Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Rich Dad, Poor Man is also saying it

Here is a video by the author of the best selling financial books, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZAzBDDnhwg&feature=player_embedded#at=49

The statements that Robert Kiyosaki makes in the video posted above are absolutely jaw-dropping. Once upon a time he was all about teaching people how they could get rich, but now he is talking about storing food, buying guns, investing in precious metals and preparing for the coming crash.

The following are 11 of the best Kiyosaki "sound bites" from the video....

#1 "when the economy crashes as we predict"

#2 "the crowds come rushing in to buy gold and silver"

#3 "we could either go into a depression or we go to hyperinflation"

#4 "or we could also go to war"

#5 "buy a gun"

#6 "I'm preparing"

#7 "I'm prepared for the worst"

#8 "so come to my house and I'm armed and dangerous and I'll welcome you"

#9 "we have food, we have water, we have guns, gold and silver, and cash"

#10 "the credit card system shuts down, the world shuts down"

#11 "the supermarkets have less than 3 days supply"

If you have not seen this video yet, it is definitely worth the 8 minutes that it takes to watch it. Robert Kiyosaki seems to be extremely alarmed about the future of the U.S. economy....

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Beck harassed

BECK & FAMILY HARASSED DURING OUTDOOR MOVIE NIGHT IN NYC PARK

There are those who love freedom of expression, as long as it’s not conservatives who are doing the expressing. Just ask Glenn Beck. On radio Tuesday, he told the stunning story of how he and his family were harassed during an outdoor movie in New York City’s Bryant Park.
For those unfamiliar with Bryant Park, it hosts weekly showings of classic films during the summer months. Attendees bring blankets and picnic dinners and sprawl out on the park’s great lawn while watching the films on a giant screen.
As Beck explained, he attended Monday night‘s public showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” with his wife and daughter. During the film, he was ridiculed, had someone “kick a cup” of wine on his wife and on his blanket, and even witnessed another person stand up and yell, “We hate conservatives here!”
“These people were some of the most hateful people I have ever seen,” Beck said. “All I wanted to do is go out on a blanket with my family and have dinner in the afternoon sun and sit around Americans, not like-minded Americans, and just watch a movie in the park.  And last night at about‑‑ when the movie was just about over, my wife and I got out because it was hostile.”
When Beck left near the end of the movie, the crowd applauded.
“I don’t know what kind of victory you thought you won,” Beck said on radio in response, and later added, “I swear to you I think if I would have suggested, and I almost did, wow, does anybody have a rope, because there’s a tree here, you could just lynch me. And I think there would have been a couple in the crowd that would have.”
Despite the obvious hurtful elements of the story, Beck used it as an opportunity to deliver a message to conservatives:
All through the evening, I wanted to say to you today, please, please, please don’t ever treat anybody like that. If Van Jones comes and sits next to you, please don’t treat anybody like that, and then I realized I don’t have to say that to you. 
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/beck-family-accosted-and-harassed-during-outdoor-movie-night-in-nyc-park/ 


Update June 29:  See this new article:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/woman-seated-near-beck-at-movie-claims-innocence-but-what-does-twitter-tell-us/  The woman who spilled the wine claims innocence, but her Twitter tweets show otherwise.

SCORE!

On Saturday morning I prayed to be guided to the yard sales where I would find things I need. Heavenly Father answered my prayers!




I bought this Kitchenaid mixer for $25! It is worth about $350, I think.


And I bought this Mr. Heater for $15. I saw it in a catalog this month for $137. I have been wanting one of these for a long time, you can use it indoors to heat your home during a power outage. It uses propane.

Plus, I got about a dozen other items that were equally good deals, but not exciting enough to post here.  (Well, maybe I should mention the Ikea brand down comforter for $5.  It is good to have extra blankets for power outages.)

I was so proud of myself. And very thankful.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Using a Jello box to find Wedding colors



Marianne sent me these photos to show what color of blue she had chosen for her wedding.  Her colors are this color of blue, plus silver.  (I had previously told my daughters-in-laws the wrong color.  I thought the color Marianne had chosen had more green in it, but I was wrong.)

