"Hallelujah" - Nantucket Idol - A Cappella

I love this song. I stumbled across this rendition earlier this year, and didn't save it. I thought I would always remember it since I loved it. I have determined I only have short-term memory, and am suffering from short-term memory problems. I have been racking my brain for the past couple of weeks trying to remember what song I loved and who sang it. I accidentally stumbled across it again tonight. I thought I would share. :-)

I think I don't like walnuts!

Today was day three of walnut inventory counting. I think the smell of walnuts is very gross. Every time we have to lift a lid on the walnut bin, I get a whiff and think...yuck, I can't believe I eat those. However, this is after three days of 11-12 hour days counting bin by bin to see what is in them, checking the weight, and verifying the computer.

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through today. Monday was okay, it wasn't too hot, possibly in the 90's. Tuesday, it hit 100, and I was wondering what the heck I was doing out there. I thought I was going to leave Maritza in charge of this and I was going to stay inside and occasionally check on how things were going. Today it was 100 by 11 am, and it got to 108. It is still 104. I am still thirsty, but if I drink anymore, I would be able to float away. If I wasn't so tired, I would go over to the swimming pool and cool off. However, I think that if I jumped in, I wouldn't be able to swim and I would sink to the bottom.

Tomorrow I think I have 2-3 hours of counting left. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that it will be only 45 minutes, but I know I need to be realistic. There are about 80 bins left to count, and then the real fun starts. We get to try to reconcile the data and make sure everything is correct. Yeah....I can't wait.

I am almost happy we didn't finish today. I gave them some incentives for when they might finish. If they finished on Tuesday, I was going to buy them lunch. If they finished on Wednesday, I would bake them cookies. Then if they finished on Thursday, I would buy them cookies. Looks like I don't have to bake after all. That is a good thing since I really don't want to turn the oven on. :-)

Sunday School

So I was able to teach about Job today. Man, he was really tested. Couple of good points others brought up was that the Lord will not test us more than we can handle, so the Lord knew Job could handle all the trials he had. This could be a reason why he let Satan tempt him, and then it could be recorded for us to read later on. I also loved Job's answer to his wife in chapter two, when he tells her that she is foolish to believe that we only receive good things at the hand of the Lord. He was very wise because if we receive good, wouldn't it make sense to also receive the bad? If not, how would we really be able to distinguish the good from the bad?

I am also finding it is hard to not get a big head. It seems that every Sunday I get four or five people telling me that I taught a great lesson. I guess I am just one of those people that a little complimenting goes a long way, and more than a little is way too much. Maybe I am feeling more at ease with teaching scary adults that have families and kids. I am finding they aren't so scary after all. I also have to wonder how much of it is people just saying it was a "great lesson," but meaning "thanks for teaching, I'm so glad it wasn't me." :-) I know some people will tell the speaker or teacher it was a great talk/lesson, but it more of encouragement and thanks for giving it. Anyway, I should be grateful for the compliments, it could be worse, they could be telling the Bishop to get rid of me....oh wait, would that be so bad?

Excitement at work

We got a new phone system in a couple of weeks ago and now our voicemail goes to our email. It is kind of cool. However, not all of the computers have speakers. I fished some really old ones out of the back and couldn't find the power cord so I used another power cord from an older set that was from a different company. I was holding the speaker in my hand when I turned in on and I hear a small pop. I didn't think much of it until a couple of seconds later I realized there was smoke coming out of it.

