Nauvoo Women's Conference March 2009

This was our keynote speaker. TOTALLY AWESOME. She was saved to talk to us as our last speaker. I wished I took more pictures of the other things that went on. I'll get it together....(Irene, don't just put the camera in your bag, TAKE MANY PICUTRES!) However, I'll tell you somewhat of this marvelous lady. MARIAMA KALLON. In fact, just got to this site and read her story here, even though it's shorter then what she told us and not in her wonderful accent....

http://www.ldsgenesisgroup.org/kallon.html

In the story here it doesn't tell of the cruelity of the rebels. They would cut off the arms of the women so they could not vote for the opposing army.....and she was next in line. terrifying to say the least. At first I wondered why they had her come when it was about "pioneer women"...but after a day, I got to thinking...................similar horrible things happened to the early Latter Day Saints in Kirkland, Ohio; Independance, Mo; and Nauvoo, Illinois. We now just say, "the mobs".

At the first breakfast I played my harp and she came up to me and said, "please, can I sit down at your harp and just take my picture". OF COURSE.....and then I gave her a Mini lesson. She was thrilled. After that, I found occasion to sit with her at meals and walk with her. After her keynote speech, it was HARD to get close enough to get a picture with her. I was amazed that she would get out her scriptures and begin, and then not look at them but say them all memorized.

We thought we'd look good together as we all had green on. I figured it was still close enough to St. Pattie's day. I meet sooooooooooo many wonderful folks at these events.

Below here..... I know most all of these folks. They want me to join this group of "The Reenactment Guild of Nauvoo". I just might do it.

The cast of this year's Relief Society organization reenactment.

stem wall forms on house.

Here it is out at the house site. Beautiful sunset going on here.
A stem wall sits above the other foundation and Ralph Andrus pours it, there will be rebar and all that jazz in firmly. It MUST be GOOD WEATHER to do this stemwall. as the whole house sits on this and if the weather goes below freezing, then the wall will crumble. so could not pour it. they have to really keep track of the next four day weather forcast for this tricky job.
Tomasi is standing on the corner (yes, we do have some corners on our round house, ha ha) of our bedroom.
You can see that this was also "tricky" to put up all these forms to be 4 feet , and then another one. There are 27 sides.

Samoans come to town

This couple came to visit Nauvoo for Valentines Day. They live in Independence, MO. They came to our ward here in Nauvoo and I went right up to them and said, "is it aloha, maloelelei or Talofa?" He laughed and said Talofa. Tomasi and I invited them to come up to the first pew that we sit on and ahhhhhhhhhhhh, what WONDERFUL VOICES. I loved singing next to them. Tomasi invited them to come to our house and eat after Church and that is what they did. I had a blast cooking food for folks that eat it up right .......and we loved playing music for them as well. Teine and Nelson Taula.

Valentines day dinner

this is our Temple presidency. They all gave poems, or songs or wild stories. You can see the harp in the background. I played harp for them and all the folks that came to dinner that are Temple Missionaries. We work with these precious folks every Saturday.
Temple Pres and sweet darling wife sang "I give to you and you give to me, true love......." Her voice quavering and in tune.....not too many dry eyes on this song. Then there was someone that sat down to the piano and played a long waltz and even Tomasi danced with me this one waltz. It was a joyous Valentines Dinner and evening.

Tomasi's new job

Tomasi has been teaching other folks how to play the autoharp. cute, yeah? My lap dulcimer is always ready for a tune. This is Ramona Halman. A very dear friend. We have had several other missionaries come over to learn how Tomasi plays the autoharp. I put on 6 strings on her autoharp............

Irene's 68th birthday

This is Laurie Peterson, has 6 children.....marvelous home school mom...and this is the one that plays the violin...........she makes me look and sound good. She gave me these lovely flowers on my birthday as well. sweeeeeeeeeeet.
This is the Big Muddy's that we went to eat at in Burlington, Iowa. The big Mississippi is just flowing slowly by. I had such a wonderful day...and have a new little card carrier in my pocket that has a frogie on it. sooooooooo this was the day of hopping frogs. ha. yep, they sell frog legs on the menu, never for Irene.
this is the beautiful bridge that we could look out on as we ate. yep, this Big Muddy had water in it from the 1993 flood and the 2008 flood.........but all cleaned up. a great place to eat, and we'll go again. I asked questions about the furniture...they had a small window if TIME to get everything up high. This place gave me a $15.00 gift of one dinner sometime this year.....if I showed them my driver's license to prove it was my birthday. GOT IT.
Now if this handsome Tongan would smile when we take a picture...........what a dear heart he is to me.

