Wayne is starting to meet people in our ward

Since Wayne was released last Sunday, he got to attend my ward (or, I should say OUR ward) for almost the first time Sunday.

He has attended the Morrisville ward only a few times, when he was on duty at work and needed to be close to the computer.  Before he was in the young adult bishopric, he was on the high council for 5 years, so during that time he only attended our ward about 9 times a year.  He figures he hasn't sat with Zac regularly in church since Zac was about nine years old.

I ENJOYED sitting with my husband!  I LOVED it!  And I enjoyed introducing him to every person we saw.  "Have you met my husband?  Isn't he awesome?"  (Actually I left off that last part.)

Then on Monday we attended our ward's Memorial Day picnic.  We sat in our camping chairs with our cool new aluminum camping table between us, while I pointed out all the different people and told him their names.

Oh, and I did the same thing on Saturday at a wedding reception we attended.

I hope that if I tell him names every week, over and over, he will eventually know some of these people.

Siamese Cats from my youth

I saw these cats at an antique store a few weeks ago.  These were the exact same cats that my sister (either Cheryl or Cindy) had in their bedroom when I was young.

Check another prophecy off the list

I have started to collect all the prophecies which modern apostles and prophets have pronounced "fulfilled".  Here is one from President Ezra Taft Benson, in 1991. 

In the Lord’s preface to his revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, He warned: “The day speedily cometh; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand, when peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion.” (D&C 1:35.)

Today—some 160 years after this revelation was given—we see the fulfillment of this prediction. Satan, in undiminished fury, is displaying power over “his own dominion”—the earth. Never has his influence been so great, and only those who have taken the Holy Spirit as their guide and followed counsel from priesthood leaders will be spared from the havoc of his evil influence.

From the First Presidency message, "Strengthen Thy Stakes", Jan. 1991.

http://lds.org/ensign/1991/01/strengthen-thy-stakes?lang=eng

That is amazing that twenty years ago, a prophet actually stated that peace had already been taken from the earth, and the devil had already been given power over his own dominion.  When I read a scripture verse like that in the Book of Mormon, I could think it was still in the future.  But no.  Its already here.

Janette's Birthday

Janette,

Thanks for taking pity on Seth and taking him away from that wretched state of bachelorhood.

Thanks for giving us a new grandbaby (soon to arrive).

Thanks for living in North Carolina instead of some far away state.

Thanks for making delicious homemade salsa that I could die for.

We're so happy you are our daughter-in-law.

Happy Birthday!

For the First Time, Majority of Americans Support Gay Marriage

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/22/time-majority-americans-support-gay-marriage/

For First Time, Majority of Americans Support Gay Marriage

Published May 22, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/22/time-majority-americans-support-gay-marriage/#ixzz1N5j0y7RF

"A  recent Gallup poll shows 53 percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, Reuters reports.

The poll shows a significant change in mood on the issue from a year ago, when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony.

The latest Gallup findings, Reuters reports, are in line with two earlier national polls this spring that show support for legally recognized gay marriage has gained a newfound majority among Americans.

According to Gallup, Democrats and political independents accounted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondents favored gay marriage, while 53 percent were opposed."

We can read in the Book of Mormon that the tipping point comes when the majority choose wickedness. At that time, we have already "ripened in iniquity".

http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/10?lang=eng

Alma 10:19Yea, well did Mosiah say, who was our last king, when he was about to deliver up the kingdom, having no one to confer it upon, causing that this people should be governed by their own voices—yea, well did he say that if the time should come that the voice of this people should ^achoose iniquity, that is, if the time should come that this people should fall into transgression, they would be ripe for destruction.

http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/5?lang=eng

Helaman 5:2For as their laws and their governments were established by the ^avoice of the people, and they who ^bchose evil were ^cmore numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were^dripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted.

I just don't think Heavenly Father can keep sending down His pure little spirits to a world where they will be raised by two homosexuals. At some point He is going to say "I'm not doing this anymore" and all hell will break loose.

