2025 Christmas Newsletter

Glenn still works for State of Utah Department of Health, working from home about half the time. Funding for the job runs out next summer. He fulfilled a lifelong dream of building a cylon costume (original Battlestar Galactica), taking advantage of 3D printing.

Audrey — that’s me — turned 50 in the fall. I did lots of reading (about 140 books) and practicing the piano, neglecting the other instruments. Right before last Christmas I got a bad cold that was probably Covid. I finished the last school year teaching orchestra at Orchard Elementary (which closed at the end of the year) and band at Farnsworth Elementary (full of difficult students). For the new school year, I am teaching orchestra at Farnsworth, which has been going pretty well so far; it’s a class of five fifth-graders. 

I had 177 migraines in the last year, still enough to be officially chronic, and I went to the ER for one in June, and they made me get a neurologist, who is trying to get me on medicine not covered by insurance. He has ordered a sleep study as all the migraines I get now I wake up with.

I did more with the League of Utah Writers than Glenn did this year. I gave a presentation at a chapter meeting, volunteered to man a table for the LTUE and LDSPMA conferences, and attended the pre-Quills conference, though I missed the Quills conference. I’m on the contest committee and just joined the Inkpot (literary journal) editing team.

Deven (26) still rents a room in a house, still works at a warehouse, and is still dating Zoe. He continues to think about moving on with life, but he’s always been slow to act. (He’s the child who didn’t want to be born.)

Jaelyn (23) continues to attend BYU-Idaho, majoring in child development/psychology. She has the winter semester off and attends in summer and fall. She started getting migraines and other headaches and other chronic pain. She has had two MRIs and has been procrastinating getting a lumbar puncture.

Sara (20) has spent the year as a missionary. She has had a lot of interesting experiences. She comes home December 17 and will return to Utah State University in January, where she has been studying nursing.

Caelan (18) got to go to Disneyland for a performing arts trip. Thanks to our fee waiver (they felt sorry for us because of the Great Flood of ’23), this cost nothing. He also played the flute in the pit orchestra for the school’s production of “The Music Man.” He graduated from high school and eventually got a job at Deseret Industries, working 30 hours a week. He had a minor car accident, causing several thousand dollars of damage to the Chevy Spark. (Last year he damaged our Sienna, so it looks kind of ghetto now.) He spends his spare time playing D&D with friends.

Corin (16) finished his freshman year and started his sophomore year. He has gotten into trouble only a couple of times and has almost all A’s. He spends his spare time coding in Scratch. We tried some occupational therapy to help him eat more than three things, but he failed to put forth any effort. He got his learner’s permit, though his parents’ nerves are shot after teaching four previous children to drive.

Animals

Our black cat, Mischief, has gotten rather plump. She enjoys belly rubs and doesn’t like to be alone. She will stand in the middle of the house and meow loudly instead of going into a room with people. She has chosen Corin as her favorite and gets mad if he’s not home when he is supposed to be. Hathor and Penelope turned 16 and are still going. The four chickens (Silver Laced Wyandottes) are all still fine and provide a lot of eggs, but not in winter.

Family Events

Last December, I got to have dinner with author Michael J. Sullivan and his wife and daughter. He had come to town for Dragonsteel, but I had been unable to get tickets, so he agreed to meet up. Deven and Jaelyn are also huge fans. Jaelyn was still at school, but Deven was able to come. As Michael is one of my top three favorite authors, this was incredible. The book I copy edited for him, Drumindor, is now published (I am quoted on the cover), and I have been hired to edit the next book soon.

In June we had a family reunion trip to the Tetons and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We picked up Jaelyn from college to participate, as Rexburg is not far from where we were staying in Victor (Idaho). We saw pretty scenery, did a river float, went horseback riding (Jaelyn fell off a horse), and whitewater rafting, which was so fun. We spent three nights in Victor and then one night in Afton, Wyoming, so we could visit the temple there. Audrey’s grandparents are from Afton, so it was also a genealogical visit.

We spent a bunch of money on some basement pipes; this didn’t cause much damage to the rest of the house. Both cars needed repairs (one thanks to Caelan). Our deep freezer died in spring, so we lost some food, and replaced it with a smaller freezer. Then the fridge died, so slowly it took a while to notice. We lost a lot of food to that.

Glenn and Corin and I ended up house-sitting and dog-sitting for Glenn’s parents in Payson for about six weeks in July and August. Their air conditioning was really nice. Caelan stayed home to watch our house and job hunt. Meanwhile, Glenn’s parents went to Nauvoo, Illinois, to research moving there and helping David (brother of Glenn) start a business. (They will be moving there next week and opening The Nauvoo Shoppe in spring.)

