Week Ending November 23, 2013

Sunday Pres. Haws, our stake president, was our Sacrament Meeting speaker. Another lady spoke before he did. She gave the talk first in English, then in Navajo. The man sitting with us told us she was giving the same talk over. She told us later that she had been told to talk for 15 minutes and that was the only way she could figure out to fill the time. Pres. Haws said that his Navajo wasn’t good so he would just give one talk. He spoke on the scriptures. I really hope my students were listening. I know one was not. He reads his scriptures during church. Go figure.

Sunday School was on family history. It was a really good lesson and I was very touched. Relief Society also had a good lesson. The lady that was supposed to teach wasn't there. She was also supposed to teach Wednesday night but she said no one had asked her. Apparently a lack of communication. We asked around and found some other teachers. They all know how to make tortillas and fry bread so it wasn’t hard to find someone to teach us how.

Monday we worked in the house and I made bread. In the afternoon we met with the senior couples in Tohlakai then on to the young adult home evening. There were a couple of cars parked outside, but no one there. I got out the phone to call Sister Mortenson and found she had been trying to reach us. Her kids were sick and she wanted us to take over. After a few minutes a young woman wandered in—she had been on her phone in her truck. Soon a young man wandered in—he had fallen asleep in his car. We tried calling some of the others and found two people were sick. A third person arrived shortly with tons of food. She had soft and hard-shelled tacos, cookies, vegetable tray and fruit tray, and water. She was hungry so she brought enough for everyone. A couple more kids came later. We had no games, but we had a great visit and lots to eat. It was actually one of the more fun evenings we have had.

Tuesday was mostly seminary with some odds and ends tossed in. In the evening we had a branch dinner. It had a Mexican theme so people didn’t get worn out on turkey. There was a good attendance and I think we all enjoyed it. People sat and visited for a while. The burrito lady came and brought fry bread that was good. We had a good visit with a lady and her son for most of the evening. I think it went well.

Wednesday we went to the senior center for lunch. It was their annual Thanksgiving dinner and they had a huge crowd. We helped serve. I asked the lady in charge if they had any boxes left since she had told us there were wonderful food boxes at Thanksgiving. She said they were all out. She came to me later and said they had a turkey and pie in the freezer for us. They had given a box to the elders, so I told her we would tease the elders that they got our box. They asked us to do a Christmas program for them in December.

In the afternoon we drove to Tohlakai. It had started raining fairly heavily in the afternoon, so the roads there were muddy. One student texted me to say they couldn’t come because it was too muddy. Another was supposed to come, but she never showed. I texted her mom to ask if she was still coming. About 45 minutes later she responded that the girl was sick and the roads were too muddy. So I had a total shut-out with no students. I went into Ted’s class and joined them in their discussion. The other senior couple were the only ones there, but we had a good time. They will probably take over the seminary class and they are planning a meeting Sunday to talk with the kids and parents about when to meet. That will free us up to help Wingate more. It rained a little more on the way home, but it wasn’t as heavy as earlier until after we were home again.

Thursday when I got to the church a lady was waiting. She picked out several fabrics for a Christmas quilt and some already cut pieces for another quilt. She is quite excited. The lady left before lunch and the president wasn’t feeling like eating, so I had some of the soup I’d made and we talked a bit then went home.

Quilting at the church

In the afternoon I spent time on seminary. Only two students were there for class, but we had a really good class. We talked about Abinadi and his firmness of testimony. I bore my testimony and invited them to share their testimonies. It was a sweet experience.

Our institute class went well. One of the girls was baptized on Saturday and she had some questions as we got into the lesson. Bro. Miller was there and he directed the discussion quite a bit of the time. We had five kids there and it was good. No one wanted to stay after the lesson, so we got home really early.

Friday I spent the day preparing for seminary and cleaning. I am opening up all the online lessons during Thanksgiving week so they can do make up work if they’d like. Some of the lessons took a long time because I had to open each piece separately. I opened most of the lessons in Term 2 instead of Term 1 because I have a new student and she can’t get into Term 1. That meant I had to do some formatting on the units that had been done in Term 1. It was just a long process.

