We celebrated Elannah's 19th birthday yesterday by taking the day off and staying in. Haha. But we did try and make it as much of a birthday as possible. Husband set up his recording microphone and amp near our electric piano, and I played accompaniment while she sang. She has such a lovely voice. In the evening, we ordered Panda Express (her choice) and I made chocolate lava cake and we sang happy birthday. Later, we watched the fifth Harry Potter movie with her.
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| Sophia took Elannah for a photo shoot on her birthday. I love this photo of Elannah. |
Husband got special permission directly from the author Jonathan Stroud to audio record the last few chapters of The Screaming Staircase, the first book in Stroud's brilliant Lockwood & Co. series. He had been reading it to his fifth grade students, and they were desperate to hear the end of the book, and Husband reads aloud so well and can do all the right accents. It was very kind of Mr. Stroud to give Husband that permission, so everyone should go and buy the book immediately--plus all the others in the series. I personally love it.
When Husband isn't recording from Stroud's book, he's been recording his own book, Shade Salazar and the Last Magician of Midgard. He's also planning out the third book in that series (The Ragnarok Cycle) because so many kids have been begging him for more of the story.
I haven't been writing, but I've reread all of The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, and am halfway through A Wise Man's Fear. I think I'll reread Leigh Bardugo's Crooked Kingdom duology after that, since Rothfuss has yet to produce a third book in The Kingkiller Chronicle, much to the dismay of so many fans, including myself. There's always Brandon Sanderson's books, as well.
Today I was struck so hard by a memory that I thought I would share it.
About a year into my mission in England, I got a Swedish companion (work partner) named Sister Ronström. She was a great person, but she was a little awkward, and it was really hard for her to fit into the tight-knit group our district had become. For about a week, she tried to fit in, and while none of us was antagonistic at all, she just couldn't seem to mesh.
One day, our district was all together in our house (where we lived with our landlord and landlady) doing something at the dining room table. Sister Ronström had been in the next room for a couple minutes before she marched into the dining room with a determined air and said with her Swedish accent, "Do any of you beggars have a stamp?"
There was a long, surprised pause, and then the rest of us burst out laughing. It was such an uncharacteristic thing for her to say, and the word "beggar," in particular, was a word one of the elders was always using in jest. The shock of it was enough to finally break the ice--especially as it was obvious she'd thought really hard about what to say to fit in. She just looked so relieved when we laughed. After that, she was part of the group.
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| This is one of the photos she glued into the pages of my T-book (testimony book), which was a mission tradition. Every missionary had a book in which companions, other missionaries, and friends could write something before either they or you left an area. |
She was a very hard worker. She nearly killed me by the time I sent her off home (I was her last companion on her mission), and I have fond memories of our two months serving together.
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| Christmas 1993, Erdington, Birmingham, Warwickshire. I had been really sick, and I might have still been recovering when this photo was taken. I'm sure she took good care of me. |
I'm friends with her on Facebook. She married a very nice guy, and they live in Luxembourg and have three cute boys. She's an amazing baker and bakes all kinds of Swedish pastries that she sells for extra cash.
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| Pre-Christmas 1993 with the district. |
I just remembered that incident today and had a happy chuckle over it.
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