Stripped of Pride

This summer I went to Washington DC for the Fourth of July. I had the pleasure of driving there with my friend Chantal. Due to travel time and staying arrangements I found myself spending the first night there with Chantal's sister and her sister's Russian friend. In the morning I got up and got ready and, although I was going a different direction than everyone else, I thought I would wait to leave at the same time that they left.

I showered and packed and decided to go to the living room and read my scriptures while I waited. Perhaps it was a little less than thoughtful of me to choose to read there, as this had been the sleeping area for the Russian.

She had just finished her own shower and came out in just a towel when she discovered me reading in "her room". I was a slightly shocked and little embarrassed at the sight of seeing her in a towel, much like Larry in "The Hairbrush Song," but didn't really seem to bother her. In fact when she saw me reading she told me to read out loud.

Of course I read... and I just kept reading, I didn't dare look up because as I read she was changing her clothes. Yes right there in front of me. I am pretty sure she was completely naked at one point, but I kept my nose buried in Alma. I read a lot of versus out loud. I just kept going because I was so uncomfortable at the whole thing.

Alma 5:27

"Have you walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?

So at this point I am thinking sufficiently humble?...learning that now. Garments?...she is dressing right in front of me! Cleansed?...well, she just got out of the shower.

I kept reading ...verse 28

"Behold, are ye stripped of pride?"

Stripped?

Ok, so I know there is a lot of significance in Alma 5, it is one of my favorite chapters, but that morning the phrase stripped of pride took on a whole new meaning and of the many versus I read that day for some reason it stood out above all the rest.

I Know That We Are In a World of Technology but...

Ok, so I know that in today's world we are enveloped by technology and the various forms of communication that come with it. I accept and participate in many. The thing that I didn't realize is that the old ways of letter writing have been or are being lost. I am not saying I am oblivious to the fact that snail mail is slowly becoming less and less but it never occurred to me that it is all but gone in the upcoming generation.

Today I assigned a "pen pal" letter writing project. The students were to write a letter describing what they do in school. When most students had finished the drafts I instructed them to take a piece of plain paper and some colored pencils to make some stationary for their final copy. I could hardly believe it when a student asked "whats stationary?"

As if that weren't bad enough I had to remind one student they needed a signature on their letter. To this someone responded "whats a signature".

My Most Recent Accomplishment

Happy 35th MOM!

I once heard somewhere (perhaps a morning radio show) that really we don’t have anything to celebrate on our “birthdays”. I mean really what are we celebrating, what did we do? Shouldn’t our “birthday” be a celebration of what mom went through to get us here?

Having said that I want to congratulate my mom because it is her 35th anniversary. 35 years ago today my mom went through the pain of bringing me into the world and she hasn’t stopped taking care of me since that day.

I could probably think really hard and remember some details of her anniversaries past where she fixed me a nice meal or baked me a cake but my memory of more recent years serve a little better. (I won’t say how many I have had, this isn’t about me.)

I recall one particular anniversary where she tried to pass on the credit to me by coming to my apartment and surprising me. I remember it very well because she surprised me by being there and she was making fresh bread. Not only did she spend her anniversary making me bread but she was also making me dinner. She had pre-measured some seasonings but had made the mistake of putting the chicken seasoning (which included cayenne) in the bread. While the bread was still delicious she had to send me to the store to buy some more cayenne. I know she felt bad but I was happy to do it for her because it was after all her anniversary.

As if that wasn’t enough I soon received one of the biggest surprises of my life. She had also bought me a bed! This is a purchase I was planning on making. We had been shopping and I had been debating what I wanted and what I had to spend. I had decided to go a little conservative on what I wanted but my mom went all out and got me the best. For months I wished I could lay in that bed forever, I loved its comfort and I loved her sacrifice in getting it for me.

I could go on about all the things my mom has done for me over time like the pillow cases she surprises me with or the walls she painted in my house or the many skirts she has made me and even some very nice curtains, but this is about anniversaries and I have one more memory to mention because it took a lot of thought. About 5 months ago I came home to this sign in my yard. At first I was confused, but then I called my mom and asked her if she knew anything about it. Sure enough she had gotten me a “birthday” present. She had hired someone to get my lawn looking better and it required spring weed killer then fall grass seeding. My lawn was in desperate need of this help and so there you have it, my mom was thinking about her 35th anniversary that far in advance. That is how important it is to her.

