More of the Same

This week I had a chance to teach seminary again. Since I’ve been stake seminary and institute supervisor, I really have not taught seminary.  Although I’ve been teaching the teachers how to teach.  So it was interesting to get back into the classroom.  One has images of a rapt class delving into the scriptures and finding treasures they immediately apply in their lives.

The classes went pretty well… but the students were, alas, human… and teenagers to boot. Several are serious about the gospel.  Some are much more interested in boys, guns, baseball and friends.

I’ve continued to work on AWAI spec assignments.  I turned in some fun ones.  Now I’m trying to write one for Weiss financial.  Argh! It’s a tough market.  Highly competitive.  And I’m quite intimidated.  But I need to do this.  I need to push beyond my comfort zone.  How will I know if I can compete if I don’t try?

We voted early, but watched the Tuesday election. It was a disappointment to us.  I really thought the country needed to go in a different direction.  However I think fear, despair, and depression are not of the Lord.  The  prophet said, “Your future is as bright as your faith.”  I will pray for our country and for greater faith.

Wednesday I went in for the first step in getting a crown on a tooth.  It was an old filling and decay had gotten under it.  It went well.  That evening I had a meeting for our Christmas program.  We are inviting the community to the event.  We will have nativity scenes around the cultural hall, a program of music and the Christmas story from the Bible, and refreshments.  I’m on the committee.  I helped write—or condense the script for the program.  I think the rest of my duties are to smile and nod… but I’m not sure.

Our neighbor Barb had her first book sale this week.  I helped her with the classified ad and helped her get some of her stuff out and set up.  She had turned one of the rooms in her garage into a mini bookstore.  There are shelves all around the walls with books on them—thousands of them.   She has lots of clothing and collectables… but the books are her first love.  Amazingly, on the first day, a woman who owns a book store in Yellville came in and bought probable 150 books!  So it was a good day for Barb.

Thursday I went to Yellville and worked on clay with Marian.  I glazed some of my dishes.  Marian threw some pots on the wheel.  Later I watched a video on throwing pots.  Ohhh. It looks so effortless.  I’m sure it’s not… but now I want to try that.  Glaze is a science, too.  I tell you, pottery is complex!

Friday I went visiting teaching.  Tom has been spending time out in the back 40 burning downed limbs.  I think he has great job security.  He’s also been staining the deck railings.  He wanted to do the deck, but  hasn’t gotten there yet.  He’s been helping others.  Monday and Friday he went to Richard’s to help him build his barn.  Saturday he helped a family move.

Then he came home with two teens and they spent a few hours collecting limbs and burning them.   In the evening we heard that Sister Dale, one of the 90 year old sisters I visit was in the hospital with heart troubles.  So we went and visited her.

Today I spoke in church on things I learned last week in Stake Conference.  It was a good talk, I thought.  The speakers from last week had been phenomenal… so it was easy to take their words and share them.  

Here were a few things they said:

 There was a story of a disobedient missionary.  He asked the mission president: “What do you want me to do?”  The mission president said, “You are asking the wrong question.  What do you want to do?”  The missionary said, “I get it. You don’t just want me to change my behavior.  You want me to change my very nature.”

 Elder Pickerd (an Area 70) talked about becoming converted.  He said “Be sensitive to the spirit. “There will be something that touches your life to change.  If you are sensitive, the Lord will show you what to change.”

When we know the truth, we need to share it. Our mission president told the members: “Pray for missionary work. You will get it. Then follow the promptings of the spirit. We stand at a moment in the history of the church that we will look back on and say, “That was amazing!””

Elder Pickerd said: “This is a miraculous time in the church.   The Lord is hastening the work.  More missionaries, more genealogy—2 million names a day added to the data base!

When we walk with the Lord, we can do miracles.

