My Offering Is Accepted..

We attended the Young Women camp silent auction tonight. It was well done - door prizes, entertainment, good food, lots to buy. The young women had contributed items, but ward members were also involved in donating. I hadn't been to one of these fund raisers before, so I didn't know what to expect. There were some handmade items, a twin mattress, some games, a photo shoot, Mary Kay cosmetics, meals, cinnamon rolls, a baby blanket. I acquired the most unusual item. One of the young men had made roses out of duct tape. He stood back from the crowd and watched the reaction to his roses. To me he said, "I sure hope someone buys those, because I made them." I didn't know what I would do with duct tape roses, so I didn't sign auction sheet. As I ate my dinner, I realized that I really needed to buy them. The minimum bid was $5, but I figured they were "worth" at least twice that. I was the only bidder.

I haven't figured out where to keep them, but every time I see them I will remember Colton and his desire to have his contribution accepted and appreciated. Aren't we all like that? Some of us are not so open as to admit, "I sure hope someone buys those" but everyone one of us needs to feel like we are enough.

Thanks, Colton! The message was well worth the ten bucks.

A Storyteller

We've been to several viewings lately. Tonight it was for Jim Bishop - a member of the ward when Steve was bishop. His death was quite a shock. His wife said, "If anybody else says 'He was needed on the other side more than he was needed here', I'm going to punch them. I needed him here." I understand the sentiment. I suppose the comment is supposed to make you feel better, but we understand so little of the 'other side', it is hard to make a compelling case that he was needed more. Plus, the Lord's time moves so quickly compared to ours - he maybe only needed ten more minutes in the Lord's time to make it until a ripe old age.

In talking with the sons, it was interesting to find out what they were doing. One is a surveyor, like his dad. One designs solar panels. One is a storyteller. I wasn't sure what he meant. While I know what storytellers do, I wasn't sure how you make your living as one - unless you teach storytelling at the university. No, he doesn't teach. He just tells stories - around the campfire, at Halloween, at family gatherings. Who knew? He said the recession hasn't been good for business. I'm fascinated. A story teller. That is an awesome profession.

Taking in Dinner

I think "taking in dinner" is a Mormon tradition. Today was my turn to take in dinner to a family whose month old baby is back in the hospital with RSV. When our RS president asked me to bring in a meal, she said, "When the baby was born, I didn't feel like we did enough for the family. This will give us a chance to be of more service."

Since I work until five most days, getting dinner to a family by six isn't the easiest. I woke up early and got Lori Hurst's Crispy Parmesan chicken fixed. (I love that recipe.) I made a raspberry jello salad recipe as well. I left work a half hour early (as we needed to stop by Alda's to take in the garbage can) and arrived home just in time to throw the chicken in the oven. I made ice cream pudding, Alfredo pasta, and thawed rolls from Sunday. I planned how to get everything there without using dishes that would have to be returned. I gathered everything in the car and showed up on their doorstep.

What happened next was pretty funny. The husband said, "Oh, I didn't know you were bringing dinner. We were just eating cold cereal." And they were! I guess he thought that sounded funny so he said, "Oh, this is really just after school snacks (that they were eating at six p.m.- ooookkkay), we're happy to eat what you brought." His wife was in the hospital with the baby. I'm sure she just forgot to tell him that dinner was being brought it.

Funny that I didn't even care they didn't need dinner. I think we bring in dinner to show love, so hopefully they found the love. :-)

Fake it Til You Make It

Someone challenged me to do something nice every day. Shortly after receiving that challenge, the Young Women camp director announced a fund raiser in which they auction off contributions made by ward members. I thought, "A nice person would make something special for the fund raiser." I thought, "Well, I am not that nice." But then I decided I could pretend to be nice - 'fake it until I made it'.

Anyway, with that in mind, I decided to make a "game quilt" for a Mountain Crest fan. Here it is!

Janis Ian

We went to see Janis Ian last night as part of a collection of performances we bought tickets to. She is a folk singer from the sixties. She is my age, almost exactly. SO, tell me I don't look this old.

The event was poorly attended - maybe a third full.

The performance was an interesting one. Her songs were all stories, "At Seventeen" and "Society's Child" were ones my friends recognized from the sixties. I only recognized the first. At the time she wrote them, they were quite controversial. She told of being booed off the stage because of Society's Child. She had an interesting perspective on growing up in the sixties - racial bias, Viet Nam, the role of women.

Her perspective on being lesbian was insightful. She talked about being married in Toronto to her partner of twenty years. She had felt it was "just a piece of paper", but was very moved by the experience. She said, "Finally, our relationship was accepted by a nation." I appreciated understanding that emotion.

I will never forgive her for using the f-bomb in a song. Her manager had asked her, "Can you do your show in Logan Utah?" She knew she was playing before a conservative audience, yet didn't care. I just don't understand why people feel the need to use that word!

