Knowledge is Power

About 10 years ago we went took the kids to visit my grandma in California. On the way home the car stopped working, thankfully not too far from a friend of ours who was a mechanic. We made it to his house, his wife fed us, and the family put us up for the night. The next morning Chris had the car apart, the new part in place, and we were on our way shortly after lunch. I remember telling him what a mystery a car, and pretty much all mechanical devices, are to me. I could give you a run down (at least then) on the components of the nervous system in your body but had absolutely no idea what happened to that wire under the hood of the car once it disappeared from view. He said something about not having a clue about the human body once you got deeper than the skin and we both agreed it was a good thing that there are different people with different knowledge bases in the world.

Over the years we've had lots of opportunities to learn new things. I can now patch and paint a hole in the wall, remove wall paper, paint, repair broken doors, install a new counter-top and new light fixtures, install a new disposal, and do very minor plumbing repairs to name a few. I have pretty much avoided machines, though, and they remain a large mystery to me. So, with that, let me just say:

I replaced the heating element in my dryer today.

Actually, it took me two days- yesterday I took the dryer apart and figured out which part was broken. (Thanks to my neighbor for muscle to pull a part out and for having an ohm meter to test it with.) Today I bought the element, put it in (with my own muscle), tested it, and had no left over parts.

That may not sound very impressive. In fact, to summarize the process in just a few sentences somehow trivializes my last two days. Let me say it again, I replaced the heating element in my dryer. I even have a bloody knuckle to prove it. I realize a service call could have had the whole thing taken care of in a matter of hours, but, doggonit (is that really a word?), I have a brain and shouldn't I be able to figure this out- and while Greg was gone at youth conference to boot? The best part of the whole thing is not even the functioning dryer. The best part is the amazing feeling of accomplishment that comes from figuring out something new- and made even better by having it actually work. One hour or two days- it feels good to say I fixed it because I'd never done it before and, to be honest, it always seemed a bit intimidating to me.

It's a very empowering feeling to break outside of your boundaries, and try something new. The occasional success is icing. It's the trying that provides the long term education. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power." Watching something is not the same as trying it first hand. Watching is interesting. Trying something first hand opens the doors to new possibilities and the confidence to explore them.

I realize that we're just talking dryers here- and only one quarter of the schematic diagram that came with the installation instructions for this particular dryer. But, today the dryer is more than a white box that spits out heat and requires a specialist to keep alive. I can open the panel door, look inside, and know what's where in that corner. Next step are the other three schematics. Who knows, maybe I'll even tackle the washing machine someday. The car is still pretty much a mystery to me and the bolt that fell off the other day makes me nervous since I can't see where it fell from. But, we'll take one machine- and one break down- at a time. If I can learn how a muscle works and the anatomy of a human body, man-made machines can't be that hard. It's just a matter of doing it- and having the right equipment. Looks like "ohm meter" will be making it's debut on my wish list.

At the End of the Day

My mental calendar has been taking me back 17 years. There's no good reason, it just is. 17 years ago Valentine's Day fell on Sunday and we were blessed with a President's Day vacation the following day. Greg and I were approaching our 6 month anniversary and still students. If I'm not mixing up my visits, my sister and a friend spent part of the weekend with us and we dropped them off at the airport so they could spend the weekend at home in AZ. We'd learned that Les Miserable would be coming to Salt Lake City and we wanted to see it. Tickets went on sale at 6:00 Monday morning. No sleeping in for us that holiday. Being the "savvy shoppers" we were, we decided to beat the crowds and get up at 5:00 to be at the head of the ticket line at Smiths. Boy, were we outsmarted! We arrived to a sea of people outside the store, some of whom had been there for the better part of the night. I had only heard of that for rock concerts, and never experienced it for myself. Afraid we wouldn't be able to get tickets, we took turns trying to get through to buy tickets over the phone. This was pre- ubiquitous internet and cell phones, so it meant using a pay phone when we could while waiting in line. We were successful, though. By 11:00 we had ended up with 2 sets of tickets- feast or famine, I guess! We eventually sold one set to some friends and I remember having a great time at the show- despite the "morning" sickness that was in full swing (all day) by the time the play actually arrived in town.

I'm not sure why that particular event has been on my mind lately. It really isn't something I've thought much about in the years since. Maybe it's because we're back in UT. Maybe it's the long weekend sparking a memory. It has been interesting to see where life has taken us since then. In some ways we've come full circle. In others, we're miles away down a straight road. Physically, yes, we're back in the same town. We aren't really the same people we were then, though. For one, our little family is now 7, not 2. Schooling is pretty much behind us and our children are edging quite close to that brink themselves. This year I'm planning to sleep in and spend some fun time with my family no where near a Smith's.

