Wingnut

Another useless Michigan factoid: I did my state report on Michigan in 5th grade and have always wanted to visit, ever since. So when we decided to take a quick weekend family camping trip a few years ago, I begged my husband to let me choose Michigan instead of Pennsylvania. He was fine with that. We got a campsite outside Ann Arbor, and stayed for a whole 18 hours before driving back home because camping in the rain with a two-year-old just doesn't work. Definitely worse, or at least just as bad. Cleveland's unofficial tagline for a long time has been "At least we're not Detroit!"

I agree -- you probably are. I think it was more a plea to the group to help maintain an appropriate Spirit on Temple Square, than any sort of disciplinary warning or threat.

I have a friend who is going through this right now. She left the Church 6-7 years ago, and has pretty much become the epitome of "ex-Mormon." Her mom came to visit her recently, and attended Sunday services in the local unit. She gave them her daughter's (my friend's) information, and the ward sent missionaries to visit, despite the fact that my friend has specifically requested no contact multiple times before. She laughed in their faces and the next day sent a letter requesting name removal.

Okay, you win.

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Like, a few drops of essential oil, or what?

When we very first had mice, I picked her up to show one to her as it scuttled around the kitchen counter one day, terrified because we were there, but not wanting to make the dash to safety (unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere near a trap). But I held her so she could see it, and see that they were nothing scary. I explained that most people get startled when they see a mouse, and that mice are dirty and carry diseases, so she shouldn't ever touch one -- dead or alive* -- but that she didn't need to be scared of them. It seems to have worked. But this story also reminds me of when she started "playing" Minecraft with her dad. She was sitting on his lap one day, and I turned around with a quizzical look when I heard her say, "It's okay, little baby zombie! We'll find your mommy and daddy! Daddy, look at the zombie...isn't it so cuuuute??" *Obviously pets would be an exception here, but since I don't plan to ever keep rodents as pets, I didn't make this distinction to her.

That sounds sad, but it makes sense. When I was a kid, my cousin had four white mice as pets. Her older brother had a snake for a pet. Basically, she did anything he wanted, under threat of her pets becoming lunch.

I actually read that post yesterday, along with looking at a few other resources, including at tech.lds.org. I think the reason that MLH was asked to take it down is because he had included setup links on his blog, whereas SLC would prefer that members set up their direct pay options via phone or mail. It's not yet a widely available thing you can just do online, and that's what MLH was sharing. I found plenty of other opt-in options, but you had to call or mail first.

I agree with this. And while I admit that I felt relief when I heard the news that bin Laden was dead, I did not celebrate. Nor do I celebrate now.

We had a large mouse show up dead in our basement a month or two ago. We were still hunting the rat I mentioned above, when my five-year-old daughter picked up a puzzle board one morning (before I was awake, but after her father had left for work), and was startled to find a dead mouse underneath it. She gasped, but that was it. She has been aware that we've had pest problems, and we've shown her some of the other ones, so she knows what they look like. She calmly came upstairs and told me she'd found a mouse and hadn't touched it, but that it needed cleaning up. I was so proud of her -- I would have screamed, initially, just from the unexpected shock. My two-year-old, on the other hand, I wouldn't trust to leave it alone. :) For mice, we've used poison, but inside a housing mechanism, like this one. I don't know why they use the word "rat" in the title of this product, though. The idea behind it is that it keeps the poison contained from kids and pets, but allows the mice to get in, nibble at the poison, and leave again. There's no way a rat could get in, unless it was still a very juvenile one -- they're way too big. The one that we use the most, however, is this one. We stick peanut butter in the back, and when the mouse crawls in, the traps snaps up and kills it instantly. Husband takes the trap outside and disposes of the rodent in the garbage, and then we re-use the trap. It keeps the mouse inside so that kids and pets can't access it, and queasy stomachs don't have to see it.

I likewise feel no pleasure or delight in his death. I feel sad for him and his family that they won't be able to mourn his death privately and peacefully because of people reacting to how he lived, just as I felt sad for those families who had their similar moments invaded by him and his church. But mostly, I feel sad for my friends who are celebrating his death, regaling in it, and being smug and self-righteous about it. I'm disappointed in them. Maybe that's self-righteous of me, but it makes me sad so see people posting pictures of lines of people longer than at a new ride at Disneyland, with the caption "this is the line of people waiting to p*** on Fred Phelps' grave...are you in it?"

