What Happened When I Was Saying My Prayers

More rain today.  So lovely.  I got all the laundry done.  Made 24 more pints of salsa.  We go through a lot of it.  But hey, it has lots of healthy veges, right?  Christine had the first day of lacrosse tryouts.  Even though she already has a spot, everyone still has to try out.  She was nervous and I was too.  Mom's are like that.  I tried a new recipe for dinner:  Sweet and Sour Chicken.  It was quite good, and fast and easy.  Nice and warm and comforting on a day like this.

What I really want to write today is what happened to me last night while I was saying my prayers. Please be kind--I am human after all.

A friend of mine has a hard time being happy unless everything is her way or her perception of what is right.  She is an awesome gal, super talented, but very rigid.  That quality often serves her well but can also be her weakness.  Anyway--

Her family had some exciting news she wanted to share so she sent an email.  I quicky responded with all my love and best wishes and congratulations.  It truly was great news for them.  I was genuinely happy for them.  She sent back a LENGTHY email explaining all the reasons why they are wonderful and successful, etc.  It was comparable or worse than those gaggy Christmas letters people send out in their cards. (Sorry, I really don't care for those, but that is another post.)

I was irked, miffed, mad, angry, peeved, hurt, shocked, at a loss for words.  I totally was going to mention this in my prayers!  I was offended.

I like to pray at night after everyone else has gone to bed and the house is quiet and dark.  So I began.  The email reply was uppermost in my thoughts, but the 'little person in white' on my shoulder kept whispering:  count your blessings.  Yeah, I know the proper steps of prayer.  Thanks/gratitude first.  Okay.  Okay.  I am thankful for.....and I rattled off a few things.

The 'little person in red' on my other shoulder kept whispering:  okay you've been thankful now.  On to the email!  But the 'little person in white' whispered more urgently:  C'mon now Cindy.  You have more blessings than that!  Yes, yes I do.  Okay.  I am grateful for.......and more things came to my mind.

This repeated itself several times until all of a sudden right in the middle of my prayer, I realized that I wasn't even thinking about the awful email anymore.  I was so focused on blessings and my appreciation for the Lord's hand in the details of my life that my bitterness and feelings of offense melted away and I wasn't upset anymore.  As I knelt there just silently taking it all in and understanding what was happening I had another thing to give thanks for:  how acknowledging my blessings to God actually took the bad feelings away and replaced them with some compassion for my friend instead. 

Now, I am human after all, and the email reply still comes once in a while to my thoughts, and if I'm truthful, it still irks me a bit.  But, not like it had before and I am quicker to let go of it. 

Here I am at 54 and still learning all the time. (chuckle...)

Loved Today

Today was practically perfect in every way.  Not that it played itself out perfectly, but it felt perfect in my heart.  The weather was cold and rainy = cozy.  The Primary Children performed their program which was inspiring and uplifting:  I Know My Savior Lives.  I attended the Family History computer class again and cleaned up more of our current records.  Then Leigh gave a really good lesson in RS on the organization of the church.  This year the lessons are so basic.  I've thought about this a lot.  Why would the Lord want us to go back to such foundational doctrines?  My conclusion is to strengthen our testimonies because the world and life have all the signs prophesied that are coming true for the last days and we need to be strong no matter what.

We had tacos for dinner and Christine made a fantastic pound cake with an orange glaze.  Boy, this girl is getting very good in the kitchen!

Discovery

It has been cold and drizzly-rainy now for a couple of days.  I'm loving it.  Today we got the weekly marketing done, spiffed up the house, and Duff and I straightened up the south garage.  We all just seem to put things in there when we don't know what to do with them or when they don't seem to find their way to their 'place' or if they are waiting for a 'place'.  Haha.  It's the California version of a basement.

Since we were going through things, I had Duff get down all the empty boxes for our canning jars up above the cupboards so I could go through them.  Oh dear.  Surprise!  They were completely filled with empty quart jars.  WHAT?  Yep.  So I set up a card table and sorted through all of them by wide or regular mouth, Ball or Kerr and repacked them and labeled all the boxes with masking tape and a sharpie.  Not counting all the filled quarts that I just did in AZ, we have 13 dozen empty quart jars!  Duff was like, "Where did we get all these jars!?"  I reminded him when we were first married and living in my parents Orem house it was on 3/4 of an acre and had a huge orchard in the front and we canned our brains out during summer and fall.