In the early evening we drove to Gallup to go to dinner at Fratelli’s Italian Restaurant. We enjoyed a good meal, but it took forever to get to us. We decided to have some gelato for dessert. While Ted was at the counter, he visited with the girl dishing the gelato and invited her to take the missionary discussions. She is anxious to hear about the church and gave us her number. She seemed like a really sweet person. She is going to Florida for Thanksgiving since this is her grandma’s first Thanksgiving without her grandpa and she wants to be with her. Nice.

The weather has turned very cold. We expected rain and even snow today, but it was clear all day. It did get really cold so I was very grateful for my heated mattress pad. I could be perfectly happy if it did not get cold or snow this year, but I think my feelings are not the governing factors.

Saturday I did some seminary bookkeeping then did a couple of odd jobs. I had a conversation with Pres. Curtis of Tohlakai about seminary and the meeting tomorrow. We will attend the meeting and make sure things get settled there. I think this will be a great opportunity for them to become part of the branch and help it grow.

House made of bales of straw

Ted made a couple of loaves of pumpkin bread so we could take some with us to visit a family. We returned the egg cartons and got a tour of their greenhouse and chicken operation. It was amazing. They are as nearly self-sufficient as I believe anyone can be. 

Man-made pond--great for fishing and a cool summer dip

They had taken wood and sand and created ponds and breaks for dirt so their dirt doesn’t wash away in the rain. They had fruit trees and in their greenhouse they had fresh tomatoes and peppers. We wanted to visit before the snow sets in because their home is so remote and the “roads” are really unbelievable.

Amazing vegetable garden!

It actually started snowing while we were there and they said we had about half an hour before we couldn’t get out. We visited and had some hot chocolate and their 14-year old daughter showed us some of the clothes she has made and designed—cute stuff. She showed me a crochet pattern like nothing I had ever seen. It actually stopped snowing while we were inside, but we would have been trapped if it hadn’t.

Watch the road? Where is it?

We had to pick up a couple of things at Walmart—it was jammed. When we finally got out it was snowing again. It stopped and started off and on all evening. Apparently it shut down I-40 between Gallup and Ft Wingate. Five semis rolled over. It wasn’t as much the snow as the black ice, but it was not a good night to be out.

Week Ending November 16, 2013

Sunday my seminary lesson went well. One student turned in a notebook—I’m thrilled. Our talks went well too. I spoke about veterans in the Book of Mormon and the lessons we can learn from them. The branch president taught a lesson on family history during third hour. He had to show several videos on a DVD that wouldn’t play on a DVD player. I took my laptop to play them. I put the clips he needed into a folder so it would be easier to find them. I had to download two of them from lds.org. It was definitely a tender mercy because I have not had much success getting online at the church, but I didn’t have any trouble at all getting on and finding the clips he needed.

After church I worked with one of the counselors to update branch records. We have collected several street addresses for current and former members. Most have just a PO Box number. I wish we could get more street addresses for the branch records. It would make it so much easier to reach out to people.

In the afternoon I worked on getting seminary set up for the new week and did everything I could except closing the old week.

We home taught a family in the evening. The husband has been called to be the Young Men leader in the branch. He is not sure what to do with the boys since he doesn’t have any manuals. I’m sure they’re available online. I hope he encourages the boys to do the “Duty to God” program. It would be a real blessing in their lives.

Veterans' Day Flag Raising at Church Rock, NM

Monday we had agreed to judge the Veterans’ Day parade in Church Rock, so we headed to the chapter house for the 9 AM flag raising ceremony. From there we went to the store and parked across the street so we could see the entries when they came by. The parade was supposed to start at 10 AM. Cars started arriving and parking along the road. By 10:20 there were lots of cars parked but no parade. Finally, we could see the flags waving for the color guard. We got out of the car so we could see all the entries clearly.

Color Guard for Veterans' Day Parade, Church Rock, NM

 
First was the color guard, followed by the Grand Marshall, a two-time Purple Heart recipient in the area. Behind him was the truck carrying Miss Church Rock in native dress. The truck was covered in Indian blankets with flags waving. Miss Church Rock was standing in the back throwing candy to the parade watchers. She asked if we wanted any and threw us some.