I've learned alot about myself and life in general in the last 17 years. Back then, arriving at the point where we'd have children old enough to go to college seemed a world and lifetime away. I somehow hadn't thought about what kind of life existed beyond that point. By then, surely we'd be expert parents, have all the answers, be done "growing up" and be living life on auto pilot. Don't ask me where I got any of those ideas. They seem pretty crazy from here.

Now, I find us approaching that vague point. I've learned alot, but haven't managed the things I'd imagined- no expert parenting, missing a bunch of answers, still have tons of "growing up" to do, and if there's an autopilot button for my life laying around, no one has told me where it is. I do know that we're nowhere near the end of this learning process and we still have more of life before than behind us. At least, I hate to think that my current state is my finished product. There are too many corners that need to be rounded and too much polishing to be done. It makes me wonder what the next 17, 34, and maybe even 68 years will bring and how many of my current preconceived notions will turn out to be as off the mark as my earlier ones. Does the learning slow down or speed up as you get older? As they sing in Les Mis- "At the end of the day, you're another day older..." Hopefully that means you're a little wiser, as well. Only time and experience can really add up to that.

Mother/Daughter Time, round 2 and Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks to the school district for giving Erica and I some more fun mother/daughter time. The entire school district has Wednesday off for Thanksgiving, but for some reason, the highschool only has a half day on Tuesday as well. It worked out well for us, though. See, Erica turned 16 recently and her permit was expiring soon and she finished her driving course at school so we made good use of her time today and went to get her a drivers license. Woo hoo!

One Happy, Licensed, Young Lady

(When did we we get over training wheels?)

(Side note- It's kind of weird for me still. I'm not too excited to have her take the car out the first time alone. I think it's the control freak in me and a little paranoia sets in when I think what COULD happen, though probably WON'T happen. I've already explained to her I'll probably be a little weird about it and to just be patient and humor me when I don't want her to go farther than the church! She just smiled and said ok and then very wisely didn't ask to drive today. A nut case mom can only handle so much excitement in her life in one day! I got over driving in the car with her, I'm sure I'll figure out not driving in the car with her. Surely I was an older 16-year-old- not that she's a problem child, I just remember changing diapers and helping her learn to ride a bike. There was much more time between those things and driving for me, at least from my perspective!)

There was a miracle involved with this experience. School got out at 11:40 and I was 5 minutes late picking her up at school. It's a 15 minute drive, or so, over the the Driver's License Division from school. We were done and driving away at 12:24 on the van clock (which is set 3 minutes fast, so it was really 12:21). In case you don't want to do the math, that's 36 minutes from pick-up at school to finished at the DLD. Never, in my wildest dreams would I have thought a person could get a new driver's license in such a short time. Granted, she did both the written and driving portions of the test as part of the driver's ed class at school (finally found a good reason for that school fee!) so all we had to do was turn in paper work, pay for it, and take her picture. Still, I think that's pretty amazing. Here I was, hoping that the 3 hours I had before Steven and Ryan got out of school would be enough and we were done in 36 minutes. We ran a couple of errands on the way home and celebrated with Sam's Club deluxe pizza at the end. (I know, you're jealous!) Pretty fun day thanks, again, to the school district and their days off.

Tomorrow everyone (except Greg) is home. The kids are planning an all day Star Wars marathon and I'm starting the baking for Thanksgiving. If everyone shows up for the movies that has said they're coming, I may have to bake a bunch of extra goodies! We'll see!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

What are you grateful for this year?

Thoughts

For the last week I've wanted to write about something, but didn't know what. I spent two days last week at Women's Conference and thought I should post something about what I learned. Life all week has been busy, like normal, but nothing specific has stood out. There's have been several little teaching moments, I just haven't been sure how to put all my thoughts into words. I'm still pondering on some, but I'll share a few.

1) I sang in a choir that taught me that my voice doesn't have to be the biggest or best, it just needs to be there. All of us combined together create a beautiful sound. Other aspects of life are the same.

2) Many hands make light work. Even if you don't feel like your efforts make a difference or that anyone notices them, they are missed when they are suddenly not there.

3) Looking out for the happiness of others will bring as much, but probably more, joy and satisfaction as making sure your own wants and needs are met.