I told the girl I was helping to quick unplug it, but I was still holding the speaker and not really sure what to do with it. It wasn't hot, and there wasn't any flames, but it was smoldering. I didn't think I could just throw it outside because what if it really started a fire. So the only thing I could think of was to calmly walk to the kitchen and pour water in it until the fire was gone. I am very surprised how much water one of those things holds. There was a lot of smoke that came out of it as the water went in, so it was probably a good idea to douse it. Then I let it drain and then doused it again and more smoke came out. Those things know how to burn when they get going. Anyway, when I felt it was safe, I drained it and threw it away. Crisis averted. :-)

So I came up with the coolest idea...or so I thought it was the coolest idea. I found this great stained glass software. You can digitally design your panels and resize it and color it with actual glass so you can see the finished product before you even start. You can even take a picture of where the panel will go, then you can put the pattern on top of the panel so you can see what it will look like installed and what you can see through the panel. Anyway, this sounded great, but what would make it better would to have it be able to also cut out the pattern instead of just printing it and leaving me to cut it up.
I have a Cricut, so I looked up and down and really tried to figure out how to get this program to "print" to the Cricut. It's just that you can't print/cut to the cricut from just any computer program. While Cricut has the design studio....I have a hard time calling it the design studio. You can't add your own straight lines or curvy lines, the shapes you can use are all predetermined. Sure you can skew them, enlarge them, flip them, or weld them, but you can't create them from scratch. This is what I would call a design studio.
So I emailed the stained glass software company last week to see if they would partner up with Cricut, because I can't be the only stained glass person that hates cutting out the patterns. I sure hope that they respond. If not, perhaps I will need to contact Cricut to see if they will allow this.

New Calling

So I received a new calling and it scares me a little bit. I am now the Gospel Doctrine teacher. Yikes!! When he extended the calling, he cautioned me that this calling is important and I am responsible for the spritual nourishment of the ward. He also said they have been praying for inspiration for a new teacher for some time, and my name came up only after I substitued on Mother's Day. He then said that I shouldn't be concerned and about that and I should continue to substitute if asked. He said the bishopric only thought of my name after the lesson, but attributed it to the fact that I have been busy preparing for camp. Now that it is over, my name came to them.

Great!!! I get to teach my boss (who was the Gospel Doctrine teacher), our farm's general manager, the stake president, and our bishopric. No pressure.

I know the calling will be great for my learning, yet it is very scary to know that I am responsible for spiritual nourishment of people that are older than me and have been in the church longer than me and probably have studied the topics more than me.

I survived Girls Camp. By Thursday at 6:00 I was beat. We had to clean up the dining hall, and I could really care less. We had about an hour to clean up the pavillion and little by little my girls were leaving to go back for warm clothes. Our testimony meeting was at 7:00 and we needed warm clothes. Since the dining hall wasn't completely empty yet, we let some go back for warm clothes while others worked. When they returned we let the workings ones leave for warm clothes. It took forever to clean up the dining hall. Partly because I was so tired and I wasn't doing a great job of directing, and partly due to the girls not wanting to participate in chores. The first and second levels were great, it was the third years that were being typical teenagers and not wanting to do anything.

Friday we got up early and took down our tent before anything really started. Our girls were so tired that I almost couldn't get them up at 8:00 for scripture reading. Around 1:15 we finally finsihed with all the camp activities and were packed and ready to go. I had two girls in my car and we took off. By the time we actually hit the paved road 20 minutes later, one was asleep. Another 10 minutes and the second girl was asleep. Pretty soon I started to feel sleepy. I said a quick prayer that I would be awake and alert so we could make it the two more hours back to the church. I kept turning the air conditioner all the way up until I couldn't feel my fingers. The poor girl in the front seat was freezing. Then I would turn the air conditioner down again until I got sleepy again. I also put in a CD so I could sing along with the music. I really needed somthing to drink, but there weren't any gas stations or other places to turn into. I had brough some water from the campground, but that water was disgusting. I didn't realize how bad it was until we were out on the road and I could see it in daylight. The water was a rusty brown clear color.

About 10 minutes south of Chico, I had the air conditioner all the way up and was still sleepy. All of the sudden I heard my name clear as day and opened my eyes. I realized during my last "blink" my eyes didn't come back open. That scared me. I turned up the radio and started talking to the sleepy girls until one responded and talked to me. Pretty soon the other one woke up and we talked for the next 10 minutes until we got to the church. I know the Lord was looking out for us, and the closing camp prayer that one of my girls said was heard and that we were protected on our way home.