Here are some before and after shots. Now don’t think I don’t find “my birthday” as a great accomplishment, after all, a body is pretty valuable, but if it hadn’t been for my mom, and my dad I must add (his influence and support for all that is good and right is equal to my mom’s), I wouldn’t have even gotten that. So, on this 35th anniversary of my “birthday I just have to give a shout out to how great my mom is.

Happy 35th Mom! Thanks for all the hard work and sacrifice to make me feel like I am special on your day!

A Moment of Sun

Sorry, I couldn't resist one more Sun story for my loyal Sand and Sun fans...you know who you are. This is dedicated to you at some sacrifice to me.

So the other day I ran into Sun visiting the high school. She informed me that she had been able to use her Spanish to flirt with some of the boys on campus. Her friend that was with her (who had taken French in h. s.) vouched for the handy language skills when it came to the area of flirting.

Of course I couldn't resist making the comment that I was pleased that she had had many lessons that would help her in her flirting endeavors in college. To this she looked at me and said "I will never forgive you for that".

My immediate response was "Never?" to which she reaffirmed her complete lack of gratitude.

I thought about it for a moment then responded with "I still think it was worth it."

Lifes Got You In a Jam?

When life has you in a jam you should read your scriptures.

No really this happened to me today. I was in a traffic jam, just sitting there on the highway going nowhere, trying to keep awake. While I sat there, trying to stay awake enough to keep my foot on the brake until things started moving again, I tried calling a few people to talk to, putting on music, opening my windows, listening to talk radio. . . nothing was working.

Soon I found myself thinking about how I had planned on doing my scripture study when I got home so it wasn't hanging over my head at bed time when it occurred to me that I could do it while I was sitting there.

So there I was, on highway 44 reading the Book of Mormon. It was great! Suddenly I know longer felt too tired and sure enough after a few chapters things started improving and soon I was moving forward towards my home where I was out of harms way and able to rest.

I love how the scriptures make EVERYTHING better!

Moments of Panic

You know those moments of panic where something happens and you know the results could potentially be bad? Now keep in mind when I share these that there are different kinds of panic.

One time when I was driving my sister-in-law's minivan full of people we were driving up the road when a big truck started pulling out of the gas station in front of us and proceeded right towards us. I am not sure how he didn't see us, (WE WERE IN A BIG RED VAN) but he didn't and came barreling right towards us. I swerved quickly into the next lane and the truck proceeded to drive in the lane where we had just been as if it had been completely empty the whole time. We were grateful that the lane we moved into had been empty, but there was definitely a moment panic for our lives.

Another time I got my Internet bill and was very upset when I looked at it and realized it was double what it should have been. For a moment I was angry, then I panicked as I realized it was doubled because I hadn't payed the month before. Even now as I tell this story I had to look it up and make sure I payed this months bill. This was a moment of panic when I feared my Internet being turned of or that I thought I might have ruined my credit.

Ok, third story, and the reason I am posting this entry at all because I think about it every time I use a particular bathroom at work...and maybe if I finally post it I can quit thinking about the moment of panic I felt...but here goes. So this particular bathroom is a favorite of staff because unlike the other bathrooms in the school, that are full of individual stalls, this one is nice and spacious with a real door and some privacy as it is a single bathroom. The one problem with the spaciousness of it is that once you are sitting and doing your business you can not reach any other wall, with the exception of the wall the TP is on, that becomes important at some point when taking care of business. Anyway, one day, as I was taking care of business, I looked at the door (remember on a non reachable wall) and I realized I hadn't locked the door. A moment of panic of potential embarrassment and humiliation.

So what kind of moments of panic have you had? Which are the worst kind? If I had to rate mine in the order they were written it would go 3 2 1. I guess I have my priorities a little mixed up because it seems that I value my pride more than my life.

