Prop 8....

OK, gonna soapbox a bit.

This entire Prop 8 experience has been a crazy, amazing experience. It's taught us on so many levels about ourselves and the other members of our ward and stake. I think this is a "Separate the Sheep from the Goats" kind of issue. We've certainly seen the level of commitment anywhere from "Who, me? I'm not doing that" to "oh, I guess if you're going to beg..." to "tell me where to be and I'll be there". I'm a little sad that there are not NEARLY enough of the last group. I worry that if the Bishop hadn't called and asked us to be supervisors, that we'd be in the mushy middle group. If I had a minute to spare and they begged, I'd be there.

After this experience, I hope I can say we've learned to be in that last group. It has been SO hard to get people to help. We've had some great families offering incredible amounts of time and sacrifice. But, at nearly every scheduled function for this, you see the SAME families, which constitute about 15-20% of our big ward. I imagine some of them are getting burned out, we certainly are, but they're still there. I love and appreciate them and their willingness to help. Maybe we'll throw a party when this is all over. If we survive this last big push..

I got an email from our "Yes on 8" regional coordinator this morning with a quote from October 1978 conference by Elder Maxwell that is certainly talking about our times now. It's long, but I'm posting it anyway.

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'

"This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.

"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened....Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

It's definitely getting hot in California. I'll be back when the election is over and I've had about a two day nap.

Cool new blog

My friend Lysa has a new blog for the economically minded. Check it out: Pear Necessities She's a great writer and one of the funniest (and funnest) people I know.

The Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Don't have time to post much, and I'll have less time for FFF, so here are pics of Meg's Halloweens Past.


2000 This isn't her first Halloween costume, just the first w/dig camera. She stopped at every mirror she passed and just gazed at herself. It was very funny.


2001 Meg as a renaissance princess. I was proud of myself for making this costume from ebay fabric and remnants, for about $15. A guy handing out candy at the ward party looked at her and said "I can tell you're a princess, you don't need the dress!"


2002 Meghan as Cinderella. (She has a thing for princesses, you can tell.)

2003 Meg was Queen Esther, but Sam got pics of every other kid in the ward but ours.


2004 Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie". She watched this show on TV Land and loved it. But, she was very annoyed when all her friends thought she was Jasmine. This was another cheap costume, found the hurt-your-eyes-pink fabric on a clearance table.


2005 Princess Leia


2006 Fairy Princess


2007 Hippie flower child. This costume was one of my favorites, I just channeled my 1970's memories. I even macrame'd the belt and headband.

This year, she's going to be Marcia, a wizard from the Septimus Heap books. I'm guessing only she and I will know who she is. It's very purple, although we will probably have to forego the Purple Python Boots she's supposed to wear. I'm too busy to get creative enough to solve that problem on the cheap.

Tagged....twice.

I've been tagged twice in the last couple of weeks, by my sister Kate and my friend Rachel, but haven't had time to do either of them. They take actual thought, which takes longer than just rambling on about something. Since it's Sunday, and I'm not going to feel guilty about blogging instead of salsa-fying the tons of tomatoes we picked last night, I decided to at least do Kate's, cuz it's shorter. I'll do Rachel's tonite (or at least sometime this week).

Five Joys
1. Sam!
2. Meghan, Ry and Sue
3. Living near the beach.
4. Music
5. The temple. I wish it was closer, though.

Five Fears
1. That Sam will get killed on that darned motorcyle of his.
2. Sam getting laid off....AGAIN.
3. Heights. Big time.
4. Meghan becoming a teenager.
5. That I'm not teaching Meg enough to "survive" teenagerhood.

Five Obsessions/Collections
1. Hobbies. No time for them recently, but I love sewing, knitting, just about anything crafty, photography, traveling, reading, genealogy.
2. Lately it seems I'm obsessed with canning/preserving, but that's just a response to the economy. I really hate actually doing it, but there is a certain satisfaction to seeing it all stacked up, looking pretty.
3. I have a small collection of funky rocks/fossils. Not intentional, just ended up that way.
4. I have a collection of really old sheet music, mostly WWI stuff. It's a hoot, some really funny songs there, and the cover art is great.
5. I actually can't think of anymore, if I do I'll edit.

