Maybe I should become disabled

this is hard to do on two feet, let alone one. maybe its easier with just one? i'll have to become disabled, and let you know

all the projects

project 1: Sweing stuff



i'm attempting to make two shirts and a hot rice pack thingy. i've made the shirt before, so it might actually turn out. the rice pack thingy doesnt look _too_ hard...

Project 2: Music



I'm attempting to salvage my piano playing skills, and guitar skills before they become totally inept they diminished greatly when i went up to school.

project 3: Crafty Stuffs



i owe this one to my roomate JM. she did this kind of thing when she broke a necklace or somesuch. rachel happened to break her bracelet, and so i made it into a pair of earings (whats going to happen with them, i dont know. no one at home can wear them.), and a choker for her. i have two pieces left. i'm hoping to make a necklace for myself out of them...


project 4: Mission-prep/Gospel related



fairly self explanitory. i'm still preping to go on a mission, even if it will take about half a year longer than i want it to.

Matsuko's Writings

as i tread through the forest, there isnt a sound. it is very quiet. the snow adds to the quiet, but it is too quiet. no birds singing in the trees overhead. i stop, watch, and listen. i dont hear a sound. not even the far off barking of the dogs in camp. in the fading light, it is hard to be sure, but i think i see anoyher person, crouching behind a bush. i wistle like a bluejay. he wistles back. i approach.
"the wolf has been by" i comment, noticing the paw prints in the snow. the wolf has been threatening our camp for a couple of days, and has been scaring off the game. we need the game if we are going to live over the winter.
"yes, very recently. that is why the birds have stopped their song."
we both adjust our quivers, get a firmer grip on our bows, and walk on a bit further.
"you were supposed to go after it. you should have left."
on we push, tracking the tracks, following his every move.
"i could have left" he said finally "but i would have missed my mark. i cannot see in this light. only you can see in this dim light."
we come upon a small cave. it was the wolf den, for there were a multitude of tracks around the opening. we could not tell if it was there, or if it had once again left. we peek inside. the wolf is still there. i nock my arrow, and take aim. suddenly, a pup comes into view. i lower my arrow, and step back.
"we cannot kill it. we will have to move camp. this wolf is a mother."
"so kill it and its pups."
"no. we cannot. it would be wrong. an adult, yes, we can shoot them, and even use the meat. the pups, we cannot kill. they do not have as fair of a chance, and, although we could eat them, and they would be most tender, it would be wrong. like killing one of the puppies from your dog."
he sees the fire in my eyes, and knows he has lost. we go back to camp, and then to home. we will be hungry this winter.

downtown, yet again

i was downtown, yet again today, and took more pictures. this time of less famliar buildings. some of city hall, and some of the Cathedral of the Madeline. both very pretty buildings, both of them very cool architecturally.

go here for more pictures

i'm so proud

sometimes, being rachel's "mindy-mommy" is a lot of fun. sure, there are times, many many times, that its been frusturating, but recently, its been a lot of fun, and she's made me proud.

as i've been looking for missionary clothes (not nearly as easy as you might think), rachel has come along to give her opinion, and then, just to be fair, we'll go and look at rachel sized cloths. lots of the cloths that they have out are immodest, and for the most part, rachel didnt, i thought, care about if it was modest, or immodest or what. but, she surprised me. as we were looking, she saw some really cute shirts and said "oh, those are cute mindy. but they are immodest." and she moved on to something else. one of the floor models they had was wearing a shirt, actually modest, but its shoulder had slid down. rachel, once again surpriseing me, went over and fixed it and then said "there. now she is dressed modestly" i was so happy and proud, and muchly plesently surprised.

not only has she been doing this with clothing though.

her dad and K, have recently made arrangements for rachel to go with her grandma and grandpa H to California over thanksgiving. when she found out that she would be gone over a sunday she asked her dad "is there a church in california?" me and me mum and dad were all very surprised to hear her ask it. we had thought that, especially after living with some of her parents, she didnt care much if she went to church or not. it was so exciting to be able to hear her ask that, and to show that she does care, and that she really would like to go, no matter what.

