Delivering Cookies

I am SOO tired of delivering Girl Scout cookies!!

Except for Sunday, we have been out every day this week trying to catch people home and shrink the huge stack of boxes in my livingroom. We are slowly getting there.

I really wanted to get everything mostly delivered before my surgery on Monday. That's not going to happen! When I called the elementary school to see which teachers were off-track, we had more who were out than who were teaching. So I pulled all their cookies and put them in a big box for later.

Our troop started out with just over 3000 boxes on Saturday. We hauled them home on a trailer and then divided them out to all the girls. When they had all come by, we were still left with just over 1000 boxes to deliver. It's definitely a daunting task. But little by little we are down to just a couple hundred or so left.

Unfortunately they are mostly the hard ones, the family ones where we need to make a trip to Utah County, my doctor in Bountiful,  and others who are just never home! I have two boxes packed for delivery tomorrow. If I can get most of those done we will just have a handful of orders left.

I also have my tax appointment on Saturday and it's going to take a small miracle to get all my stuff together by then. Princess got her prom dress in the mail yesterday. It is so beautiful! But it does need a little work before she can wear it. It laces up the back like a corset, but there is no modesty panel underneath and she doesn't want any of her back showing like that. I figure that has to be done this weekend too because if will be much harder if one of my hands is all bandaged up! I could show you a pic of the dress, but her date doesn't want to see it until she is in it and I know he reads the blog so you will just have wait until next week.

Trust me, it will be worth it.

Letters from Texas

It's been a rough few weeks for Teach. Her companion has been sick and they haven't been able to accomplish as much as she would like to. Now when she is finally getting a little better, Teach is being transferred to a new area.

I'm getting transferred! I don't know how I feel about it. Lots of emotions. I'm going to the really rich area of Texas- it's a planned community ... it's so odd. I won't be a STL and I'm sad to leave Sister Loveland. :(  

She has a good attitude for the most part. She knows that everything happens for a reason, but that still doesn't make it easy to change. She told her mission president...

Teach and Baby Scout - 2006

Thank you so much for your diligent effort and concentration in preparing transfers this time around. I know that they are inspired from Heaven and I'm excited to serve. It will be a new experience but that is what missionary work is all about anyway, right? Meeting more people to invite to come to Christ and enter into the waters of baptism. I wanted to say thank you for allowing me to serve the sisters throughout the mission as a Sister Trainer Leader. It was such a humbling task and I have been able to recognize and help other sisters recognize the spiritual gifts that the Lord has granted them with. I am excited to have the opportunity to have a STL that I can turn to now and rely on when things are difficult and build those eternal friendships. 

Even though we fast here once a month on fast Sunday, it has never been extremely spiritual because there are always reasons some people can't fast. But in Texas, she had an opportunity to really learn about fasting. Again, she told her mission president...

 I want to thank you for the powerful opportunity to have a true fast. My eyes were opened to the power of the Lord and the angels that are around us. I feel like fasting is a newly discovered tool that I didn't even know I had access to! 

Selfie of Teach - 2007

 Like opening up a tool box and finding a shiny hammer inside that you wish you'd been using all along. I followed the instructions you had given us in MLC and Zone Conference and I also followed the promptings and direction I received throughout the month as I continued to study the law of the fast. I was impressed to fast specifically to ask the Lord to prepare us as missionaries here in Texas to be ready for the Lord's blessing of technology in our mission. I didn't know at first if I was asking for the right thing, but as you said, the closer your fast gets to ending the closer you become to the Lord, and I felt the Lord confirm to my heart that my prayer was heard. I also know the things I need to improve on to prepare my area for the blessing of technology. 

Selfie of Teach - 2008

I am so proud of her positive willing nature! She is a wonderful missionary and do you know that she only has about 24 weeks left? That's less than 6 months! 