The next entry was a truck with patriotic music playing and a tank made of cardboard in the truck bed (very creative). A couple of family members were carrying a banner with the family name on it and walking in front of the truck. Then there was a truck with nothing special but two flags on the front. Following this truck were several more trucks and cars that were pulling off the sidelines to join in.

First Place Entry--Tank in truck (sorry, no picture!)

We waited, thinking there must be more to the parade, but nothing came. We drove to where the parade started just to make sure no one had been left behind, but no one was there either. We drove back to the store and joined the line of cars headed to the chapter house. We were quite surprised that the “parade” consisted of four entries, five if you count the Color Guard, and we did.

Miss Church Rock

The program was very nice, I guess—it was all in Navajo. Ted sat at the table with the veterans in the front of the hall. They introduced all the veterans—in English. Miss Church Rock was the guest speaker. She sang a couple of songs, accompanying herself on a small drum. They presented the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place prizes for the parade—the tank was first, Miss Church Rock was second, and the Color Guard was third. They gave us a small pot as a gift for our services.

Gift for our judging services

Then they served lunch. The kitchen had dished up the plates at the beginning of the program so it was stone-cold 45 minutes later, but it tasted OK. Our table was served right after the veterans. It took forever to serve the people because they kept coming. After it was over, they cut one of the two cakes and served to people who had already thrown their forks in the trash—oh, well. We thanked our friend for the opportunity to be of help. The one bit of the program I understood was the closing prayer in English by our friend. She had offered the opening prayer in Navajo when the assigned person didn’t show up and she frequently prays in Navajo at church, so I was pleased that she did that in English.

Cake commemorating all four branches of service

During the program a veteran got up to talk. He apparently was very entertaining because the people were all smiling and at a couple of points even laughing. I asked the lady sitting next to me what was so funny. He had told a joke. There was an old man who went with his son to a rodeo. He sat and watched all the events without much reaction. When they began setting up the barrels for the barrel race, he got really animated and said, “Now we see the beautiful ladies.”

Church Rock

Home evening was fun. We played Apples to Apples and they really loved it. A young man had brought three big bowls of fruit and some fruit dip. That was wonderful.

Tuesday I was at home all day working on seminary. It seems like that’s all I do any more—either put together a lesson for this week or assignments for next week or grading for last week. I enjoy it, but it does seem like I’m in a rut. I’m having a difficult time organizing the lesson for this week again—there is so much in the chapters that I’d like to cover and no good way to include it all. We are studying the speech King Benjamin gave just prior to his death. It is an amazing, work with so much in it of value.

I called a couple of my students to talk with them about seminary. Their work seemed to indicate they were struggling with seminary. When I spoke with them they both agreed that they were having challenges. We discussed some things they could do to improve their work and their attitudes. I felt like it was well-received.

Wednesday I was finally able to put together some organized thoughts for the lesson this week. We went to the senior center for lunch and had a good visit with the van driver. Most of the people had gone to a casino on an overnight trip so it was practically deserted. He had cooked and served the food.

In the afternoon we drove to Tohlakai for seminary. Two students were already there. We’d received a text message saying another student wouldn’t be there. Her sister came so I had three students. We usually meet in the Primary room and they had set up desks for the students. The desks were all gone this week. President Curtis was interviewing the kids to go to the temple on Saturday. He said the Stake Primary President visited and said to take out the desks. He got us a table which worked great for the three students. It sort of threw me off kilter a bit to have my room totally changed.

After we left there we went straight to the church for our Branch Council meeting. As it turned out, the branch president didn’t arrive for 45 minutes. The missionaries had said he’d be late. I was about to leave when he arrived. The meeting was short. We talked about a few people that we needed to reach out to, but the general talk was that we’d think about it and talk more next time. We had money that needed to be spent before year end so they talked about a party with dinner and games. The date was up in the air at meeting’s end. The discussion turned to the New Year’s Eve party they had asked me to plan. They planned the food and how much we needed. The president’s wife was making notes on what needed to be done, so I think she may be checking into it. When one of the elders said he loved games, it was decided he could do games. Since I was not really part of the discussion, I’m not sure if I’m in charge or not. The only part I really contributed to was saying I had planned to ask one of my former students to do the midnight breakfast.

