Each Day Is a Gift

First time in our 35 years of marriage that hubby and I do not have any Sunday responsibility.  So we went up to SL Mormon Tabernacle and attend the life broadcast of Music and Spoken Words.  It was so fun to watch Bryan played the viola (first stand today) up close with the Orchestra At Temple Square for the first time.  Can't believe for nearly 10 years since he's been a member of that orchestra as a music missionary that we've never watched the broadcast life.  Every Sunday hundreds of people (some from all over the world) come to watch the rehearsal and life broadcast of the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  I am so glad we did that today which was our first and perhaps last time for awhile. 

They performed some of my favorites:  Let There Be Light, Libera Me (from Requiem, op.48), the King of Love My Shepherd Is, Bound For the Promised Land, Peace Like a River and the rousing closing number, Battle Hymn of the Republic.  :) :) :)

A measly 4 miles that was painfully slow.  Was grateful for Wendy's company.  Wish she was running Ogden with me.  I really have no business doing Ogden in my overweight, out of shape, post pneumonia state.  Sorry to sound so negative...call it reality check, the troo poop, anyway I look at it...running is pretty low on my priority list right now.  Sigh!

Beautiful day!  Mid 50s, calm, sunny sky!  8.25 slow and sluggish solo miles on the MC trail, all the way to the west end from Center, then to the east gully tunnel and back on 3200N to 600E.  Coughing less, still lots of snots.  I have a pot belly, aarrghhh!  :)

So glad Karen is back from AZ and invited me to run with her.  She is running much faster than me these days since she has started a T.A. job and needs to get home soon.  Took me couple miles to warm up.  Still coughing up junk.  Off all meds.

Went up to SL for training on Missionary Medical...man, scary stuffs these days. :)

Ran with Wendy and Karen.  Arthritis pain the first mile.  Kept wanting to stop.  Really struggled today.  Breathing was labored.  Then I went into coughing fits and asthma attack on the uphill.  I felt like a beached whale, literally, a fish out of water, gasping for air...very pathetic! :(  So very grateful for my friends to keep me going.  I need to remember to take my inhaler.  May be these embarrassing splits will serve as a reminder:  11:30, 11:13, 10:14 (downhill), 11:12, 12:03, 10:36. 

At 1pm, our IFR called us from New Zealand.  It was a wonderful 3 hour conference call to receive some training and guidance.  Elder and Sister Bertasso gave me (us) some great advise and counsel.  We are in for quite an adventurous 3 years.  :)

AM:  No running today.  Hubby and I went for a nice walk around our 2 miles neighborhood block, talking, reflecting on our 35 years of marriage, what a beautiful place we live in, the blessings of raising our children who all turn out to be such wonderful, terrific human beings, who love the Lord.

PM:  Today is a very very special day.  We were set apart as mission president and companion in Elder Oaks office.  We were able to have close family members accompany us:  my husband's 87 year old mother, his older sister, his younger brother who happens to be in town from Hong Kong, our son, Jeff and his wife Jen, and Bryan.  Elder Oaks assisted by Elder Clayton set apart my husband as mission president.  Then my husband joined them as Elder Clayton set me apart as full time missionary and companion to the mission president for our mission.  Very special blessings were pronounced.  Tears of joy and gratitude flowed freely.  We could feel our Father's love and the power of the Holy Ghost witnessing to us that these are His appointed servants.  Most importantly I felt an overwhelming confirmation that the Lord has prepared us for a time such as this, and that this is His work.  I am humbled that the Lord would put such confidence and trust in me and pour out His abundance blessings upon me/us.  :)

Evening:  we had a special Mother's Day celebration to honor my mother-in-law with a home cooked dinner and a small program of song and words from my husband and I and we presented her with letters written by my children, her grandchildren.   My mother-in-law is an amazing lady, an immigrant from China in 1949 and settled in Provo with her husband.  She raised four wonderful children in the Gospel with faith and humility.  I am convinced that it is through her example, faith and prayers that all her posterity are safe and well, physically and spiritually.  :)

I don't know what I'm doing!  Got very little sleep last night when Wendy's text woke me up this morning inviting me to join her for a run.  I had noticed the messages on my phone that the group run with Toby did not materialized...so I was going to sleep in...ha, did not happen.  Wendy announced that due to the warmer temp, we should get going.

As I walked towards Wendy's house, my doctor's admin. was running towards me, so we invited her to join us.  We ran east towards Highland thinking that was her route.   Nope, she split off at 1200E intersection and we lost her.  We then connected onto MC Trail at Mitchell Hollow and stopped at mile 4 to drink.  I ate the energy bar I got at the Boston Athlete Village and just chatted away.  We stopped at every drinking fountain and enjoyed the beautiful morning.  We met couple of guy runners and talked about our upcoming races.  I love days like this when we didn't care about pace or distance.

After we got home, Wendy helped me clean out half of my fruit room (to make available shelf spaces for my children's stuff that they have accumulated over the years).  Wendy did all the heavy lifting; I am a wimpy weak sauce girl! :)  I gave away 30 cases of canning jars, threw away 8 cases of expired canned food, emptied five 6-gallons water igloos, threw away 12 rice buckets, 2 (50 lb) wheat, cleaned out boxes of stuff, took several car loads of stuff to DI.  Whew!!!  We still have lots to throw out, clean and organize.  I guess 35+ years of marriage and 6 kids do accumulate a lot of stuff and junk.  The hardest thing is to part with sentimental things.

I was exhausted by 4pm so hubby took me out to dinner at Applebees!  Tomorrow is a going to be a special Mother's Day looking forward to my missionary son's call from Taiwan! :)