Dessert, fires and braces

1. Dessert - went to Phillip's European with doula friends last night. Oh my. I had a half slice of the Viennese Strawberry Torte and a half slice of the Austrian Chocolate Torte. The half slices are the way to go. That way you get to taste TWO luscious desserts for the price of one! Such a deal.

2. Fires - had to do a damage assessment yesterday for an apartment fire. Once again, it's the candles that can do you in. It's true when they say NEVER leave a candle unattended. Anyway, the leader filled out an evaluation on me and wrote that I kept the fire client "calm and focused." That's exactly what we do as doulas - we help keep the mom in labor calm and focused!!!! It is so amazing to me to see how sometimes the skills we learn can be beneficial in other areas of life. Very cool.

3. Braces - good grief these things are poking holes in my cheeks. I went back to the orthodontist so they could use the wire cutters to save me. But on the bright side, after only one month I see how my teeth are shifting already. I should quit complaining though. They really aren't THAT bad. Just a little bad.

Books and gratitude

Nothing earth shaking to write about. I just want to say how much I love to read and how grateful I am for my eyesight that allows me to read. One of my favorite things to do is curl up on the couch or in bed, with a page turner, (and Larry!) It is just such a gift to be able to read.

Many, MANY years ago there was TV show called "The Twilight Zone." It was pretty creepy sometimes. I so vividly remember an episode called "Time Enough at Last."It starred an actor named Burgess Meredith who played a man with really thick glasses, basically blind without them. All he ever wanted to do was read, but never had enough time. He disliked people because they kept him from his books. He just wanted to be left alone to read. Anyway, when a bomb devastates his city, he is at first filled with despair because he is the only one left. But when he finds the library and realizes that he now has all the time in the world to read and no one to bother him, he is overjoyed! Then he breaks his glasses and cannot see to read. He falls to the steps of the library, weeping.

An ending like that never leaves you. It made me want to be always grateful for my blessings.

Worldwide Sisterhood and new stake boundaries

As some of you may know, I am part of the birth doula certification committee for DONA International. Because of that, I get to talk with doulas from around the world as they work towards becoming certified. The other day I was working on an application from a doula in Wyoming and just felt she was a member of the church. So in talking with the references she provided, I took the plunge and asked " are you guys LDS?" Sure enough, they are (!) and we had an instant bond. As we talked about labor and birth and the power of the priesthood, as well the Spirit being involved, we just felt love for each other and a beautiful spirit over the phone lines. What a lovely experience and now I have two new sisters in my heart! Love to you both, Melanie and Amy!

AND, our stake boundaries were reorganized this month. Larry is no longer branch president because there is no longer a branch! Yep, now the stake consists of the Rochester 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Wards, Brockport and Geneseo Wards, and the Batavia, Warsaw and Genesee Valley Branches. Brighton Ward was dissolved. So we are back in our home ward in Roch 2nd and wondering what new and exciting calls await us. I was happy to "go home." It was good serving in the branch for two years but I missed home. Larry's last duty was to conduct a funeral service today for an 8 day old baby who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It was very sad but he did an excellent job of explaining the Plan of Salvation to folks who don't know or understand it. That little baby was pure, without sin, and accomplished his earthly tasks in just 8 days. It was a humbling experience.

Prevent kitchen fires

One of the common causes of kitchen fires is oil in a frying pan. You turn it on, the oil gets too hot and a fire starts. But this video shows that a wet dish towel can be a one size fits all lid to cover a fire in a pan. This link shows a 34 second dramatic video of a kitchen oil fire handled the right way and the wrong way.

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&gid=202218&vid=468906&b=0
If the link doesn't work, just Google "Kitchen oil fire"

I am confident that you all know NOT to put water on a grease fire. The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out. A fireball can hit the ceiling and fill the entire room. Instead, turn off the heat under the pan, grab a dish towel, wet it, wring it out and then carefully place the towel over the pan as you would a lid. The fire goes out immediately.

Also, DO NOT throw sugar or flour on a grease fire. One cup creates the explosive force of two sticks of dynamite.

You may want to spread the word about this!! Another reminder from your friendly neighborhood Red Cross volunteer, me!

Waxing nostalgic

Okay so Larry is out of town AGAIN and I miss him, so here are a couple of pictures of us. The first one is our wedding day (of course!) and the other is from a couple of years ago.

We were married October 2, 1981. It was a cool, damp Friday evening. Look at those glasses -they are HUGE!

Scary, isn't it? The best part of the whole picture is my flowers!

This was a hot summer evening at my cousin's home in Irondequoit. We look sweaty. I think Larry is way cuter now as he gets older. And no beard!!!! I was SO GLAD when he shaved that thing off. It was probably 1986 or '87. I can't remember that far back.

What's with the wind?

We woke up to another wind storm this morning. A shingle blew off the roof and crashed into the window of my mother-in-law's kitchen. Poor thing she got so scared. Thankfully, our windows are double pane and since only the outer pane was broken, she doesn't have cold or snow blowing in. We have an in-law apartment attached to our house so she's not alone but she still gets so frightened. And Larry is off in Madison again, but it's bitter cold there. 8 below as of 8:45 this morning with a wind chill of 23 below!! Bbrrrrrrrr.