I am grateful for real change. I am grateful that I can be constantly coming closer to the Lord. I received a very strong witness yesterday during my fast that the Lord uses us as builders of His kingdom. I am not meant to build the entire kingdom, but He uses each of us when He needs us. I have done what He needs me to do here in Arlington and as a Sister Trainer Leader. He does have a new path for me. I am ready to follow that path onward and upward!

 

Sister Teach, you are so amazing! Finish strong and hurry home soon.

Self-Medication

I've picked up another cold. I'm not really happy about that since all those Girl Scout cookies need to be delivered this week. I've always been a fan of self-medicating. It seems a little ridiculous to pay my $25 copay at the doctor's office just so they can tell me what I already know.

But I'm afraid that this time I messed that up! Remember when I told you a few weeks ago that I broke my finger? Well the first time I broke a finger and it looked just like this one was about 6 years ago. I wore a splint for several weeks given to me by my regular doctor, but when it was finally time to remove the splint, it had done nothing to repair the broken tendons. That meant I had to see a specialist and he put me in a plastic brace for another six weeks.

Fortunately, the repair worked that time and although I had a small permanent bump near the upper knuckle, I had full mobility and all was well. Flash forward to about 3 years ago. I broke another finger and it looked similar. "Mallet" finger is what it was called and I recognized that again it would need the plastic brace which fortunately I had kept. I called the specialist's assistant and he confirmed from the x-rays that the brace should work and he asked me if I remembered the protocol. Of course I did! Total inconvenience for 6 weeks! But I diligently wore the brace and when the time was up, my finger was healed perfectly and all was well.

So in January on the very first basketball practice, I had a ball pop off the end of my left pinky finger. The break looked similar and rather than have an  x-ray, I decided to save not only the specialist's copay, but my primary care doctor's fee as well. OK, I know what you are thinking. That was stupid!

You are right. It was stupid. But I wore the plastic brace for the entire 6 weeks and when I took it off, I was assuming the tendons would have repaired and all would be well. Except this time I had pain, and my finger just didn't look right. After a week of stewing about it, I decided it was time to call the specialist.

They got me in within a couple of days and after a quick x-ray the doctor told me it was time to schedule surgery. Actually it was way past time to schedule surgery. It should have been done in January.

So I will be out of commission for a couple of days next week while they put in some wires and stuff to hopefully fix the damage I've done to my finger.

I might have to rethink this self-medication thing after all.
This is going to cost me way more than a couple of copays!

Karate Class

Burrito got serious air.

Remember last week when I was telling you about the Safety Fair? The one where Baby Doll got lost? Well, we did have a lot of fun there in spite of that huge scare.

One of the booths the kids visited was Bobby Lawrence Karate. They had a huge wheel for them to spin and they each won a prize. The only issue was that they actually had to go to the dojo to pick up their prizes AND attend a free class.


I set up the class for Friday since I knew we would be getting about 3000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies today. The kids complained the entire drive to the dojo which actually turned out to be pretty close to our house. They didn't want to do karate, they were afraid it might hurt, and all sorts of other negativity.

I just smiled. I'd been in this boat before. When we arrived at the studio, all the kids climbed out of the car and headed for the door. They were pretty impressed with what they saw inside. The instructor greeted them and presented them with their free prizes which turned out to be foam nunchucks. We waited for about 10 minutes for Bossy and her kids to show up before we got started.

It was a totally foreign environment for my kids. The instructor was kind but firm. He taught them about discipline and self-respect. Then he showed them how to do a sideways kick into the foam tower. The kids were feeling pretty awesome at that point! Bean Dip was already an orange belt, so he knew what he was doing, but the rest of them were mostly clueless.



But it wasn't long before they were all kicking like pros. They even learned the karate yell!

The last thing he had them do was break a board with their fabulous new kicks. Curly was first up and as he kicked it the third time, the instructor just snapped it with his hands, but Curly was thrilled because he thought he had done it himself. None of the other kids had any trouble.

When they were finished he had them come back to the mat and he presented each child with a white belt. They were so excited! As we drove home, karate was all they could talk about. But this time they all wanted to sign right up!