Day 3

Still numb and tomorrow starts another week. We will begin it with baby steps, keep our chins and heads up, try to remain positive, and are grateful for all the concern and prayers that are being offered on our behalf. Our faith, family, and friends is what keeps us grounded. We love you all.

A Changing Day

I've been reading through the blogs we've posted during the past year. It's been fun and interesting to go back and re-read what we've written and to discover that we've created a sort of history about us. I was also watching one of my quilting programs tonight where they were discussing how to create blogs. They described them as kind of a diary where we can write about events that take place in our lives so that we can later go back and see what we learned and how we grew from our experiences. It's kind of like writing in our journals -- something I'm not very good about doing. There are personal experiences that are more appropriate for a journal that I would never put in my blog. Then there are experiences that we all share in and putting them in a blog seems appropriate. Today has been one of those experiences.

I remember the feeling of panic we felt in 1971 when we were graduating from college, had a new baby, our apartment had been rented out from underneath us, our car needed major repairs, and we had no jobs. Working odd jobs and a few months of pounding the pavement, we finally had a job which eventually located us to California. The years since have been good and employment has been the least of our worries. We've actually been talking about and looking forward to retirement in about 3-4 years.

Several weeks ago we were talking with our bishop and he ask us about our jobs. We both expressed that we felt pretty secure, that both of our jobs entailed responsibilities that were somewhat unique in our workplaces. Today's events were something that Steve says that he never saw coming. Being told that you are being layed off because the company is down-sizing really sucks!! He's been with this company for 35 1/2 years -- far longer than any of his co-workers, hardly ever taken a sick day, always on time, and willing to do whatever was needed to get the job done.

The first hour following the "news", we were in shock and disbelief. After reality began to hit, then came feelings of panic, hurt, anger and tears (on my part). The kids have all been so great with their calls of concern and advise. Stef's comment was one of the best: "You don't mess with my dad!!" Our bishop was at our door before Steve got home from work -- he's such a great person, a good friend, and just happens to be a labor attorney. He has offered to go through all the paperwork with us to make sure no labor laws were violated (age, being near to retirement, current medical concerns, etc). We're going to take it day by day and are trying to remain positive. We'll keep you updated.

It's About Time

You can interpret the meaning of the title however you want -- either way would be appropriate. Since January has been really unexciting at our house, we're going to backtrack and give you a Christmas review.

Our house was bursting at the seams as we shared the holidays with Jeff and Amy, and Nicole, Jon, Jacey, and Brooklyn. Needless to say, a great time was had by all. The only thing that would have made it better would have been having the Hoopers here too.

It's a Little Less Scary Out There

Whew!! We made it although the mentality of the citizens out here leaves you wondering. One proposition that passed had to do with animals not being able to roam freely and living in too crowded conditions. Wouldn't you think we'd be a little more concerned about the living conditions of people instead? Another proposition that didn't pass had to do with the notification of parents if their under age children wanted an abortion. In other words, people care more about animals than they do their own children. Yes, indeed, we must have that same law on our books that Arkansas was trying to get rid of.

Scary Times

Everyone keeps reminding us that we're not doing our part in keeping up with the blog. What can we say other than we live rather dull lives and that we've spent countless hours during the past 4 months working on Prop 8. For the benefit of those who keep up with our blog (besides our kids), we were called to serve on the finance committee which entailed spending 2-3 nights a week keeping track of the donations that were sent in by the church members to ProtectMarriage.com. We helped process millions of dollars and hopefully, it will all pay off when the election is over this week. Steve has also been involved with the members in our area who are making phone calls, walking the precincts, and will be doing exit polling on Tuesday. The members have been very generous with their time and money.

This is a picture that our bishop e-mailed to us that reflects the battle we've undertaken:



The following is from an e-mail that was forwarded to me of an experience of one sister up in Northern California:

"I had a very disturbing experience yesterday that I would like to share with those of you that live outside of California (or outside of the San Francisco Bay Area). This weekend we have stake conference. Our stake conference always begins with a stake temple session on Friday or Thursday night. Early Friday morning I received a call from the second counselor in our bishopric to let me know that there would be numerous protesters outside the temple, and to remind everyone to stay calm and to drive carefully. The beautiful Oakland Temple is located right across the bay from San Francisco, very close to the city of Berkeley. Apparently the opposition to proposition 8, the amendment that seeks to make marriage in CA between a man and a woman again, has realized the deep involvement of the church and begun to protest right outside of the temple and harass temple patrons. The fastest way to get to the temple from our house is to take the 680 freeway, but the exit is a bit tricky. The off ramp is extremely short and straight uphill. You then make an almost blind left turn, an immediate right and another left into the parking lot. As we approached the off ramp, I realized there would be trouble. There was a backup onto the freeway from cars stalled on the off ramp. As we moved forward inches at a time, we realized this was due to a large group of loud protesters who were standing on both sides of the street, yelling, screaming and waving signs. When we got to the top of the offramp, ready to make our turn, one protester jumped out right in front of our car. It took my husband all his self control to carefully maneuver around him to the left and proceed to the temple. I tried not to listen to all they were shouting at us, but I was shaking as I got to the temple front door. Several of the sisters, especially the ones driving on their own, were crying (which made me snap out of it and go into RS President mode to comfort them). Later, as I was sitting in the perfect quiet of the chapel, I couldn't help but think of Lehi's dream, and the people who mocked the Saints from the big spacious building but 'we heeded them not.' It was a truly surreal experience, I'd never thougth that I would have to go through an angry crowd to get to the temple. As we left late at night, the protesters had dispersed, temple security (who all looked very large and Tongan) stood by the gates. I never saw a single police man. Please pray for those of us in California fighting for prop 8--it's getting kind of scary out here!"

It has gotten scary and also very ugly too. The opposition's ads accuse us of hate and discrimination and our signs are stolen or destroyed almost as fast as they are put up. Two more days -- please do remember us in your prayers.

I'll Take Your Challenge --

Amy tagged us so here's my list of things we'd never say. Some may be a little lame, it really did take some deep thought to come up with these:

Things I'd never say:

1. Can I have avocado/guacamole with that?
2. No thanks, I really wouldn't care for a Godiva chocolate.
3. I think I'll mow the lawn today.
4. I'd love to sit down and watch that baseball/basketball/football game with you.
5. Let me kill that spider for you.
6. You'll never find me sewing/quilting.
7. My hair looks so great, I don't think I need to wash it today.

Things I think that Steve would never say:

1. I never forget where I put anything.
2. I'd love to have a huge piece of that chocolate cake.
3. I hate yardwork.
4. Let's go shopping.
5. I'd like to sleep in tomorrow morning.
6. I think the front lawn can go without mowing for a couple of weeks.
7. I've never liked the Dodgers.

Steve concurred with his list and has just discovered that he can't remember where he left his Church keys.

Summer's End

The summer is nearly over -- just 2 weeks until school begins again. It seemed like at the beginning that things would not be as hectic as usual and I mentally compiled a list of all the things that I wanted to accomplish. I wish I could say that I had accomplished all or at least many of those things, but there's always another summer. I did get to do those things that were at the top of my list: Taking a class and learning how to machine quilt; I finally made Brooklyn's quilt -- it was about 3 years overdue, but it was my 1st quilt that I made from beginning to end, thanks to having taken the machine quilting class. I was able to attend a huge quilt show in Long Beach as well as visiting about 20 quilt shops in Southern California. The very best part of the summer was having all the kids and grandchildren spending their vacation at our house. What fun!!

Kids slumber party -- did they get any sleep?

Brookie's quilt:

The reason why my license plate frame says, "My Grandkids Are Cuter Than Yours":