Listening

Today on our way to church, at the very last minute, I decided I needed something to read. Now, remember, my job or "calling" at church is ward librarian. I am the keeper of the library, along with Don. I have loads of things to read in the library. I even thought of that as I stood there debating what I was going to read. I snatched a book off the shelf, I even wondered which book to grab as there were 2 slim volumes of poetry, Carol Lynn Pearson's Beginnings & The Search. I grabbed the top one, The Search, & ran. Don was waiting for me in the car. We got to the library & I sat there & read my poetry, pondered it & thought, "I've missed this." I also thought, "I've been struggling so hard to read the Psalms & I can sit here, read these poems, & they mean something to me. Why can't I 'get' Psalms?"

Don teaches the priesthood lesson on the 4th Sunday. He said he was having a hard time with the lesson he was going to teach. He's a born teacher & seldom has a hard time with a lesson. I asked him what it was. He told me & showed me. It was "Turn to the Lord" by Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the 70, given in the Sunday morning session of the April 2010 General Conference. I got excited & said, "We had that lesson last summer from Brother Burns (our home teacher). We discussed it." He didn't remember, but I gave him a couple of examples from my parents' life, an example from a family that is struggling right now here in town. And then, lo, & behold, one of the poems from my book leaped to mind, "To One Who Has Been Done Dirt." I quickly thumbed to it, read it aloud to him & then another one. He took my book, read it & took it with him to class. He used 3 poems. He told me later those poems were just what was missing from his lesson.

We got our temple recommends today. Tiffany (our niece) is going through the temple to take out her endowments in a couple of weeks & if the location is right, we can go with her!! I am so excited. She has been called to serve in the Switzerland Geneva French-speaking Mission.

I've stayed up way too late - again.

dearelder.com

I discovered a cool website, dearelder.com. Our nepew Robert mentioned it in a letter home. We were at his mom's on Saturday when she got a letter & passed it around for all to read. So, last night I checked it out & today I wrote letters to THREE missionaries, Robert, Janene & a neighbor/ward member Sean Griffeth. Sean is in Chile, Morgans (Janene & Grant) in Philippines & Robert at the Provo MTC.

The MTC missionaries get their letters daily, probably with the exception of Saturday & Sunday. The other missions with mail packets are FREE & are mailed weekly on Thursday. Thence the reason Janene & Sean got letters, the price was right.

I'm feeling stuffy & dizzy today. I'm gonna read my scriptures & head to bed early. I have a book I could read, I could start a new one, I could look for one, but bed sounds best

Quick update

Have I mentioned lately how I dislike Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP)? Luckily, it's not as bad as it has been, simply because I'm almost through with the secretarial duties.

Tuesday was our first meeting of the season. A couple of years ago, I asked that our meetings be changed from Monday to Tuesday because I work on Monday. Well, two of our numbers work on Tuesday at the temple. So, Tuesday, it was proposed we move our meetings back to Monday. I was just going to sit there & let them change it, then Mother & I wouldn't have to go. Jean Carter spoke up & said, "RaNae, you have to work on Monday don't you?" Jeanne Cutler, our captain, confidently said, "Oh, you can come on your lunch hour." I said I don't get a lunch hour. Anyway, we had a brisk discussion on it. I said they could change it to Monday & I could take off long enough to pick up Mother & take her to meeting & pick her up. I said I lay pages out & then I'm the last one to see them before the editors sign them off. If I fall behind on my part of the production, it slows everything down. I stay until 8 p.m. or until the paper is done.

Again, it was stated no lunch hour & no breaks is illegal. I simply stated I am glad to have a job. If they were willing to have their meeting earlier, 11 a.m. on either Monday or Tuesday, I'd be willing to try it. Why can't they come on Wednesday or Thursday? Neither one of those days was even suggested. So, it was decided to leave it on the second Tuesday of the month. Mother & I don't even want to go anymore. Why accommodate us?