"The Last Nail" speech by Ron Paul today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-olNr4UuVqY&feature=player_embedded


(Watch the YouTube or read the text)


RON PAUL: The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic

Speech by Ron Paul today in Congress.


The Last Nail The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic. Yet, Congress remains in total denial as our liberties are rapidly fading before our eyes. The process is propelled by unwarranted fear and ignorance as to the true meaning of liberty. It is driven by economic myths, fallacies and irrational good intentions. The rule of law is constantly rejected and authoritarian answers are offered as panaceas for all our problems. Runaway welfarism is used to benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class. Who would have ever thought that the current generation and Congress would stand idly by and watch such a rapid disintegration of the American Republic? Characteristic of this epic event is the casual acceptance by the people and political leaders of the unitary presidency, which is equivalent to granting dictatorial powers to the President.

Our Presidents can now, on their own:
1. Order assassinations, including American citizens,
2. Operate secret military tribunals,
3. Engage in torture,
4. Enforce indefinite imprisonment without due process,
5. Order searches and seizures without proper warrants, gutting the 4th Amendment,
6. Ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the Congress the nature of any military operations as required by the War Power Resolution,
7. Continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight,
8. Wage war at will,
9. Treat all Americans as suspected terrorists at airports with TSA groping and nude x-raying.

And the Federal Reserve accommodates by counterfeiting the funds needed and not paid for by taxation and borrowing, permitting runaway spending, endless debt, and special interest bail-outs.

And all of this is not enough. The abuses and usurpations of the war power are soon to be codified in the National Defense Authorization Act now rapidly moving its way through the Congress. Instead of repealing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), as we should, now that bin Laden is dead and gone, Congress is planning to massively increase the war power of the President. Though an opportunity presents itself to end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Congress, with bipartisan support, obsesses on how to expand the unconstitutional war power the President already holds. The current proposal would allow a President to pursue war any time, any place, for any reason, without Congressional approval. Many believe this would even permit military activity against American suspects here at home. The proposed authority does not reference the 9/11 attacks. It would be expanded to include the Taliban and "associated" forces—a dangerously vague and expansive definition of our potential enemies. There is no denial that the changes in s.1034 totally eliminate the hard-fought-for restraint on Presidential authority to go to war without Congressional approval achieved at the Constitutional Convention. Congress' war authority has been severely undermined since World War II beginning with the advent of the Korean War which was fought solely under a UN Resolution. Even today, we're waging war in Libya without even consulting with the Congress, similar to how we went to war in Bosnia in the 1990s under President Clinton.

The three major reasons for our Constitutional Convention were to:
1. Guarantee free trade and travel among the states.
2. Make gold and silver legal tender and abolish paper money.
3. Strictly limit the Executive Branch's authority to pursue war without Congressional approval.

But today:
1. Federal Reserve notes are legal tender, gold and silver are illegal.
2. The Interstate Commerce Clause is used to regulate all commerce at the expense of free trade among the states.
3. And now the final nail is placed in the coffin of Congressional responsibility for the war power, delivering this power completely to the President—a sharp and huge blow to the concept of our Republic.

In my view, it appears that the fate of the American Republic is now sealed—unless these recent trends are quickly reversed.

The saddest part of this tragedy is that all these horrible changes are being done in the name of patriotism and protecting freedom. They are justified by good intentions while believing the sacrifice of liberty is required for our safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.

More sadly is the conviction that our enemies are driven to attack us for our freedoms and prosperity, and not because of our deeply flawed foreign policy that has generated justifiable grievances and has inspired the radical violence against us. Without this understanding our endless, unnamed, and undeclared wars will continue and our wonderful experience with liberty will end. 

Three Grandchildren on the Way!

As I have already posted, Seth and Janette, and Isaac and Rachel are each having baby girls in July.

Then a couple of weeks ago, Adam and Tiffany announced they will be having a baby in late November!

They made us keep it a secret for awhile, so I forgot to post it here after they announced it publicly.  But we are very very excited for them!

