A Moment of Truth

I am a child of God,

His promises are sure;

Celestial glory shall be mine,

If I can but endure.

(4th verse of "I am a Child of God," LDS Primary Songbook)

I seem to express few of the joys I experience in life to the blogging world. Indeed, many may think (perhaps for good reason)that I am void of any feelings of love, gratitude, or humility, because I usually confine my dialogue to cynical observations about the world and sinister remarks about how to change it. Today, I take a detour from the usual "yadda...yadda..mumbo, jumbo" and talk a little about the good things in life...a.k.a. The Lord, The Gospel, and how those things bless my life.

Despite, my pathetic skills as a chorister, I have had the privilege of being the music leader for our ward's Primary. After 9 1/2 months of no-so-intense practicing, the climax of my calling took place today with the annual sacrament meeting program. Our theme for the year was "I am a Child of God," and I cannot think of a more meaningful message to proclaim to the Lord's children through the mouths of His babes.

For those who think that our little program was a perfect public display of reverence and obedience, I will begin by assuring you that it was not. Sure enough, there was plenty of sporadic juvenile behavior--chair bouncing, eye-rolling, neighbor whispering...I think there may have even been a nose pick or two. But these matters are trivial.

What truly matters was the spirit that was present. Sound cliche? Well it should, because I am beginning to realize that Gospel truths are found in all the spiritual cliches we hear rehearsed to us day in and day out--Pray. Read your scriptures. Go to church. Fast. Pay tithing. Repent (important!). Go to the temple...you get the picture. Want to know the spiritual cliche being exercised in today's program? "From small and simple means are great things brought to pass." Now this may not necessarily be in the same category as the previous cliches, but by the fact that it is an often repeated line in the Church, I think it qualifies as such.

How true is that statement?! I tell you what. The little ones of this world are the best example of faith we have to follow. They may know next to nothing about Gospel doctrines. Yet, when they "know" that Heavenly Father loves them and that they are children God, I have no doubt that their knowledge of this truth is stronger and purer than many of us who have spanned a longer existence. The nature of their faith may be "small and simple," but as the scripture says, it is the means whereby great things come to pass. One of those great things is the strengthening of my own testimony. For it is no easy task to soften a heart dotted with pride. Yet, the testimony manifested by those little ones today softened my heart deeply, and I can only feel gratitude and love towards my Heavenly Father for allowing me to have the privilege of being Sister Ragan, Primary Chorister.

Anti-Climatic Departure

As perhaps you can tell (or perhaps you know first hand) I have had a little time to myself this past week. Amongst the many things I have done, I have spent some time

pondering my departure

from this Valle Redondo.

I know it must

never be good luck to reminisce about a place before you have left it, but since it is

Sunday, superstition is far from my mind.

Indeed, I am hoping to have

the most anti-climatic departure this town has seen yet,

and I plan on milking this whole moving thing for everything I can.


Which brings me to the subject of this week's list:

tOp tEn tHiNgS

I will miss about this Valle Redondo

10.All of the "little" friends I have made thanks to my awesome calling in Primary as chorister.

9. Eating Sonic and driving the main drag as date night.

8. Being asked "Red or Green?" at the local restaurants.

Let me clarify on this one.

Red=Red Chile; Green=Green Chile.

Now for further clarification.

The only good Mexican food in this town is found in the little portable shack ("La Perllita") next to the laundry mat, and on occasion, the bright yellow van parked next to the vacated gas station ("Chile Pepper Cafe?")...not taking into consideration local, homemade stuff of course.

Bottom Line? I have yet to have good Mexican food (or at least what I call Mexican food) at the local restaurants. And it is at these places that I get asked the notorious color question.

So I guess you could say I won't miss the food itself because despite which chile is used, the food is still sadly un-authentic. RATHER, I will miss the trust in which people ask the question because it takes a truly close community to ask such an abstract question as "Red or Green?" and trust that the receiver understands its implication.

7. Having the feeling of "going to town" (Show Low that is).

6. Being able to refer to people as "folks" in professional circumstances.

5. Seeing Bishoprics (except mine of course) sport the Wrangler style at church.

4. Seeing the stars at night.

3. Running into at least 3 people that I know every time I go grocery shopping.

4. Getting away with fashion that is at least 10 years behind the trend...GO ADRI BANGS!

3. Instead of the Ice-capades (sp?) and "Frosty on Ice," RV has its 4 minute Christmas parade with "Frosty on a Quad."

2. Not having the temptation to watch the tube because there is no local programming.

Drum Roll Please...And now for the number one thing I will miss

Do you want the sarcastic or the sentimental answer first.

