LG

The Sabbath
Deuteronomy 5: 14 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

As Mormons, we take this scripture literally. We do not do anything on the Sabbath that requires others to work: eat out, shop, or any type of recreation. It is a frequent debate between members about how elaborate of a meal should even be made on a Sunday. Some people seem to think that even cooking a roast is too much work.

This strict Sabbath Day observence is sometimes hard for our children to understand. They understand that God has asked this of us in the Bible and our kids love God but, they just don’t get why no one else around them seems to care.

All of our kids have had to miss out on a lot of birthday parties, but none was as hard for me as the one that Allie celebrated last month. Allie is Sophia’s best friend. Allie is riot; we just love her. Sophia, being the shy kid that she is, just loves Allie; and Allie being as outgoing as she is, is a wonderful influence for Sophia. Sophia has proudly exclaimed repeatedly since the 2nd week of school that Allie is her best friend. I have never seen a happier child than Sophia when she brought home Allie’s birthday invitation to the ice-skating rink. My excitement for Sophia being able to participate in the simple joy of life we call the birthday party was shattered when I referred to the calendar and saw that it would take place on a Sunday.

So, what did we do? We took Allie out to McDonald’s after school on Friday instead. [ALL kids love McDonald’s] We blew out a candle in her kids’ meal hamburger and had ice-cream. Allie opened her gift and then, to pass time before we had to go back to meet her mom, we walked around K-mart and got some clearance Christmas candy. I guess this made an impression enough because yesterday when I took the girls back to this K-mart that we don’t frequent, all Sophia and Bella could talk about was the day that we had brought Allie there. “Remember, this is where Allie hid. This is where we chased Allie. This is where we found the candy that we got with Allie.”

So, I guess I dodged another birthday party bullet. Phew.

On another Sabbath day note:

On Sunday night, LG went to the Stake Bishopric training without me by his side to attend the simultaneous Wive’s Training. I originally typed this post on Sunday evening, but according to my hubby’s counsel I toned it down before publishing it.

As LG was leaving the meeting, he saw a friend of ours. He asked her what I had missed from the women’s meeting when she asked where I was. LG told her that I had taken courage from a talk today in church. The regional rep’s wife talked about resting from our labors on Sunday and when LG got home from church I explained to him that his calling in the Bishopric is one of my greatest labors. I was resting tonight! I needed to be home with my kids, not take them off to a sitter on Sunday. (If I am to be totally honest, I would have preferred to have LG home with us too, but I can’t control him or his desire to attend his meetings)

Our friend told LG that the wives’ meeting was about righteous selfishness. (I still don’t think this is exactly the correct term) The friend explained, “The jist of the meeting was that when a woman has a husband in such a busy calling, it is o.k. for her to act selfishly sometimes if it is to meet the needs of the family. “

LG replied, “Oh good, I guess it was o.k. for Alice to miss this one. She’s got that one down. In fact, she is practicing that right now.”

Yeah for me: I am a great Sabbath Day keeper! Yes, I do a lot of other things wrong, and I may even receive criticism for my choice to not go to the meeting. But by golly, I am teaching my kids that the Sabbath is the day for a family to worship together, not to go to parties or be carted off to the sitter.

Domonick’s back!

I just read this story from my Wierd news RSS feed. It talks about a cat who bolted away from her owner on a trip to the vet 3 years ago. When the found cat’s microchip was scanned he was taken back home.

LG refused to pay for a microchip for our cat. I understand his cheapness, but I wonder if he was changing his mind during several of my sleepless nights that we couldn’t find Kitty Bear. One night when she was a baby I stayed up all night and cried when she wandered away.

I went all around town putting up lost pet signs the next day just to have my neighbor across the street come rushing over to tell me that she saw the sign down the street and her daughter had taken the cat in for the night. (My neighbor is a HUGE animal lover – I could have kissed her)Kitty Bear had been meowing at the wrong door. Yes, she is smarter than that now. The only time she gets lost now is when she slips into someone’s dresser drawer for a good warm night’s sleep. But, man I was a wreck. LG had the nerve to say, “Man, Alice, what will you act like if anything ever happens to one of our kids.”