            --D&C 123:17  “…let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God…” 

Spec Week

I came home all charged up to write spec assignments from Bootcamp.  And that's been my priority for the week.  International Living has a real estate arm and I spent a good part of the week researching the ins and outs of buying real estate overseas.  Sounds interesting, but there's a deep difference between buying to live in and buying as an investment.  As always, with the investment, the way you make money is when you buy.  If you buy right, you'll be able to sell for a profit.  Interesting reading.

I feel encouraged about writing these specs. Patricia and I were talking about confidence.  Sometimes I have it and think, sure people will want my work.  Other times I wonder what I have to offer.  I do feel that the Lord wants me to go this direction, and I awoke with an epiphany.  If I can't have confidence in myself, I can have trust in the Lord.  If the Lord wants me to succeed, I can have confidence in that.  So when I have confidence in God, I have confidence in me.

We had many, many ripe tomatoes and Tom was done with salsa making.  So Tuesday I roped him into helping with spaghetti sauce making. This effort (the roping part) was made a bit easier since the tractor died and he could not bush hog.  No matter how spicy I make the sauce, Tom complains it is bland.  Ah well. I asked him if he ever liked spaghetti sauce.  He couldn't recall any he liked.  So I guess it's not profitable to try to please him (at least not when it comes to spaghetti sauce).

 Wednesday we had a Fall Festival and trunk or treat at the church. I made white chili for that and it was a fun evening. Some people had great costumes: Frankenstein and son:

Superman, Wonder girl, and Supergirl

.Toward the end of the month I need to start collecting data for my calling at Stake Seminary and Institute Supervisor.  I need to check the WISE program online to see if the teachers have put all their attendance in.  Then they need to send me their number of student reads (the number of times students read the scriptures).  We had a new-substitute-soon-to-be-called teacher... and I had no contact information for him.  I have one teacher who never answers his phone or email. Arrgghh!  We had training on Saturday, but I really wanted the data before then.  How does it feel to want?   Somehow it seems I shouldn't have to call each one and ask for the information.

Thursday we drove to south of Yelleville to visit Richard.  Tom worked on building his big work shed while I visited with him about his artwork and other things.  He takes duck, emu, ostrich, and turkey eggs and carves them. Some look like lacework.  He's looking for a way to sell them.  They sold by word of mouth when he lived in Florida.  Arkansas is not quite so erudite.

Friday we went to visit Sister Dawson and others on our visiting teaching list.  She is doing much better.  She's in a nursing home, but off oxygen and starting back on walking.  Her daughter did tell her one of her dogs had died (the old beloved one).  And she seemed to take it okay.

Saturday we went to Springfield for my seminary training, Tom's priesthood training, and the Saturday evening session of Stake conference.  We had a great time.  Powerful messages on becoming converted.  One speaker said, "If the Savior were to come, likely he'd come to the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference."  There is always a great spirit there.  One brother spoke about leaving home and joining the Marines.  He talked of going into Desert Storm and the miracles that helped him return to church.

We spent the night again at the Petersen's.  What a great couple! It's always so fun to visit with them.  And she makes a mean granola for breakfast.  It's so full of pecans, walnuts, almonds, raisins and fruit, I don't know how much oat and other grains can be stuffed in there.

Sunday was great, too.  Speakers talked on temples and faith.  We had the Mission President there on Saturday and the Temple President there on Sunday.  Floated home on the spirit.  On the way home we were blessed with awesome fall colors.

AWAI Bootcamp

I didn’t get a blog for two weeks ago, so here goes:

Two weeks ago, on October 22, I left to go to Miranda’s.  I thought I’d leave early and go and play with clay with Marian a bit.  But it didn’t work.  Good thing!

It took me until Noon to get out the door as it was.  I did fit in a short stop at ½ of ½ and found a sweater and a crotched over-jacket I could not live without.  Hey.  Recreational shopping for $6.50… how can you go wrong?  And I wanted the sweater for the seminar.

