Recommendations again

Books 

"Wonderland" by Chris Grabenstein (and the sequels. Ben likes them)

"The 39 Clues" series by various authors/Scholastic Press (I'm reading to Andrew at night)

"I Saw the Lord" by Kerry Muhlestein and "Joseph Smith's First Vision" by Steven Harper (I interviewed them both for my documentary, and the books are a great way to understand the event.)

"Secrets and Suitors" by Joanna Barker (when you just want a happy ending)

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy- if you want to feel depressed yet smart because it must be real literature (it's for book group this month)


Movies

"The Fighting Preacher" - about Willard Bean, who lived in the Smith Family Farm as a missionary 100 years ago. Our friends lent it to us when I got back from New York.

"Yesterday" - I saw it on the plane and texted my dad when I landed.

"Playing with Fire" - on the plane back from London. A fun one to watch with my boys

"JoJo Rabbit" - plane again. Wow, super good. Quirky and satire.

"To All the Boys I've Loved Before" - Netflix. Surprisingly very funny and sweet.

"The Reality of Love/I Want to Marry Ryan Banks" - satire of The Bachelor

"Once Upon a Christmas Miracle" (Hallmark) - based on a real story; more deep and less cheesy

"The Count of Monte Cristo" - I hadn't seen it in years, but we watched it this week with the older boys and they liked it. I forgot how good it was.

I'm hoping they'll like any of my collection of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, because that may be next if this stay-at-home situation continues.

TV Shows

"Brooklyn 99."  Why did I wait so long to watch this? It's hilarious!

"This is Us." I've recommended this before and I know it's totally playing on my emotions but JB and I can't quit it, and the season 3 finale was .

Anything on ESPN "El Ocho" and E60. We've seen stories on catfish noodling, cup stacking, pit spitting, rock skipping, beard growing, sasquatch calling, and everything else.

Trying to stay sane

This girlie changes outfits and bows non stop throughout the day. Anyone near her is her helper. Or she comes to find me, recording audio track under a blanket.

We try to get outside (WHEN IT IS NOT SNOWING OR RAINING #spring) and play or stretch legs. Here's Millie giving her dolly a walk while James races ahead on his bike.

I play SkipBo and other games with the boys. We finished Harry Potter book 7 and I totally cried all over again. Every few minutes I have to say, "Don't touch each other!" because they are rolling like bear cubs or running around the island.

JB has been cooking incredible stuff, like this German Pancake.

We are using a lot of Church YouTube videos. Both the Book of Mormon videos and First Vision/Restoration as we prepare for General Conference.

I have to be honest, that earthquake rattled me. And now this whole society-on-edge about coronavirus and not being able to go anywhere and the stress of editing this documentary and worries about my children's education -- a couple times I hide and just let some tears escape. But JB works hard to make me laugh.

Isolation central

Coronavirus has changed everything lately. We haven't left the house in days.

Cajoling, bribing, encouraging and helping with massive homework packets and assignments sent from school. Taking turns on the laptops. Hiding in closets to take phone calls.



JB works from home anyway, but usually not with this many people on top of each other.  And good mortgage rates means more re-finances. I came back from New York and my boss said to work from home all the time. It's a quiet, dark house at 4am and I sneak outside for live shots in my car every half-hour.

We move to different spots for different activities, like the garage, the attic, the backyard or our neighbor's backyard playset (no children live there).




Max was playing tennis for Highland and moving up, but that's all done now, and they closed the courts, so he's been trying to keep up his skills in the driveway.

Max's has AP and Honors classes, yet his PE teacher has been the one sending the most emails home and demanding proof he has done his assignments. So he sent him this planking picture. Millie is on my back.

I alter between extreme stress (our children's education, radio deadlines, this conference special, will another earthquake hit, will there be an economic depression...you get the idea) to resignation..to reading something from the prophet or apostles that makes me take a deep breath and remember to have faith everything will work out

Upstate New York

I had a scheduled work trip to New York in mid-March, right before things got really intense and everything started being canceled and shut down for coronavirus. 