But, between this story, my previous post, and thinking about Kitty Bear I have been reminded of our cats growing up. I cannot tell you how many cats we had growing up…..at least 20. The funny part: we always thought it was the same cat coming back.

We would always exclaim, “Mom, mom, Domonick’s back.”

My brother had named our first black cat with one little white spot under his chin, Domonick (after Dominoes). Of course the cats would disappear from time to time. (Wouldn’t you want to escape from a family with 7 children?)

We were always a little sad whenever our cats would go missing, but to no avail. it would turn out o.k. when another black cat would show up…I guess black cats with little white spots must be quite common because I am sure that Domonick could never survive the surrounding wild infested with coyotes. Or did he?

For my lover boy

Everyone seem to have posted something really sweet for their spouse yesterday, and all I came up with was the depressing last post. Give me a break, I was up throwing up the whole night before.

I do love my man, and was especially grateful that he was there for me yesterday….not because it was the big holiday, but because he took care of the kids while I slept away most of the day, trying to recover.

This video is for you LG, I know you will enjoy!

Dead People

Abigail went out with her group of church girls last night and sang to some people at a nursing home. (This picture is not from last night, but from a school thing last year – I included the pic. to give you the idea of how cute 8-11 year olds) Aren’t they darling? I am sure the nursing home loved their company last night.

Anyhow, on the way home, I was very impressed with Abigail’s observations of the night. She was telling me all about the people that she met.

“Mom, there was this really old guy who was 97. There was a lady who was deaf and they had to write everything on a paper for her. There was a black guy, and it was his birthday.” She even told me the people’s names.

Sophia and Bella were listening to the conversation and started asking Abigail questions about her adventure. Bella being inquisitive about the aforementioned deaf person asked me, “Mom why would they sing to a dead person?”

I was glad that the girls were paying attention to Abigail’s story, but who would have guessed the dead person association of my 4 year old? I guess I better start writing my mommy speech now for reassuring Bella when it is her turn to go to a nursing home to sing. Really, how am I going to handle this with honesty? It’s not like I can say, “No Bella, don’t worry, there aren’t any dead people at nursing homes.”

This reminds me of another story. Back in December, we had an unfortunate death in the congregation that shares our building. I was in charge of our ward party that was to happen the evening following the funeral. I had a bunch of things that I needed to drop of at the church early because I had to work the next morning. So I stopped by the church late after the funeral was over.

I wasn’t sure if they would have left the casket at the church overnight until the following day’s graveside service. (I believe they did this with Grandma Gold in VA – every state law is different to this effect and I wasn’t sure what TN law was) As my girls love to run the round hallways as soon as they get into the church, I warned them to stay close by because there may be a casket in the cultural hall. You can imagine where the conversation went from there…

“Mom, what’s a casket?” “Why do dead people sleep in a casket?” “Why do they leave dead people in the church?” “What’s a funeral?”

I had tried to play off all the questions so that they wouldn’t be too afraid of ever entering the church ever again. I had told the girls that a funeral would be over the next morning and there was no reason to be afraid because a funeral is “like a party for dead people”. O.k. hindsight is always 20/20! Yes, I could and should have given a better explanation than that.

If you couple Bella’s amazing imagination with her slight anxiety, you can imagine what she thought was going on in the church at the party for dead people. I was surprised that she still wanted to go inside when I had given her the chance to just stay in the car while I ran a few things in. Do you think that she was showing bravery or did the sure terror of being alone in the van when the party all came out of the building egged her forward into the building with mom? I think it must have been the latter, the way she was clinging to my leg.

Either way, whenever I die, I hope all my girls will remember that they are invited to my party for dead people.

dad = goat


So this morning as we were getting the girls ready for school, all of the girls were telling their dad about their trips to see our friend’s baby goats. Thanks to Grammy for the field trip. The girls just loved these baby goats. And thanks to Steve and Stori for their fun petting zoo.

