I Survived Being An "Outage Widow" Again

If you are wondering what an "outage widow" is, let me explain. My husband works at a nuclear power plant. Every 18 months or so they have to refuel one of the units (there are two) where he works. They take out some of the spent fuel rods and put in new ones. They do lots and lots of needed maintance. When they do this they shut down the plant totally. With the plant shut down it's not making any electicity so the company loses money. We are talking major bucks every day!! Thus they want to work as quickly as possible. Which means the workers have to work long hard hours...12 1/2 to 13 hours 6 days a day for a little over a month. When you work that long all you do is eat, sleep and work. So, the term "outage widow" was born to describe what it's like to be left behind while your husband works long hard hours, sometimes even graveyard shift. Nothing gets done around the home that the man would ordinarily do. Decisions that need to be made together are not made because they are too tired to think. But, we survived and we should only have one more outage to endure before he retires!! Whoopee!!

Just Amazing

As many of you know, I am currently serving as Church service missionary for the Family History Department of the LDS Church. I serve out of my home using my computer and telephone to help the patrons who either phone or e-mail questions. I have taken on a new assignment last month, that of teaching other missionaries how to answer questions regarding several of the products the Church supports, ie: Personal Ancestal File, Family Search Internet, Resource Files, etc. The classes are one hour each for three days, then I do what is called a "Check Your Performance" with each missionary. The CYP shows that they are proficient in helping patrons, kind of like a test, but more gentle. We use a tool that allows one user to see the computer screen of the other user. Thus we can watch as they go through the steps needed to assist others. We see what is happening on their computer screen while talking to them on the telephone.

Last week Elder Jarvis was in my class. He lives in Arizona and I'm in California. We have never meet in person. However, we worked some on the Family Tree Project and he was a great help for other missionaries also working in that area. As we began the CYP, Elder Jarvis, explained to me that he didn't have the use of his arms, and that I would be hearing him talk to his computer to give it commands. He said I would understand as he went along. He proceeded to tell his computer to "wake up", he would say certain numbers that would make his curser move to a different area on the computer. When he was done with a task he would tell the computer to "sleep" and then we could talk about what task he just completed. It was just amazing to see him operate his computer in this way. I was in awe not only what computer technology can do to help someone today but in the tenacity that I know it takes to learn that skill. I think it's wonderful that Elder Jarvis can serve a mission despite the challenges he faces in life. It was just a very touching humbling experience for me.

BIRTHDAY WISHES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!


Fifty-seven years ago I was born!!
Today was just wonderful. I had many birthday wishes from near and far. I so appreciated them all and felt very loved today!

First thing this morning, very early, I went outside to get the newspaper. The stars were shining very brightly!! I was in awe of the beauty and stood there for a quite a while, just gazing. I could see the big dipper and the little dipper and of course the north star. I felt like it was my own personal birthday wish from Heavenly Father!! I could just feel His love for me. I stood out so long, that my husband came out to find out what happened to me. He wanted to make sure the Bogeyman didn't get me on my birthday.


Of course my family all wished me Happy Birthday. I had calls from all the grandkids, including the very youngest!! I loved the many versions of "Happy Birthday"!!



I recieved some unexpected birthday wishes via e-mail with links attached. There was one from Disneyland. And one from Signing Time. How thoughtful of them to think of me!!

When I stepped on my Wii Fit this morning, the little Wii Fit board had on a happy birthday hat and wished me a Happy Birthday. That was rather odd, but made me giggle!!



I also received many birthday wishes from my fellow FamilySearch Support missionaries, via Skype. You just got to love technology. These wishes came from as far away as Ghana, and Europe, Canada and Australia!! I also had wishes from my many friends on Facebook, including a mom from Pakistan. I am just internationally loved!!

Thank you, everyone!!

A Little Flat

Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley?

Well, yesterday David was Northern California on business. So, Evan and I drove north to meet him part way for dinner. It was great to spend some time with him.



Oh, and he brought my grandkids, Flat Spencer, Flat Andrew and Flat Leah!!



I would rather be with them in person. It's hard to hug paper.

WALLPAPER and LOVE

Back in the olden days wallpaper used to be something that you put on the walls in your homes. I'll admit, I'm old enough to have put wallpaper on my very own walls, in my very own house.

Now, in these modern times we have wallpaper on computers and cell phones and not on the walls of our homes!! How odd is that??
The wallpaper I just plastered on my cell phone (I know it is a miracle I actually know enough technology to figure out how to do that!!) looks like this!!




This is my Valentine balloon from this past Valentines Day. It is still alive and well, and not yet deflated. It must be an omen that our love is long lasting!! Any takers on how long this balloon will last??

I CAN'T FOOL HIM

I bought Evan a Wii SportsResort for his birthday, this coming Thursday. I bought it right under his nose at Best Buy and he didn't even notice. I was so proud of myself. This was about two weeks ago. Then just the other day out of the blue Evan asks if I bought him a Wii Resort for his birthday. I was shocked because we had never even dicussed it. Then I asked, "what makes you think that???". To which he said, "I saw a receipt that had Wii Resort on it!!" Duh!! I then remembered that I left the receipt near the computer because I signed up for the Best Buy reward program and needed to register on the Internet. Oh well, I lied and said I didn't know what he was talking about. Do you think I will be forgiven?

First Day of School

Today it the first day of school. And guess what???

I'm NOT sending anyone to school!!

WOO HOO!!