It's been a long time...

Having lunch on the go while we were out trying to
find inactive members! Yes, I always look this wierd!


We have driven past this sign (at 55 mph) several times
and saw the "Bee Sting Death" but couldn't read anything
else. It was by this old cemetary so we figured that everyone
in the cemetary died of "Bee Attacks!"


When we got close enough to read the sign, it didn't seem
near as exciting as we thought it would. I guess that we are
rather morbid... it just wasn't exciting since there was only
one who died! Yikes, we are bad!


Now why would a Missionary be looking into someone's
window? Because the house was locked up... Until June!


After we got to the General Mills Mansion, we noticed the
sign that said, "Open from June to November."
I don't think we can wait that long!


This is what we drove all over heck and back to see!
The General Mills Mansion. I don't know about you,
but I wasn't bowled over... I guess I thought that it
would be bigger or something!


This is very famous "Monks Bread". It is sold in
grocery stores all over here, but we had to get some
at the sorce - The Abbey of Genesee! The Maple
Cinnamon bread was worth the trip!
The rye bread made great sandwiches, too!


This is the Abbey of Genesee. I don't know why it
is called an Abbey because only Monks live there. I
thought that only Nuns live in an Abbey!? Shouldn't it be
called a "Monkery"! (See the story below!)


This is the free box of Jello that we got for touring
the Jello Museum... It only cost us $6 for tickets for
admission. Just wait until you see what we saw!!!


In case you can't read this, it says that Salt Lake
City and Boise are the 2 largest consumers of Jello
(per capita)! Whipee! We made it into the Jello Museum!


Another of the Utah connections at the Jello Museum.
Utah's Olympic "Green Jello Pin" and Jello being the
official state food of Utah!!! What things to be famous for!
We were mentioned more than anywhere else in the whole
world... except maybe LeRoy! What a thing to be
remembered for!!!


Some of the early boxes of Jello. Most of the museum
was about like this. Very low tech. The bad thing is,
they have all of this just glued on to regular paper... even some
of the old Jello magazine adds. If a scrapbooker sees it they
will have a heart attack! (Oops, maybe I shouldn't have said that!)


This is a test... If you get the answer to this without
cheating, let me know! You are pretty smart or have a
great imagionation!


I bet you never would have guessed that!!!


The EEG results are framed and up on the wall. The green
jello is a jello mold that looks like a brain! You can buy one
of those jello molds at the gift shop at the museum if you would
like one. Someday I am going to be sorry that I didn't get one!


Really! I wasn't kidding! They really did do
EEG tests on a pile of Jello!! The proof is here
in the newspaper article!


Now don't you think I make a cute Jello girl!
Where is Olivia and Victoria when you need a
picture of a cute little girl?!?


This is a picture of the origional Jello factory. It was
a very large contributor to the economics of LeRoy.


This is what the old Jello Factory looks like today. Jello
is made somewhere else... poor LeRoy is just a small "bump
in the road" for the history of Jello.


This car was in the basement of the Jello Museum.
We have no idea why it is there, who's it was or anything
else about it. Doug loves old cars, however so we took
his picture with it!


This brick in the sidewalk of fame at the Jello Museum
says it all.


You can't read it very good, but this sign says, "Village
of LeRoy (said LA Roy in NY) birthplace of Jello!"
I guess you have to be famous for something!


Here is where they brought me when I started having
my chest pains. I would have rather gone in through
the front door! They were very nice and very effecient.
I just hate going to doctors!


Clifton Springs Hospital. It is a pretty hospital with
a duck pond and creek running through the property.
I didn't see much of this side of things however!


The fields and any "puddle" have hundreds of Canadian
Geese in them. They are beautiful and very loud. It is
quite fun to listen to them.


The skies have been alive with the sounds of honking
geese. Hundreds of them flying back north to Canada.
It is amazing how loud it has been.

March 28, 2006 - The last time I wrote a note for the blog, I stated that there wasn’t anything "stunning" that had happened during the week. I guess I shouldn’t have said that, because the last two weeks we have had too much excitement! It started at about 2:30 AM on the 21st of March. I woke up to go to the bathroom, but when I got back in bed I couldn’t get comfortable. I got up and went out on the couch so that I wouldn’t wake up Doug. I started to get a pain in my chest under my left arm and across the top of my heart. It was different than the pains that I had experienced before so I guess I paid more attention to it. I tried to watch a movie and distract myself, but the pain just kept getting worse. By 4:00 AM it was bad enough that I decided that I needed to wake Doug up and alert him to how I was feeling and to ask for a blessing.

He woke up and immediately sensed that there was something WRONG because I never tell him about chest pains that I have…. I have had them for the last 25 ½ years… I’d never stop complaining, so I just keep it to myself most of the time. He wanted to call 911 immediately and I wouldn’t let him. I thought that it would most likely just go away.

He called upstairs to our site directors apartment and asked Elder Potter to come and help give me a blessing. Within 1-2 minutes Elder Potter was out his door, ran down the stairs, and then to our surprise, he went into the garage, jumped into his car and drove off! We wondered where on earth he was going, but really didn’t have time to worry about that. The pain started to get worse. I started to get really light headed and felt like I was going to faint. Doug asked me if it was him having this pain what I would do… Dang his sneakiness!… I had to answer that I would call 911. He called 911. While he was on the phone, he ran upstairs to get a heart difibulator. By the time he got back, Elder Potter drove in… He had jumped in his car and took off, only to get about 2 miles down the road and heard in his head, "Sister Pack needs a blessing." He had been worrying about another sister who has been sick and automatically drove off to her house to give her a blessing. When he woke up enough to actually recall what was asked of him, he turned the car around and headed back to our apartment. I think that is rather humorous, but Elder Potter was mortified!