Here is the goat with Bella. Isn’t she cute? I was talking about the goat. This baby goat’s name is Carameletta. Isn’t that a cute name? Again, I am talking about the goat. The other two babies are Dotty and Pedro. (Pedro’s the boy)

So, back to the name of the post. This morning the girls were telling LG all about the goats:

“We had to chase the babies dad. We caught Dotty. The baby one is called Dotty
because she has a lot of dots. The dad has a long beard. The dad is
harry-er. The mom goat looks like she is mad at you and being protective,
but she doesn’t really care. The dad goat is bigger than the mom goat. They
were all so cute dad. They were so fun. The dad goat has bigger horns.”

LG in response to the girls: (yes his wit is really keen in the mornings) “So, I think I got it all, tell me if I am right: the dad is fatter, harrier, and hornier?” Yep I guess that dad really does = goat.

I just rolled on the floor laughing. What a great way to start the day.

I think that Gina’s hubby’s humor is also a little twisted. Gina informed her hubby that I suggested he win a good hubby award, he said, “What does a man do to win the chubby award?”

God is good

Across the street lives a Bible Methodist preacher, whom we respect. He was given this ugly poo green van from a Baptist church. It has been an eye sore that has never left the confines of their front lawn for the past two years.

Last week, through a powerful storm, God took care of the eye sore for us. We were surprised when the preacher informed us that they were grateful that God took care of it for them too. I guess they hadn’t known what to do with the donated van! Now, all I can do is hope that the demolished van won’t sit there in this pathetic state for another couple of years. God would have to send a tornado next to take it away (because you know it won’t be translated). We were very fortunate that this week’s recent storms didn’t make it this far east. God really has watched over us.

The bad news associated with the riddance of the van was that our power was out for 36 hours. This tree also took out the preacher’s power line which shorted the transformer box to just three houses. The power company had about 4,000 customers to get back up and running after the storm. Our three houses were probably the lowest on the priority list.

I spent the day at a friend’s house (isn’t having your power out a good excuse to miss school) and we decided to come back home and sleep. We tried to turn it into an adventure for the kids. We heat up our small room with our camp heater and made a makeshift bed for the girls that was built up high enough to be even with the height of our bed. It got down to the 20’s outside and the 40’s in the house.

The kids wore two pairs of pj’s, hats, and socks. (these cute animal hats were a gift from Korea, if any of you have seen the missing tiger, would you let me know – Bella wasn’t happy that she had to wear a plain old taboggan) The girls thought that the most fun part was counting the amount of blankets I put over the top of them. 13! They also really enjoyed the emergency crank flashlight/radio. They were amazed at how they could tune to different channels. They really do live a sheltered life, don’t they?

We couldn’t put them to sleep without our nightly scripture study. We are trying to read the whole Book of Mormon again this year. Here is LG reading with the assistance of a flashlight. You can’t see LG’s face or the flashlight between his face and the book. (just in case you couldn’t make that observation yourself)

God and KUB blessed us a second time within the 36 hour timeframe and had the power fixed at 4 am, just when it started to get really cold. This is how we found the girls the next morning. So much for the blankets and hats.

I’m smearing my spelling reputation

When I recently taught Abigail how to use the spellchecker, she didn’t understand why she had spent so much time on that darn spelling bee a while back. I also wonder, “Why did we spend every moment in the car for three weeks spelling word after word, if a computer will fix your mistakes for you?” She was amazed! I am sure that somewhere in that great brain of hers, she is trying to figure out how she can have Microsoft Word close by for next year’s competition.

I don’t want to make you think that I am trying to exploit Abigial with this video because I chose to post the video of when she got outed. Abigail was the only third grader to stay in until the third round; she did very well. And it’s a good thing because it felt like I lived and breathed spelling there for a bit. I just love watching her little wheels turn in this video. You can see it on her face that it only took her .005 second to realize that she didn’t know how to spell smear. So, what did she do… she said something as quick as she could to get the misery over with. That’s my girl…why prolong misery?…if you barrel through anything fast enough, it is as if you didn’t experience it at all. (Wow, even if she doesn’t ever win the spelling bee, maybe I have taught her some life coping skills?)

I like to blame LeGrand for the fact that Abigail did not know “smear”. Really, if that would have been my word, she would have never forgotten the trick…ear with and sm? (Dad didn’t really get into the spelling tricks) The end of page three was dad’s job while mom was at work, back in December. LeGrand swears they went over it, and I am not trying to be mean by blaming him, but really, just so you know, it is the only way that I am feeling good about my job as a mom right now. That spelling bee was one way that I could prove that I was a little smart. LG, well, let’s just say he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone (he’s pretty secure) and he can also do math. And, let’s face it, with Word around, who really needs to know how to spell anyway?