on a different note...

yesterday was the primary program. my sunbeams sat there so well! i was so happy that they were able to sit there and were as good as they were. sure, a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that their parents and grandparents were there, but one boy, KS, he honeslty doesnt know how to sit still, and he was sooo good! i was so proud to be there teacher.

pictures from downtown

i went downtown yesterday, while i was there, i decided to take some time and tour downtown. here's the pictures i took. (thanks daddy's camera!)

yet another story

Why we have snow
by matsuko

the great dragon decided it was time to move. he had been living in the same house for over 1000 years, and was starting to get tired of the scenery. so he packed up everything. his earth-shaking smoothie maker, his furniture, everything that he had in his house. he then moved to a new house that was about halfway across the sky. as he was moving all of his boxes and furniture and everyhting, he saw a sign for a dust/leaf/snow blower and thought that maybe it would be good to have one. "who knows, there might be a lot of trees where i'm going, and get lots of snow in the winters. i dont want to be spending my whole days raking leaves and shoveling snow!" unfortunately, the Great Dragon was too busy at the time to buy one. he forgot about the dust/leaf/snow blower for a long time, never passing the store. it was a lot closer to his old home than his new one. it changed seasons, and was no longer summer, but suddenly was fall. the great dragon's new home did indeed have a lot of trees, and, since he didnt remember to go get the leaf blower, was spending a lot of time raking up the leaves. a lot more than he would have liked to have. he decieded to try blowing them into a pile with his lungs. sadly, as he was trying so hard, he ended up setting the leaves all on fire. "i wish i hadnt done that. i had wanted to use those leaves for compost, and help my new garden grow next summer." so, he had to come up with a new idea. he tried to use his tail, instead of a rake, but that just scattered them more, and make it take a lot longer. so, he just settled with raking up the leaves. then winter came. he tried to blow and make fire and melt away the snow from his sidewalks, but it just turned into ice, and was more of a hazard. he tried making it all into snowdragons and snowunicorns and the like, but he ran out of room in his yard for them all. eventually, he just settled for shoveling his snow, like all of his neighbours. one day, he decided to go back and visit some of his old neighbours, and see how they were doing. as he was headed home, he passed the store selling the dust/leaf/snow blowers. "ah ha! just what i needed all this time. if only i had remembered, then i wouldnt have broken my arm when there was ice on my walks, or wasted all of those wonderful composting leaves. i'll have to get one, and try it out!" so get one he did. next time it snowed, he started up that snow blower. and what a wonderful job it did! he had his walks clean and free of snow and ice within 15 minutes. one thing he didnt notice was that it created quite the wind down on earth. come the next snow storm, the great dragon was prepared. this snow storm was HUGE! it dropped about two feet of snow. the great dragon was ready for it. he took out his snow blower, and started to clear his walks. this time, it took a LOT longer. he stopped to rest, and looked down to earth, to see what was going on there. he noticed that it was really really really windy, and it looked like it was snowing there too! "well, what a coincidence" he thought. i wouldnt have thought it would be snowing there, especially since it isnt snowing here any more. as he kept watching, it suddenly stopped snowing. "odd. snow doesnt just suddenly start, and suddenly stop like that. not down there. well, i had best get meself back to work. i still have more of my own sidewalks and driveway to worry about." as he got back to work, he kept an eye out on what was happening down on earth. he noticed that as he was using his snow blower, it suddenly started to snow on earth. "maybe i should stop. i dont like to give the people my snow. they have never had any, and wont know what to do with it all. but what can i do with all of my snow? i guess i'll just keep on making snowdragons and sometimes snow unicorns. maybe i'll only use the snowblower when i'm going to have company. i know that wont happen much, so it will only inconvinence the people on earth every once in a while. that would be good" so, every once in a while, the great dragon gets a gues to his house in the winter. some years, he gets more guests, and so we get more snow, but on other years, he gets hardly any visitors at all, and we dont get much snow at all.