Thursday was our quilting class. I’m having a difficult time coming up with ideas of what to bring for lunch. One lady always brings cheese puffs and pudding cups and sometimes ice cream. The other never brings anything. So the meal is up to me. Again it was just the three of us. I got all my pieces cut for framing my quilt blocks. I didn’t want to start sewing them yet, but I laid out the blocks on the Relief Society Room floor. I ended up with one quilt 6 X 7 blocks and one 3 X 4 blocks. (When I decided to frame the squares, it added enough to the size that I ended up with extra squares.) I’m using pink to frame the large one. I’m not sure yet what to use for the smaller one. I picked out three or four pieces of fabric to look at later. I had two blocks left over. The smaller quilt is mostly the squares I didn’t want in the larger one, but I think they’ll both be cute.

After I got home I did a few more things for seminary to grade assignments and prepare for class. At 5 PM I began calling the girls. One got on—I’m not sure if she had forgotten or not. A second tried but couldn’t get on so she called in. The third didn’t get on and didn’t call in. She was having technical difficulties when I talked to her. I saw a couple of emails after class asking me to send a new invitation to the meeting. I don’t understand why she didn’t call me. Class went well. I had to read my power point to the one student and I had to write the things she found in the scriptures on the white board, but that wasn’t too bad. I’m just glad she took the initiative to call in.

After I grabbed a quick bite to eat, we headed to institute. The lesson went really well. There was a lot of discussion and some really good thoughts. It appeared that two of the kids might be dating. They are both really cute kids and I think they’d go well together. We had some real fun playing games afterward until Ted felt like we needed to leave before he fell asleep.

Friday at our online teachers’ meeting I made a presentation on one of the features in Webex. I had typed out the instructions and sent them out to everyone. I did a demo, but I set a timer at one minute thinking they’d work quickly. I don’t know what it looks like from the student side, so I’m not sure how much time is needed. It was too short, but it spawned some good discussion about how and when to use it. One of the teachers asked about the report cards in WISE, the grading system. I tried to help her print hers out. She had an old copy the system specialist had sent her so it didn’t agree with what I could see. We finally got hers to work. Another teacher said she’d never been able to print hers, so I made a couple of suggestions and she was able to print hers as well. I’m not sure if any of us learned much except that pop-up blockers keep things from printing, but it was a good discussion.

I spent some time sewing pieces on my quilt blocks. I got two rows completely together; I got three more rows partially done. During the day we had some really bad weather. It hailed really hard at one point. Mostly it rained off and on and the wind was bad. It was a good day to be inside.

Saturday we picked up another couple for the trip to the temple. On the way to Albuquerque I finished some craft projects I was working on. We had to run a few errands including getting the car smog-checked and the registration mailed off. I really enjoyed the temple session. I was quite tired, but I felt like I was able to focus better than some times. Afterward we stopped at a pet store so our friends could buy a tarantula. There is just no accounting for people’s tastes. We did manage to get home before dark and that was a blessing. I’m not sure if Ted would have lasted much longer than he did.

At home I gathered my stuff together for seminary Sunday. I finished doing the bulletin and put all my students’ report cards together for Sunday. That actually was a fairly complex project, but it turned out to come together fairly well. When I couldn’t stay awake any longer I went to bed, figuring I’d be better off reviewing my lesson in the morning.

Week Ending November 9, 2013

Sunday we were up and ready to get to seminary early. On the way out the door we realized we had not changed our clocks for Daylight Savings change and we had another hour before seminary. We decided we could study at the church as well as at home. It worked out well because I was able to get quite a bit done. I gave the Basic Doctrinal Assessment. I was surprised that it took the students so long to do the assessment. My Tohlakai students were all done within half an hour—these kids took about 40 minutes. Surprising to me.

