Waiting

I packed my bag the night before--chapstick, an easy read, a few dollars, insurance card, and of course a flannel baby blanket to crochet while waiting. I packed it all into my homemade-by-my- Mom quilted bag. The hospital takes care of the patient but support people take care of themselves. I dress in layers, you never know if it will be too hot or too cold. I set my alarm early and awaken wondering if I really slept. Hurry up, Hurry up. Drive.
Check in. Hurry, wait...
What time is it? Oh, I almost forgot, time as we know it has ceased to exist. Double check with the patient to see if I can do anything for them. The patient this time, dressed in a periwinkle gown and white hose, isn't crying, throwing up, or resisting being poked, whew, that makes my job easier. I try a joke, "when you wear a dress you need to keep your knees together". Something I've said many times just never to this family member. Wait, wait, wait.
Wheeled away before I can say good-bye.
Now, the hard part, waiting.
First, I double the estimate of the surgery and promise myself that I will not worry until that time. I settle into a chair in the waiting room. Wait, wait.
I remind myself that during this time I will not be visiting the subjects of: infection, malpractice, insurance benefits, major life changes, fairness, how many times I have sat in a room like this, or any other similar or discouraging subject. Visit the hospitality cart, wonder what the expiration date was on the muffins, try one. Wait.
Get myself a drink.
Call home. Wait. wait.
Try to ignore the phones ringing, appointments being scheduled, and especially the surgeons telling others that their patient is done. Crochet and wait, crochet and wait, crochet and wait.
Hum, interesting conversation: Deseret Gym did what? The Boys swam in the nude during the '50's? Really? Intrude into conversation with harmless looking older men. Listen to them talk about the polio scare of their boyhood and their great grandmother who crossed the plains with the first handcart pioneers and lived long enough travel to Florida by airplane and how frustrating it is to miss a temple assignment and just sit and wait for his patient to have her surgery and he was the batisimal supervisor and he thought he was going to be able to do his shift but the hospital kept calling back and changing the time and then he'd have to call his coordinator, again... and I hope he didn't mention how inconvenienced he was to his patient.
Wait, wait...
It is almost time to start worrying. Wait, wait.
" Stanford?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Follow me to the conference room "
( That means he wants to talk privately. I'm used to it..."it was a difficult surgery, her muscles are like sewing wood instead of silk--I don't know how she will heal"..." It was a difficult surgery we did everything we knew how to do and still couldn't get her hips back in"..."It was a difficult surgery and we didn't get as much correction as we wanted to.")
"Everything is fine, It wasn't the easiest gallbladder to remove. He was quite inflamed and he had a huge stone that was about this big. (visualize pointer finger to thumb) Just wait for about 45 minutes more and then you can meet him at his room." I breathe a sigh of relief and go out to wait some more.

Connections

I have been studying ancient Greece in my Humanities class and put an interesting connection together. This picture is of the Altar of Zeus from the city of Pergamum (modern day Bergama Turkey). This temple-like building sat on the top of a hill and was an enormous (almost 400 feet long) open-air tribute to the gods with opulent sculptures showing battles between the gods and the giants. Serpents wreathing, satyrs, Athena pulling hair--exciting stuff! Pergamum, a Greek stronghold was one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in the world around 200BCE.

In the book of Revelation in the Bible chapters 1-3 I have some notes from a Brother Millet Sunday school lesson a few years ago. There are 7 candlesticks and angels of the seven churches. My notes say those are seven of the branches or areas of the church at the time and the angels are servants or the church leaders of those areas. The angels of the church of Ephesus(2:1)Smyrna(2:8),Pergamos(2:12),Thyatira(2:18), Sardis(3:1), Philadelphia(3:7),and the Laodiceans(3:14). The deeds of the Nicolaitans are also mentioned. If you look at the map section of the Bible (Paul's travels) all of these cities are on the Aegean Sea (mostly the eastern side). These had been under Greek control for many years thus religiously influenced by the stories, rituals, etc of Greek Mythology. Any brief study of mythology of course includes awful stuff--think Oedipus, Antigone, etc. So here is the connection. In Rev (2:12) it says: ...to the angel (church leader) of the church in Pergamos (which is the city of Pergamum)...I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat (the Altar of Zeus) is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith..." Then he goes on to tell them things they need to repent of and how they can be blessed. It was so interesting to me that even though these things sound so mysterious to us, they were familiar and meaningful to the people at that time. John (John writing, the Lord speaking) knew how difficult it must be for that little group of church members in Pergamum and the evils they faced within their community. He was advising them and giving them special help for their situation. Just like our church leaders now. The advice was the same: listen to the Holy Ghost, be morally clean, be faithful, avoid evil influences, and keep the commandments.