I need to go shopping to find myself a mother-of-the-groom dress.  I wondered if I could print off these pictures, but I doubted my printer would make the color turn out perfectly.  Plus I am cheap and hate to print things in color on my printer.

I looked around my kitchen to see if I could find anything that perfectly matched the color.

Lo and behold!  There was a box of sugar-free Jello, the exact match.  So I am taking a piece of the Jello box with me to the store.  That should do the trick.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bryce is engaged!

Bryce is engaged to Marianne (sorry, I don't put last names on this blog), they will be married in the Las Vegas temple on Aug. 20.


They met at their singles ward in Las Vegas, where Bryce has a summer internship.


She lives with her family in Las Vegas and has attended UNLV and has served a mission to South Korea.


We get to meet her in August.  We are so happy for them!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Michael Ballam comments on "Book of Mormon" musical

I got this off of LDSAVOW.com, I am assuming it is legitimate.


MICHAEL BALLAM'S REVIEW OF MORMON MUSICAL ON BROADWAY!

This is a forward of an email just in of Michael Ballam's comments...

I spent the evening with Hal Prince & Sheldon & Margie Harnick last night as they were honored for their lifetime achievement in the theatre in Manhattan. Hal produced/directed Damn Yankees, Pajama Game, Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, Sweeny Todd, Phantom of the Opera, etc etc. Sheldon wrote She Loves Me, Fiorello, Apple Tree, Fiddler on the Roof, etc.
 Sheldon and Margie were VERY offended by Book of Mormon because they didn't like the depiction that one of the Elders had never read the Book of Mormon before going out into the field. I think I am perhaps the only Mormon they know, but they are VERY protective of me! I assured them, that such a thing is VERY unlikely to happen, but it did make for an interesting dramatic scenario. (Now that I think about it, there may be more out there than we know). 

There is a song called "Turn it Off" which implies that Mormons shut down their base impulses. In other words, if they have a pornography or sexuality issue, they just don't think about it, and move on to other more productive things. I know that is rather simplistic, but there is some truth to the fact that we feel in order to overcome our problems we need to block the impulses and move on to better and loftier things. They thought it made us look like unfeeling, simple folk, which we are not. Perhaps I was SO WORRIED about what might take place in that musical, I was pleasantly surprised that they made the church look like good people. I asked him what he thought the message was and he said "Those Mormons DO believe some peculiar things, BUT they all seem to be nice and happy! So, just because you don't "get it" don't "knock it". I'm ok with that.

The Book of Mormon Musical is such a perplexing issue. We live in a very "mocking"world. Our humor has degenerated to ridicule and shock value. The irony of this musical is that the information center in Manhattan has been inundated for request for Books of Mormon. Somehow, people who see the musical ask themselves "what is it about these people that make them happy and loving?" As a result, they want to read the book. One of my friends in NYC is going out and giving away Books of Mormon outside the theatre and requesting to put them (FREE) inside the theatre. If the authors are really sincere when they say they have deep respect for the LDS church, it should not bother them.


I saw it in previews and was stunned beyond belief at how vulgar it was. I never dreamed I would live to hear such vulgarity uttered from a stage. I was numbed within minutes. I focused more attention on the audience than I did the stage trying to assess the response of those present. There were clearly defined "groups."

There were the South Park, young outrageous kids who were there who guffawed at every shocking obscenity (how long can you shock people before they're "unshockable"?), then there were the mature,
Broadway devotees who had furrowed brows trying to understand WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS?


Then there was another group I couldn't figure out. They were somewhat restrained in their reactions. At intermission I took out my pad of paper to write down some thoughts when someone from behind me said "Brother Ballam?" I thought maybe it was the destroying angel who had come to wisk me off to an eternal punishment. It was a sweet lady with her husband who had come from SLC with 150 other Mormons to do work in the Temple. They came to "check things out". During the second act THOSE were the folks I watched. 

Act II is QUITE different than act I, and the tables turn about the influence of those courageous Elders and the impact they have on the people of Uganda. There is a baptismal scene that is riveting and the audience became VERY quiet as those dark black actors whose behavior had changed from anger and hostility to peace and joy as they came onto the stage dressed in white...it was something to see. 