A prophet has died

Gordon B. Hinckley. We will miss him. What a good man who loved the Lord and who loved us.

Mister Locke

The other day I called a young five year old friend to wish him a Happy Birthday. It was a short and very sweet phone call with him ending up saying "Thank you for calling, Sister Locke." (We call each other "Brother and Sister" in our church.) Well, no sooner do I hang up than the phone rings again and it's the dad saying that the birthday boy's three year old brother is UPSET and crying that HE didn't get to talk to me. So the little one gets on the phone and the conversation goes something like this:

3yo: sob, cry, sniff, SOB, "Hi, Mister Locke." SOB
me: "Oh, honey, don't cry. What's the matter?"
3yo: "WHAAAAAAAA!!! I wanted to talk to you!!!
me: "Oh dear, I wanted to talk to you too! I'm sorry we didn't talk before."
3yo: "WHAAAAAAAA!!! I love you!"
me: "I love you too!!! Are you okay now?"
3yo: sniff, SOB, "Yehehehehsss, WHAAAAAA!!!"
me: "Okay, go have a nice dinner now, I'll talk to you again."
3yo: "uhuhuhu okay" sob, sniff, hiccup, "byyyyyye. WHAAAAA!!!"

...and he hangs up. Oh my goodness it was precious. The poor kid. The funny part is that his older brother used to call me Mister Locke, too. I think they are trying to say Mrs. and Sister at the same time.

All these sweet little people really make me feel like a grandma. Very cool. Wait a minute. A grandma with braces. Oh brother.

New braces but no photo

Sorry guys, couldn't do it. I just could not publish a picture of my mouth for all the world to see. You really didn't want to see it anyway, right? Maybe I'll have Larry take a normal picture, just not a closeup. Take my word for it, I have the braces, my mouth is sore and I need to buy stock in orthodontic wax!!! I cannot BELIEVE how sharp everything is in there. Wires and hooks and all sorts of nonsense jabbing me here and there.

I was so apprehensive the night before. It was like getting married. There was no turning back. Once those braces went in, there they would be for TWO YEARS.

Ah well, I eat soft foods and am paranoid that there is stuff in my teeth. I don't know how you all did it as teenagers. God bless America.

Trivia

Some things that make me happy:

Neil Diamond concerts
hot showers
the smell of fresh basil
putting up the Christmas decorations
taking down the Christmas decorations
Wheat Thins
reading all of your blogs and emails and remarks
helping a woman have her baby
scrapbooking
pomegranates
volunteering at the Red Cross
a warm summer afternoon

Some things that make me sad:

cold showers
my hair when it needs a cut
waiting for a Neil Diamond concert
crazy drivers
dirty bathrooms
shoes that hurt
cooked spinach
missing Sicily
hot sticky summers
cold damp winters

No braces yet. They put the spacers in this week and now NEXT week is when my uppers go on. I'll be grinning on the blog soon.

And they call the wind...

Dangerous. What a windstorm we had here Wednesday. Lots of damage around the county and over 30,000 without power. The peak wind gust at the airport was 75mph. But we Rochesterians are a resilient bunch! We can take it!

Wind? Ha!

Icestorms? Ha!

Snow up to our waists? Ha!

Spiders are another thing....

Hurray for nursery!

My four little nursery kiddos were so sweet today. One loves the song, "Here We Are Together" and wants to sing it more than once. Another one has been having a hard time with his parents leaving him there but today he stayed for more than a half hour without his mom or dad. He actually smiled at me! A little girl has just begun coming and her mom was baptized today. And my oldest one left for Sunbeams during third hour. They are learning manners and sharing and obedience. What a lovely calling this is.

My mouth, minus the two teeth, is feeling much better. It actually wasn't so bad after all except for feeling so cold all the time. I guess my body likes warm food better than cold. Next week the braces go on so I'll have Larry take a picture and you can ALL bust out laughing with me!

Goodbye teeth

Went to the dentist today to have two teeth removed in prepartion for the braces. It was traumatic! One of them gave the dentist a hard time. It did not want to come out. I sent good thoughts to the tooth, thanking it for doing its job all these years, but it was time to say goodbye. I apologized to it for having to do this. It was weird but it made me feel better and maybe it helped. I asked to see my teeth that were removed. I wanted to cry! It probably isn't so bad when you are young but I've had those teeth for a VERRRRY long time! Now I look like a chipmunk, all full of gauze and Novacain. I'm only supposed to eat soft, cold foods for three days and keep ice on my face for TWO days. It makes my whole self cold!!

Your friendly neighborhood volunteer

So here I am in all my gear, just coming home from a fire. No makeup, no shower - scary isn't it?! The hard hat cracks me up but it definitely comes in handy while doing damage assessments in a place where the ceiling is falling down! I really like this work with the Red Cross. We do some good for people who are experiencing trauma in their lives. The things I am learning about people and situations and the right things to say have even helped me with my work as a doula and our work in the branch. It's all kind of the same work actually, which is being of assistance in time of need; whether it be labor and birth, recovering from a fire or teaching the young women!

