Week ending February 26, 2012

February 12 - 26, 2012
I am going to begin today with a sad but funny story. One of the young women brought her gerbil to church. She had a scarf around her neck and the gerbil was tucked in the loop. She was crying and many were going up to comfort her including me. She said her gerbil was sick. Many tried to console her. This was at the beginning of the day before Sacrament meeting. The next time I saw her was in Young Women’s and the gerbil was missing and she was still very sad. The gerbil had died. I am not sure what happened to him and I didn’t ask. This happened last week. On Tuesday she announced that she had a new puppy.

Tuesday was Valentine’s Day. I received a lovely bouquet for the day.

Tonight we again practiced for New Beginnings and then we decorated biscuits (cookies) with icing sugar and sweeties. Any guesses on what we did. I’ll try to remember to tell you next week.

Friday at noon President Griffiths called and asked if I could be available to take a missionary to the states if he needed us to.  At 9:30 that evening he called with the travel plans.  We left the next morning about 9:00.  So we had breakfast in Edinburgh, lunch in Amsterdam, a couple of dinners over the Atlantic, and got to our hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee about 11:00 P.M. their time.  On Sunday we had breakfast in Knoxville, lunch in the Chicago Airport,  dinner over the Atlantic, and breakfast also in the air.  Then for lunch we were back home.  We were gone about 50 hours, and of that time we spent about 24 hours in an airplane. It was a tiring weekend but we were glad to be of service to the Mission President and the missionary who had medical issues.

Tuesday was a tiring day that ended with New Beginnings.  It went well.  The girls were all there and the parents for all but Sarah were there also.  We had two from the Stake Young Womens Presidency.  It meant getting home later than usual and so that meant we were tired for Wednesday and Thursday also.  By Friday, we were starting to feel somewhat normal.

Castle Ruins

Saturday was a fun day.  We went to St. Andrews where golf was started.  We didn’t golf though, we went and saw the Cathedral, and Castle.  They are both in ruins but in their time the Cathedral was the largest building in Scotland and was very beautiful. 

St. Andrews Cathedral Ruins

We ate lunch in a college student hangout.  It was called Northpoint and is where Kate met Prince William for coffee.  We loved the atmosphere and the food.  I had the best raspberry hot chocolate that I have ever had.

Northpoint Coffee House

Snowdrop flower

From there we went to the Snowdrop Festival. You ask what that is. It is the celebration of the beginning of Spring when the snowdrop flowers are in blossom everywhere even in the lawns.  There are over 350 varieties and some of them remind me of Lilly of the Valleys.  Some are white, yellow, purple, and other colors.  We were at a manor house that was by the North Sea.  I was totally in my element I had the country setting, animals, and the beach surrounded by trees.

We signed up for a pewter class.  There were three couples and the sisters from the office there and we all designed our own mold and then the instructor filled it with pewter.  It was so much fun and I would love to do it again.  It was a delightful day.

On Sunday night we had the senior couples and senior sisters over for a potluck munch and mingle.  It was fun to get together.