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.