today's lost arts

one of the problems with many of today's people is that they dont know how to do some of the really cool things that people like the pioneers did. people dont know how to can/bottle things, make applesauce, make bread, things like that. its rather sad cause honestly, those are awesome things to be able to do. even people in the church who are supposed to know how to do those types of things, it doesnt happen. its an art that has been lost on today's society. on the other hand, those of us who do know how to do them, dont share. a lot of that comes from a lack of interested people, but it also comes because we just plain dont offer our services, unless its to our familes. but families are drafted into helping with the work, so it only makes sense. its a family tradition in our house to can pears, peaches, and make applesauce and jams every single year possible. we were making applescause today, and when rachel's newest set of grandparents came to take rachel for the day, and they saw that we were making applesauce, they were impressed and said something like "oh, i had homeade applesauce once... it was really good." only once?! again, sorry, but i cant live off of the store bought stuff. it just doesnt taste right. its the same with the store bought canned fruits. they just dont taste right. too...metaly, aluminmy (huzzah for made up words!). maybe one day i'll jsut have to start a campaign and teach people how to make applesauce, can fruits, and make jam. at least, my own family (if i ever have the pleasure of having a family) will have the pleasure of making jams/applesauce/canned fruit. its an art that really just shouldnt be lost. so why start with my family?

ideas

i've been wanting to come up with some sort of a creative story recently, or do some other such thing all creative like and using the right side of my brain. only problem is that i cant seem to figure out anything to do. i could write another story about the great dragon, except that i cant think of anything else for him to do or create (thanks to B, my ideas for anything else are all corrupted by the myths that she wrote, and i have no new ideas). so, i'm asking for ideas. what can i do that is creative, using the right side of my brain?

It should have been today

Today is offically 90 days from my birthday, meaning that my papers should have gone downtown today. thats great! except for not.

Reason one:
my bishop wants me to get a "missionary screening" from the LDS family services to make sure that my depression et al. wont get in the way of my being able to serve. the bishop says that he isnt worried about it, it is more for clarification for the missionary councel, because they might have questions. this meeting is apparantly two sessions long with a councelor. my first meeting isnt until next wednesday. since i've done this kind of thing before, i'm guessing it will take about a week before my second and hopefully final meeting with them, then they will send a letter to my bishop saying yea or nay i will be able to serve without any hinderance. as of right now, i'm really really hoping that they are a yea yea instead of a nay nay. i have guesses as to what it would do psycologically.

Reason two:
i have yet to meet with my stake president. president R is out of country a lot, so i have to wait a long time for his secritary to call me and set up a time. also, i have suspicions that my bishop has yet to give my papers to president R. reasoning? see reason one.

so, although this should have been a great day, its not. i should have had my papers in to downtown today, but they wont. Fie on Melinda being stupid!

tooth bugs

Yesterday, after general conference, my family went up to my Mimi's house. while there, L was looking through some old song books she got from her mother. there were a lot of old sunday school song books, but one of them happened to be a really old (published in 1939) primary song book. it had all sorts of songs in it. thanksgiving songs, songs about easter, songs about chiristmas. there were even some songs about "grandma's old fasioned garden" the one song that i like the best was called "tooth bugs"

"I do not want to clean my teeth," a little boy once cried,
"I've washed my face and combed my hair, That's quite e-nough," he sighed;
Some tooth-bugs hiding in his mouth, Began to dance in glee;
"At last we've found a home," they cried, "We do not have to flee!"

"This boy has such a nice warm mouth, We'll linger here all night;
His teeth are filled with bits of food, We'll eat with all our might!"
The small boy heard their shout of glee, "Get out of there," he cried;
He grabbed his brugh and scrubbed and scrubbed 'Till ev'ry tooth bug died.