I had a great time visiting with Miranda and Dad and Camden and Ethan.  Tuesday we went to the zoo and walked and talked with Miranda’s friend and her two little ones.

Wednesday Dan took me bright and early to the Tulsa airport and I caught my plane to Atlanta and then on to West Palm Beach.  I have a Mastermind group that meets via Skype every 2 weeks.  Kay, from Atlanta, recently joined the group.  I met her in West Palm Beach and we carpooled together to the Del Ray Beach Marriott for the AWAI Bootcamp.

Another of the Mastermind group, Patricia, arrived earlier.  She and I roomed together.  We had a great time!  We were very compatible and talked and encouraged one another.  We signed in and went to the “Overview for Newbies” and then hit the Bootcamp running.

It really was amazing.  It was a blend of “how to write better,” marketing yourself, and networking.  I have never been to a convention where it was easier to meet people.  Everywhere you went you struck up conversations.  When we went to meals, we’d want to take a group. As someone walked by, we’d ask, “Want to come to lunch with us?”  “Sure!” and we go out and sit and visit and learn about each other’s goals and strengths.

I find it a bit amusing that every field has its “rock stars.”  Those are the top performers, the most experienced or well known in the field.  We had several there.  Bob Bly—who has published 80 books—said, “We are just people.  We are not gods.  Richard Armstrong is not a god.  Hershel Gordon Lewis is not a god, Clayton Makepeace is not… well…maybe Clayton…”

Even the “rock stars” were incredibly generous with their time.  They were easy to talk to. Several months earlier, I’d downloaded a free book of Richard Armstrong’s.  I’d intended to just glance at it, but found myself reading it straight through.  So I wrote and told him how much I loved his book.  He graciously replied.  When I found out he was going to be at Bootcamp, I invited him to go to lunch with me.  He said, there may be other people there, but sure, we can do lunch.

At Bootcamp, we met a few times, but never got connected to visit.  At the end of Bootcamp, I’m sitting at a table helping another writer with a project, and he comes up and says, “I’m so sorry we didn’t get together earlier, would it be all right if we visited now?”  How cool is that?

And the professionals were VERY good. Clayton Makepeace took us through his process in video landing pages, and again in turning features into benefits.  Wow!  It’s amazing to watch a master at work.  On the last day, Patricia, Kay and I wanted a picture taken before Kay left (early).  So we went to the podium where the AWAI logo was.  Clayton was sitting on the stage edge talking to someone.  He got up to move out of the photo, but we invited him in and he was kind enough to join us.  Apparently he enjoys drinking.  He said, “Yes, I may lose a few brain cells, but only the weak ones.  I figure it’s survival of the fittest.”

( Patricia, Kay, Clayton, Me)

When I had checked the weather, it was supposed to be sunny everyday but Friday.  Then, flying in, we hear about hurricane Sandy.  Thursday it rained and was very windy!  It felt like a hurricane coming.  That night the windows shook with the wind.  But on Friday it was less windy and Saturday was nice.  The Marriott is just across the road from the beach, so I was able to go and walk along the beach twice.  Higher tide than normal, I think, but fun to smell the salt air.

Friday we had a job fair.  Lots of people from different marketing places came to look for copywriters- Stansberry and Associates, Weiss, Oxford Letter, Agora Publishing, International Living, Dani Johnson—about 50 businesses total.  I skipped the health ones as I don’t want to write in that field and narrowed my connections down to about 10.   Part way through the power went off in the hotel.  So they brought in lanterns… and people used cell phone light and we continued to connect.  The problem was with maybe 500 people in the room and maybe 100 talking at the same time, it was loud!!!  Still, I made some good contacts and will follow up with spec assignments and thank you notes.

Saturday the bootcamp wound down.  I was wound down, too.  Saturday night we crashed and packed. We had to leave at 6:15 am to get to the airport on time.  I flew back to Tulsa and one of Miranda’s friends picked me up.  I rushed to change and made it to church almost on time. (Miranda and Dan headed to Utah on Wednesday to deliver a car and visit.)  I had planned on spending the night anyway and driving home on Monday, but I got barn fever and decided to head home on Sunday.

