As If I Had A Choice

Yesterday I went to the dentist, yes, that is significantly difficult for me. But, my new (as of about a year ago) dentist is pretty good, and they always compliment me on how feminine my teeth are (I tell them that the Lord gave me man hands so he felt compelled to compensate somewhere).

Anyway, so I'm laying there after my cleaning, the Dr. comes in and says everything looks good, then says he needs to talk to me. Bear in mind that I'm laying in the chair, when he tells me that he has recently become the co-chair for the local district scout council. He then precedes to let me know that he saw my name as a trainer for Cub Scout Leader Specific training. Then he tells me that they are redoing the whole council and asks if I will serve on the training committee.

This is where it gets tricky... this is a nice guy, he's a great dentist, he also has the power to cause me a lot of pain and withhold that precious nitrous oxide... so I don't get a choice. Guess who gets to help with cub scout training.

Christmas Costumes

YEAH!!!!!!!

Yes, today I finished my set of Nativity Costumes!!! I know it's March. 

When I was growing up we always did the nativity on Christmas Eve, and my Grandma Whiting had a set of costumes that was used, probably for around 50 years.  Slowly over the years those costumes have gone missing and this year when I went to borrow them from Aunt Donna, sadly all she had left was a couple of Wise Men robes, one Shepard, and a single angel cape. Trust me that is a long way from what there used to be.

So, Scott and I had talked about doing this for a while, but since I had volunteered to get things together for a ward Christmas nativity, I had to step it up.  Now please bear in mind that I am a looooong way from ever being a seamstress. So I ended up buying a lot of fabric, cutting it and mostly draping it over kids, along with some flannel shirts and some angel tinsel halos.  But when it was all said and done I realized I had spent quite a  bit of money on this fabric and since quite a bit of it was satin/silk, it was starting to fray pretty badly after one use.

I have a sewing machine that is about 15 years old, so the first step was in to get it serviced.  Then I started sewing, fortunately it was just straight lines.  The other challenge is that the costumes have to fit a pretty big variety of sizes, for instance, this year in the ward play we had little Ezra, who weighs about 30 pounds, and at the Christmas Eve at Aunt Donna's I had Joseph Clark and Curt as Joseph and a wise man.  So the costumes need to be able to be draped and tied with a pretty universal size situation.

But... they are done!! OK, I thought this little project would only take to the end of January. Good thing I had Dr. Pol. I still will keep a look out for remnants or things that will work from the second hand shops, but of all the material that I had, they are now all ready to go - so my set now consists of-

Mary - in blue of course
Joseph
King Herod - in Purple
The Inn Keeper
3 wise men - even though I will look for more because we don't actually know how many there were
Samuel the Lamanite
4 Nephites
6 Shepherds - unless I break out Daddy's flannel - then that number jumps to around 14
                          And finally
13 Angel capes!!!!


Bring on Christmas

Flashback Friday (I know, it"s Saturday)

Ok, to encourage my remembering to blog, and since I didn’t exactly keep a journal growing up, I have decided to try to start doing a flashback Friday blog entry.  Of course I don’t know if I will be able to always get it up, but I will try.

 So…for my first FlashBack

You Are My Sunshine

When I was little I’m not even sure if the cars had seat belts, and I know that no one used a child seat.  All of our cars (and I mostly mean our trucks, since that was the primary family vehicle) had bench seats and being my Dad’s shadow meant I spent a lot of time with him in that truck.  My spot until I was to tall was standing, literally, on my Dad’s right hand side with my left elbow resting on his shoulder.  I spent about 5 years in that position, it was extremely comfortable for me, I’m not so sure about my Dad.  Anyway, I remember driving along with him and we would sing songs that he taught me.  There were three that I remember as the first,

You are my Sunshine

Zip-a-Dee-Doo Dah

And of course….No More Kissing in the Yellow Booth, which is actually called Chow Mein.

 Later of course there were more songs, but I’m pretty sure that “You are My Sunshine” was my very first song, and I smile every time I hear it.

Career Musings

One night a long time ago, when I was about 16, I found myself standing next to a chute at Dr. Grady’s, ankle deep in blood, helping hold up a uterus that was hanging out the side of a cow while the vet attempted to find all the little cuts that the newborn calf at our feet, with two broken legs, had made inside his mother because he was overdue and his milk teeth had cut the crap out of her.  This was after several hours of my Dad and I trying to jack the poor ginormous cross bred calf out of the little yearling that had somehow managed to get herself in a family way.  It was a rough night.  It was cold, it was messy and after stitching up the cow, we then had to set and cast two front legs of the calf.   