There was a huge non-thorn raspberry patch.  Peach trees.  Apricot trees.  Grape vines.  Apple trees.  Cherry trees.  And around them all we grew the most amazing gardens.  It seemed like every week I was buying another box or two of jars.  We were poor young married college students with two babies and we lived on that orchard and garden.  And so we still have all those jars and they have gone with us during every move.

I have about an equal amount of each brand so I'm going to keep all the Ball jars here and take the Kerr jars to the cabin.  Now I know I don't need to buy bottles anymore there.  They are all in perfect condition.  They just need some new rings and seals.  I'm going to replace them with the new polished silver ones.  They look really nice!  Out with the gold.  The change in trends is always interesting.

Any suggestions on what else I should fill my newly discovered empty jars with?  Oak Glen apples are ready.  Maybe applesauce (we go through a lot of that). Does anyone have a good apple pie filling that can be bottled?

On another canning note:  During this early married time in my life, I used to do things a lot with my Auntie Dolene (Darlene).  We were just 13 years apart, and I was having my first babies while she was having her last.  We would get together each season and can.  She taught me a lot of tips and tricks standing at her kitchen sink.  We did pears and peaches and tomatoes and carrots and green beans. She made the best bread and butter pickles.  We laughed and talked and tried to solve the world's problems.  I loved to go to her basement into her fruit room.  It was cool and dark with wall to wall shelves from the floor to the ceiling full of her harvest preservation for the coming year.  No window; and I loved pulling the string to turn on the light and see everything in perfect order. Nothing was out of place in that room.  The summer of 1980 when Josh was born she and a neighbor did all my green beans and carrots since I had a nursing newborn.  I drove to her house ready to can with a toddler and baby and all their gear in tow and when I walked in she surprised me with filled bottles and packed boxes.  So we spent the day visiting instead.  I will never forget that.  We had roast chicken leftovers and two pieces of yellow cake with chocolate frosting for lunch that she had saved for us.  Good memory.

Parent's Day or Back To Seminary Morning! (haha)

This morning was Parent's Day at Seminary.  So dark and early we were up to get ready.  Oooo.  I'm not naturally a morning person, but did okay.  I was make-up'd and hair done too. 

Christine has a really wonderful teacher and assistant to help with scripture mastery.  We are so thankful for their sacrifice to prepare and teach so early every morning!  Where we live, it is a stake calling, not part of the church's paid CES program and the high school kids attend in the early morning hours before school, not during the day as in other areas as part of a time release agreement with the schools.

She meets this year in the primary room with the large chairs set up in a U shape.  I liked it.  There is a good feeling in her classroom.  They are studying the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History.

The teacher asked for a volunteer to help conduct.  I thought he meant the lead the song.  But it was to conduct the class/lesson, one part of which was to lead the opening song.  They have these cool rhymes for the reference and clue for the scripture mastery scriptures!  They were really fun.  I think I just might use those too!

I looked around the room and it was fun to see my friends there so dark and early too supporting their high school sophomores.  We're all in this together.

What a great way to start the day!

Am I The Last To Know?

How come I never knew about Rubino's?  Mike knew.  Duff knew.  Adrianne knew.  But now I do, and I have to say it is just about the best pizza I have ever eaten!  Fresh sauce, fresh dough made every day.  They make your pizza when you order it.  I ordered it over the phone, but they didn't make it until I got there to pick it up.  It was still totally hot and fresh by the time we got it home.  Amazing.

Our ward was having a fund raiser there.  Every so often the local restaurants will give back a percentage of your order to our youth program.  This week was at Rubino's. 

Christine drove me to pick it up.  I hardly do any driving these days.  She takes every opportunity to get behind 'the wheel'.  We pulled in and parked right next to the J. Taylors.  They were dining in and then on their way to their back to school night.  It was fun to visit while we waited for our order.

Ballpark Pizza has always been my favorite, but now I know it has some serious competittion!

(Chris had speech this afternoon.  She is making good progress.  She doesn't have any speech problems which is a miracle because of her bi-lateral tongue thrust.  The orthodontist discovered it as the main reason her braces are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.  Now that we know, it is easy to tell.  Even the speech therapist said it is amazing that she doesn't have any speech or chewing problems.  But that tongue swallows the wrong way and pushes her front teeth out and her back teeth sideways.  Who knew?  We found a GREAT speech therapist right here in RSM.  The exercises are really interesting and really work!  They are actually very simple and kind of fun.  I just marvel each week when she goes how cool this is, and what a great thing it is that there are people who understand this and have it as their job!  Duff's sister, Jan, has her master's in speech pathology.  If we lived close, we would have had her be the therapist.  We can already see a difference in her teeth.  Yay!)

