Family Fun Night

            Jenna came home with a flyer last week ordering us to attend the family fun night at Coffenberry Middle School.  

In this post I briefly mentioned the first one I had attended with her the first year that we had lived in Oregon.  I didn't mention the one that took place last year - a pirate theme, I believe.  Both Roland and I had gone with Jenna who hustled us from one room to the next.  Last year definitely felt the most crowded.  This year was the most fun for all three of us.

            Each year there is a theme and this year it was Western.  One of the faculty from the school had left a cheesy message as a reminder to attend.  Jenna is currently taking a class in leadership and so was expected to not only attend the event, but participate as well.  This is how she was dressed the entire day:  

             The faculty let her in early to eat and help set up. The front doors were locked, but Roland had gone around in order to let us in.  So he and Jenna were inside and I stood outside as other students arrived.  It was hot outside.   It felt cooler in the school initially.

            We were told to pick up to forms at the door - one was a map of the what activities were offered and one was for a treasure hunt to look at clues and turn in your "treasure" for a discount at the book fair. 

I don't normally purchase books because I  only need to read it once and move on.  That's one reason why I like libraries so much.  Less costly and book can be stored on their shelves freeing up space on my own.

            Jenna pointed out the two books that she would like to have.  Both good selections - but both she will tire of within a month.  She tends to become bored with things rather quickly.  I feel bad as I must have done that to my own parents as they spent money on things I would also get bored with. 

          Since Jenna was playing Sherriff, Roland and I were able to take our time moving from room to room.  This is the first year I remember participating in the activities and not just watching Jenna participate.  Roland and I each made bookmarks.  

I threw four hoops toward a forest of cones.  Amazingly I managed to wrangle three of them.  

            I had just finished decorating a cookie when Jenna found us and told us that she had warrants for our arrest.  Roland's cinema buddy had paid for the warrants. 

Convicts could leave after five minutes or pay a dollar (same price as warrants) to get out.  Most people were arrested for NOT wearing western attire.  I had worn a bandana.  Big whoop.  It actually reminded me of a time when my niece and friends were three or four and had decided to play dress-up.  Ellen and Nate dressed from head to toe in dresses and jewelry and hats and what have you.  Matthew wore beads.

            Though we were allowed to leave after just five minutes, it was quiet in the jail.  We had participated in everything but the line dance - though I don't know why we hadn't gone to try our hand at line dancing . . . whatever.  We stayed in jail about 30 minutes or so before the drawing and it was time to go.  I took a star.

One Piece Might Not Protect Me - I Need It All

          Almost two hours after Jenna left for school, I looked outside the window to see a fog so thick it had nearly swallowed my view of the houses across the street.  Normally I don't get so excited by something that has impaired my vision, but unlike the hazy smoke that had lingered at the beginning of the month, I knew that the fog was clean and moist and would lift and be gone until another morning.  I've never seen the clouds so closely to my face.  It was pretty awesome.

          Right now the sky is clear and blue.  It is a sunny day.  There is no evidence that the fog had descended so low.  The scenery is clean.  There is nothing to impell my vision or breathing.

          Last night we fed the Elders.  The sun was beating on our house and shining through the windows.  The kitchen is always so hot without it.  Roland had the A/C on high and a fan had been set up to blow the cold air into the kitchen.  What cold air?

          We have a skylight in the front room, but Roland had covered it last year when the sun was pounding through - thus the room is not as well lit as the kitchen or our bedroom.  But I decided that we would eat in the living room as it was cooler than the kitchen. 

          We had Hawaiian haystacks and visited for a while before the elders excused themselves to go to their appointment. Elder Mafi left us with a thought about putting on the armor of God - a topic which I have taken all too lightly this month - and especially this week.  It's my final week for the two classes I am currently taking and I have been lacking ambition and motivation.  I haven't been wearing my entire armor of God - perhaps a piece here and there.

          Elder Mafi compared each part to an action such as scripture study or prayer.  I've only been wearing pieces of the armor - or worse - only just trying it on and not long at that.  I thanked him for the reminder.  This morning I woke up thinking about this song.  I also looked up images and subject to strengthen that which I would like to embrace and apply.

          Just as an orange without peel (it's armor, see here) I will sink in the waters of despair.  I want to wear my armor in order to stay afloat. 

          I also looked up and watched this video

Tiny Vegetables

               And now for the post you've all been waiting for . . .  just kidding.  I had saved  the words of my post to a draft and planned to add pictures when I returned from a meeting - only the Internet didn't seem to want to connect for me, and so I had to wait until now so that I could post pictures and captions

          Sunday started out overcast and I dressed in some warmer clothes.  And then I changed.  I had my hair down, but put it up to keep it off my neck. I had changed four times within 2 and a half hours (but one change was because I found residue of grime that just didn't look good)  Thus yesterday morning I hung laundry as it felt like it would be warmer than it had on Sunday.  It rained.  Not a heavy rain, mind you.  But it certainly wasn't going to help the clothes to dry!