Catch a fox, put him in a box

I looked out the window and what did I see? A cute little fox sneaking by the tree.
Krysta and I watched it for a couple of minutes from our back window and then I grabbed my camera and crept quietly out on the balcony. Click! Whoops, I scared him away but I think I got the picture. Nope, that was the power button. Oooo, here he comes again, there really must be something fascinating behind my fence today. (In retrospect, I'm hoping he found a lovely rodent lunch.) I guess I'll give my camera another try. Sorry to scare you away again little fox. But I am pretty thrilled to get your picture.

The puzzling grass mystery

The snow melted at last and this serpentine appeared. About 4 feet long, a couple of inches deep and winding its way down the hill and under the fence, I thought it was erosion from the melt. Another clue came to light when I was digging in my flower beds. At the fence line was a hole in the dirt about an inch in diameter. While consulting Larry Sager's web site for an unrelated bug issue I came across an article about pesky little critters that are not dormant in the winter. They burrow along the ground under the snow and can wreck havoc in your yard by eating the bark around trees, etc. Hum, perhaps my interesting erosion could use further inspection. Facinating...yep, each little branch-off is matted down and kind of bowl shaped. Puts me in the mind of Marshmellow our hamster and his nesting habits. Hum, droppings in each nest area? Yes! The mystery is solved. Our backyard was covertly being used as a Mouse Marriot.

Draper Temple

We went to the Draper Temple Open house this evening. It was such a nice experience. Because we had Tricia's scooter we had instructions to drive right up to the temple and park (rather than taking a shuttle from a nearby ward house). It made it such an easy experience to zip around and take the elevators. I was surprised at its size, it is really small compared to the temples I am used to. It was so beautiful. It is decorated with such beautiful artwork such as works by Simon Dewy and Minerva Tiechert (one of my favorite LDS artists). The sealing rooms had HUGE beautifully framed mirrors in them. There has got to be a story about how they even got them into the rooms and hung them. There is a repeated motif of a sego lily in the wordwork and ceiling that was lovely and a worker at the front door pointed out another repeated pattern of the log cabin quilt block used in all the stained glass windows. The hostess at the end had comment cards where we could write down our feelings. I think this is so key. It isn't an intellectual thing, you know it is good, you know it is right because of how it makes you feel. Recognizing spiritual feelings and having experiences with spiritual things helps you want to feel those feelings all the time. It also makes discerning and choosing the right easier. We were talking in the car on the way home and asked Camille how she felt when she was in the temple. She said she felt "still". I thought that was a great description.

Staci

It was so fun to have Staci home for the holidays. She works right now for BYU catering as a "close-er". I think that means that she is the last one to be done at each banquet. She manages a team of workers to set-up meals, serve and clean up. She is able to sample left overs from the events when she works and has been exposed to very yummy new foods. Over the holidays she made our menus and helped with grocery shopping and cooking meals. She found out during the break that she has been accepted for spring term with BYU study abroad in Japan. She has been taking Japanese since she started college and has been working hard to save enough money to go. She is really excited to leave the country in April.

Katrina

This is Katrina's natural response to having her picture taken and a pretty normal activity to be involved with at home. She is taking on the phone (I think she is even talking to a boy). She got back from BYU-I, mid December and jumped right back into her job as Katrina-the deli girl at Macey's grocery store. She became especially experienced over the holidays at making cheese balls--a nice addition to her potato salad expertise. She will return to school in April. Katrina also jumped right back into social life here with her high school friends and spent alot of time playing with them.

Camille

Camille can often be found at the computer. She likes to work on her blog and watch old sitcoms and Japanese cartoons on You Tube. Santa brought the family a karaoke game that Camille has enjoyed over the break. She has found that she loves to sing and has really enjoyed being a part of her school's concert choir this year. It is fun to watch her perform because she looks so happy and confident (and the soprano section always makes up cute actions to the songs).

Krysta

The best way to describe Krysta is busy. We had gone to our dentist in AF that morning and on the way home we decided to stop in at IKEA because we'd never been there. (Do we know how to have a good time or what?) While we were there the girls found this "containment unit" for Tricia's growing herd of stuffed animal horses. This is how I found Krysta. She had all the equipment she needed out; stud-finder, hooks, hammer, etc. She had filled the unit and was hanging it all by herself.

Tricia

Tricia is playing with the puppet theater we bought at IKEA. She added the hula skirt curtain. On the right of the picture is one of her Taiwanese glove puppets. It is a hand carved rat bride (last year was the year of the rat). When she was staying at Shriner's hospital last year a theater group from Taiwan was in town for a festival. They came up to the hospital one afternoon and performed for the patients. They met with the students that were in the school and taught them to work the puppets. Tricia picked up the techniques very quickly and has a natural affinity for things Asian and she and the puppeteers formed a friendship. When they returned to their country they decided that a highlight of the trip had been Tricia. They made her this red puppet and sent it about a year ago along with a DVD of them performing their 2008 show. This Christmas they sent her two more puppets, a boy and girl rat dressed in white wedding outfits.