Power of God's love

Another quote from readthescriptures.com. I am including this because of several incidents that happened today, both at home & at work.

"Filled with his love, we can endure pain, quell fear, forgive freely, avoid contention, renew strength, and bless and help others."
--Elder John H Groberg, "The Power of God's Love", November 2004 Ensign pg. 9

Nick was "cycling"  today. No, he didn't go out & bicycle, it was too cold & windy for that. Nick is a rapid cycler.

A cycle is the period of time an individual takes to go through one episode of mania and one of depression (or hypomania and depression).

A person can have bipolar disorder & only cycle once in a lifetime. Nick, however, has bipolar II. He can cycle several times in one day. Sometimes I have a hard time distinguishing between the Asperger's & bipolar, sigh.

Here is just one incident from a day that seemed fraught with "incidents." Nick was fine with me & just a few minutes later, he was "snippy" with Don. Don came back out of Nick's room & sat down at his computer in the front room. I tried to talk to him about the episode with Nick, but he said he was tired of being made to feel stupid. He  just sat at the computer with his head in his hands for a long time.

I am glad that I have two days off & that it is not a week with 2 production days. I don't think I could handle it.

Never assume ...

Wow! This quote kind of hit me. I picked it up from ReadtheScriptures.com

"Never assume that you can make it alone. You need the help of the Lord. Never hesitate to get on your knees in some private place and speak with Him. What a marvelous and wonderful thing is prayer. Think of it. We can actually speak with our Father in Heaven. He will hear and respond, but we need to listen to that response. Nothing is too serious and nothing too unimportant to share with Him."
--Gordon B. Hinkley "Stay on the High Road," Ensign, May 2004, 114

 I had completed my reading assignment & was requesting another assignment. Last night I almost forgot to read. I was closing the computer down & remembered. Whew! I've come this far & haven't missed a day. Lent is over this week. It's so much easier to read online. The text is so much bigger than the book.

It doesn't seem like I can get away to kneel at "some private place." I pray wherever I am, driving, contending with my grown children, ... I have done this for years. Usually, the only "private place" is the bathroom. I remember I knelt at the toilet to pray many times in the mission office when I was on my mission.

I try very hard to listen to the response from my Father in Heaven. There have been times when I have written the responses I have received, knowing I'll forget if I don't.

Great things

Another President Faust thought

"May we all be faithful in doing the day to day ordinary things that prove our worthiness, for they will lead us to and qualify us for great things."
--James E. Faust, "Some Great Thing", Ensign, Nov. 2001, 46

Some days it is very hard to do the day to day ordinary things.

Random Acts of Kindness

Isn't this a cool quote?

"Almost every day brings opportunities to perform unselfish acts for others. Such acts are unlimited and can be as simple as a kind word, a helping hand, or a gracious smile."
--President James E. Faust, Ensign, Nov. 2002, 21-22

I remember when Don was at Air Force Officers Training School in San Antonio, Texas, in 1983. I was driving from Lawton (Ft. Sill), Okla., to San Antonio alone. I was scared, but determined to go. I stopped at a light in a town in northern Texas, can't remember now where I was. It was early morning & a guy in this big, lifted pickup pulled up next to me in my little dark blue Pontiac T100 with Utah plates. He looked over at me, smiled & said, "Good morning." It made my day. I can still remember his smile 27 years later.

Much more ... muchier

Don & I went on a date today. We went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D in Logan, then afterwards we went to Chili's for dinner.

We have been trying all afternoon to think of the last time we went on a date. I finally  remembered. We went to see Avatar a few weeks ago at the Worm Creek Opera House in Preston. There was lots of blue skin. We didn't see Avatar in 3D. Don-Mike did though. He had taken a date to see it in Logan in 3D.

Alice in Wonderland was wonderful. My favorite line from the movie was from the Mad Hatter to Alice. "You used to be much more ... muchier." I googled the line & got this delightful entry from a blog.

If you go ... enjoy.

Another quote

So, I didn't use either quote, but this one:

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.  ~Mark Twain

Probably because it has snowed twice today. Both times the ground has been white. Don said it was just a spring shower, only it was so cold it was snow!! I got home from work at the same time as Don, so I sat in his car & we talked. There was blue sky & sun shining on the mountains in front of us & behind us & the snow was pelting the roof of the car.

Spring quotes

OK, color me a slave to my cat. She's meowing to go to bed. Now, why she can't go to bed without me is a mystery. But, she is insisting we go to bed NOW!!! Silly girl!! I think she's slept the day away, now it's time to go to bed.

