Ambiguity

Sunday I went to Sacrament Meeting because Don said the choir was going to sing. It was a new song, And the Father Will Dance. Both Don & Don-Mike sing in the choir. Since Don & I are the ward librarians, we spend class time in the library & I always take something to do in the library, because it gets boring sometimes.

Sunday I had grabbed a notepad to make some notes for next year's DUP. I am the captain for the next 2 years & I want to send a letter to all of the members of our camp. The first speaker was Abbey Child. Abbey is a senior in high school & the youngest child of Robert & Karen Child. I have known Karen since she was a baby. I remember her dad getting up in Fast & Testimony meeting telling about her being born. She says she is sure it was her younger brother Forrest, because I would only have been 5 when she was born. But Karen has been our visiting teacher & now we are Karen's visiting teachers.

Anyway, Abbey was talking about things her mother has taught her. She said her mother has taught her the four CTR's.

1. Choose the Right
2. Choose the Redeemer
3. Choose to Read
4. Choose to Remember

I thought how profound they were & had to write them down. So, I wasn't prepared to take notes. I did have a notepad in my lap, but needed to find a pen or pencil, anything to write it down with, barring sticking my finger with the safety pin in the handle of my purse & writing it in blood. After I found the writing utensil, I hurriedly wrote 3 things down, but didn't get the fourth R written before I had forgotten it. I listened to the rest of her talk, then after she sat down, I wrote a note to Don, "What was the fourth R?"

He thought a minute, then grinned & said, "Remember." Argh!! He was right! It WAS remember! I could have taken his answer as telling me to think & remember what it was, rather than, "Here is the answer, 'Remember.'"

It reminded me of  a joke I heard recently of a blonde trying to find out what the texting acronym IDK stood for. She asked everyone & always got the same answer, "I Don't Know." Rather than understanding that was the answer, she reached a breaking point & cried, "That does it! Nobody knows."

Another time I had read a trivia question that I wanted to share. I KNEW Don would know it. I take things very literally - sometimes. I asked Don, "What is the #1 quoted line in movie history?" Again, he thought a minute, grinned & said, "This could be taken two ways, but, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.'"

Choices

Another quote

"The choices we make determine our destiny."
--Thomas S Monson, "Choose You This Day", Ensign, November 2004 pg. 67

A quote I'd like to enlarge on, but not tonight.

Even more quotes

On my Facebook page I have the following quote:

"I am just glad that God is still in control no matter who is in the White House."

Not sure where I got it now, but see what Elder Neal A. Maxwell has to say:

"In a world filled with much laboring and striving in parliaments, congresses, agencies, and corporate offices, God's extraordinary work is most often done by ordinary people in the seeming obscurity of a home and family."

--Neal A. Maxwell (That My Family Should Partake [1974], 122
- available in The Collected Works of Neal A. Maxwell).

I saved this to see if I could find where I had posted about "politics" before, but I can't see where I have. I am tired of everyone making comments about President Barack Obama (by the way, Don-Mike & Don informed me I have been mispronouncing Pres. Obama's first name). I know I have made comments about the 12th Article of Faith - somewhere.

We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

In my talk in Sacrament meeting, I said that not only were we supposed to obey the Ten Commandments, but as members of the Church, we need to also obey the Articles of Faith. The President Reid Carlson, stake president, was there. He didn't get up & correct me, nor did he or the bishop chide me for teaching false doctrine after the meeting.

Then, another quote on obedience. I like this.

"As children of God we are somebody. He will build us, mold us, and magnify us if we will but hold our heads up, our arms out, and walk with him."

--Marvin J. Ashton, "In His Strength," Ensign, July 1973, 24

I remember meeting Elder Ashton when he came to a stake conference, must have been 40 years ago. It was Preston 1st Ward's turn to hold junior Sunday School during stake conference. As a Sunday School teacher, I was in Sunday School that morning. Elder Ashton made a point to come to the children's meeting & talk to them. He spoke to each of the adults & shook our hands. In fact, I'm sure he shook each child's hand. The general session of stake conference started without him.

