Turtle Power!

When Jenna returned home from school yesterday, she was in a very good mood.  She removed some of her green and added to it. 

She had wanted to dress up as a Ninja Turtle ever since she saw this sign

She tried to rope three of her friends into going with her.  They said they would all dress like Turtles, but only Jenna followed through

The woman at the counter seemed very excited and said she wondered when someone would show up in costume - indicating to me that Jenna was probably the first.

She got a free personal sized pizza

Uncle Bill would have dressed up his entire family as turtles the minute the sign went up.  However, I don't think he would drive thirteen hours to get it.

 I bet Bill is really quite pleased with Jenna.

Another St. Patrick's Day

I did not get a picture of my non-Irish looking girl (she actually does have some Irish in her; though not confirmed by DNA but family history) when she dressed in green the first year she attended Vista Elementary School.  I did get her picture today -

Happy birthday to my brother, Patrick and his grandson (my great nephew) born on the same day.

Feeding the Mormons

posted 12/10/2016

          Our ward did something different for the Christmas celebration this year.  Instead of the traditional dinner that is normally done, we had a Christmas breakfast.  And the Relief Society wasn’t in charge of fixing any of it.  It was catered!

          Last year, we had it in the Skyhawk room in Myrtle Creek – which seems to be a popular spot for annual events – and not just the cafeteria between the elementary and middle schools.  But this we had our breakfast at the Bible Christian Center in Riddle.  The inside of the facility definitely seems a lot bigger than the outside.  I was impressed.

         

          We had the option of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage patties, muffins, fruit, and in addition to the drink choices of milk, cran-raspberry juice, orange juice or hot cider.  I used a thick raspberry syrup for my pancakes and it was delicious.

          After an hour, the adults sang 7 different Christmas hymns while the primary went into another room to prepare for the program that was to follow.  Ten, including Jenna (who is not really in primary anymore) returned, dressed as angels.  Hayden was the only boy dressed as an angel.  The other two were dressed to represent Nephi and Samuel, the Lamanite.  The other two girls in primary wore their Church clothes and acted as the narrators.

          Jenna and I both sat at chairs that had stickers beneath.  Our sticker entitled us to take home a star to hang on our tree.

Angel robe and halo

star ornament 

My Shared Primary Class

          As I have mentioned in previous posts, my first calling in this ward was with teaching the sunbeams.  I have never seen a physical attendance roll in the entire time I've been here, but I believe there were four sunbeams in total.  I think the most I ever had in my class at one time was three.

           My first experience in that class was a visitor named Dylan.  I live in an area where there are many members who are related to one another.  I think Dylan was a nephew of the former sunbeam teacher who had developed a comfort zone with teaching sunbeams. She seemed to hover just a bit to make sure I was doing the calling justice.  She had been newly called to Young Women's.  I had heard her give a talk just the week before and thought it was an awesome calling for the young women to have her on board.

          Dylan doesn't come every Sunday.  But he's been there enough that it seems like his name would have been added to the roll - but I don't know.  The most I ever had in class at one time was three.  After Skylar and his mom had moved out of the ward, it was mostly Emily by herself - which did not thrill her.  She didn't know me.  It was scary for her to be in the room with me.  And she cried for about a month before she decided to become a horse (see here)

          The following year I had her cousin, Hayden Braun, who was also not thrilled with the idea of being left alone with this stranger - though he seemed to come around a lot faster than Emily had.   For about a month his dad (who had actually called me to the position) sat with Hayden while I gave the lesson.  Bro. Braun had somehow felt impressed by my teaching methods.

          In this post I explained how I came to transition from Sunbeams to Valiants.  It is the larger of the two classes - with at least eleven children - though the most that have come (since I have been teaching) is eight.  Danny has returned to teach the class.  She comes to church for just one hour to teach.  I try my best to discipline Helen and Thomas.

          Both of them have to have something in their hand to wiggle, to rip, to play with, to destroy . . . Helen actually absorbs everything being said.  It amazes me that she actually knows the answers - or most of them anyway.  Thomas on the other hand seems focused on anything NOT related to the lesson - unless he happens to wearing his glasses - which unfortunately has not been every week. When he has his glasses on, it almost seems like he is a different child.

          I actually described Thomas in this post  though I hadn't shared his name. There have been a number of times I have said to Roland:  "Please explain something to me as though you were explaining to Thomas Jay." 

            I think of the eleven class members, I have already mentioned five of them in one post or another - I suppose because Jenna had been in the same primary class with many of them. Thomas had been in the CTR class when Jenna started attending Young Women's and did not start the Valiant class until just this year.