San Diego Trip in pictures mostly.

this was one of the weird little houses on the walking place on the Beach. all $3 mill and up places. hrumph.
I thought these were awesome. a type of purple cacti or ice plant.
and look at this weird house....what views eh?
this is on the first day I got there and took the bus system to Mission Beach to see the sun go down. Vicki had picked me up at 6:15 a.m. in Nauvoo. We drove to St. Louis, MO and I caught the plane. Took a shuttle to the Hotel..........then asked how I might get to see the sun go down and got a shuttle to the train/bus station.........caught the bus and here I did my first walk in California. These folks were walking with their beautiful dogs. I took this for Sue.
I twas really quite cool and I was glad I had on my shawl. That gorgious sun going down down down. The closer it gets to the edge, the faster it goes it seems.
I'm looking at the flag.........my "finish line" from Nauvoo...now that's FAST TRAVELING. ha.
I wish I'd take a picture of the tatoo'd man that took my picture. I didn't notice his massive amounts of tatoos until I handed him my camera. It was so cold for the San Diegoites that they were all bundled up. He said he worked for a tatoo parlor......they were tooooooo many. Beautiful wife and dolly baby. these also were waiting for the sun to go down.....the "green flash".
This was on the trolley and one picture out to see San Diego in the distance. It is sooooooooo huge this place. 3 million in town and 3 million in the surrounding areas. nope, would not want to live here. wayyyyyyyyyyyy too populated and expensive.
this is the corner of the big outside Organ that I found in Balboa Park. When I went to this place riding on the Trolley........I heard the HUGE organ playing...so I said, "I want to get off here, how far is it to Old town?" the answer was 10 minuets. I came right to this organ and heard it and marvelous was the sound, outside.
This is how far it is from the back. the largest outside Organ in the USA? It was built to last, for a world's fair.....I forgot the year.
So EXTREMELY ornate. For those of you that know the Egyptian motif for "Eternity" here it is again. Joseph Smith was studying Egyptian when the Kirkland Temple was being built and this motif is on those walls as well. Also on the walls of the Nauvoo Temple and other Temples. can see Celtic as well.............LOOK up closely by clicking on any of these pictures.
beautiful handwork that has all been just lately restored.
this tells more about it. of course, someone else took this picture and I can see it's a bit blurry. oh well.
Okay, folks, when I publish these posts, I'm still not too "swift" with it. I need to learn to publish the OLDEST pictures first then come to the newest, but if you want to just look see, that's okay, I'm not going to rearrange these, just post more often. This huge fish I "petted" every time I passed him in the lobby of the Hotel where the convention was held. I so love aquariums. Below here is a VERY OLD CORK tree. I had some of these in my yard as a child in Sacramento, CA. what interesting colors and forms. The cork is the bark.
This is a pepper tree, like the one that my Grandfather Clyde used to sit under when we would visit him in El Cajun, Ca as a child. This tree is soooooooooo full of burls, such a lovely tree. I was walking at the end of my last day there in Old Town in the park there and someone remarked on how beautiful my shawl was. yep, looked all over Old Town for a new shawl to wear as I like these better then coats. This was handwoven. She "said" it was handwoven in Mexico....I don't know where, but I love good handwork like this is. It was quite chilly in the afternoon and I was glad for the great find. When I asked the man to take my picture, he wrote something on his notepad for me when I asked him to come around and get closer, "picture taker $2.00, closer $4.00". You can see I'm laughing here.
another same marvelous old tree.
I'm always amazed on what is a cacti.
I took this picture in the oldest grave yard in San Diego. yep, old town. I think you can just click on any picture and get up close. very interesting story.
Ho, did I tell you I went also to a sheriffs museum. also a walk in backwards time.
this is the side of the little courtyard that the pepper tree was. How tall this tree is and what a darling little chimney for smoke to come out of. I suspect that its for the exhaust of the food stove so folks would smell the good food cooking and go inside this lovely restaurant.
ahhhhhhhhhh, now HERE IS A PAPERBARK tree trunk. We had many of these in our mountains in Hawaii. lovely texture, right? look at these roots. Bird of Paradise plant in the background, but not in bloom as it's still "early spring".
This was in the Heavenly Harp Store that I was on the adventure to find. It's an old music stand that I could make. ahhhhhhhhhh, now to hold all the music and not turn so many pages while leading music. sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
I laughed out loud when I saw this harp in the window.....door was locked until I knocked on it. This is an old troubadour Harp of Lion and Healy...........one of their first models of lever harps. Well when this owner of harp shop got it, twisted pillar and other stuff wrong with it so she just painted it and hung these crystals on it and I just loved that. This harp doesn't have a good sound as I've heard them before.....great choice of new playing......crystals.
another picture of this harp, taken through the window looking out. I'm going to do this to some old junk harp someday. (hopefully never any of mine, ha)