The final statement of the musical as I read it was "yes, some people believe some crazy things (like Jesus coming to the Americas after his crucifixion and ancient Jews leaving Jerusalem in 600 BC and crossing the sea...both ideas though they get a chuckle, you can tell it makes the audience think (Capt Cook...white god??? Ancient temples in meso-America etc), but there is SOMETHING about these people that is good. They are happy and loving and forgiving. There has to be something to it. I thought it was a subtle "love letter" to Mormons, BUT it is in the midst of a vulgar show that could NEVER play before our audience.

The next night I sat at the opening night party of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS next to the widow of Jule Styne (who wrote FUNNY GIRL). She knows the boys who wrote B of M and said I should contact them and explain that I think it could play before an LDS audience (of which there are 14M worldwide) if it weren't vulgar. She thinks they might re-write it. We'll see. I didn't get the message that religious people are out of touch with reality, I got the message that those WONDERFUL, COURAGEOUS, CLEAN-CUT youngsters who dedicate AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE, two years of service in parts of the world for which they have no experience or tools, MATURE very quickly and develop deep love for the people they serve. I think that is the take most people had leaving the theatre. 

Of course, I felt like going home and washing my mouth and ears out with soap. It has generated HUGE interest in the Mormons in Manhattan and in a positive way. The "Mormon Jokes" in it are the kind you would hear given at ward parties. We do have a sense of humor about ourselves, and yes, we are a PECULIAR
people and intend to remain so. I think the church has reacted EXACTLY the right way by not protesting or showing offense. We have been good sports about it, which I think will prove important in the perception the world has for us. We ADMIT that our story is unlike any other and we make no apologies for that.

Who knows, maybe were it not for the over the top vulgarity and profanity that has come to be the hallmark of our entertainment world, that segment of the populace would never have had ANY contact with what Mormons believe or who they are. If that group goes away knowing nothing more than the fact that Mormons are all over the world trying to help and serve and hold to their unusual beliefs it might do some good.

In the meantime, we have to take the higher road and realize the power of the Book of Mormon has lasted for 2600 years and will endure for eternity...the musical will not.

Michael Ballam

See Zac on the Work Crew Blog

The Work Crew Mom keeps a blog, and there are already photos of Zac on it.  His group arrived at the Hill Cumorah on June 24, so thats the first day you will see him.  (If you go backward on the blog you will see last year's work crew.)

http://hcpworkcrew.blogspot.com/

Friday, June 24, 2011

Zac to Cumorah

This morning, bright and early, Zac flew to Rochester, NY, where he and 27 other young men met to travel to Palmyra, NY.  They will be the work crew for the 2011 Hill Cumorah pageant, and will work all day every day for the next week constructing the 15 level stage and setting up all the lighting for the pageant.

Then, a week from tomorrow, the cast of 700 people will arrive, and start rehearsing for the pageant.  The work crew will continue their duties, all the time basking in the attention of all the cast, who treat them as rock stars.  (But the work crew follows missionary rules, and they have to keep the girls at arm's length.)

The cast will be there for two weeks, then after they leave, the work crew spends another week de-constructing the stages and putting the whole production to bed until July 2012.

Zac is "required" to write home once a week, that will be the only contact we have with him, except for visiting him (which we plan to do.)

Our family had three wonderful experiences of being in the cast (in 2003, 2005, and 2009) and now he will have this even MORE awesome experience of being in the work crew.

Hill Cumorah Pageant website: http://www.hillcumorah.org/Pageant/

(Here I am in 2009 as Sariah, with my costar Lehi.  See the stage that Zac and the work crew have to construct in only one week.  And the light towers, which they have to attach all the lighting and wiring to in the week after that.)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Rapunzel and the Prince

My grandkids came over today so we made this:

Bryce's birthday

2001
Happy birthday, wonderful son!  I am so proud of your desire to do what is right, your work ethic,  your friendliness, your ability to reach out to others, your helpfulness and kindness, the way you care about other's feelings.

I wish you all the best things in the world.  Can't wait to see you in August.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Coordinating colors

Three of our sons have wives who are expecting.

One of these fathers-to-be borrowed our trailer today to pick up a brand new sofa they bought.

I asked him what color it is.  He said "beige, tan, something like that."

