Kings to Me! - Blogged by JME

As many of you know, while my sweet husband is away, I've been trying to keep busy to make our time apart go by quickly. One thing I've done to stay busy is I've enrolled back in school to get my Associate's Degree. This is something I never thought I would do. I never planned on continuing my education or ever getting a degree. It just never seemed important to me. My plan was to have babies and stay home with them . . . the end. That is not how things have gone though, and it seems, however, that each time N8 has been deployed, I've ended up back in school, as is the case with this deployment.

I was notified a few months before N8 left that I only had four classes left to take before I could get my Associate's Degree. I was really unsure about pursuing my degree while N8 was gone since I was working two jobs at the time. However, with a lot of encouragement and support from my husband, I decided I would do it.

I enrolled in Math and took the test and found out that I needed to start at Math 0950. For any of you who don't know what that means, I will translate. Math 0950 basically meant that I did absolutely terrible on that test and needed to start back at elementary level math and learn my multiplication, and long division, and fractions all over again. My little niece who is turning nine this year knew more about math than I did before I started this class back in November. Pretty sad but I guess you have to start somewhere.

I also took the test for English, and luckily my English skills are much better than my math skills, so I was able to automatically go into English 1010. I started that in January.

My plan to stay busy has been a success as I've tried to balance my English assignments, such as reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Braum Stoker's Dracula. By the way, Dracula is a really good book incase you are looking for something new to read and neither Frankenstein nor Dracula are much like what Hollywood has made them out to be. I've also had to write argumentative essays and other papers. At the same time, I've been trying to figure out how to study for math.






I did finish my math 0950 right around the time N8 came home for a visit in January and moved on to 0960. That's when you get into the algebra part of things and you learn about variables, systems of equations, graphing, and factoring. It has been very educational, but very stressful. Luckily, I have this amazing teacher who has really helped me out and taught me some fun tricks to make math a little more enjoyable. There is also some great websites for anyone who wants to sharpen up on their math skills or who is in my position and going back to school and totally lost. The two I use a lot is purplemath.com and mathisfun.com.

I've set a goal to be finished with my math completely by the middle of April. My English will be done by then also. It is a tough goal and I have to take a test almost every week to accomplish it. It has been hard to stay on schedule; however, I did have an amazing night tonight that I totally had to blog about.

I had set a goal about a week or so ago that I would take my last section test in my 0960 Math class tonight and then on Thursday I would take the final. That would help me be able to start 1010 next week. I was sort of feeling like it would be a tough goal to meet but thought I'd give it a try anyway. The section I've been working on is 'Systems of Equations.' I had to deal with problems like:

The sum of the digits in a two-digit number is 14. Furthermore, the number itself is 2 greater than 11 times the tens digits. Find the number.

or

A total of $12,000 is invested in two funds paying 9% and 11% simple interest. If the yearly interest is $1,180, how much of the $12,000 is invested at 9% and how much is invested at 11%?

Looks fun, doesn't it?

Well, I went ahead and took my last section test tonight and passed. The test was easier than I expected and I was able to get it done really fast. Since I had some extra time I decided to try taking the final tonight. I have three chances to pass and figured that if I didn't pass it tonight, I could learn from my mistakes and take it again on Thursday.

Well, I passed the final test tonight, too!!!! So, now you are looking at a Math 1010 student, which is my last math class before I'm finished with the math requirements for my degree. I'm also a week ahead of schedule! I've been so excited! I couldn't help but walk through the door and do the touchdown dance when I got home. It's a good thing N8 isn't here. I would have been embarrassed if anyone saw me.

So, anybody who may have thought I've disappeared from off the face of the earth can rest assured that aliens have not abducted me and I have not vanished into thin air. I've just become a full-time employee and a part-time student who is trying to stay close to her husband who is over 5,000 miles away and take care of bills and household duties by herself while fulfilling her calling as the primary chorister in church. Also, anybody that has still kept in contact with me and feels that I might seem moody or anti-social, rest assured, I still love you. I've just become a full-time employee and a part-time student who is trying to stay close to her husband who is over 5,000 miles away and take care of bills and household duties by herself while fulfilling her calling as the primary chorister in church. And on top of that, I have to teach the primary "Follow the Prophet" in the month of March. That song has like 15 verses! Anybody who has any good ideas about how to teach all of those verses, pleeeeaaasssseee let me know!

Anyway, I'm hoping to be back to my normal self by the middle of April and I might have a month or two before I start another class. This time, though, I think I will only take one class at a time.

TOFW - Blogged by JME

I had the most wonderful experience last weekend as I was able to participate in being at Time Out For Women. It is an event especially for women that is centered around gospel principles. It helps women feel their worth and grow spiritually. This year the message for TOFW was Infinite Hope. We enjoyed wonderful speakers and so many talented women. We learned that it is okay to get your hopes up and learned and heard encouraging messages through music and experiences of other women.

