I have been going through my flash drives in hopes that I had saved some scanned pages. Jai had also requested a pic from nearly 15 years ago. I have finally come across the picture she requested but none of my scanned pages from Jaime’s scrapbook.
But then again the flash drive I am currently viewing is one that was created before the move to Oregon and so the pages would not be there. But I have had fun reminiscing things I had forgotten I had even saved. I’ve enjoyed reading thoughts and viewing pictures. It has definitely kept me busy.Thursday, February 23, 2023
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Wonder if the Garbage Trucks Will Come
Monday was Presidents day. Jaime had school but the district was off in this area. No school this week – well – perhaps some followed the curriculum but there was panic at some of the high schools yesterday. I left the house at nine to drive downtown to meet Carolyn. As I was getting ready to turn right I saw three police cars barreling down the road – glad I was turning right and not left. Something was going down. Turned out there had been a number of 911 calls to report the threat of a shooter at one of the high schools (South Umpqua, Roseburg, and Sutherlin were the only three mentioned in the news this morning) which turned out to be a hoax (thank goodness).
I understand that
several high schoolers left when lock down was over. I don’t know if they had permission or if the
schools sent students home. I don’t know
how or if the secondary or elementary schools had been effected either
way. Ally had stayed home with a cold
and is sick today – not that it would matter.
The schools had been shut down on Valentine’s Day due to the weather and
I suspect the same for today.
Richard said he heard the garbage trucks have come around already. I don’t think I heard them. I thought I had heard them before I got up to throw up and noticed the time on the clock was way too early for the garbage trucks to be out.
I don’t appreciate the flip flops that are taking place in my body at this time. What brought this on? I’m guessing something I ate, but what. And why am I the only one effected?
I am not the only
one sick. Richard and Clair have each
started in with the colds that had lingered well past Thanksgiving and
Christmas. But this illness for me is
one I have not experienced for many moons.
I will probably be sleeping it off for most of the day if I can actually
get myself situated without discomfort from the illness. I’d rather not live my life in the bathroom
today. You know?
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Happy Valentine’s Day
I will be surprised if school is not cancelled today. I got up at 4:30 this morning and went into another room as I was hot in the bedroom. When I looked out the window in the backroom I noticed the snow that we had heard about yesterday. Too many people on the west side of Oregon do not know how to drive in snow. They haven’t had to deal with it nor is the state equipped to make the roads safe as they are in Utah for instance.
Valentines happens to be a holiday
that I have never cared for. The only
reason that I ever received as many valentines as I did was because it was mandatory
in school. I remember delivering Valentines
from door to door. I guess I didn’t mind
it. But as the years evolved so did my
attitude about Valentine’s Day. For me,
the holiday sucked big time. With each
passing year I have loathed Valentines Day more than the year prior so that
when I was finally married and had someone I still couldn’t bring myself to
love the sappy, gag-me-with-a-spoon, gross holiday. Nothing against Richard. It is just how I had conditioned myself all
of this time.
We did go out for lunch yesterday. Richard said it was count as our valentine
celebration. Good thing. My attitude and being stuck in the house with
the other family members is not how I would like to celebrate. What unChrist like love on my part.
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Object Comparisons
In his “Teaching With Power” John 2-4 video, Brother Wilcox shares this slide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ7QShWWP7U |
with
the challenge to find a way to use an object as part of a lesson on teaching
the scriptures or more importantly, Christ.
I then turned to “Don’t Miss This” where Emily Freeman compared a
discarded titanium bicycle that one might see as worthless. She talked about the value in restoration and
compared this to the “worth of souls” as viewed by the others and how the Savior
sees us before we are restored.
Even in our "discarded" state, the Savior knows us and what (or who) we can become |
Monday, February 6, 2023
The Banker Makes the Rules
Recently Richard purchased the game “Roseburg-opoly”.
Richard is a stickler for the rules but will add the luxury of reason the “free parking” space (or in this case “I love Roseburg”) exists:
to collect all of the money that was thrown in the middles of the board due to paying taxes, hospital bills and so forth. Also in the Roseburg addition properties can be mortgaged for face value and not just half or partial as the authentic monopoly. And instead of buying houses and hotels players buy blocks and keys to the city. When Jaime and I are bankers we will
add all kinds of rules more out of convenience and less from a business
perspective. Properties can be bid on
once they are landed upon. Players don’t
necessarily have to pay full price.