Here is that marvelous fish again. pictures should be loaded up, THEN written about one at a time. oh well, you get variety.
Maroi art is so like Celtic art. this was on the inside of the Hotel. It used to be called the Hanalei Hotel.
This picture of my Canadian friend and another harpist in the International Harp Therapy Program. We come from all parts of the world. This was at one of the two luncheons that we had outside by the pool. ahhhhhhhhh, the sunshine, we were all loving it.
I laughed soooooooooooo hard at this class taught by Don Cambell. famous for the book THE MOZART EFFECT. We were all given two hard paper plates and played them together as music was playing and he was leading us. I want to do this for a class sometime. TOTAL FUN. He said, "the heart does not get tired of having fun". lighten up folks.
okay, here's one of my favorite leaves of all time. Monsteria leaf. This was at the hotel as well. for "perspective" I'm here as well. I'd like to grow one of these in my round house.
one of the classes was guided imagery. sending love to those next to you.
I have met many wonderful folks at these through the years.....sooooooooo blessed really. Here is a friend for life.
okay, here is one thing that I love of this place, San Diego. winding sidewalks that have such patterns. Beautiful. Why not have something beautiful and interesting to walk on? This was in Old Town.....I think one of my favorite places to be. I truly did "wander around". This first day I took the tourist trolley and LOVED IT. totally gorgeous day and for $35.00 well worth it.
more friends sending love, caring and healing to each other....a circle of friends.
These I've known for several years and we only see each other at these gatherings. We were showered with much happiness. (looks like a shower head but it was a light, ha, showered with light? Ha)
The one in the middle here is my roomie from England. ahhhhhhhh, the tall palm trees in background.
I think that this was a well planned out gathering and much was taught and the eating outside was VERY wonderful. After a long winter for many of us.
okay, sooooooooooo here you'll read what I wrote of this picture BELOW the picture. Becca, I could use more training. Do you put your pictures up from the oldest to the newest and THEN write little captions? Now folks, do you remember this guy from my trip to St. Louis, MO botanical Park in late summer. yep, this gal that made these, lived in San Diego as well. I really like her sculptures and even though she is in another world now, her creations live on in parks and are shipped to other places so her work can be enjoyed by millions


How beautiful Orchids are. really how perfect can you get? When in the botanical area of this Balboa Park, was a huge "green house" and within was the Orchid Show. zowie. What a lovely thing to learn how to grow!!
I'm my grandmother picture here. Head cocked, smile on my face and in front of some gorgeous Azaleas within this greenhouse. sun spots, oh well....and blue trolley car ticket on dress. Ha. What a person does is pay the $ and then get on and off anywhere all day long and so the wearing of the blue sticky tag. I know my grandparents would have loved to have walked along with me today as I went to things they loved as well.
Isn't this exquisite? what color and perfection. yep, there ARE some things in this life that ARE perfect.......(I always say when I'm teaching someone something............harp, music, sewing, singing etc.............that "perfection is for the next world" to help folks not be so hard on themselves.)