dress, 10 yr olds and thermostats, xmas shopping

Melody wrote about our wedding dress shopping foray and I can't improve on it so I'm going to just quote her. It really happened on Friday though.

"SATURDAY, THERE WAS A PRETTY LITTLE GATHERING OF THE GENERAL WOMEN OF THE FAMILY, PLUS JACK, MINUS A FEW SISTERS-IN-LAW. ALL IN ORDER TO GO DRESS SHOPPING FOR A CERTAIN SPECIAL OCCASION. IT WAS A GLORIOUS EVENT, WITH MUCH GIGGLING AND ‘OOH-ING’ AND ‘AHHH-ING,’ AND ‘I BET I HAVEN’T SHAVED MY LEGS LONGER THAN YOU HAVE.’ IT WAS EVERY HOLLYWOOD CLICHE I COULD EVER DREAM OF (WELL, MAYBE MINUS THAT LAST TIDBIT.) AND MY MOTHER LEFT ONE LOVELY WEDDING DRESS RICHER. AFTERWARDS, WE ALL ATE UNTIL WE WERE UNCOMFORTABLE AND THEN SOME."

I find shopping to be draining so I didn't take Marene's advice to keep looking and come back later if I still wanted the dress. I just bought it. It's very gorgeous, not the traditional white thing. And after trying on all those dresses and looking in all those mirrors, I did NOT overeat at the restaurant. I let the young women do that.

This morning, I noticed the house felt warm--it's a rather cold house. Then I remembered that I told Joy yes when she asked if she could turn up the furnace. So I went and looked at the thermostat. Try to guess what a 10 yr old would set it to. Years ago, we shared a house with a neighbor from Ecuador and the thermostat was in her side. She kept it in the 80s which was great until we moved out and the landlord sent us the utility bill for an entire year. Joy had put it to 82 degrees!! Sometimes I'm not too bright. You would think after raising so many kids, I'd be a little quicker to anticipate outcomes.

Words escape me sometimes when trying to say how I really feel. I'm still in the euphoric state of being madly in love. I didn't think that was ever going to happen again. If there was time and space to tell what I've been through the last 2 1/2 years, you would understand when I say that I am so, so thankful to have Keith and I love him more than I can say.

I'm off school and work now for a couple of weeks but so far there's been no rest. I foolishly have not finished my Christmas shopping and the lines in the mall are much longer than I anticipated.

Thanksgiving; funnest three days of my life

Monday morning--back to the grind. I am at work, procrastinating homework just long enough to blog. (I tutor students and if there isn't one at the moment, I am free to be on the computer.)

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with 6 of my kids; the four at home and Richard and Alden and their families. The two of them are nine people now, ten if you count Dallas, the Beagle puppy (AesaLina's baby) who came for Thanksgiving dinner, too :-) My grandchildren are the cutest and the sweetest and pretty smart, too. I know everyone thinks that about their own grandchildren. But they really are :-) I LOVE them!

Then in the afternoon, Melody, Joy and I went to the airport to pick up Keith Chandler. That began the funnest three days of my life. I am a very private person so I won't be writing a bunch of details--even this is hard for me. But my kids love him and he fits right in. My word for it is "familiar" and his is "natural." I took him to the airport last night and he has gone home to Missouri, which will allow me to recover from too much smiling and laughing :-) That was not a joke. I do need to recover :-)

Okay, I know you want to know. Well, some of you. He asked me to marry him. I said yes, more enthusiastically than it comes out in this writing. There's no timetable because a few details need to be worked out. He has to move to Utah for one thing. And we plan to get married in the temple so there are a few details there that make it impossible to know the date right now.

And now, I MUST concentrate on homework which has gotten the short shrift for the last several weeks. Three more semesters! I can do it!

rose-colored glasses

I went to bed last night at 8 pm because I've been so tired lately. Joy and Sam came in and out of my room though to ask important questions for which only a mom will do like, "Can I get on the computer? Melody won't let me use the power cord." And "Can I use the computer now? Joy's on it." Being the warm, caring mom that I am, I handed out helpful answers like, "Have you brushed your teeth? It's bedtime. And shut my door all the way when you go out." They know I love them. :-)

I'm keeping my head above water at school but just barely. It's starting to feel like work. Every time this happens though, the end of the semester looms. The class average on the first half of the last accounting test was 60%. I got 76%. I think that's the lowest I've ever scored on anything. All I have to do is stay at the front of the bell curve though which I usually manage.

