Kerr Chronicles

Week 28
It was a dark and stormy night. . . that's how weird stories start, and we had a weird story this week. On Monday we were starting to eat lunch. Elder Kerr opened his mouth for his first bite and sort of yelped. He had a sharp pain in his right jaw, but he tried to eat a little. The jaw continued to hurt, and I watched it swell up before my very eyes! In 15 minutes he looked like a chipmunk with his winter stash in his cheek. I said that we needed to take him to the clinic, and he didn't disagree (that's a sign--no disagreement). As luck would have it, it was our doctor's (the one we had to audition for in February) day to cover the clinic. He poked and prodded, etc, and finally said it was very unusual to see such a sudden onset of temporomandibular joint disorder, but he was confident that's what it was--Kerby had a sprained jaw! Dr Brown prescribed a muscle relaxant, ibuprofen, an ice pack, and very soft food for several weeks. Kerby felt much better after a couple of days, but still needs to be careful for a while.

Our first Tuesday Twiddles was a success. Seven YSAs came so we had two tables of games going then enjoyed fudge cake and milk. Everyone seemed to have good time, and we're looking forward to next Tuesday.

Brother Valletta was out of town on Wednesday, so it was our turn to teach the Church History institute class about the Church between 1902-1918 (prosperity allowing purchase of historical sites, building church and office buildings, etc; international expansion; WWI). A couple of the interesting stories in the lesson were about Anson Call in the Mexican Colonies. His son (by his 4th wife), Ara, was a food scientist and actually taught one of my classes my freshman year, then I got to know him well as a retired faculty member when I joined the faculty. Imagine me having a connection to something so long ago and far away. Then picture that Ara Call was the great grandfather and Anson the great-great grandfather of one of the young men in our class!! Sixteen people attended, and we really enjoyed the class and the topic.

Friday afternoon Bishop Hillock, who is an extension horticulturalist at OSU, gave us a private tour of the OSU Botanic Garden. It was absolutely lovely, and we'll be going back several times to see the gardens progress through the season. After that his wife joined us and we all went out to dinner.

In all honesty, Oklahoma looks much better green than brown. We got here in November, so it was brown for the first 6 months of our mission. Now that the trees, plants, and grasses are green, it's much more inviting. When we went on our little trip last week, the roadsides were just covered with yellow, purple, pink, and red wildflowers.

On campus, the formal gardens by the student union are lovely, and there is a unique addition installed this week: a Garth Brooks' hat topiary. He actually gave OSU one of his hats, and they used that as the model for the topiary.

Garth Brooks is an Oklahoma native and his daughter played on the OSU women's soccer team a few years ago. The house pictured below is across the street from the YMCA, so we see it three mornings a week:

Not sure it's really a claim to fame, but still. . .

There is a Kerr dormitory tower and also another building named after Robert Kerr on campus. Kerby has taken to calling him Uncle Bob. Actually, he was a state senator, and was instrumental in the food/agriculture/business connection. The dorm might be named for former governor Robert S. Kerr.