Circadian rhythm

I'm tired. I have been going to bed LATE for a while, late as in 2 a.m. Then I sleep in & can't function, then I take a nap, & so I'm not tired & stay up late & the cycle becomes vicious.

It was 12:55 a.m. I was going to be in bed by 1 a.m. So, I was closing all the windows that I had open on the computer. I got to the last one & it's an untitled Notepad document with a quote from Reading the Scriptures. Now, I had 2 choices. Save the document & forget about why I had saved it in the first place. Open the blog & save it without any commentary. Or, just close the document unsaved. So much for getting to bed by 1.

I had a 4 hour nap & woke up at 10 p.m. I needed to read my scriptures. Reading the scriptures is more than just sitting down & reading the text. I have to understand it. So, I open the Institute of Religion's Old Testament Student Manual & read it along with the text of the scriptures.

"True greatness ... always requires regular, consistent, small, and sometimes ordinary and mundane steps over a long period of time."

~ Howard W. Hunter, "True Greatness", Ensign, May 1982, 19

OK, "regular, consistent ... steps over a long period of time." Resetting my body's clock, my circadian rhythm.

Do what you can

More thoughts from ReadTheScriptures.com

"Remember, tomorrow is connected with today, and what we do with today determines the tomorrow."
--Marvin J. Ashton, "The Time Is Now", Ensign, May 1975, 85

Very thought provoking. Not something I want to expound on, just want to find it for future reference.

And another one:

Please don't nag yourself with thoughts of failure. Do not set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. Simply do what you can do, in the best way you know, and the Lord will accept of your effort."
--Gordon B. Hinckley, "Rise to the Stature of the Divine within You," Ensign, Nov. 1989, 94

Reading The Book of Mormon is a goal I actually thought I could achieve, but reading 144 books in 1 year?? That is actually "far beyond my capacity to achieve."

I am enjoying the Kindle4PC that I downloaded from Amazon.com I enjoy reading books on the computer. I can make the words bigger for my "old" eyes.

Everyone says how wonderful conference was this time. I didn't even listen or watch it, my bad. But, I'll read it, or watch it online. A Facebook friend, Muriel Garvis, posted this about conference:

Yes, and you can see all the conference as they keep an archive. Just go to the church web site. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Right on the front page you can see the video stream. You may have to download the program they suggest but it was so good. There are actually lots of other videos that the church puts out on this site.

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.

How do you unfold???

The more we allow ourselves to unfold,
the less likely we are to unravel.
~ Rabbi Irwin Kula

A thought I found on Brat Factor. So, how do you unfold? This is definitely something to contemplate. I feel unraveled.

We will all have failures and rejections in life. The real question is how will you respond, with bitterness, envy and self-doubt, or with resilience and wisdom?

~ Rabbi Harold Kushner

More food for thought. Wisdom??

Death notice on Tuesday

Too many of us, when we accomplish what we set out to do, exclaim, 'See what I have done!' instead of saying, 'See where I have been led.'

Henry Ford

Monday I got to work late. Then when I got there I had to edit an article about DUP that I had written. I had given TOO much information. Although it is true, Kelly (Mickelsen, the publisher) doesn't want the whole world to know. I have found that so often in journalism. You never tell the whole story.

Anyway, our cell phone bill was past due & Nick was stressing over paying his car loans & credit card bill. I took a lunch break about 4 o'clock & actually took .9 hour. There just wasn't time to take that long, especially on a Monday with an 18 page paper. I was trying to pay Verizon & help Nick with his payments. Thank goodness Nick was here & could take over when I went in to overload. I got back to work & things were just skimming along. I had to check something online & while I was online I decided to check Facebook.

