Toe touching at Stake Conference

This past weekend, the Wausau, Wisconsin stake had their stake conference.  It was fabulous as usual.  We typically have a Saturday evening "adult" session and the usual Sunday morning session.  I attended both and was well fed spiritually.  I've come to expect nothing less of our fabulous, amazing and wonderful Stake Presidency.  They are all good men who make me smile each time I think of them.

Like lots of other LDS members, at least some of the fun of Stake Conference is visiting with the other members.  So after the Sunday morning session, I quickly went up on to the stand to sit on the organ bench with Sister Munk and visit with her a few minutes.  And yes, she can TOTALLY play while we visit.  She's cool like that!

Anyways, conversation turned to both of our fairly new exercise routines and before we knew it, we were on the stand, right after stake conference (many people still in the chapel) showing each other how we could touch our toes!  After sitting for 2 hours in church!  That's pretty awesome right???!!!  Well, the temple president and his lovely wife seemed very impressed.  Honestly, I just can't figure out why folks think I'm such a silly head!! 

New Exercise Routine

Okay so I've written a little about my new fascination with exercise and attempting to make my body a little stronger.  I've been swimming and treadmilling and some other things as well about once or twice a week and have absolutely been loving the results.  I'm stronger and feel better and can now change clothes in a women's locker room in front of the other women (that could be a plus AND a minus).

I usually work out at the workout room and pool located in the dungeon regions of my work because it is free.  However, since I'm on vacation this week, one of my awesome friends has been inviting me to go to her gym and workout with her during the day on a free 10 day guest pass.  I've been 3 times already, am going again today and am loving it!  I am loving feeling my muscles, feeling that much stronger, and am really starting to love my body (or how I envision it will look after a kabillion more workouts).

So, I've made the life changing (ha ha) decision to bump up the workouts to 3-4 times per week.  With that being said, "feeling" your muscles is both good and bad.  Especially when they're screaming in protest like mine were after the first two workouts (I have been going for about an hour, rather than my usual half hour). After doing a little research to determine if these were normal aches and pains or if I had injured myself,  I bought stock in the following company and have been pushing through.  So excited!

  Source

It's a hat

One of my favorite blogs that I follow is called A Hermit Mom's Cave.  This woman is hilarious and wonderful all at the same time. 

Anyways, she had a post about hats and asked that we post pictures of ourselves in a hat.  This is the closest thing I could find.

A dollar store tiara counts as a hat, right????

FYI--for anyone who knows me.  I am making a face at Brother Wall and Mariah.  So there!  He he he.

The Dreaded Placement Test

A while ago, I posted about needing to schedule and take a placement test as I am attempting to go to college and become a midwife when I grow up.  Well, I took the test yesterday and........I aced it!!  There were sections on reading comprehension, sentence structure and arithmetic/algebra.  My scores were 99%, 91%, and 96% respectively.  YAY!!!!!!  It looks like I'm goin' to college! 

On the flip side, I remembered that nauseating feeling right before the test starts when they take your purse away so you can't cheat and stuff.  The fear when you read a question and know that you have NO IDEA what the answer is.  And the dread when you're watching the testing center lady print your score and know this is going to be one of the most humiliating experiences of your life.  But it wasn't. 

Are you sure I'm ready for this?????

Preparing for Young Women in Excellence

I serve in the Young Women's Presidency in the branch I live in.  I am the second counselor.  This is my first time to serve in Young Women's and so far, I am loving it!

Tonight we were beginning to prepare for YW in Excellence, (if you're not sure what this is, you can go here) .  The girls were to bring the dresses they wanted to wear (this is typically a "dressy" event) so that we could make sure they were modest and did not need any alterations.  We asked that if any girls had more than one dress that they bring those as well as some of the girls did not have a dress that was for a dressy event.  For the standards of dress we are looking for these girls to dress by, you can go here).

A few girls brought extra dresses.  As we were looking through them for the girls to try on, it quickly became apparent that some of the dresses brought would need additional items to make them modest.  As I pondered, I wondered if the girls had dresses like this because that is how they are dressing for these school dances, etc. 