It was shortly after that night when my career path changed.  All my life growing up, I thought I would become a vet. But after spending the night like that, and realizing that the financial rewards for a large animal practice barely breaks even on a good year, I decided that there were easier ways to make a living.  That’s not to say there aren’t moments when I wonder…but then again, I haven’t been out much on cold February nights either.

My new television obsession has made me wonder about my choices though lately.  I have become quite a fan of Dr. Pol, on Nat Geo Wild. I have avidly watched the re-runs and new episodes for about a month now, and it completely takes me back to my childhood of pulling calves, stitching up horses, castrating calves, branding, vaccinating, and dealing with the inevitable bloated steers. Dr. Pol reminds me so much of the vets in my past, Dr. Brown from Delta and especially Dr. Pavetti, who was one mean old guy, but knew his profession. I am so enthralled that I have been known to watch 3-4 hours of it at a time, and trust me, I don’t sit that long for very many things.

I was doing a little reading on the net the other day and read some criticism of Dr. Pol and his practice.  I’m not surprised, most vets these days only deal with small animals, and only the best for little Fifi, but I know what it is like for those large animal vets, that are out in the corral with the cold, an injured animal and a rancher that could only afford to call him as a last ditch effort. People think those with livestock must be wealthy, they have land, they have animals…but the reality is that most are living on a pretty thin margin.  These animals aren’t pets, they are income.  There is precious little time to worry about the pain of a cow that is in the last stages of a breach birth.  Nor is there always a clean place to stitch up the horse that just ripped it’s tendon on a piece of wire.

These days in Grand Junction there is really only one large animal vet, large animals don’t pay very well, but there are times when I wonder what that would have been like…

Invisible People

My niece Kassandra is one of the invisible people.  You might be wondering what that is exactly.  As many people know that Kassandra was born with a significant amount of birth trauma, as a result, she has Cerebral Palsy.  What does that mean? It means that she has trouble walking and has a limited cognitive ability.  However, it doesn’t mean she is stupid…never, never make that mistake! She has trouble articulating sometimes and her perceptions are definitely unique.  Kassandra doesn’t necessarily understand social convention, so sometimes when people talk to her, she either won’t respond or she gets nervous and acts a little rude.
So why do I call her one of the invisible people? Because she is invisible to most people.  You have seen them, I have seen them…a group of special needs people, or an individual out in public - on a field trip at the grocery store, the library or the museum.  People don’t quite know how to react to them, so they just pretend the special people aren’t there. “Normal people” walk down another aisle, start a conversation with someone they are with, or pretend to be busy with something else, until the special people and their “handlers” have moved on.

Don’t feel bad, I used to be just like that.  Special people make us feel uncomfortable, we don’t know how to talk to them and are afraid of hurting their feeling.  Sometimes we are unsure if they will understand anything we want to say, and we don’t want to appear rude or worse cause some sort of scene. I totally understand those feelings, and so do members of my family.  We used to be just like you. Our family was untouched by special needs for many years, but Kassandra changed all that.  In fact, we didn’t even know you called them special needs, we had other names---  Times change, and so do medical miracles.  The ability of modern medicine to save even the smallest baby or to bring back a newborn who was without oxygen for 7 minutes is amazing, but with those modern miracles come more and more children surviving with special needs…and society better start getting ready to deal with these unique people, and probably so should you.

So I’ve been thinking about things that should put you at ease when you approach someone who is obviously special-

 

Look them directly in the eyes, don’t worry, they are in there.

Smile – it’s pretty universal

Say Hello, even if they can’t respond, they know what it means.

Don’t be surprised if they want to touch – mostly they usually want a hug, if you aren’t comfortable with that, just take a step back. They usually get the idea.

 

If you have someone in your neighborhood, church or social circle, it’s ok to ask questions. Trust me, we would rather answer 10 questions, than have you make one assumption. But what ever you do, please don’t pretend they are invisible – because they know

everyone has lost it

                  

Oh admit it, if you were raised or attended the LDS church when you were 6 or 7, you got one of these cool little adjustable rings. Of course you also lost this little treasure almost immediately as well.  Despite your love of this trinket, it inexplicable disappeared usually within the first two weeks.  But when one is found in the back of the drawer all the kids in the house solemnly promise it is theirs.  Back in my day they were 10 cents, now there are $1.00. But still worth it.