What's new

We are curious to know what Wayne's next church calling will be, now that he has been released from the bishopric.

I still haven't gotten Zac's Eagle Scout final paperwork turned in to the scout office.  Every time we think we are done, we find one more thing that needs to be signed or completed.  I am totally sick of it.

I have been on the South Beach diet again, and have lost 4 pounds in 8 days.  I really like the South Beach diet, I always have good results with it.

Only one month from today, Zac will fly away to New York to be on the work crew of the Hill Cumorah pageant.  He is so excited to do that.

I have a new assignment from the bishop, in addition to my calling as Provident Living specialist.  Now I am the Youth Conference specialist.  I get to do all the emails and communication between the stake and the ward, and also inside the ward, for all the Youth Conference details.

Our ward created this position because they said last year they were completely run ragged by all the emails coming from the stake Young Men and the stake Young Women and the stake YC housing coordinator and the stake YC food chairman.  It made them insane to get so many requests.  So now I get to receive all the emails and then make the assignments to various people in my ward.

John Williams- Hyperinflation and the Dollar Collapse

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2011/5/20_John_Williams_Exclusive_-_Hyperinflation_%26_US_Dollar_Collapse.html

Wayne got released!

The bishopric of the University Ward was released today, so my husband will be sitting with me in church again!  


Wayne has been the 2nd counselor there for 3 years, so I attended the Morrisville Ward with Tara and Zac, while Wayne attended the University Ward.  Most people in my ward probably thought I was single or had a non-member husband.


I am very excited to be in the same ward with him again.  We are actually planning to join the ward choir together!

Installing Rapture

INSTALLING RAPTURE.
███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 44% DONE.
Install delayed....please wait.
Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Rapture not found.
EVENT "Rapture" cannot be located. The rapture you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

His Clothes Had Vanished

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly and made the world community smile.

A representative from Israel began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses: When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, "What a good opportunity to have a bath!"

Moses removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Palestinian had stolen them!

The Palestinian representative at the UN jumped up furiously and shouted, "What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren't there then."

The Israeli representative smiled and said, "And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech."

(I have no idea if this really happened at the United Nations.  Nevertheless, it is a good joke.)

The Rapture is Today!

Isn't it so exciting, Harold Camping said that the Rapture will be today!   At 6:00 pm.  Want to go?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/19/rapture-movement-predicts-end-world-saturday/?test=latestnews

Personally, I don't believe it, but I wrote it on my calendar just in case.

I want to read the news articles tomorrow, when they interview the people and hear their excuses of why they think their predictions didn't come true.

Class on Internet Safety- What I learned

Brother West came to our ward to give a class on internet safety.

He taught us to set our Facebook so that all our personal information was hidden from strangers.  He said to treat everyone you don't know as a stranger.  Don't give them any personal info unless you know them in real life, and they were someone you would tell that knowledge to.

The catch with that is that every time Facebook changes its page, it wipes out your privacy settings.  They are in business to help their advertisers get information, so they try in every way to allow their advertisers to see all the demographics of their users.  Therefore, this is their way of opening up the information.

 He told the story of helping his 18 yr old daughter to set up her privacy settings, so you couldn't see anything but her name.  So he was teaching an internet safety conference to policemen, and used her Facebook page as an example because he knew they wouldn't be able to see anything.

Facebook had reset everything, they could see her birthday, phone number, address, everything.  It made him very angry.

The message is:  Check your privacy settings weekly or at least monthly to see that Facebook doesn't reset them to non-private.

Picnic at Duke Gardens, Another video from Peter Schiff

I tried to post this last week, but somehow there was a computer glitch and it didn't post.

 Wayne, his mom, and Tara sitting on a bench at Duke Gardens.  Tiffany was our "tour guide."

Tara, sitting on a very interesting crookedy wooden bridge in the Asian Garden section of Duke Gardens.  I told Wayne I want a bridge like this at our mansion in heaven.  He and his dad can build it for me.