Anyway, the ambulance came but because they thought that I might need to have an IV put in (if I got worse) they called a second ambulance that had people that could do an IV. (don’t ask me why there would need to be two different types of EMT’s, but in New York, there is!) They hooked up the EKG monitors and off we went, Doug in the front seat and me in a bed in the back. They took us to Clifton Springs Hospital which is about 10-15 minutes away.

After 8 hours of them doing different things, it was decided that I would go to Rochester to Strong Memorial Hospital for an angiogram. I said that Doug could drive me and that was shot down. I was put in another Ambulance (with Doug following in the Jeep this time). I have since decided that I would rather have ridden in a limo! It would have been more comfortable and it would have cost less!

The Cath Lab was huge! There were 18 rooms (half pre and half post angiogram). It was one hopping place. I don’t think that I have ever seen one better organized or run smoother. (And I have seen a few… from both sides of the table!) Once in the cath lab it only took about 1 hour for them to get me into a cath room (with the x-ray machine). Another hour and I was finished. Another hour and I was on my way home! I go back to the Cardiologist on the 31st at 3 PM to see what they think. I will probably be told that it’s all in my head so don’t worry about it. That would be fine with me!

So, now that I have covered the hospital stuff, let me tell you about the day before all this happened. We drove to the Jello museum and the Abbey at Genesee (which is a monistary… unfortunately, I couldn’t think of that word and was trying to tell Doug what it was and the only word I thought of was Monkery! You know, an Abbey and a "Monkery". We both knew what I was trying to say, but none the less, after much laughter and teasing, it has become a "Monkery" from this time forth!)

First the Jello Museum… It was a pretty funny place. It is on the map like it is a really big deal… a big museum. It costs $3 per person to get in, and it is one room. It has lots of displays of old Jello boxes, advertisements, and some of the early history of Jello. It also has a display that says that Jello has the same brain waves as the human brain! It has several places that Utah comes up. Salt Lake City is the largest consumer of Jello. There was a display of the Olympic "Green Jello Olympic Pin"! and a T-shirt that stated that Jello was one of Utah "State Foods!" We were well represented in this little room of a museum.

The "Monkery" was out in the middle of nowhere! We drove for a long time thinking that we would never find it, but we finally did. We went there because the Monks there are famous for the bread they make. We stopped to get some bread so that we could say that we have eaten some "Monkery Bread". It was really good bread! And it was kind of fun to go there first hand.
After that, we decided that since we were in the "neighborhood" (within 25 miles) we would go and see the General Mills Mansion (and yes, the guy that the cereal was named after was really a General in the Army…). We wandered all over, down back roads, dirt roads, over hill and dale and finally got there. After all the "stress" of getting there, we discovered that it is only open from June to November. The only tour we got was looking in a couple of the windows. Since that trip we have learned that there is a much neater mansion to tour only about 20 minutes away from where we are… We will go there next time.

The geese have been absolutely beautiful this Spring. The sky is so full of honking that you just can't believe it. Everywhere you go you see flocks of geese (or gaggles for those who want to be more correct). It has been fun to become a "bird watcher" of sorts. Mostly we have been "bird listeners" and it has been great fun! Another sure sign that spring is coming... all the trees have buds just about ready to burst open. It is going to be a huge explosion of green here in a few days. After everything being so grey all winter I am sure that we will really enjoy the color!

April 2, 2006 - You guys are never going to get through with this letter! He we go again! I have now been to the cardiologist for my follow up appointment. Bummer! I knew what he was going to say, but I really didn’t like "hearing" it! My aortic valve is closing down. It will have to be replaced at some near time (meaning before it does any damage to my heart). In ways the cardiologist would have liked to sign me up for surgery then and there I think, but because we weren’t from New York, he has given us a few weeks to think about it. We need to check on insurance, how the church feels about us staying out on our mission while I have it done, etc… 6 years ago I found out that I had a stenosis (narrowing) of my aortic valve (from an angiogram). They said that I would have to have it replaced "someday". The size of the opening then was .8. This time the opening was .7. I didn’t think that was too much of a difference. What I didn’t know is that .9 is when they put you on a "critical watch" to keep a really close eye on your valve (having an echocardiogram every 6 months to make sure that it isn’t getting worse! J ) and mine was .2 worse than that! Double Bummer!
Dr. Garringer gave me some medication to slow down my heart (it was 90 beats per minute at "rest"). It also is a beta blocker so that it may help me with the chest pains, too. I think the medication is helping. My resting heart rate is now about 70-75. Next Tuesday I have to wear a heart monitor to double check that there is not any "electric" problems with my heart. They don’t suspect any, but they don’t want to be surprised with any either! (So I will have some more medical fun stuff to talk about next week!) Anyway, all is well and all I’d ask you to do is remember us in your prayers and if you feel like you would like to, fast with us on the 9th of April (fast Sunday) that would be great. We need to know where and when we are to do the surgery and to receive comfort about doing it! Thanks in advance for your prayers!
With that joyful bit of news I guess I’ll end this small novel! We love you all! dnd