April Rose

UPDATE: Now I found I was duped, just like thousands of others. This was a hoax. I had become emotionally invested in B's story. I found the answer thanks to a friend (thx CM) who blogged about it. She calls it the "ugly side of blogging." And yes, it is.

She changed her name & plans to "clean" up her site to no longer include her family's real names. I don't know that I will go to that extent, I'm lazy, but I think I will change the status of who can view my blog. I have found it very therapeutic to write. I have always found it therapeutic to write.

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Little April Rose was born alive yesterday, Sunday, June 7 (see my entry about baby blogs). She weighed 4 lb., something. Today I hurried home from work to see how she is doing & there was an entry from April's daddy that he had closed the blog. I just checked now on my way to bed, as I have done for the past several weeks, & the blog's gone!!!! Gone! They took it down because of hateful artwork & emails. I just want to sit here & cry. I want to know how she's doing. I'll just have to keep praying for her family.

Thankfully, Jonah is doing well. He had some sweet potatoes today, his first food, & there was a sweet picture of a messy face. His Papa Jim, great-grandfather, can't go see him because of an ongoing cold. I saw Jim today, he stopped in at The Citizen on his way through town.

Another baby blog

Dave & Tanya's blog for their baby Jonah opened a whole new addiction for me - blog surfing. Is there such a thing? I "subscribe" to & read way too many blogs. And one blog leads to another.

One journey sent me to Little April Rose, a young single mother, whose unborn daughter is diagnosed with Trisomy 13 and Holoprosencephaly & isn't expected to live through the birth experience. This young mother, "B," is amazing. A few weeks ago she started a prayer register, if I may call it that. People were emailing her ASKING for HER prayers. So, she started "His Will Wednesday." Through yesterday's entry I found little Gwendolyn Strong who has spinal muscular atrophy or SMA. I have buttons for both of these blogs in the sidebar on my blog.

I try not to read through them all at once. I admit, I did Dave & Tanya's, I couldn't stop reading. Little Gwendolyn is 20 months old & since I didn't find her until tonight, there are almost 2 years of entries to read. Her parents celebrate each month's birthday, as children with SMA don't usually live past 2 years old.

Through a cousin's blog, I found a really cool website. Janelle writes:

I tend to read the emails that come to my inbox. I read my blogs. I read my facebook page. But I struggle "finding the time" to read the scriptures. I just forget. So this site sends me an email with the days scripture chapter. I can read it or listen to it. Then tomorrow it sends me the next chapter. Today it took 6 minutes for it to read the first chapter. If I have the time to spend 10 minutes on facebook (at least), 10 minutes on blogs (multiple times a day) and however many minutes on email, then I have the time to read 6 minutes a day before all of that.

So, I subscribed to Read The Scriptures & decided I'd "read" the Doctrine & Covenants, since Don & I are in the library & don't get to Sunday School, Relief Society or Priesthood. I tried listening to it, & found that I'd just as soon read it to myself. So, today I read the first chapter of the D&C.

I haven't really kept up on my "moving" since May is over, but I'm still thinking of it & still don't park close to the door, unless I have Mother with me. I walked the stairs at the clinic on Tuesday, but took the elevator down with Mother. June's habit is drinking water. Ewww :( that's a toughy. One I try ever few months, but Lent taught me something. I can focus on a "habit" for a set period of time. I've also kept trying to make it to bed at midnight & most nights I do pretty good.

Lent, Day 21

I always wonder what day of Lent I'm on, but it looks like 21. And I could not believe the time when I checked it, 11:15 p.m. I hadn't even read the update on Baby Jonah & since he had such a wild day, I had to share it with Don, then Don-Mike came home, for just a few minutes. He had to close tonight, & open in the morning & he was tired, so he didn't stay. He didn't even sit down, just leaned against the front door, walked back to say hi to Nick & left.

Last night I was ready to go to bed at 11:30! Don has not been feeling well, this cold has been kicking his butt, & he went to bed at 11:15. Part of his bedtime routine is putting the cats to bed. He told me he didn't know where Brackin & Marsha were, but the other cats were in the laundry room. So, I turned off the computer to go to bed & there was Sammy & Priscilla laying in the chairs in the front room. I took the flashlight & looked all over the house for Brackin & Marsha. No luck. I found out why 2 of the 3 cats were back in the house. Don had forgot to push the sugar bucket up against the door to the laundry room. Sammy & Prissy are the 2 heaviest cats. I did not want to pick them up, but knew I had to. So, I carried them one at a time to the door. Closed it & pushed the bucket up against it. Went to the front door & called the 2 missing cats. No luck. I sat down & waited a few minutes & went back to the door. Still no luck, I took my meds & checked again. Finally, here came Brackin, running up on the porch & right into the house. He stopped at the cat dishes & then went to the laundry room door & waited to be let out.

