Scenes from my classroom

This was the strangest year ever.  We couldn't even get to our rooms until Friday morning.  The students are starting Monday.  This is what my room looks like with only a weekend to prepare.

Views around the School

Views around our newly modeled school

The bathroom by the office... sickroom.

The new office area

The principal's office

A supply room off of the workroom

The new workroom

The outside front entrance

Low Pressure

I finished this book this morning.

Bellamy Lyston was only 12 years old when her older sister Susan was killed on a stormy Memorial Day. Bellamy's fear of storms is a legacy of the tornado that destroyed the crime scene along with her memory of what really happened during the day's most devastating moments.

Now, 18 years later, Bellamy has written a sensational, bestselling novel based on Susan's murder. Because the book was inspired by the tragic event that still pains her family, she published it under a pseudonym to protect them from unwanted publicity. But when an opportunistic reporter for a tabloid newspaper discovers that the book is based on fact, Bellamy's identity is exposed along with the family scandal.

Moreover, Bellamy becomes the target of an unnamed assailant who either wants the truth about Susan's murder to remain unknown or, even more threatening, is determined to get vengeance for a man wrongfully accused and punished.

In order to identify her stalker, Bellamy must confront the ghosts of her past, including Dent Carter, Susan's wayward and reckless boyfriend -- and an original suspect in the murder case. Dent, with this and other stains on his past, is intent on clearing his name, and he needs Bellamy's sealed memory to do it. But her safeguarded recollections -once unlocked-pose dangers that neither could foresee and puts both their lives in peril.

As Bellamy delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Susan's slaying, she discovers disturbing elements of the crime which call into question the people she holds most dear. Haunted by partial memories, conflicted over her feelings for Dent, but determined to learn the truth, she won't stop until she reveals Susan's killer.

That is, unless Susan's killer strikes her first...

Mean Streak

I read this book recently.  It is not my typical book, but it was an interesting murder mystery with a few surprises.

Dr. Emory Charbonneau, a pediatrician and marathon runner, disappears on a mountain road in North Carolina. By the time her husband Jeff, miffed over a recent argument, reports her missing, the trail has grown cold. Literally. Fog and ice encapsulate the mountainous wilderness and paralyze the search for her.

While police suspect Jeff of "instant divorce," Emory, suffering from an unexplained head injury, regains consciousness and finds herself the captive of a man whose violent past is so dark that he won't even tell her his name. She's determined to escape him, and willing to take any risks necessary to survive.

Unexpectedly, however, the two have a dangerous encounter with people who adhere to a code of justice all their own. At the center of the dispute is a desperate young woman whom Emory can't turn her back on, even if it means breaking the law. Wrong becomes right at the hands of the man who strikes fear, but also sparks passion.

As her husband's deception is revealed, and the FBI closes in on her captor, Emory begins to wonder if the man with no name is, in fact, her rescuer from those who wish her dead - and from heartbreak.

Combining the nail-biting suspense and potent storytelling that has made Sandra Brown one of the world's best loved authors, MEAN STREAK is a wildly compelling novel about love, deceit, and the choices we must make in order to survive.

Flowers for me

The flowers that I bought myself because I have had a stressful week.... colonoscopy, mammogram, eye appointment with dilated eyes, speaking in Sacrament Meeting, having the first inservice of the year, and NOT being able to start putting my room back together. I can justify buying myself something beautiful to help me feel better, can't I?

Okay, now I will quit whining and go forward with faith and patience, after all - all those things are finished now except for the room and that will have to wait until the end of next week. I will enjoy my flowers!

 

Frustration

I never realized how many things that I keep at school until I can't get in there to use them!  It is interesting trying to get ready for the first day of school this year. There isn't much that I can actually do here at home. It will be quite a surprise at what it will end up looking like this year because we won't have many days before children come!

I did get my welcome letters ready to send. They will go out tomorrow! So far I only have 22 students!

Dilated eyes

Today was the first time I have ever had my eyes dilated.  It was an interesting experience.
I didn't realize that it made you see things blurry for hours.
Bright sunlight hurts your eyes, but inside or cloudy parts of the day were just fine.

Flowers

These are the flowers that I bought myself because I have had a stressful week.... colonoscopy, mammogram, eye appointment with dilated eyes, speaking in Sacrament Meeting, having the first inservice of the year, and NOT being able to start putting my room back together. I can justify buying myself something beautiful to help me feel better, can't I?

