No Rest for the Weary

Well, the recorders' seminar is officially over for the next five years! They had a temple session and then lunch with their spouses invited to both to finish it off. They were invited to go to the 4th floor afterward to visit any Divisions that they needed to or to ask any remaining questions. Quite a few took advantage of that! I actually saw my desk for the afternoon, but just tried to go through email and didn't have time for anything else. I met up with MaryAnn and her family in the evening for dinner. I went for one of my comfort foods - CHEESE. I had the mac and cheese at the restaurant and it was delicious!

A few of the Temple Department employees assisting during the
seminar. The brains-MaryAnn Falk, Kurt Shields, David Luke,
Russ Braithwaite, Sarah Mayfield (we went to Bon Jovi together),
ME, Mike Christensen, and Steve Anderson.

This morning, Karen and her daughter, Kaylee, rode Trax up to have breakfast with me at 9 a.m. That meant I still didn't get to sleep in... It was so nice of them to come though. We had a good chat afterward. When I got back to Pleasant Grove, Jenny had asked me if I would watch her three youngest boys while she and Brett took the two older ones to the temple for baptisms. Wish I could have enjoyed those boys a little more but I was so tired! I had another of my comfort foods as well thanks to my good friend, Laralynn. (You're welcome for that shout-out!) She made me peanut butter fudge and I may have eaten almost the entire three pound container by myself. Lori invited Chance, Amy, Tyler, and Jenica over for a Nintendo night and I played for a bit, but I was just too tired to stick around for very long.

Old Hat

I've gotten the names and faces of all the recorders down! Having worn a name tag on Monday in Elberta, I'm surprised at how many of them call me by name too. I like it! They're all very friendly as well because they see us at the temple, in the different buildings, at all the meals, and at the hotel so we're getting to know each other more and more. Brother Max Purcell, Laie Hawaii Temple, even pulled me in for a kiss on the cheek to greet me this morning. He says that's just how the Polynesians do it. Funny guy!

 

People are starting to drop like flies. Karen, one-half of the seminar brain who put this all together, was sent to the hospital. Bronchitis and symptoms of a heart attack. She's going to be fine, but that's an indicator of the stress that it's taken to coordinate this seminar!

 

After dinner tonight, there was a musical performance by a group of teenagers from Weber. Their group performed at the Olympics and this year they're going on tour to Paris. They did a great job. By the end of the evening though, I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep! I'm going to have to catch up this weekend.

You know there was a lot of food at the seminar
when I couldn't finish key lime pie!

Come, Come Ye Saints Indeed!

At lunch today in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, I heard someone call, 'Sister Pack?!' It was Elder Shakespear from my mission! He and his family have moved back to Utah and he works as a lawyer in the building across the street on temple square. Bittersweet memories!

 

The recorders had a group photo taken today in the choir seats of the Conference Center this afternoon. It was arranged for them to hear a special organ presentation by Andrew Unsworth, organist for the Tabernacle Choir. He. Did. An. AMAZING. Job! It was so memorable! He started out by demonstrating some of the capabilities of the organ from the sound of the 1/2 inch pipes that almost sound like a dog whistle, to the sound of the 40 foot tall pipes which is so low that it's just vibrations. Brother Unsworth said he has two brothers who are members of heavy metal bands and he would have followed in their footsteps because of his love for deep vibrations if he hadn't found the organ. Then he played several songs to showcase the organ, something which you can't really do during Music and the Spoken Word. When he played Come, Come Ye Saints, the entire stands vibrated as he went full-out. I could feel the hair on my head standing straight up from the chills I got from it. So, so incredible! I wish others could experience that! After he finished playing, Brother Unsworth opened it up for questions and the recorders asked some very insightful questions that got good answers. Then Elder Bednar asked the question of what Brother Unsworth liked to play the most when he got to sit down at an organ just for fun. The response to that brought the Spirit so strongly! He was crying, I was tearful, and it was so beautiful. After the question and answer period finished, our Managing Director played a duet with Brother Unsworth of Called to Serve and all the recorders got to sing along. I was the official camera person for that part... Funny story - as we directed them back out of this area, Elder Bednar was part of the group. I didn't want to be presumptious and direct him as he obviously knows his way out of the rostrum area. But, instead of just walking out the obvious direction, he walked up to me and stood there politely waiting so I kind of sheepishly directed the way and he thanked me and continued on. Guess he took my role seriously!

 

Dinner tonight was held at the Conference Center again. This time in the Book of Mormon Gallery. We had booths set up for the different Temple Department Divisions as well as the buffet and eating tables so that the recorders could eat, ask questions of the different divisions, and mingle. It worked out so well!