We made sure that the girls knew they had to have something to cover up on the night of the program and made plans to bring extra "cover ups" just in case. 

As I came home and got ready to settle in for the evening, I was still pondering how we as their leaders could most effectively portray the importance of dressing as a Young Woman of Value.  Who values herself and others. 

How can we show these young ladies their divine nature and value?  How do we get them to see who they are and who they can become?  How beautiful they are?  How much they are loved?  It is documented over and over that Satan is sneaky and will trick you one shade of grey at a time. 

I realize this is not a hanging offense, but it helps me realize the importance of our examples as their leaders.  And the importance of loving them, and letting them know we love them.  Not just letting them know, but showing them all of the time, every time we're together.  I guess I'm just going to have to keep on giving out those hugs  :) 

Am I being too judgy??? Me????

I work with several ladies and one young man (I say young man, he's 28ish).  Most of the ladies are grandma types who have worked at this same company for 30-40 years.  That's right folks, I said 30-40 years.  That's quite a while.  As such tenured employees, they've seen the onset of computers, several mainframe operating systems, etc etc etc. 

Recently, as an "apple polishing" technique, I presented an idea to our supervisor to turn one of the tasks our unit processes into an entirely paperless process.  Before the analysts were writing out the check requests and there was alot of paper going back and forth--write it out and put it here, supervisor approves and puts it here, analysts requests and puts it here, etc.  I took that same process and put it online.  I spent days, literally days, creating a form that was pleasing to every one and every circumstance I could think of.

Now, hurrah!  my idea has been implemented.  As you can imagine, the more tenured employees are having difficulty with the procedures.  It seems to be so confusing to them and I have spent the last few days puzzled as to how it could possibly be so confusing.  "They're just being rude because they don't want to do it."  "UGH"  "They're not even trying--how could they NOT get this"  These were just some of the thoughts that were going through my head as I explained for the umpteenth time how to save a document and give it a different name.

Then something occurred to me.  Maybe I was the one being rude.  While I am starting  to feel a little older, some of these ladies have been in the work force since I was an infant.  Way before computers and saving documents and different versions of word, excel, and other programs.  Maybe they DON'T know how to open a document in one location, give it a new name, and save it in another location.  They only know how to do what they've been doing.  And when I really think about it,  new things are often confusing for me too.  Especially when it involves something I'm not that comfortable with in the first place. 

WOW--you mean it's not about me???  How odd would that be?  I'm just glad I came up with this attitude adjustment on my own instead of having to have my kneecaps broken before I realize the problem.  :) 

And just an update--I talked with my son Jacob today (see previous post) and he is feeling better and seems to be okay.  Another prayer answered.  I love how that works!

A troubling day

This morning I found out that a good friend of my son Jacob's committed suicide last night.  My son Jacob is 17 and lives with his grandparents in Hernando, MS.  He has had somewhat of a troubled life and things are FINALLY starting to look up for him.  He has been able to maintain long term close friendships and is going to school and seems to be doing well.

I am sorry for Jacob's loss and the loss of the family of this young man.  I had met this friend once and he seemed like a very regular young man.  Fun loving and mischievous; like  boys that age should be.  He was a good friend to Jacob at a time when he very much needed to know that such friends existed.


Just to let everyone know how shallow and horrible I really am---I'm so sorry for this family and their loss and cannot imagine what they must be going through.  They will be in my thoughts and prayers for some time.  But at the same time, I am grateful my son was not one of the friends that was there when this event occurred.  The only reason he wasn't is because of a broken tail light and not being allowed to drive after dark.  Just the thought of Jacob having to try to deal with witnessing something as horrible as a suicide on top of everything he has already been through is almost unbearable.  I am so grateful Heavenly Father is watching out for my (His)  child when I cannot.  And I pray He will support and comfort the family of  this young man during such a difficult and heartbreaking time.

Young people today are in enemy territory and Satan is pulling out all the stops to keep them from living up to their potential.  I just have to wonder what is happening in the world that so many young people find no desire to grow up, grow old and live.  It is a sad thing  that anyone would feel such despair and my heart breaks for all who do. 