4) Life gives us experiences that enlarge our souls and create the capacity to hold more JOY. I always thought it was just to help me grow up, I never really thought that it was to make me happier. If I do this life right (in general, anyway), my ability to find joy should increase at least a little bit everyday because the container can hold that much more.

5) Heavenly Father will let us know things we need to do. It's up to us to ask, listen, and then act. He's waiting to bless us and happy to do so, but will wait for us to do our part.

6) If I was the only person on earth, Christ would have still come and performed the Atonement. That's important.

7) Being a mother, and the willingness to do so, is one of the most important jobs in the entire Plan. The men hold the Priesthood that gives us the ordinances and covenants to help us return Home. Mothers hold the power to bring spirits to earth and teach them to accept those blessings in the first place.

8) "It's not what he doesn't know that bothers me, it's what he knows for sure that just ain't so." -Will Rogers

9) Joy and gratitude can be both found and expressed in the most difficult of circumstances.

10) Though both are good, working together will strengthen your family in a way that just doing fun things together can't.

While We're on the Subject of Science...

...I have an interesting situation. Hopefully someone can explain why. For the past several months, the reception on my clock radio gets clearer when I sit up out of bed- really, it does. I figure it has something to do with the antenna. This morning I discovered that if I just stuck my arm in the air the radio goes from totally static to perfectly clear. Too bad it only works if my whole arm is straight up- doesn't work with a bent elbow or just a finger. Otherwise I could sleep a little longer. The static is too annoying. I don't understand why this works. My clock radio and I are in opposite corners of the room, so it's not like I bump it or anything when I move. I can't even fix the reception to begin with because when I stand up and move over to the clock the reception is perfect. Any physics or electrical wizzes (I don't know how to spell this for sure and the spell check wants to change it to "wheezes"!) out there that know why this happens? I'm sure I learned this at one point but my brain didn't hold on to the information very well. Thanks!

"Hot" and "Cool" Bits of Trivia

We had an awesome (to me) Young Men/Young Women combined activity last night. One of the advisors is a Chemistry professor at the good ol' "Y" and he gave us a great display of chemistry experiments. You know, color changes, explosions, colored fire, etc. The most amazing of those was using thermite to create iron. He also used a bell jar and vacuum to "inflate" a balloon and a marshmallow and showed us that you can boil water at room temperature if you remove enough of the air pressure.

Thermite is a combination of good old rust (iron and oxygen) and aluminum powder. I didn't know this, but aluminum "rusts" but its' "rust" is clear- infact, that's what sapphires are- aluminum rust. Aluminum happens to like oxygen even more than iron and when, the mixture is ignited, will "steal" the oxygen from rust and leave a blob of iron. The only thing is, it's occurs at a temperature of something like 2500 degrees F and there's no way to stop it until the reaction is complete. It burns so hot that they used to use it to weld train tracks together when building the railroads because it was easier to carry rust and aluminum powder out to the middle of nowhere than an acetylene torch. He showed us a small reaction (mix the two and then light it on fire)in the lab that resulted in a white hot blob of iron the size of my thumb in about 5 seconds. Then he showed us a video where two guys mixed a bunch together in a flower pot on a car hood. It burned through the pot and into the engine and a few seconds later the entire engine melted out the bottom of the car. It was amazing! They did it again over the fuel tank and the whole car exploded. That was the YM favorite part!

And now for the "cool" part. What I didn't know (or remember, anyway) is that you can actually boil water until it freezes solid. (This video is a bit on the dry side, but it was short and sweet. The other were too long.) Crazy! If you remove enough of the air pressure, the water boils. But, it still takes energy to change the water from a liquid to a gas state. In the closed system of the bell jar, the only energy available is the heat inside the jar. So, the longer the water boils, the colder it gets until it finally freezes. He said that's actually the reason astronauts have to wear space suits and not just warm clothes and an air mask out in space. It's not just that it's cold and they'd freeze or suffocate without air, it's that their bodies would start to "boil" first in the vacuum of space and then freeze if they didn't have a suit to keep their bodies pressurized. Hope that's not too graphic, I just thought it was a very interesting fact.

Science is SO cool! (Sorry, no pun intended!)