After church I worked on seminary until we left for the CES Fireside. The fireside speaker was Elder Russell Osguthorpe, the General President of the Sunday School. It was excellent. He and his wife had written a song called “I’ll Give Myself to Him”. He talked about what the song meant. It was basically about giving our entire will to the Savior. It was really good.

Monday Ted took the car to get the check engine light checked—again. The tests indicated that it needed the catalytic converter replaced, so they ordered the part. Ted has had a toothache for several nights. Last night I suggested he take the allergy medication the dentist recommended when I had a toothache and it seemed to help. I got him an appointment in the late afternoon with the dentist just to make sure there was nothing more serious. There was nothing wrong and the dentist suggested the allergy medication. He felt much better.

We had our bi-weekly get together with the other senior couples. We had a brief visit and spiritual thought then we ate. When we had finished eating we headed to the seminary building for family home evening. We had a good time playing “Spoons”. I think that is their favorite game. One of our students is almost ready to turn in her mission papers. Her brother is also getting his mission papers ready. She is trying to get a job to help out with family expenses and help pay for her mission. It would have been good if she’d done that in May, but better late than never.

Tuesday we woke to a light dusting of snow on the trees and roofs. It had rained and snowed all night. We walked at the church for the first time in several days and it felt good. I spent much of the time today working on seminary, but I found it difficult to come to any concrete idea of what to teach this week. We are in Jacob 5 which is the Allegory of the Olive Tree. As I’ve studied the teacher’s manual and the online classes there is so much more that I understand now than before. It is really a very touching story of Christ’s love for His people and all the efforts He makes to gather His people in. Ted and I had a couple of good discussions about it. We’ve tried to sync our classes so we are working in the same basic scripture blocks and that helps.

It has been so cold here. I sit so much that I get chilled easily. When our heat kicks on it gets almost unbearably hot. It’s back and forth all day.

Wednesday Ted took the car in to have the catalytic converter replaced. He was gone all morning and half the afternoon. My lesson finally gelled for me and I spent a lot of time putting together a lesson for this afternoon and for the online class on Thursday.

We drove to Tohlakai for seminary and arrived just in time to see the other couple leave. They were picking up my two students that have had a transportation problem. I felt so elated. One student had run overland, dropping and scratching his glasses in the process. The other two students had texted me that they wouldn’t be there due to a basketball game for one of them. It just doesn’t seem to work to have everyone together. Maybe now that the other couple is here we can have a real class again.

I handed out grade sheets and it made me sort of sad to hand them out to the two students. They have been in class less than half the time and done only one assignment each. That’s pretty discouraging to get hit with that when you are finally making a comeback. We talked about the Allegory of the Olive Tree and I think it went well.

It is so dark coming home. There are no street lights for most of the trip so it is pitch black. It is rather scary. I’m just grateful we are quite familiar with the road so we don’t end up on the wrong side.

Thursday we had two ladies at our quilting class. One lady had a friend come later. She wanted to see what we were doing and seemed to be impressed. She said she’d come back next week and select some fabric for a project. When it was time for seminary I couldn’t believe it—we were all online and connected by 8 minutes after, even with one girl who had to change over to her mom’s computer. We had a bit of a squeak on the line off and on, but we were able to talk most of the meeting. We had some good exchanges and I was very pleased with the way class went.

I really only have three students functioning in the class. I’m not sure if they will want me to keep the class or move the students out to other teachers. One more may be back if they get a new computer. Two young men can’t get on at school as they had planned, although I think it is more them than the school. One girl is too busy to really be part of it all. And one dropped out. So, of my eight students, three are really doing the work online. We shall see.

We had three students at institute. Actually we had a fourth, but he opened his hymn book for the opening song, then he took off out the door. I thought he’d decided to make a call or something, but he never came back. (It turned out he had gone for a drink and while he was gone he had a call from a missionary companion in the Phillipines.) The lesson went well and I enjoyed it, but I felt such a disappointment that there were so few students that came. We have invited and so have our other students. It is sad. One girl came for the second time. She is being baptized on the 16^th. Very exciting. The students decided not to stay to play games, so we got away the earliest ever.

