is just beginning, and we know we'll have ever so many more helpers for future searches.

We'd like to schedule another sealing in SLC when everyone can make it. We'll know better what dates might work in another day or two, when we learn whether we will be in Mongolia at this time next year, or Salt Lake, or Milwaukee or Atlanta or Yellowknife. Once we know, the planning will begin in earnest.

Already Chris and the girls will do baptisms this Saturday, with 18 scheduled so far. If you'd like to do some of the work for these loved ones, please let me know.

Checking the Mailbox, Wed 28 May 2008

It's a beautiful day here in Salt Lake City, about 72, sunny with some fluffy white clouds. We had a wonderful sealing session at the temple this morning. Afterwards it was time to check the mailbox.

Actually, when we got back, Andrya had already brought the mail in, but I didn't know that. The mailbox was empty...

But inside the mail was on the counter in the kitchen. AND!!!!

Our call envelope was not there. It didn't come today.

Sigh!

So now we have ONE MORE CHANCE - tomorrow. After that, we'll have left.

Or actually, we don't have to leave till Fri afternoon, so that is actually the last chance. Stay tuned!

Peace

Here we are in Boulder UT. If you haven't been, you might want to make the effort to come. The scenery alone would make it worthwhile, and there's no describing it. Red, yellow, rugged, wet, cold...

Down the street from where we're being hosted, Navajo sheep graze in a field next to Belgian draft horses. These churro sheep are great to eat, but even more valuable as a source of the finest wool, or maybe mohair.

Back toward town, cattle appear and disappear again as they are moved from one field to another. These are grass-fed, mostly Black Angus (so probably corn-finished). Across the street is our friend's famous restaurant, Hell's Backbone Grill (named after a well-known nearby land formation).

We ate at the grill last night as guests of the establishment. We had, variously, trout, trout, chicken enchiladas, and meat loaf. But these are not the usual presentations of these standard foods. They were exceptional, but again, indescribable. Save your pennies and come taste these novel combinations. One clue: my trout came with quinoa mixed with lots of pine nuts and other things, and worked perfectly with the trout.

Everything at the restaurant comes from nearby, or as nearby as possible. It also comes with Buddhist prayer flags. One of the owners is Buddhist and practices the doctrine of extreme friendliness and kindness and caring.

So this has been a great stopover on our way north. First, the unseasonably cold weather has prepared us to some degree for the transition from Tucson. We drove in snow yesterday when we were out trying to see the sights. Next, we have been treated very well by our hostess. And third, we have enjoyed the company of three of our granddaughters and their father, our eldest son.

Tomorrow we go to church in this small Mormon community with half the town likely to be in attendance. Because we are friends with the owner of the biggest commercial establishment in town - the restaurant - we will be somewhat famous when we get there.

Then tomorrow afternoon we get to tour the organic farm that supplies the produce for the restaurant. It's 6.1 acres and they use everything they grow for the restaurant.

This is a neat place. The wetness comes as drainage from the surrounding mountains. It's delightfully damp and makes gardening and farming doable.

Come see!

Still Sitting In The Closet..

When all your stuff is in boxes (except for your computer) it's hard to be productive, helpful, creative, or anything else.

So I'm still sitting in the closet. The movers have been here for just under 9 hours. They still have boxes to put in the truck, and haven't started on the ones from the garage. They are doing a beautiful job - a knife couldn't be inserted between the boxes. That's because the estimate was too low, the cu ft too skimpy, and the truck too small.

It may be another hour. We've changed plans several times today, as the promised finish time of 3:30 came and went. It's 7 pm now, actually 7:10. We had to cancel taking Madi and Sam out for dinner, all dressed up, for one thing, and I'm very sad about that.

I am fairly certain this will be behind us tomorrow. Then we take a rest day, attend to a few last-minute details, and prepare to head out early Thurs to see Van and the girls in Boulder UT at 6 pm MT. Lots to look forward to! That's why we want to get a little rest. We hope NOT to get up at 4:xx tomorrow morning!

We're grateful to the Pershings for housing us, and to the Paulls and then the Lemburgs for feeding us.

And you all for your tacit support.

I think I'm glad the mission call isn't coming this week after all. We want to savor the experience and be spiritually prepared when it happens, and right now - we're just too tired!

But next week we'll be ready! Don't forget to keep an eye on this blog and then call our conference line that night at 6:30 PT to hear all about it: 308-344-6400 pin 887953#.

Love you all!

