Exciting news! The Whitney finalists were announced this week and I'm one of the finalists for the Historical Fiction category for my novel The Ruby. You might think I'm getting disproportionately excited over being a finalist, but the competition is pretty formidable and I feel honored just to be counted among the ranks of Heather Moore (Abinadi), Nancy Allen (Isabelle Webb, Legend of the Jewel), Toni Sorenson (Master) and Sandra Grey (Traitor). These are some of my favorite authors and they're pretty awsome people as well as being great writers. Pick up any of their books and see how right I am about how tallented they are.
The opening of the new Draper temple is just a month away and already we're feeling the loss of all those wonderful temple workers who will be transferring to the new temple from Jordan River Temple. Out of the more than four thousand people who serve in the Jordan River Temple about 1300 will be in the new temple district. They have an exciting time ahead of them, but it will be hard to get along without them. In just four months the openhouse for the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple will begin and the Jordan River Temple will lose another 700 workers--and I'll be among them. I'm excited for the new temple, but I hope volunteers will step forward to fill the gaps at Jordan River that will be left from so manypeople leaving. Also 700 is only about half the number that will be needed at the new temple so volunteers are needed. See your Bishop.
You've heard me complain about a pesky hawk that has hung around my back yard for the past couple of years, making meals out of the little birds that visit our birdfeeders. Yesterday three hawks showed up! (I know, Kerry, hawks have to eat too.) Two of them are about the size of a magpie, but the third one was closer to the size of a chicken. I don't know enough about birds to even know what kind they are and I'll admit they're fascinating to watch, but I can't help feeling a twinge of sadness when they kill one of the cute little birds I've been feeding all winter.
My daffodils and crocuses are starting to poke through the snow, so maybe there's hope for spring afterall.
2 comments:
Congratulations on your well-earned Whitney nomination!
There are more than four thousand people working at the Jordan River temple? *keels over in shock*
Forty-seven hundred to be exact. It's the busiest temple in the church. Each shift, and there are three shifts per day, require at least eighty sisters alone and preferably closer to a hundred. Then there are the many male positions, organists, baptistry workers,office staff etc. Most temple workers work two shifts per week, though some do only one. And that doesn't even count the paid employees in the cafeteria, grounds keeping, security, and custodial areas.
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