Why Are There More Cars Than People?

          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 than usual.

I gave my talk today- or a partial of my talk.  Once I sat down I realized what I hadn’t said and felt upset at having not included certain parts of my talk.  I did receive many genuine compliments.  I’m grateful that I hadn’t offended anyone and that my words were well received.

          A new couple was called to babysit teach the sunbeams and it appears there is an instructor for the CTR as well.  Danny and I had the smallest class this year.  Seven students with a total of 15 children in primary.  Danny and I decided to split our class – though not in the middle.  She will be taking all the older children and I will be taking the younger ones.  I will have only four or five in my class at the most.  I have already introduced them to the passport idea found here  and will probably continue with it as I believe it has appealed more to the children I’ll be teaching over the one’s that Danny will be teaching.

          Roland, who normally stays after church for clerical reasons, said that he would be going home with me today.  We stayed for choir practice but now we are home.  I’m going over my lesson for next week.

Scrabble Triggers

        Apparently the two classes I've been assigned both deal with criminal acts and contracts - at least this first week.  Weird.  I am actually done for the week.  Tomorrow Roland and I are going to the Riddle Library to enter a Scrabble tournament.  Roland has every ounce of confidence that I can win - even though he has beaten me several times.

        It's a luck of the draw.  When all we draw is one point letters, it doesn't matter how great or long the word, it has only been worth 7-14 points at most.  The longer words give the other players more options of places to go instead of a crammed up board filled with small words because they happen to be worth more points 

       In addition to the Myrtle Creek Library annex, the fund raisers have included a wine walk which I did not participate in.  The latest is with selling tickets to a spaghetti dinner that takes place on Monday evening.  It sounds like a great deal of tickets have been sold.  I hope it is profitable for those involved.  P/R and marketing is not my thing.  Roland should be more involved as it is his.

        To each his own, I guess.  Don't much care for army sized crowds, but do enjoy playing games.  I would rather an Upwords tournament than Scrabble.  Perhaps we will be able to have Upwords tournaments after we break the Riddlers of Scrabble.  LOL

        When I think of Scrabble, I remember a sister from my mission who attended the Woodbridge ward.  She LOVED playing Scrabble.  She and her family had moved to Missoula Montana before I had finished my mission.  I have not heard from them for quite some time.  It appears that she and her husband now live close to Tillamook, Oregon.  Wow.  Would have been nice to have known that sooner.  I'll put a letter in the mailbox today - or perhaps I should just call the landline number I have.  Not much of a phone talker.  Would be nice to get in touch again.

A Fish SO FAR Out of Water . . . and other frustrations

         Thus far I have watched one lecture - a talented individual who has experience in law enforcement and can evidently carry on several conversations at once - as he was able to talk without pausing, read comments and answer them in the chat box while he spoke . . . or perhaps he has someone sitting in his live sessions with him who can /will answer his questions.  But the guy is so monotone.  Oh, my gosh.  He says something that requires a sympathetic voice, but there is absolutely no sympathy in his voice.  On the other hand, he says something riveting and really . . . how do I know he means what he says? I don't think public speaking is his strong talent.  Not if he's suppose to relate sympathy or empathy.  Nope.  Not there.

          The management class I'm taking feels like a prerequisite to anyone having any desire for any kind of law.  I understand the law is needed to maintain a sense of control. But I also know that the law is not always just.  I didn't realize that when I created my last post.  I have a simple mind.  I think the law might have been simple at one time, but it feels so complicated now.  I don't know if I am in a class with experienced law students or not.  But I feel like a fish out of water - no swimming, no drinking . . . it's dry.  I'm going to shrivel.

          If the educators or administrators or whoever really expects me to read all the required material - why give me two classes?  There is no way I can read everything for both.  I did finally get my discussion posted.  We all have the same exact scenario to demonstrate with.  Snoozer.  I think I should be sleeping better than I have been. 

          There are gremlins messing with my internet settings.  The internet continues to faze out on my PC.  Even when it is up and running, it won’t allow me to use Yahoo before threatening me with some virus.  So, I’ve opened an email account – which I’m afraid to switch over on my laptop as my PC doesn’t seem to want to allow me the switch user accounts and I need the account attached to his blog.  Hello. 

          I prefer using the pc as the monitor is bigger.  I also prefer as raised keyboard and mouse = which I have hooked up to the laptop presently.  I keep it on the end table and hold the keyboard over my lap as I sit in an easy chair, but for the PC I have a squeaky office chair.  Today the PC has actually held its ground and I have not had problems with the internet – but that could be because my laptop is on.  It makes me think that my computer has insecurity issues.

          Well, now that I've had this short break, I guess I'll start on my assignment.  And I still need to work on my talk.  I don't want to procrastinate.  Probably shouldn't have posted this.  But hey . . . I still need a break.

Upcoming Week - I'm predicting BUSY

            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 part of my upbringing and values I have passed on. 