I said, "Good.  Then it will blend with the baby puke."

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

31st anniversary

It is our 31st anniversary, and the time to post something on here has gotten away from me.

Wayne went to work as usual, and then we went out to eat at Outback Steak House, where I got what I ALWAYS get there, Alice Springs Chicken.

So it was a low key anniversary, but thats okay.  I have the best husband in the world.  Last year we went on a cruise, this year we just go out to dinner.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Written just after Hurricane Ike in 2008

(Note from Amy:  I have retyped this because I only had a hard copy.  I do not know who the author is, other than “Jyl”, who appears to live in Tomball, Texas.  This was a forwarded email I received in 2008 after Hurricane Ike hit Texas.

After you read this, ask yourself, Am I ready for a hurricane?)


Forwarded message
From Rozanne
Date: Tues. Sept. 23, 2008
Subject: Preparedness
To: Undisclosed Recipient
Just want to share this email that I received from a friend.  It’s a letter sent to her friend from people in Texas who just experienced “Ike”.   What a testimony for preparedness.
Dear Friends:
We have a 6’x6’ hole in our roof, no electricity or running water, Trees down everywhere.  However, because we listened to the counsel of our Prophet we are prepared.  In fact it seems to me that it’s only the members of the church who seem to be calm, prepared, and helping one another with trees in roofs, flooding, etc.
There is a POD or Point of Distribution in Tomball where we live.  There you get water and ice IF you have enough fuel to wait in the 3-hour lines.  We don’t have to do that because we have 3 full water barrels, 75 juice bottles filled with water, and our pool, which is dirty, but we use it to flush.
It is very difficult to get gas.  Police guard the stations when fuel is delivered and you might wait half a day to get up to the pump just to have them say, “Too bad, we are out.”  I am grateful that we have a generator.  We run it 4 hours a day to keep our fridge and light.  I am grateful that we have had fuel for it.  You can’t even buy gas containers as they are rationed.  We can only buy bread once a week and limited to 2 loaves at a time.  Water is rationed by the case at the grocery store- 3 cases per family.
The ATM machines do not have power.  For the past 6 months I have stashed small bills away because I have had such a feeling of foreboding.  We have cash because of that.  LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT.  Get cash in small bills because the stores can’t make change and credit and debit cards often don’t work.  I had to pay 5 dollars more for an item because they couldn’t make change for me.  And....PHONES ONLY WORK OCCASIONALLY.
Believe it or not....I have not had a bath in 4 days, Today was the first day I got to wash my hair with pool water.  I haven’t fixed my hair in a week!!! It just doesn’t matter anymore.  We cannot do laundry because we don’t have water.  So, we wear our clothes until they are literally disgusting.  When we do finally get water we will have to boil it since it is contaminated.
I am grateful for my parents.  When we got low on generator fuel they drove 45 minutes to help us.  They filled up their cans and brought us 10 gallons of fuel, which kept us going until this morning at 6:00 am when we finally found some gas. 
A prepared family and a loving extended family is the key to survival and making it through right now.  I know that my parents would drive to the end of the earth to help me and it’s nice knowing they are there.  I know that I would do the same for my children.
I want all of you to know that I have such a testimony of following the counsel of our living prophet.  There really is safety and peace in your heart if you are prepared.  Please get your generators, 5 gas cans full of gas, canned goods, baby items, baby wipes to bathe, and all the water you can store...even if you have to trip on it in your home.
Have your lanterns, crank flashlights, tarps, rope, etc. ready to go because you never know when it will be your turn to endure the test.  It’s overwhelming, but its going to be ok eventually.  I have a home, I have food, and I have water, because I listened to the counsel of the prophet.  Please make sure you do the same.  It’s time to have your life it order.  Tomorrow may be too late.
I love you all so much.  I wish you were here.  Take care!
Jyl

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day

President Calvin Coolidge wrote the following about his son.

"The day I became president, he had just started to work in a tobacco field. When one of his fellow laborers said to him, 'If my father was president I would not work in a tobacco field', (my son) replied, 'If my father were your father you would.'"

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Solar Oven: Corn on the cob!

Today I put unshucked corn into the solar oven at 1:00 and got it out at 2:30.  It was sunny most of the time, but a few clouds passed by here and there.