When You Change your Routien

I would guess many of us have a routine that we follow. We follow routines because they assure us that we can accomplish everything we need to as we see the need. Sometimes it is a daily ritual sometimes by task. Sometimes people take surveys about our habits and routines to "tell us what kind of person we are". For example they ask if you are a sock, sock, shoe, shoe person or if you are sock, shoe, sock, shoe, and then tell you what it means acccordingly. (I don't remember the answer so don't look for it in this post). I digress...

So the other day I took a shower and didn't follow my routine, mainly to accommodate for the lack of time to wash my hair. (I hardly ever shower without washing my hair) To emphasize the need for order I tell you that not washing my hair threw me off and as I was about to step out of the tub something struck me as not quite right, but it took me a bit to figure it out. I looked around and almost continued steping out when it occurred to me...I had left the water running.

Lazy

I once memorized a Silverstein poem "Lazy Jane.", It goes like this:

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy, Lazy, Lazy, Lazy Jane, she wanted a drink of water so she waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for it to rain.

This poem came back to memory a moment ago when I sent myself an e-mail in order to get a file to my other computer because I was too lazy to get a flash drive to save it on even though sometime down the road I have to do that anyway.

The Sun Goes Down at the End of a Day: the finale in the saga of Sand and Sun

I have already mentioned that Sand and Sun have now graduated. These stories started occurring in their freshman year, took place mostly in their Sophomore years then were slowly told by me throughout there junior and senior years and in a crash of stories the summer after they graduated.

While I didn't have the fortune of teaching them in their last two years of high school, I did occasionally see them, usually individually in the halls or something. One day I got to sub for their Spanish class and I got to see them working on a project. They sat willingly together as they worked on their individual projects. Sand teased Sun by taking her colored pencil or something and Sun of course reacted appropriately.

Now I must warn you now, before you read any further, that this is a real life story and not a movie so if you want a happy ending you should stop reading now and pretend that they went to Webster together where, after saving his money for a year and taking a trip to Tiffanie's, he returned and proposed to her. Perhaps the proposal would include a Taco Bell packet asking her to marry him... reminding her of their early days in my class where he once did the same and then they got married and lived happily ever after. If that is the story you want stop now.

Continue if you are prepared to accept the true, nothing like the movies, story.

I don't really know the true emotions of either about the other. I did get to talk to Sun one day where reluctantly admitted to me that Sand (while under a certain influence that she didn't want to admit at school) had professed his undying love to her. I don't know if he was influenced to profess true feelings or simply was continuing to try to annoy her.

A few months after hearing of this incident, at an all school assembly, Sand took the microphone to invite another girl to prom in front of the whole school. I was sad it wasn't Sun, but maybe it would have been had he not made a fool of himself with her on the other occasion, I don't really know.

So here ends the Saga of Sand and Sun as I know it. Nothing glamorous, just another day where the Sun goes down and the Sand is taken over by the waves of the sea.

Sun...Looking Forward to Graduation

Despite the couple of days Sand tried to convince everyone that he had "broken up with Sun" he went back to his usual taunting of Sun and as usual she seemed to be annoyed by it all.

Sun: I can't wait until we graduate, then I wont have to see you anymore.

Sand: Unless we go to the same college...(knowing her plans to go to Webster) I am going to Webster.

Sun: NO!

Sand: I get letters from there all the time.

The Sun will Come Out...If She is Jealous?

So as you have read, Sand is having no luck with Sun, I think perhaps he decided to try a new approach because one day he bites on another girl's taunting. You may remember her as "I" from IT. Now "I" is also a bit OCD but she can handle things a little better than Sun. She takes advantage of this one day and moves a desk near Sand so that it is not straight with the row he is sitting in. "I" then takes part in the game he usually plays by pointing out the broken light. The following takes place:

Me: (after seeing the desk askew) Oh, are you moving the desk to invite "I" to sit by you?

Other student: Yeah, he is interested in "I" now.

Sun: Thank goodness!

Sand: Yeah, it is going to snow so "I" is coming over to make a snowman.

NEXT DAY

Sand: I think Sun is in a bad mood, probably because I broke up with her.