Okay, now I will quit whining and go forward with faith and patience, after all - all those things are finished now except for the room and that will have to wait until the end of next week. I will enjoy my flowers!

Speaking in Sacrament Meeting

The Relief Society has been asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting Sunday.  We were assigned to talk about Marriage and Family.  I choose to talk about Building a Christ-like Home.  .”  I am certainly not an expert, so I took my thoughts and words from several who are:  Elder Richard G Scott, Elder L. Tom Perry, and President Thomas S Monson.

Here is my talk:

In a world of turmoil and uncertainty, it is more important than ever to make our families the center of our lives and the top of our priorities.  A home is much more than a house built of lumber, brick or stone.  A home is made of love, sacrifice and respect. We need to make our homes a place of refuge from the storm, which is increasing in intensity all about us.  Even if the smallest openings are left unattended, negative influences can penetrate the very walls of our homes.

In building a Christ-centered home we need to keep Christ as the master architect of our home.  Let the Lord be our General Contractor.  He has given us so many guidelines to build our homes upon.

In D&C 88:119 we are told,  “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.”

That kind of house would meet the building code outlined in Helaman 5:12, ‘…remember that it is unto the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

Each of us can be subcontractors. We each can be personal and family builders.

The following are specific ways that parents can spend effective time with their children, thus building their home and forever families.

#1     Create meaningful bonds that give your children an identity stronger than what they can find with peer groups or anywhere else. This can be accomplished in many different ways.  Make family outings and picnics, birthday celebrations and trips special times and memory builders.  Whenever possible, attend, as a family, events where one of the family members is involved.  Also attend church meetings together.

Kneel to pray – trust in the Lord.  He will direct you. 

Be consistent in holding daily family prayer and weekly family home evenings.  These both invite the Spirit, which provides the help parent and family leaders need. 

Remember the marvelous promise made by President Joseph F. Smith when family home evenings were first introduced to the Church. “IF the Saints obey this counsel, we promise that great blessings will result.  Love at home and obedience to parents will increase.  Faith will be developed in the hearts of the youth in Israel, and they will gain power to combat the evil influence and temptations which beset them.”

We need to keep ourselves and our children unspotted from the temptation and sins of the world.  Teach the gospel and basic values in your home. Establish a love for the scriptures together. Reading the Book of Mormon as a family will especially bring increased spirituality into your home and will give both parents and children the power to resist temptation and to have the Holy Ghost as their constant companion.

Training requires time.  Be there!  Do not involve yourself or your family in so many activities out of the home that you cannot feel or recognize the Spirit of the God’s promised guidance for yourself and your family.  However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform.

The home is a celestial workshop.  Lessons taught in the home by goodly parents are becoming increas­ingly important in today’s world, where the influence of the adversary is so widespread. As we know, he is attempting to erode and destroy the very foundation of our society—the family. In clever and carefully cam­ouflaged ways, he is attacking com­mitment to family life throughout the world and undermining the culture and covenants of faithful Latter-day Saints. Parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility. While other institutions such as church and school can assist parents to “train up a child in the way he [or she] should go” (Proverbs 22:6), this responsibility ulti­mately rests on the parents. According to the great plan of happiness, it is goodly parents who are entrusted with the care and development of Heavenly Father’s children.

Special teaching moments occur at mealtime      so try to take time to be together at mealtimes as often as possible. Try to be at the crossroads when your children are coming or going. Be a real friend to your children.  Listen to them.  Talk with them, laugh and joke with them, sing with them, read with them, play with them, cry with them, hug them and honestly praise them. Spend as much unrushed one-on-one time with each child as possible.

#2  Step up to serve. In Mosiah 4: 15 we read, “But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.”

Jesus was the perfect example.  He was always showing love, compassion, and charity for others. His parables preach power. With the good Samaritan, He taught, “Love thy neighbor.” Through His kindness to the woman taken in adultery, He taught compassionate understanding. In His parable of the talents, He taught us to improve ourselves and to strive for excellence. We, too need to reach out in love to our neighbors and friends.

D&C 107: 99 states, “Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.”  Let your child see the importance of fulfilling Church callings with dignity and honor and with joy.  Involve your children in your callings whenever possible.  Elder L. Tom Perry recalled times with his father as Bishop.  Create memories for your children.