We have a cat door built into the outside wall of the laundry room, but we lock it at night because the cat next door is a mean cat & savages our cats, especially at night. Well, Miss Marsha Lu still did not come. I was fuming. These stupid cats don't even know their curfew! Finally, at 5 minutes to 12 here comes Miss Marsha waltzing in. She sleeps on our bed. She was not ready to go to bed, but once I had all 5 of my cats in, I turned out the light, locked the door & went to bed. At 1 o'clock, Don makes some noise which either woke me up or startled me out of a stupor, picks Marsha up & puts her outside. He said she'd been wanting out ever since she came in. How he knew that, I don't know, he was definitely asleep when I went to bed at midnight.

I slept until 10 this morning. So, I guess, if I require 10 hours of sleep & have to be to work by 9 a.m., I'm going to have to adjust this bedtime thing to give me the 10 hours of sleep I need & make it so I can wake up & make it to work by 9 a.m. Does that mean I have to be in bed by 10?? I like to stay up & say good night to Don-Mike. He stops by on his way home from work & he's been working long days ever since Big J's reopened.

Mother seemed very confused today. I know she didn't have her hearing aid in, but I had to repeat things a lot & then she got the story wrong. I asked her if she wanted fruit & she snapped & said she didn't want any soup.

I asked her about doing a siblings party this year. It's her year to host it & she said she didn't want to. I've been doing some thinking about this & checked with Juniper Take Out in Logan. They have a nice banquet room that is free & doesn't have to be reserved very far in advance. Their dinners are quite reasonable too, so we could ask the siblings to pay for their own meals. She said she didn't think they'd go for it. Luana came over & I asked her. She said she thought that sounded like a good idea. She & Merl used to go there sometimes after a temple trip.

I called & talked to Maxine & she said she thought that sounded like a good idea & we tentatively scheduled May 2, a Saturday. I told her to pencil it in. I want it near the first of the month because everyone is on Social Security. I know that everyone's checks come at different times, but I thought the first of the month might be a good idea. So, I guess I'll put some more feelers out & then send out invitations. I say 2 out of 6 is pretty good odds. Maxine said she'd talk to Onda.

Both Luana & Maxine wondered about Dorin & Lucy going that far & I said maybe we could invite Nonavee to take them & Vaudis. Maxine worried about Luana & I said we'd take her.

I asked Maxine about the Porter Reunion last summer & she said that Onda's & Donna's families got together, but they'd been doing that all their lives, & not to feel hurt. It definitely wasn't a "family" reunion.

If I remember, I'll tell the story of why the door between the kitchen & laundry room does not latch, LOL.

Time flies ...

when you're having fun. I decided my blog list was getting rather long & so was my archive list. So, I've spent the last hour or so doing some housekeeping. Not often I do housekeeping, but computer housekeeping doesn't bother me. I could spend hours computer housekeeping, which I do, & we live in squalor.

I was bummed when I found that Alashandra had wrecked her car, but even more so when I found out she was on her way to the Porter Family Reunion the last weekend of June 2008 & we weren't even invited. Always wondered if the rest of the family thought we were part of the family. I wonder who hosted it & where it was at? It's Mother's turn to have the reunion this year, guess we'll just let it go & let them have their own reunion.

I don't know Loraine's sons-in-laws names, so I had to do some reading. Found out that Alashandra's husband is Matt & Morgan's is Mitch. I only know Tanya's husband because I faithfully read Baby Jonah's blog. Sometimes I check it twice a day. Morgan's blog is private, so I haven't even tried signing up for it.

I left some blog names cuz I like them. Em's Blog is my cousin Edmond. I remember his dad calling him Em.

I had to laugh when I was talking to my friend Janene on the phone the other night. She said she remembers my blog name as Do-Re-Mi. I love it. I told her that works. Almost wish I had thought of it myself. When Don & I got our first email address we named it radon. We thought we were really clever. Nick thought it up, RaDon. Well, guess what? It says ray-don & is an explosive gas. The boys were always laughing at the ads of ridding your house of radon. They said they didn't want to get rid of their parents, LOL. I always said I was explosive, but only when set off :D

PDD-NOS is pervasive development disorder, not otherwise specified. Nick is on the autistic spectrum, the reason I have that bookmarked, but it hasn't been updated for quite a while & I don't know that diet is going to help with Asperger's syndrome anyway.