Sand: Don't worry, I can find you a rebound.

Sand...Creating a Pearl?

As mentioned before, Sun is a bit OCD. Here are some things Sand does to push her buttons.

-Almost everyday will make a tiny mark on the board as if a spot was missed when the board was erased.

-Sand likes to rip up scraps of paper to leave on the desk and floor, she can't stand the scraps on the floor.

-Once he traded his book (specially arranged to be filled with papers hanging out every which way) with hers.

-Sometimes he changes seats to be by her (after all he points out to her, there is no assigned seating).

-He frequently likes to point out the mismatched ceiling tiles.

-Almost daily he points out that the "broken lights have in fact been fixed" leading her eye to what she tries to avoid looking at everyday because it bothers her so much, when in fact they have not been fixed.

-And to add to the taunting he often turns his desk slightly askew.

Shyness A Story About Sand

So one day we were working on a project where the students were working with the past imperfect tense (indicating what use to happen). The project was to write a story about what they and others did as children. They also had to use certain vocabulary as well as illistrations for their stories. On one page Sand wrote "when I was a child I was shy". Here is what he had to say about it.

Sand: How do I draw myself being shy?.........................I know, I'll draw Sun then myself standing in the corner being shy.

Sand...With a Pocket/Purse Full of Sunshine

Sun, being the cute trendy person she is, has nice big name brand purses that she is obsessive about. On this particular day Sand has taken her purse to lure her to him.

The humor in the story comes more from the taunting rather than the frustration clearly felt by Sun.

Try to imagine the reaction that Sun has as Sand makes remarks like "you have to come get your purse sometime".

When she doesn't buy into his hoaxing he begins to peer into the purse asking "whats in here?"

Trust me, that got a reaction.

Sand and Sun...Imagine it for Yourself

Sand: What are we doing in English today?

Sun: Stuff, you'll find out.

Sand: What kind of stuff?

Sun: Stop, go away!

Sand: (apparantly already had the information) We're watching more of that movie, why didn't you tell me that?

Sun: We're doing stuff!

The Sandset

I must admit, I enjoy this blossoming relationship between Sand and Sun and I can not deny that sometimes I don't discourage it.

Sun: Sand sit down!

Sand: Promptly sits down...on her desk.

Sun: Get off my desk!

Sand: doesn't move

Sun: Miss H., make him get off my desk.

Me: Sorry, we don't have assigned seating.

Sand and Sun...for Our Wedding

Situation: In Spanish class celebrating some latin holiday. The students are encouraged to bring "traditional food" to celebrate the event.

Sand: (to Sun) I made Mexican Wedding Cookies for our Wedding.

Sun: Um, I don't think so, you can't afford Tiffanies.

Sand: I'm going to Jareds.

Sunny Daze...Scratchy Sand

Situation: Sand comes into the class with the flaps on his back pockets sticking up. Sun, being the obsessive compulsive person she is, couldn't resist telling him to do something about it. This is how ithe conversation went.

Sun: Sand, put your pockets down!

Sand: (no response)

Sun: Sanduel, (what is Sand short for anyway?) put your pockets down!

Sand: What if I have to get my wallet? (mocking tone)

Sun: Why would you have to get your wallet out during class? (annoied and frustrated)

Sand: (backing towards her) Will you do it for me?

Sun: (more annoyed) No, put them down!

As Sand stands there with his back side facing Sun she anoyingly attempts to knock the pockets down with a pencil.

Sand: Stop touching my behind, I will fix them because you are so tired, and stop looking at my behind!

Sun: (rolls her eyes)

Sand: Thats why I have you, you complete me.

In Sand's View

So imagine this is Sand, staring at Sun through a rolled up paper. Her only annoyed reply to this was "What are you doing?"

Just to get new readers up to speed, a couple of years ago I had a couple of students who managed to entertain me through their various flirting episodes. It was all very humorous to me and a number of my friends. It wasn't uncommon for me to go out with friends and to have them ask me "so how are Sand and Sun?" (names have been changed). We often joked about making a cartoon out of the whole story, but as I am not a cartoonist I have attempted to record the stories on my blog.