Happy Day, Happy Spring

Yea, our camera is fixed! It became somewhat finicky last fall, but we were working with it. A couple of weeks ago it stopped taking pictures all together. I was afraid we'd end up buying a new one. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm a creature of habit and I know how this camera works- and it usually does a pretty good job. I called the repair number in the owners manual. We were going to have to mail the camera, insured, to Elk Grove Village, IL and pay a minimum of $111 to have it looked at. What?! That's half way or more to a fairly decent replacement camera without adding extra for parts. So, we started looking for another camera. Just out of curiosity I checked the phone book and found one camera repair shop in the entire valley- and they happened to not be too far from our house. I called and they said they'd be willing to take a look. If it wasn't fixable, they wouldn't charge me a penny. If it was fixable, they estimated it would be $80, maybe less. They were very nice, even bumping me up to a rush status- meaning it would be done by Friday- when they learned Joseph's birthday was on Monday. Otherwise, they were booked out three weeks. They called today. The camera was finished and only cost $48 to fix. Yea! We now have a camera that works every time we turn it on and I don't have to learn to use a new one. Happy Day!

In honor of the newly reacquired ability to post pictures, I thought I'd share some tonight. There is a bit of background info first, though.

We moved to New Hampshire in the month of June. When we got there, I found this big, thick, grassy looking stuff growing beside our mud room doors. I waited several weeks, maybe even months, and it didn't do anything but sit there. So, in my efforts to have a pretty flower bed the following spring, I went through and sprayed it all with Round Up and cleared the space with the intention to plant something pretty and colorful in the spring. The following spring I had one little plant come up and I discovered that I had killed several purple iris plants that bloomed in early spring, then did nothing for the rest of the summer. Needless to say, I felt pretty stupid. So, I now have a rule that when I am in a new home I am not allowed to kill anything new or unidentified by me until I've been there a whole year.

I like to hope that I've learned something from past experiences. This year we have several plants coming up that I didn't even know we had, as they were long gone by the time we moved in last June. At first, I wasn't sure if it was weeds sprouting or not, but as they grew I was glad I didn't go out and pull them up. I can say that I had learned to tell the difference between weeds and flowers. This week we were blessed with some pretty color in the front yard. And have the promise of a bunch more on the way. Happy Spring!

I'm excited to see what other types or colors are pushing their way up through the soil still. I don't know enough to identify the flowers by their leaves. I just know they aren't weeds. It will be a little surprise every time one of them opens. There are a few plants that I am fairly confident I can identify as weeds and they don't get to enjoy our hospitality.

So, I really have no excuse for not being outside weeding. Sometime soon, maybe even this weekend, I'll have to get out there and get busy. It's also almost time to be planting a vegetable garden. I better hurry up and Round Up what's starting to grow in the back yard. At least right now I know there's nothing that I'll eventually want growing this summer. Unlike weeds, tomatoes don't just sprout on their own. Drat!

Not That You Care...

Several years ago, Spencer had to do an oral report on a famous person while dressed as said person. He chose Julius Caesar. I don't know why. Maybe he liked the idea of a toga and a leafy headband. Whatever the reason, we both learned several things during that report. One was that a red sheet from Wal-Mart was WAY less expensive than enough red fabric for a toga- and can be used again! The other was that Julius Caesar was killed on the Ides of March, (the 15th) which happens to be Sunday. I am pretty good with useless, trivial information so I tend to think about dumb little things like that as they roll around. This time, I thought I'd share the info so others could benefit from this "talent". So, happy Ides of March and stay away from any "friends" named Brutus, especially if you happen to be in the Roman Senate anytime on Sunday!

The Millionaire Next Door...

... is not me, but someday it would be fun! I've heard about this book for several years and never actually taken the time to read it. I've listened to others tell me some of the ideas and called it good. Greg and I are currently taking a class about preparing for retirement and the instructor requires the book for his real college students. I'm still not reading it. It's been on hold at the library, but the CD's were in so I checked them out and am listening to them.

I have to explain here that the financial world has always been a huge mystery to me- even more than the inner workings of automobiles. I've always known to have a budget, live on less than we earned, and put money into savings, but never really understood what all the terms were and how they applied to me. That's the biggest reason we're taking the class. I really dislike feeling unintelligent.

Well, between the class and this book, I think I'm starting to get it, just a little bit, but get it none-the-less. What an empowering feeling. I love feeling like I know what to do to take charge of a situation and make it go the direction I want, even if it takes a little (or a lot) of work. I'm also very much a patterns an equation kind of person. Who knew that there were formulas and guidelines to bring order to the mass of chaos that the financial world is to me?! I'm even beginning to be interested in going back to school in this. It's like a whole new exciting world.

That, my friends, is one gigantic Everyday Miracle.