Almost quit today

We kept having obituaries and weddings come in. We had a death notice from an accidental shooting of one of the community's prominent citizens. Mike Kunz, a businessman & city councilman, was cleaning his gun at his office down town this morning. It discharged & killed him. We also had an obituary. And then 2 weddings. Amy, job share partner, accepted one & had to jump the weddings, but turned the second one down. It was too late, there was no room.

Amy was so overwhelmed from weddings & obituaries & death notices that when I asked if the obituary was Mike's obit or a new one, she told me it was a new one. I asked who, she said someone from Whitney. She's new in the area, the names don't mean anything to her & I know this. Whitney is too close to home. I go to church in Whitney as part of the Whitney 2nd Ward & our ward shares the building with the other Whitney ward. I was positive it was someone I knew.

Then I found out that they had redone the obit page, page 9, and had started obits on page 5, the social page. Well, they (not sure who, but I'm assuming Rod, Bob, Kelly, Jessi & Krysta) shoved pages 5 & 11 through without me even seeing them, & checking for style. Pages 8 (DUP) & 9 (OBITS) were redone & sent to Bear River Publishing without me checking for style. I wanted to see page 9 with the new obit. They refused to let me see it. It was already gone, there was nothing I could do. I absolutely lost it & had a temper tantrum right there. I wanted to read the new obit. I wanted to see who it was. No one was telling me who had died. I was so upset.

Krysta handed me the page. I saw that it was Josie Winward. She was 101. Her daughter Gayla was in the same grade in school as I was. Josie has a daughter Renee & the husband's name is Rene. How strange is that? In reading the obit, I also noticed that all but one of the obit pictures were not the requisite 4 lines down from the name. That's ok, who's going to notice but me & Abby, maybe Necia. Amy either doesn't know or can't remember that little tidbit.

They ruined my DUP page, absolutely ruined it. I had a terrible headache. I thought I was going to have a stroke. I can't get that angry & upset.

Then they did pages 5 & 11 without me seeing them. They did an obituary & Mike's death notice on page 5. You don't put obits on the Social page, but if you get them late & have to pull something, you pull the filler articles anyway. Page 11 was the book signing of the guy that didn't like the last article we ran.

OK, something positive did come out of this. I finished by a little after 10 p.m. & don't have to go back in the morning. Woo hoo! I do have to go back in tomorrow afternoon & do Jean's personalized children's stories that I was supposed to have done a week ago. She came in today at 4 & wanted them. I was so stressed. Kelly came in the editor's office & then turned around & left.

He had upset me before the obit fiasco by telling me to get back to work. I was out in the bookstore using the classified ad computer showing Nancy Cale the blog for Baby Jonah. Jim was there & he & I had been talking about Jonah. Nancy Cale wanted to hear about him. She couldn't comprehend a baby so tiny. I thought Kelly had come in to tell me to get back to work. Jean said she guessed she'd better go & not come in on Monday's.

Kelly told me later he had come in to tell Jean not to come in on Monday's & bother us. But then decided against it. I'm glad he told me, but I was still upset. I was so ready to just gather up my stuff & walk out the door.

I'm still considering it.

Sometimes He Calms the Storm

I have been reading Baby Jonah's Mommy's News faithfully since I got the URL for the blog. I read it all in one sitting the first night. Now, that is one of the first things I do when I get on the computer in the evening, check to see if there is an update on Baby Jonah. A comment by Kara on Oct. 8 said:

My sister once found a saying that said something close to the following.
Sometimes God calms the storm, other times he lets the storm rage on and he calms his child.

I "googled" it & found this song called "Sometimes He Calms the Storm" by Scott Krippayne. I've never heard of Scott Krippayne, nor have I heard of this song, much less heard it. But the words that Kara shared quickly found a place in my heart.

All who sail the sea of faith
Find out before too long
How quickly blue skies can grow dark
And gentle winds grow strong
Suddenly fear is like white water
Pounding on the soul
Still we sail on knowing
That our Lord is in control

Sometimes He calms the storm
With a whispered peace be still
He can settle any sea
But it doesn't mean He will
Sometimes He holds us close
And lets the wind and waves go wild
Sometimes He calms the storm
And other times He calms His child

He has a reason for each trial
That we pass through in life
And though we're shaken
We cannot be pulled apart from Christ
No matter how the driving rain beats down
On those who hold to faith
A heart of trust will always
Be a quiet peaceful place