For those who have been long time fans of Sand and Sun (that is anyone who knows their real names) I am glad you liked the stories as much as I did. For you new followers welcome. For those who are not interested in some poorly retold high school flirting stories I ask that you disregard the next several blog entries as I intend to put all the stories out there in the next week or so....then I will be done with it all.

If you are new and want to follow along I recommend that you check back on the old stories...the past post "Graduation of the Sand and the Sun" contains all links.

Enjoy!

Graduation of the Sand and the Sun

So I just got home from graduation. Since the story of Sand and Sun is coming to an end in my life (see links to previous stories by clicking on the 1, 2, 3, and 4) I thought it might be a good idea to tell an old story. The conversation went something like this:

Sun: I got my license! (with much excitement)

Sand: Can we go driving together? I will pick you up! (with much hope)

Sun: No Sand, leave me alone Sand. (with much annoyance)

So as the once sixteen year olds slipped by in their senior year, our senior Sun was voted best dressed girl in her class, and it was mentioned in the final remarks from the valedictorian that Sand had paid him a dollar to mention him in his speech.

That would have been a great way to end the saga...had I kept up with it...but I didn't so there very well could be more little snippets of the relationship to come.

A Free Day?!

So despite recent posts of fun and games with my students, I consider my classes to be hard work. I would argue that they are good college prep classes in fact. I try to make the students work hard at something they usually don't like and it pretty much always comes at a time when they don't want to do it...well that is always for most teenagers.

Despite my desire for them to work hard I recognize and accept that most of them don't want to be there and likely don't like Spanish. I am okay with that, I had to take many classes over the years that I didn't want to take or that I didn't enjoy. I am never offended when I hear a student say "no offense but I hate Spanish". I am, however, appalled when I hear a student ask "can we have a free day?"

Yes they ask this from time to time; and they mean it, sometimes argue it as if they had a valid case in which I should just sit down and let them do nothing.

The problem is the more they argue the more I want to give it to them because the more they argue the more I realize they honestly don't care. They don't care about the class, they don't care about their grade, they don't care if they learn to work hard, they just don't care. Now I realize that not all of my students do this but enough of them do that I get discouraged.

Lets consider for a moment what would happen if I decided to take a free day.

1) If I took a free day I would probably want another one (If I choose to take another one go to 2A, if not go to 2B)

2A) Then I would want another one (If I choose to take another one go to 3, if not go to 2B)

3) Again, I would want another one (If I choose to take another one go to 4, if not I'd go to 2B)

4) I would continue downward until eventually loosing my job, have to decide if I liked being lazy enough to continue downward until loosing my house, loosing all motivation, deciding I was worthless and give up or go live at my parents, get a job at some retail place that paid enough to sustain my life while I...see 2B.

2B) Suck it up, work hard, learn to love it or grow from it and keep it up until I can move on to something else.

Moral of the story is, if you need a free day suck it up, work hard, learn to love it or grow from it and keep it up until you can move on to something else. Or at the very least until you hit vacation. It will be that much more rewarding if you do.

April Fool's Week: Rotten Tomato... Final Update

So here we see the fake tomato perched on the wall about an hour before it was discovered. Yes, it took exactly a week. Chantal, you were right.

So how did they figure it out? Well, I knew something was up when one of my students was obviously trying to distract me while his classmates attempted to move the tomato. They had decided to make the game more interesting by moving it somewhere different each day. I guess they were getting bored waiting.

Needless to say, they were a little surprised when the picked it up and figured it out. I got all sorts of reactions from "you got us good" to "I figured you knew". One student suspected I was switching it out with another real one on a daily basis. Another thought this one looked slightly shorter than the origional so the figured it must be rotting.

They all asked how long it took for me to discover it. They were disappointed that I had found it halfway through the first class and that I immediatly replaced it with a new one the next day.

So I discovered from them that I wasn't the only teacher hit. One teacher said nothing and another got a good laugh, but not I. I took it to the extreem and got them back and I have to admit, it was fun!

Rotten Tomato: Update #3

This is what a student drew on the back of his quiz yesterday. Seriously...with hints like this who wouldn't have known?