Five Surprising Things About Me
1. After researching ADD/ADHD because I think Meg may have some related problems, I've decided that she got those tendencies from me. Dunno if it's really true, but it explains a lot.
2. I hate clutter. Which will shock any of you that have been in my house. Not that I'm good about doing anything about it, but it drives me nuts. I live with a couple of packrats, and that doesn't help.
3. I wish I'd been as smart as my little sister Kate, who made MUCH smarter choices than I did at a much younger age. And still does, for the most part. I spent about fifteen years just goofing off, not accomplishing anything. Now that 50 is looming, I really regret that. I wanna be just like her when/if I grow up.
4. I spent one night in jail when I lived in Utah.
5. I've been in the Prunedale ward longer than I've been in any other ward since my home ward in Arizona.

I'm supposed to tag five people, but I don't think I will. If you have time and wanna share, go for it.

Pho Tow Phry Dae <= (How's that, Jen E?)

OK, so I think I'm finally done with the stupid apples, but I still have to get ready for an RS Super Saturday class tomorrow. I was gonna go through old Family Reunion pics, but didn't have time, so you get a couple of my favorite pics of Meg when she was a cute little bugger and not a frustrating pre-teen. Not that I don't love her, but I miss my baby.

OH FINE!!!

We had two "Yes on Prop 8" signs in our driveway entrance and someone came by and stole them BOTH. Apparently, it's been happening all over out here. I called the man with the signs, and he says he's on his 5th yard sign. He finally hung one up in his tree where they can't get to it. I noticed that all of the "Yes" signs on the two main roads out here are gone, also. Scumbags.

A friend who lives a couple of miles away says his signs disappeared half a dozen times, and finally another neighbor told him that a gay couple down the road was taking them because they were offended by them.

I'm mostly annoyed that it appears that freedom of speech only applies any more if you are politically correct. If you have an unpopular opinion you're considered bigoted, biased, uneducated....actually saw one person in print call conservatives "knuckle draggers". Yeesh! I have friends who are planning to vote "yes", but are afraid to let any of their friends know because they are afraid of repurcussions. I'm worried that when I work at the "Yes on 8" table at the polling place on election day, which is at Meg's school, that she'll end up getting teased or harassed more than she does now. But, we have so few people out here to work that I'll probably end up doing it, anyway.

But, as all this unfolds, a scripture keeps coming to mind, Mosiah talking about the "voice of the people choosing iniquity", and the "judgements of God" when that happens. It's in the last chapter of Mosiah. The polls are so close here that every single "yes" vote is crucial, or we'll be dropping into the ocean soon. :0)

So, off my soapbox and back to peeling apples.

Ok, that's weird...

I posted this morning, but it's not showing up on anyone's "feeds" or whatever the heck they're called. It still says I posted last 2 days ago. Weird. There are new pics down below ...

Pics from Tahoe area...

I only have a few minutes today, but I went through and picked a few pics to post. But, then a small crisis intervened, so this is only a couple of them. I'll try and get to the others later. This first one is more proof that it was COLD, at least on Saturday. This is Red Lake (can't remember where it was, though, lol).



Fall colors in Hope Valley, near South Lake Tahoe.



As we were taking fall color pictures, it started to snow.


This is the next day, Carson Creek...or maybe Carson River...can't remember if it's a creek or a river.

That's all for now. We went through Apple Hill (near Placerville) and I bought a huge box of Granny Smith apples, so now I have to decide if I'm canning, applesaucing, drying, etc. Not to mention, my house looks like a hurricane hit last week...I need to do some damage control.

Tahoe

Sam took this last night during the incredible sunset.

We're having a blast, but it is DANG cold. I don't do cold well anymore. Weirdly enough, I don't do heat very well either. I've turned into a spoiled, Central California Coast girl, who needs her temps between about 60 and about 80.