I took a trip by myself to California near the end of July. I took Amtrak to Reno, where my parents met me, and we spent about a week in Cedarville with some aunts and uncles; my mom had a high school reunion. Then we drove to San Mateo, where I spent another week. I went too early to attend the Modoc County fair, but I entered some photos in the contest and won two ribbons (so I’m told).

I took Glenn to see Ludovico Einaudi live in concert, my favorite musical artist, which was amazing. This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences to always remember. We finished up our ballet season with “Cinderella” and “The Rite of Spring.” We started a symphony season, opening with a Halloween concert on Glenn’s birthday, which was a lot of fun. (It costs about $20 more for five shows than one show.) We also saw “Star Wars” in concert (where the symphony plays the soundtrack live) and have “The Empire Strikes Back” planned for New Year’s.

We went to comic con (FanX) in September. Highlights were Brandon Sanderson, Zachary Levi, Enrico Colantoni, and David Tennant. I also got tickets to Dragonsteel in December and plan to go with Chris, Elicia, and Ivy.

Church

Glenn didn’t have an official calling but is getting one soon. He quit volunteering in the temple laundry when they got a new manager who has a stressful management style. He now does temple sessions weekly and works on family history a lot.

I am still the choir pianist and part of the new ward music committee. I still volunteer to clean the Taylorsville Temple Monday nights, most often in the basement, though by now I have cleaned almost every surface in there. It’s nice to have the run of a nearly empty temple! Last Christmas I performed a duet in church, with me on flute and a brother in the ward on clarinet. (I can’t compose music but do a decent job at arranging it.)

 Caelan was ordained an elder in November. Sara continued serving her mission in the Maryland Baltimore Mission, which also covers parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia. She was in Luray, Virginia, and Savage and Towson, Maryland. She is due home December 17. Corin was ordained a priest at the beginning of the year. He continues to do online seminary “against his will.”

I went with Caelan and Corin to a local Youth devotional with new apostle Patrick Kearon. It was really good, and we got to shake his hand after. We later took the boys to the Syracuse Temple open house.

In November, I went to the Church music workshop, which featured composers, arrangers, pianists/organists, and music committee members from Headquarters. This was extremely entertaining as well as spiritual; it was a real treat (and cost nothing!).

It was the stake’s 40th anniversary year, and they wanted to create a book of history and miracles as part of that. I ended up doing the editing and layout for the book, as I have the necessary skills. Watch me put that college education to use! This has turned out to be a big project, around 100 pages so far.

Christmas Newsletter 2024

Greetings, family and friends! Hopefully this technology thing will work.

Family: We didn’t do much as a whole family this year. We managed to get family pictures taken in April. Audrey attended the annual Quills writing conference. Audrey visited Cedarville at the end of summer, leaving everyone else behind. Glenn and Audrey got season tickets for the ballet, which opened with “Jekyll & Hyde” at Halloween. Glenn, Audrey, and Deven attended FanX (comic con) in September.

Glenn continues to work for the Utah state Department of Health on their EpiTrax program, used for epidemiology. They decided that working from home was too convenient for people, so now employees have to come in at least twice a week. Glenn has been doing lots of genealogy work in his spare time, usually making sure the right sources are attached to the right people and merging duplicates. Most recently he is fulfilling a lifelong dream of building a cylon costume.

Audrey spent the first half of the year teaching orchestra at Elk Run and Farnsworth elementary schools. In the fall, Audrey began teaching orchestra at Farnsworth and Orchard elementary schools. After a few weeks, she switched to Farnsworth band, as they were unable to find a band teacher, and they brought over a new orchestra teacher who is a real violinist. The band is small but a bit chaotic with four different instruments. (Audrey plays flute/piccolo, piano, violin, clarinet, and trumpet with varying degrees of proficiency.)

Audrey also did some editing, including a thrilling opportunity to officially copy edit Michael J Sullivan’s latest book, Drumindor. Audrey got invited to the Amazon Vine program, which has blessed us with a lot of free stuff, some of it useful. Audrey was elected as a county delegate after serving two years as a state delegate. This involved meeting lots of local candidates and participating in the party’s county convention.

Audrey had a toenail removed because it was still causing problems, despite having been operated on back in the 80s. Migraines continue as usual, enough to be officially chronic. Most begin in the middle of the night now. Although they don’t get severe that often, it is still pretty disabling, but the medication that would 95 percent cure it is not covered by insurance. 

