A Vacation, a Temple Rededication, and Temple and Writing Progress

It has been a bit of a crazy week. On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment scheduled in Provo @ 3 pm. Last year, we had the opportunity (since we had a little extra money to work with) to stay overnight at a motel in Park City. We've been hoping for an opportunity to do something like that again. When we were the recipients of some extra funds, Amy said she wanted to use some of it for another overnight getaway. It didn't take much to convince me. So we found a motel in Orem and booked it for Tuesday night. I also had an appointment scheduled with my new employment counselor in Provo @ 1:30. (It's ordinarily at 1, but since we didn't want to have to kill an hour doing nothing in Provo, my employment counselor graciously moved my appointment time.) Anyways, we got a late start and thus missed our chance to meet with Irwin (my employment counselor). He said he'd send me links to jobs. So we instead went to Deseret Industries and found me three new pairs of corduroy pants and a new blue suit and then went to my doctor's appointment. The news there was very good. We then backtracked to the motel.

We had the opportunity to get two great meals from Del Taco or Taco Bell (can't remember which) and Noodles and Company. We went swimming three times (twice on the night we arrived and once the next morning) and had the pool to ourselves all three times. The one thing that was kind of a bummer was that the hot tub was kind of lukewarm in the morning. We had brought my laptop along just in case, but only used it to figure out what we wanted to order from Noodles and Company for Tuesday night. We went home very happy about our overnight stay. I had a physical therapy appointment later on that day, which may have been a mistake, but I went anyways.

Then today was the rededication date for the Ogden Utah temple. I had wanted to go to the first session so we could witness the cornerstone ceremony, but we were abnormally tired and not feeling well when we woke up, so we opted to go later. We tried to make it to the 1 pm session, but again were feeling tired and unwell and needed more rest. When it came time for us to either get up and go to the 4 pm session or else miss the dedication altogether, we finally felt up to going. I will freely admit that I was still a bit out of sorts and may have zoned in and out during the services, but I think the important thing is that I was there. I remember hearing from Elders Dallin H. Oaks and M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy, Sister Linda K. Burton (General Relief Society President), and I remember hearing from the second counselor in the temple presidency and his wife. Elder Ronald A. Rasband led us in the Hosanna Shout and President Henry B. Eyring read the beautiful dedicatory prayer. I later learned that President Thomas S. Monson had only been in attendance at the 10 am session. I hope he's doing all right.

Anyways, the temple rededication is now in the past. The next temple dedications Utah can look forward to are for the Payson and Provo City Center temples. The Payson temple is anticipated to be completed early next year, while the Provo City Center temple is anticipated to be completed late in 2015, all going well. There's a great site I use to keep track of temple progress: ldschurchtemples.com. According to that, 2 temples under renovation will be completed next year; the Phoenix Arizona Temple will be dedicated on Sunday November 16, 2014; seven temples are predicted to be completed in 2015; five in 2016; and two in 2017 (so far). Of the twelve announced temples, eight may have their groundbreaking between now and 2017, depending on how quickly the Church can get the necessary approvals (sites already having been announced for those eight); and the final four have yet to have a site announced. I will keep my eye on the progress of temples, and you can be sure I will post them here on my blog.

For now, it's very late, and I should probably be thinking about bed. Just wanted to blog about these things while they were on my mind. Tomorrow, I will be applying for the jobs that Irwin sent me and hopefully going through my physical therapy exercises and doing a bit of writing. Many of those who have read the interview Aaron Miller did with me have asked when my first published book will be out. The answer to that is short and sweet: I don't know. One thing I do know: some authors I know have posted excerpts of their projects on their blogs, and that's something I may look into in the near future, especially if there is enough interest in it. So, what do you say, my readers? Would you be interested in that? If so, I may consider it. Until I write again, all the best.