Sitting In My Closet

Here I am, an hour after the movers were to have been done, sitting in my closet. They have progressed to the stage where they are carrying things out to the van. They have been here 6 hours, and our belongs are wrapped in miles and miles of plastic tape. It is an environmental nightmare.

I am in my closet because there is no furniture in here. An electrical outlet in the bathroom just outside the closet door is keeping the two laptops happy. I am sitting on the floor. Just a few minutes ago I woke up from a fitful 10 min nap with my head on a computer case.

Moving is the pits. STUFF is an abomination - until you don't have a chair to sit on or a bed or pillow for your weary head.

The movers are Russian, or rather Khazk or Kazakh or Kazahk or one of those. One is kind of Mongolian or Hun type, oriental plus Slavic. The other is strictly Turkic or Altaic. They are from the same unnamed city; the former has been in the US for 4 years (and his wife is back home). They drove 10 hours to get here from LA, then got to work. Tonight they go to drop things off in Phoenix, then may head back to LA. I guess it doesn't pay to sleep. I treated them to Bianchi's meatball grinders for lunch, and cokes. They ate while standing at the counter, half of the sub each so they wouldn't fall asleep, then went and sat on the front 'porch' for a smoke.

I have decided to sit in the closet rather than develop the relationship further. I know I would be closing the door each time they go through it, so it's better that I have taken myself out of the action.

The whole process has been annoying: packed drawers were unpacked - POLICY! (and fills up more boxes). A lot of baloney. But it's almost done.

Maybe another hour. We're ready to be done.

Now for the big shocker that we finally figured out: we had thought that the blankets would be draped onto the furniture. We didn't know everything would be taped on in multiple layers and twists and turns. The problem is that they will need their blankets back when they deliver the furniture to the storage facility, so it will be stored - and moved, when we have a place for it - without the blankets that they have spent 6 hours putting on. What about the next move?

Too much to contemplate! It's not likely to happen till 2 years for 2.5 years from now, I think. Unless we go on another mission, and then even longer.

Moral: I have no idea. We have lovely furniture we bought in 1969, and there's not much like it out there today. I guess we could have ditched it and started over. Or not moved, ever. That would mean living in a 3 /1 1200 sf house in Lexington MA, the first home of some of these pieces. No move to Wellesley, South Natick, Sweetwater, a storage unit, or Sallee Pl.

Or else you just put up w/ moving day from time to time. We hope that after today there's only one more time .

Leaving Tucson

In a day and a half, we leave Tucson.

How does that feel? Well, half the story is already written: we love where we are going.

The other half made us feel pretty good, too: the temp in Tucson hit 103 degrees today (65 in Anacortes).

I don't want to hide in an air-conditioned house, but that's what I end up doing here. Part of it's the heat, and part is the pollen. The valley is filled with blooming trees that are stunning and viciously itch-inducing. My eyes seem to be the major complainers.

Even so, it is hard to leave the home we have had, at least part time but mostly full time, for the past nearly 27 years.

Of course it's mostly the people. We know many people here, have some friends, have even more family.

But we have friends and family in many communities, in many states, and have learned to live without being in physical contact with them.

So we think this won't be any different: we will miss them, but it seems that in this modern world we can't have them - not all of them.

None of these observations will keep me from trying to get everyone permanently together in a microcosmic universe. We may be apart, but we don't have to like it, and we don't have to tolerate it. So now it's time for some serious plotting. Hehe.

Progress On Move

These cute grandkids keep coming over and that doesn't make moving any easier!

But as for our infinite quantity of belongings, we are continuing to close doors, literally: both front bedrooms are CLOSED. Their bathroom is CLOSED. The supply closet is CLOSED as of 30 minutes ago...

The living room is lined w/ boxes and has furniture awaiting their ride north, but otherwise it is done.

That leaves the kitchen (needs to be used for another day and a half), family room (an hour's work needed from me), D's office (needs furniture moved out, closet needs an hour's attention from me), our room's closet is CLOSED, bathroom almost, bedroom almost... Clothes are all sorted and packed, and that was the biggest deal in the bedroom.

We'll make it. Monday is another day, not without its challenges (103 degrees, for example). That's the day we load the car and U-Haul trailer. Everything else goes in the moving van on Tuesday morning (104 degrees forecast). That night we have a date, then Wed morning I have an appt, then Wed noon we have a date, then Wed afternoon we leave and go as far as N AZ.