So, since I can't think when Miss Marsha is demanding to go to bed, I will put the quotes for the bulletin board here, so I won't lose them.

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day."
-   Robert Frost

That was today alright. I didn't take time to put shoes & socks on, just wore my croc sandals & my feet have been cold all day.

"In April, we cannot see sunflowers in France, so we might say the sunflowers do not exist. But the local farmers have already planted thousands of seeds, and when they look at the bare hills, they may be able to see the sunflowers already. The sunflowers are there. They lack only the conditions of sun, heat, rain and July. Just because we cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist."
-   Thich Nhat Hanh 

Can't you just see the sunflowers?? Or are they daisies?

I was really disappointed in the ward book club tonight. I told Don I may not go again.

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

I am coming along swimmingly on my reading this year. Will I make 144 books?? I don't think so. I don't think I want to. That is TOOO many books to read. There is more to life than reading.

I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for the Whitney 2nd Ward book club tomorrow night. I started it Sunday. It was an excellent, excellent read. It is historical fiction written in letter form about the occupation of the Channel Island of Guernsey during WWII. By the time I was finished, I felt like I needed to visit. I wanted to look up the characters who peopled this book. Had I the time or the money, I'd be off to visit them. Kit would be almost 70. She was 4 at the time of the book in 1946.

As far as my reading of The Book of Mormon, I'm doing well there, also. I haven't missed a day. Last night I was tempted to just read a few verses, because I had to read it out of a book instead of online. I'm spoiled. I read it from LDS.org & the text is large enough to see & I can highlight where I am so I don't lose my place.

Weekly update 3/14/10

Do I really want to do a weekly update?

1. I have read from The Book of Mormon daily. check
2. Wednesday: Took Mother to have an ultrasound of her carotid artery. Good result. Had her INR checked, down .2 to 2.4, means it's a little thick. Recheck in 1 week.
3. Thursday: Took Nick in for his med check, complete with a blood check. Results are "better than last time." Whatever that means.
4. Friday: Took Mother in to primary care physician, he put her on another new med for her COPD.
5. Worked Friday afternoon & found a problem with a couple of legals, grrr

 6. Saturday: Watched a movie, Are We Done Yet, with Mother & she loved it
7. Sunday: And last, but not least, Daylight Savings Time is here!!! BOOOOO!!! HISSS!!! And, since we "spring ahead," I got to bed "late" & got up "late" & then, because I slept in, the sun stayed up late. As Bishop LeGrand Burton once said to my mom one spring Sunday, "It's later than you think!"

So, even though my body says it's only 10:30, the clock says it's 11:30 & I have to get up at 6, not 7 in the morning, grrrr.

Kindle4PC

I know I've told you about the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, a couple whose daughter has SMA. When I checked their blog the other night the entry was "Kindle for a cause." As I was reading the entry I thought, "That's nice. I don't have a Kindle." Then at the end of the entry it said that you don't need a Kindle, it can be downloaded onto your PC or iPod. Now, I was actually thinking iPod. They had provided a link to Amazon. I couldn't find where I could download it onto my iPod, but I did download Kindle for PC. It's free! Then I bought the book, Not A Fire Exit for $1.99. All proceeds went to the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation if you bought the book on March 7th and 8th.

Not A Fire Exit, Christopher Finlan (2009), 4 stars 3 stars, mystery/ fantasy

2010-reads, fantasy, kindle4pc, mystery, own, read

Here is my review from Goodreads: This was riveting & a good read. I don't have a bookshelf for medical fantasy, but it is. The good doctor reminded me of Dr. Who.

I should wait to review the books I read. While I liked this book & think the story is great, there were things I didn't care for. OK, so I'm a prude, but I did not like the sexual innuendos. I don't know if I'll ever be able to enjoy a KitKat again without thinking of this book. I don't even know if I should mention the language, I've heard worse. The constant "domestic squabbles" wore me down. The characters seemed one-dimensional. Such as she's discussing her "case" at a counter in a café. They were sitting at the counter because it was too busy for a table or a booth, yet I got the feeling there was no one around them.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a real disease, a terminal one. The details were portrayed accurately. I like the way the author wrapped his story around those details. I like the way he is using proceeds from this book to go toward research for SMA.

OK, back to the blog.  I originally gave this book 4 stars. But, perhaps the fact that I'm reading my scriptures again has made me a little more sensitive to the language & such. I struggled in writing my review last night. I should have just given up & waited til morning. I lay in bed this morning, still thinking about the book. I decided I'd been too generous on my rating. I wrote what I didn't like about it on an index card so I wouldn't forget by the time I got to the computer to make my observations.