Tradition Passed On

Friday, Christine and I stopped at Josh and Meredith's on our way home from school pick up.

Patti was there and Mere's cousin, Erin.  JT saw us pull into the drive-way and bolted out the front door to greet us  You could smell 'it' from the street:  Taco Sauce!

Meredith and Josh have had some taco parties and everyone loves this sauce.  But be careful:  it is NOT a salsa.  It is HOT.  This is an old family recipe that I can't give out until my mama 'goes', because she is very protective of it.  (Which is totally not me, because I am a 'recipe sharer', but that is another post for another day.)  Patti and Erin loved it so much that they wanted some for their own pantries and Meredith was a great teacher.  We like to freeze our sauce, but Patti wanted to bottle hers and it turned out fine.  (My sis, Sue, has always bottled hers too.  It is a good idea if you don't have freezer space.)

And now the taco sauce tradition is passed on again for more to love and enjoy and add to their own families.  You did good, Merzy!

We had a good visit with everyone, and Christine was in heaven playing with Erin's baby.  Meredith has their place all decked out for Halloween and it looks and feels amazing.  She has worked hard at getting all those bins and boxes unpacked and put away from the move, especially since she has 2 jobs!  But their place is warm and has a good feeling.

Chilean Miners Rescued!

On August 4 of this year, the San Jose Mine in Copiapo,Chile collapsed.  For 17 days no one knew if the miners were dead or alive until an 8 inch hole with a prob from the top made it down to them and they sent up a note letting rescue workers know that all 33 of them were alive and well.  Amazing!  It was first thought that they would not be able to reach the miners for a rescue until Christmas time, but with help from all over the world and their own resourcefullness all 33 men made it out alive.  Last night they sent down a rescue worker and a medic and some paramedics to get the men ready and help them strap into pressure stockings. a vitals sensor to go around their abdomens and sunglasses to protect their eyes. Also a drink provided by NASA to prevent nausea and vomiting on their way up the 2400 feet (1/2 mile) in the missle like looking capsule.  It was 21 inches wide.  Some of the men had to lose 22 pounds in order to fit into it.

These are just a few pictures to record briefly what happened.  I think this is quite a historical event and I was alive during it.  I have been glued to the tv all last night and today.  I found myself emotional when each man came up.  I was a little surprised at that, because I thought it might get a little boring.  Not one bit!  Each time that capsule came up with one of the miners I was cheering along with those on the scene.

Some of my thoughts:  33 lives brought together for 69-70 days underground.  Each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  For one, it was his third time to be be in a mine collapse.  I think it was providence that he was among them.  They would have needed his optimism and experience of being rescued to keep them hopeful.  They each brought something to the experience to help the other.  They had to work together to survive.  They worked to ration their emergency food, get organized. One wrote poetry for them to capture their feelings.  A couple had therapy/counseling skills and helped the men battle depression and hopelessness.  Some were in charge of communication; the food; sanitation.  The last one up was the man who took over the leadership role.  He seems to be beloved among them all.  How does one summon that kind of strength?  I think I would have gone crazy.  He rationed the lights and created daytime and nighttime so there would be some kind of schedule and time management.  Another was in charge of exercising so they could stay fit.  Pretty incredible.  There is no question in my mind that God was watching over them and all those who participated in any way in the rescue.

I just wanted to be sure and write this down.

'Dillas'

Bacon-Jalapeno Quesadillas
"Mad Hungry" host Lucinda Scala Quinn developed this easy recipe exclusively for "The Martha Stewart Show" season premiere, with input from her bacon-loving sons.

Ingredients
Makes 4.

Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese
1 (12- to 16-ounce) package thinly sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup pickled jalapenos, finely chopped
Sour cream, for serving

Directions
1.Lightly coat a medium skillet with olive oil or nonstick cooking spray and heat over high heat. Place 1 tortilla on a work surface and sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese. Top with 1/4 of the bacon and 1 tablespoon jalapenos; top with a second tortilla.

2.Carefully transfer to skillet and cook until bottom tortilla is browned and cheese is melted, about 2 minutes. Turn and continue cooking until browned and filling is hot, about 2 minutes more. Transfer quesadilla to a cutting board and repeat process with remaining tortilla, cheese, bacon, and jalapenos.

3.Cut quesadillas into wedges and serve immediately with sour cream.

