B.A. Happy Place

You know, it's a little hard to attend an event for the YW/YM when you haven't even been informed about it! Sheesh, people!

CC and AJ went to the Church as usual and discovered several youth and their parents in attendance for some presentation. (They were from the other ward that has recently joined up with our youth group in an effort to build numbers. Don't even get me started...) Anyway, the grand total of YW from our ward was ONE=my daughter. YM from our ward was about a handful, but none of them had parents in attendance either. Only the other ward seemed to have been notified and showed up.

Anyway, the upshot of it was that the presentation was a farce (the guy giving a demo on computers couldn't get his to play a slideshow....you can fill in the details) and the kids were glad when it mercifully ended. They told me it was no big deal that I wasn't there but you know what, I try hard to support the program and leaders. Had I known about it I would have been there, regardless of the lame-ness. Really.

Note to self: if you want people to come, you must tell them about it!

Times are changing along with the demographic here. The youth used to be cohesive and attendance was regular. But today, next to nobody shows. So sad and such a waste.

I'm hungry for some of Stone's bean dip. He makes this mean baking sheet filled with beans, guacamole, sour cream, tomatoes, cheese, olives.... You take some tortilla chips and scoop up a little bit of heaven!

Housing at B.A.

Hey, I met someone that I knew when I was a girl in B.A. She sat down in the seat next to me in my last class of the day and began talking to me as one mom-going-back-to-school to another. Soon the conversation turned to where we've lived and narrowed down right to the very place that I loved the most in my youth! Her family and our family were members of the Church and held Primary in each others' homes. I have photos of our families together, so I brought them to class for her to see. She was shocked! The memories began to flow and as I reminded her of places and names it was fun to watch her reaction. She is a few years younger than I but she did recall several of the events that I recounted.

Whaddaya know 'bout dat?! Pretty cool.

I loved B.A. I still love B.A. It's my happy place.

Sputter

One midterm, 2 projects, 6 current event reports, 5 quizzes, 2 labs and 4 papers later....

I'm still alive. My crankiness has tripled. Envelopes are being pushed.

Got a call from school telling me the donors of my scholarship want to meet me at a date and time they have set. When I told the caller that I have classes during that time she was annoyed. It was certainly the least I could do-to skip my life and meet the generous donors who make my schooling possible. Really? A scholarship means they own my butt? I don't think so. Thanks for the cash, thanks for the help, let me attend the classes you are paying for so I don't flunk them. Geniuses.....I'm sure they'll live. Or will they? The caller said she'd talk to the donors and re-schedule another reception. Great. You do that. I'll hold my breath too.

Today I went out and wandered through a Dollar Store in the neighborhood. That's how desperate I am for a diversion. Who needs that many figurines, anyway? People actually buy the crap in there? Yeah, they buy it and stand in long snaking lines waiting for their chance to plunk down there cash for China's latest piece of crap export. Sad and raggedy.

News around our place:
AJ had great success today at the Nebo Band Competition. OHSMB came in 2nd! Nicely done. Now he can spend some time with a snow shovel clearing a path in his room.

CC spent her weekend with her group of friends and enjoyed watching the MV High football team win! Thank goodness we keep in contact with cell phones or I'd hardly see her anymore.

Chance still sheds like a mother on everything we own. His tuna breath isn't helping smooth things over either.

Tracey still manages to ramp up his needy-ness at every opportunity. If I move a muscle he is on his feet, wagging his tail and pleading to go with me wherever I'm heading. Heaven forbid I shift my weight on the couch. It sets him off into a panic.

I emailed my brother Shep to ask him for some reading suggestions to help me pull myself out of a blues slump. His reply began by telling me to read the Series of Unfortunate Events because those kids REALLY had problems... Wow. He went on to say reading the scriptures and related supplemental manuals were helpful and he also gave me the names of a few psych books I could try. SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS is the name I already perform under, dude!

Soda called me this week again. He gave me updates about his kids and grandkids because I asked him how they were. Nik is in CA with her kids. Kelc is moving out with her son soon. TJ and wife live in their basement. Dyl is having enormous success in Chihuahua. Kourt plays soccer and Soda hopes she will go to college.

LL and hubby are going on a cruise. I know this from FB posts they make.

JW's son Vic was in a band performance on the football field where he lives. The photos were on FB. Go Vic!

Jus's oldest daughter went to her first prom. Saw the pics of that on FB too.

Sent an email to my dad. It came back. I guess that's that.

