I WANT TO BE A MISSIONARY NOW...

My husband and I have been asked to serve a service mission for our church for the next year.  We will be working 2 days a week at the Bishop's Storehouse, where people who are in need can come to get groceries.  They then pay back those groceries by working in the Storehouse themselves.  We start tomorrow.  We've known about this for about a month and have been waiting for the paperwork to go through.  We will be released from our other callings as soon as they find replacements for us.  This means in my case, giving up my Cubmaster position, of which I have been in only a short 8 months.  I feel sad at giving up this position since I was finally at the point where I was feeling like I actually knew what was going on now.  I also feel sad at losing the relationship with the other Cub Scout leaders and the Cub Scout boys themselves.  I have enjoyed getting to know them very much. It has really been an education to me to be in this position and has been one of the hardest callings I have ever had, not because the work was hard, but because I had no clue how to do it and I felt like I had been put on another planet when I got put in. 

At the same time, I look forward to what this new position will bring, since I have come to learn that no matter what you do in the church, it is always an education and an adventure. 

I'VE GOT MUSIC... WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE?

When we went to Ireland, I took one of my radio/cd players.  My husband assured me all we would need to do would be to plug it into a voltage converter before we plugged it into the outlet.  We bought a converter and plugged it in and it promptly blew up.  Well,  at least it blew out a part.  We didn't throw it away, but saved it, as my husband assured me he could fix it if he could get a part.  Sometime after we got back to the states he ordered a part for it online.  It wasn't a bad price - $20.  It took about 6 months to get that part however, but I can't remember why since it was so long ago.  The other day we got the part and today my husband put the new part into the radio/cd player and voila!  It works!  Yay!  Now I can have music in my kitchen again! 

"DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!"

I have a new Droid Incredible HTC2 phone and I love it.  I love all the apps you can get for your phone, but I've decided that someone needs to come up with a new app.  I know that with most phones you can set certain rings for certain people who call you, so you'll know by just that ring who is calling.  The app I want is one that can read the mood of the person that is calling.  If that person is calling because they are stressed out, need money, mad at you, or are just having a bad day and want to vent to you, then a little cartoon robot - like the one from "Lost in Space" appears on your phone and says, "Danger!  Danger, Nene!  Do not answer!" 
:0D

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

For the past week and a half I have been trying to learn 8 piano pieces for a choir performance that is a week from this coming Sunday.  I did have 9 pieces, but just yesterday the other pianist (who is also one of the two choir directors, and is a pianist on the 10th number), decided she would play it.  These are not extremely hard songs, but they do have a few challenging parts.  So I've been practicing everyday for about an hour and a half.  Some interesting things have happened...
First of all, I have had some shoulder problems in the past due to a torn rotator cuff on my right shoulder.  Playing the piano too long would always aggrevate it.  I have to admit that it is sore, but not as bad as I thought it would be after a week and a half of playing an hour and a half every single day.  I really think it is helping my shoulder. 
The Second interesting thing that has happened has been that I was pretty rusty before.  For the last 3-5 years I have cut down on my choir accompanying due to other involvements and have only been playing hymns for church services.  In fact in the last 3 years I have only been playing hymns and nothing extra.  It's been very self-gratifying to feel my talent slowly (and I do mean slowly) coming back.  I know it will take many, many more weeks (and months) of practice to get back to where I was before.
The Third interesting thing is that it amazes me that on the more difficult parts of the songs, even though I have mastered some places and almost mastered others that I first had difficulty with, that there are still a few places that I am really having problems.  I've sat and played one line 5 times and 5 times made the same mistake.  So I play the right hand over and over and over.  Then I play the left hand over and over and over.  Then I play them together again and STILL make the same mistake!  I get my handy pencil out and mark the note - labeling what it is- then play it again.  Then I play it right.  So I play that page over again.  AGAIN I make the mistake!  Back to the right hand over and over and over... Then the left.....
Another trick I found out thanks to my good friend Dixie, is to just get out your handy-dandy-white-out pen and just take out a few notes.  :0) 
So maybe with a whole lot more practice, maybe a little more white-out, a bit of faking here and there, and if I can get it -  a lot more nerve, maybe I can pull this off.  Because no matter how hard you practice, if you can't overcome the nerve thing, you're pretty much screwed anyway.  Why did I agree to do this again???
I think I can....I think I can.....I think I can................................

