Dear Kids,
         I thought I’d had my quota of pain and suffering for the year, but now I have shingles! It started with weird red blotches on my leg–that was Tuesday morning.  I thought they were strange, and they’d be gone in a day.  The next morning the blotches had little blisters on them.  By Thursday morning they were spreading, and they hurt.  On a hunch I googled “shingles rash,” and there it was, horrible pictures of rashes like mine.  I couldn’t believe it! John has been bugging us to get the new shingles shot, and Dad was a good boy and did it.  (Actually, it’s two shots.  And they’re expensive.)  I was just waiting, because I didn’t want to have anything more to do with the medical world for a while.  Besides, we’d  both had the old shingles shot, and IT was expensive, and IT was supposed to work.  Excuses.  I called John to see if I should get the shots anyway, and he said no; I should see my doctor immediately.  That day!  There’s an antiviral drug that controls the rash, and I needed to start it asap.  So we saw my doctor that afternoon.  (Naturally Dad came along. He’s always fascinated by my medical troubles.)  I got the drug–it’s called valtrex, and this is my third day of it.  The rash has slowed down, but it still hurts plenty.  Besides that, I have aches in my back and my legs.  I limp around like an old farmer.  I should probably google “shingles” and find out how long it’s supposed to last, but I don’t want to know.  I just figure it’ll be a little better every day.
         And of course I’m still planning on enjoying conference next weekend.  We’ll still have the soup dinner here Saturday night, at 5 pm.  I’ll call around and see who’s coming, and what you want to bring.  And I’ll find out if you want to do a Sunday dinner between sessions.  I’m looking forward to the talks, and to find out if all the rumors about drastic changes are true.  There’s a meme floating around, a picture of the first presidency laughing it up.  They’re saying, “Then we’ll spread a rumor of a 2 hour block . . . they’ll all watch conference.”  Well, we can hope.  At least we’ll enjoy conference!
         Here’s some good news, for me at least: the Ghirardelli chocolate bars I love are called “Evening Dream” (60%), “Twilight Delight” (72%), and my favorite, “Midnight Reverie” (86%).  But now there’s a brand new one, “Moonlight Mystique” (92%). It’s the best of all!  One bite of it, and you mostly forget your troubles.  Two bites, and you can face anything.
         Life is good, in spite of all the challenges.  I love you all!  Mom