I talked to Beth Gunnell, this year's secretary, on Saturday & explained I have not felt well all summer. I have had very low blood pressure, diarrhea & extremely fatigued, we are facing foreclosure on our house ... I just laid it out. I also told her I didn't want anyone to know about the foreclosure, I hadn't told Mother.

Today, since our foreclosure notice was published in the paper, I finally told Mother. Jeanne Cutler had already told her on Saturday!! It seems Beth had called Jeanne as soon as she hung up with me, who immediately called Mother & told her. Argh!

Hopeful

I got a call from Citi, the mortgage company, today. The man I spoke with was calling to see if we had any more concerns about the modification on our mortgage. I said, not really. All we wanted to do was to make up the arrearage & not be foreclosed on. We weren't asking for our house payment to be lowered. We would have to pay rent if we had to move. He said there will be a package coming by UPS next week detailing the modification & they will do what they can to help us keep our home.

Our house payment is around $500. My gosh, $500 is pretty low if you ask me. I know we had a house payment of $291 in 1991-3, but that was because it was a "farm" home & USDA was helping us by making a supplemental payment to bring it up to whatever the total house payment was.

I want to open a savings account for the mortgage once the garnishment ends. Put money into it every two weeks, so we always have money to pay the mortgage. Don & Nick agreed to it. It looks like this next pay period will be the last one garnished!! Yes!!

Foreclosure

Thursday, Sept. 2, was just like any other Friday at work, even though it was Thursday. It was preparation day for the long Labor Day Weekend. I had a couple of legals on email. Vicki (Atkinson, job share partner) had left the legals for me. I did all the normal stuff, printed out the instructions, saved the document, translated the document to be read by our MAC word processor, printed it out & prepared to take it out to the front desk for a number. I scanned down through the document to find out who was being foreclosed on & there, in UPPER CASE, our names jumped out at me: DON RAY BARTLOME AND RANAE MONSON BARTLOME, HUSBAND AND WIFE. I don't usually find the names so fast.

Here is what I put on Facebook as my status

I'm worried. It's kinda hard when you open a foreclosure notice on your email at work for the legal notices, you scan down through all the legal jargon to find out the name to put on the form & your own name jumps out at you! Kind of a kick in the gut. The lump is still there.

I put "kind of a kick in the gut." If you ask me, it was more like I'd been bitch-slapped. And the lump is still there, every time I think about it or see the paper work. I saw it at work before I ever saw it in the mail. Then we got EIGHT envelopes in the mail on Friday. I got 3, Don got 4 & Mother got one. Then, on our way out of the house Saturday morning to run errands, I stuck my hand in the mailbox & there were 2 certified mail slips to take to the post office & pick up some certified mail. The post office is open for 2 hours on Saturday, so I just took the slips to the post office & retrieved EIGHT more envelopes, 3 for me, 4 for Don & one for Mother. I opened them all on Sunday at the library.

Nick & I came home on Tuesday to find the offensive paper taped to the front door. A deputy sheriff brought it by. I thought they had to have a signature. Oh, well, they didn't wait for one. I now have it taped on the back of the door.

I did call the mortgage company & finally was able to talk to a real person. I've been getting more phone calls, but no messages. It is so hard to talk to someone, I had the thought this morning to write a letter & fax it, just like we did the 9 pages explaining why we were in arrears in the first place.

I still haven't told Mother, but know I need to before Tuesday, Sept. 14. That's when it will hit the newspaper. I wish I had some ideas.

Nearer My God to Thee

I finally remembered the 2nd hymn the Whitney 2nd Ward sang in Stake Conference. Nearer My God to Thee, hymn 100. It was a beautiful arrangement.

Our niece, Tiffany Bartlomé, received her mission call to the Switzerland Geneva Mission French-speaking. I was telling the boys today, she won't have to tell people how to pronounce her name. That's where the Bartlomés come from.