On Thurs we meet up w/ Van and the girls...

Sis Baty Called Back...

I was asleep when she called, and later I almost forgot about it.

She said she had a message from me on her answering machine. I reminded her about our conversation, that the message I left predated that. This was yesterday.

It was kind of funny. We've had a new call from SLC every day this week, or just about. This one was NOTHING. But the others were all potential roadblocks. So this was just one of those teasers.

But so far so good, and we may make it to the committee this week!

Blue Suit

Today as I was finishing the last of my mother's boxes, I encountered an item that brought back a lot of memories.

Actually, as I have been doing these 10 final boxes of hers, I have been steeped in memories, plus items that predate me, plus a lot of junk. It's lovely to have a place like Deseret Industries to donate unwanted stuff to!

And before I start about the blue suit, I want to make this categorical statement: storing precious things in a box for 60 or more years does not add to their beauty. Moth doth corrupt, etc.

But about the blue suit:

It turns out that Nana had some items that I would not have associated with her. For example, she had probably 50 handkerchiefs, all pristine (except for the 60 years) and most quite lovely. I know she was fond of textiles and this was part of that love, I suspect. Another example is her collection of gloves.

I never saw my mother wear gloves! Or maybe on Easter. But she had many many lovely pairs. I have given a lot of them to DI, because they are too small for me, and still in beautiful shape. I have saved a more exotic dress-uppy sort of pair for a granddaughter. Among them all I found a pair of my own gloves.

They are in perfect condition. I know I had gloves as a child (beyond the ones for playing in the snow) and then I had these, and one other pair. (Come to think of it, I had to wear white gloves to dancing school, but these were a different sort, a lighter weight, purely decorative.)

These gloves I found today are white. I recognized them immediately. They are for a middle-school sized girl. I wore them with the blue suit I made for Easter when I was in Grade 8 or 9.

This blue suit was one of the fanciest things I had made at that point. It had a relatively straight skirt, calf-length, of medium blue wool. The jacket was of the same fabric, short, with big blue buttons up the front. What made the sewing a challenge is that it had a 'waistband' at the bottom (of the jacket), so all the fullness of the jacket needed to be captured smoothly into the waistband. Then to complicate matters, the back had a huge pleat in it from yoke to waistband that gave the jacket some fulness in the back. Whether the jacket had a collar I don't remember.

I have a photo somewhere of me wearing it. I had on a white blouse and the white gloves I found today. I thought I'd hold onto the gloves. The suit is no doubt long-gone.

I don't remember the clothes we bought, but I do remember the ones I made. I just wanted to share the joy I had in creating that suit. That's why I'm keeping the gloves.

Mission Update 5/15/08

We just got a call from the Missionary Dept. They would like to send us on a mission but Bro Lewis's blood pressure is too high.

Sis Lewis: Oh, Sis Baty called about that last week and wouldn't release our papers to you until we could give her a good report.

Bro Evans: Oh she already did that!

Sis Lewis: Yes, would you like to know what the numbers were?

Bro Evans: Oh yes, certainly.

Sis Lewis: (reports the three days of good numbers)

Bro Evans: Sounds like you folks should go on a mission! Congratulations on the good blood pressure! You've missed the committee rotation for this week but they will go to the committee next week, and you should get a letter from us, oh, in about 2 weeks.

Sis Lewis: hmm, we'll be in Salt Lake by then!

Bro Evans: Let me ck the address, oh yes, Quail Run Sandy, very good.

Sis Lewis (w/ a sigh): Thank you!

Bro Evans: Bye

So...about Wed May 28 or Thurs May 29, at Chris's, just as he and Andrya had hoped. Unless someone else would like to know something else! :)

Other mtDNA - A Wish List

For MY lineage, since I don't have a Y chromosome, I can only get mtDNA. It's an interesting thought about how to do this since my father is dead and my brother has the same as mine.

So first, how to get my father's. Well, that would come from his mother, and she is dead and had no daughters. But she did have a sister, who is also dead. Her sister, I just found out, had daughters. One of them lived in CA until 15 years ago or so! Did she have any daughters? I haven't been able to find out. But if she did, or if her sisters did (and I don't know what happened to them - yet) then they have the same mtDNA as my father and his mother and that whole maternal line.

What about my maternal grandfather? He had sisters. Where are their female offspring? I'll have to ask Dot...

