Wordnerd

Well since Lakumi started the Canadian appropriation of the 4th of July thread....I took my kids to the only open beach nearby and my husband cleaned up flood damage with Mormon Helping Hands, then we barbecued and had ice cream

As of Saturday June 29, some people were finally being let back into High River, more will go back today, it is expected to be several weeks before everyone is allowed back in - a significant portion of the homes in town will have to be condemned, my husband thinks as much as 80%. There is a lake in the centre of town that wasn't there before, it is covering residences and the water is still too high to pump it out. The Church has set up a disaster response office in a chapel in Okotoks, and has sent a significant amount of equipment and supplies up from SLC. My husband has been volunteering all weekend, he says the Church setup is very impressive. People can call in requests for cleanup help - and the Church creates a work order which it assigns to a volunteer crew. Permits are required to work in town, as the province is limiting access. On Sunday the church had 50 permits for volunteers, today 200, they received 70 new work orders yesterday alone.

My husband was called for a meeting with the Stake President - out of the blue, and told I should attend as well. We had no idea what it was about, in fact as newish converts 2.5 years at the point we had no idea why the Stake President would even want to meet with him, we joked that he must be in big trouble although there was no reason he would be. The evening before the meeting we were talking, trying to figure out what it would be about, and both got the impression that he was going to be asked to be Elder's Quorum President. Immediately he said there was no way the Stake President would ask him to do that as there were several better "qualified" elders who could be asked, so we decided maybe he was going to be asked to be a counsellor or something instead. Guess who was called as EQP, my husband was in shock, although not near as bad as it would have been if he hadn't received revelation, even if he didn't believe it at the time. The Stake President also seemed to be concerned about Husband's "newness" I got the feeling he personally wanted someone else, but he said he prayed several times and "the Lord wants Brother (Wordnerd)" So yes callings are inspired, but the people extending them also have to act in faith, sometimes revelation doesn't make "sense"

It has been crazy here, my ward and the other Calgary wards in our stake are fine but our stake also contains High River Ward and the town has been severely flooded and the Diamond Valley Branch area also had some flooding, Okotoks wards had some evacuations, but I haven't heard about the extent of the damage. We haven't been called on to begin much in the way of service yet, just clothing donations for High River and gathering pumps and generators and such. I think they are waiting for the water to go down more to start cleanup. We are grateful the church has sent disaster response specialists to coordinate efforts, it is easier to wait knowing that people who know what they are doing are going to guide us through this. I was very sorry to hear of Rob Nelson's death - this is a really close-knit community with lots the LDS folks being inter-related so it had an immediate impact on many people in the area. There were at least 5 different rivers in flood at the same time in the nearby area, Sheep, Highwood, Bow, Elbow, and Red Deer River due to the insane rainfall. 6 if you count Cougar Creek in Canmore since it turned into a river. It will be many years before people and towns are able to completely recover. Please keep praying for the affected families, the hard part is just starting. Calgary is still planning on holding the Stampede, as a morale booster and testament to the Calgary spirit. They have made a fundraising T-shirt for Southern Alberta flood relief of a phrase that went viral during the flood.

Also talk to your doctor about the medication, you shouldn't go on and off of it without medical supervision, it can worsen your depression if you don't stop it properly. There are any different medications and dosages that can be tried so that you don't have debilitating side effects. I wouldn't make any major life choices while you are battling depression, get yourself well first.

If you like youth books Brandon Mull is available mainstream, I buy them for my kids, but I always read them first, very entertaining.

There was a baby left alone in a car in the parking lot at the grocery store today while mom was shopping, windows were down quite a bit, but it was still hot in my car with the windows down, I just don't get where people think that it is ok. Mom was called to customer service, someone else had noticed it was calling the police as i walked past and another person notified the store, firefighters just happened to be at the store shopping and they were standing by to bust in if needed.

I had an interesting conversation about the cell phone records thing this evening with a friends father who had escaped to Canada from east Germany. His words (approximately) "this is what the government did to us, they had files on everyone and they would collect information on you wherever they could. When the wall came down, people went straight to the files to take their records back. A lot a families were destroyed, when people discovered who was talking to the government about them." Imho thirty years ago, no one, much less elected officials would be condoning this, because the American people would be demanding that heads roll over this type of intrusion.