Deven (25) continues to work at a third-party storage and shipping warehouse, where he listens to audiobooks all day and drives forklifts. He got his A+ certification, and he has been dating Zoe for about a year now, so he’s making some slow life progress. He lives only about five miles away.

Jaelyn (22) spent the winter working at Hunter Junior High (her alma mater) as an ESL aide. The students and faculty seemed to really enjoy having her. She was bothered that many of the kids thought she was a fellow student. Jaelyn returned to BYU-Idaho in April. She is majoring in child development and minoring in psychology. Like many of us, she has been struggling a lot with anxiety.

Sara (19) had a busy, stressful spring semester at Utah State but pulled off an A- in college anatomy through intense studying. She then became a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Caelan (17) finished his junior year of high school and started his senior year. The school has consistently messed up his schedule, so after failing to get enrolled in ASL 2, Caelan ended up taking Italian 1 for senior year. This fall he was in the orchestra pit for the school musical “The Music Man.” Last December he played for “The Little Mermaid.” He also joined the stage crew as a class and is assisting other performances and plays. He has been taking auto mechanic classes and is really liking it. Caelan got his driver’s license over the summer and now thinks the car is his. He attended FSY at BYU in the summer. He has recently discovered Brandon Sanderon and is on his journey to the same obsession level as Mom, Deven, and Jaelyn.

Corin (15) got glasses at the end of last year. One eye is very far-sighted but the other is almost normal. He has not been wearing them consistently, though. He finished 8th grade and started high school in August. After a rough first week, he was okay. He was able to be excused from PE, is doing seminary online, and has a period as a library aide. This helps him enjoy as quiet an environment as possible. He seems to have recently developed trichotillomania. He loves building Lego sets and coding and watching YouTube.

Pets     Hathor and Penelope are now 15 years old. Penelope is still as feral as ever but is a good mouser. Hathor is still soft and poofy and round as a basketball. She would normally come indoors for the summer months, but Princess was not having that. Princess was a purely indoor cat and a sweetheart. Sadly, her health quickly declined over the summer. Some treatment helped her temporarily, but soon she was again losing a ton of weight and no longer eating or playing. We sent her to heaven in September. It was hard. A couple weeks later we got Mischief, a black adolescent cat that a writer friend was fostering. She is lively and playful and loves attention, Nerf darts, string, and running water. 

We still have our four chickens (Viola, Hattie, Ella, Betsy), though we have stopped letting them roam the backyard all the time, as they are ripping up all the grass with their foraging! But they have a large chicken run. Now that they are the same size as the cats, they are not in danger, though Hathor is perpetually annoyed by their presence.

Church     We got a second year in a row of 9 a.m. church, which has been hard with the early-morning migraines. Statistically, Audrey should have missed church much more often than she actually did. Audrey continues to play the piano for choir. Glenn continues to teach elders’ quorum every second Sunday. Caelan is the second assistant in the priests’ quorum. Jaelyn has been serving as a temple worker in the Rexburg Temple when she’s at college.

In September, our stake was reorganized. Two wards were dissolved, and the remaining four wards got new names, with the Spanish-speaking ward still comprising the entire stake boundaries. Soon after, Audrey was asked to join the new music committee. 

Right after last Christmas, Sara got endowed in the new Saratoga Springs Temple.  Sara got her mission call in February to the Maryland Baltimore Mission. She was thrilled. She started her mission on Memorial Day. Her first area was in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. She was recently assigned to Columbia, Maryland. She is working hard and finding people to teach, and her migraines have miraculously been minimal in interfering with her work.

Glenn and Audrey were able to attend General Conference in person in April, which was a first for Audrey. (Glenn had attended in the Tabernacle many years ago.) We are very excited about the new Taylorsville Temple, only fifteen minutes away, and feel a special connection to it. Glenn and Audrey volunteered to help with the dedication, which involved moving furniture into storage rooms to make room for folding chairs. All the sealing room chairs were moved to the celestial room. After the dedication, we returned and put everything back. This led to a personal tour of the temple from steeple to basement. Glenn now volunteers on Saturday nights in the laundry. Audrey volunteers Monday nights for general cleaning, usually cleaning floors in the basement, which includes the laundry room. We also attended temple open houses for Manti, Taylorsville, Layton, and Deseret Peak this year, bringing the kids whenever possible.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

2022 Flood

The day I was at the 2022 state GOP convention in April, we had a flood. Somehow, the downstairs bathroom faucet had been left on full blast all night. Everyone denied doing it, so the joke was that someone broke in the house just to turn it on. I suspect someone not quite awake had done it. 