The sky was so beautiful when we got home. It is so dark we can see lots of stars. I wish it weren’t so cold so I could really make a study of them and figure out some of the constellations, but it is beautiful to look at anyway.

Friday I swept the front walk and cleaned out the rain gutter. When I finished we ran some errands in Gallup. I spent some time in the afternoon trying to figure out some things with my quilt blocks. While I was putting the fabrics away a lady called from Las Vegas from the Area CES office. She wanted to know what our assignment is, what we do, how much our fixed expenses are, how much we spend for food and how much we spend for gas. It was totally off the top of my head, so I need to correct some information I gave her. She was very sweet and we had a good chat.

Saturday we stopped at a craft fair in Gallup to get some ideas. There were a lot of beautiful things—wood laminating, carved wooden toys, quilts, and, of course, jewelry—but not many things I think we could do in our classes.

We drove to Sheep Springs to spend time with Elder and Sister Ashcroft. They are senior missionaries there. They teach seminary as well as many other things and had some questions about materials and how things work. We had a good visit and a good meal. I had a good visit with Sister Ashcroft about seminary and gave her some ideas. They aren’t doing the full program, so some of what we do doesn’t make sense. They sure do a lot of other things though. After we ate, the men watched BYU football and the women visited for a while before we joined the men. It was fun and good to get away.

Week Ending November 2, 2013

Sunday seminary went well. Last week one of my students turned in a notebook and I thought she hadn’t done any additional work. She showed me in the notebook she turned in that she had done an assignment, but it was a few pages over so I missed it. I felt much better about her efforts. Another of my students that is in the online class is having computer problems. I hope they are able to get it fixed so he can continue online seminary. It is really good for him and for me.

I spent the afternoon watching some video clips for seminary and grading assignments. I also had to set up Term 2 in the system. Everything closes at the end of the term and I have to create a whole new online classroom for the students. It seems a little weird to have the last unit of Term 1 in Term 2, but who am I to tell them what to do? (As it turned out, only two of us had this issue. The rest had Unit 9 in Term 1 where it belonged. The grading for Unit 9 is in Term 1—it is just the actual lesson that is in the wrong place.)

Monday we walked early at church. The elders came over when we got home to do their wash because they don’t have a washer and dryer in their apartment. They usually do it at a member’s home, but the dryer is broken there. I worked on seminary most of the day. For fhe in the evening we went to watch the leader’s son play in the city championship football game. We got a text mid-afternoon saying the mom was fixing dinner before the game. We cut up some vegetables for our contribution. She ended up buying pizza and wings which was good. There was a good crowd for dinner and most went to the game. It was really cold so I bundled up and took a blanket besides. The team won, two touchdowns to nothing. The kids were not especially terrific and tended to bunch up a lot, but it was interesting.

I had to drop a workbook off to the student with computer problems. I feel so bad. Online is such a good course and he was doing so well. It is so much easier for me to grade his work when it’s typed as well.

Tuesday I did more work on seminary. I also did some creative mending and sewing on the last of the squares for the quilt. I was literally sewing until we walked out the door. We went to the broadcast commemorating 100 years of Scouting in the Church. It was wonderful. There were lots of young men participating and some very creative presentations. I was touched and very impressed. Pres. Monson was recognized for his huge contributions to Scouting. Someone has donated the means to create a leadership training facility and they named it after Pres. Monson. He was obviously touched by the event. It was such a good program and I was so glad we had attended.

Wednesday Ted took the car in to have the check engine light checked out. They had to reprogram the computer in the car as a first step in solving the problem. This is the third time they’ve tried to fix it. He had been told they could deal with it when he came in again for the next oil change, but when he called about doing a smog inspection for our car registration, he was told they couldn’t do it with the light on so he had to move the repairs up and get it taken care of. I had a friend pick me up to go to the senior center with her. She cuts hair on Wednesday mornings for the men. The women would like her to cut their hair, but she’s not willing to do that. We visited with some ladies who were working on a puzzle so we helped with that.