Rotten Tomato: Update #2

When life throws you a tomato, make salsa. Here is a before and after of the OT (Origional Tomato).

Rotten Tomato: Update #1

Today one of my students had a particularly strong smelling snack in class, I think he said it was jalapeño chips. Honestly it smelled like rotten green peppers. I hope none of you have had the unpleasant experience of smelling rotten peppers. Anyway, I thought it would be worth it to mention something smelled bad. At first they started to point their fingers to the boy with the strong smelling chips but one girl paused to ask if the "smell was there all day or since their class arrived." I know what she was getting at, but as of yet there has been no discovery on the case of the tomato.

Rotten Tomato

An April Fool's Story It isn't bad enough that I have these particular students that like to play tricks on me, but to have them in class on April Fool's Day was not something I was looking forward to.

It wasn't until the morning of of the blessed day that I even realized that I should try to do something to them before they could do something to me. I think it actually came to me as I was walking down the main hallway to check my mail. First I checked my mail then paid a visit to the ISS (in school suspension) teacher. I made a few arrangements and then went on my way.

I let the students come in and do a couple of things like put a post-it over the light on my mouse so it didn't work and put a picture of Antonio Bandera's face over my mural of a Quetzal bird (they do this from time to time so it is nothing new). But when the bell rang I told them I didn't want to put up with it and sent two of them, with passes that I had already made, to the ISS room. They thought I was joking and laughed, ripped up the passes, and threw them away. It took me some time to convince them I was serious and to take the passes out of the trash can and send them on their way. I had to assign a student to take them because they didn't even know where it was.

From various reports I have learned that the ISS teacher was sufficiently mean to them for over 10 minutes and then sent them back to class with a "happy April Fools Day" note from me.

So where does the tomato come in?

In the meantime, I have one brick wall in my room that has a window ledge about 10 feet from the ground and someone had perched a tomato on it. The student's kept making comments like how long does it take a tomato to rot or look above your head. I decided that I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of looking up every time they pointed or seeing my reaction when I figured it out. I waited until they were all gone to lunch to look around to discover what they had done. Honestly is that even creative?

After school I removed the tomato from its perch, went to the craft store, bought a similar looking fake tomato, then the next day placed it in the spot where the real one had been.

During the next class I saw student's look up and realize it was "still" there. I could almost see them wondering if they should say anything or not. There were comments throughout the class about how unaware I was and that I might have an "unpleasant" surprise come Monday. I played along by saying that I knew what they were talking about and that "maybe I am smarter than they think" but I said it in a way that would lead them to believe that I was trying to get them to believe that I thought I knew something that I really knew nothing about. They were laughing at me because it was still there and I clearly had done nothing about it.

To be continued...

In Perspective

So I was stuck in traffic, thinking about how a 20 minute trip had become 60 and that I was glad I had decided not to stop at home first or I would have really been late to where I was going. I was complaining slightly, while talking to a friend on the phone, when I remembered this youtube clip my brother had sent me. I told my friend all about it and smiled and even laughed at myself driving on the highway at 15 miles per hour. Afterall, I sure couldn't have run that fast.

And the Winners Are...

In a follow up ot my "homemade giveaway" contest I wanted to announce the winners.

Bethany ...you're a winner!

Miss L ...you're a winner!

Goat ...you're a winner!

So, for my winners, I will have to get some addresses, you can e-mail them to me sometime, but don't forget I just have to follow through within the year, so don't expect anything too soon.

As for the other two winners ...the academy has decided rather than the first five they are only selecting three. Ok, so only three responded and followed up.

I guess that is what I get for giving people cookies for nothing. Friends who think they never have to work for it.

Homemade Giveaway

OK, so this is a little bit of a twist/combination of tag/pay it forward...here goes...

The first 5 people to respond and follow through on this post will get something homemade by me!

Here are the restrictions and limitations that protect me in the giveaway:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. I get to choose, you just get to receive!

2. What I create will be made just for you, one of a kind...unless it is cookies, they are made all the time and not so one of a kind, but they will be made just for you just the same.