(In front of the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center, with the timer on my phone set on top of the rental car)

My boss sent me to Palmyra, for an upcoming radio documentary that will air on General Conference Sunday. It's on the Bicentennial of the First Vision, with a sidebar about the last year of the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I went Thurs-Sat, literally right before the historic sites were closed to visitors.

The whole time I was there, I kept pinching myself for the opportunity to see these places for the first time. And I wished over and over that my family was with me. But I was so busy. Flying took much of Thursday. Then I drove all over the place gathering interviews and taking pictures on Friday and most of Saturday, before flying back. 

My first stop was The Hill Cumorah Visitors Center Friday morning, where I had arranged to do some interviews with area Church leaders.

President and Sister Pitts (he's the pageant president) and Elder and Sister Clay (he's an Area 70)

I took a tour of the visitors center, then walked up the hill to the top. The clouds and rain were clearing to see a beautiful blue sky.

It was quiet and contemplative for me to be there, and I ended up taking pictures for a while all alone on top and on the bottom of the hill.

I drove over to the Smith Family Farm next. It's not that far. And before even going into the welcoming center, I walked around and over to the Sacred Grove.

It was peaceful and still. I heard a family up ahead but they were quiet. For the most part, it was just me, holding my recorder to catch sound of the wind in the trees and the occasional bird call. It is nearly early Spring. And Joseph Smith went into the grove to pray in early spring of 1820.Then I set the reporter in me aside, and sat down on a bench to just breathe and close my eyes and feel grateful. Grateful for my life, for my testimony, for a loving Heavenly Father, for my wonderful family I missed so much in that moment.

I headed into the welcoming center next, and met some of the missionaries I had spoken to on the phone to prepare for the trip. Can I just say that the senior couple missionaries at historic sites are the nicest people? They took me around and showed me things like the log home where Moroni came to Joseph.

Here's some of the frame house

I had to drive over to two other places back in the Rochester area (where my hotel was), to interview more Church members I'd lined up. I barely had time to grab something to eat (Dinosaur BBQ) in between before driving 45 minutes back to Palmyra for the 6pm Temple Session. 

In the morning, I had mentioned to the mission president's wife that I wanted to go to the temple, and she gave me a card to take with me. And Elder Clay actually called the temple president on his cell to ask him if the temple was still open (others were closing around the world), and the temple president asked me my size and set aside the white clothes for me (talk about connections!). I made it just in time, and had many tender mercies that night in the temple. I ended up going on the 8pm session, too. 

I FaceTimed my family then collapsed into my too-quiet, yet gloriously full-of-pillows hotel bed.

Saturday, I went back Palmyra and got another interview with a long-time pageant participant. Then I toured the Grandin Building, where the Book of Mormon was first published. Again, senior couple missionaries are the best. I tagged along with an Ohio family and got a fascinating tour.

Then I went back to the Smith Family Farm and got a better tour of those buildings, because I had more time than I did on my crazy Friday. I also interviewed some people who were visiting. But the missionaries had just gotten word that the historic sites -- or at least the visitors centers -- would be closing for protection against spreading coronavirus. They were sad and so was I. But they also understood why it had to happen. 

I grabbed a chopped steak sandwich at Campi's and returned the rental car, then went to the small and nice Rochester airport. The TSA employees were quite suspicious of my recording equipment and I needed extra screening. So I was happy to take this picture in the mirror (after washing my hands for the upteenth time during the trip), because I was on the way back to my family at a time when many people were being called home and airports were getting crazy.

In the Detroit airport, I saw a lot of couple missionaries waiting for the same flight to SLC as I was. They had been called back early because of coronavirus. They saw my KSL shirt, and I started talking to them and found out they had been in Berlin. They knew my aunt and uncle when they served there! They had had a long day of travel. 

The next day, Sunday, church was canceled. But I did have the memories from the Sacred Grove and the lessons learned about all my interviews on the First Vision that I have started to share with my children. And we are navigating this new unease together.

