The Back Door

I received the quiz below from a friend. I decided to answer via email and I thought it would be fun here. Now its your turn, answer one, two, three or more, you decide.

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1. WHAT TIME DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING? 7:30 am

2 . DIAMONDS OR PEARLS? Diamonds

3 . WHAT IS THE LAST FILM THAT YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA? 21

4 . WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? I survived a Japanese Game Show

5 . WHAT DO YOU USUALLY HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? Egg ham and cheese sandwich on toast

6 . WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? Sue

7 . WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE? We’re walking for

8 . FAVORITE SANDWICH ? Veggie with lots of Avocado on a very good sandwich roll

9 . WHAT CHARACTERISTIC DO YOU DESPISE? Too high opinion of yourself, high and mighty

10 . FAVORITE ITEM OF CLOTHING? Flat front side zip wide leg pants wade from flattering fabric (poly, rayon and spandex)

11 . IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? A barefoot cruise on a small sailing ship anywhere beautiful

12 . WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHROOM? B1 (master) green B2 (daughter’s) purple B3 (studio) peach and blue B4 (guest) unknown we need to decide when we get to the new house B5 (power room) bright beach towel colors, it goes with the photos of the Azores. Too many bathrooms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

13 . FAVORITE BRAND OF CLOTHING? Coldwater Creek but I can’t afford too many

12. PLACE YOU’D LIKE TO RETIRE TO? A cabin in the woods where everything is green, the trees and the house (eco-friendly not the color)

15 . WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY? WHY? 40 was great for me too, Mom sent me her 40th birthday mug

16 . FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Baseball, reminds me of Dad, or basketball with hubby.

17 . FURTHEST PLACE YOU ARE SENDING THIS? ??? I will be posting this to my blog it may go a very long way!!!

18 WHO DO YOU LEAST EXPECT TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Peter

19 . PERSON YOU EXPECT TO SEND IT BACK FIRST? Alma

20 . FAVORITE SAYING? Count your many blessing, you never know when one might be missing! Mary Ellen Edmunds

21 . WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? February

22 . ARE YOU A MORNING OR NIGHT PERSON? Morning

23 . WHAT IS YOUR SHOE SIZE? 8 1/2

24 . PETS? Nope

25 . ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? We got the apartment of our dreams in our new assignment!!!!!!

26. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE? A mother

27 . HOW ARE YOU TODAY? hot and sticky

28 . WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? Dove Dark Chocolate in USA, Bacci in Italy, Miguel’s Truffles in Spain, and Riesen when I can get them. All chocolate you see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

29 . WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? Gardenias

30 . DAY ON THE CALENDAR YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO? The 11th I’ll see my grandson!

31 . What are YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Hubby watching Sienfield

32 . What’s the last THING YOU ATE? A&W cheeseburger Pepsi and a root beer float for desert

33 . DO YOU WISH ON STARS? sometimes

34 . WHAT IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW? Hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

35 . FAVORITE SOFT DRINK? Pepsi Retro – It can’t be found in the USA

36. Favorite restaurant: Which city? Madrid - El Arrozal, Cairo - The Bird Cage, Mexico City - Tacos Chamizal, Logan - The Bluebird, Hawthorne – Naomi’s, I am looking forward to the hawker stalls. I’ll let you know what they are like.

37 . SIBLINGS? 5

38 . FAVORITE DAY? Sunday

39 . WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD? Baby dolls

40 . SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter

41 . HUGS OR KISSES? Kisses

42. COFFEE OR TEA? Fresh Mint Tea

43 . CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Chocolate

44 . DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO EMAIL YOU BACK? Yes

45 . WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Today

46 . WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED? Shoes

47 . WHO IS THE FRIEND THAT YOU HAVE HAD THE LONGEST? Michelle

48 . WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT? Had a wonderful dinner with family and sat chatting, and catching up

49 . FAVORITE SMELL? Night blooming jasmine

50 . WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? heights

51 . SALTY OR SWEET? both

52 . HOW MANY KEYS ON YOUR RING? One for now

53 . HOW MANY YEARS AT YOUR CURRENT JOB? 1

54 . HOW MANY CITIES/TOWNS HAVE YOU LIVED IN? 19 to date

55. DO YOU MAKE FRIENDS EASILY? It is a necessity for me… we move to quickly to wait around

56 . HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL YOU SEND THIS TO? Eight via email… thousands (I hope) via my blog