And my paternal grandfather? That would be his sisters' daughters' daughters. I met one of those daughters once, one of Aunt Ella's daughters. In 1980, before mtDNA testing. I wonder if she had daughters...I wonder if she's still alive. Someone w/ her name is alive in the right part of Stamford.... That would give us Margaret Fagan's maternal line.

The question is, does it matter? I think so! Genetics has a lot to do with temperament and tendencies, and populations have characteristics that differentiate them from other populations. The implications for understanding are enormous! What do you think?

Obviously this is just an example from my own results. Whose samples do you need before it's too late?

Haplotype Results

I have my Sorenson Molecular Genetic haplotype results for my mtDNA.

I belong to haplotype U5a1 with an additional detail that I haven't been able to track down.

This group entered Europe very early, possibly from the Near East, about 50,000 years ago. It followed the retreating glaciers closely, and arrived before agriculture.

(This is interestingly the same pattern that we discovered when I was investigating wheat sensitivity: predating agriculture, following the glaciers - ie hunter-gathers.)

This group inhabited the periphery of northwestern Europe, though apparently were not Celtic and did not occupy the British Isles at this time.

The mtDNA is passed from mother to daughter down through the ages. Sons get it from their mothers but can't pass it on.

So our mtDNA came from my mother, my grandmother Teresa Clark, her mother Mary Quigley from County Monaghan in Ireland ...and that's about all we know. Looking at a surname map of the British Isles, we see Quigley is not Irish but British, as is Clark. My guess is that the Quigleys and Clarks were part of garrisons in Ireland, married locally, and found their offspring marrying locally also. I have to figure out the generations and timing and see if this works.

The part of England where the Quigleys and Clarks are found are the northern parts on the east coast, with the Clarks distributed much more widely in England than the Quigleys. The northern part of the east coast is a good place for northern mainlanders to wander to and stay, and that notion is compatible with the mtDNA results.

It's a tall tale with some possibilities behind it. Does anyone want to help find out more?

The Best Of The Best

Thanks to Martie, who put this together. It brought such joy that it can't be expressed. I am posting it here so you can partake and enjoy, too - and also so that I'll always have it. I found last night at a moment of regret at having eaten something not so good that it had great therapeutic value.

Happy Mother's Day and Father's Day, Grammy and Grampy

We can't take credit for all the cuteness. We just got things started. What I especially love is the mixing of families, so many connections between family members who don't see each other very often or know each other very well. May they always turn to each other for comfort, support, and fun - as they do here.

We are appreciative of our own children and also very much so of our in-law children, who add so much to the family. We love them, we love their parents.

We are blessed.

Reunion 2008

This is based on a lot of BIG IFs.

IF we are in SLC for our mission, and IF the SLC family members could handle another reunion (same or different), we could have a reunion over Thanksgiving, because we are scheduled to report on Nov 7 IF we have a SLC mission and IF it begins in Nov (right after our availability date of Nov 1).

IF that plan doesn't appeal, this would be a good time to suggest another one!

I am with Manda. (See Meg's blog.) We need another reunion! Some of those kids are growing awfully fast!

(In another 10 years we're going to have to have color-coded tee shirts so everyone can keep track of whose cousin-kids they're looking at.)

Thanks to MTLM for putting together such a glorious slideshow for Grampy and Grammy, and to Chub for the dubbing!

Sis Baty Called Back, and...

Sis Baty called back, and asked for D's blood pressure numbers and my blood iron numbers. I gave them to her. She asked what mine had been. I told her. She was delighted in the change. She asked if I was going to keep on taking iron. I told her I certainly was. She asked if I had more energy already...I was agreeable about that.

Then she said...ok, then, I will pass these papers on (said with many exclamation points). !!!!!

So I said THANK YOU (with many more exclamation points). !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And she sounded pleased at that and said a buoyant goodbye.

So that's that. The papers have made it through the first Church Headquarters filter.

(Since I didn't know there was one at this stage, I couldn't venture to guess how many more there might be.)

But...it is possible they will go to the Brethren now.

:)

Impatience And Attitude

I know that any minute now Sis Baty from Church Headquarters could call back.

And I know that she could say, ok, I'll send your papers to the Brethren before lunch.

Or she could say, not yet, keep working on it and call back in 3 months.

I also know she might not call back today.

So I am working on getting myself ready for all these possibilities.

I'll work on that easy, flexible attitude. I might even go get some breakfast instead of sitting here by the phone waiting and talking about waiting and wondering and...

Oh never mind. It's no big deal.

Sigh.