Well the sentimental one is more predicable so maybe that should be first.

No, better to leave the crying for the end, so sarcastic first.

Yet, I am striving for anti-climatic drama so maybe it should be first.

Sentimental,

No, Sarcastic.

Okay, sentimental it is.

1. No brainer of course, MY FRIENDS!!

You know, friends have been an odd component of my life in RV.

As a teenager, I left the friend-making to Sheena and just claimed her buddies as my own. By the time I was dating J, friends were hitched or at school elsewheres and so my pre-teen cuzzes became my buds.

And in the last few years being married, I never really thought I would have a core of friends here because

A--all the married folks left in town had a bunch of kids and since friend-time is precious, they would only want friends who came as a packaged deal with kids of their own (You know the scenario, Be my friend, watch my kids and in return I'll be your friend and watch your kids.);

OR

B--I would never find people who had the same interests as me or perhaps stated in a less conceited way, I would never have the same interests as other people.

To my delightful surprise, these things were not true and, thank the Lord, I made some great friends (oh yeah, even better J did too!).

Now that the tears are wiped, here is my real #1 answer.

1. Having a grammatically incorrect local mascot...

GO ELKS!!

Cartwheels!

I Now Introduce the much anticipated, critically accalimed, better than nadia comaneci, adri cartwheels....

(Too dark? Too bad!)

Thanks to camerawoman Amie for the help...Thanks too Marci for offering...guess I tried to catch ya when you were out :)

All by Myself

So Justin left yesterday for Camp Verde and started his new job today. So far, so good.

Meanwhile,
I have been holding down the homefront (and doing a pretty good job I might add).

I slept in until 6:45...yeah!,
did my compulsory early morning .85 mile walk/

really pathetic jog,

ate
good wholesome oatmeal for breakfast,

worked, did a little shopping for temporal neccessities
a.k.a. food and toilet paper,

cleaned the house (mostly), and then went on a quick bike ride

and did a few Adri tricks (I'm getting better...dontchya know der).

And so here I am wasting away my time blogging when I should be doing

somethingmore productive

like...more cleaning, packing, bathing, reading scriptures (will do that later), or talking to the significant other.

Perhaps I will get to that other stuff but first here is my top 10 list for the day:

Top Ten Things to do when you are Adri and your husband is gone

#10 Eat Onions

#9 Watch a chick flick

#8 Go to bed early

#7 Exercise

#6 Hog the computer

#5 Put flowers on the table (J’s allergic)

#4 Sing Broadway tunes in the shower

#3 Practice wheelies and “no-hand” tricks on the bike

#2 Wear body spray

#1 Talk about your husband...shhh, don't tell!

Can I trust the rain?

Just another monotonous Thursday afternoon in Valle Redondo. The sky outside has been

threatening to rain for the last 2 hours, meanwhile my fridge has been threatening to commit


suicide for the last 2 weeks. Actually, cleaning the fridge is on my agenda of jobs for the day


BUT it will have to wait until I release my inner urge to blog.

Is it just me or do moments of truth reveal themselves during the rain? If so, I have made a

couple of life-changing realizations today.


Realization#1


In spite of saying “Refrigerate after Opening,” the German chocolate frosting



I used to make a cake on Sunday is still good without the refrigeration. Sounds breakthrough,


right? Well actually it is, because now I can reduce my dessert making to twice a week and still

satisfy my (and Justin’s) sweet tooth. Bottom line? Time-extended frosting = savings in time,

$$, and the amount of effort required to stuff my face with cake.


Realization #2 (perhaps more important than German chocolate cake—although this is hard to top)


I love to write. Not that I am a great writer, or even a good one, but I can safely say I am

a writing enthusiast.


Indeed, I think I may have slight addiction for having thoughts only to use them as writing material. I say this knowing that most of what I think rarely gets written down; meanwhile, the


stuff that does is only half as good as what I originally conjured up in my mind. In this way, I


might smugly compare myself to one of those tortured artistic souls—musicians, dancers, artists alike—who never seem quite satisfied with the work.


So I have decided that in addition to the few aspirations I have for this blog, I will also use it to


better my writing.--In addition to the graphic experimentation...if you haven't noticed (smirk).


But don’t come here and expect greatness from here on out because I probably will get worse


before I get better.



Ahhem…prepare for trial analogy:


“Writing is like training one’s muscles”… scratch that


“Writing is like recovering from a disease” … umm, sounds too morose


“Writing is like learning to cook," Yes, that’s it. Analogies with food are always cooler,

"BISCUITS BEFORE BRIOCHE."