This is Larry and our cat Elbie on Christmas morning. He is opening her stocking full of fun toys that Grandma Locke gave her. She is a sweet cat. Larry of course, is adorable!

Happy 2008, everyone!!

Winter Solstice

Look at that new picture up top! It was taken in Rome, Italy by a man who posted it to spaceweather.com - I think it's one of the prettiest pictures I've ever seen. Check out that website for some other very cool pictures.

Here is another - it is an iridescent cloud. Just lovely.

How does life get so busy???

It's beyond me. All I want to do is curl up on the couch with my book - Seven Days to the Sea by Rebecca Kohn. Historical fiction about Moses which is just so GOOD. ANYway, that's not going to happen until probably Christmas Day. It seems that when I just recover from planning and cooking and all, (you all know what I mean) that it's time to take everything down!

I do look forward to January and February though, because it's a good time to do all the cool indoor things, like scrapbooking and reading and organizing. I feel so guilty in the summer staying in the house.

Here is another friendly reminder from your Red Cross volunteer - be extra careful with space heaters. They overheat and cause way too many fires.

Just please have a happy and safe Christmas and holiday season! I love this blog thing, it makes me feel like we are all connected even though in many cases we are far apart.

Merry Christmas and lotsa love!

Early morning photo op

Don't laugh. These were taken at 4:30 IN THE MORNING. This is Trish and me as I was waiting for the shuttle to pick me up at BYU for the Salt Lake airport. It was very cold and we were surrounded by lots of snow. So Trish took this self portrait of us. Not a bad aim for extending her arm out and taking a blind shot! Doesn't she look adorable? For those of you who don't know, Trish kind of "adopted" us as her church parents. She just won the REGIONAL RA of the Year award!!! She's a great kid.

Soon we will look alike. I am getting BRACES next month. Such a deal at my age. It's the weirdest thing. My upper and bottom teeth don't "mesh" or something, so they bang against each other and as I age, they tend to break. I have one cracked tooth and one broken one already, so the braces will hopefully prevent anymore of THAT.

Larry comes home today from yet another business trip to Madison Wisconsin. You all probably know that travel is probably his least favorite thing to do in all the world. Thankfully he will be getting home before this monster storm hits tomorrow. They are predicting up to 25 inches of snow before Monday AM. And wind. And frigid temperatures. I must get us some snow pants so at least we can enjoy this ridiculous weather.

Christmas is coming!!

Glad to be HOME

The storm hit Provo with lots of pretty snow. These are from Trisha's dorm room window.





We went to the women's basketball game at the Marriott Center, ate some meals at the Cannon Center which were really quite good, then when she had a test Friday, she unloaded me at the BYU bookstore. I loved wandering around there, especially the art department. I found so many paintings I would LOVE to put in the dining room, but alas, they were like $400 and how would I get them home anyway?!

The shuttle picked me up at 4:45 Sunday morning and this is a tree near the parking lot that was just so pretty -

With all the crazy weather over the weekend I decided to leave Salt Lake on an earlier flight and try to get home so I would have a better chance of not getting stuck in Chicago. And it all worked out, but I still feel so weird on a plane lately. Even after flying over the ocean to Italy last year, I still get a little scared. Ah well, it is very good to land!! Today, Larry left for Madison yet again and got delayed in Cleveland for 7 hours, poor guy.

Lavatories in the air

Thursday I boarded a plane for Utah to go see Trish at BYU. Easy enough. But as I am up there at 30,000 feet, I am thinking WAY too much, such as:

"Here I am, flying around the country, my life in the hands of people I have never even MET. They could be very bad people!!! How do I know what their GPA was in school?? Huh? And what if they are sleeping??"

The worst is when I have to use the itty bitty lavatory. The little voice in my head goes, "What the HECK am I doing up here??"

And the plane goes, "Bounce, bounce, BOUNCE, bounce, dip, dip, DIP, BOUNCE!"

But I made it. Now when I go home, I have to go through it all over again. AND there is a winter storm warning for the Wasatch. Good grief.

Fire and Ice

Today has been WINDY and cold, with some lake effect snow. I had a bunch of errands to run this morning so I wanted to get them all done before it got too bad out. So I did! Went to Target, got real pretty new sheers at Country Curtains, went to Wegmans and made it home before the minor blizzard hit. BUT, I was on call for the Red Cross from 4PM to 10PM and sure enough, there was a fire I had to respond to. 390South was just awful!!! I could barely see to drive. The roads weren't salted OR plowed and it took me way too long to get to the chapter. When the rest of team arrived, it took us 45 minutes to drive 4 miles in the truck to get to the fire. Thankfully it wasn't a bad one, mostly smoke damage.

Here is a public service message from your friendly Red Cross volunteer (Me!!)- PLEASE be careful when you burn candles in your home. Most house fires (in the winter) are from candles. Every time I come home from responding, I think about what the most important things in the house are that I would hate to lose and then try to think of ways to protect and save them. Photos, pictures, genealogy, scrapbooks; all that stuff could be lost so quickly. Even little fires cause a lot of smoke damage and the firefighters, while they really try to save your stuff, do make a mess. So be aware and be careful!