57 . HOW MANY WILL RESPOND? We’ll see

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Where do I begin? Saying farewell to friends is a part of life in an adventurous family like ours. Sunday we said goodbye to friends at church. Today I wanted to bid my friends of the Mexico City Quilt Guild and Material Girls of Mexico a fond farewell.
In the past month I had the pleasure of hosting both groups in my home for the last time. Not all members were able to attend the stitching sessions in my home and so I thought I’d say my farewells here.
It’s 4 a.m. and I can’t sleep. Our driver arrives at 11 to take us to the airport. I just keep thinking about how blessed I have been by my quilty friends in Mexico.
I found the groups of quilters quite by accident but I now see it as providence. I had just finished recovering from a back injury during which the company where I telecommuted went under. I had just passed on my favorite job here and therefore couldn’t see myself just typing in an office somewhere. I decided to throw myself into quilting full time. I began by offering a quilt at home retreat teaching a quilt per day at my home. My daughter was the hit of the week as she prepared and served lunch each day. Homeschooling turned out to teach her more than just reading writing and arithmetic.
The retreat was a great way to get to know the quilter’s here locally. Since the retreat I have also taught privately in my home, taught a block of the week based upon a Fons and Porter sampler and gave a theory class on charms quilts. While hosting a group of quilters from church I learned that a friend’s mother worked as a professional quiltmaker and she later helped me open the door to the work I enjoy so much now.
Quilting began as a business while here in Mexico but as I lie here watching the final hours tick by until we leave for the airport I acknowledge that quilting has been much more than a business endeavor. It has been a lifesaver.
Many of the friends I have made here have spent hours listening as I fretted over my husband health. We were sad together when we thought I would be leaving early and rejoiced together when I stayed. They comforted me as I faced the realization that relief would not be physical we would just endure.
I will miss long drives together to spend the day quilting in the sunshine in Cocoyoc (pronounced coco yolk). I will miss delicious desserts that came with promises of low calories. I will miss learning of wool and sewing around the billiard room converted into a studio. I will miss white elephant Christmas parties with amazing quilty gifts and opportunities to serve while stitching gift bags for a local orphanage and teddy bears for a cancer hospital. I will miss quilting to the music of chickens.
Mostly I will miss dear friends who have given me strength and encouragement. With whom I have spent many quilting hours
In my broken Spanish… Traducido por computadora (lo siento)
¿Donde lo hago comience? Decir adiós a los amigos es una parte de vida en una familia aventurera como el nuestros. Domingo dijimos adiós a los amigos en la iglesia. Deseé hoy hacer una oferta mis amigos del gremio del Mexico City Quilt Guild y a Material Girls of Mexico un adiós aficionado. En el último mes tenía el placer de recibir a ambos grupos en mi hogar por la vez última. No todos los miembros podían atender a las sesiones de costura en mi hogar y así que pensé que diría mis adioses aquí. Es cuatro de la mañana y no puedo dormir. Nuestro conductor llega a las once para llevarnos al aeropuerto. Apenas guardo el pensar de cómo está bendecido he estado por mis amigos en México. Encontré los grupos de quilters absolutamente por accidente pero ahora lo veo como Dios me cuidó. Acababa de acabar la recuperación de una lesión dorsal durante la cual la compañía donde trabaje por la red fue vendido. Acababa de pasar en mi trabajo preferido aquí y por lo tanto no podría trabajar en una oficina en alguna parte. Decidía lanzarme en acolchar a tiempo completo. Comencé ofreciendo un semana de clases en que enseñaba una patrón por día en mi hogar. Mi hija era el mas éxito de la semana pues ella preparó y sirvió a almuerzo cada día. Homeschooling resultó enseñarla más que leía la escritura y la aritmética. Los clases era una gran manera de familiarizarse con los quilters aquí localmente. Puesto que el semana de clases también he enseñado clases privado, un bloque de la semana basada sobre un quilt de Fons y Porter y que di una clase de la teoría en los Charm Quilts. Mientras que recibía un grupo de quilters de la iglesia aprendí que la madre de un amigo trabajada como un quiltmaker profesional y ella me ayudó más adelante a abrir la puerta en el trabajo que ahora gozo tanto. El acolchar comenzó como negocio mientras que aquí en México pero como acostarme aquí mirando las horas finales hacen tictac cerca hasta que nos vamos para el aeropuerto que reconozco eso, que quilting he sido mucho más que un esfuerzo del negocio. Ha sido un salvador. Muchos de los amigos que he hecho aquí para haber pasado horas que escuchaba mientras que me preocupé sobre el salud de mi marido. Éramos tristes juntos cuando pensamos que me estaría yendo temprano y regocijado junto cuando permanecía. Me confortaron mientras que hice frente a la realización que la relevación no sería física nosotros acaba de aguantar. Echo de menos juntas para pasar el día que acolcha en la sol en Cocoyoc. Echo de menos los postres deliciosos que vinieron con promesas de calorías bajas. Echo de menos aprender de lanas y la costura alrededor del cuarto de billiard convertido en un estudio. Echo de menos fiestas de Navidad con sorprender los regalos quilty y las oportunidades de servir mientras que hacemos regalos de bolsas empaqueta para un orfanato local y el peluches hicimos para un hospital del cáncer. Echo de menos el acolchar a la música de pollos. Sobre todo echo de menos a estimados amigos que me han dado fuerza y el persuasión. Con quién he pasado muchas horas que acolchaban.

