I spoke in Relief Society last night....

and I wasn't prepared for it!

I'll give you a little background. Hubby and I have been investigating the church on and off for the past eight years. We were always involved in another church at the time and really wouldn't consider changing. But now we are without a church home (we were raised protestant and have been faithful in attendence and service all our married life) now and no churches are at all appealing to me except the LDS. I feel very comfortable at the church. So, I've started attending RS meetings with my friend, and I've been trying to get hubby to go to church on sundays as often as i can. it's been working out to about once a month, though i can usually get there a second sunday because he is out of town at drill.

SO, tonight my friend picks me up for RS. She told me that she had no idea what they were doing tonight because she was out of town. They had gone to see a new grandson blessed and a 12 yo grandson ordained. During our conversation it came up that Christmas is on a Sunday and she likes it when that happens because then they open their presents on Friday night so that on Sunday it's all about the special service. I told her that several years ago I was really convicted about how caught up my son was about the gifts (which is natural for a child) and i wanted to do something that would help put the focus back on Christ on Christmas, so we started opening our gifts on the 23rd every year so we could do a special thing on Christmas eve -- such as reading the christmas story and talking about what we can give back to Jesus this year and then Christmas day is about family. She thought that was really neat.

SO, we walk in the church and a lady walks up to her. She is very active with RS. I don't know who she is but I suspect she is first counselor. She starts talking to my friend asking where's she's been and if she's okay because she had called and left a message... blah, blah, blah. So my friend explains why she didn't get the message and asks what she needed and the lady tells her, well i really needed to talk to her -- and turns to ME! I'm thinking, what on earth does she need to talk to me about? I mean, really, I'm not even a member.... Anyway, she asked if I would mind sharing a family tradition with the group and my friend pipes up as says, She has a great family tradition and tells her what i shared in the van on the way over. The lady says, that's great you have to share that. I didn't have too much problem with that, but when the other ladies got up to share it was obvious they had been asked way in advance and had a whole little presentation, etc. to share (some with handouts) and I had nothing. I was a bit uncomfortable. All I could do was get up, introduce myself, explain I was an investigator and share my little blurb about why we open gifts on the 23rd every year and sat down.

Whew.

The RS president (at least i'm assuming she the president, she's always introducing people and moving things along) wanted my contact information. I shudder to think what this might mean....

But on the flip side, after hearing from some of you about how unwelcomed you have felt in your wards, even as members, I am very glad that I have a ward where the women are so friendly, welcoming, and evidently have adopted me even though I haven't joined yet. i  feel like part of the group already, and it feels wonderful. i really enjoy RS and church, it is so uplifting. it's nice to enjoy going to church again

Book Giveaway

I found a blog that gives away books, and I'm entering her giveaway.  Posting about it on my blog counts as an entry, so run over and visit to find out more:

http://divabookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/10/giveaway-one-grave-at-time-by-jeaniene.html

Pumpkin Decorating

My friend took me to Relief Society tonight and the theme was pumpkins.  Some ladies shared tips on fall decorating, one did a demonstration on making pumpkin pie from a pumpkin instead of a can, and many of the ladies brought a pumpkin dish to share and there was judging.  Everyone got two warm fuzzies to vote with and you placed a fuzzy in a cup by the dish you wanted to vote for.  I put both my fuzzies in the cup by the ginger snaps with pumpkin dip.  I love ginger snaps.

We then got a chance to decorate our own pumpkins.  Since we were provided with pie pumpkins and had just been instructed on how to use one, I simply painted mine.  The design I chose was too big for the pumpkin, so I just used the owl face and put my own twist on it.  I even had to blend my own shade of purple to use in the background.  The other ladies were very impressed with my ability to free hand.

I had completely forgotten about RS, I'd been so busy this month.  I'm very glad my friend invited me.

Not Much....

