Yeah, right! My last blog said, "I'm baaaack!" NOT. I really intended to write more consistently. But this time, instead of feeling too down to write anything, I got too busy. I was anxiously awaiting Jennie's visit and enjoyed it thoroughly. Mostly we visited. I can't think of anything special we did except for going to Quartzite to visit Abe and Marilyn (her biological dad and step-mom). I'm not sure we would have done it had we realized how far away it was. I thought it was about an hour's drive from Phoenix. How about THREE. Which makes it four hours from Mesa. And there is nothing in between. It is almost in Blythe, California. It was a long, miserable drive to make with five complaining kids and one neurotic dog in a car. Actually, the kids weren't really that bad most of the time. But when we were still about an hour from Quartzite, they got hungry and started begging Jennie to stop and get them something to eat. "Sure," said Jennie. "We'll stop anywhere you want." There was nothing but desert, as far as the eye could see. "You just pick out whichever cactus or palo verde tree you want to eat at, and we will stop."
OH, oh, oh! (This is one of Jennie's witicisms that popped out of her mouth one day in Sunday School class.) Why did Jesus love little children so much? (the teacher asked). "Because he never had to travel in a car with them."
Jennie actually said it under her breath to Phil Peterson, but Phil immediately said it loud enough for the whole class to hear.
After Jennie left (I sure miss her) David started working 24/7 on an $8,000,000 bid for some work in Bullhead City. (Yup, that's eight million.) David had to go to Bullhead City to submit the bid and they were going to put him up for the night in a hotel over there and he wanted me to go with him so I did.
I've been applying for jobs online ever since. It sure is a stupid, unproductive process. I wish I knew someone who could put in a good word for me and help me get a job. Networking is really what it is all about. Otherwise, you are just a name and some words on a piece of paper.
I went to Christian's Ward Conference 'cause David had to go (as a Stake Leader). It was a very good meeting. Bp. Singleton talked about learning to rely on God instead of yourself or other men. He talked about his first BIG lesson in doing that when he was sent to Viet Nam.
Then President Speakman told us that the Bishop's Storehouse was not adequate to take care of the needy in the church during these upcoming hard times. He said that the bishop is likely to come to us and ask us to give food (or something else) to others in the ward that we have worked hard to have and that we will very likely need ourselves. He said that he felt that there were a large number of members in our Stake who were "consecrated" members, who would do whatever was asked of them, with willing and cheerful hearts. I really love Pres. Speakman. I can really feel the spirit whenever he talks to us.
The first part of this post was written over a week ago. I'm finally getting back. A big part of the delay, however was the two days I spent reading Leslie's blog about "You know you're an Arizonan if . . . ." I've been having trouble with my eyes the past couple of days. Maybe they just got worn out reading that blog! (Just kidding. It was really long, but pretty funny. I'm just surprised that anyone in Arizona had enough patience to write all that. Surely no one I know.)
Well, I finally have a job working at Kohl's Department Store as a cashier. I start my training today at 6:15 p.m. I need to find out about the insurance plan they have. I hope I like this job. It isn't at the Kohls right by us but at Val Vista and ??? --I can't remember the street. Somewhere down by the 202 -- way south.
We just found out that David has something else wrong with his heart -- an atrial flutter. Somehow that is different from and atrial fibulation. (however you spell it) Anyway, he has to go in next week and they are going to try to fix it with something called an ablation (I think). If that doesn't work, they may have to do surgery. All this is pretty upsetting. I wish all these heart researchers would get busy and get more stuff out there that we can really use. A few years ago David and I heard about how they could inject stem cells into a heart and they would start growing functioning heart tissue in hearts that had been seriously damaged by heart attacks. That is what is wrong with David. A whole one-third of his heart is dead. Non-functioning. Where are those stem cells? Why aren't they injecting them into his heart?