          Roland says the deer have been getting in our yard and eating plants.  Here is what one of our pepper plants looked like last week:

Here's how they look right now:

          The chili pepper, hot pepper - whatever you want to call it - was an accident.  I found one hanging from the tomato bush.  Evidently not on the deer's eating agenda.  Serves it right for stealing from us.  So much hard work.

Tall corn plants:

producing tiny corn:

That wasn't supposed to be a cherry but rather a full size 

tomato - just like the corns were supposed to be bigger

This afternoon we found a carrot fetus among our strawberry plants:

We didn't even plant carrots!  At least not since we've been in Oregon.  Roland decided to replant the fetus and keep it in the hot house.

Hopefully it will continue to grow.  Other treasures of food morsels 

The last of the beets.  I pulled up four.  Could eat them whole

as they were tinier than the tomato and corn pictured above

This is an apple that made it's way into our yard

(they tend to roll toward the strawberries)

before the deer came

Our melons aren't as small as the other vegetables, but still quite small for melons.  Roland made some slings so they wouldn't pull down the trellis.  We wonder if we'll be able to eat just one of them

We bought a new food dehydrator - so much different than the screens my mom had used.

this is just an example - kind of what it looked like - though

my mom never tried cucumbers or zucchini.  We did bananas

and apple fruit leather.  I think we put the fruit between two screens.

It seems like there was a box, but maybe not; 

technology has definitely made things easier.

We sliced just three bananas to start out with.  See if it will be worth it.  

I don't think it was

Not Often My Favorite Day of the Week

                I don't know for certain how many children Raone had, but suspect there were at least eight.  Leisel was among the eldest.  Roane was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was diligent in her callings and offering service.  Leisel did not recognize her mother's great efforts.  Instead, she grew up resenting her mother's choices with neglecting her own family and blamed the church.  When she was eighteen, Leisel moved out of the house, she never had her name removed from the records of the church, but had stopped attending meetings and I believe disconnected herself from the family that she had helped raise. 

          I remember meeting her only once.  She was nice enough and seemed to have her act together - perhaps not financially.  She remained positive so long as church or family were not the topic of conversation - otherwise she would disappear. 

          I don't recall how Raone and her husband ended up living in the house that Leisel and her husband had purchased in Kearns.  I think they must have been paying Leisel and her husband rent.  I'm aware of the tension that Leisel felt growing up - especially on Sundays when the family members were given instructions on how to act, dress, behave, and so forth.  I don't know if the same tension existed for her when she was an adult.

          Raone was not in the best of health, but continued serving as best as she could and Leisel continued to stay away from the church.  As a teenager, I hadn't particularly liked Sundays either.  There was always so much tension particularly with my mom and one of my younger sibs. I had thought it was her and Corey that had a squabbling fest each week, but he says that her verbal arrows were aimed towards Kayla - which surprises me. 

          I do remember Kayla being independent and wearing some outlandish outfits as she always insisted she could dress herself - but Kayla didn't talk much.  For the most part I remember different family members taking advantage of her willingness to become our personal slave.  In my mind Corey was the opinionated know-it-all who didn't always agree.  It really doesn't matter which one - the point is that there was always tension in the house on Sunday.  For the most part I would choose to stay in my room and try to avoid any confrontation.  I hated Sundays, but not as much as mom appeared to as we'd get into the car and she had the look of an angry person ready to kill; not someone who was even close to eager to go to Church. 

          It's so weird to think about it now.  I'm happy that we outgrew whatever it was that made us so uptight on Sundays.  If Leisel's memories of Sunday were anything like that memory, I understand why she would stay away from Church - especially if it continued her whole existence - whereas my situation was not the same every year.  It fortunately did get better and I had actually forgotten all about the tension or Leisel and Raone until the last three Sundays after Roland's gotten on Jenna's case based upon her appearance.  It's true that Jenna is quite casual about her appearance and should probably put more thought into it but I am not going to harp on it the way that Roland does.  She's a rebel like I was and may start doing it out of spite and stubbornness.  I don't wish for her to feel bad about who she is or stop being who she is because of criticism.   By the time we get to Church, none of us want to be there. 

          There was an impromptu choir (because that's all we can seem to manage with this ward) and Jenna and I both went up.  I smiled as I would playing a part on stage.  That's all I was doing - playing a part.  Roland is not one to hold grudges.  He is always the first to apologize, but it took him longer on Sunday.  A lot longer.  And Jenna and I both cried about it.

          The theme has been on self-reliance - which really is an important topic - but I don't generally feel the Spirit anymore.  I feel more like I am at a rally or seminar and not church.  Missionaries have been working with many who need to hear the words that are spoken.  It is their turn, not mine.  I feel like I am going through the motions every week.  Sunday really isn't my favorite day of the week.  I guess Satan's probably happy about that.

          Unlike Leisel, I did not fill neglected by the service and compassion mom had shown others.  She was a great example for me and I loved to assist.  Mom taught me many values.  Thanks, Mom.