the dolls of today

as i've been working at sears, i've had the opportunity to put away a LOT of toys. one thing i've noticed is that, for the girls, especially their dolls, they all seem to have the same types of messages. (you may not agree with my views, but a lot of this comes based on the fact that, since i was brought up LDS, i tend to have a different view than a lot of people) one of the messages that seemes to be sent all the time, which i'm highly in favour of, is that they need to learn childcare, and to beome mothers. i'm fine with that. another mesasage that seems to be getting sent a lot (this is more found with the stupid bratz and barbis.), is that you should find a job that doesnt require any brains. barbi has come out with some "i can be" barbi's. its showing possible carreers for when they grow up. the idea itself isnt bad, its the things they are saying the girls can become. dog walker, baby photographer, art teacher. notice, they can be a teacher, but it cant be a chemistry teacher, or a physics teacher or anytihng like that (and i'm fairly sure they would never promote becomming a park ranger). they arent encouraging anything that uses much of a mind to do. certian skills, sure, but nothing that really requires thinking. then there's the bratz dolls. they are just...as my coworker described them "they are trying to get the girls to become sluts" great description of them. on the back of one of them (i think it was a bratz sportz one) it said "we know that it doesnt matter how well we play, but how hot we look when we win" sorry, i just have a problem with that. it doesnt matter how well we play? since when? thats not how it is in the real world, sorry. it only matters how hot we look when we win? um....no. how can you even expect to win when you promote not carring how well you play? its just...wrong! honestly, its not right. girls are way influenced by what they play with, and, no matter how much my daughter would want it, i dont think that _any_ girl should play with them. look at them. what kinds of morals is it teaching?! none! when i was growing up, at least we had some decent dolls to play with. i'll make sure to save them, and then my girl will have something that istn quite so...blech.

creativity (or not)