3. It will be done this year... hopefully sooner rather than later.

4. The gift may or may not be edible, wearable or recyclable!

5. In order to be a winner, you must repost this on your blog.

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me you did will receive one FABULOUS homemade gift by me!

After I choose the winners, you can send me your mailing address!
Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you receive it!

Something Tag

Something I want to see: Spain, Machu Pichu, Australia, England, Egypt...

Something that inspires me: truth... cheesy as it sounds, thats what keeps me going

Something that makes me angry: people that honk at me when I am making a right turn and when people leave the shower plug up so when I turn on the water it comes down on me without warning (good thing I live alone)

Something that hurts a little: being alone on Friday night...although sometimes I welcome it too

Something I've gotten used to: being alone

Something I collect: I use to collect things like erasers, pencils, stickers, marbles, bouncy balls...but now I collet things like recycling and box top$ for education...

Something I always carry with me: nothing if I can help it, I hate to carry stuff, purse included

Something I want to be: a better teacher

Something I dread: being alone and also losing a family member

Something that I have learned: that the shy person I once was could accomplish as much as I have. If someone would have told me 15 years ago where I would be today, I would never have believed it. Just proves that with God nothing is impossible.

Something I read: from the Book of Mormon everyday and then other scriptures including the Ensign... otherwise I tend to have read young adult books: Chronicles of Narnia, Twilight series, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events...

Something I want to understand: faith, prayer

And I tag...Christina and Melia

In A Rut

I always imagined the phrase "in a rut" as going along the same tracks, the wagon wheels going along the old ruts without change, not getting out of the same routine, same old same old, hum drum, I am ready for a change, nothing ever happens, I can't get past where I am at kind of phrase. I can't deny that I have felt this way more than once. Sometimes it is depressing, discouraging or just plain old boring.

One day I was in Sunday school when the teacher used the phrase "in a rut" and described the giant walls and inability to get out. Then it occurred to me that being in a rut might be a bigger problem than I once imagined.

I picture myself in miniature (wouldn't that be nice) inside some tracks left by a wagon wheel or something. (Maybe it would be easier to picture an ant in a track, it is slightly more realistic to think about). I look up at the sides and think how do I get out of this. Suddenly being in a rut seems like a big challenge.

So when it comes down to it would I rather be scaling walls or jumping the track to get myself going in a different direction? I suppose it would be easier to get out of a rut if it were a matter of jumping the track but the view would probably be the same once I did. On the other hand if I had to climb out of that rut to where I were on new ground then I would imagine that the view might be drastically different.

The truth is that each scenario makes us stronger for our current needs. When I began this post over a month ago I was simply pondering the saying "in a rut". Now I have come to a reminder of the nature of life's challenges. In my studies this morning I read an Ensign article called "Putting My Hand in the Lord's". The author quoted Elder B. H. Roberts of the Seventy "those who have to contend with difficulties, brave dangers, endure disappointments, struggle with sorrows, eat the bread of adversity and drink the water of affliction, develop a moral and spiritual strength, together with a purity of life and character, unknown to the heirs of ease, and wealth and pleasure."

In the end it doesn't matter how the saying was meant. The truth of the matter is there are all sorts of challenges. Some of them require minor changes such as overcoming a speed bump and or changing directions and some of them require exercise and strengthening so that we can have the power to get out and move forward. Either way I take comfort in knowing that I will be given the right challenges at the right times according to my needs if I allow the Lord to direct me as He knows best. And I am thankful for it.

You’re a Winner!

So I open my e-mail several times a week and as I opened it today it appears that once again I have won because I am the 999,999th visitor.

So each time I see this flashing sign I can’t help but ask myself how many times can one person be the 999,999th visitor?

I thought when I opened my e-mail today that it probably makes 99 times that I have visited (only 999,900 short of 999,999th) and I realize that I am not the only visitor.

At this point I ask myself what or where am I the visitor of? You would think I would remember going somewhere with so many other visitors.

What places host so many people I wonder? Times Square on New Years Eve? The worlds fair? The Olympics?

Wow, all the visits…all the people… all the memories… Cool...

I guess I am a winner!