You've GOT To Be Kidding Me!!

January 31, 2012

Well, I finally finished the torture treatments for my back, at least the ones that I drive for 30 minutes each way and pay $60 for.  Now I just have to keep up the free ones at home, and try to endure the bad days

AND

This morning I woke up and on my lower right gum is a hugh white very swollen bump....a very painful bump.  Now my jaw has been hurting me for several days, but when I went to the dentist the last time for something like it, he told me it was because I was grinding my teeth because of stress in my sleep....ok, well, you would have to sleep in order to have stress in your sleep at least in my feeble mind!  At any rate, that side of my mouth quit hurting after a few days....then a couple of weeks later TWO crowns came off in my sleep!  I went back into the dentist office...a place which I HATE....and got them re-glued.  Now THIS week....I have this pus pocket in my jaw!  Well, I touched it with a q-tip and everything went everywhere, so I just kept pushing on it until it appears to be drained, and yes, you guessed it....back to the dentist!  AND, I am supposed to go on Thursday to get my teeth cleaned.  I mean talk about anxiety!  However, since I drained it my jaw is starting to feel better, but I obviously need an antibiotic.....

Our other health issues seem to be starting to sort themselves out with much influence on Dad's part....and many temple prayer rolls praying.  Which reminds me, it's time to add the names on again....for those who put them on, please do it again.  There is still many, many bad days for mom and dad as we just have to wait to see what happens now....a tremendously hard thing to do.

Cymbre has only had TWO headaches in all the month of January....I think the magnesium is the key for her.  And her eye has just faded out once that I can remember, so it is getting much more stable now too.  She still can't be jostled around, but at least she can see most days now.  A miraculous blessing in our eyes!

I have been rhinestoning costume after costume for competition this week.  There is just one more to finish sewing, and then handsew the leaves and feathers on it.  She is a forest creature, and yes, I should have done that one first.  However, it will be beautiful when I finally finish it.

My Sunday School lesson was a hit again this week.  We went out into the wilderness with Lehi and Nephi and their families.  While camping in our tents (blankets on the grass) we discovered we didn't know how to get to the land of promise, so Nephi decided we should pray (the opening prayer for the class), and low and behold we found a beautiful liahona in a stand outside our tent!  Then we discovered that miracle of miracles, it had pointers that if we had faith and were being obedient pointed in the direction we should travel.  Later we discovered that Nephi had been told to build a ship!  Great, we had no tools....again we prayed....and discovered in Sister Flanagan's basket there was a package of permanent markers.  Not quite ore to make tools, but it is the modern day, and we only have 20 minutes to build the ship before setting sail to the promised land.  So Nephi organizes all the other family members, and they start to work on the 60" x 15' piece of brown paper taped to the side of the church.  The ship starts to look like a ship, but then I start reminding them of things they also need to take with us for the journey...you know...family members, food, water, our animals....   Well, so they draw an Ozarka water bottle and then write x 1,000,000,000...a cannon (to be used to shoot everyone ashore when we finally get where we are going, some trees with beehives hanging from them, a mermaid at the front of the ship like a viking ship, and two people acting out that scene from theTitanic movie where they are standing on the railing trying to feel like they are flying.  They forgot the children, the anchor, and the most important thing....the liahona.  However, Sister Flanagan saved the day, and we remembered those things in the end.  Nephi found himself tied up to the mast, and the liahona not working.  At the very height of the storm, Laman and Lemuel decide that if they don't want everyone to drown, maybe they better untie Nephi...a good decision from a teacher's point of view!  So Nephi was freed, the liahona began to work again, and the storm was calmed.  They named our ship the USS Betsy...give me a break!

Then I talked to them about how this trip to the promised land for Nephi and his family is quite like our trip back to our Heavenly Father for each of us.  We each need to be keeping the commandments, talking to our Heavenly Father on a regular basis, and using our faith....the kids just stood there looking at me while realization dawned on them.  At the end of my talking, I asked Nephi what the first thing they did when they got off the boat was....someone said go to the bathroom....I told them what was the important thing they did.  Nephi came through and said that they had said a prayer....so on that note, we knelt and had the closing prayer for the class.  Then I was mobbed when I told them that I had personal liahonas for each of them to take home and hang up in their rooms to help them to always remember that they needed to keep their faith in working order....and that they needed to write in their golden plates (little journals I made for them) how they would have felt to be Nephi in the situations we talked about today.  Would they have been angry with their family members, would they have told the Savior he was crazy to think that Nephi could build a boat?  Would they have been able to keep the liahona working with their constant faith and obedience? 