            There is also a fund raiser for the library.  I posted flyer of spaghetti dinner offer, but really don't have any information except for what is on the flyer.  I believe six others have shared it to either their groups or personal pages.  We do have a great media support.

            Still waiting for tomorrow to see what my agenda will be for my two classes and if there is going to be a meeting at the library since the dinner is going on elsewhere - but perhaps it's for just the board - in which case I should go. 

            Not much of a post . . . I was actually going to create a post on my primary class . . . there were twelve in class today.  Two visitors and four were absent - otherwise I would have had sixteen.  Can you imagine?  Danny has talked about splitting the class.  She would have the older children and I would get the younger ones - but that's still a 10 to 4 ratio if that.  And the classroom that we currently meet in would have to be split - which is fine for me and four children - but I can't imagine Danny and 10 children squashed into just half the room size.  And being that Danny's been sick for the last three weeks . . .

            There's a lot on my mind.  Many started posts.  Nothing complete.  Not even this one.  And yet here it is posted.  Just a heads up if I fall behind for the next 1 - 4 weeks.  Accounting and Management.  I hope I am assigned to instructors that are more uplifting than the subject matters.

             

   

Everything Electronic

Doors and Cars

Communication

Securities

Celebration

Video Games

Entertainment

Cash Register

Phones, you name it

Warmth and cooling

for selves and food

Amusement parks and

What fits our mood.

We’ve become a world of

Electronic Dependency

Hit the “like” button if you

Happen to agree

Or copy and paste and

Repost on and on

How will we survive when

Electronics are gone?

Service is Essential

          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” – a room off to the side used only for the purpose of televising meetings.  I doubt there was room for the camera crew and a live audience.

          I had seen the room before during another televised meeting, but I have never seen it in person.  I have been to the Conference Center before, but had never explored beyond the main meeting area.

          The conference theme overall was on service. The first speaker was Elder K. Brett Nattress from the quorum of the 70.  He started off his talk relating a situation about two brothers working together to try their hand at an athletic sport involving jumping.  The seven-year old’s plan was to jump off the balcony while his four-year-old brother stood waiting with a pillow to cushion his graceful land – which, as you can imagine, was not graceful.  It is a miracle that there were no broken bones.  The seven-year-old said he wouldn’t have done it if he had known it was going to hurt so much. 

          Elder Natress than gave three steps to finding happiness.  They are

1)           To Pray every day

2)           Read the Scriptures, especially familiarize self with the Book of Mormon

3)           Serve each day.

He gave an example of administering the sacrament and I thought of my three boys really enjoying having the opportunity of taking the sacrament to those who had health problems that prevented them from attending weekly church meetings.

The second speaker was Christina Franco who serves in the general primary.  She also counseled to “be of good cheer” and gave us four guidelines to apply to our understanding:

1)           Understand that we have a Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ who love us

2)           Understand that the commandments are there to protect us

3)           Understand gratitude

4)           Understand that service brings joy

She read some verses from Mosiah. 

When her talk was finished, the congregation was invited to stand and sing "Go Forth in Faith" (version of hymn found here).  I wasn't familiar with the hymn.

The next speaker was Patrick Kearon.  Love the accent.  He talked about being strengthened through the atonement and gave us the acronym FEMA (find every Mormon available).  He then shared some examples of service and how both the recipient and server are blessed.  My mind wandered back to a time when a former bishop (the one who had married Roland and me) was also giving a lesson on service and how sometimes the recipient may present other obstacles that may be difficult to conquer.  

His example was in doing a service project with the youth who had gone to spruce up a yard for a rather demanding “do it my way or else” old prune (he did not call her an old prune; that was my own interpretation) and how though our recipient might not have the best attitude, it is still important for us to do our best.  How do you teach the youth to love service if so many hurdles are thrown at them before they even start?  We need not let pride stand in our way of doing the right thing.

The concluding speaker was Elder Todd Christopherson who talked about a quorum of thirteen praying for inspiration and direction on New Leadership between Pres. Monson’s death and Pres. Nelson’s sustainment.  He talked about his personal experience as he had never had that opportunity between prophets.  He also talked about J. Rueben Clark and played a clip of an address that Elder Clark gave about “not where you serve but how you serve”.  Service is an offering we place upon the alter.

Overall it was a really good meeting.  Worth the drive.  Worth the front row seats.

Who is To Blame?

            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.  Unfortunately not all wards are the same.  There are a wide variety of members and there are some who offend - even when it's not intentional.

Just in Case I'm Not Already Bored

           

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 ReadSpeaker".  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 this "speaking" invention, plant myself in the recliner and baby, I am gone. 

  

Who knew?

Sweet to Sleep

             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.

            Sometimes I fall asleep in the front room when the TV has been on.  Often Roland has left me there because he knows I prefer the airflow in more open space - although there is more airflow in the bedroom that is part of our current house.  It is the biggest bedroom I have ever had.  Plus (as I mentioned earlier) our broken couch is as comfortable as a jagged rock.