So I've been single for a couple of years, as most of you know. The entire time, I've prayed to be invisible to anyone who is not right for me. Anytime someone appeared on the scene who seemed interested, I've prayed, "If I need to be protected from this person, please protect me." In every case, it would become obvious within about 24 hrs that my prayer worked :-)

Until recently. He and I have known each other for about 16 years but only had a real conversation a few months ago. I already knew that he shares my religious convictions, has integrity, and is kind and hard-working. What I didn't know is that he is a writer, articulate and intelligent, more in my league that way than...(cough) other people. With whom I may or may not once have been associated. And he makes me laugh. This might be a small thing to some people but for me it's right below breathing on my life's priority list. We're the same age. He would do anything for me and worships the ground I walk on. I think the rose-colored glasses he views me with are extra-strength. We all have our faults you know. :-) But he's fair. He views everyone that generously. I think of myself as more of a realist which is just code for, 'I'm not that good.' He does live 2 states away. He's coming to visit at Thanksgiving. I'll let you know how it goes.

His name is Keith. If you were ever in the Lebanon Ward, I do mean that Keith. I am as surprised as anyone that it worked out this way.

Precious, but not in a good way

Just took a Finance test and tomorrow is the group Marketing presentation. The semester is more than half over—the time flies. Next week is an Accounting test on 4 chapters and a Marketing test on 6 chapters and then the international business group project, which we’ve done absolutely nothing on. I’m grateful for the university experience because I’ve learned that I can do very hard things. It’s almost as hard as child-rearing :-). In a different way though. If someone asks for a 10 or 20 page report, you learn to just dive in and get it done. And read or reread those chapters, while ignoring laundry and dishes. Okay, that part I could do before college but now, ignoring the housework seems noble.

My kids will tell you that I’m stingy with the thermostat level. I never put it above 68◦ and always turn it down at night to about 62◦. When people complain, I tell them to put on a sweater. But last night was a pretty cold night so I decided to splurge and just leave it at 68. This morning when I went downstairs, I was surprised how cold it was. AAGH! Melody opened the window when she ran on the treadmill and left it open all night! You don’t know how this hurts me. I can’t help it—I’m my father’s daughter. Our house was always cold when I was growing up. I’m pretty sure this contributes to my desire to build a passive solar house one day.

I apologize for the usual gratuitous kid story but here it is: I was driving on the freeway the other evening with Joy in the front seat and 7 yr. old Sam in the back. It’s very dark and quiet and I hear a raspy, throaty voice loudly whisper, “PREEE-CIIIOUSSS.” After the hair on the back of my neck laid back down and after I stopped laughing, I said, “Sam thanks for always providing facebook fodder.” My life is many things but it’s never dull.

Bees, Confessions, and other stuff

I don’t know how much more homework, projects, tests, and reading I can take—but I just found out I only need 31 more credit hours to have a bachelor’s degree in accounting. That’s 12 credit hours next semester, 7 in the summer and 12 in the fall and I’m done in December 2012. If the Mayans are wrong, Dec. 2012 won’t be anticlimactic after all. Marene says we’re having a big party.

Thank you to Richard for putting my new lawnmower together. I mowed the backyard and Joy mowed the front, we pulled weeds, and the yard no longer screams, “WHY does no one love me?” The perennials I planted feed the bees and, somehow, this makes me feel useful and needed in the world. This pic was taken this afternoon. You can see the honey bee in the middle of the picture.

I have one granddaughter who lives far away. This is Melody’s blog about her. I don’t think Melody got her clever genes from me, dang it. http://thislittleaunt.tumblr.com/post/11515318734/aurora-dear I hope she can feel our love from 3 states away. And in other news, Taylor is going to be a dad again sometime in June. I’ve gotta get done with school so I have time for people again.

Confessions:

1. I ate the best homemade cinnamon rolls today and blew my good intentions.

2. I don’t really like chocolate that much. I wonder what’s wrong with me.

3. I love my finance class. I learned how to use the Time Value of Money buttons on the calculator and Wow! Why didn’t I learn this 25 years ago? If you want to know what your retirement account will be in 20 years at various interest rates and payment levels or how much to add to your house payment to cut it to 15 yrs instead of 30, come see me.

4. I’ve missed yard work.

5. I don’t like getting old. I miss my 25 year old body.

6. I miss my mom, too. My heart aches to talk to her again. And I shouldn't leave out my mother-in-law. What a joyful day it will be when I can talk to both of them again.

Have a good day!

The customer is always right?

Fall, again. My mind rebels against the idea of turning on the furnace and wearing a coat, if only because we’ve had warm, sunny days lately. But the house was 59◦ today so even I had to admit that was too cold to not run the furnace.

I’m far enough into the semester to know I’m going to survive and it’s not that hard so far. At first, I could hardly stand my Chinese professor’s lectures. But when he says “trading systerm” and market datar” in the same sentence as “nowerdays,” I hardly notice anymore. Not sure this is a good thing. He’s very smart and knows a lot about economics, foreign trade, currency exchange, etc. but the language barrier keeps him from effectively transmitting the information to most of the class.

Nathan keeps saying funny things and I record them so I won’t forget. His latest was, “Mom, what’s Somalia?”

Me: It’s a country in Africa.

N: No, it’s a disease. It’s in my book. (One second after.) Somalia! It’s really awful.