BEATING THE HEAT AT SIX FLAGS

I went to Dallas last Thursday and took 3 of my granddaughters who live here.  We went to stay with my daughter and her husband and 3 kids (boy and 2 girls).  I don't care how you drive it -Hwy 287 out of Amarillo, or I-40 through Oklahoma - that is one long drive to Dallas!  It took us 12 hours. 

The day after we got there we all went to Six Flags!  It was so much fun!  If you want to feel like a kid again, you really need to go to an amusement park!  It had been really hot before we got to Dallas, with temps around 108, but starting with the day we went to Six Flags and throughout the weekend while we were there, it was only 100-101.  Still, that is plenty hot!  The day we left, the temperature went back up and even higher to a scorching 112!  When we got in the park we split up - the teenagers going with my son-in-law to ride the scarier rides and my daughter and I taking the 3 little girls to Loony Toon Land.  My son-in-law rode a few rides with the teenagers until they got to one of the rides that he got sick on and then he sat out for awhile.  :0) 

After we had been there a couple of hours, we were really feeling the heat, so we decided to buy the refillable cup they sell for $15.99.  Yes, that is a lot to pay for a drink, but we really got our money's worth.  My daughter bought one and shared it with her little girl and I bought one to share with my other 2 granddaughters.  We first filled it with Powerade and that REALLY helped us feel better!  Then we decided it was time for a water ride, so we went on the log ride.  We got splashed a little, but not enough, so then we decided to go for the big one and went on AquaMan (see picture above).  On that ride, you get in a flat boat with about 10 or more other people and it takes you up a steep incline, around a curve and then straight DOWN!  As it comes down, it hits the water hard and splashes a huge wave up and into the boat and completely soaks everyone in the boat!  It was so funny!  Then when you get out of the ride, you walk up to the bridge where (if you want to) you can stand and wait for the next boat to splash down.  When it does, the huge wave also comes up onto the bridge and completely soaks whoever is standing up there.  It's so popular to do, that they have an employee there to make sure everyone stands to the back of the bridge to make sure the wave doesn't knock you down.  One problem though - don't wear tennis shoes.  If you do, then you have to walk around with soaking wet socks and shoes.  I had to take my shoe off and POUR the water out of it.  Flip flops would have been much better.  They do sell flip flops at the shops though, probably for that reason. The AquaMan ride was so much fun that we rode it again several hours later. :0)  As long as we stayed wet, we weren't hot.  They also had lots of misters to spray you as you walked by them. 

The other rides we rode were: The Gunslinger (you sit on a swing that swings you way up and around - we rode that twice too), The Tea Cup (we let the little girls ride this alone), The Hot Air Balloon (I passed on this one), The Mini-Mine Train (I wished I hadn't ridden this one - I lost one of  my diamond solitare earrings on this ride!  :0+ ), The Roaring Rapids (another water ride where we got soaked - it was fun and we rode this with the bigger kids and had a boat all to ourselves).  I rode this one with the girls that I can't remember what the name of it was - it was like a big bus that went up and around.  My daughter and the girls rode the Parachute drop, but I passed on that one also.  We also went to the Loony Toons show which was kind of corny, but funny all the same.  We didn't get to the park until about 1:30 and stayed until after 9pm.

On the way out we bought souvenirs.  Two of the little girls bought light sabers and the other one bought a Superman cape.  We also bought a light-up tiarra for one's little sister, and 2 light up noisy space guns for the other girl's brothers. 

So now I wonder if anyone could possibly have found, and turned in, my earring?  I guess a phone call won't hurt....