Tracie's World

One of the things about serving in a music calling in the Church, is that it always gives me an opportunity to better familiarize myself with the hymns, and ponder about their messages. I was struck by one hymn in particular this past week, one which I don't recall ever singing. But I happened on it while I was looking through the hymnbook, read it, and really appreciated the missionary message. Come to find out, it's a historic protestant hymn, written by an Anglican Minister in the early 1800's, and considered one of the very first missionary hymns. It was a popular enough hymn at the time that it was included in the very first LDS hymnbook. Come, All Whose Souls are Lighted Come, all whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high. Shall we, to men benighted, the lamp of life deny? Salvation! Oh, salvation! The joyful sound proclaim, Till earth's remotest nation has learned Messiah's name. From Greenland's icy mountains, from India's coral strand...

Last night, I met up with my friends Beth and Mindy, for a Girls Night at the Days of '47 Rodeo. We took the train to the Delta Center (I still can't call it "Energy Solutions Arena"), and hung out with several thousand of our closest cowboy and cowgirl friends. It was a fun and exciting evening, and an opportunity to break out one of my cowgirl hats. Yeehaw! On a side note, our seats ended up being right next to a couple who were not from the U.S. It was their first rodeo, so the wife would ask me questions, and I'd explain the events. Then she'd translate them into language for her husband. I never did find out where they were from, but my guess was Scandinavian, perhaps Finnish. Just another example of how I always seem to meet the most interesting, nice people when I go to these things.

The reason for their being in town was to run in the Desert News Half Marathon, as part of the 24th of July festivities. My brother-in-law is an avid runner, and track coach, and it's something they enjoy doing together. Once a year or so, they'll decide on a race to run here in Utah, and I usually try to tag along to provide moral support. Friday morning, I arrived at the Finish Line around 7:30, just in time to cheer both of them on for the last few yards. They both had a great race, recording personal best times. I then met up with them in the park and hung around while they recovered a bit.

While Little Sis and the Brother-in-Law were here, we got to attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple. It was their first time at Salt Lake, and my first time going to the temple with them since their wedding 12 years ago. It was a great morning, fun to be with them, and a spiritual feast.

Little Sis and the Brother-in-Law were in town this week, and after a fabulous dinner courtesy of Awesome Sister-in-Law #1, we all took the opportunity to walk across the street to the Conservation Garden Park for a walk. It's a beautiful, peaceful spot, with several walking paths, and the nephew and niece enjoyed showing us some of their favorite spots.

Yesterday evening, I met up with Inge and our dear friends and former 19th ward Bishopric members the Knowltons, for Dim Sum. For the uninitiated, Dim Sum is Chinese appetizers. They usually take the form of meat-stuffed buns and rolls. We stuffed ourselves with shrimp rolls, pork rolls, and pork buns, and had fun catching up. We enjoyed ourselves so much that the owner graciously gave us a free dessert - a sort of warm tapioca soup, with mashed taro root. It was delicious! After leaving the restaurant, Inge and I needed to kill a little time before our movie, so we went for a short walk around Liberty Park. There ended up being a community party going on, for an evening "Hippie 5K", that was benefiting a local charity. There were folks dressed up in tie-dye, there was 60's music playing over the loudspeakers, and the course was decorated with all sorts of fun stuff. We even snuck in a photo op of ourselves in front of the Hippie Run sign. After our walk a...

Around noon on Friday, Utah time, Edwards grandchild #18 arrived. As the Madre would say, YAHOOOOO! It was such an exciting morning while we all waited by our phones to get the good news that he was here, and I can pretty much guarantee that not much work got done that day. Oh well.  Awesome Sister-in-law #2 truly did an awesome job, and the little guy just couldn't be any more adorable. I can't wait to meet him in person!

Friday night my friend Cyndee and I made our way up to Deer Valley for an evening with the Utah Symphony and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We were a little worried about the weather, considering all the rain we've had this last week, but thankfully it ended up being a gorgeous and fun-filled evening. It's the second time I've seen BBVD in concert, and they were incredible as always. By the end of the evening, people were dancing and swinging and a terrific time was had by all. I'm pretty sure you're all aware of my undying love for the Deer Valley Music Festival. It's a fantastic venue, the audiences are great, and it's fun to be able to take food and drinks and snacks and picnic on the lawn.This year we decided to buy the four ticket package, so we'll be back there again three more times. Can't wait!

President Boyd K. Packer passed away on Friday. It was a sad day for us as members of the church, but I'm sure a happy reunion for him with Elder Perry, and other former church leaders, and family members. I will miss his counsel and words of wisdom. Among the projects he was involved in was the effort in the 1970's and early 1980's to publish a LDS edition of the scriptures. I watched an interesting documentary about it this morning on BYUTV. Until that project, there was no such thing as a Topical Guide, or LDS Bible Dictionary, or cross-references. It was much more difficult to become well-versed in all of the standard works, or to correlate them to each other. It really brought home to me the great blessing it was in my life to be born and hitting my teenage years right at the time the new scriptures were being made available.  I was given my own set in 1981, on my 12th birthday. That set got me through high school, seminary, college, and my mission, and far in to a...

Had a fun 4th of July yesterday, celebrating our nation's birthday. I started my day with what has become my annual reading of The Declaration of Independence. I really love that document. I followed that up by watching the musical "1776", which is about the Continental Congress and the Declaration. Later on, my Brother's family came over to swim in our pool, and have lunch. We had a great time. My niece and nephew are such good swimmers. You should see my niece do the backstroke. She does it beautifully. And my nephew is fearless in the water. They're a lot of fun. And I even got in the water with them, which is a rare occasion. After they went home, and after getting a short rest, I drove up to Bountiful to have dinner and spend the evening with Julie, Janeen, and Inge. We had a taco bar (what's more American these days than tacos), and watched a movie. I left there a little after 10:00 to head home, which was about the time every community and neighborh...

Friday morning I left the house to take a walk through the neighborhood. I took a regular route, that took me up to Cottonwood Lane, but instead of turning east like I normally do, I turned west. I've never gone that way before, and my thinking that I might be able to hook up with the street that goes past the Cemetery, and come back out that way. But - that would be a NO. I stayed on Cottonwood Lane for what seemed like ages, and there were no outlets. But I saw some pretty country back in there, almost rural, and lots of big, pretentious houses along the way. I finally arrived at a T-intersection that connected me to Walker Lane. I knew that Walker Lane would eventually take me out to Highland Drive, and that would be faster than going back the way I came. So I went along Walker Lane, past even more large and pretentious houses, and eventually came out to Highland Drive, just south of the Greek Orthodox church, and several blocks further south than I thought I"d been goin...

Inge and I happened to be at Temple Square Friday evening, and while there, I took these cool photos of the temple with my phone. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.