I took it out after an hour and a half, shucked it, and ate it.  IT WAS DELICIOUS!

Now this will be my very favorite thing to cook in the solar oven.  It takes zero preparation, and you don't have to worry about timing it perfectly.  You really can't overcook anything because its more like a crockpot, things just cook slowly in there.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Finally, a way to search General Conference Talks!

You know that I have complained about the search engine on LDS.org for years.  And it would only search the Ensign, so you couldn't get any of the conference talks before the Ensign was published.


I just learned about this new website:  http://corpus.byu.edu/gc/


This website allows you to quickly and easily search talks from General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). This corpus (or collection of texts) contains 24 million words in 10,000 talks from 1851 to 2010. 


I haven't used it yet, I am hoping it will work really well!




P.S. Posted 10:10 am Friday:  I just used it for the first time.  I typed in "red shawl", and it showed that the story of the Lost Boy was told by Boyd K. Packer in 1974, and by Merrill J. Bateman in 1992.


When she saw the red shawl, "Ann Parker fell in a pitiful heap".


SO NOW I CAN FIND THE CONFERENCE TALKS I AM LOOKING FOR!  
I AM SO SO HAPPY!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Mano writes a day by day account from Greece

(Note from Amy:  Today on CNBC, they were asking, "Will Greece be the new Lehman Brothers?".  In case you don't know, the collapse of Lehman Brothers was one of the reasons our economy tanked in 2008.  Greece's problems have the potential to do the same thing to the world economy this year.)


From SHTFplan.com:


"As things have been heating up in Greece over the last several months, one of our readers has been keeping us abreast as to the goings on and the general sentiment of the Greek people. While European leaders like to downplay the seriousness of what’s happening on the ground, it’s clear that Greece is falling apart right before our eyes. This may very well be a prelude to what will be experienced in other nations who are on the brink of sovereign debt crises, insolvency and bankruptcy. That includes Spain, Portugal, Italy, Eastern European nations, and eventually the United States.
SHTFplan reader and long-time contributor Manos writes us from Greece. His tone over the last few weeks has shifted from concern to what can only be described as hopelessness as he watches his country being dismantled."

Read the article.  It is fascinating.


Our own Fukishima?

http://www.businessinsider.com/faa-closes-airspace-over-flooded-nebraska-nuclear-power-plant-2011-6

I haven't seen this reported anywhere on the mainstream media.

Another article to read

"Warnings of a Great Depression or Hyperinflation

My sister Carla and her business partner


    My sister, Carla Jorgensen, and her business partner, Debbie Forrest, have been producing the "Time to Blossom" conferences for LDS young women ages 11-16 for a couple of years. 
    Who: Time to Blossom Young Women’s Conference has been expertly designed to help girls between the ages of 11 and 16 “bloom and grow”. 
    When: Session 1: June 20 – June 24 & Session 2: June 27 – July 1, 2011
    Where: At the brand new Hyatt Place Hotel located at 1422 W Bass Pro Drive, Mesa, AZ 85201. 
     I recently found out that this story in the Ensign was about Carla's business partner.
    Ensign, May 2010, "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus", by Elder Neil L. Andersen
    "I met Bill Forrest and Debbie Hutchings when we were students at Brigham Young University. Bill had returned from his mission. He and Debbie fell in love and were married in the Oakland California Temple. They established their home in Mesa, Arizona, and were blessed with five sons and two daughters. Bill and Debbie taught their children to love the Lord Jesus Christ as they loved Him. Their son, Elder Daniel Forrest, currently serving in the Mexico Oaxaca Mission, said, “Every morning without fail we were there at the table before school reading and discussing the scriptures.”
    Their daughter Kara, now married with two children of her own, still vividly remembers her father driving her to early morning activities in high school. She said, “My dad enjoyed committing quotes, scriptures, and poems to memory, [and during those early morning drives] we would practice reciting them.” One of his favorite scriptures was “Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, … [he] shall have no power over you to drag you down … because of the rock upon which ye are built.” 40
    On the Friday before Easter Sunday in the year 2000, exactly 10 years ago, Bill Forrest was serving as bishop of the Estate Groves Ward in Arizona. On his drive to work, only a mile (1.6 km) from home, his car was struck by a large gravel truck. Debbie and the children left home shortly after Bill and unexpectedly came upon the tragic scene. Bill had not survived the accident. The immortal spirit of this beloved husband and father had suddenly been taken home to Him who overcame death, the Son of God, whose glorious Resurrection they were to have celebrated together that Easter Sunday.
    How did Debbie and her seven children (the youngest only 5) find the strength they needed? Kara, 15 at the time of her father’s accident, recently told me: “I am grateful to my [mother and father] for the ways that they taught me [about the Savior]. They opened the scriptures with me, prayed with me, and were examples of [the Savior’s] charity, love, and patience. … Easter [is] a tender time in my life each year as I reflect on the life, mission, and Resurrection of our Savior and am reminded of the life of my earthly father.”
    Elder Daniel Forrest said: “I was 10 years old when my father passed away. It was a tough time. … My mother has always been an example of the Savior’s teachings. I carry with me my father’s name badge from his mission to Spain. [Two] of my favorite quotes from my father [are]: ‘Two men can do anything as long as one of them is the Lord’ and ‘The Savior must be our foundation. Without that we flounder.’”
    Faith in Jesus Christ has filled the hearts of the Forrest children. On this Easter weekend, 10 years since their father’s passing, they miss him deeply, but the sting of his death is “swallowed up in Christ.” 41 They know, because of the incalculable gift of the Savior, they can be with their earthly father and their Heavenly Father again."