Two Down, Three to Go

We've finished Day 2 of the seminar and have a couple of successful days behind us. All the divisions in the department were invited at some point to have lunch with the recorders as these are the men that we work with daily. Today was the day for my team. It was a very international blend at my table and we had an interesting discussion on cultural issues and foods from the different areas (Nauvoo, Japan, Sweden, Philippines, Texas, etc.).  I felt pretty good about getting the conversation started and then drawing everyone at the table in on the topics.

 

Dinner was set in a stunning location. It was held at the Conference Center in the Hall of the Prophets. The Salt Lake Temple was featured prominently out of the windows and the tables and centerpieces were beautiful. There were crystal pieces from a retired temple chandelier draped on the table candelabra. Lovely! We had dinner brought in for my ushers, the audiovisual/translation guys we used, and the temple square events coordinator we've been working with and we ate all together behind the scenes while waiting for everyone else to finish up their meal. Then we headed out on a special behind the scenes tour of the Conference Center. Apparently hosting was not notified of the scope of what we would be doing at the CC because they called security concerned. I spoke with security about it as did the events coordinator and took care of the problem.

 

More seating chart updates tonight back at the hotel!

 

Memorable Day

The morning started off early with a large breakfast in a reserved room at the hotel. We were tested early as to our memorization skills of names to faces as we got name badges to each recorder and their spouse which also assigned them to groups for the tours at the Jerusalem movie set in Elberta. My group drove a van so we could get there ahead of the buses with all the recorders. Such a fun, memorable day! It was super sunny at first, then became cloudy and you could see it raining all around us, but we didn't get rained on. Some of the pictures we took showed the bubble that seemed to surround us keeping the rain away. Wish the pictures for that site weren't restricted so I could post them here! But regardless, it was very cool. I was assigned to one of the groups and I took pictures of them. My other ushers took pictures of their groups and I'll be compiling everything onto a CD which will then be mailed to the recorders for a keepsake.

 

After the tours, we went to a nearby church house for lunch. A local young womens' group made the centerpieces for us as a fund raiser for their girls camp. Meier's Catering did a fantastic job with the steak and cheesy potatoes. I sat at the table with some Temple Department employees as well as the Laie Hawaii and Apia Samoa Temple recorders. Glad I got to sit with them because they were hilarious!

 

We worked some more tonight to finish up seating charts. Long day of a long week. We'll see how it goes!

Ready, Set, GO!

I didn't even bother driving back to Pleasant Grove Thursday night. We put together the binders that the recorders will be using during the seminar and then I drove to the Pacini's and crashed there. It was so nice not to drive an hour and a half between that night and the next morning to get back to work again. The overtime count for this week? Thirty-five hours. Next week shouldn't be that much, but still quite a bit.

 

 

Yesterday I baked a cake and showed up at Jenny's as a surprise for her birthday tomorrow. I only had three hours that I could spend there before heading on to Salt Lake for work again, but it was worth the visit. TJ and Chris picked me flowers and then decorated my car with them. We had dinner and polished off the cake - I was given back an empty pan. Jenny and Brett had a good past week. They paid off their home, and after quite a bit of work angst, Brett has gotten a new job with the district working with their new computer program. Stressful getting to this point, but they're happy with the result.

The inside of my car got flowers too.

Nate was showing how cool he would be driving Mimi. Then he got
photo bombed by Micah. Yep...Cool! :-)

 

 Now I'm in SL for the week. MaryAnn and I already put in a couple more hours before the seminar starts tomorrow morning. I'll head down in the 6 o'clock hour and we'll be off to Elberta for the Church Jerusalem movie set tour. Ready, set, GO!

Overtime?

It's Wednesday morning and I've already got 23 hours of overtime logged under my belt for the week/pay-period. Long days? Oh yeah. PLUS, the drive from PG and back to PG afterward. I need some sleep! Fortunately, I'll get some tonight, before we have another long day tomorrow. I love seminar. But, I've decided it's the week OF seminar that I love. Not the preparations leading up to it so much... :-)  Fortunately, my friend that lives in the Avenues has said I can crash in the West Wing again tomorrow night so I won't have to do the long drive so late at night and early in the morning.

 

Andrea and Karen working on the seating chart spreadsheet.



Each temple and meal is listed. Then we have to plug in 9 others
(temples/directors/general authorities) for them to eat with while
checking to make sure there aren't duplications over different meals.

My side of the table with MaryAnn making sure we didn't miss
anyone and creating the master list. I told her to give me a "look".
She delivered!