the morning after...

so i taught my lesson. the bishop told me 30 minutes and then he ended up wanting me to use 15 minutes. as a result, he only got 10 minutes. that guy forgets sometimes what he asks of you. when it came down to it, i wasn't nearly as freaked out as i thought i would be. it was like teaching any other class. or at least that is how i treated it. maybe i was a little too simplistic or came across condescending...i don't know. i'm used to teaching the youth. i do have more experience then them, but not the adults. but i found that if i thought of it that way i just couldn't do it, so i stopped thinking of everyone as my superiors, and more as my equals. i did get a little heckling and dad was bothered that his answer didn't have a strip. he even came up after class to argue with me about it. and i got a lot of other people to come up and share their personal experiences. what can i say...i delegate whenever i can. and not just because it is what you are supposed to do, but because i'm a chicken and i'd rather get some people to help me. the bishop made me lead the music. why? WHY does he insist on doing that to me? just at the last minute he announces that i'm leading the music! i'm not like his wife! not all women in the church can lead music ok? the last time i had to do that was on my mission. it has been over 10 years since i have led the music. besides that, i was already teaching the lesson. it doesn't have to be a 1-man show. so actually, my legs starting shaking when i was doing it. i was more nervous leading the music than teaching the lesson. it didn't help that the piano player didn't always keep time with me--then i'd have to slow down to be in time with him. and what exactly is my purpose of being up there if that is the way it happens? in the end i received a lot of positive comments on the lesson, but it was hard for me to believe. what is wrong with me? i just couldn't help thinking they were just being nice because they knew how scared i was. maybe because one person commented on how fluent i was. i'm glad it is done, but now i have another lesson to prepare for next week. and a birthday party. and halloween. i feel a little stressed. we haven't even carved our pumpkin yet. we were supposed to do it today for fhe, but now the girls are going to a party and they don't have time. ah well i better get to work.

today was my baby's first cross country meet. i was surprised actually, that she signed up for it, but she did. i asked her if she was going to join cross country, but she didn't give a very enthusiastic reply so i thought that was that. she started wanting to run with me this summer and grandpa bought her special running shoes. then this fall, i started all over (i have been walk/running carefully trying to not get shinsplints again) and mic usually comes with me. she didn't realize until yesterday though that it was a race and then she didn't want to do it. because she wouldn't win. sounds like someone else i know. but i told her winning wasn't important and that we would be proud of her for just doing her best. i didn't really know how she'd do because, like a typical kid, she doesn't like to push herself. i've seen her run at school runs and she does a lot of walking. when i got there dad had gotten mad in the race too. i wasn't too happy about that because i don't like them competing against each other and mad always seems to be better than mic. and i knew how mic was worried about not winning and stuff. i personally think that kids who are 8 shouldn't compete against kids that are 9. they are still young enough that it makes a big difference. in the end mic actually finished before mad, but still i don't think it was nice for mad to have that comparison either. mic got 13th place and ran the whole 1.5kms without stopping. i was very proud of her. a lot of the girls that finished before her were from her school and they were in grade 4, so i think she was one of the top 8 yr olds in the race. and it appears that my worries about mic and mad competing against each other were unfounded. they were both very pleased and each congratulated the other.

i brought mad home with me to play with the girls. i forgot that i was supposed to go help with the missionary luncheon. i forgot that i am going visiting teaching after school. hopefully diana doesn't mind if there is one more kid. i am forgetting a lot of stuff like that this week. i made an appointment on tuesday and forgot that i was supposed to help out at the library at that time. i'm feeling flaky. i don't like being a flake.

wow--2 days in a row...i don't know what has gotten into me. either i'm back in the flow, or i'm procrastinating figuring out the lesson i have to teach on sunday. i really don't want to teach it. i've always disliked the combined 5th sunday meetings and now i find myself having to do one. and my topic is so broad: emotional and spiritual strength. you can go anywhere with that. unless you are me--then you go no where.

tomato knife

once upon a time there was a girl that had nothing but crappy knives. the knife she used the most had a broken handle and so in essence did not even really have a handle. one christmas the girl's husband asked her what she wanted for christmas. the girl was fed up with such useless kitchen tools and so she told her husband she wanted a knife--one that cut tomatoes and cheese. (of course she also asked for clothes, but her husband refuses to buy her clothes). the girl's husband was surprised that that was all she wanted (besides clothes) and so he determined to spend almost his whole alloted budget on a knife for his wife. in fact he bought her 2 knives. a cheese knife and a tomato knife. now, chances are you have heard of a cheese knife but have never heard of a tomato knife. but yes such a thing does indeed exist. the girl was very surprised christmas morning when she got the 2 knives. even though she had asked for a knife that cut tomatoes she never thought he would take her so literally and she was thinking more along the lines of "stocking stuffers" not "main present." but as time went by the girl grew to love her tomato knife. it became her most used knife. she used it for cutting all produce and it cut so beautifully that she forgot her previous hardship of terrible cutting utensils. she took good care of her knife and never used it for anything except produce (there was one time actually that she let her sister-in-law use it to cut pepperoni or something like that but if the truth be told it was a little hard for her allow). the girl took it anywhere she would be cutting tomatoes--barbecues, picnics, camping trips but it always came back to her house safely with the rest of the stuff. there was one time that the cheese knife didn't come back from the canada day picnic in parksville and the girl felt very sad and mourned for her knife. she comforted herself by telling herself that at least she still had her tomato knife and that was the one she used all the time. the cheese knife was just for cheese. a week or so later the girl went to a barbecue with her brother and his family. she was surprised to see her sister-in-law cutting with the girl's cheese knife and quickly took it back. (her sister-in-law had just assumed that they had fabulous 50 dollar knives at the office.) the girl was happy to once again have both her special knives back and hoped that her cheese knife wasn't ruined by her sister-in-law cutting everything and anything with the knife. the girl lived on in happy slicing bliss until one day she couldn't find her tomato knife anywhere. she searched everywhere and couldn't find it. finally she gave up and started cutting with a different knife. it was useless. she couldn't make dinner with such a useless tool and so she searched again. this time she found it in the kitchen drawer. (not where it belonged) and to her dismay it was BROKEN!!! sob. how did it get broken? her mother had babysat the night before and did the dishes. could she have broken it? no....last time she babysat she had broken the girl's glass measuring cup, but she had been upfront about it and had promised to buy her a new one (a promise by the way that has yet to be kept and that was a useful kitchen tool to) but the girl couldn't think of any other answer, so she called her mother. sure enough, the girl's mother had broken it. she was closing the drawer and all of a sudden she heard a snap and when she looked in the drawer there was the broken knife. the mother didn't want to believe that she had done it and so she buried it under other stuff and hoped her daughter wouldn't notice. when the girl asked her mother about it her mother admitted that she had broken it and said that she had lots of knives and her daughter could pick any one she wanted. trouble is, the girl didn't want any of her mother's knives. she wanted her special tomato knife. her mother didn't have any of those. the girl's knife was such a nice knife that it had a warranty and so her husband took it to get a new one. the place he had bought it from had changed ownership and didn't deal with that brand anymore. so...now the girl hates cooking. everytime she cuts vegetables and has to saw back and forth her heart cries out for her tomato knife. working in the kitchen will never be the same again. moral of the story? i think it is to not let your mother do your dishes.