When we obey the commandments of the Lord and serve His children unselfishly, the natural consequence is power from God—power to do more than we can do by ourselves. Our insights, our talents, our abilities are expanded because we receive strength and power from the Lord. His power is a fundamental component to establishing a home filled with peace.

#3 Reach out to Rescue.

Despite our best efforts to raise children who love the Lord, follow His commandments, and live happy, productive, and healthy lives, our sons and daughters sometimes go astray. Some depart from the road markers which lead to life eternal only to discover that the detour chosen ultimately leads to a dead end. Indifference, carelessness, selfishness, and sin all take their costly toll in human lives. There are those who, for unexplained reasons, march to the sound of a different drummer, later to learn they have followed the Pied Piper of sorrow and suffering. 

There are those who were once warm in the faith, but whose faith has grown cold. Many of them wish to come back but do not know quite how to do it. They need friendly hands reaching out to them. With a little effort, many of them can be brought back to feast again at the table of the Lord.

President Gordon B. Hinckley had taught us that, “Ours is a great and solemn duty to reach out and help them, to lift them, to feed them if they are hungry, to nurture their spirits if they thirst for truth and righteousness.

“You who have heartache, you must never give up,” Elder Boyd K. Packer has said. “No matter how dark it gets or no matter how far away or how far down your son or daughter has fallen, you must never give up. Never, never, never.” (Improvement Era, Dec. 1970, p. 109.)

And Elder Loren C. Dunn has urged: “When the hard times come—and they will—who is going to care if the parents don’t? …

“Oh, parents, no matter what the difficulty, may we never desert our children in some dark and dangerous thoroughfare of life, no matter what prompted them to get there. When they reach the point—and for some it may be a painfully long time—when they reach the point that they need us, I pray that we might not let them down. (Improvement Era, Dec. 1970, pp. 63–64.)

Sometimes that means swallowing our pride and getting out of our comfort zone.

Perhaps an oft-repeated scene will bring closer to home your personal opportunity to reach out to rescue. Let us look in on a family with a son named Jack. Throughout Jack’s early life, he and his father had many serious arguments. One day when he was 17, they had a particularly agitated one. Jack said to his father, “This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I’m leaving home, and I will never return!” He went to his room and packed a bag. His mother begged him to stay, but he was too angry to listen. He left her crying in the doorway.

Leaving the yard, he was about to pass through the gate when he heard his father call to him, “Jack, I know that a large share of the blame for your leaving rests with me. For this I am truly sorry. I want you to know that if you should ever wish to return home, you’ll always be welcome. And I’ll try to be a better father to you. I want you to know that I love you, and I’ll always love you.”

Jack said nothing but went to the bus station and bought a ticket to a distant point. As he sat in the bus watching the miles go by, his thoughts turned to the words of his father. He began to realize how much courage, how much love had been required for his father to say what he had said. Dad had apologized. He had invited him back and had left the words ringing in the summer air, “I love you.”

Jack knew that the next move was up to him. He realized the only way he could ever find peace with himself was to demonstrate to his father the same kind of maturity, goodness, and love that Dad had shown toward him. Jack got off the bus. He bought a return ticket and began the journey home.

He arrived shortly after midnight, entered the house, and turned on the light. There in the rocking chair sat his father, his head bowed. As he looked up and saw Jack, he arose from the chair; they rushed into each other’s arms. Jack later said, “Those last years that I was home were among the happiest of my life.”

Here was a father who, suppressing passion and bridling pride, reached out to rescue his son before he became one of that vast “lost battalion” resulting from fractured families and shattered homes. Love was the binding band, the healing balm; love so often felt, so seldom expressed.

Howard W Hunter said, “There are many in the Church and in the world who are living with feelings of guilt and unworthiness because some of their sons and daughters have wandered or strayed from the fold. … We should never let Satan fool us into thinking that all is lost. Let us take pride in the good and right things we have done; reject and cast out of our lives those things that are wrong; look to the Lord for forgiveness, strength, and comfort; and then move onward.^”

Kneel down to pray.  Step up to serve.  Reach out to rescue.  Each is a vital page of God’s blueprint to make a house a home.

Let us build with skill, take no shortcuts, and follow the blueprint of our Savior.  We will then have heavenly homes and forever families. We, as LDS people, are blessed to be an integral part of our Heavenly Father’s family design.