I've been busy, but haven't accomplished much.  At least, it doesn't feel like it.  The tomatoes have slacked off, much to my relief.  We just got back from a week and a half at the family cabin.  Hubby had to finish up work on the water line we replaced this summer before we winterize.  We got to attend an autumn festival and a week later a festival which celebrated the history of the little town our cabin is near.  The town was formed around a hunters and trappers tradepost that sprung up there, and it's still there and active!  The town, not the tradepost, much to hubby's disappointment.  We were there two years ago and it was warm weather, in the seventies at least.  The people said that last year the weather was in the eighties.  Well, this year it was in the forties.  I didn't mind.  We were walking around, so that kept me comfortably warm.  And it's autumn in the mountains, afterall, so the weather seemed very appropriate.  The people hosting the event were griping about the chill, but I think it went over very well.  There were lots of people.  It was heaven smelling the wood smoke as people cooked over open fires to make chili and cornbread, the coal smoke from the blacksmithy, the horses, the apple butter being made in a copper kettle.  The mountains.  Home sweet home.  I ended up making an apple walnut spice cake.  I started with a spice cake mix.  Hubby went out and picked some apples growing wild, and harvested some black walnuts, and we chopped them up and added them to the mix.  Instead of oil I used apple sauce and apple juice instead of water.  It turned out very good.

Now I'm working on crochet items for two craft shows.  Should get working.

Summer Fare

Today I fixed hubby's favorite summer meal -- fried bologna with fried onions and hot peppers.  We haven't had much luck with onions, but hubby continues to grow the Hungarian Wax hot peppers.  They look like banana peppers, but are hot.  But not as hot as jalepenos.  For dinner I'll be roasting veggies, including zucchini and fixing italian sausage.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, go away....

Well, hubby sold a few tomatoes on Monday.  We also experience a tremor from the 5.9 quake in VA.  I was in bed taking a nap at the time, and suddenly the bed was gently shaking, almost as if someone was trying to shake me away.  I looked around and no one was in the room.  The bed continued to shake.  Nothing else in the room seemed to be moving.  No glass clinking together.  My immediate thought was a tremor, but I tried to put that out of my head.  Afterall, we don't get earthquakes in WV.  But, there wasn't a train going by either, which could be the only other explanation.  I got online and sure enough, there had been an earthquake in VA.  Unbelievable!  Hubby missed it.  There had been an earthquake tremor in Erie, PA when we lived there, but we had been on the interstate at the time, so completely missed it.  Hubby is bummed that he missed yet another tremor.

Hubby did sell tomatoes Tuesday too.  Yesterday, however, we got a sudden storm.  Today is calling for storms all day (thank you, Irene.  NOT!) so there are two days he can't sell and in the meantime we have tomatoes going bad.  Needless to say, we had bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch, and i've been eating tomatoes for a snack.

We are planning on attending a fireside at the bishop's house Sunday evening, so what good tomatoes we have left I recommended that we donate to the missionaries.  I'm sure they would appreciate homegrown tomatoes.  I'm sure the bishop's wife will make sure the sister missionaries get their share.  They aren't usually at the firesides.  Then again, we might not have any with us right now.  Not sure.

Getting Started

Well, here I am on the world wide web.  Ah, I guess I just discovered what "www" means at the beginning of every URL, huh?

I need a place to explore some things, talk some things over with myself and maybe a few friends.  I'm almost forty (three months to go, yikes!) and I'm about as lost as I can be.  I'm unhappy in my marriage.  I'm unhappy with myself.  I just about hate life all the way around.  I feel like everyone is chipping away at me.  Who am I?  What do I want?  I think I need to explore some of those things.

We've had some friends for the past few years who are LDS.  We met them through some missionaries we were meeting with.  Hubby is dead set against the faith, and I follow his lead.  But he respects our friends a great deal and enjoys spending time with them.  I am attracted to the faith, personally.  I'm not 100% on it yet, but I like the people, I enjoy the church services, etc.  I want to be more active in reading and studying.

Right now we are in the midst of a bumper crop of tomatoes.  Hubby insists on gardening.  It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't go overboard.  I am enjoying the zucchini.  I will have to learn to make meals with zucchini and eggplant.  Oh joy.  I hate cooking.