I know I'm on the extreme end of never in this discussion, but that event horrified me especially because it was so close to home (and maybe the postpartum hormones contributed), but I have never had cause to regret my decision, unlike the poor mother at my bank and I'm grateful for that. My son is 13 now, he wants to sit in the car, and I won't let him lol! I don't really believe that it would be harmful to leave him at this age, but honestly you never know, and sometimes you just stick to things to uphold the principle. I made an absolute rule for my family and I am going to stick with it. When he drives himself he can sit in the car all he wants.

Had this discussion with friends on facebook a few months ago, and I totally got raked over the coals for sharing the story of why I will never leave my child alone in a car, someone thought I was fearmongering, I personally thought it was an extreme reaction likely due to a guilty conscience. The reason is this, when my daughter was newborn and my son was five I had never left either alone in a car, but I knew that some people did for a quick errand, and I was kind of weakening because it is such a hassle to haul car seat and small child just to pay for gas, or go to the bank machine. Then in my neighbourhood, in front of my bank, a young child died when she somehow partially unbuckled herself, got her head out the window, and activated the power window button, which crushed her throat. Her mother was less than ten steps away at the cash machine. There is no amount of hassle that is worth a child's life. So to answer the OP, I will call police if there is imminent danger, hot weather, etc. or I will give the parents about 2 mins to return to the car, and if they don't I will call police.

Ah school! Where would our children learn inappropriate words and songs without you. I had to go throw neighbourhood kids out of my yard yesterday because of the language being used, primarily by a six year old. Worst part? Dad of the six year old is an inactive member of our ward.

I believe Universal healthcare is not a right, it is more along the lines of a social contract. We (Canadians) willing give up some rights, and submit to increased taxation because we as a society believe there is value in providing Universal Health coverage. This is simply a societal choice, no country is wrong or right based on what choices the citizens make, that is what freedom is about. I believe universal coverage is good for society (in theory, the application leaves something to be desired) so i have no issue in living in a country that provides it even though it is an infringement of true free will. If I strongly believed that I did not want to submit to this social contract because I felt it was too much of an infringement on my rights, then I would seek to change it by exerting my political will, or I would exit it in some way, maybe by emigrating to a society that matched my beliefs more closely. Although the social contract theory is not perfectly reflected in our governments, it is true in that every society demands some limitation of rights for what we deem to be the greater good.

There is a limited amount of private care allowed in Canada, I'm not sure exactly what the rules are but I think what it boils down to is that doctors can't charge to bump people up the waiting list, but they can charge for things not paid for by the government, like notes, drivers licence physicals, filling out forms. However there are private clinics for MRI's and CT scans, and if you pay to go, you are definitely getting in faster. We are dealing with this right now because my husband has been having chest pain, and two trips to emergency only determined that its not a heart attack. He had a one week wait for a CT scan which was supposed to have been two, but he called and asked for an earlier appt, which we were able to get by going to a rural hospital. He has now been referred to a cardiologist, which is a three week wait for the consultation and another two for the tests needed. This is fast considering that he is not incapacitated, because the family doctor knows how to work the system. However, if he were admitted to the hospital, all this would have been done already, we operate on a triage system, the sickest are dealt with first. Someone who waits 18 months for an MRI is doing so because they are not as sick as everyone before them. They have the option to pay if they want it done faster (why this is allowed for this and not many other things I don't know) or to get their doctor to attempt to move them up the list if their health is deteriorating. All I know is that I am grateful, that this isn't costing us thousands of dollars, because we are self-employed, and would likely be the uninsured, but not covered by Medicaid who are paying through the nose if we were in the US.

That's awesome, we have big plans for when we get more land, that include trout ponds, chickens and beehives (my son wants to keep them). But since we only have 45'x100' which includes the house (and trampoline, and playset, and dog run...) we are going to have to wait. Interestingly we would be allowed to keep bees in the city, and no one is able to complain because they are protected, we just figured that the yard is a little too crowded already Sorry about the frost Wingnut, we are getting our usual spring torrential downpours, 80mm so far in the past two days, and it is still coming. But since this is a semi-arid area and we have been having grass fires, I'm not complaining.

I put in Asparagus and strawberries (dormant roots) Peas Beets Spinach Lettuce Beans Carrots Potatoes Cucumbers Radishes I finished planting in the first week of May, and just gambled on not getting anymore snow or frost since it has been milder than usual, so far so good the peas are looking especially good but I'm not counting my chickens yet, we have had snow in June before! I put annuals in my flowerbeds last weekend, which is the usual planting weekend for this area. I have two very small raised beds in the back and we are zone 3, but since my garden is in a very sheltered full south exposure, I'm hoping for great results!