Is anyone else having trouble using their spellchecker in blogspot? I am sorry if I have made you all cringe with my misspelling during the last few days. (Is that word even spelled right?) Well, if anyone knows what I need to do so that I can spell correctly again, can you give me a shout? I would hate to smir my stellar spelling reputation.

And, a good old fashioned spelling bee is not going to work…I now know modern technology in the most intimate fashion, if you know what I mean.

Does my man hate Mitt?

I bumped this post from 1/29 for my instapundit readers! – Thanks for the link, Mr. Reynolds.

Here is the stuff that I want from the Romney shop.

LG thinks that I am on some silly kick. I have been on the internet for a good part of the evening, joining Team Mitt, reading about the election, and sending a mass e-mail to all of my friends. I even gave a monetary donation to the campaign earlier. Surprisingly, LG isn’t as mad about the monetary donation (only because it was so small) as he is about the e-mail that I sent to his in box (just like I did for all of my gmail contacts) from The Mitt Romney page. He called me a spammer. He told me that I would get some backlash for sending out politically charged info. to EVERYONE in my outbox. I can’t wait to see what happens. I anticipate some drama people.

LG also warned me that if I kept talking about religion and politics so much I was going to lose all my blog readers. Well, as always, I do listen and process whatever LG tells me. And, right now, here on my blog, I want to tell LG that I love him and know that he is (sometimes) right. I don’t respect many people’s opinions more than I do LG’s.

But tonight, I respect Mitt Romney a whole lot! (not necessarily more than LG, but let’s just say that I don’t think I will ever have reason to campaign for LG to be the President of the United States.) This is not just some kick of mine. (I will admit that I tend to get obsessive about stuff sometimes) I take my blog seriously, and I am using it just this once to talk about something that I think is important. I didn’t just get on You Tube and watch the Romney Girl and get on some kick. I have been reading and researching for a week and I just want to share what I have concluded. My conclusion may not matter to any of you, but I am telling you anyway: Mitt is the man for change in America. I am sad that Mitt has lost the Florida primary, but hopeful that he will still prevail. We need Mitt so that we can stomp on Hillary Clinton. (How can anyone in this country vote for another Clinton to hold such a sacred office….didn’t Bill sacrilige it enough already?)

I am not afraid to blog about what I want, but I want you to all thank LG that I will try and contain my Mitt kick to my door to door Mitt knocking and not to my blog from here on out. Just in case you wondered, LG also supports Romney, but he isn’t the type to get in your face. Of course, you all know that opposites attract.

And, the main reason for this blog….LG, this is the stuff that I want for Valentine’s Day. As I have said before, I love the wishlist aspect of the blog. You can buy me the magnet bumper sticker (not the sticky one) the yard sign, and the buttons. And if you really want to splurge, I love this hoodie. And, once again, just so you all know, this is not a kick. I am serious. I am in for the long haul…all the way to The White House!

Why Can’t Mormons Send Flowers?

Here’s the video, and if anyone has any advice how to post directly from YouTube, please let me know. Thanks Gina…You will all have to know that it is Gina’s fault, if I go YouTube crazy!

You can’t go wrong with a clip from the good old show Cheers. I can remember gathering in my college apartment with about 30 other people to watch the show finale.

Thanks for the clip via e-mail Valerie. Abigail was watching over my shoulder (not soldier as originally typed) and says to me, “This is a bad show.” (She heard the word damn) Oh no. Now, she won’t think I am perfect!!! Yeah right!

LG’s boss says that LG reminds them all of Norm. They mean it as a compliment….They are all in awe that wherever he goes and whoever he talks to peopel all just love him. I am not in awe. He is charming, and because he is, I never let him buy me flowers for Valentine’s Day. He knows he can get me double the flowers a week later!

Now, this is a reminder, to all you men, especially you MORE MEN, send your wives some flowers, and do it before they raise the prices for Valentine’s Day or wait until they go on clearance.