I'll agree with that. But Devil's Advocate response: it sounds like maybe the younger/poorer group didn't start the major dressing-down until after their normal dressing-down (jeans and a sweater?) was already not good enough.

That's too bad. Like I've said before, I think that -- in general -- the members of the OW group have righteous desires in their hearts, but I think they're going about realizing those desires in the wrong way. Well, I don't know about wrong, but...maybe just not the best way. Actually, this part of this conversation reminds me of a scene in the episode of The West Wing entitled "The Stackhouse Filibuster"...read below. The line in bold is what I thought of specifically. (Josh, Leo, and Sam are all very senior staffers, male. CJ is the press secretary, female.)

Okay, so it sounds like there are two different conversations happening here. Is it mice, or is it rats? Mice are harder to keep out -- they only need about a 1/4-inch space in order to get in. They can also hide in smaller places. Rats set up nests. They can get in through a 1/2-inch space when they're young, and then hide and grow in your house. We had to kill a rat recently. We, uh, still haven't found it. I heard it getting in just before we left for Christmas (like at 1am the night before we left), and it had free reign while we were gone. We found its nest, just in putting things away, and then set out poison/bait. It took the poison back to its nest, and we haven't seen it since. Oh, and it abandoned its nest and moved before it took the poison. But it's been 2-3 months, and there's no nasty smell. My husband took the entire basement apart hunting for it, but nothing. We figure it ended up between the ceiling and floor. Mice are easier to deal with, but they also tend to be more ubiquitous -- for every 1 you see, there's probably at least 10 more that you haven't seen. Based on personal experience, I don't recommend glue traps. They're inhumane and gross. Mice get stuck on them, and they're struggling to escape. My husband came down one morning and found one that had been trapped on it overnight, including with its mouth stuck to the glue, and was still trying to move. He ended up having to kill the mouse himself (2x4 and a hammer) to put it out of its misery. If you're going to trap them, do it humanely, please. Do they get along well with your pythons?

I'm sure people will. I've seen a few less-than-civil things show up in my Facebook feed today. Only two people have mentioned it -- a husband and a wife, where he is in the military. But the things they've posted have been absolutely tasteless, crude, and saddening.

Oh, it was absolutely a deliberate strategic move that Sister Moody is the one to have been the face of the letter to the Ordain Women group. But I think it was the right move. I think it demonstrates that it wasn't an outright dismissal. Her letter was sympathetic and kind. And it is hard for anyone to suggest that they were being struck down by "the man." I'm just pleased that the Church seems to be increasing visibility of women.

When a ward member feels badgered by a bishop, it's moved on from clarification and instruction.

I've learned that about your wife, with everything you've shared about her here. She deals with a lot at work, and her perspective likely doesn't leave much room for pettiness or unnecessary drama. But I admire her a little more every time you talk about her, just so you know. :)

Christ didn't say the thief was forgiven, anymore than he forgave the adulteress. Nowhere in the Gospels (that I know of) is the difference between Paradise and Spirit Prison taught. I take Christ's remark to the thief to mean that the thief will be in heaven with Christ...heaven as a whole, not the "good" side or the "bad" side. I'd also heard that because the punctuation is a modern interpretation, that Christ might as well be saying, "I say unto you today, you will be with me in Paradise [eventually]."

That's fine, if they're being invited over for an afternoon tea, or a dinner party. A Relief Society activity (even in someone's house) should not require cocktail attire.

No upper age limit for sisters. Upper age limit for elders is 25 or 26. You can probably start the paperwork process within 3 months before hitting your one-year mark. But as other have said, talk to your bishop about it now. He can help keep tabs on timing with you. He can make arrangements for you to take a temple prep class in Sunday School. He can be a great resource for you. Do you have sister missionaries in your area? If not in your own ward, how about a neighboring ward? If you can, go out visiting with them! It will be a great and helpful experience. Welcome to the Church, too!

For a long time, the only name I ever saw in press releases was Scott Trotter. It's only been in the last two or three years that I've started to see names other than his. Now it's very often Michael Otterson, which is totally understandable, since he's the public affairs managing director.

It was something I noticed when I read the news about the recent letter, and I remember specifically noting the female name. I figured it was a deliberate move, but I also couldn't remember ever having noticed it before. Either way, I'm glad to see it. Women in Church PR certainly can't hurt the feminist movement(s) within the Church.

This is the same spokesperson who addressed the recent letter toward the Ordain Women group. She's also the first time I've ever heard note of a female spokesperson for the Church. All of these things make me happy.