The four state tour

It's a real for state tour - Starting out in Utah, spending several days in Arizona, a night in New Mexico and a night in Colorado.

Mesa Verde is truly amazing. The extent of the building is incredible. Some of the complexes had more than fifty rooms. Four storied towers, round subterranean kivas, round lookouts, impressive masonry – everywhere you looked were impressive sights. The cliff dwellings were amazing as they were neither accessible from the mesa top not the valley bottom. They evidently went to and from the dwellings via foot and hand holes pecked into the rock. I’m guessing babies didn’t leave until they were several years old, or there were a lot of unfortunate accidents.

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The cliff dwellings were in the minority. Pithouses were more common. The architecture allowed both air flow and storage of grains and game. The museum was really nice. I was impressed with the weaving of clothing and sandals. They weaved yucca fibers, human hair, and feathers. There was an intricate doll board and even a child’s tea set. Woven sandals were impressive as well. Yucca fibers were boiled or soaked and then pounded to expose the inner fibers. These fibers were also used to produce rope, snares, mats, baskets, belts, and much more. Yucca plants were also used as a food source and as a source of soap made from the roots. The way the plants were used in so many ways was amazing.

The dioramas of Indian life were so well done, a stark contrast from the ones the kids had to do for social studies projects.















This is the Cliff Palace. I'll post some of our pictures when we get home, but this will have to do for now...

Chaco Culture National History Park

On Friday, we went to Chaco Culture National History Park. It was about 60 miles from Farmington, New Mexico - thirteen of which was on a dirt road. The ruins were like nothing I have ever seen. They were used by the Hopi and other Indian groups between 850 and 1150 AD. The great houses were built for ceremonial purposes. There were numerous kivas (Hopi for ceremonial chamber) throughout the complex. Kivas are round, below ground structures with a bench around the edges. In the middle are floor vaults which are used for a variety of purposes. They can be filled with sand and used as a foot drum where natives would dance and have the sounds carried through the ground. Sometimes they were used to store seed. In each kiva was a fire pit and deflector. There were four seating pits to hold braces for the roof. While we saw no roofs, drawings showed them to be crosshatched with smaller timber.

The buildings themselves were free standing structures, composed of numerous rooms, some multi-story. One complex of rooms could be three acres. The walls were formed with a sandstone and mortar combination looking much like stone or brick walls. They termed the construction “core and veneer” as the center of the two foot thick walls was filled with rubble. Along the backside of the buildings were round holes about nine inches in diameter at regular spacings. They held logs that extended over the rooms as roofs and out the backside as support for balconies. The site was discovered around 1849 and the balconies were in place until early 1900’s when they were scavenged for fire wood.

The wood for construction was transported from forests up to 60 miles away. Wood was cut, trimmed, peeled, and left to dry out for a year so transportation was easier. The ends were cut flush and sanded with a stone tool. They figure 26,000 trees were transported into the area for building purposes. They can use scientific methods to date the trees, telling when they were cut and, in some cases, where it came from.

Dirt had been moved to build up the plaza to twelve feet above ground level, either for prominence or to control damage from flooding.

At Chetro Ketl, there is evidence of Mexican influence in the architecture – as there is a colonnade (virtually nonexistent in the Puebloan Southwest). (See the picture below.) It is characteristic of the Toltec culture from 700 to 1000 AD in Chihuahua Mexico. Trade existed between Paguime and Chaco at that time – so possibly architectural ideas were exchanged as well.

Evidence of irrigation ditches is found. Most of the rainfall occurs in the summer, so it seems the Chacoan used the ditches to transport the water to storage ponds and fields. The canyon is at the base of mesas. There is evidence of ladders and handholds in the rock where the Chacoan climbed to the top of the mesa where they could follow roads to a variety of locations all around the four corners region.

The petroglyphs were also interesting. They are created in several ways. Incised designs are carved with a sharp instrument. Some are pecked using hammerstones and a striker (for precision). Some of the areas had been first smoothed using an abrasive stone. They also used paints to create their images. They ground up minerals such as calcium carbonate (white), hematite and ochre (red), and charcoal (black) and mixed them with a binder such a plant or animal oils, eggs, blood, or urine to adhere paint to the surface. I kept wondering if Dad had ever seen these ruins. He would have loved them!

Many of the ruins have not even been excavated. They are filled with sand and look like small mounds.

If you haven’t seen the ruins, it is definitely worth the trip.

Jerome, Train Ride, Blazin M Ranch

Chapel of the Holy Cross

This working chapel in Sedona had the cutest gift shop.

Many of the items had a religious flair. My favorite was a plaque containing this message.

Do you know what would have happened if it had been Three Wise Women instead of Three Wise Men? They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, brought practical gifts and there would be Peace On Earth

Sedona - Red Rocks State Park

Spur of the moment

I guess its the week for spur of the moment decisions. We decided at 6:35 to go to the BYU Men's Chorus performance that started at 7 tonight. The tabernacle was packed. We wouldn't have even gotten in except for they created a new front row of folding chairs. Steve got stuck on the side, but I had an amazing view. They were absolutely delightful.