Mad Hungry

I haven't watched Martha in a really long time. Not really interested.  But I noticed she had moved to the Hallmark channel and one day I happened on to it.    I've liked her new shows.  She had one of her cooks/recipe inventors on one of the first new episodes.  A lady named Lucinda Scala Quinn.  Lucinda had one of her young adult sons with her and they were making quesadillas.  Man, did they look and sound good.  Very simple too, so I decided to try them.  We had those for dinner tonight and they were very good.  Bacon and Monterey Jack Cheese with some pickled jalapenos (which I forgot to put on mine).  We garnished with avocados and salsa.

Lucinda has a cooking show each day called Mad Hungry.  The name comes from when you are just so hungry you've got to eat, and she has three sons who get 'mad hungry'.  Having 3 sons of my own I decided to watch a few episodes.  You know what:  I really like the show.  Lucinda is real.  She cooks for families and brings them all to the table to be together.    Bringing back the family meal is her motto.  I like that.  It's my style too.  So check out her show on the Hallmark channel.  She also has a cookbook.  I think I'm going to put it on my Christmas list...

(I planned to get so much done today and it just didn't happen.  I don't know why it's taking me so long to get things done or why I keep getting interrupted so much???  Christine stayed at school for an extra points project for AP Euro History so I didn't have to pick her up until 5pm.  Then we went straight to the Minute Clinic for her sports physical.  Yay.  I am glad to have that done, finally.  It was one of those things that has just been hanging over my head to get done and now it is. Yes.) 

Sunday 10-10-10 At A Glance

Today is a very unique day.  October 10,2010 or 10-10-10.  Won't see that again!

Quiet day.  Normal Sunday things.  Duff and I have talked and decided we are going to get more committed to our family history/genealogy.  This means we started going to that class for the Sunday School hour.  It was surprising how little is recorded.  We learned that they have changed the new Family Search again recently and a lot of information still hasn't been updated or current.  I don't know exactly what that means, but I do like the fact that I can log on at home and work on it here as well as get instruction and help at the church.  I also like that anyone can change incorrect information.  You don't have to go back to the original contributor.  That is good because there has been some very wrong dates that can be made right now without having to go all the way back to Germany.  It was exciting to see things there.  Interesting though, Duff's mom's information was very incomplete, Jack wasn't even listed as one of his siblings, so he was able to fix that.  My parents weren't married and I was able to fix that.  We will learn more each week.

RS was great.  I loved the presidency's message.  What is or has been our 'mighty change of heart'?  Do we seek for them to strengthen us and/or look back on them to keep us on track?  It was filled with the spirit.  I have had some of those experiences at different times in my life.  I shared one and then thought about the others.  I realized that I need to draw more from them when I am feeling low from going through challenging times.  And when new ones happen I need to recognize them for that.

Roast beef dinner and a chocolate cake later.

Rain Or Shine

Our beloved Cougars had a much needed win today.  It sounds so cliche:  rebuilding.  Even to me;  I don't care for that term.  It kind of sounds like an 'excuse' or something.  But we are obviously not doing well.  I don't know that letting the defensive coordinator go was the right answer, unless the issues run deeper, which has been eluded to.  How can it be a defensive problem when we have receivers who can't seem to hang on to the ball?  Especially in the end zone....  That being said.

Fans can be so fair-weathered.  I am  not one of those.  Rain or shine, win or lose, I love the BYU Cougars.

It's not just football--although I love college football.  BYU is close to my heart.

Maybe it's because I went to school there.  I still need to graduate.  Maybe it's because I met my hubby there, had our first two kids while he was finishing school.  We were so young and so poor and so naive and so happy!  Maybe it's the Y on the mountain.  Maybe it's because it was my first real experience living away from home where I gained some independence and learned a lot of life lessons when I was 18.  Maybe it's because I love that cheesy cougar growl when they get a first down.  Maybe it's because when I was growing up we lived so far away from anything 'church headquarter' related that we treasured anything that connected us to it.  It was like an anchor.  Being connected to school and our religion together of which we were clearly a minority.  It was something to be so proud of.  And we were.

Keep it up Cougars.  I'm still cheering for ya!

(We had a great ward progressive dinner.  It was a build your own burrito/taco bar.  We were assigned to Brad Arrington's.  That guy had all his Halloween decorations out and it was really cool.  Great to visit with everyone and then we all met next door for dessert.)

Bobby Did It

Robert got his bar exam results this afternoon and HE PASSED!  Good job.  He also got a job yesterday.  Things are coming together for their little family.  It's been long and hard, but they have hung in there and now they are on to a new phase of life.

CONGRATULATIONS, ROBERT!  You did it!

We love you--