(Change of subject)
Here is a video interview with Peter Schiff from Tues. May 17, 2011.  http://www.rtr.org/videos/2/20013

A quote from the video:

Interviewer: Geitner is continuing to threaten that delaying a vote [saying that if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling], would create even more instability.  What are your thoughts on that?

Peter Schiff:  We're going to have the instability eventually, why not have it now when we can deal with it, why make the problem worse and then have even greater instability later.

Because the real threat is not that we fail to raise the debt ceiling, but that we raise it again.

Interviewer:  So by raising it again, all we are doing is just delaying this inevitable super collapse which is on the horizon?

Peter Schiff:  Absolutely.  So let's deal with it now on our own terms before we are dealing with it on our creditor's terms.

Because remember, the debt limit is a self-imposed limit on borrowing.  At some point we will have a limit imposed by our creditors, by the rest of the world.

It won't be that we don't want to borrow.  It will be that nobody wants to lend, and that is a much deeper crisis that we are heading for.

How to get your Priesthood Line of Authority

I just read this from someone whose son works in the Church History Dept. 





If you email to lineofauthority@ldschurch.org and ask for a form to request the line of authority, they'll email the form back to you. You fill it out and then they will mail you a copy.







Make sure to put PLA in the subject line. The process is automated and will return the form requested as long as PLA is entered.

She likes to read Mormon housewife blogs

Here is an interesting link to an article written by a non-Mormon.
SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2011 16:01 ET

Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs

I'm a young, feminist atheist who can't bake a cupcake. Why am I addicted to the shiny, happy lives of these women?

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs

Some mighty cute baby shoes and how to make them

http://www.fleetingthing.com/handmade/baby-gifts/the-mila-baby-shoe-tutorial/&2_10_12

Thanks, Tiffany, for showing me this.

Solar Shower

I happened to buy this Solar Shower for $6 at Walmart the other day, to put in my preparedness supplies.  Coincidentally, the next day we lost our water for 24 hours.  I ended up using the solar shower (I hung it inside my bathroom shower), and it was wonderful.  In fact, the water got so hot I had to add a bunch of cold water to it because it was burning me.

I decided to go back to Walmart and buy several more, to give to all my kids.  I went back and in three days, the price had gone up from $6 to $6.80.  These are plastic, so they are made of petroleum, so they are only going to get more expensive.

The box says that these are not food grade plastic, so you are not supposed to drink the water from them.  But I am going to buy several for myself, so that when we don't have power we will have hot water for doing dishes and for doing laundry.

Camping out, of my own free will

Last night I volunteered to go with Wayne to the Raleigh University Ward's camp out, which coincidentally was held the same night as several other wards had their Father-and-Son's camp outs.  We were at Falls Lake.

This was the first time in my life I actually asked to go camping.  And it turned out fine.

We had practiced setting up our tent and cots a few weeks ago in our living room, so I was able to do that all by myself (with a little help from some ward members) while Wayne was setting up dining flies with some other people.

We got the dining flies and the tent set up only minutes before a huge cloudburst.  I was glad I had gotten all the bedding inside the tent before that.

Because everyone else had eaten while we were setting up camp, when I finally went to get some food all that was left was a cold baked potato and some potato salad.  And some warm soda pop.  And then to top it off I ate a whole package of Peeps.  Ah, the joys of camping.

Butterfly Crochet

While we were at Wayne's brother's house, I saw an item on the wall that I hadn't thought about for years:  this butterfly crocheted doily.

 I took it off the wall and went to show it to JoAnne. "JoAnne, did you know that this was the only thing I ever crocheted from a pattern?"

She didn't know, she had assumed I had purchased it.  I was stunned that she still had it on her wall after all those years.  I had given it to her for Christmas long long ago.

In Layton, Utah when I was a young mother, we learned to crochet in a Homemaking class, where we learned to use that pattern.

My Other Blog

http://gottawannaneedagettaprepared.blogspot.com/

Please read my other blog, it is all about food storage and preparedness.  I post things there almost every day.

Discovering Duke Chapel and Duke Gardens

We brought Wayne's mother back home with us after we went to his nephew's wedding in Atlanta.  We decided to go on an outing with her to see Duke Chapel and Duke Gardens with Tiffany and Tara.