My earnest prayers are with the family and loved ones of this young man and I hope that they are able to find some comfort. 

Bad day!

Bad day!  Really bad!  Super bad!  Fantastically, unbelievably bad! 

Think I'll just share a pic that makes me smile every time I see it.  Enjoy!!

I feel better already!! 

A story that impressed me

I read this story off another blog and really super duper wanted to share it.

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was “This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?”

The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:

“Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.
They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.
They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?
They would have no sex life and could not bear children.
Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.
And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I’d rather be a whale.

At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn’t enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.
We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.
Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: “How amazing am I ?! “

So inspirational!
Beautiful.
Source

Now, this is not to insinuate in any way that I would ever vocally or mentally refer to anyone (including myself) as either a whale or fat.  But I thought the concept and thought process behind this was extremely wonderful!

Supportive friends

She's always up for an adventure!

He supports me whether he agrees with me or not and never ever says anything he knows I won't like.  Unless he knows I need to hear it!

I can't even think about her without feeling loved without measure!

She makes me smile and reminds me that appearances are not always correct.

This is a horrible picture, but the only one I have of the lady who tells me I'm awesome every time she sees me and says it so sincerely that I believe her!

These two are awesome!

And the one I would never even want to live without.  She tells corny jokes with me and laughs just as hard as I do.  She makes me feel pretty.  She makes me smile when I'm sad.  She'll never tell anyone how much I can actually eat before I get sick (it's alot).  She gets my sense of humor and not many do.  She knows when I'm trying to be funny and it's not working out.  She knows all of my secrets and will never tell and will never allow me to dwell on them or use them to make myself feel small. 


For a gal who did not have many close friends as an adult at all until the last 5 years or so, I've sure made up for lost time!!  How blessed am I???

Second guessing, or am I just rambling

A while ago, well, early this year--I had received a pretty strong "inkling" that I should pursue this going back to school thing I've been talking about for like a decade.  I spoke with my husband about it, and since I wanted to (after much thought and prayer) start really slow with a CNA class, eventually (hopefully) ending up a midwife, he stated he would be supportive to one class at a time.  This is a BIG deal!  He does not like me away from home in the evenings and doesn't want me to get over burdened or too busy so that I can't keep up with my family obligations.  A priority he knows is important to me and has a tremendous effect on my self esteem.

I finally went to the tech school here in town, got an application, finally filled it out and sent it in, and finally heard back.  Now I have to call and schedule a placement test.  In the midst of all of this, I've had serious promptings to get this done immediately so that I can leave my current place of employment.  Now, it isn't a bad company to work for at all, but the atmosphere in the area I work in is not conducive to my "not feeling like a worthless piece of crap all the time" goals. 

Then, I was given an amazing opportunity to be assigned to a huge project for the company.  This is a way out of my current area.  I thought, "well maybe I was wrong about that school stuff".  "Perhaps I was just unhappy". 

Well, things are happening at work that are difficult to describe.  There is sabotage, false witnessing, etc, and the list goes on and on.  I suddenly found myself trying to devise a plan of how I could participate in the project while distancing myself from those I am being sent to work with. 

Now, I was still thinking I had been off base about the school idea (will I ever "get it"??).  Then, this morning in my scripture reading, I read about the people of King Lamoni and how they wanted to distance themselves from the non believers so they came up with a new name of Anti Nephi Lehies.  It occurred to me that this was similar to what I was trying to do, only without the leaving and disassociating (which is kind of a necessary part of distancing oneself).  As I drove to work, I became more and more upset the closer I got to the building and realized this happens almost every day. 

This is why I need to go to school.  This is why I need to do something different.  Not because I am not righteous enough, or faithful enough, or grateful enough, or anything enough.  This is just not where I need to be.  I work for a good company with some good people and have good benefits and have finally been able to make some friends (it takes me sooo long).  But I believe there is something different I need to be doing.  So tomorrow, I will call and pay the $20 fee and schedule the test and start on my road to a more care giving career. 

Why do we second guess ourselves?  It just takes longer that way and you have to learn things the hard way.  Wish me luck!