Beneath the Wraps

          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 kit...

               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 th...

                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 c...

          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 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!   ...

          My dad graduated from high school in 1954 or 1955.   I think he attended every class reunion there was until he got sick.   I think my mom must have attended all of his high school reunions as well. She has never gone to her own.   Nor have I.   Mostly I didn't care.   I didn't even like high school.   Why would I want to go back?           I believe the first high school reunion offered a barbeque at a local park I believe on a Saturday afternoon - and may have attended that one had I been in town, but I was on my mission at the time.    The second reunion announced was located at some prestige resort in Park City.   I didn't have that much money to spend nor did I believe there would be many there that I would want to see for that much money anyway.   I don't remember being invited to another reunion after that - not that it would h...

        From the time she was eight years old, Jenna had always asked me for her own personal facebook account.   She enjoyed watching the JibJabs that my brother-in-law will occasionally post and wanted the opportunity to make comments herself instead of having me type "Jenna says . . ."   Over the years, many of her friends started their facebook accounts and she would ask if she could start one.   Each year the request was included on birthday or Christmas lists.   At the end of 2014 I created this post.                   It wasn't until we had moved to Oregon - so far away from our family - that I understood why so many of her friends may have had "illegal accounts" as they all had family members they didn't have many opportunities to spend time with.   We had lived in Oregon for almost a year when I set up an "illegal" facebook account for her.   The objective was to keep ...

        Though I am certain there are many who would not agree with the title of this post, particularly those who have been affected by Irma and Harvey. Even my brother who had planned on taking his husband to see the gardens in Victoria after selling Joh's art in Washington  but took the rain as an opportunity to rest and visit with family rather than spend yet another day driving.   For those of us who have been surrounded by smoke and fires, it has been a desired gift for some time.   Hopefully more fires will be put out, much of the smoke has already cleared.   I know it will help with my breathing, my poor dry skin, and my balance.           I actually hadn't considered my balance before, but have been fighting off ear infections in my right ear.   That would be related to my balance, right?   Sometime after Roland and I had moved to West Valley, I started having issues...

          As I have already mentioned, I had started two classes on Labor Day this month.   One in managerial accounting and the other in financing.   My accounting class seems like a refresher course as there is some familiarity within the topics. It also feels like a prequel to my financing class and I wish I had it BEFORE my financing class and not side-by-side as I tend to get the two mixed up and have actually turned in one assignment for one class into the other.           Fortunately I have really good instructors in both classes who have been able to give me feedback right away instead of waiting until the end of the week as was the case with my last instructor who did announce ahead of time that his grading day is Sunday and that is it.           I am having the hardest time with the subject at hand.   Valuation principals...