Sister Ballantyne in Singapore: April 28, 2013

From Mom: Our weather has finally warmed up! They say it was the 2nd coldest Spring on record. It was pretty nice in Seattle, a place known for drizzle and rain. Karlene and I just got back this morning. As usual, Children's Chorus won everything, 8 awards in all, including 2 adjudicators' awards for both Concert Choir and Premier Singers! Those are the ones Linda thinks are most important. We had fun seeing the sights but there was so much packed in I'm exhausted! We got to go up in the Space Needle and then went on the Boeing plant tour the next day. That was also the day they performed for the judges. There were only 4 groups that day, 2 of which were TVCC. The judges were pretty impressed, of course. Saturday we had free time in the morning so we went swimming in the pool at the hotel. We had to be out of our rooms by 11:30 am to check out. The buses took us down to the waterfront and dropped us off near Pikes Place and the world-famous fish market (where they throw fish to order). We checked that place out and then went down to the waterfront. Karlene kinda had an anxiety attack so I split off from our group and took her to McDonald's to grab lunch. The Curiosity Shoppe was neat to look around in. We got a few souvenirs at the different places. I think I kept all that we spent under $100 for both of us. Our final outing was by boat to an island in the Puget Sound for a native American program and awards banquet. They fed us salmon that was cooked around open fires, inside the building! It smelled wonderful with that wood smoke greeting us as we went into the building. Then we took every award we could possibly win.

I also spent a few more days with Dad. I dropped him off at 6 am, Wednesday morning and took off for home. After picking up Faline from Dee Dee's I went home and unpacked the car and got ready to go to Seattle. I've basically been gone for over a week. It's nice to be back to the home "campground" with your brother and sisters.

While I was in Seattle, I was sharing a room with 3 other moms. Two of them are wives of bishops and the 3rd one was not a member of our church. Melissa and I got to know Delphina a little bit and found out that she has a nephew that just joined the church, at her encouragement, about a month ago. She thought it would be good for him. She's married to an inactive member but hasn't gone to a ward meeting before. We told her about all the programs the church offers families and especially the youth. Since we were staying at a Marriott, there was a Book of Mormon in the drawer of one of the night stands that we gave her. I hope she looks into it, she seems genuinely interested. If she and her husband both tried to go it would show that they support her nephew, who now is wanting to go on a mission (he's 18, I think).

I also got to talk to one of the judges who asked if the choir was made up of mostly Mormons. I told her that they were and she said that she hadn't looked into the church very much but always wanted church members in her choirs. I told her that it was never too late!

Well, I need to get Dad's letter done so I'm going to stop there. Then I get to sleep!

From Dad: It's been a busy week, especially this last part of it. I spent some time with your mom then went down to California to pick up some produce to drop it off in Dallas. They told us we were to drop off the produce at 10 pm on the 27th in Dallas but were supposed to pick up a load of beer at 8 am the same day. Needless to say there was no way we could pick up the beer when we were supposed to so we got to Dallas 9 am and they took the produce early. We went to pick up the beer but it wasn't ready. We got the beer to take to Salt Lake but traded trailers in Amarillo, TX and are taking another load of produce to Pennsylvania. There we will pick up a load of chocolate and bring it back to Salt Lake. If all goes well, I will have my own truck by the beginning of next week! We met a guy who's taking produce to PA, also. We're supposed to drop off our load at 8 am and he was supposed to drop off his load at the same place. Then we're both supposed to go pick up chocolate and take it back to SLC.

I'll bet you've been busy, too!

From Michael: Nope. Jordan and Alan came home and spoke in sacrament. I am now lade off and I was home alone for three days. It was nice, so what are you up to?

From Karlene: Sorry I tried to write, but Natalia pulled the plug on the enternet because I was taking too much time and not paying her any attention. Nothing really happened last week. This week mom and I went to Washington and near the end I started to freak out. I got home early this morning and went strait to bed. I missed church do to the fact that I couldn't keep my eyes open after I got off the bus. The part of Washington that freaked me out was Pike's place. Talk about bad ju ju. I only calmed down after we got on a boat.

From Faline: I have been at Dee Dee's for the last week or so. I had lots of fun, too! Dee Dee got me a Sorry game and puzzle that I decorated with littel jewels. I got to go to the playground with Resa a lot. I want to go back there. I really love you.