I got home about 7:30.  It was good to be home!

Jam-Packed Week

It s been a wild week.  So much stuffed into it.  We had a delightful time at Mom’s and hated to leave.   Monday evening we went out for a delicious Chinese dinner.  Tuesday we left at the crack of dawn…um… pre-crack of dawn, driven by our faithful brother-in-law Jim.

We had an uneventful flight home.  It was kind of fun.  We sat next to a country singer, Bobbie Dean, on our last leg.  He had to hoof it to get to his show on time.  We had our friend pick us up and drove home in good time.   It was good to sleep in our own bed again.

Beans had grown in our absence, so we froze a half dozen or more bags of green beans.  Tomatoes were also giving their last gasp with ripening tomatoes on dead vines.  Saturday afternoon we did two batches of salsa.

Wednesday I did visiting teaching. We have a sister who is quite ill.  She’s 89.  Tom and I have visited her for years.  She recently went into the hospital, then a retirement home, then back to the hospital, then to rehab.  There were times I visited her that I wasn’t sure she’d be around… but she seems to be rallying some.  She has two little dogs that were her constant companions.  Her whole goal was to get back to her babies.  Her daughter didn’t think she could live alone any more, thus the retirement home.  Now it’s likely to be a nursing home as she doesn’t have the strength to do things for herself.  However, this week we just learned that the daughter had the two dogs put down.   I was shocked!  What if the mother gets well enough the dogs could have come visit???  And if she learns they were put down, she will be furious with her daughter and likely die mad.  I suppose grief may make one do strange things, but it seemed not well reasoned to me.  Now the daughter’s worried mom will get better.  How terrible is that?

Thursday I had a call with the co-founder of AWAI about the AWAI Boot Camp I’m going to next week. She answered a few questions I had about Boot Camp. Then I prepared for the seminary training. I trained by phone that evening instead of a group meeting.  It’s hard to get good attendance even when all they have to do is pick up the phone and listen.  But those that were on the call were involved and it went well.

Friday Tom and I drove to Branson.  I love the Harvest Festival at Silver Dollar City.  It has a cowboy theme and lots of craftspeople.  We watched a … lumber man?  house builder? trimming logs.  He axed off and trimmed the sides of the logs so they could be used for log homes.  He’s built about 35 houses!  One log at a time.  We watched pewter makers and potters and weavers. Glass blowers, wood carvers, quilters, painters.  One painter has Parkinson’s, his wife said… but he still paints!  This time we didn’t go on ANY rides.  We watched a wild west stunt show, a performing horse, a world champion roper, a cowboy poet, a Dutch oven care class, and a horse trainer with his no-longer-wild mustangs.

We dined at IHOP and stayed at the Dutton Theater Hotel.  Saturday Tom had a training in Branson.  Actually, I was to have had my Seminary training on Saturday… but I thought, with the next training in two weeks (at Stake conference) let’s save on travel for my people.  That was before I knew TOM had to go to Branson.  So he dropped me off at the library and I worked on shortening a Christmas program script for our December program.  Then I worked on a few things to prepare for my trip to AWAI Boot Camp.

When we came home Saturday afternoon, I tried to get some things organized for Boot Camp, but ended up spending about 4 hours making salsa.  Tom made a cake and brownies for Bishop’s Youth Discussion which was on Sunday, and I frosted the cake.  Then about 8pm as he’s talking to the missionaries, I hear him say, “Sure, Sandy will be glad to teach that class.”

