John & Leesa Dupree--Alpine German-speaking Mission

     When I was on my first mission in Germany (during the 70s), the U.S. had a pretty strong military presence there, and military personnel had an 18-month European Enlistment option. Soldiers whose time in Europe was coming to a close were referred to as "short timers," and those with less than 10 days remaining briefly carried the title of "one-digit midgets." Only with us, we are counting the days until we can go over there.      Well, it's Saturday, the 18th of February, and we fly out in eight days, right after boring people to death in Sacrament meeting. And it'll be a full weekend this coming week:     --Friday, Open House at the Andersons, 5117 Butterwood Circle in Orangevale, from 7 to 9 p.m. Come one, come all. Let it be clear that Kirsten Henderson is IN CHARGE.     --Saturday, Dinner Group (homemade pizza(!) by invitation only) at the Andersons again, and directly afterward we'll have the White Elephant Gift Exchange at the...

 February 4, 2023, 5:30 a.m. Very often I sleep in two shifts, from 11 until about 3, then up for a couple of hours, back to bed until 8. I just finished making a red velvet cake for dessert tonight. We're feeding the missionaries smoked baby back ribs. I warned them to bring t-shirts. Besides the ribs, I need to make chocolate chip cookies for family dinner tomorrow, besides housecleaning. Just finished a big week at work. Tax season is in full swing, and I get to catch up with clients/friends whom I see but once a year. It's a big honor being in a position of trust like that, bigger still when they tell you they don't trust anybody else to do their taxes. We're slowly accumulating all the physical stuff we'll need: thermal underwear, luggage tags, power converters (220 volts over in Europe versus our 110). Just received a bunch of compression socks from Amazon. I thought I ordered six pair, but I guess I didn't look very close at the item description: Three pa...