I studied more in the afternoon before we went to Tohlakai for seminary. I was so proud of one of the students. She has turned in a notebook three weeks in a row. She has only done one day’s work in any of them, but I am thrilled to death. She and her sister make such an effort to be there and learn. I was pleased. Afterward we went over to the trailer to meet the new senior couple that has arrived. The elders got moved to Tohatchi and the senior couple took their housing from them. They are the stake president’s in-laws. The wife is blind. That would take such courage to serve a mission here being blind. They will be here for a year. They plan to come to our adult education classes. That will be good.

After we returned home we ate a late dinner and made treats for institute tomorrow night. It snowed a little in the afternoon, but we didn’t have any problem on the roads.

Snow in the morning

Thursday we woke to a light snow on the ground and frost on the windshield. It was really cold as well. We took all my supplies to the church when we walked. That works well so I don’t have to make several trips from the car when I go later. I made a soup to take for lunch. It is one of my favorites.

Just a bit of October snow

Two ladies came to our quilting class. I worked on some pieces for another lady’s quilt then pressed the squares for my quilt. I found three squares that somehow got missed when I was sewing. I also found one square that was missing a strip. I need to fix at least one square because one of the strips is too short—I don’t understand it. But the squares looked really nice once they were pressed. One lady sewed border pieces on all her quilt squares. She has to decide what to do about her quilt since she needs to add some pieces and is out of fabric. We’ll see. It’ll be really cute when it’s done.

After I came home I worked on some grading for seminary. My students all got into our online class today, once I called and reminded them it was time. (I definitely believe in miracles.) I need to find a better way to stay in touch. I had a gathering activity and visited a bit with one student while we were waiting. I had another stay online after class to talk. I just need to connect with the third girl.

After class I ate a quick bowl of soup. We’d had a call from one of our institute students that her parents didn’t want her driving to the stake center because of all the kids that would be on the streets. We moved class to her home and contacted the kids we knew would be there. We then had to go to the church to leave a note saying where we were. It was crazy. There was an accident on the Interstate that tied up traffic. The traffic and people on the streets was insane. There were people in costumes that had to be well into their teenage years and we even saw one lady in costume pushing a stroller. This is one serious holiday in Gallup. We only had two students come, but we had a good class and we visited with the students and parents afterward while we enjoyed Pumpkin Pudding. The streets were much quieter on the way home.

Friday my online teachers meeting was OK. There were a lot of connection issues that took up time. We had some good discussions. I had been asked to check out one of the features of the program and I did, but we didn’t get to discuss it. I’ll send out the instructions and test program and see what happens.

I did a bunch of odds and ends. I had left my Book of Mormon at the home last night, so I’m out of my normal study habit. Ted went with the elders to give a blessing to a lady he home teaches. After they returned, the elders gave Ted a blessing. He had a toothache during the night and couldn’t sleep. He says he’ll be OK, but I know he isn’t doing well.

I worked a bit on my quilt squares. Some of them need some adjustments so they’ll be right. Fortunately, it wasn’t many.

Saturday we went to get my Book of Mormon. We called a man who had given us the eggs at conference to see if we could come and return the carton. He was at the Flea Market, and we were headed that way, so we met him there. We gave him a few avocados because they really needed to be eaten, but we forgot to bring the egg carton with us. Duh! It was fun wandering around the Flea Market. We found three ornaments that we liked and bought. Two were made by some Indians from the Esletta Tribe. They are Pueblo Indians from south of Albuquerque. They looked very much like they could be Hopi or Zuni. We also bought a bell that was Zuni. I also got a killer deal on some lotion that I shouldn’t have bought but couldn’t resist.

In the afternoon we went to the high school to watch the last volleyball home game of the season. It was against Bloomfield. The girls played really well and won, but it wasn’t a slam dunk. The other team was quite good and was challenging competition. One of my students on the team did really well and was in all of the games. They recognized the parents between the games and that made it go later, but it’s a nice thing to do. Then the girls threw bags of candy into the audience. When my student came our direction she threw one directly to us. What a girl!