Blessings and Trials

Sunday was my first day of serving as the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's Presidency. I admit that I was a bit intimidated even though I was super excited. I had no idea what the girls would think of me. My fears were a bit alleviated when they prayed, "and we are thankful for our new Young Women's...person". I couldn't help but smile :). There are currently five active girls, with three more coming in the fall. I am over the Beehives, so in a few months I will have a large class.

This presidency is amazing and they spend a lot of time making sure all their girls are getting what they need out of the program. I am quickly learning that the time commitment is quite extreme, something I could never have done back home in Provo with my two jobs. In fact, it will be a miracle if I can keep up with it all here. Activities are every Tuesday night with more activities falling on Saturdays. I have presidency meetings Sunday at 8:00am, missionary meetings on Saturdays at 9:00am, and various other meetings every Sunday at 2:00pm. On top of all that, there are supplementary things that the girls need, like an extra volleyball practice tomorrow night to prepare for the tournament on Saturday. Seriously, I was so wrong to think my husband was busy as Elders Quorum President. ;)

In other news, I painted a picture to release my creative tension. I like how it turned out, but am open to any suggestions or comments to better my skills.



Last Friday, my dog was trying to get me to play with her while I was on my laptop. She knocked it off the table where it was sitting and shattered the screen. We are able to still use it by hooking it up to a separate monitor, but it just seemed like one more hardship that we didn't need.

And now for a list of complaints I have to get off my chest in this week's rant:

First Topic:
We have resigned ourselves to the fact that most places we decide we need to go take us at least 25 minutes to drive to. This would have killed me in Utah. I was upset when it took me 20 minutes to get home from work in rush hour traffic. Now if I decide we need to pick something up at a specific store, there is a very good chance that we will have to drive to the other side of town for it. Apparently there are no department stores, electronic stores, or pet stores anywhere near us. I tried to search for a JCPenney (my fave back home) but they were all so far away, I couldn't even attempt to drive there without planning a two hour trip. UGH! I was spoiled living right by the mall in Provo.

Second Topic:
I am so sick of the bugs, spiders, and other gross things around here. Not only are they EVERYWHERE, but they are HUGE. Our Utah spiders having nothing of these monsters. Plus, tonight, in the purple lightening flashes, I saw two bats flying past me. It was sort of eerie.

Third Topic:
People who think I have all the time in the world and am sitting home bored on my butt. Just to set the record straight, I have many things that fill my time. I am searching and applying for jobs, helping my husband with homework, cooking meals, driving FOREVER to go shopping, and last but not least, catching up on all those things I haven't had time for in years like reading, painting, and playing the piano. However, a woman in my ward was convinced that I was bored and insisted that I come to help her with her home schooling co-op group thing for two horrible days, which leads me to my next rant topic.

Fourth Topic:
First off, I hate home schooling. I am trained to be an educator and spent many years in college learning how to teach children certain topics. It is rather insulting that parents, with no relevant education, presume to know how to teach kids everything from reading to biology. I have found that 90% of the time, the home schooled kids are poorly educated and socially awkward, and so are their parents. This co-op thing just proved my point even more. I was incredibly tempted to grab the mic and tell each of the foolish mothers how they were crippling their children with their own pride. Because, seriously, very few of those women had a college education and none of them seemed able to adequately teach pre-algebra, biology, world history, and Spanish, all at the same time.

Okay, I apologize for all the complaining, I just needed to get all that out of me. Thanks for listening. :)