That movie went on and on . . . the plot, Forgotten

          The cinema movie offered to the seniors this week was Dunkirk - which Roland wanted to go and see, but it was on Wednesday which overall is NOT the best day for me - especially when I have two classes.  Roland was finishing up his assignment and Corey was coming to town (and there is no movie that I would rather see over my brother, Corey) and I wasn't going to jeopardize that!  Roland's plan was to take me on a date to the theatre last night.  Unfortunately the last showing was on Thursday, and so we ended up not going to the big city of Roseburg. 

          Instead we decided to go rent movies from Redbox.  We drove to the  one located by McDonald's.  I was watching two men, one in a cherry picker and one in the McDonald's sign - which actually looks further up in the air when there is a cherry picker and crew inside the sign.  I wished I would have had my camera.  You think with all the times I've not had it with me, I would learn.  But no.  I was too lazy to have taken anything - even proper shoes.

          We selected two movies: Meagan Leavey and the Zoo Keeper's Wife,

but there was a problem with the machine and we couldn't get any farther than checking out the movies.  As Roland continued to fiddle with Redbox, I continued to watch the view of the two persons (I could only see the one on the cherry picker but figured there was also at least one in the sign itself).

          We drove to another Redbox location on the other end of town.  Roland couldn't find the Zoo Keeper's Wife and had selected the latest King Kong.  We did not spend as much time at the second RedBox.  We collected the two movies and returned to our house to watch them.

          I really liked Megan Leavey, which is the first movie we watched.  I  thought Kate Mara looked a lot like the real Megan Leavey.  What a remarkable turn-around of her life.

          I don't know what possessed us to watch King Kong in its entirety.  I think we both thought something would happen - maybe a plot would unfold.  I

t was kind of like a rip off of Jurassic Park meshed with some other movie. I saw Planet of the Apes, the Incredible Hulk and dare I saw Honey, I Shrunk the Kids?  We apparently lost sight of why the group had gone to Skull Island in the first place.  My recommendation would be that you do not waste your time on watching this King Kong but rent one of the other mentioned movies instead.  And the creatures, by the way, looked as realistic to me as the ones used in the King Kong movies back in 1976.

          This morning on facebook I posted a bogus picture of cherry picker raised to McDonald sign with the caption: "If you have a fear of heights, changing light bulbs in the McDonald's sign is NOT for you."  I don't know if that is actually what they were doing.  It certainly was interesting to watch - though from my point of view, there wasn't much to see, except for the inside of the sign which is normally yellow appeared to have open slats of white shining through.

Domestic Attempts

            I had finished two of my assignments on Wednesday but had  not turned in as accounting consisted of a two part and I had only done one.  My financial assignment sounded as though I was stumbling over my words (which I was) and probably came across like I had no clue (I have some - but not 600 words worth) and so I wanted to re-read it, make certain it made sense before I turned it in - but would need a fresh start on Thursday.

            Somewhere along the line I had lost 200 words. I prayed, I cried, I stressed,  I did more research.  I think it sounded better than my first, but will never know for certain.  I was a wreck.  I had asked Roland to help me with the other part as he has been looking at charts and numbers and figures and can understand them better than I can.  I turned in both assignments, completed both assessments and had freed up my Friday! 

            I cleaned/straightened house, did laundry, dishes.  And after a while, I decided to take a break - after all I hadn't done my daily checkpoints or posted to my blog.  I had also decided that I would straighten out a project I've been working on for upcoming baptisms.

            I hadn't done much with my project when Roland suggested we make some apple juice.  Really?  Now?

            He'd purchased a juicer from a second hand store.  Until then, I didn't appreciate the high cost of juice.  Run four apples through a machine for possibly just one ounce.  ONE OUNCE?  Are you kidding me?  Does that mean I need 16 apples for a really small glass?  I personally didn't think it was worth all the stress (not to mention waste) but hey, we had possibly 30 apples left and so we worked on the juicing process together.

            I kept asking him if we needed to shut the juicer off to give it a breather as it sounded like the motor was having stress.  I recognize the stress motored sound.  I would often run a vacuum cleaner near Jenna's bed when she was little because the motor helped her go to sleep.  The motor also burned out.

            The juice tasted good, but the color reminded me of vomit - not appetizing to the eye at all.

            I did not realize that when I took a picture of this juicer, it would be in the garbage can just twenty minutes later.  On the plus side, I didn't have to clean it - though cleaning the parts was not that hard, nor was assembling the juicer.  But it is gone now.  What a shame.

            Roland took out the Ninja - which is possibly what we should have used and had never purchased the juicer in the first place and I took the apple slop out to the compost before putting the parts in the garbage can.

            We filled up an apple juice bottle.  If I saw this on the shelf, I would not buy it

While I cleaned out the blender

  Roland took the goop that was left in the strainer and made some more applesauce.  But unlike our first, this one has a weird texture to it because of the peels.   

I couldn't find matching lids and rings and so

I put the very last bit in a pickle jar. 

 I baptismal project still remains to be worked on.