I'm sorry it took me 23 years to finally go tour those locations, they were both lovely.

Rob's Wedding

Wayne and I just returned from his nephew's wedding in the Atlanta Temple.  

The temple was only rededicated a week ago, and was just beautiful.

They took all the old chandeliers and melted them down and created all new stained glass windows using the glass.  

They changed the floor plan a little.  The waiting area (for those who don't have a temple recommend) has been expanded, and took up the area that previously held the cafeteria and clothing rental.  Someone there told me that many of the bigger temples have recently gotten rid of their cafeterias and clothing rental, I had no idea those were  being discontinued.  

Wayne saw his old friend Brother Adams, who was one of his leaders as a youth.  Brother Adams was one of the two men, outside of his family, who had the most influence on Wayne's life.  They had a lot of fun talking to each other.  (That is Linda G's father.)

IBM is 100 years old

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jtNUGgmd4
We are SO THANKFUL that Wayne has worked for IBM for 30 years this month.
Here is a video showing the whole history of IBM, I was amazed at all their inventions.

Bryce's internship

Yesterday Bryce called and said he just got hired on an internship in

Las Vegas!  He is very excited, it pays well, and he will now have all sorts of interesting experiences like trying to find some LDS roommates to share an apartment with,  and moving all his possession there in his car.

I want him to go to the strip and see the Donny and Marie show.

What Else the Plumber Said

After working on our upstairs toilet, the plumber came downstairs.  Wayne was working in his home office, I was in the kitchen.   The plumber said to both of us, "So...which one of you is a doctor?"

I started laughing and said, "Neither one of us.  What gave you that idea?"

He said he had seen some Harvard Medical textbooks on the bookshelves upstairs, and he saw our formal portraits on the wall and thought that the pictures were taken at some fancy physician's convention.

I explained that I bought the books at the Wake County library book sale, for preparedness, and that the photos were from our cruise.

If he hadn't asked us, I can just imagine him going home to his wife, "Wow, honey, I worked in a doctor's house today and it was really middle class and cluttered and not decorated at all."

Nope, I don't think anyone else would ever mistake us for doctors.

What the Plumber Said

The plumber came this morning, and we found out that it wasn't a broken pipe.

We found out that one of our children, who shall remain nameless (but is a girl) had let water get on the floor during her rather lengthy shower and the water ran under the baseboards and through the ceiling and dripped on the kitchen floor.

So we paid the guy to also fix a toilet, since he was here anyway.

Now we have to put siliconized caulk all around the bathtub and all around the baseboards.  We should have done that already.  This was an expensive lesson.


Also, we found out how to determine whether you have a broken pipe.  The plumber turned our water main back on.  Then, with all the faucets and appliances off, he watched the water meter.  The meter didn't move.  In that way he knew that there were no pipes leaking, and that it had to be something else.

Water Pipe broke in ceiling

This morning just before we left for church, we found water dripping from the ceiling onto the kitchen floor.  We turned off the water main to the house and it slowed down.  I took the computer out of the kitchen (so no water would drip on it) and then went to church.

When we came back from church, there was no additional water dripping but we have not turned the water back on.  (We hope to get a plumber here on Monday.)  We had to figure out how to live with no running water the rest of the day.  We cooked, handwashed the dirty dishes that were in the dishwasher, flushed toilets, some people in the family took "washcloth baths", all with tap water I had stored in juice bottles all around the house.

So far we have used 28   1/2 gallon juice bottles full of water.   That equals 14 gallons.  For 4 people, we have used 3.5 gallons each in one day.

After the water pipe broke, we did not take real showers, we hardly ever flushed the toilets, and we did NO laundry.  Just the bare necessities for one day.

The church recommends storing 1 gallon per person per day as your emergency supply.

I say that is not enough for comfort.  That is the bare minimum for survival, but not comfort.

So please get it through your heads, you will want to have more than 1 gallon per day.  Believe me.