And in that spirit may I strive to continue this selfish writing endeavor and may the blogging


world be excused temporarily from reading it (if they so choose). So ends my thoughts for this


rainy September afternoon. Ta-ta!

--A

rEvolution!

The other night I couldn't sleep, and so I did what everyone woman does best...worry.

Not that my life isn't going pretty good, I just did the normal female stress session--I thought about laundry that needed to be done (stinky!), a fridge that needed to be disinfected (gross!), bills to pay (boo!), legs that need to be shaved (I know, I know...TMI--Too Much Information!), vehicles that needed oil changes (not a normal worry of mine, trust me, but somehow this upcoming move is bringing out the inner worrier in me), and the list goes on. Somehow I knew that thinking about something wouldn't ever work for helping me fall asleep (I read this in a self-help brochure entitled, "20 Ways to Your Best Sleep," you know), so I compromised and decided to think about something more productive...my top 10 list.

After a few rough starts like top 10: "Reasons to avoid moving," "Cures for late night onion breath," and "Ways to kill spiders," I decided upon the perfect topic..."Top 10 things that have revolutionized women's lives"...So here it goes:

#10 disposable diapers--I know these takes eons to decompose (and I kind of feel bad about that) but I CANNOT possibly image cleaning poo-encrusted cotton rags everyday of my maternal life. I know many a women did this for, well, centuries? millenia? (wait what did biblical moms use...sheepskin?) anyways...my admiration goes out to them but I am so glad it is a thing of the past.



#9 2 piece undies--even in the LDS world, we all have to give a shout out for the two-pieces...HOORAY! In my opinion, onesies are for everyone who can't walk to the toilet and take care of their own business...the "backdoor" compartment was never meant to co-exist in the modern world.

#8 washing machines--notice I have only included ONE electronic item; although there are definitely tons, this is my pick...I got hand weights and thigh masters to tone my arms, so I don't need to spend 3+ hours a day washing on a metal-rippled enslavement trap.



#7 feminine hygiene products--first of all, let get real honest because nobody seems to with the female menstrual cycle...the term "female hygiene products" is just the nice, politically correct, socially comfortable way of talking about: pads (a.k.a women's pampers), tampons (a.k.a. "tammies"), and the optional pantyliner (I don't think there is an a.k.a. here). I know in some circles this talk is taboo, but let's get real people, the only reason these things were invented is because women started talking, and they started talking openly and blatantly about how much those cotton bum-stirrups DON'T work...period (pun intended of course!).

#6 epidurals--haven't had one yet, but all I can say is I am going to!

#5 cake mixes--while homemade is better (for sure), can you believe you can have scrumptuousity (real word?) in less than 2 minutes of prep?!



#4 concealer--so many beauty products have made a huge impact on women's lives and actually I am beginning to agree with the school of thought that less IS more with make-up, but this one is definitely my pick...I have found with my own self that I can look acceptable without all the other jazz, but if my skin looks red, blotchy, scarred (man, I knew I shouldn't have picked my skin as a teenager!), and/or has any resemblance to a burnt pancake, then I know I need some of that cosmetic spackle!



#3 online banking--who doesn't hate paying bills?! at least with the online route, it is fast, direct, and doesn't produce paper cuts...besides, I know if you are like me the option of being able to transfer $ between savings and checking is a REAL lifesaver!

#2 plastic razors--perhaps shaving wouldn't be an issue at all if women had never done it...either our hair would be soft and light or men would never know the difference, right? well, the truth is that once you start, goodness knows you can't stop (unless you're a Euro of course), and plastic razors sure beat metal blades...for that matter, the $5 razors sure beat the 10 for a dollar kind...which, everyone who knows me, knows I hate spending $$ on the expensive stuff, so this is a definite truth!

#1 Baby Einstein videos--until I have kids, perhaps I cannot form many opinion about parenthood...goodness knows I don't want to be Oprah...but I don't think TV is good for kids. Now that I sound like a self-righteous, ignorant, hypocrite (you know I spent plenty of time in front of the tube as a kid, teenager, and adult--the "You Tube" you know), let me explain. I think there are some great TV shows for kids--educational or just plain fun, but I think kids should watch TV as a treat and not 5 hours a day (and perhaps a day or two when mommy is just fed up with her kids and needs a free babysitter!). Now enter Baby Einstein...these videos are awesome. I am sure they are passe by now, but they work...I have never seen a crazy toddler behave better than when watching them. Luckily, I have a little while until we will have kids, so I am sure the research will be out there to show whether Baby E causes cancer, ADHD, sub-conscious feelings of neglect, or some other abnormality, but in the meantime this is one of the few tube-treats my kids will be exposed to!

--A