I'll post more pics tonight. We've already seen some great fall color (for California, anyway) and a snowstorm. We've eaten overpriced Indian food and survived a frat party outside our hotel room until approximately 4 am.

We're planning to go check out a couple of waterfalls after church this morning, which should be fun if we don't freeze our tooshies off. Actually, that wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing. We could both use a little less toosh.

Umm.....

....Imma thinkin' I'm glad I spent my "George Bush Money" on food storage.

That is all...off to a last day of piano marathon....

This week...

Ok, so my post about Conference never happened. This week is going to be crazy, so it probably never will. But, I will say: "A TEMPLE IN ROME???? COOL!!!" Sam says there wasn't even a ward anywhere in Italy when he served there in the 70's. The biggest branch was about 120 people (in Venice). And, I wanted to stand up and cheer Elder Oaks' talk, but that's normal. He's one of my favorite speakers. I was scanning Grandma Bailey photos during all sessions, so I didn't hear everything. But I TIVO'd them and am watching them a couple of talks at a time in the mornings.

This week I'm playing piano for Hidden Valley Institute of the Arts in Carmel Valley. They have an Elderhostel choral workshop every year. (Basically older retired people who like to sing come from all over the country...average age probably around 70). This is my third year playing for them. It's a lot of fun, but really messes with my schedule for the week. They practice 3 hours every morning and 2 hours every evening, and it's about 35 miles away, in Carmel Valley Village. I have to come home in between to pick up Meg from school and practice like mad. I usually get the music on Monday morning the same time as the singers. (Every year, the conductor calls and tell me he is going to bring it by about a week before, but he never does). This year, two of the pieces that he picked I did in High School. Cool, I've played them before, I know they're hard, but it's like riding a bike, yeah? Not! It's depressing how hard they are now. Hate to think I hit my piano playing prime when I was 18. Most of the music he picked I like, some is danged near impossible to play, but cool, I'll just figure a way to fake it. One song though, really lovely lyrical slow ballad, is about "I'm going out to clean the pasture spring. I shan't be long". I'm not at all sure how they sing it with a straight face.

In other news...today is our 13th anniversary. We're planning to go away for the weekend, but I'm not sure we'll get to do much today. I'm lucky to be married to the sweetest guy on the planet. He works hard for us, is a wonderful Dad and has nearly infinite patience with his girls (Ryan doesn't require infinite patience most of the time...at least not any more, lol). It took us 16 years after we met to finally get together, but it was worth waiting for. I love you, Sammy!

I was going to post a wedding pic, but it's apparently not on this computer and I've really got to get Meg up for school and PRACTICE.

Edit (About 20 mins later)
So, when I started this post, it was dark. I look up and out my great room windows and see this:



Morning fog is cool. I love living here.

Nyah, nyah...

...we got Grandma Bailey and you don't. :0)

We've had Grandma Bailey here for the weekend to watch conference with us. While she was here, we started scanning her old photos. Since I was too busy to do "Foto Friday" here are two of my favorites:





It's easy to see where you Bailey kids got your good looks. Not to discount any Morgans, Waites, Coopers etc who might be also involved.

Wasn't conference awesome!!! I'll comment more on that later...we're on our way to take Grandma back to Liz. :0(

Look what I found...

While looking for my old dance pics, I came across tons of other cool stuff. No dance pics yet, but I'll find them eventually.

I did find one of me in a pretty hideous bridesmaid dress in 1987. I look like a linebacker. Didn't help that I was a foot taller than both the tiny chinese bride and her only slightly taller groom, AND all of the other short bridesmaids. I pulled about 8 yards of tulle out of the slip to this dress when she brought it to me...when I first tried it on I looked like a fat Scarlett OHara.




And, I found LOTS of great old pics of my lovely Bailey nieces, which I'll post as I find time to scan them. This is my favorite so far. Beauty Queen Amanda, great legs even then.



I have roughly a million pounds of tomatoes to can and/or salsa-fy before they all rot on my counter. Guess what I'm doing today?