Players can also stay in jail (or traffic jam) for as many turns as they
need before rolling doubles and do not have to fork out 50 dollars (in the
Roseburg addition it is 100) automatically after three tries. Most importantly player does NOT have to build evenly. You want to purchase a hotel without buying houses - go for it. It doesn't have to be an even build. Neither Jaime nor
I often are banker. Both would prefer playing
something else.
Marking Scriptures
When I was in high school I can remember circling certain letters to indicate if the footnote was a Joseph Smith Translation or another translation of a certain word.
I brought those set of scriptures with me into my marriage. Unfortunately I have not referred to that particular set for quite some time. I like using the internet as I can change the font size. I have referred to the footnotes on occasion but am not always satisfied with the results. I can’t mark scriptures on the Internet in the same manner that I can mark a book. I don’t have the Internet on my phone
and will still bring a physical Bible to read.
The physical Bible I use had belonged to my dad. It isn’t marked with circles the way my high
school Bible had been. I just started to
go through the footnotes yesterday to mark the way I had in high school.
Monday, January 30, 2023
Bees Buzzing
They’re really not. It just sounds that way as our flooring is being ripped out. Flooring that we just had put in. But there was a leak. And now the entire floor must be replaced – though I don’t think it does. The flooring that needs to be replaced the most is in another area. One that was serviced already but needs to be replaced again.
I was going to take pictures of what
is taking place but haven’t had the ambition.
I don’t feel well. Didn’t each much
of a breakfast because of aches and pains – that haven’t stopped. Bonnie is currently in my room and is sad as
she would like everyone in the house to pet her. And there are a lot of them. Or were.
Our life currently in boxes.
Buzzing bees. I’m in a trance.
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Did Bonnie Drag Her Bed Into Our Room?
Ever since Biff and his brood moved in,
Bonnie has been whinier during the night – especially after Christmas
break. She misses Jaime, obviously. But more importantly it isn’t fair that
Char gets to sleep with his people and Bonnie has to stay in a different room
by herself. She doesn’t know how
loudly she snores. She could seriously
put a fog horn to shame. I have never heard Char snore. I rarely hear him at
all.
When I heard Bonnie whining last night
I got to let her outside. Instead she
charged into our room and wouldn’t leave. Richard doesn’t like Bonnie
wiping herself on our carpet and so I went and retrieved Char’s cushion
(which has now become Bonnie’s
second bed as Char doesn’t use it) so
that she could lay on that and not in a place where neither Richard nor I would
trip over her.
This morning Richard made some comment
about Bonnie’s
presence. I told him about her barging
in. Richard asked if she had dragged her
bed into our room. Funny.
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Pan Am Conference of 1910
My brother Steven has always been well read. Long before Google and the Internet, Steven was avid at finding reference materials. He read about various subjects until there was nothing left to research. He has always been well informed about so many subjects – except maybe the Pan Am Conferences of 1910 – not even a subject of his choosing but rather one that had been assigned to him in school. The encyclopedia included perhaps an entire paragraph for the Pan Am Conference of 1932 or 36 or some year in that decade. I can’t remember. But it was a couple of decades after the assigned year which had even less documented.
I don’t recall what the word count was
assigned to the students or if they all had the same topic or exactly how it
worked. Steven was miffed as he’s been
required to come up with more information that he could find. And so he got creative with his report and
wrote it in form of a detective novel searching for clues. In the end his report had more than the
required amount – possibly too many words.
I don’t remember what kind of a grade he received, but I think his
creativity had worked to his advantage.
I see Wikipedia has much more information that he was able to come with. But then again, maybe not as over a century
of conferences are mentioned – but nothing detailed.
So what triggered this memory for
me? Richard’s ranting about required
writing and using peer reviewed references and language so explicit that even
the average professor wouldn’t understand – let alone the common folk that
hopefully he will be able to supervise when or before he is through with all
this nonsense. I am a majorly bored
sounding board. But it somehow helps him
to think out loud. I get fed up with professors who nit pick at the format rather than the context. What are we learning?
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Don't Give Me My Own Space - I'll Work In Yours
There
was a time when Jaime was three and her sister Pamprin was visiting. Pamprin laid out a coloring book so that she
could color one page while Jaime colored the other – only Jaime wanted to color
the same page as Pamprin. It didn’t even
matter which page. When Pamprin switched
sides or found new pictures, Jaime wanted to color the very same picture that
her big sister was coloring. Pamprin reluctantly shared her space. I think it made Jaime feel closer to her.
