The biggest activity of the year...

For Single Adults in our Stake, anyway.

Last night was the Annual Single Adult Thanksgiving Dinner. I get to be in charge, since I'm the Stake SA Co-chairperson, and even though I do have a partner now, he's been kind of out of it for a while (but is slowly climbing out from underneath the family and work responsibilities that have been keeping him busy). In years past I have spent a lot of time stressing about this night, trying to make sure the important things are being done by reliable people, and usually ending up setting everything but the tables up myself.

This year was completely different. And so much better. The tables were set up by the SA Rep from C2, my co-chair showed up early with his two children (both old enough to be helpful), and our wonderful Stake RS President showed up early to help as well. I felt like I was running around the whole time, but since I didn't have to do all the work myself it was not stressful at all. This year I made the turkey, and boy did it turn out Great. I used a recipe from my Weight Watchers email, and it was delicious. So moist and yummy. We had lots of food--as expected two wards were not represented, but gave them responsibilities that wouldn't be missed if they didn't show up--and the bishopric councillor from one of them did show up with rolls, so that was good. Once everyone had eaten and were chatting I brought out the styrofoam boxes for people to take leftovers home, and when they were done, there wasn't enough food leftover to even worry about. We had exactly enough turkey and ham, and exactly enough everything else, and it was great.

Clean-up went fast and well, with several people helping out. My co-chair and his kids got the room all cleaned up and ready for Seminary the next day, our SRSP did dishes, and I cleared and put and threw away and all that kind of stuff. I kept telling myself all week not to stress, and I prayed that I would remember everything that needed doing (not necessarily everything I wanted to make sure happen), and it went so very well. Huzzah! maybe I can be released before I have to do this again next year (three times is enough, isn't it?) Which means I've actually been in this calling about four years, since I was called right after Thanksgiving. I suppose there's hope...

The SA program is starting to look up in our stake, though. We finally have people representing each ward coming to the committee meetings, and giving input. We're putting together a questionaire to give us a much better idea as to what the SA in our stake would like. We hope to be able to implement changes next year. My biggest frustration is that we seem to be trying to put together a program that the SA in our stake simply don't want. It frustrates me to no end that those who are active in the church refuse to participate in the SA program. I understand why they don't. Really I do. However, they are failing to see the big picture. The big picture is this: the majority (90%) of the SA in our stake are NOT ACTIVE. The majority of them are not active because they feel like they DON'T FIT IN. Because they're Single, and the Church's emphasis is on being married (and rightly so). We can't invite these people to Single Adult events because the active Single Adults DON'T SHOW UP. Do you get it? Do you get it now? The less active single adults that might be receptive to a single adult activity would be turned off because the attendance at activities is so low as to be discouraging. So if you know any single adults, or if you are one, please encourage them to participate. Before I hunt them down and give them "what for." Course, if I did that, maybe they would release me. And leave me in Primary where I belong.

More sad news

President Hinkley passed away last night.

He was such a force of nature, it was a bit of a shock to me when I found out. He was still out-running the younger guys on the Quorum of the Twelve and many on the Quorum of the Seventies as well. He was 97, in relatively good health. We should all be so lucky.

It strikes me as interesting that last week Heath Ledger died and the whole world had his picture up everywhere you looked. Entertainment Weekly had him on the cover. But President Hinkley dies and where are the news stories? The Ensign will have him on the cover next month, I'm sure, but seriously. A Prophet of God has left the Earth and the majority of the people on the earth have no idea.

But we are in good hands, still. President Monson as the President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles is in charge until the next President of the Church is chosen (and will most likely be the next President if the Lord wills it).

A week later...

For those who don't know (probably just my brother who reads my blog from time to time--the rest can skip this paragraph), an Evil Person entered our church building last Wednesday night during our activities, and tried to entice young girls to leave with him. He was successful with the fourth, who was found a couple miles away wandering around. Even the police were shocked that he would enter a church and do this. It has shocked and scared everyone in my ward, and in the way of such things brought us a little closer together as we increase our vigilance for all the children.

Nearly everyone has mentioned this to some degree on their blogs, so I thought maybe I should throw this out there to the great beyond. Or maybe I'm just being a troll?? I've been feeling a little disassociated from the matter (calling it an 'incident' seems to belittle it somehow, and I certainly don't mean to do that). I don't know who was involved, and I'm deliberately stopping myself from trying to figure it out, against my more 'natural' instincts. I don't have any children of my own, so I guess it's not as personal for me, although I am certainly in 'over-protective Aunt' mode.

I watch a lot of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and it has long bothered me how the kids would run around like crazy people at church with their parents barely knowing where they were or what they were doing. A few years ago one small child wandered outside the building and couldn't get back in. It bothered everyone in the Ward Council, of which I'm a part, but we couldn't seem to get the parents to understand that just because we're at church doesn't mean we're safe. Just because there are other adults around, doesn't mean they're looking out for your children. Whenever I see small children running around outside I tell them to go find their parents, but as soon as I was out of sight I'm almost certain they would turn around and start playing again. How do you encourage childhood and yet still keep them safe?

Well, my ward is taking measures to increase the safety of all who are at the building. From now on when someone unfamiliar enters the building they will be greeted by one of the bretheren who will--in a nice way--find out who they are and why they're there. This may have been enough to deter the Evil Person last week, but we'll never know for sure. He probably would have just gone somewhere else and tried to vicitmize someone else's child. Here's hoping and praying that the police catch him quickly.

I got Ghosted!!!

