Backroads

I was sick when I read said details. I'm quite sure Hildebrandt made things worse, but she was only working with what Jodi was already doing.

I like to think that if I were to give up all my, ahem, wealth, I still have a handful of people who would look out for me and help me and my family out. I agree that it's hard to not trust in riches. We are often told to attempt to be self-sufficient, are we not? As has been said elsewhere here, it's easy to completely miss the message.

The other day I had to end a class early because a 5-year-old girl was mourning her pet tarantula who had passed. I hate spiders. Years ago, when I was running a nature lodge at camp, staff would bring some of their pets. One kid brought his tarantula. I told him he was completely in charge of caring for it. Within two weeks that little guy rode around the nature area on my shoulder. We were good friends.

A couple of kids were getting mad at the people weren't coming. A few were insisting on weird interpretations they got from family members. One person wouldn't let someone ride in his car to go to church on Sunday. Some bullying started up.

One time, at Scout camp, where we happened to have a large number of church members teens/young adults, there up started a little scripture study group. It was amazing how fast it got out of hand. People start up stuff with the best of intentions, I'm sure. I don't know if I blame the adversary or just the chaotic nature of humanity and maybe that road to hell they talk about, but I think there is wisdom in not letting your followers of a creed go complete nuts in name of creed.

These are both private schools, though ones that provide distance education. Good options if a family is willing to move away from a more pure homeschool idea.

The one that immediately comes to mind is The Good and the Beautiful.

I'm quite sure it's just a rumor. I believe the Church has yet to release its official church-sponsored homeschool curriculum. Honestly, I think it might be tricky to do, as different states have different education and homeschool standards. That said, there are a few curriculums that are certainly LDS-friendly.

The best they can figure at the point is that some configuration is resetting the password and they want to look at the computer (Which is actually fine with me, I think I'm due for an upgrade). I just want to get into my Google drive is all... (it's not as simple as getting into Google, it's getting into the company program that happens to use Google)

I did place another call today. We may actually be at the point where I may have to send my computer in and possibly get my employee account duplicated.

Today I spent three hours over two different calls on the phone with tech support for my work. The gentleman spoke with great kindness, patience, and intelligence towards my troubles. Passwords were reset over and over. Caches cleared. Notes jotted down. I eventually gave up in weariness with the hope of a new day. There is still an account I cannot get into. My heart is weary, my soul tired. I have finagled a few backdoor tricks to enable me to do my job that should give me a day or more. Perhaps I will even see if I can make it to Thanksgiving break this way, for I dare not call back the kind tech support guy who cannot solve my problem. My pride is too great. You know what would solve my problem? Somehow remembering the answers to my security questions. Yes, this is the issue three hours can't get us past. So, my question: is there some sort of program that could just run through every possible answer, perhaps based on a deep knowledge of me gleaned from the Internet, until the correct answers are generated? I swear I'm only slightly off-kilter here.

I tend to agree with this for the most part. Generally I think people are more alike than not.

@Just_A_Guy's hypothetical is extreme, but there's a point to be made, and I'm interpreting my own things. Are we getting so politically divided that some might reconsider a moral/ethical situation just to snub the opposite party?

I spent Saturday morning in the laundry room. Folding clothes, organizing the shelves, watching Harry Potter theory videos on Youtube while I did all of this. It was wild.

Yeah. Go figure.

Oh my goodness. I actually experienced it this morning so I can totally have an opinion. I usually sleep right through it. But I was curious to whether or not I truly had experienced it so I sat watching my phone for like 15 minutes to see what happened after 1:59 am. Was it entertaining? Eh...

Not my ward but the ward/stake over, the bishop would probably be in some hippy communist commune in the woods if it weren't for his love of guns. He's the most liberal man I know (friends with his wife). And yet he is still a bishop of a ward in Utah.

I legitimately think there is, at least in some social circles, an expectation to have sex early in the courtship. I even heard someone say that a girl not interested in sex on Date 1 was a red flag. That being said, I think there is a positive with the more recent cycles of sexual expression where this idea of early sex is being pushed back upon if a person doesn't want it. I kind of laughed at your anectdote about what the local "Church" has become. When I was working for the Scouts back in the day, our office was located on a hill off the main highway, and the Catholics decided to build this gorgeous-and-huge church across the street from us. Now that is perfectly visible from the highway, and it looks like a church! Stained glass windows, a steeple, a cross, what more do you want? So when I was on the phone trying to explain to someone where we were located, I was surprised to find that saying "and when you see the big church, turn" just confused people (and no, saying the actual name of the street didn't work, either). Now, it's probably because this was in Utah, and this church didn't look like the local ward chapel. But I feel something has been lost in the cultural/community definition of church.

In a lot of ways I'm all about that "relationship with God first" but I think there comes a point where it's like, what's the point of a church, then? And that's not the best place to be. I'll go out on a limb and say that many members of their churches have their pet focuses and quirks, but when I truly think of "Protestant Mormons", the ones I've interacted with have the gospel watered down so much that the resulting church isn't anything special or remarkable. I've certainly heard my share of people going off the rails with their own personal interpretation of everything, but if not more so it seems their personal revelation is that much of our doctrine is simply a story or tradition. Book of Mormon isn't real, temples are just a fun little thing, etc.

Thank-you!

I'm only a Xennial depending on some retaliation in the numbers, but I think I honestly do related more to Gen X, so I go with it if I must divide and conquer the years.

As you probably ought to be.

I'm trying to figure out what we're trying to achieve with the generation labels. I like to think it's an observation of values and behavior over time, but that seems such a spectrum...

So, despite two forms of birth control, I am currently pregnant. Conception date? My dad's birthday. I'm a little weirded out by it.

I shouldn't have laughed, but that's funny.