          When I was teaching, I asked Roland to please sit with my class - particularly Thomas.  Roland often has a way of teaching children and keeping them in line.  I figured that since he had already made a connection with Thomas that Thomas would listen to him.   Thomas had somehow made a connection with me while I was still teaching Sunbeams and he was a CTR.  It was with his extended family where Jenna, Roland and I had Thanksgiving in 2016.

           It had been during the hour that both primary classes meet in one room for singing time and sharing time. Thomas would choose to sit next to me when I was teaching Hayden - or perhaps it wasn't always by choice.  Often there are just certain individuals who cannot sit together.  The primary leaders didn't like Thomas to sit with his sibs or cousins.  As I mentioned, Thomas feels the need to keep his hands busy - even if it is to taunt others.

           For the most part the class members are eager to participate: read scriptures, say prayers, and so forth.  Helen and Thomas have both expressed their lack of desire to read - which is okay.  I'm not going to make anyone read if they don't want to.  I feel more like a referee than a teacher.  Especially with Danny returning to her position. 

          Danny and I have two totally different teaching methods.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  I think of it as an early introduction to diversity. Whatever works, right?  Danny sets up the chairs against the wall in a straight line putting a great distance between herself and the students.  I put the group in a circle.  I have allowed for more reading thus far.  Danny incorporates more videos and games.  We both ask tons of questions.

           Our largest class (well, since I have been a part of it) was yesterday.  The only two missing were Callie (who has been active for the most part during Achievement nights, but I think I have only seen her attend Sunday meetings four times since we moved to Myrtle Creek) and Krystal, (here) who has been coming with her grandma until her grandma went out of town.  I had called last night to see if we could pick her up this morning.  I never heard back from the family.  We haven't had any luck getting a hold of them on Sunday.

           Two of our class members will start young women's this year.  Callie and Lisa.  Lisa is Thomas and Emily's oldest sister.  She is really smart in math.  Though she's still in elementary school, Jenna says she has seen Lisa at her middle  school as she Lisa takes math on a level higher than her elementary school. Callie is also attending  Coffenberry Middle School but Jenna says they don't interact with one another.

           In the past Lisa had been invited to sit with Emily during singing time when Emily was having a hard time making the transition from nursery to sunbeams.  And Ann was allowed to sit with Hayden.  Ann and Lisa are both focused enough to comfort their sibs while still paying attention to their leaders. 

           Christopher actually does do better with the CTR class than he did in sunbeams.  Helen has tried to "mother" him the way Lisa and Ann had done with their sibs.  But Helen is HORRIBLE.  Christopher does much better without her.  Both the CTR instructor and I have requested to keep Helen and Christopher separate - thus separating Lisa from Emily and Ann from Hayden so that we're not playing favorites.

Visiting Salem

                It seems highly possible that we will be moving again within the next 2-3 years.  Roland wants to start a business, and we considered an adult day care in Myrtle Creek - we had even found the most perfect building and location - but the business will need to be open 6-8 months before we can get the benefits for Veteran and Medicare support.  It would be less costly just to take over someone else's business or become a sub company and partner with a business that already has a name; they would be our parent company, I suppose. 

        He has talked to a woman in Taggart who offers adult day care as well as residency.  We are just interested in doing the daycare portion at this time.  Or he is, rather. I have not made it a secret with how I feel about business.  I don't want to get into food.  I think Roland would rather just leave Myrtle Creek and go to where he can not only create a business, but establish cliental - which actually doesn't seem so promising in Myrtle Creek.  Roland will have to educate potential cliental on whatever business he chooses - where some of more populated cities are already in the frame of mind to except (or even accept) whatever kind of business Roland may open.  

         I personally, will have a very hard time leaving this area.  I love the close-knit - pull-together community that we currently live in - not necessarily offered in larger cities.  Roland's always talking about moving to Eugene - which is my opinion seems to resemble Salt Lake City in many ways.  No.  I don't want to live in Lane County.  I'd be willing to move to Polk or Marion County.  I wanted to prove to him that Eugene and Portland are not the only two cities in Oregon with business opportunity.  On Saturday we went to our state's capitol city: Salem. 

        Most of the items I had written on my list for outdoors and the weather was quite overcast and often raining.  The Riverfront Carousel is an indoor carrousel.  It was a two and a half hour drive each way, but I think it was worth it to capture Jenna's smile. 

        We first stopped at a Burger King in Cottage Grove.  We were hungry.  She always asks for a crown.  I think at least two of my boys would do the same, and proudly wear the crown.

        The name of Jenna's horse was Razzle Dazzle.  She noticed the horse's medallion right away.  I don't think I would have noticed.  We thought it to be exceptionally cool.

I thought she should be on the outside  so that she could grab rings out of the fish's mouth.  The person that ends up with the "brass" ring gets another free ride. 

Jenna leaned out to grab the rings.  I think we had seven of them.  Assorted red, white and green.  But there was a heavier ring to represent the brass ring. 