When things go wrong ...

"Remember that faith and obedience are still the answers, even when things go wrong, perhaps especially when things go wrong."
--Elder David E Sorensen, "Faith Is the Answer", May 2005 Ensign pg. 72

A thought from ReadtheScriptures.com Sometimes after having read 2-3 chapters of my scriptures, I don't feel like reading their thoughts, but if they are short, I will usually read them, & sometimes, like this one, it is so profound, I stop, read it again & then snag it to share.

Totally wasted day

I got up at noon today, only because I thought I heard someone at the door. Sure enough, there was. Finally about 3 I decided to get dressed. Now, not even 12 hours later, I'm ready to go back to bed. I did take both my morning & evening meds. And I filled the med boxes for Don, Nick & myself. Tomorrow I fill Mother's med boxes.

I hate feeling this crappy. The other day Rod asked me if I was sick. I said no I just don't feel good. There's a difference. He agreed. There are many days when I just don't feel good & today was one of those days.

I had many plans for today & didn't do any of them. However, I did read my scriptures & was thrilled to find out that there is a catch up day built into the booklet. I am already a day behind on my scheduled reading, although I have read every day. I am on day 18 of Lent but only day 17 of the booklet. It doesn't seem possible almost 3 weeks are gone already.

I also finished The Language of Baklava, one of the library books for Let's Talk About It. I gave it 4.5. It was sad, but also  laugh-out-loud-good. I was sad to see it end. The book for this coming Wednesday is a trilogy, three books in one, sigh. There are 386 pages. I still haven't read the first 2 books of the series. I know I won't finish this one either. Then there is the Whitney 2nd Ward book club on March 17, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, then the last discussion of Let's Talk About It on March 24 of Chocolat. The sad thing is, those 5 books are due then & I really do want to finish them.

Baldness

I came home from Ogden, & the first thing I did was sit down at the computer to read my scriptures. I read 2 Nephi 11-13 tonight. In the summary for Chapter 13 it says:

The daughters of Zion are cursed and tormented for their worldliness

Then down in verse 24 it says:

and instead of well set hair, baldness;

This rather disturbs me. I guess because of my hair loss. I know I officially lost my hair because of chemotherapy, but it hasn't grown back in very thick. I have thin, wimpy hair. I have never been officially diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), but have a lot of the symptoms, one of which is "male-pattern baldness or thinning hair." I guess I'll just call this an "ah-ha" moment. Every time I read the BOM, I find something new.

A fun day

Today was a fun day. I drove clear to Syracuse, Utah, & home without going to sleep. I was getting sleepy by the time I got to Smithfield on my way home, but that's a far cry from being sleepy by the time I get to Ogden on my way down.

Mother & I drove to Ogden to pick up my new hearing aid mold. It is clear, it fits & my hearing aid actually performed quite well today. Mother & I ate at Chuck-A-Rama in Ogden. We didn't like the chuck wagon menu today. After we ate, we drove out to Syracuse to visit my cousin Sheila Coburn. Her husband Nathan was home, so we got to visit with him too.

I didn't realize Syracuse was so far west. It was a lot farther than I thought it would be. I kept saying it was out in the boonies, it is quite a ways from the freeway. There are LOTS & LOTS of houses. Their house is beautiful. I love, LoVe, LOVE her kitchen. I took lots of pictures of it.

Sheila started blogging in October 2008. She has had 2008 and 2009 printed into a book. I was SOOO excited to see it. It's beautiful. I'm counting it toward my 144 books to read in 2010. It is #9 in the total & #2 in my memoir/biography challenge. After all, I have read it. I gave it 5 stars.

I started blogging in October 2008 also. I have very few pictures on my blog, but after seeing Sheila's book, I came home & am doing some research on printing mine.

When we went to leave, I couldn't find my keys. I had left them on the kitchen counter when I went in & saw her kitchen. She put them away, thinking they were hers.

This morning, on our way through Logan, we stopped at Dr. Otrusinik's office to have her protime taken. I turned off Main Street in Logan at 11:52 a.m. Dr. Otrusinik's office closes at noon & doesn't reopen until 1:30. We were going to be cutting it really close, so I told Mother she couldn't go potty before she had her protime taken. She walked in & there was an older lady sitting on the couch in the waiting room. The lady jumped up as Mother walked in. Mother had no clue who she was. I was right behind Mother & saw that it was Loretta Walborn. I said, "Mother, it's Loretta." They hugged each other. It's been a long time since we've seen Bob & Loretta. Bob was having a pacer check, I think. He sees Dr. Otrusinik also.