Well, standing at the back of the lawn was the Bishop's counselor that is in charge of Sunday School, and he came forward at the end to ask the kids if they enjoyed the class...I think the vote was unanimous!  He even wanted his own liahona, and he told me that the kids in the lower ages classes were beginning to beg to come into my class.....and it turns out that the seminary teacher wants to ditch Gospel Doctrine and come to my class too.  We had a lobby full of looky-loos who should have been in the Gospel Doctrine class, and I just told the kids that they were the unrighteous people we couldn't take on the ship with us.

All in all, I think it will be a little while before my class forgets that lesson.  They were posing for photos by the ship before we took it down, and they wanted to take it into the Bishop for his office...we didn't do that however.

It's amazing to me that 16 teenagers all participated, and actually were excited to be there yesterday.  Now the problem is what will I do next week?

Well, just back from the dentist....a root canal, antibiotics, and pain medicine is my fate this week.  You know, I really like that dentist, but I really HATE that r-word he tends to talk to me about occassionally!

Who knows what the dance costumes will turn out like now.....thank goodness we are not competiting this first time....since all the dances were on Sunday.

On that note, because of the stress we are dealing with on all sides, I am going to go buy a happy meal and find a homeless person to give it too....it will probably be a welcome thing since it's such a rainy day outside.

Remember that Dad and I love you all very much...remember to call your temples and put the family members on the prayer roll that you did a couple of weeks ago....please do it today.

Mom

Here We Go Again!

January 24, 2012

Well, I was hoping that this year would not have the medical problems that last year had, but no such luck.  Our family is dealing with multiple issues, some of which are tremendously more serious, but we are somehow managing.

I am just about done with the physical therapy (I call it torture) for the herniated disk in my back.  Cymbre is down with bronchitis yet again, and the allergies are terrible this year....and the other stuff, we are working on.

Yesterday, our British Grandma Bessie passed away.  While we all miss her terribly, at least we know of the Savior's plan (which makes it just a smidgen easier to bear) and that we will all see her one day again.  It was a blessing for her to finally be able to leave this life and return to her Heavenly Father.  She was suffering with dementia, and was living in a nursing home situation for years.

We all have such tremendous memories of many happy times with Bessie.  She was such a wonderful blessing in our lives at a time when we were living in a foreign country, getting used to a totally different lifestyle, and missing our families we left in America.  She spent many hours with our children as Guy and I served in our very busy church leadership callings, and we really enjoyed taking her to the temple to work with us each week.  She taught me to knit, and while I can make pretty rows of very straight stitches, I never developed a love for it like she had.  She would sit and knit while talking to you, or watching TV and never look at her knitting....and it was always perfect!  Needless to say, we all loved her very much and she became a member of our little family.

All the girls competition dances were put on Sunday for this first competition.  However, the studio director and her husband took a stand, stood behind the girls, talked about civil rights and it being illegal to eliminate them,  and now they are getting their money back and taking the senior team to a different competition where it won't be a problem.  This is the first time a studio director stood behind us...mostly, they just say sorry...you lose the money, and leave me to deal with the competitions.  I did make it a point to let her know how much we appreciated the support.

Next week in my Sunday School class we will be going outside to look for our own personal liahonas, and then figuring out how to build a ship....that should prove to be interesting.  I told the kids that next week, if it was cold they should dress appropriately, bring their golden plates (scriptures) and make sure their faith was in working order.  They would need to meet me in the wilderness.  You should have seen the looks I got.  I got their attention for this week at least!

I'm just sitting here waiting for Cooper to come home from dance...Guy has finally gone to bed....he needs the sleep!  Tap class runs later on a Tuesday than I like, but when they get older, they dance later.  Cymbre is already in bed too.  Sounds like Cooper is coming.

Well, I am exhausted and medicine is making me sleepy...I'm trying to go to bed.

Love you,

Mom



Another Object Lesson For the Teenagers

January 8, 2012

After being kicked out of my Sunday School classroom last week, I have finally sorted everything out and now we are meeting in the Relief Society room.  It's much bigger than the previous room, and it has soft chairs, and my class is thrilled!  Since I teach the 16-18 year olds, I kinda like to keep them happy...it keeps them participating in the lessons.

For the object lesson this week, I used a plate, a marble, and a bowl.  It is in reference to Nephi obeying his father and returning to Jerusalem to get the plates of brass and relying on the Lord to provide a way.

So the plate represents life without any commandments to help us to live on the straight and narrow path and be happy.  When you roll the marble, which represents us, around in a circle on the plate...it can't go very fast before it flys off the plate.  Sort of hard to keep the commandments when you fly off the straight and narrow path don't you think? The bowl represents life in keeping commandments.  When you make the marble go around, inside the bowl it can go very fast without flying outside the bowl.  Therefore, the commandments are a support system to help us stay on the straight and narrow path which leads ultimately to happiness.  I know, sort of simple....but it does prove that keeping the commandments and obeying them obviously helps us keep our lives in line with what the Savior would have us do.  It was a good follow-up to C3PO last week if you ask me.

