Remember Them

Twice each year my company supports Operation Gratitude, an organization that send packages to our service men and women serving overseas. A letter went out detailing ways to participate in their Spring drive, it included a video that I thought was very moving. I suppose it is not a coincidence that their Spring drive takes places so close to Memorial Day.

It occured to me that maybe I could do more to help their cause, and to help other do as the video suggests and remember those who are serving our country in the armed forces.



You can help, to see how, go to:

http://www.operationgratitude.com/

How Great Thou Art

My mom told me many years ago that she would like the hymn "How Great Thou Art" sung at her funeral. I hated that song for a very long time, everytime I heard it all I could think of was that some day I would be singing it at my Mother's funeral.

Several years ago when I was at Girl's Camp, we climbed up to "Testimony Rock" to have a sunrise talk and testimony meeting. After the meeting was over, and the sun was up, several of the young women in my ward were looking out at the lake and mountains and singing hymns. They started singing "How Great Thou Art" and it touched me. I loved it! I understood why my mom loved it so much and now it's a song I really enjoy.

Every now and then I see something that brings the words of the song to my mind. The other day I was at Jan's house, Lindsey wanted her to come out and see the clouds. I also went to look and jokingly started singing it. We had a good laugh.

Earlier this week we had a lot of rain. My jobsite was covered with clouds, rain, and mud. I was pretty unhappy that the rain made driving in and out of the site impossible because of all the mud. But one afternoon I looked out the office door to see if the mud was dry enough to walk on and this is what I saw!



The beauty of that scene made me forget all about the mud and my heart started singing....

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,

consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

No pictures

I sit at a computer almost all day at work. From time to time (if anyone from work is reading this, it's only at lunch time) I check people's blogs or facebook to see what everyone is doing.

When checking blogs I always go to mine first and then click from there. I hate going to my blog because it's so boring and it never changes. I'm so bad at updating it, partly because I don't like to sit at the computer when I'm not at work, and partly becuase I always think that I need pictures to put in my posts, and I never have any. Sadly, my last update was at the end of Spanish 1, and I am now almost at the end of Spanish 2!!

This semester has been very difficult. I work all day, go to school Monday - Thursday night from 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm. I then go home, sit on the couch for an hour, and then fall asleep, sometimes in my bed....sometimes on the couch! But I'm not asking for sympathy, because as Professor Vega would say "Welcome to College!" I really like my Spanish class, but I will be glad when it's over. Next semester will be a lot easier.

Next semester I'm going to take Health on campus, one night a week, and Nutrition and Spanish Listening Comprehension online. I'm looking forward to everything except paying for the books!!

I should say a big THANK YOU to my husband because I'm sure it hasn't been fun for him either. He gets up so early in the morning that he has to go to bed early at night. There have been several days in a row where we haven't seen each other awake. But he's been a good sport about it and I'm glad about that! I won't do a 5 unit class in a short semester again, if I can help it.

Spanish 1

Riverside Community College, Spanish 1, Fall 2008

I met some amazing people in my Spanish Class this semester. From the youngest young man who has had struggles in his life and those struggles have led him to want to help others by choosing to study for a career as a Social Worker. The youngest young woman, who is a mom of a darling little boy who is working and going to school to be able to have the life she dreams of and didn't have for herself. To the oldest in our class a mom of 5 whose children have grown and...oh...wait...that's me!

Each one of my classmates, some of our classmates were a little more reserved and quiet, some very out spoken, had a story of their own and I was honored to have met them. Our class was unusual, I think, as we all made a connection and will have fond memories of our class together, so much so that many of our classmates have signed up to take Spanish 2 together with our Professor.

Professor Vega was a surprise. He was serious about students being prepared to learn, being dedicated to being in class and participating. He was sympathetic to our struggles having struggled himself to learn languages, other than his native Spanish. I found him to be funny, generous and kind, but he is also hard working and dedicated to helping his students succeed.

I very much enjoyed my first *solo college class since 1977!!!
(*I took classes in 2001 with my 3 friends)

PS: I got an A!

Yeah for Half Way!!!

William is almost half way through his mission!! I'm very excited. I am going to send him a package for "Hump Day" I have asked friends and family to send me pictures of them to wish Will and Happy Hump Day. Here's a cute picture of Eli!

Cherie Hardy sent me some great pics, thank you so much Cherie!!! I thought I would add a few to my blog to motivate you to send me one too!!!