My condolences and you are absolutely correct. My stepson had to have the police called several times, be kicked out of our home and his mothers, and spend time in juvie and then a group home before he started to get a clue. Some kids are just determined to learn the hard way.

Oh good, we are going to see it Monday, should be awesome!

Wow, that's how you talk to your mother? I'm going to behave myself and not express what I think of that kind of attitude.

Dahlia makes an excellent point, for me getting pregnant at 21 was easy, then it took 5 years before we conceived again, and since then, nothing. As of 35 I am not able to have any more children due to health issues and my long desired number 3 never came. I am so grateful that we started when we did, if I had waited till my 30s we may not have had any children. Never assume that you get to decide how many children you will have and when they will come, only Heavenly Father has the true decision making power, so ask Him what you should do.

I know in my ward mutual activities are something done for the youth rather than something done by the youth. And while we are teaching the theories of the gospel there is no where near enough service. I think if we got them involved in living the gospel we would be doing them more favours than we are now with entertaining them every week. I hope my ward is not representative, but it seems that to counter the falling attendance, and because parents don't force their kids to go anymore, we are trying harder to make it "fun" at the expense of true Christ centred service.

This was an interesting article but this part made me chuckle: "They still believe that God speaks through the Bible, and they certainly believe that God speaks through the Book of Mormon. But what they seem to have discovered is that God doesn't only speak through those ancient revelations. Instead, revelation continues today, in the lives of musical theatre majors and curious "South Park" fans and young missionaries and gold-medal winning paraplegics and women rushing home in suits and sneakers to feed their children." I guess the author didn't totally finish her research if she didn't realize that continuing revelation was a core belief and not something that we have recently "discovered"

Or using the other facilities of that room.

So without directly quoting everyone, here's my two cents on the various issues. I think the lack of parental responsibility over education is partly a consequence of a dwindling work ethic, and partly a consequence of the bureaucracy of public education trying to push parents out. We could enshrine the parents rights to allow them the ultimate responsibility over education but it won't change the fact that some people can't be bothered. And I think this lack of work ethic is a direct consequence of living in a wealthy society with a social safety net. If we were a primarily small holding agricultural society like we used to be you would see a greater work ethic, because "work or starve" is a powerful argument. This in my opinion is why as Anatess mentioned many people from the Phillipines go on to higher education despite the abject poverty in their country, they learn how to work and the importance of enhancing their earning power because they have to. It is true that many more people could stay home than currently choose to, and sometimes that requires a leap of faith if it is what we truly want. I know because I have been in the situation where I truly had to work, and then where I "had" to work to support our chosen lifestyle. Now I don't work outside the home, but I do help my husband run his business, which enables him to make more money, not everyone can do that though. We need to remember that the past generation's "one income" families sometimes only appeared that way, my "one income" family as a child had my father, working as a truck driver, and my mother home with the kids during the day. Except at night she cleaned vacant houses for a property management company for grocery money. Even though we lived in a low income neighbourhood my reality growing up was that mom's stayed home, but they always in our neighbourhood had to earn extra cash or families weren't going to eat. Moms at home is the ideal, and used to be the standard, but those families weren't always single income, and despite the vast increase in wages since the early eighties, living expenses have gone up more, so it could well be possible that my mother would not be able to close that gap with night work and stay home in this economy, and we only owned one beater car, one tv, no cable, couldn't afford to buy a house and rented a townhouse in an undesirable area. I think the whole point of the educational system in the first place was to train the poorest who would not have been educated, to be capable of factory jobs, to create a common denominator so the economy could grow. It is not designed to accomodate different learning styles or different outcomes. If you want more than that for your own children you need to take their education in your own hands already, be that homeschooling, tutors or other enrichment.

Last Kiss covered by Pearl Jam

Obesity can have many causes, only one of which is a conscious decision to eat to excess, ie gluttony. Gluttony is a choice and a sin, however obesity is simply a consequence of that choice, or a symptom of medical (including mental health) issues. Therefore obesity cannot in itself be considered a sin, or used as a yardstick to judge others. I also believe excessive dieting and exercising to be sinful, because of its extreme focus on physical appearance, rather than focusing on health, strength, and spiritual wellness, which is what should be our goal.