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.