Now I just need to come up with something good for the Tree of Life lesson next week.  Keeping 15 teenagers interested just may kill me this year....I'm thinking little rods of iron, and maybe going outside to visit the tree of life.....Maybe I could arrange a little fog cloud to be the mist of darkness......no, probably not!  Who do I know that owns a fog machine.....

I sort of didn't do so well at physical therapy for my back this week...I spent a couple of days in lots of pain, and then I just wasn't up to going on Friday.  However, I will be there in the morning bright and early.....this is going to kill me!  They keep telling me that building up the muscles will eventually help to support the herniated disc and allow it to stop causing me so much pain....ok, but how long?

I am making good progress on the dance costumes this past week...got two of them almost done.  I just need to make some slits in Cymbre's dress, and take up the straps in Cooper's.  Then they are done.  Cooper's tuxedo pants are in pieces on the ironing board ready to be put back together, and several other pieces of costumes that I had ordered are beginning to arrive.  I will be rhinestoning costumes by the end of this week, and then just finish things up next week.  Making the jewelry always slows me down...all that wire and beads, and rhinestones...but I do manage to pull it together in the end.

It's supposed to be rainy tomorrow, so it will be a good reason to just sit and sew after I get back from physical torture....I mean therapy!

Dad and I went to Outback for our date this past Friday....I do love to go with just Dad....but why do they always want us to sit in those little tiny booths where you can't sit next to each other?  When you tell them that you want to sit next to him instead of across from him, they look at you like you are some demented crazy person.  Dad just looks at them and says that he will know if I don't like him anymore because I won't want to sit by him anymore....whatever Guy!!!

Dad made the reservations for us to go to Tap University in Raleigh this weekend....guess that means I better call and get the girls registered.  It won't be a problem as Mark Goodman has probably already registered them since when he was here we told him we were coming.

Well, I think that's about all for tonight...I'm tired and my somewhat middle aged bones are hurting.....I just don't understand what their problem is!

Get out there and do something for someone you don't know....remember the Savior expects you to help him out.

Love you bunches.

Mom

The Case of the Demented Tulle!

January 1, 2012

There is a piece of purple tulle in the sewing room, 4 yards long by 45 inches wide that is out to get me I am SURE!!

The stuff has got to be demented! It must be a roll of people-hating tulle! I am just trying to cut a strip of it 30 inches long, by 7 1/2 inches wide, with 6 layers.  And, the stuff is impossible to cut.  I have used practically my ENTIRE box of pins to hold the stuff together, to keep the edges straight, and to hold the stuff still. I've pinned it to the ironing board!  HOWEVER.....the stuff still manages to somehow get out of control every time I pick up the scissors to cut.

I mean, what is the deal?  I feel like I need to find a 12 step program for tulle haters to help me deal with this problem I am having.  I really think the stuff is demented!  I've seen those little glittery eyes looking at me...I've heard the little giggles from the uneven edges...I see the little folds trying to manuever for better spots to harass me.  And why oh why are there so many uneven edges.  I think the tulle needs some kind of therapy.....I wonder if our insurance would cover it?  I know it will cover my therapy when I finally go crazy, and the little men in white coats have to come and get me.  It will be just my luck, my rubber room will have tulle curtains!  Maybe my sister-in-law who likes to sew will come visit me occassionally.....She could hold my hand, and tell me that everything will be ok, and make them loosen the straight jacket!  She has a son, so she hasn't had to deal with the demented tulle!

Does the tulle not know that I have a rolling cutter with a brand new shiny blade, and that I AM prepared to use it?  Would it really like to spend it's entire life pinned to the ironing board instead of making a dance costume pretty, and going to the dance competition?  Does it not realize that I could win yet another costume award at competition with just a microscopic ounce of cooperation?  Does it not care that I am a perfectionist in my sewing?  I mean, this is my form of relaxation, and who doesn't want to be perfect at relaxing?

I can see myself silently planning it's demise....I could pin it up on the railing hanging in the doorway....then tie the measuring tape tightly around it's little neck.  That would cause those little glittery eyes to pop to attention....and then I could duct tape those unruly edges to the door frame, and the get out the rolling cutter and make all kinds of threats!   (Ok, so now I sound slightly irritated, don't you think?) You don't think anyone would pay a ransom do you? I mean, how much can a lousy piece of multilated tulle be worth?  Do they make posters and hang them in the post office for people wanted for tulle abuse?  Is there a lawyer somewhere who would defend me who knows what working with tulle is like?  Would the tulle be laughing in the corner of the sewing room when the men in the white coats come to my front door?

Tonight, the only thing worse than a tulle ruffle would be to have to make a pancake tutu out of netting!!!

On that note....I'm going to find the duct tape, and then keep close track of Dad.  He claims he won't let anything hurt me....might need his help tonight!