Today was our last in the Lomas Ward (congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and I had to write a bit about our experience here in Mexico. We have been through a lot during our assignment here, it hasn’t been easy. In my blog entry entitled “Adventures” I said that:

“We believe in the adage, ‘Home is where the Air Force sends you.’ … We have been richly blessed to have our religion in every country. Even in Egypt we found comfort in a congregation of saints.”

I know that the Air Force is the agency we work for and the decisions of where to send us have come through them but I also have always believed that we have had a higher purpose for the places we have traveled. In each place we have lived I have felt the guidance of our Father in Heaven over our assignment.
Mexico was no different. I knew we were meant to come to Mexico, but this time I also questioned why we were sent here. You see my husband has suffered tremendously from Acute Mountain Sickness. Doctors could find no cure and the only relief he felt was when we descended to lower altitudes. To be reassigned would have meant retirement and we just didn’t feel that was the answer. Each time we thought we found “The Answer” time would prove that it wasn’t yet to be.
Prayers were offered blessings were received yet we did not have the blessing of physical relief. My personal answer came through a priesthood blessing received. To learn to depend upon the Lord, that is why. I have since felt guided and protected even to my husband’s very life. Each Sunday I would be inspired to see more and more Our Father’s hand in my life, the calling (a church assignment) to teach Seminary every weekday waking at 4 or 5 in the morning to teach high school students from the Old Testament strengthened me on a daily basis, finding my passion for quilting rewarded with success and publishing my very first design and having it appear on the cover of the magazine, and my testimony grew each and every day.
Today emotions were close to the surface as we knew we would be saying goodbye. My daughter said to me during our sacrament (congregational worship) meeting, “Just as long as they don’t sing God Be with You Till We Meet Again, I’ll be okay.” Well we sang a closing hymn almost as hard to sing your last day meeting in your home ward with old friends. We sang, I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go.
Verse 3 hit me hard, even harder in Spanish where the translation seemed to speak directly to me.
Here are the words in English:

It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the battle’s front
My Lord will have need of me.
But if, by a still, small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I’ll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:
I’ll go where you want me to go.
Perhaps today there are loving words
Which Jesus would have me speak;
There may be now in the paths of sin
Some wand’rer whom I should seek.
O Savior, if thou wilt be my guide,
Tho dark and rugged the way,
My voice shall echo the message sweet:
I’ll say what you want me to say.
There’s surely somewhere a lowly place
In earth’s harvest fields so wide
Where I may labor through life’s short day
For Jesus, the Crucified.
So trusting my all to thy tender care,
And knowing thou lovest me,
I’ll do thy will with a heart sincere:
I’ll be what you want me to be.

Penned by the poetess Mary Brown, this hymn has been our family’s marching song. When the Air Force sends us we know it is by Our Father’s will. We have felt moved in the very hollow of God’s hand to the places we have been. In Spanish the third verse, fifth and sixth lines read “Y siempre confiando en Su bondad, Sus dones recibiré,” loosely translated “And always trusting His benevolence, His aid I will receive.” These words reminded me once again that I have been blessed beyond measure by being here in Mexico.
I loved being here in Mexico; except for the traffic it has been wonderful. I have not enjoyed our stay to the fullest because of the altitude but I a truly grateful for the experience. I will miss my dear friends of the Lomas Ward. I will miss my sweet sisters in Relief Society. I will miss my Seminary students beyond words to express.
So Goodbye Mexico and God be with you till we meet again.

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