Cheryl A. Esplin, a member of the General Primary Presidency told of a demonstration that she had seen. Two soda cans were held up. In one hand she held a can that was empty and in the other hand a can that was unopened and full of soda. First, she squeezed the empty can; it began to bend and then collapsed under the pressure. Next, with her other hand, she squeezed the unopened can. It held firm. It didn’t bend or collapse like the empty can— because it was filled.

We can liken this demonstration to our individual lives and to our homes and families. When our homes are Christ-centered, we have the power to withstand the outside forces of the world that surround and push against us. However, if we are not filled spiritually, we don’t have the inner strength to resist the outside pressures and can collapse when forces push against us.

Satan knows that in order for us and our families to withstand the pressures of the world, we must be filled with light and gospel truth. So he does everything in his power to dilute, distort, and destroy the truth of the gospel and to keep us separated from the truth.

You who work so diligently to create an environment of righteousness in your home are performing a service that cannot be bought.  It is difficult in the best of circumstances.  It takes sacrifice and dedication and total commitment. Just do the best you can.  If you’ve honestly done your best, then don’t feel guilty. Just thank Heavenly Father for your family and your opportunity to serve, nurture, enjoy and teach them.

Our Heavenly Father wants you to return home to Him.  He wants you to bring all of your family members with you, ripe and full of gospel knowledge and good works, and blossoming with a happy heart.  I know that He will bless you if you will take the time, put your trust in Him and work toward building a Christ-centered home. As you center your home on the Savior, it will naturally become a refuge to your family. One of the greatest blessings we can offer to the world is the power of a Christ-centered home where the gospel is taught, covenants are kept, and love abounds. I pray that this blessing may come to each of us. 

Colonoscopy Finished

Well, I had to be at the hospital by 6:45am.  It was kind of a funny sight.  It looked like a ward RS activity.  Sarah Heaton was there for some procedure, too.  Stephanie Anfinson checked me in.  Sandi Rust took my vitals and other information and Madi Carter was now of the two nurses who assisted Dr. White.

The doctor did find and take care of a couple of polyps and a couple of diverticulosis.  He recommended that I return in five years.

We were home by 10:30.

Medical Procedure Approaches

I am scheduled for a routine colonoscopy tomorrow.  I had great apprehension as this day approached.  It isn't even the yucky prep or what they will find, as much as it is the procedure itself.  You hear horror stories about people being perforated during the procedure and that causing so many other difficulties.

I believe strongly in the power of priesthood blessings so I asked for one.  My home teacher, Dave Jessup, graciously agreed to do this for me.  He asked Val Oman to assist him and they took care of this for me after church Sunday.  Val anointed the oil and Dave pronounced the blessing.  I thought that it was a beautiful blessing.  I was reminded of how much Heavenly Father does love me.  I was told that it was a good thing to be able to ask for a blessing because that is already a show of the faith you have for that blessing to be able to be fulfilled.  I was blessed that the process would be able to go forward and that all would be well.  The doctor would be able to perform this professionally and that it would be ok.  This has helped me be able to approach this procedure without the apprehension that I previously had.

I am 45 minutes into the prep…. 4 of these huge pills every 15 minutes is not fun.  I forgot how salty they are.  I have to gag to get them down.  I am a wimp!
8 more, I can do this!

I only have one more dose…  yea!!!  I am to be at the hospital tomorrow morning at 6:45am!  I am the first one scheduled.  I think it will be nice to get in and out quicker.  I am so thankful that Beth is willing to take me and bring me home.

The End Begins: Glimmering Light

I read this book today.  It is the sequel to the last book I read.

In a world torn apart by an unprecedented terrorist attack, Amelie Hatch's life has been thrown into chaos. Safety is fleeting, and there is no rest for a group of Saints fighting to survive.

Despite the looming threat of terrorism, Amelie's safe arrival in Salt Lake City should have been the triumphant conclusion to her harrowing journey. With the promise of a future with her true love, Zack, she finds a glimmer of light amidst the bleak unrest of the nation. But Amelie and Zack quickly realize their journey is far from finished. With the nation's power grid still compromised and enemy forces drawing closer, Utah is no longer a safe haven—it's time to move on. And this time, they find themselves forced apart as they embark on separate missions that will test their endurance and threaten all they hold dear. Amelie can only wonder: does Missouri truly hold the key to their deliverance, or will they be forced to run forever?