Monday night I came home after work plus a shopping trip and found that I had been visited by the Savage Mill Ghost!!! I was so happy to see this! I haven't been 'ghosted' for years. Last year I found out that the ward has been doing this since it's beginning, and I was actually a bit put out that no one had thought of me. Ok, so last year I moved right at halloween time, so that was probably it, but before then?? I really hate sounding pathetic, but I really do want to be included in things. So I'm happily making treats and will be figuring out who I should 'ghost'. I typically go for people that I don't think would get it otherwise. This late in the month all the 'popular' people have probably been hit already :)

15 mintues and too much to share...

It's been a while since I've written a 'journalistic' entry. In that time, I've managed to offend a few family members (since I have a blog I seem to feel that they should read it to find out about me), went to a Single Adult conference, had an epiphany, and met a family that might be willing to take my dogs.

So my family makes me crazy, but maybe I'm the one just going crazy because they don't do what I want them to. When they freely admit they don't read my blog because they don't have time then send me a silly 'spam' email I tend to think they're just not interested in my life and times. Why shoudl they be? I'm pretty boring, but I still manage to organize millions of ions about it.

I went to the Liberty SA conference in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, over Memorial Day weekend (instead of Star Wars Celebration IV--I guess my priorities have changed? Or maybe I just had no desire to stand in line all weekend (side joke--Celebration III was "In Line", Celebration IV was "Still in line"). Anyway, I'd been feeling like I lost my testimony of the Single Adult program, and really hoped that this conference would help me get some of that back. (The epiphany was about a week later when I realized it wasn't my testimony of the program that was suffering, it was me having to do all the work for my ward and for the stake. But that's a different story.) I went to the conference with my friend Tess, who wanted to stay an extra day and tour Philadelphia with her friend Nick, which we did. The conference was good--I've been the last three years, and it's always good. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't get what I was hoping for--in fact, I spent almost the whole time wishing I could just go home and lay on my bed. But I managed, and I also manged to get the guy I have a slight crush on to agree to come play piano for us at the Seneca Single Adult Conference so I get to see him again there :) He may think he's too old for me, but I don't think so. I think he's just right. Course, he plays the piano so wonderfully, I think that's where my crush started. Ah, but I digress. Tess and I had official Philly Cheesestakes at the same place where Sylvester Stalone filmed the movie Rocky (Nick told us we should be impressed), and we even went up the steps that he ran up in the movie and jumped in triumph. Yeah, I wasn't too impressed by that either. But there was a cool building nearby that kept changing from white to blue. Impressive, as Darth Vader would say. Oh, but the cheesestakes were everything I'd hoped they would be. YUM!

I picked up my dogs from the place where I had them boarded for the weekend on Wednesday, and they were like different dogs. Friendly and outgoing and basically cheerful. I started feeling bad that I may not be taking good enough care of them if they can go to this place over the weekend and come back so different. I seriously thought about letting the Dog Rescue place take them back to the Farm where they keep most of their dogs, but I did find out that place really isn't a good place for them. They're cared for, but there's almost no human interaction. So I still have them. I took them to an Adoption eveng on Saturday, and there was a family returning from a trip to the pool that met them. The family currently lives in the apartments above where the Adoption event was taking place, but they're having a house built, and have apparently discussed getting dogs. The girls, probably 10 and 8 or so, really loved my boys. They went right upstairs and looked them up online, and the older one started crying because the mom kept saying she had to talk to their dad first (he was away on business). I ran into the mother a little later, which is when I found this out. She was quite taken with them as well, and would like to take both of them. If I can just hold on until they can take them, I think this would be a good family for them.

Ok, I'm out of time so I can't pull out all the minute details and go through them at length, but truthfully I was quite the emotional mess last week, and this week I'm doing much better. Plus I got to hold Felicity's baby on Sunday! Yay! Baby-holding always helps!

A sad tail

I really wanted a dog.
Or dogs.
I wanted a friend to greet me when I come home from work.
I wanted someone who would encourage me to exercize and eat properly
I wanted someone to take care of.
In return for affection I would exercise, feed, and play with my new friend or friends.

So I adopted two year-old beagles.

(Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan)

I didn't really realize just how much time I spend outside of my home.
I didn't sit down and figure out that 3-4 times per week, sometimes more, I come home to eat only to leave for another couple of hours.
I expected to crate the dogs whenever I couldn't be with them.
I didn't realize this meant they were in their crate 20-22 hours per day.
When I did, it broke my heart.

So I called the woman from the rescue I've been working with, and told her my problem and concerns.
She agreed that it wasn't healthy for the dogs to be crated so much.
Better than being in a kennel, but not better than being with a family, which is what they really need.
They need a place where they can run and play.
They need a place where they are not in their crates so much of the time.
They need someone who can work with them on their chewing issues.
They need someone who can be with them more often.

So my little beagles will be moving to new families.
They'll be with me until a new family or families are found, but they will be leaving.
My poor little guys will probably not even realize why they have to go.
I hope they will be happy.

For now I will concentrate on my garden and my house.
Maybe some day I won't be gone so much.
Maybe some day I won't have to go to all the single adult activities (80% of why I'm gone so much)
Maybe next time I will get a cat.
At least a cat won't need to be crated while I'm gone.
I hope.


PS I do know this whole dilemma was created because I wasn't listening to the Spirit. I prayed about getting dogs, about getting these dogs, and I couldn't really make up my mind. I had so many doubts and concerns but I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Every day with the dogs I seemed to revisit whether or not I should keep them. The stress was undoing all the good the exercise was doing. Once I decided to give them back, all the doubts and questioning and concerns just stopped. I grew depressed thinking that I was so unfit as a mom I couldn't even take care of dogs, but then I realized that I had it backwards. If I was a bad mommy I would selfishly keep them. Or I wouldn't care that they have to be confined so much of the time. I need to give them up, and hope that they are better for the experience.