On Thursday night, as I was leaving a bridal shower, Judy Nielsen chased after me to ask what we were doing for Spring Break. She then invited us to go with them to Sedona, Arizona. We'll be gone for a week. It should be great fun. Hope it turns out as well as the dash to the BYU Men's Chorus.

Not for sissies

I learned this week that a high school friend - Richard Daines - passed away. Heart attach they think. Richard and I have been friends since gradeschool. He was a doctor and Commissioner of Health for the state of New York. He was bright and funny. He made being smart something to be desired. I liked him a ton. It seemed like just yesterday we laughed and talked at our forty year reunion. I'm so glad I got that chance to catch up. I hadn't seen him in years. How tough for his family to have him snatched away so quickly.

Another friend has been diagnosed with multi-domain MCI (mild cognitive impairment). He's barely over sixty - too young for such a disease. The multi-domain part means the impairment is more than just memory loss, but effects recalling stories, switching gears in thought process, finding alternative solutions, and following inference. I can't imagine how that must feel, like being caught in a nightmare where things just don't make sense.

Yet another friend was just diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She is dizzy and has chronic pain. She has had problems for years, but just now received the diagnosis.

You wonder which would be the worst - losing a husband in an instance, losing your faculties bit by bit, or dealing with MS. Likely the one that is the worst is the one YOU are dealing with.

This life isn't for sissies.

Myth: It is better to remain silent

There is a saying, "It is better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt." It is a myth. Some students never ask questions. They assume you will think they know everything as they have no questions, but they are wrong. Why would that be a logical conclusion? Those who are learning are asking question. I can tell so much about what a person understands from the questions they ask. I just gave a test today. The two students who got nearly perfect scores were no surprise. I had known they were extremely talented - from their questions!

I love the statement by Joseph McConkie (son of Bruce R.): "My father and grandfathers had a great love of the gospel and were marvelous sources of understanding. I have, however, a distinct memory of the occasion when I went to my father with some gospel questions only to receive the following response: “Look, Junior, you have the same sources available to you as I have to me.” More important than any answers these men gave to my questions was their teaching me how to get answers for myself. They are now gone. Questions continue, as does the confidence that the same sources that were available to them are available to me."

I love it both for the message and for the fact that Joseph McConkie admits he has questions. In listening to a BYUI devotional the other day, the speaker said that true disciples never question. I found that offensive. It is okay to have questions. I think true disciples have a desire to believe versus a critical attitude, but it is okay to question as that is how you understand. So much of the Doctrine and Covenants is answers to questions.

Some say, "I have always known the church is true." While that is great for them, it is difficult to pass that along.

I question, but the gospel is a package deal, not a smorgasbord where you pick up the chocolate covered strawberries and leave the three bean salad. Either Joseph Smith is who he says he is and the Book or Mormon was received and translated as he said it was or Joseph Smith is a fraud. You can't have it both ways. You can't pick and choose. There is no middle ground. Like puzzle pieces you can't quite place - you don't throw them away because they don't fit yet. You place them to the side until their role in the puzzle is clear. Plural marriage is one of those misfit puzzle pieces for me. Yet, the rest of the puzzle is a thing of beauty and growing each year. I'll just put the plural marriage piece to the side (or maybe throw it off the table altogether) for now.

Classic Moment

Last night we went to see the 5 Browns with our good friends. They are five siblings who are all Julliard trained classical piano players. Today, I was giving an exam and decided I wanted to look up their ages. Since I was in a media equipped classroom, I decided just to use the computer in the room. My google search revealed that they are between 32 and 25, originally born in Houston. The each showed amazing talent and interest in the piano at age three. They were home schooled, which evidently gave them the freedom to attend Juliard at the same time. My google searching was going great until I landed on a website which just started playing one of their songs - loudly, getting attention throughout the classroom. I couldn't kill the window fast enough. It was a "classic moment" to be sure. It was pretty funny.

They have been in the news recently for bringing suit against their father for abusing the girls over an eight year period. The father pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. I didn't expect them to say anything about the court case, but they did. At the beginning, the older brother said something like, "Thanks for supporting us at this difficult time. Being able to play for you is what we love." How absolutely horrible it would be to make the decision to turn your father in, knowing that would mean he would be in prison for years. Can you imagine the rift that would create between you and both of your parents, to say nothing of extended family? I can't imagine.

The performance was delightful. At the end, being as it is Cache Valley, there was the 'required' standing ovation. The performers ate it up - coming out for curtain call after curtain call. They performed one more number, but in a later curtain call, almost spontaneously, the older brother decided to sing a song. He is not a singer, but the message was poignant:


When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

When high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Tears sprang to my eyes. The middle daughter was very emotional and crossed her arms over her heart signifying love for the audience. I was touched. Likely, the love and support they feel in performing is what is keeping them sane.