emiko and rachael were wandering through the forest, and suddenly, they came upon a geezbot (similar to a tigre, just that its a whole lot bigger, and not nearly as nice). not knowing what it was, they advanced upon it, thinking that it would make a nice meal. trying to sneak upon it was quite the task. the geezbot heard them from about 20 feet away, and pretended not to, so as to better catch them, should they continue "so, do we shoot, or do we.. uhh... fence... it?" asked emiko."like i would know. your the one that knows about animals, not me." answered rachael. "welll, i've never had to deal with tigres, have you?" "no, but, i would guess they are like cougars, and you've delt with them" "cougars never get that big, now do they?" "umm.. i dont know. lets shoot it. you have a bow and arrow, so you get to try it." so, emiko tried to shoot the geezbot, not being to successful. "darn it all, i've never had that good of aim." "just hope that you havent woken it up," said rachael "cause i'm not especially in the mood for a chase" "well, i guess we'll see. but my guess is that it hasnt heard, otherwise, it would have given chase by now. i would think" the geezbot, wanting to see just how far they would go before they realized that it really was awake, still just laid there, listening to their stupidity, and wondering if they would be worth chasing at all, or if it should just play dead. it deicded that, just for fun, it would give them another couple of yards, then suddenly it would give chase, and the people wouldnt know what hit them. "lets see just how much fun we can have with them today. its been a while since i've properly chased anything, so lets have some fun today" thought the geezbot. so, rachael and emiko advanced, and were just about to start charging it when the geezbot "woke up," it chased them through the forest for quite a while, giving them quite the running. rachael and emiko eventually realized that it couldnt chase both of them, so that they would meet up later, about where they first met up, if they could find it. if not, make a good trail, and rachael would stay in one spot, so as for emiko to find her later. "just dont get eaten rachael! i want to see you later!" "same goes for you emiko! no getting eaten!"and with that they separated, to see which of them the geezbot gave chase to.
The geeebot, unexpectedly, chased emiko, even though both rachael and emiko had planned for the geezbot to chase rachael. so, it chased emiko, giving everyone a bit of a surprise. "you keep it going after you, and somehow, stop it, and then i'll come and finish it off!" rachael yelled. "how am i suppsoed to do that?" wondered emiko, not having the slightest clue about what a tigre, let alone a geezbot would do to slow down. "well.... i guess i could let it eat me, i would just have to make sure that i was small enough to go down in one gulp. and... lets see here, ah yes, i do indeed still have the letherman that i stole from erk before he got all gushy with sarala. good, it will help significantly when needing to get out, cause i dont think that rachael has anything. we never got around to sparing, and even if we had, we left the swords back where we met up with the geezbot, running in fright. hm... guess we'll see if this works then, shant we?"so, with those thoughts all going through her head, emiko became the smallest ball of person that was manageable for a 20 year old girl. no, not all that small, but then, the geezbot didnt particularly care, cause he was big enough it didnt matter anyhow. eat up emiko the geezbot did. it thought that she was a delicious meal. "now lets just hope that this leatherman will be strong enough to get me out, and that somehow, i can kill this thing from inside. and that rachael will be able to find something to help me get out after its dead. on second thought, lets just get this thing dead first, and then we will worry about the rest of it later."emiko started to explore the inside of the geezbot, and looked for a way to pierce the heart, and make sure that the geezbot ended up dead immediately. meanwhile, back at the ranch, rachael was searching around the forest for something, anything that would be able to help emiko. not knowing exactly what it was that emiko was going to do to stop the geezbot, she needed most anything to help her out. "so what i need," she pondered "is something that can work for most any job. how about... ah ha!" and with that, she picked up her implement of destruction. "now to find emiko and the geezbot, and help get it stopped."rachael went looking, and came upon the geezbot, apparantly just getting done with a meal of some sort. "where's emiko?" she wondered. "she should be around here somewhere, shouldnt she? wait... do i see... movement inside of that thing? umm... EMIKO!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?!?!"the geezbot, being to preoccupied with the strange sensations and sounds comming from its stomach, didnt notice rachael yelling at it, or, more like at its stomach. "i must have eaten something bad," thought the geezbot, "either that, or i havent been hunting recently enough, or done enough running like that and so i ate too soon after doing all that running. wow, this feels.... blah. i think i'll take a nap, and see if it will help to feel better. i do hope it does." so, the geezbot laid down, and took a nap, completly unsuspecting of the impeding danger that was upon it. "RACHAEL!!!! is that you out there that i hear?!" "EMIKO!!!! where are you? i dont see you anywhere, and what do you mean by 'out there'?" "i'm inside the geezbot. i'm looking for a way to stab its heart from the inside, so that it wont suspect anything, and then we'll have a meal. how's that sound. in about, oh, five minutes, if i dont say anything, come and cut open the stomach of the geezbot, and get me out. i dont know if this thing is going to try and digest or not, so, just in case..."about three minutes later, emiko found a way to stab the heart of the geezbot from the inside, and did so. "meal time!" "okay rachael, i'm going to need your help in getting out of this thing. i've got erk's leatherman, so, i'll start to cut him from the inside, and you start to cut him from the outside, maybe we'll meet, and everything will turn out okay." so rachael, with her handy dandy stick that she had picked up, started to try and cut emiko out, whilst emiko cut herself out with erk's leatherman. in a couple more minutes, emiko was out, and they cut off the geezbot's head, and were ready to cook dinner. "yes! time for a meal. i think we deserve it, dont you emiko?"

Making Bread

I made bread today. it was (and will be) most delicious. i was supposed to teach rachel how to make it, but she backed out. nothing was going to stop me after i had the permission of mom to make bread though. :) the small loaf was an experiment. i added peanut butter chips to it before i cooked it. it was way yummy.

National Speak like a Pirate Day

ahoy me mate! ti's national speak like a pirate day. i was first introduced to this holiday last year, when the newspaper had a short, four or five sentence blurb on it. in spirit of the holiday, i thought i would spread some possibly interesting facts. first off, if you'd like a list of some wonderful pirate words, go here. nextly, some interesting facts on some actual pirates.

Blackbeard: there actually was a pirate named Blackbeard. he was a pirate in the Caribbean sea in the 18th century. he got his name because he would light cigars, candles, and other things that would burn, and he put them in his beard, hat, hair, and sometimes clothing.

Davy Jones: there actually was no pirate named Davy Jones. it was a term for a devil sea. Davy Jones locker is the name for the bottom of the sea, and pirates who drowned were said to be at rest in his locker.