The entire lower floor was flooded. The carpet in Sara’s room and the whole family room was soaked, wall to wall. The bathroom and laundry room had linoleum and were mostly okay. Everyone else had spent the day sucking up water with the carpet cleaner. By then everyone was exhausted, so we got some pizza for dinner.

Soon it started to smell really bad, and we were troubled by the scent by day and by night. We bought some more cleaning supplies and dumped baking soda everywhere. We had very little damage to personal items, just all the floors. The carpeting was getting worn out anyway. We got a hardwood laminate flooring for the family room, which was installed in June, and Sara picked out a carpet for her room. That didn’t arrive until August. (This was the summer of supply chain issues.) We left the linoleum in the laundry room and bathroom. Everything looked very nice when it was done.

Remembering Kryten: April 2009 to March 2022

Kryten hadn’t been well for a long time: He’d gotten really wobbly on his hind legs, he was bony with a swollen belly, he stopped hunting and playing and grooming. We were giving him baths instead, which he didn’t like. So I didn’t expect him to come back from the vet. 

I had them do a blood test first, which showed jaundice and liver levels off the charts. His kidneys weren’t doing great. An ultrasound revealed lesions on his liver, a sign of cancer. I took a minute to say good-bye and stroked him while the vet injected a lethal medicine. I didn’t think he should be alone. He was gone very quickly. 

Then it was some time before I could compose myself again. I thought I would be okay but it was kind of hard. For a while, I felt guilty at failing him. Did I give up too easily? Could we have taken better care of him? Did he feel betrayed that I put him down? But he was clearly suffering.

He was kind of a strange cat. He didn’t get along with other cats (besides Albus) well. Despite being indoors  90 percent of the time, he got in serious fights several times. He loved to sleep in windows. He had incredibly long, silky fur, the softest I’ve ever seen, and super sharp claws. He didn’t like to cuddle or be too close, but he would follow you from room to room to be near you. If I wasn’t feeling well, he would come close and cuddle, and only then. He liked to sleep at the foot of the bed but liked to get up at 4 a.m. At this point, he would bat my face. If I pulled the blankets over my head, he would dig a claw into the blanket and pull it away. If that didn’t work, he would deliberately sharpen his claws on the box spring, knowing I wouldn’t tolerate that. If he could see the bottom of his food bowl, he thought he was starving. He was a decent hunter and would catch mice and birds outdoors and flies and moths indoors.

He could be a stinker, but he was a big part of our lives.

enjoying catnip

a favorite spot

another favorite spot

Kryten and Albus often napped together

as a new kitten; top right

GOP SL County Delegate Report

As a county delegate for the Salt Lake County GOP, this is my report on the candidates and convention for this year. In general, there are no bad candidates. Each appears sincere, principled, and competent. Primary election is June 25.

County Mayor

Erin Rider won 77 percent of the delegate votes at convention and will be the candidate at the general election. Erin is very intelligent and knowledgeable and highly qualified.

County Council At-Large C

Rachelle Morris is a venture capitalist with lots of experience in handling large amounts of money. She is a skilled campaigner. She is from Utah but worked in other states for many years. During campaigning, she failed to disclose she worked on the campaign for Becky Edwards, a Biden supporter. She is more of an “Establishment Republican” but I believe she would still do a good job. She is great at raising money as well as spending it. She has gathered signatures to be on the ballot even though it wasn’t necessary. She won 58 percent of delegate votes at convention.

Mike Carey has lived in Utah since 2011. His background is in construction, where he has supervised and administrated over large projects with large budgets and personnel. He emphasizes that there are many pathways to success besides college and wants to help young people who don’t choose college get into trades earlier. Carey has spent much less on his campaign than Morris. He won 42 percent of delegate votes at convention.

County District 2

Carlos Moreno is a (legal) immigrant from Venezuela. He arrived in 2016 and became a citizen in 2022. He was charged with treason by the Venezuelan government for denouncing its human rights violations. He is very eager to listen to constituents. He won 70 percent of the delegate votes at convention.

Daniel Thatcher is a state senator running for office because he feels he can make a bigger difference at the county level. He has lots of legislative experience and is very knowledgeable about writing effective laws that won’t be challenged by courts. After winning 30 percent of the delegate votes, he has gathered signatures to be on the primary ballot.