I need to watch Pride and Prejudice for a few hours to unwind. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth speak to me.

A nephew from the "other side" called me by mistake and wished me a happy birthday until he realized he had dialed the wrong aunt. He told me to have a happy b'day whenever it comes around and he hung up. Touching sentiment, isn't it? Just warms the heartstrings how that family draws me in and makes me feel wanted and loved. {insert puke here}

Anybody say ugly illegitimate red-headed step child? I could have sworn I heard it.

Marching Band Family Night

AJ rocked the stadium.

OHSMB showed 'em how it's done.

BOOOO-Yaaaaaa!

*help*

Can't breath

memorizing and formulas

midterms already?

Shoot me now.

Three Realms of Law, Light & Life

Click pic to watch.

My Saturday Evening

Of course I watched Napoleon Dynamite with AJ tonight.

What do you think?

Thanks for ruining my life!

Gosh!

One Point Squeaker

So Stone invited us to hang out and watch the game with him today. AJ was busy (YM service in someone's yard removing old tree roots...) and CC had a babysitting gig (a long-standing client). Stone said, "You're welcome to just come by yourself then." Well, we all know how that ended. We didn't go over. But I have to say, it was nice to be invited because it's been a long time since we've had a get-together or anything.

The game was a victory for the Cougs. One point is all it took. A squeaker, but a victory, nonetheless.

-

Soda called to check up on me today. He always asks how things are and if anything is new. "Still treading water, but my arms are getting tired," is what I answered. He asked me if the sharks were beginning to circle. My answer: sharks don't want any of this. Usually he asks if I've heard from anyone in the family and I give him the scoop as I know it.

He told me one of his daughters moved to Calif and took her kids with her. That means that he hasn't had to be a babysitter for the grandkids so regularly. She will be coming back for a "visit" over the weekend. Cross your fingers that she will actually just "visit".

Yet another daughter has moved back in with him, with her little boy. His son and dau-in-law moved in with him a few months back and they are expecting their first baby. I guess just as he begins to get out from under, they pull him back in, huh. His youngest son is having amazing success in Chihuahua, baptizing the citizens right and left. Some missions can be like that. Patience thy name is Soda.

-

Wanna hear about a miracle? I got an email today from BYU telling me to check my financial account online for a message. It turns out that I've been awarded a 2nd scholarship from out of the blue! All I had to do was click the box that said "accept". Typically I'd be waiting for the other shoe to fall but in this case I just said thankyou. {Yes, I felt my eyes get wet with joy and some relief.} Can you believe it? A grant and two scholarships to help us get through the school year. We keep on squeakin' on!

-

Tell me something good. Tell me, tell me, tell me.

212 Degrees

Edu-ma-cation!

Don't ya just hate teachers that fill the syllabus with busy work? This amount of baloney could choke a person. For real. I spent one class period with this lady and realized I would literally suffocate if I ever went back for another class.

And the crappy part was the fact that she was bragging about how she is part-time faculty and she's been doing this for FIFTEEN YEARS! Oh, the poor schmucks who have slogged their way through that pool of ridiculous...

Add insult to injury, the texts (that's right, I said text(S) were a whopping $105.00!! Criminal.

Well, she has three TA's (overkill, don't you think?) and they do all the work and make all the rules. But the clincher was when she told us that we who are proud of our country and think it is pretty great were going to have to re-think that during the course of her class and come to another conclusion at the end. What the heck? Really? Seriously?

I couldn't drop that class fast enough!!! It hit the cyber-trashcan faster than a june bug on a Mississippi windshield. Selling the text(S) back was the highlight of my afternoon, I'll tell you right now.

Thank goodness there was another section available with a different professor. Shoot! He's got a personality and he actually cares that you enjoy the subject a little. And get this: his "text" is a 25 page printout of pertinent material to the subject that cost a whole $9.90. Oh, and we need to make sure we have access to a world atlas later on in the semester for some assignment work. Period.

Yeah, so anyways....

I'm down to three days a week, full-time status instead of 5 days a week. I can breath a little now.

Look, I know I'm blessed to be able to even go to school, and even more blessed to go to BYU. Not to mention the fact that between a scholarship and a grant my tuition is paid (for full-time only). Believe me, I'm very grateful. But I'm even more grateful that somebody bailed out of the good class and left me an opening in the nick of time to keep my full-time hours up to snuff.

The way things look now, I can actually accept sub jobs on my non-school days and maybe have a semblance of an income while I go to school. Whaddaya think about dat? Outstanding!