Beneath the Wraps

          A year in April I had started a class called Sociology of Ageism.   A class that seemed more to do with life than with career choice. It was during this class that I was able to meet one of my favorite instructors that I had during my three years online.   She was really quite animated and did her entire lecture with the camera on.             I had seen other instructors use the camera before the lecture started, but not for the entire lecture.   I don’t know how many students watched the video.   I was the only one present for her live lectures.   I had become familiar with Zoom during those three years at school.   I did not realize that this year it would be an essential for so many.           I’ve had several instructors who cared about their students as well as the subject they were teaching.   I didn’t have many w...

             Jenna took the college placement test – more for practice than for placement.   But ever since she has been receiving brochures from different colleges and is a bit fed up with the amount of mail she’s been getting.   Yesterday she received a piece of mail that wasn’t college related and thus felt very excited about it.             One of the YW leaders had contacted us by phone, and another had sent the mail which contained a brief note, a word search puzzle, a recipe for something called tail mix bites and a coloring page.             Jenna handed me the word search while she worked on the coloring page.   It was quite a challenging puzzle with 900 letters.   Who does that?             Most puzzles are less than 250 letters.   I ne...

          Valentines Day is a non-Federal holiday full of traditions and legends which may or may not be true.   There were at least two, perhaps three, patron saints who bore the name St. Valentine.   Their lives ended in tragic massacres; perhaps it was the way they lived that got the Valentine’s celebration started.   There are many websites to choose from when “Valentines” is the subject entered into a search engine such as Google.   I have never been much into the Valentine spirit.   The concept behind Valentine’s Day seems noble enough, but the commercialism is what keeps the holiday alive and I could do without that.  No one gets off of work or school in honor of Valentines. https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day             President’s Day was created in honor of George Washington, first president of the United States.  President’s Day was initiall...

I seem to have such a hard time waking up and staying focused – which I’m certain my readers recognized with my last post.   Perhaps I should just delete it and start over.             In August of 2018, I had applied for a teacher’s aide position within the school district.   I had been interviewed at three of the five schools but was not hired through any of them.   Instead, I stayed on as a substitute which gave me the option of filling in for aides at all five schools.   Turned out to be a good fit as it gives me more options and flexibility.   At least it did.             My first assignment was at the end of September.   I had accepted a position at the middle school.   It was a very positive experience and I had been grateful for the opportunity.   The next day I was filling in for somebody at one of the elementary schools. ...

Though my communications class started on Monday, the lecture isn’t given until Wednesday morning.  I am not able to attend the live session when I am working and cannot listen to the recording until after I return home.  The instructor does have a question-answer period on that same day but I don’t want to just pop in and start asking questions she may have already covered in the video and yet if they are not covered in the recorded lecture, I have missed my opportunity for asking live.  I feel like I am working with a two-edged sword.  I don’t like it. Our initial discussion post is due on Wednesday, but I like to have it done by Monday or Tuesday.  Sometimes the discussion doesn’t get covered in its entirety anyway.  Thus I did post what I had written based on what I read.  But I had missed the point of the assignment and did not get that turned in until just several hours ago.  There was something mentioned during the lecture that made me...

            It's uncanny how much of my life or programs will fall into my path during courses I am taking, and I can use those experiences or episodes to tie into school discussions or assignments.  Take this week for example.  I have just started a class in communications and public speaking.  It started on Monday.  It was the same day that at least one of the elementary schools in our area had a fire drill.  I know this because I was there.             Yesterday the fire alarm went off again. Word came over the walkie-talkies that "Everyone needs to be out of the building. This is NOT a drill."  Some of the students heard that, but not everyone did.  The drill took place during class.  The more serious threat was during lunches.  The children were safe.  I suspected that the fire was not a major fire but more of a trash-fire although I had no way...

                It is so hard trying to get back into the swing of school assignments etc. after a holiday weekend or vacation.   For the last three years I have had classes at the end of the year for two weeks before the winter vacation (or Christmas) and am expected to finish the next two week after the New Year.   I'm certain it's equally hard on the instructors.   Perhaps even more so.                 So on MLK day, I was to start a new class (my last accounting class folks.   I had miscalculated before and thought this would be two more.   But I was wrong.   Hallelujah!).   Didn't do much for it on Monday as we had invited a few friends over to eat pizza and play games. The lectures don't happen until Tuesday at 6:00 MST and so I decided I would just wait before posting to my discussion. ...

          Before school was back in session I had accepted two job assignments - one was for yesterday.  I had worked with the person I was replacing, but had never worked in her place.  Meanwhile, I had received a call from an aide at one of the other schools.  In a way I prefer her schedule over the one I had lined up for myself yesterday. She primarily works with the middle schoolers and does not have an assigned recess.  She is there for breakfast duty but doesn't have lunch duty.  I like that.                     After I returned home, I turned on the computer to view at least one missing lecture.   Both had been posted - but once again,   the accounting instructor just read through each slide and problem.   There was no mention of discussion, assignment and so forth.   Like I'm going to purposely s...