Actually, I was.  I love teaching Gospel Principles.  This one was on the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  I took a picture of a kitchen machine a friend gave me—the kind that does mixing, chopping, blending and so on.  It was all in a box in pieces.  We talked about what good this gift does me if it just sits in this box in the family room.  What would the giver think if she knew that the gift she gave with love and charity was sitting there unused?  It came without a manual, so I’ll need to work to figure out how to use it.  How is this like the gift of the Holy Ghost?  We reject the giver if we don’t use it.  It doesn’t do us any good at all or bless us if we don’t use it.  We need to work at it to figure out the language of the spirit to get full use.  And when we do that—the Spirit can help us do lots of things.

Tom had BYD after church.  I did my last visiting teaching right after church with a sweet sister who spends all week out of town.  Then rushed home to be there when the kids started arriving.  They actually waited for Tom and all came in a clump.   Now it’s blog writing time.  Then time to think about packing.

I’ll leave tomorrow and go to Miranda’s and visit Tuesday.  Then early Wednesday I fly to Del Ray Beach, Florida.  The Boot Camp begins Wed afternoon.  It goes from 7am-9pm Thurs and Friday and most of Saturday. I’ll fly back to Miranda’s on Sunday and hope to catch church there in the afternoon.  Then I’ll drive home on Monday.  So you may not get a blog next Sunday.  And if you do… it will be full of things I learned at Boot Camp!

Fall Colors

We came back to Mountain Home and found the fall colors had burst forth.  Oaks are more restrained in their colors, but the sasifrass and sumac and maples are delighted to display their vibrant colors. I have my handsome man standing in front of a sasifrass tree.

 These are the colors coming down our road.

We went to Branson on Friday and I kept snapping pictures.

It looked so vibrant with my sunglasses... a little less so, without. So I put my sunglasses in front of the lens.

I know more color is coming.  But sometimes the winds come and the leaves disappear quickly.  So we rejoiced in the colors we saw.

A Great Week at Mom's

This has been a fun week at Mom’s house.  Tom has done many small… and not so small honey-do’s.  He’s repainted the front door and changed out the weatherstripping.  He’s adjusted closet doors to slide smoothly, found and installed flow reducers on the shower heads, fixed a chair, changed florescent bulbs in the kitchen and other lights, moved the light over the dining room table so it’s centered over the table… and likely more things I don’t know about.

Monday Mom and I drove to Sally's.  Lisa and Sally joined us and drove to the Swiss park where we had a lovely lunch with the Swiss Ladies organization.  Mom joined and got a great welcome with lots of applause.

Sally shared some Donop genealogy—folders of it—and I’ve taken it back to Mom’s to check out.  In the evening, we went to see slides of India.  It was very interesting.

Tuesday I sent off some spec writing assignments I did.   I looked some at the Donop genealogy.  I was invited to be interviewed for the Professional Writers’ Alliance.  Nice.  Mom ended up moving her arm wrong and feeling a “snap” in her shoulder.  So she tried to keep her arm immobile.  We shopped and fixed dinner—a simple one—and invited Cynthia and Jim over.

Wednesday Mom and Pat and I went to her Circle meeting at church.  They are a lovely group of women and we had a nice time.  Came back and then headed to San Diego to see Randy Stedman graduate from the Sheriff acadamy.  It was fun to see Randy and Cynthia and their baby, Jude.  Lisa and Russ were also there and Sally and Steve and lots of Randy’s family. 

 This was the sunset that evening!

 We stopped at the commissary as we were already on Miramar.  Then went to a great Mexican place for early dinner.  It helped us miss the traffic going back home.

Thursday  at 6am I had my mastermind call.  Usually it’s 8am central time.  This felt EARLY.  I was supposed to initiate the call… and I couldn’t remember my password on Skype.  I was up way too late on Wednesday trying to get that sorted out.

Later Thursday we went and did two sessions at the Newport Beach Temple.  It was lovely to go there.  We had some rain which was nice and refreshing, too.

 We took route 1 on the way home from the temple.  It's so beautiful and typically Southern California.

Friday I had lunch with Cynthia near her work.  It was fun to just sit and talk.   In the afternoon I worked on Donop Genealogy.