        So Jenna went around again and smiled widely as she collected rings. 

        We took a short walk around the grounds and took a few pictures of the riverfront. 

       

        After Jenna finished with her delight at the children's playground (which she is obviously too big for)

        We headed to the Salem Public Library.  We were allowed to park for free as there was an event going on.  Several tables had been set up by members of the community to advertise places of business - sort of like an indoor fair without the food or rides.

        Jenna loved earning prizes and demonstrated her skills on ukulele. 

        The instructor's were impressed with how quickly she picked up on the fingering, but Uncle Bill had showed how back when we were still living in Utah.

        I have a cousin who lives in Salem.  Unfortunately we have not been able to touch base (except through facebook) since we arrived in this state.

        I had a lot of ideas in my head about what to post and how many new blogs I could create.  It was the weekend and my family became a priority over the keyboard.  Or else I have been tired.

        It snowed on Sunday morning.  Jenna was really happy about that.  We drove to Church in the same conditions we had faced all too often in Salt Lake . . . but it was gone long before Church let out.  Weird.

Honoring the Memory

                The school held a hat day sometime last month.  Jenna couldn't find any of her fedoras and so she took the plastic tiara that she had received during a young women's lesson earlier that week.  Meanwhile she found a fedora but ended up taking the plastic crown anyway. 

                Through the course of the day she would ask guys to try it on and take pictures.  On February 10 she posted pictures other friends on facebook.  At least nine guys proudly wore that crown.  One of them was Andrew.  She did not get one of Nick.  The last words she said to him was to ask him to put the tiara on his head.  The last words she had said to Andrew was to let him keep a pencil that he had borrowed.

                Someone had taken several facebook pictures to make a collage.  Her photo of Andrew was included in the tribute that was passed from wall to wall.

                I have been disoriented, so it's not hard for me to imagine being so out of it that I don't know where I am or how I got there.  I've also been sedated.  I have watched enough sci-fi movies to imagine what it must be like to open my eyes only for a second to have someone stick me with a needle to put me back to sleep.  I can imagine what it's like to wake up in a hospital and wonder what I am doing there. 

                I can't imagine being told that six members of my family were lost in a fire during the wee hours of the morning - while the majority of the community slept.  I don't even know if they were aware of the fire or just who called it in. The reporters didn't say how the fire was discovered.

           
                It hasn't even been a week since my last post, and yet it feels so much longer.  Nick's life was lost with three other children whom he treated like brother and sisters.  Andrew and his mom passed away the next day at the hospital in Portland.

                The father figure is still in critical condition.  I don't know if he will survive and continue his life on earth or if he will be called to return along with his family. I can't even imagine.  How would I react if I was left alone to survive without them?  How strong am I that I would have the courage to go on and face life with an attitude pleasant enough that others would continue to want to be there for me.   Would I blame God?  Would I blame myself?  Would I constantly be in denial and wish it was just a horrible scene from a televised movie?  My prayers is for this man to find the strength that he will need.

                Jenna says the attendance at school has been less than half.  Coffenberry changed the facepage to profile the two boys who had attended that middle school.  Now they are selling tee shirts in honor of their memory.  They will not be forgotten. See here and here.

Let's All Wear Red Tomorrow

            Our local news comes from Eugene - located in Lane county which is north of Douglas.  The news stories usually start off with some criminal activity in Springfield or Eugene.  Sometimes human interest stories in Eugene.  Rarely is the focus ever on Douglas.  Except this morning.  And updates throughout the day.

            Tri City recorded population is 3,931, but Myrtle Creek says 3,439.  I would guess both cities put together fall somewhere between the two numbers as we use the same zip code.  The city of Riddle lies just south west of us.  Their recorded population was 1185.  That number has gone down by four due to a tragic fire.

            I first heard about it after Jenna returned home from school.  She reported that one of her classmates was killed in the fire, and another in critical condition at Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center in Portland  which is more than four hours away by car. I don't know how they (his mom and dad also survived) were taken. 

            I remember a helicopter landing in the parking lot of the church that I lived across from in Kearns, Utah.  It was there to life flight a victim to Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake.  Life Flight was offered, along with a lot of convenient medical options.  The options don't seem so convenient in Oregon - at least much of it.

   

            There is so much devastation in our small little community.  The names of the family members had all been released to the press.  The children who lost their lives were 4-year-old Gwendolyn Howell, 7-year-old Haley Maher, 10-year-old Isaiah Young and 13-year-old Nicholas Lowe. 

            Jenna said that all the kids at her school are wearing red in Nick's memory and perhaps to show their support to Andrew who's still alive - we hope.  Our prayers are with the family.  

Thank you to all the men and women who serve as firefighters.  Thanks to all of thos who are willing to serve on the volunteer fire departments.  God bless you all.