Now I have to finish putting the special together (I think it is around 34 minutes of content, to equal an hour of time with commercials and newscasts). It is a daunting project, like the special I did from Haiti and St Louis the last General Conferences. I pray I can do a good job.

England -last part

We began Monday at the spot where we would end the day -- the Victoria Crown Theatre, where we picked up our tickets for Hamilton that night. 

We went to Westminster Cathedral next. What a beautiful, huge, historic chapel.

After I took this picture, a Latin mass started at 10:30 and we heard some of it as we explored around the sides. I was reminded of many of the cathedrals I toured in Spain during my study abroad 20 years ago.

Then we walked over to Westminster Abbey, and I got such a thrill knowing this was where William and Kate got married! I watched the whole thing on TV that morning. The brothers were quite patient with my raptures.

It was also on the London Pass. No pictures inside, though, or I would have taken a picture of Charles Dickens's grave, and the monument to Jane Austen, and Mary Queen of Scots' memorial and on and on. This stop had a few more people but really not bad at all. I imagine it is packed in the summer.

The door they send you out from the tour, is in a courtyard. Leave that courtyard, follow the wall, and go around the corner, and there's the corner of the Parliament building right in your face.

In the background of the picture below, with the scaffolding, is the tower with Big Ben. In the foreground is an ITV cameraman and news reporter doing a story. I got a little thrill.

What a beautiful day! Crisp, though. JB said I looked cold in the pictures. I was a bit, yes.

I can't remember if we tubed or walked or bussed (it's all a blur) but it wasn't too far to get to our next stop, Buckingham Palace.  Here, again, I kept blabbing about the Royal Family, and how they come out on THAT BALCONY to wave to the crowds.

I peered right through the gates. In summer you can take a tour when the Queen goes on holiday.

After that we walked back over to Victoria Station and met Scott and Bekah for lunch. We went to the same food court we had been to before because we knew we'd love the food.

I ate delicious things over the two days that I couldn't even spell again if I tried. But later that day I was glad to save some money and get an egg salad sandwich from Pret-A-Manger, per a friend's suggestion.

Scott and Bekah went west with us to go see Kensington Palace. This is where William and Kate (and several other extended family members) live, in their own apartments or wings.

The part that is open to the public has a display about George II's court, Diana's dresses, and Queen Victoria's childhood. We were practically the only ones there. Here is the room where Victoria was born.

And the newlyweds are walking down the stairs where Victoria met Albert (I have to go watch Young Victoria again with Emily Blunt. Or the PBS "Victoria.")

The apartments and rooms for George II were amazing, too, with a portrait hall and grand paintings.

We walked a bit around the gardens, and Joe tried this selfie. Scott is telling him to move it slightly. Or telling me to move my head, haha.

We then rode a bus to Portabello Road, and of course had to sing the song from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." This is a shopping area, which apparently is super crowded in the summer time. Such charming and beautiful things.  And it is in the Notting Hill area. Look at this gift shop where I picked up some stamps.

And these row houses with the sunset -- I adore it. The doors were all different colors.

It was time to get back to the Theater for Hamilton! A musical about America's beginnings in London's West End. Pinch me. The crowd loved King George when he came out for his songs. I've been humming the songs for a week since.

We trained back late to the flat, exhausted again (my watch said we logged 7.25 miles of walking! Our best day yet. It was somewhere around 6 miles the day before, and 5 miles the day before that).

Michael and I took the 6:40 AM bus to Heathrow Airport on Tuesday morning. Joe had a flight the next day, so he went with Scott and Bekah to the town where he was born (my parents lived in England in 1980, can you believe it?).

I landed at 1pm Utah time (8pm London time) and had a prompting to Facetime the house. Millie was crying for me. We were happy to be reunited again! Then the boys came home from school with more hugging. I went to bed as soon as they did, and I think I reset my clock pretty fast.  Now I want to go back for a longer trip!

