Beneath the Wraps

          On Sunday we drove to the Big City of Roseburg to attend a special conference for several regions in the northwest.  Most of the meeting was televised, but we did manage to get a seat in the chapel rather than what Roland calls the “nose bleed seats”.  I also saw at least six other people from our ward seated in the chapel.           Our stake president started off the meeting before the broadcast was aired.  I enjoy listening to our stake president.  He gave a comparison of feeding a campfire to fueling our own testimonies.  The choir sang a number and then the broadcast was shown after a long five-minute countdown.            It was announced that the broadcast was coming from the Conference Center – though I don’t know which part of the Conference Center – not what one normally thinks of when hearing “Conference Center” – ...

            I was on my mission when Howard Jones released "No One is to Blame" found here . Whenever I heard the song I would visualize a lower to middle class young man who had taken a job at a country club.   He has his eyes on one of the members - a girl from a prestige family background.   He would like a relationship with her and she with him, but as they are labeled into upper class and lowly servant, there is no relationship other than "client and worker"                       I now hear this song expressed in some talks given by various leaders - particularly when the talk is geared toward the family.   How many others can hear these words (symbolically of course)?             I am grateful for the ward members that I think of as family as Roland and Jenna are my only biological family in this state.  Un...

            The online courses offer a new feature to the mix.   We now have the option of listening to instruction, discussion, assignment or what have you.     As each sentence is read, it lights up in green.   The word being red is highlighted in blue.   The player says 'Speech-enabled by Read Speake r".   Machines can't feel.   There is no voice to indicate emotion.   ReadSpeaker makes sounds.   It is monotone.   It makes whatever I have to read even more boring than it already is.   I asked for excitement not a challenge to see if it could be made even more boring.   Even a class that I love would sound dull with this devise.               Ironically how my last post was about poor sleeping habits.   Apparently my prayers were answered.   All I have to do is turn on th...

             I have never had the best of sleeping habits.   Ever.   According to mom, I believed I had had my fill of sleep by the time I was one.   I got to relive that with Jenna!   After turning one,   she has ALWAYS been a horrible nap taker.   I guess she gets that from me.   Patrick, on the other hand, put in enough hours of sleep for all of us.   He was great at taking naps and sleeping during the night.   My mom was neurotic.   As I had always been awake, she was not used to a baby who was gifted about sleeping.   She would often check him just to make certain he was still breathing.   Total opposites.               There are times I crash out of sheer exhaustion.   I wish it was more frequent - or rather I wish I could sleep like I'm exhausted but not feel exhausted ever - just always feel well rested.    ...

            Mom and I had played "Scrabble" on occasion, but I preferred playing "Upwords".   We used to play several times a week. We had a dictionary on our kitchen table at all times - or that is how it felt anyway.             Our dictionary eventually got torn up a bit, but it was nothing compared to the tiles of disappearing letters.                 They would scratch off and we attempted to go over each with a marker until finally we just broke down and purchased a brand new game               Eventually those tiles wore out as well.   After I married mom purchased another upward game with a more spacious board and smaller tiles.   After she had gone into assisted living, I took the game to live in my household. ...

             It’s been just over three and a half years since we had made the purchase of our reclining couch and chair – something that had invited comfort in the showroom.   We didn’t realize the furniture had been created over extremely heavy frame that would misshape each time it was moved.   Thus, coming out to Oregon really took a toll on our misshapen couch each time it was moved.   It’s sad that it’s value had depreciated so quickly.   We feel so gipped.   But what can we do?   We have looked to replace our pathetic couch, but it’s not a priority.   There are two other issues at hand.             First there is the matter of the car that my mom had purchased brand new, however Roland and I put more miles on the car than she ever did.  We had borrowed it to go on long trips thus it had quite a bit of mileage on it before we had purchased it....

            I had quite a full agenda yesterday.   After the sun rose, I drove to Riddle as Jenna had a dentist appointment.   On our return, I stopped at Dollar General for just a few items to add to her lunch and then I took her to school.             I meant to turn in my assignment before my assessment, but I somehow had allowed myself to become frazzled and instead of submitting the assignment I clicked my assessment and started the quiz.               Once the quiz starts, there is no turning back, there are no retakes.   Most tests are timed. I had less than two hours.   And though it is open book, the e-book appears on just one third of the screen and I have to control plus each page I am on in order to view something bigger.   As I had explained in my last post, it is very time consuming.   And while...

   In this post I made a comment about how a survey is sent out during the final week of an online class and that we are expected to fill out said survey before we can continue with program.   I have now taken 4 or 5 classes in which I either haven't had a pop-up or else it popped up later than usual.   I don't know if I'm through with the surveys as I am halfway through my program, if it's a fluke, or if there have been bugs in the system when the school changed its format.   I'm guessing the latter.           Currently I'm taking the first of six intermediate accounting classes.   I signed on to the live lecture and was asked how I felt about last week's assignment.   O.K. I guess.   In the chat box I wrote, "I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either."   The instructor laughed as she read my comment.   She seemed to agree because of the subject matter.           Seriously? ...

                I think the young men and young women have a combined activity each month.   Once a year (I guess in January) they have a cook off.   Jenna had wanted to make the "cupcakes" that we had at her last birthday party - sure she is combining three ingredients to make something else, but I don't really think it should count if Reese's, Pillsbury and Duncan Heinz are really doing most of the work.   The rules are that it needs to be a recipe and not from boxes.   We didn't happen to have brownie mix, cookie dough and peanut butter cups hanging around anyway and so Roland had talked her into making an apple pie.             Pie for an armature cook-off?   Really?   I could sense that Jenna was not that thrilled with the idea of making any kind of pie. Nor did she wish to start it last night but rather after she returns from school today.   ...

                It was at the end of August or the beginning of September when the library treasurer mentioned a grants program workshop she had signed up for and said the tuition would cover up to four participants.   I don't know if she had mentioned it in hopes I would volunteer - but I did.   She said the program would start in October and I would be receiving email from the instructor - and then I forgot about it.             In September I attended a meeting in which clipboards were passed around in order for us to sign up for teams which would guide financing, library training, public relations and one other.   There were two that I definitely didn't want to belong to and signed up for training.   But wait . . . what happened with the Grants Magic ( here ) I had been signed up for?   I told the treasurer I had not received an email.    ...

                There is a student in my accounting class who thrives on accounting.   She LOVES accounting.   Her interest is consumed in accounting.   It is her primary focus.   I don't know if she has any other interest.                   When posting to the discussion, we are suppose to use at least 150 words (some classes say 300;   it depends on the class) and she always uses over 1,000.   At first I thought it was an attempt to show off her knowledge, but after having at least two other classes together, I can see that she is not only knowledgeable but passionate as well.   She wants to share her passion.                 I do not share her passion.   Accounting is a complicated language.   I don't thin...