Saturday I walked with Tom.  He’d been walking every morning.  I hadn’t.  I should have.  I was really sore after the walk.   Cynthia, Jim, Mom, Tom and I went to the opera.  It was the  New York Metropolitan Opera opening day of  L’ Elizire (?)  The Elixir of Love by Donazetti.   It was very enjoyable.  We saw it on the large screen at a theater.  Great singing, fun acting, and a romping plot.  In between acts, we got some interviews with the singers and producers and some looks into the back stage.  Apparently this simulcast production started with 6 theaters and now it’s shown in hundreds.

Sunday Tom and I went to the Lake Forest Ward where we’d attended when we lived in El Toro.  After church Mom and I and Cynthia went to the community concert to hear a string quartet.  They were lively and played a variety of music.  I enjoyed it.  We came home in time to turn around and go to Cynthia and Jim’s for dinner.

Mom’s shoulder is feeling some better, but not great.  So she’ll go see a doctor… if she ever finds the time.

We’ve been having a really lovely time here.  It will end all too soon.

Trip to Mom's

I’m late!  I admit it.  And I have few excuses.  Worse yet… now I can’t remember anything very exciting about the past week.

Monday I spent some time working on my info-marketing course.   That evening we went to the Empty Nesters Family Home Evening at Janet Hohn’s house.  We had hot dogs around the campfire and s’mores and had a great time.  Visited with her dogs.

Tuesday I made applesauce.  Tom brought home 40 pounds of apples from the orchard on the way back from the temple.  It’s been a while since I’ve made applesauce.  We dug out the Victoria Strainer and the pressure cookers and got started.  Tom was busy fixing up the North College rental—painting and such—so I was mostly on my own.  But we managed to make 17 bottles.  Most of the time I remembered to add some cinnamon.  I didn’t add sugar.  I figured people could add that at the table if they felt the need.

Wednesday we voted on the Dump bond issue.  It was early voting, but we wanted to make our wishes on the tax increase and increased liability known.  Yesterday was the special election day and it was soundly defeated!  My friend Leslie wrote on her facebook:  “Today’s the day to go to the polls to vote against the land fill tax.  If you’re voting in favor, vote November 2. Wink wink.”  I thought that was cute.  Might be the reason it failed 4 to 1.   The others were waiting to vote later.

Wednesday I also went and had fun with Marion and clay.  I really didn’t have time to do this, but I need to be involved in maintaining friendships and in being creative in clay.  So I went and made two dishes.  It’s so fun to be creative.  “How do you want the sides?”  “Let’s make them about “this” high.”  Or “I think I’ll make a braid for the sides.”  And when things are not quite perfect…that’s part of the artistry.

Wednesday afternoon I helped Barb a bit with her book shelves.  Tom had already helped some with building them.  In the later afternoon, the church youth came over for an activity.  Hotdogs, chips, stories, games, a hay ride (pulled by the truck since the tractor konked the day before.)  I stayed for the tasty food (HUGE hotdog!) then heard the merriment as I worked on a few things inside.

Thursday we packed for our trip to Mom’s.  We had a friend drive us to the airport and keep the  car so we saved some on parking fees.  It was a fun dive and I learned a lot more about Dave than I knew before.  The flight was uneventful—the best kind—and we arrived at Mom’s by 9pm.

We’ve had a nice time here. Don’t remember what happened on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference.  How fantastic is that!  Wow!  Such great speakers.  Exciting news that missionaries can now serve at 18 for boys and 19 for girls.  Likely there will be a dip in BYU class sizes for the next year.

Sunday Sally, Steve, Lisa & Russ, Cynthia & Randy came down for the last sessions of General Conference.  Then Cynthia and Jim came over and we celebrated Sally’s birthday a few days early.  Such fun company!  

 Happy Birthday to Sally!

 Celebrating new Baby Jude, Cynthia and Randy's little one.