            Sometimes I wake up during the night either in our room or the front room and will think I'm in the other.  That is how I want to sleep.  Deep and unaware.  I want to wake up refreshed - not dry from the electric heat or too hot or too cold (the cold thing rarely ever happens except for my ears and toes.  They are often cold when I am awake.  I often wear a hat and slipper socks  while I read or exercise or do puzzles. 

            I know that good sleeping habits will help my emotional development.  I'm all for that.

https://www.memecenter.com/fun/6469/catch-some-zzzs

A Dictionary on the Table

            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 was this version that made it to Oregon with us.

            It is a game Jenna doesn't enjoy playing, but recently Roland has made the sacrifice of leaving the TV in order to play "Upwords" with me.  We don't yet have the sparing relationship that mom and I had together - often playing two or three games in a row.  Roland's maximum (so far) has been one.  It hasn't come close to the competition which mom and I had experienced, but it seems to be getting there.  I am grateful for Roland's willingness to work his way into becoming an "Upwords" rival.

When it Rains, it Pours

            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.  We have worn the poor baby going up and down hill;

I don’t think our car was designed for climbing. 

            Saturn checked the car each year as part of their service.  I don’t think it got as much attention after Saturn went out of business.  It currently needs a transmission.  A car seems more necessary than a couch.  Also, more expensive.  A second car would be imperative.  Of course, it costs much more than a couch.

            And now we have an additional problem.  One of our toilets leaks. 

We don’t from where exactly.  Our carpet was wet and we dried it out, but we noticed the carpet managed to get drenched again after another flush.  So, for now, all of us must use the master bath.  What moron decided carpet in the bathroom was a good fit anyway?  We’ll be contacting the insurance company on Monday to see if we are covered.  We’ll have to cut the carpet out (which had actually been our plan since before we moved in, but still don’t have the finances for) and redo the floor (in addition to plumbing expense) 
           Then there is the matter of medical bills - not even sickness but check-up routines. 

I can't imagine how outrageous it would be if any of us were actually sick or hospitalized!  What a nightmare!

            Oh, the joys!

I Need to Take a Breather

            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 I thought I knew the answers to some of the questions, there were a few that had stumped me. 

            It took all of two hours and I started marking answers just to have them answered but still hadn't checked on whether they were correct.  Time ran out before I was able to find them all - plus I knew I had a luncheon to attend.  I should have waited until this morning to take the assessment!  I doubt I would have gotten a much different score however - but perhaps I would have had a few more right.  I don't guess I'll ever know for certain.

            I had misunderstood the meeting time, for I thought I was assisting with cleaning the church before going out to eat. I have not assisted with cleaning a church building since I lived in Utah.  It is quite different here as it is a smaller building and only one ward meets there.  In Utah the cleaning was always done on Saturday - sometimes by different families, sometimes by organization.  The ward I had attended in Kearns split the work in half with one family cleaning  the chapel and the other the rest of the building.  In West Valley the chapel made about a third of the work (bigger building and three wards)

            This ward is cleaned on Thursdays.  A couple alternates weeks with two sisters - or at least that is how it has been.  But health issues have complicated matters and so there have been requests made for others to volunteer their time.  Aurelia had started at 10:00.  On the average, I am not even available on Thursdays until noon - so I was not there when the workload started.

            Aurelia had invited me to lunch because she wanted me to meet with one of the sisters that she visits teach.  We met at the restaurant that serves Mexican food before returning to the church.  They had the majority of it cleaned already.  I was asked to dust and wipe down the kitchen and doorknobs. 

            The "dusting" reminded me of dusting in the temple.  One has to have a recommend to clean in the temple.  I haven't done it often.  Maybe three times in West Jordan.  It seems like it was a very long time ago.  A white cloth will remain white by the end of the night.  I used a blue micro cloth at the church yesterday.  I did finally manage to find some dust on the piano used in the Relief Society room.  All the dust I had gathered yesterday amounted to less than the size of a fingerprint. 

            One tiny piece of glitter sparkled over the piano keys.  I was excited that there was only one.  I saw glitter ALL of the time when I was cleaning in West Valley. I don't think there was any week I cleaned that I didn't see glitter.  So finding only one glitter speck was really quite refreshing.  I think if they assign workers - even more so specific jobs (that's what they had done in my mom's ward;  my nephew and niece had been assigned to clean the blackboards; someone else was assigned vacuuming and so forth) also I think they might get a better turn out on a Saturday than a Thursday.  Cleaning on a weekday just seems weird to me. 

            Then again, my mom's ward had several hindered people who were/are active.  Those that attend this ward may already have multiple callings.  I do.

            I did not return to the house until just before 4:00.  Today I've been managing online billing, account balances and other information required for credit.  Jenna will be home in one hour and though I have accomplished a lot, I still need my breather.   Tomorrow we'll be going shopping for a car.  Dang! I feel so overwhelmed with missing hours.