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

What is the purpose?

LDS Business College Devotional

Be Not Terrified but Believing
Written by H. Aldridge Gillespie
Second Quorum of Seventy
February 9, 2005

We might wonder, “What is the purpose of these horrendous events in the Last Days?” The answer is simple. It’s because God truly does love us! When a man will not listen to the testimony of the Lord’s prophets or His servants (the Elders of Israel), he will sometimes turn to the Lord when he is brought down low due to tragedy, reverses, sickness, loss of loved ones, or other major problems in life. Every missionary knows, or should know, that some of the best contacts are those that have recently gone through a transforming event.
Opposition, trials and hardships are often the only way pride and arrogance can be changed to humility and submissiveness (see Mosiah 3:19). We must remember this is the last time the Lord will gather His people.
“And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him ” (Hel. 12:3). (See also Addendum # 2).

Not until every possible effort and opportunity has been expended to bring each son and daughter home, not until every prodigal son and daughter has experienced the guilt and torment of disobedience and the chastening of a loving and merciful God, with time to repent, will the Lord’s work be done. The fulfillment of the Signs of the Times may yet save millions of God’s children who would otherwise be lost eternally.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Garden Bugs and my Great Visiting Teacher

My visiting teacher, Monica P., came over today and we were looking at my garden.  I have the equivalent of four  4'x4' garden plots in my side yard and back yard.  This is only my third summer to do a garden so I am still a beginner on most things.

I was showing her my new discovery:  I know how to kill squash beetles!  I saw a bunch of them on my squash leaves, so I googled "squash bugs" and learned from a YouTube video a few days ago to make homemade insecticide.  For this particular bug, all you have to do is put some liquid dish detergent in a bottle with water, and squirt it directly on the bugs.

It is great! They drop dead in about 30 seconds.  Something about the soap interacts with their hard crunchy exoskeleton and they croak.  Killing them is my new hobby,   I go out there several times a day just to squirt gun the little bugs and watch them fall off the leaves.  I have turned into a mass murderer.

After I showed her how to kill squash bugs, she taught me how to know when tomatoes are ready to pick.  (I don't like tomatoes, I grow them for Wayne.)  She said if you pull on them and they come off easily they are ready.

Then she saw one of those disgusting tomato horn worm caterpillars crawling on my tomato plant.  I said, "Gross!" and she said, "I'll pick that off for you."

So she pulled at the caterpillar, and she either popped it or it peed all over, because liquid sprayed all over her hand and almost onto me.  SICK!

She was so good natured about it and kept pulling at the caterpillar until she got it off the plant, and we threw it in a bucket of water to drown and she went inside to wash her hands.

What a woman!