Friday night we heard from was Jenny Oaks Baker. She played the violin and gave us goosebumps when she did "Come Thou Fount." It was so awe inspiring to watch her play that complex instrument and to feel the spirit so strongly from her beautiful music.

John Bytheway also spoke to us that night. He was so funny but at the same time brought with him such a special message. We listened to him talk about a man who was a rock climber and one day he was belaying with a friend. Belaying is when you climb a little ways and then anchor yourself in the rock. Then your partner climbs up above you and anchors himself in the rock. That goes on until you get where you are going. That way, if someone falls, they are anchored by their friend. He said that this particular man had belayed past his friend and lost his footing and fell. He fell past his friend and stopped only 10 feet from the ground. His friend had anchored in well and held so tightly that it saved the man's life. He then asked, "How do you respond to someone who just saved your life?" Jokingly he said, "Uh, thanks. How about I buy you a slurpee later?" Then seriously he compared it to our relationship with the Savior and said, "You always remember him."

We then had a wonderful treat of listening to Cheiko Okazaki. She was the first counselor in the General Relief Society from 1990-1997. She is about 84 years old. Her message was about the treasures that we all have in our lives and how our greatest treasure is our testimony of Jesus Christ.



The conference continued Saturday and we were able to listen to Mercy River perform throughout the day. They were fun and entertaining and harmonized together as they sang about hope and our relationship with our Heavenly Father.



One thing I was disappointed in this year was that my favorite music artist was not in the program. Hilary Weeks has been my favorite for years and performed last year for TOFW. Her stories of trials she has been through and her songs are so uplifting and inspiring. Her music has helped me get through some tough times. She is really funny also, and had written some theme songs to go with things in our every day life that we as women deal with. She shared these songs with us last year. One was about the laundry. The lyrics went to the tune of 'Climb Every Mountain' from the Sound of Music. It went:

'Climb every mountain, wash every load.
If you're alive and breathing, then you've got clothes to fold.
Sort all the colors, wash some on hot,
All my whites are pink now, because of one red sock."

Another song went to the tune of R Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly' and was a theme song for what mother's feel like after spending the day with their crying kids. It went:

'I believe I can fly, and I will if you continue to cry.
I've listened to you whine all day, gonna start the minivan and drive away,
Cause my ears are getting sore. You see me running through that open door,
And when your daddy gets home, tell him not to call my cell phone . . .
Unless . . . he's made you dinner . . . and the dishes have been done,
and you've been tucked into bed with pajamas and a pull-up on
Otherwise I run errands all night long. Or at least I will try.'

Here are some of the more spiritual songs that I absolutely love:





Last year when Hilary Weeks was there, I went up and had my picture taken with her. She also signed my ticket and said that we were friends, so I always talk about how Hilary Weeks and I are friends.


Well, back to this year and being disappointed because she was not on the program, as we were sitting waiting for Saturday's event to start, one of my friends pointed down on the first row (we were on the 4th row because my mom was really cool and got there early to save our seats - Thanks, mom!) and said, "Isn't that Hilary Weeks?" I was so excited to see that it was and had the opportunity to go talk to her during a break and get more pictures with her. I reminded her how she had declared that we were friends last time I saw her and told her how I let everyone know that "Hil and I are friends." She laughed and let me know when her birthday and told me to put her on my list since we are friends now.



This is a group picture of Hilary and the group I went to TOFW with. L to R: Lisa, Me, Hilary, Mom, and Ter.



We had many wonderful speakers on Saturday including Amanda Dickson (she has a morning show on KSL radio) and Emily Freeman. One of the most touching speakers we were privelidged to listen to, however, was a woman named Mariama Kallon. This woman was amazing. She was raidsed in war-torn Sierra Leone. She saw many things as a young girl that might fill a person with fear and hatred. She watched the violent murders of her parents and watched as her brother was dragged away by the rebels. She later learned that he had died because he refused to join the rebel's and so they cut of his arms. She then went with her sister to a village that they thought would be safe. When they awoke one morning, they found the rebels had surrounded their little hut that all the women shared. After raping the women and cutting off some of their arms and legs, including the arms and legs of Mariama's sister, they were chased off by the army. Mariama's sister and the other wounded were taken by the army and that was the last time Mariama saw her sister. She learned later that her sister had died.



She was introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ and found hope in God and peace in a knowledge of eternal families. She was given a humanitarian kit by the Church, which became a treasured symbol of hope that she used to bless the lives of many other women who were fleeing from their homes. She shared her toothpaste from the kit with 20 women and they all shared the same bar of soap.

She eventually was called on a mission to the SLC Temple Square Mission, and wept in gratitude to the Lord as she visited the place where her humanitarian kit was made. Listening to her speak of her hope and faith was such an amazing experience. There was not a dry eye in the building.

It was so enjoyable and so worth going to. I would recommend this to any woman out there, regardless of their religion. It is very uplifting and helps you feel so much closer to the Lord. You also feel so close to the other women speaking to you and receive strength from their experiences.