England - part 3

On Sunday morning, we went to church at the historic Hyde Park Chapel in London. With the train and bus transfer, we made it to the 10:30 sacrament meeting, which was the Hyde Park 2nd Ward I think. This was a dream of mine to be there. It was testimony meeting, and I felt a strong connection to those saints. 

I recognized a prominent instagrammer in the congregation (Charity Eyre Wright), and Dave Checketts, the London Mission President.

Just getting there we passed all kinds of beautiful scenery, like the famous Victoria & Albert Museum and Natural History Museum.

After church, we did a hop on hop off bus tour. Once again, Joe not cold, Michael and I in several layers of jackets/sweaters. I had two pairs of tights on, too, under my skirt.

We had a live guide, who was a quintessential older British man in my mind, making dry observations about everything we passed. I took picture after picture of the architecture. Every building as beautiful as the last. Like Parliament on the river.

PS, go to London in the late winter/early spring. No crowds!

We hopped off at St Paul's Cathedral, thinking that would be a good Sunday activity. But it was closed for services.

It is a beautiful building outside. Michael told us about going all the way up to the top with his baby in a front pack last year. After that, we took a short tube ride over to the Tower of London. This was one of my favorite spots.

We had London passes, which let us in, and Rebekah had suggested the Yeoman Warder's tour -- and it was totally worth it. Our guide was hilarious, and knew so much history. It was so fascinating, and much better than just wandering around looking.

Inside one of the buildings on the campus are the crown jewels! The actual crown of Queen Elizabeth. Heavily guarded, no pictures allowed.

After that, we took Joe on quite the walk. Here's a picture from some point that day which he posted on Facebook, as he tried to get a cool building and a double decker bus, I am hustling on ahead.

We went up the hill, down several blocks, up some stairs, across London Bridge, up another bit to the Shard Tower. Max texted me while I was crossing the bridge, so I sent him this picture. You can see the Tower of London to the left of Tower Bridge in the background.

The Shard Tower is also on the London Pass. It's a super tall triangle glass building. The London Pass gets you up to the top, on the observation floor. I get nervous with heights, but looking out the 360 glass to the views was amazing. See how small Tower Bridge is?

Michael suddenly got cell reception at the top, and got to talk to his family. Joe was becoming our best selfie picture taker, with his height and longer arm.

We went underground-train back to Woking as it got dark, and got Chinese food and just sat around in exhaustion while we planned the next day's adventures. And I got to Facetime with my sweet children! JB took Andrew and Millie with him to his ward, and I got great reports about Max, Ben and James at our ward.

England - part 2

Saturday morning the brothers and I took a walk about Woking. What a charming place. Lovely, to borrow the British word they use for a lot of things.

Here is the train station.

Mind the gap!

I took so many pictures of the houses. Every house has a name.

Some that I wrote down in my phone: Pembroke Gardens, Little Hatchett, South Lodge, Honeysuckle Cottage, Little Tudor, Heathside Gardens, Heathside Cottage, White Cottage, Littlecroft, Whetherby, Ravenswood Court

We were staying in a flat in Copper Beech House. It rained on us by the time we returned to get ready for the wedding. PS - Joe does not get cold. Michael and I were bundled up and he would always be in short sleeves.

Then we took a train to Weybridge, to the registrar's office, for the wedding.  

It was a beautiful ceremony. I'll let Rebekah share the main pictures of her special day on her own, but I think this one was my favorite. The lovely building in the backround, the gorgeous green, and the beautiful couple.

Hannah and I were witnesses. I had to sign the official register and everything.

Here are the original Deardeuffs with our new brother-in-law, Scott.

The wedding dinner was at an historic pub. Joe got a ride, but Michael and I set off confidently to walk. In the wrong direction. Scott's boss swung around and picked us up.

I had fish n' chips -- again and no complaining here! -- with amazing mushy peas with mint. Joe had something divine-looking, too, and we swapped plates by the end. Scott's family remarked on how we shared tastes of everything, and we did it the whole trip.