County Surveyor 

The surveyor’s office is nonpartisan in practice. The two Republicans and one Democrat running all work in the surveyor’s office. Bradley Park is the current Chief Deputy Surveyor (second in command) to the retiring surveyor, Reid Demman, and is the only one endorsed by Demman. He won 55 percent of delegate votes at convention. Bruce Williams has experience surveying in both private and public sectors but not administrative experience. He won 45 percent of delegate votes at convention.

Aimovig Drug Study

From July 2021 to July 2022, I participated in a drug trial for Aimovig. It was already FDA-approved, so this was a study for its use on chronic migraines. This was a medication in injection form, and I got two injections each month. I’m used to taking sumatriptan injections to treat severe migraines, but it’s different taking injections when you feel fine.

I broke out in hives at the injection site, but if I took a Benadryl first, I avoided that. The drug did a pretty good job at preventing headaches. I think I liked Nurtec a bit better, but it did very well at making me not disabled. Neither of these drugs are not covered by insurance and would cost several thousand dollars a month, so they are out of reach. 

It took about two months after the last dose for the migraines to become frequent again, but I don’t think they’re quite at chronic level. For the last year, the majority of migraines start in the middle of the night while I sleep. They start on the top of my head. This is a very different pattern from how they used to be.

I have spent all of adulthood looking forward to menopause as it should decrease my migraines. I still have that hope.

Comic Con 2021

For Comic Con (FanX) most of the panels I went to were with writers, a number of whom are friends from LUW, and of course Brandon Sanderson. I got books signed and bought more books and got them signed. The most famous actors I saw were Zachary Quinto and Christopher Eccleston. We also got to talk to Carlos Ferro, a minor actor who we discovered was a kindred spirit.

We dressed up the most on Friday, me in steampunk and Glenn in a ghost costume with a plague doctor mask.  As we were coming inside the Salt Palace, several guys cosplaying in Crusader outfits came over, fully in character, shouting, “Doctor! Doctor! This man needs help! What do you recommend?” They had a friend writhing in agony on the floor. We prescribed leeches. 

Sadly, we had to leave right after Brandon Sanderson’s keynote address on Day 3 to get to stake conference. We would not have gone if I wasn’t playing the flute. I joined the choir for the prelude songs, then went to the Primary room to warm up. Luckily the sound from the chapel was piped into the room so I could tell how much time I had. I played the flute for “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.” Jaelyn was supposed to play with me, as it’s a duet, but she wouldn’t practice, so I fired her.

This first set of pictures were not taken by me. They are from the costume contest.

Me in costume

Glenn in costume

Zachary Quinto

Christopher Eccleston

Handy-Woman

I have been learning to be a handy-woman lately. After replacing a bunch of electrical outlets, I replaced a doorknob. That sounds easy enough, but it isn’t. First you have get the parts all lined up just so, and then you have to use a screwdriver without being able to see the screws. Still, it got done.

Next was replacing the two showerheads in the house. I needed Glenn’s help for this; I could not wrench off the old shower head despite trying for hours, and he got it off in one try.

Then it was time for a new microwave. The old one came with the house and was a very good microwave. It suffered some damage when Corin, at around 3 years of age, microwaved popcorn for a good twenty minutes or so. It’s wall-mounted, not a counter-top one. I got the old one off mostly by myself; I needed help with the last screw. My favorite feature of the old microwave was the ability to turn off all sounds, so I got the same brand (LG) again. The salesperson said she had never gotten a request for a silenceable microwave before. I can’t believe that.

Installation for the microwave was $150, nearly as much as the microwave itself, so I declined that. It took Deven, Glenn, and me all working to get it installed. The old mounting brackets were still usable, so that was good, but the screws at the top (going through a cabinet) were in a different place, and we ended up drilling a few random holes while attempting to get it just right. YouTube made it look a lot easier.

Later, our electrical system needed replacing. We needed a new breaker box and grounding rod and things I’d never heard of. That was very expensive, and we did not attempt any of that work ourselves.

After that, I decided to paint the kitchen cabinets. They were a dark wood with lots of shades of grain in them, and I needed a change. I painted them white and got new black knobs. YouTube explained how new cabinet doors just pop right off, but I do NOT have new cabinets; they are ancient. Those doors were not coming off, so there is some paint on the hinges, and I don’t care. The knobs were made in China, which meant that half of them were not drilled deeply enough, so I had to hunt for screws that were an eighth of an inch shorter than the screws I had. (The old ones and new ones were the same length.) It took a few months, but the kitchen looks brighter now.