I don't know what possessed me. I NEVER check my online communities at work. But ... Facebook is new & fascinating. We run MacOS 9.1, most internet communities don't even support 9.1, it is too out dated. I COULDN'T log out. Finally, in desperation, I called Amy (Peck, my job share partner). She said she just logged out. Well, I couldn't find anyplace to log out. She told me to close Mozilla. I had done that & then opened Mozilla again & checked Facebook to see if it had logged me out, I was still logged in. OMG! I was in a nervous sweat, which is why I called Amy. I closed Mozilla again & again opened it & checked Facebook. I was out. I don't know how much time that ate up, too much.

By the time I noticed the time again, it was 10 o'clock. I'm supposed to be out of there by 8 p.m. I looked at that last page & KNEW it was going to take time. I really didn't want to come back in Tuesday morning for ONE page. But, on the other hand, I didn't want to stay any later. I was hungry & tired.

I went home & just missed Don-Mike. He had already gone home. I wanted to find out how his day at Big J's had gone.

I went in to work Tuesday morning & was working on page 12, the sports page. It was awkward. By the time I made the needed corrections, I had a hole at the bottom of the page & not enough room at the top. I really didn't want to rearrange the page, but I knew if it were just flip-flopped & the picture cut down to a 2 column picture instead of 3 column, everything would fit better. I was just finishing, still didn't look great, but hey, 2 hours of fighting that page was 2 hours too many. It should have just taken half an hour.

About this time, Kelly came out of his office & asked about the Roley death notice. I said, "What death notice? We didn't get a death notice." He said, "It's from Dayton. I thought we'd have it." Roley? I asked how old the guy was, wondering if it was Zach Kent's friend, Jonathan Roley. He said he was 20. I asked if it was Jonathan, he said he didn't know, he thought it was Jon. So, I got up & went in his office & we looked at the death notice in The Herald Journal. Yes, it was Jonathan, but the name at the top was Jon Roley, & Webb Funeral Home was handling the funeral arrangements. I said we hadn't received it. But, I really didn't know if we had or not, I hadn't checked the email. I was so focused on getting the paper done & that last page out of my way. I checked, nothing new since the day before.

I sat there at the computer, still trying to get that last article to fit so it didn't look too stretched out. As I sat there, I started thinking about all the times that we've fought a page & something like this has happened. So, I gave in. I got up, called Webb Funeral Home & Ron (Smellie) answered. I asked if he had a death notice he needed to give me. He said yes, but they didn't get finished with the family until 6 the night before & he said he commented they had missed The Citizen deadline. I said yes, they had, but we could usually fit something in. He said he thought the paper would be finished. I said normally it was, but I had just spent 2 hours on a page & had opened up enough space for a death notice. I told him to just give me the information & I could finish the paper. He said he could give me the funeral arrangements now. They hadn't had the information to give The Herald Journal. So, I took the funeral information, put the death notice in & the paper was done.

I am still humbled every time it happens. It might sound like I'm bragging, but I think it is SOOO cool, I still have to tell it. Like, "Look what the Lord did!" It just amazes me that I can be an instrument in His hands. It's been quite a while since it has happened & I truly was not thinking about opening a space for a death notice. I was thinking that Kelly has told me one of my big failings is being too picky about style. I was trying to get past the OCD & just let the page go. It still didn't hit me until I sat down at the computer again. Even then, I tried to argue myself out of it, but it just wouldn't go away. It was almost with resignation I stood up & called.

There were several pages that needed corrections. The biggest failing was dates on each page. Another big error was caused by my hearing loss, sigh. But it was caught, a headline on the front page that had jumped to the photo journal page.

I do the legal notices also. One time a friend had warned me that they were being foreclosed on for their house. She didn't want me to get it & be surprised. So, I came in one day & I stood there at the desk looking through the inbox. I said, "I knew this legal was coming." Jessi (Holt, my supervisor) looked up & said, "Are you being warned about legals now?" I laughed & said no, my friend had warned me.