Me: Somalians might beg to differ. Show me. (totally went over his head, as I knew it would.)

So he looked it up and the word was salmonella. It's not really funny. He has his father's dyslexia. Let's hope he deals with it better.

I had an epiphany today. Background—Monday night, working in the accounting lab, this lady, possibly my same age or older, was trying to print several homework problems but the printer spit out one sheet with all four pages superimposed on each other. There are computer techs we call for such problems but they aren’t there that late (7 pm) so I suggested she try another computer. This instantly annoyed her so I suggested we try to print them one problem at a time. This made her even more mad. She insisted that she had printed them all at once last semester and that’s how she wanted to do it. I was trying to ascertain the reason she wouldn’t print them one at a time so I asked, “Why don’t you want to print them one at a time? Are you trying to save the 5¢…or…” Then she got positively angry, but didn’t answer the question. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that I would print them on my own personal account for her if that was all that was holding her back. Instead, she repeated that she knew it could be done all at once because she’d done it before and she was going to file a complaint against me. I was a little stunned and started to say that I’m not the tech guy but I could have them fix the problem later. This made her hopping mad. I added, not angrily, that I am hired to tutor accounting students. She cut me off mid-sentence with “Well, I would NEVER want you to tutor me!” and stormed out. I felt disconnected somehow, like I was in the twilight zone, unable to understand what just happened. I live in a sheltered world, where people are normal, affable, and kind. I have only rarely had an exchange like this with someone—perhaps 3 or 4 times in my life and always with strangers. (Likely bcs I never worked in fast food or retail.) What made it so strange for me was the idea that if she knew me or anything about my intellect and personality, she wouldn’t have treated me that way. So today, I thought, “What should I have done differently? How am I supposed to react to people like that?” And again, the thought persisted that if she only KNEW me, she’d be terribly embarrassed for the way she treated me. Suddenly I had a mental picture of the Savior being treated much more reprehensibly. If only they had known he was the very Creator, the person with power who could help them immensely. And then the thought in my mind was,”You react the way He did. With kindness, patience and love.” I said out loud, “Ohhh. I get it now—a little bit.” It doesn’t mean I’m suddenly kinder, more patient, or more loving. But, hopefully, I’m one baby step closer to seeing things as they really are.

What's the 'criterior' for getting through life's vicissitudes?

I’m working really hard to just stay behind on my homework. Blogging is getting the short shrift. So to make a long story short, I didn’t submit my paperwork properly for BYU’s accounting program and didn’t realize it until it was too late. They said I could take the senior classes this year instead but there would be no guarantee of getting into the junior core next year. And I would have to take Acc 301 (financial and managerial which I already took at UVU and got As in) and get nothing lower than an A-.

I said, “What if I get a B+?”

“Then you don’t get in. But UVU would probably accept all those senior classes and you could transfer back.”

That would have meant taking 5 classes this semester. I did that once before so I know the stress would be huge and I’d never see my kids. And I had already booked a flight to Missouri and wasn’t going to be around to straighten it out when someone was available at BYU to help me. I had to decide quickly and I’d like to think there was some divine intervention steering me. I was also going to lose my job if I went the BYU route. I think I kind of need it.

So I’m at UVU taking 12 credit hours: Corporate Finance which I really enjoy. I’m afraid it’s going to get much harder though before we’re through if my friends Jeff H., Mark D. and Shelia C. are correct; Intermediate Accounting—seems to come easy to me compared to normal people. Or maybe it’s because I’ve worked in the lab and have done the homework from financial and managerial many times over in the tutoring process; Marketing—it’s okay but not my favorite thing; and International Business. I like int’l bus. but my professor is from China so he’s hard to understand. He got a master’s degree at Harvard so he puts r’s on the end of words that don’t have them. Some examples of things he says are—“systerm” for system. Ooh, Word doesn’t like my spelling. “Criterior” for criteria, “wire me” for Wyoming, “quoter” for quota, etc. I get a little distracted from the topic at hand, writing down the funny things he says.

I also moved to Orem two days before the semester started (by the way, I don’t recommend this) about 4 blocks from my friend Kathy Benson—but I haven’t even called to tell her because it’s been so crazy busy. I guess I’m not that great of a friend. She’s working on a bachelor’s degree, too so she hasn’t noticed my delinquency. I’ll try to make it up to you when I graduate, Kathy and anyone else I’m neglecting. That would be Victoria, Ben, Ben’s little brother, Jack; Claudya, William; Tad and Aurora; and possibly some of their parents, my sons and daughters-in-law. Sorry, this is as fast as I can run, at the moment.

So life is good. I hesitate to mention anything of a religious or spiritual bent (I’ll leave that to my friend Sariyd.) Let me say that there is real unseen power. It operates in my life, even though I’m one small speck of humanity and this brings me joy. Hardship and pain make their appearance, too but I feel unspeakable gratitude for the good things.