I
was reminded of that memory this morning while working on a puzzle that Richard
and I had started. We had already rolled
it up and put it away for another time.
My daughter-in-law, Claire asked if I would like to continue. And so I set it up. She started one side of the puzzle and I
another. After a while she abandoned her
side and came to help me with the areas I had been working on. I don't know that it had the same results on either of us that it had on Jaime and Pamprin.
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
They Call Me Mary Cooper
Young Sheldon is a spin-off CBS’s popular TV series Big Bang Theory starring Jim Parson as Sheldon Cooper. Young Sheldon is also narrated by Jim Parson who explains further about himself and his family. His mom is Mary Cooper, a very religious woman who often turns to God and encourages her children to do the same. I, too, encourage others to allow God to be a part of their lives by thanking Him or asking Him for assistance. For example we each had a chaotic day yesterday though I think Claire and Biff had more unexpectancies to deal with.
One of our lights had busted at the
front of our car – we don’t even know
when or how but finally got around to asking someone to look at it. We had an appointment for yesterday. Richard was going to take it in and have me
follow – only the
other car wouldn’t start. We tried starting it on our own a few times
before we said a prayer. Biff pulled
into the driveway. An answer. I pulled the Nissan out of the driveway. Biff and Richard pushed the Saturn next to
Biff’s car and Biff
was able to give the car a jump.
We were on the freeway on our way to
Roseburg when Claire called to report that the bottom freezer had gone out and
our refrigerator wasn’t working
properly. Richard and I had already
looked at other fridges – problem is
they have all been too wide for the allotted amount of space that we have for a
refrigerator. Looking at fridges was a
much better time than cleaning out product and transferring whatever was salvable
but ended up throwing a lot of food in the trash. I don’t even know how much. I think an entire garbage bag.
Their initial plan was to go to the DMV
to change their expired plates –
something they should have done three months ago, but it obviously hasn’t been a
priority. Tough that was their intention
they were unable to find the title to the car.
I suggested that they pray and invite the Lord to help them. Whether they did or not, I don’t know. I did.
But I think my prayers may not work by themselves but they also need to let
him in.
Richard was all set on buying a
fridge. Because of the size we need, we
are quite limited with our choices. As I
had suggested Biff and Clair pray about the title I thought it only right that
we pray about the decision on the fridge.
Biff loaded the dishwasher with all the used containers and other dirty
dishes and washed and dried a load of laundry that I had left on top of the
machines. They were definitely
busy.
I thanked them both for all they had
done. We ended up calling the appliance
store for the fridge we didn’t
find as appealing as the one we’d
rather have but felt guided to go that way.
Also another expense that we didn’t want – but at least we don’t need to get
a plumber which seemed to be the solution when we encountered a flood on
Saturday night/Sunday morning. I thought
we would need to call a plumber come Monday but it was taken care of. We are truly blessed.
Anyway, because I always ask others if
they had prayed about whatever, Jaime has dubbed me as Mary Cooper. I should feel honored.
Friday, January 6, 2023
What Oddities Dream Collection
Last night I had a dream that we had gone to the Enchanted Forest and somehow ended up with a book of names. The names were written in my father’s handwriting – or so I believed. The only name I can remember was Priddy Meaks – who is an ancestor on my mother’s side. So maybe it was my mother’s handwriting? I, of course, do not remember the details as I had when I initially woke up. I remember telling Jaime that we should collect all the pressed pennies that we could for they each had the names of our forefathers. Lies.
First of all, Enchanted Forest didn’t even exist when Priddy Meaks crossed the plains with the pioneer company. There is some monument or structure that bears his name. I have never seen it but my mom said she did when she was in Illinois. It is not in Oregon. It is not in the Enchanted Forest. I think the furthest west that Priddy had ever gone was Salt Lake City, Utah.
Odd dream. Though I can figure out the triggers. I just recently looked up the schedule for Enchanted Forest. They MAY be open March 24 – but no other info is available. Both Come Follow Me and the lesson for this Sunday’s RS lesson focus on genealogy. Jamie has been collecting pressed pennies for a number of years. Apparently my mind encompassed them all into a single focus. Weird.