There is a haze outside covering the sky.   It reminds me of those Claritin commercials where the scene was not quite as clear until the individual took the drug that would relieve all allergies and related symptoms (Claritin does not work on me; I might as well be taking candy).   The haze outside is from the smoke related to the fires I didn't believe were all that close to us.   The air is breathable, I suppose, but not pleasant.   Still easier on me than the gunky air in Salt Lake City. There is a haze over my eyes.   It cannot be blamed on the smoke.   My thoughts are fuzzy due to the subjects of the week.   Last week I was required to turn in two essays.   The 600 words were worth 120 points.   The 750 word worth 100.   Two more essays required for this week - 600 words worth 120 points and 750 words worth 50 points.   What's up with that?   It hardly seems worth the effort or research.   Gads. And th...

            Myrtle Creek has a summer festival at the end of July or the weekend closest to July 25th.   We learned that our first year here when Roland had asked one of the members about Pioneer Days - a holiday celebrating the movement of the pioneers to Salt Lake City, Utah.   Our ward here does a service project the Saturday prior to the Saturday of summer fest.   The first year we had moved in, we had gone to Riddle to clean up the cemetery here .   I took several pictures though I was not yet familiar with the majority of members who appeared in each photo.               The following year we had painted the shed and spruced up the track and bleacher area at the high school.   I must have forgotten my camera that day.   I don't recall having taken any photographs.   I was hoping that my sister's family would be in town that...

          Roland has always wanted to have his own business. ALWAYS.  And I have made it absolutely no secret that business DOESN'T interest me.  We are both taking business courses, although my current classes are neither as tough or as boring or need to go into as much detail as his did.           It seems the entire time we've lived here, his business plan has always had to do with senior daycare - a service that is desperately needed in our area.  He has done some amazing research.  He has felt excitement and he has felt defeat.           There were six weeks where he had changed his plan from doing senior daycare to selling ice cream and if we opened under our own name (rather than a franchise) we would call it the Happy Hurricane. The idea of selling ice cream did not last for long as he was unable to get past the first hurdle of finding a...

            Modern Technology in some aspects has made our lives easier, but at the same time has seemed to create more challenges - particularly when there is a glitch or breakage.  Last week I had both my laptop and pc on my desk.  I could seem to receive the internet on my pc so long as my laptop was near - like an insecure child unwilling to go through with it on its own.  Oh, brother.              I've been using Internet Explorer on the PC as chrome seems to provide a tremendous amount of pop-ups (even though the blocker is set to BLOCK)  which is extremely annoying when taking an exam.  But lately I've been having issues with explorer as well.  I don't know why, but I have never liked Firefox.  And I can't open Yahoo in the PC at all.               I've be...

          Almost every week that we drive to church, we get behind a car that isn’t going quite as fast as Roland believes it should.   He jokes about it because nine out of ten times we will follow it all the way to the Catholic Church before it turns into the parking lot.   Roland will then speed up though there is less than 20 seconds left before we arrive at the LDS church.   This morning an ambulance passed us as we were heading to town.   It did not get on the freeway but continued on past the school.   And guess where it turned?   The Catholic Church parking lot.   We left the house a bit later than usual and so the parking lot was pretty filled by the time we got to church.   Every family must have brought a car for each driver in the family.   I don’t know why the parking lot seemed so full when the chapel didn’t appear so.   It appeared that half the pews were empty – more so tha...

             I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting next Sunday.   I am excited to have finally been asked to give a talk.   The subject is on family home evening which is even more exciting.   I was told to keep it at 20 minutes.   Oh, no.   That could be a problem.   Thus   far I think I have over 80 minutes worth of topic.   Lots of prayers will be said this week that I may directed to say the words that the congregation needs to hear.   Meanwhile I have this blog.   Aren't all my followers excited?             I also start new classes tomorrow.  Another Management.  Another Accounting.  I think I will be more focused on my FHE talk as it is a subject near and dear to my heart and I understand the language.  I LOVE my family.  I LOVE how I was raised.  I recognize the benefits of family home evening as ...

                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.    ...

            Currently I am taking two classes through the University and one for the library.  All three are online.  Currently two have to do with project charters.             I hadn't made the connection of the Grants Magic class being related to any of my schooling courses until after I contributed my thoughts to the discussion of my other charter class.  We were supposed to come up with a scenario in a situation gone wrong and how more productive it would have been to use a charter.  I had read some material and looked at countless videos and was still at a loss.  I sent a few links over to my husband and asked him to please review and dummy it down for me.   How would I possibly be able to explain how a charter would work for me if I haven't ever remembered using one before.              Roland ...