Barbarossa or Redbeard: he and his two brothers were a Turkish pirates, and they sailed the Mediterranean during early to mid 1500's. one of the brothers, through alliance with the ottoman empire, became sultan, helping out their piracy

Rexburg and a warning

I came up to Rexburg to visit a bunch of friends before I leave on my mission, (hopefully we'll see them at my farewell, but I guess we'll see). Tonight, we went to the sand dunes, made a fire, and were roasting marshmallws. We've heard of a bunch of people doing this before, so we didnt know that it was illegal and we would get in trouble for doing it. Low and behold, up drove a couple of officers, from the BLM. My future employers (hopefully). Oh yay. Just the thing I needed. Getting in trougble with the BLM. That'll go over well in a job interview. "So, I see here that you got a citation for lighting a fire illegally. Can you tell us about that?" Great for a job interview. Obvoiusly, the BLM didnt have it well marked that it was a study area, and that things such as fires were illegal. Do you really think I would have been participating in an illegal activity knowingly? Especially with my hopefully future employers? (I took a picture of the warning we got. It will be processed when I get back home and finish up the film. One of those times that I really wish that I had a digital camera)

a new bike!

sadly, my old bike got stolen. even more sad, it wasnt really my bike. it was my sisters. she got it over in japan, when her first husband was stationed there. it was her bike, but she wasnt using it, so i was. it got stolen about a week and a half ago. ever since, me and dad have been looking to replace it. dad, who works out in tooele, has been keeping an eye out for bikes there, all over, while i've been looking a bit closer to home. he found a really nice one, at a pawn shop there in tooele. ony $30, for a really really expensive bike. quite the deal. even better, now i have a bike

again. huzzah! it has front and rear suspention, and...a whole bunch of different gears, and really nice breaks and everything. only need to get a lock for it now (a kickstand might not go amiss either). hurrah!

Phylisophical thinking

as i was weeding the garden, i was doing some philisophical thinking. rachel has been comming home from school singing the safety kids songs. one she's been comming home singing recently is all about natural highs, and to "reach for a natural high, high, high, high,/when you are feeling down low" all about encouraging kids to not use drugs to get high and all that. go for a run, climb a mountian, things like that, when your feeling sad, dont use drugs to make yourself feel better. the thought then came "well there are people out there who hurt themselves to make themselves feel better (cutting, breaking bones, ect.). could it, in some sense of the word, be a natural high?" if yes, when why are those types of thigns called "abuse". and if no, then why coulent it be some sort of a natural high? its not using drugs to make you feel better.

joke of the day

dante likes to call our house, and usually, i never get a chance to talk to him. rachel takes up all the time they have, so whenever i get to talk to dante, its only because i'm the one that answered the phone in the first place. saturday, he called, and i was able to finaly get a chance to talk to him (this only ever happens about once a month), and he enjoys giving a "joke of the day" thing. thing is, he doesnt really know any jokes. but, he tries to make them up, and they usually make me laugh, just cause its funny that he's trying so so so very hard. so what was the joke of the day, that i so enjoyed?
"mindy, how many jet plains and how many airplanes are there?"
"i dont know dante, how many are there?"
"100,000"

awww, isnt he cute!?

Doctor Rachel

i woke up, about 4:30-same time as i would get up on week days, really not feeling good, and it took till about 8 for me to be able to get back to sleep. when rachel had gotten up, about 6:30, i had just taken medicine to help me feel better. i hadnt eaten anything, and rachel saw it, and knows that i'm supposed to eat something whenever i take medicine, or else i just end up feeling worse. so, when dad had finished making breakfast, about 8:05, i had just started going back to sleep. rachel came and woke me up saying "mindy, breakfast is ready" i tried to inform her that i wasnt hungry, and that i just wanted to go back to sleep. "but mindy, you need to eat something to make you feel better. it will help your medicine" "but rachel i'm not hungry" "com'on mindy. just a grapefruit. it will make you feel better" how many times have i been Dr. Min, when she has been sick, and used the same line on her (just usually not grapefruit. its usually banana)? honestly, how can you oppose a nine year old, trying to be your doctor. it just doesnt work.