All I want for Christmas is........

There are some interesting songs about all I want for Christmas.  My favorite this year is Kenny Cheseneys "All I want for Christmas is a real good tan."  But in thinking of what I want for Christmas I would say "All I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY HOUSE TO SELL."  At least I have learned this week that people are looking at my little house in New Jersey.  I find the things people worry about to be a bit silly.  But I guess a house is a big purchase and so they are entitled to want things to be the way they want them.  Yet I find for the price I'm asking and the condition my house is in, that people would be a little bit more interested.  Most houses in the range we are selling in are the type you have to gut and totally remodel.  Ours is in almost perfect shape.  Oh well.  I don't really believe I will get this Christmas wish. 
My other wish is for my children to have a White Christmas.  My daughter lucky girl got taken by a friend to down town Salt lake and got to see all the Christmas lights.  I hope we get to go next week. 
Our Christmas decorating this year is much like the Who's from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"  after the Grinch took everything.  And yet in this thinking I know that "Christmas comes despite it all."  It is not the decorations, gifts or flashiness.  It is something so much more.  It is God's love for us, his perfect gift."  I'm thankful for this perspective.  Sorry I haven't written in awhile.  I've been working 40 hours a week. I'm hoping that we get our moving bills paid down so we can visit the east this summer.  If the house would sell, it would happen a lot faster.
G.G.

Moving Lesson Learned: When you need help ask for it!

Here is a photo from one of my recent visits to the Draper Temple.  The Draper Temple is up on the side of a mountain.  It has some awesome views.  The mountains look so beautiful with all the snow on them.  I can't wait to go out today as it has snowed again.
Lately I've been thinking of the weeks I spent in New Jersey pretty much alone with my children.  I went many weeks, doing everything on my own.  I kept thinking surely one of my friends will call and see if I need help.  You know they never did. Am I hurt or complaining?  No.  But I learned a lesson.  At some point it all became too much for me.  I could not get my son to help, he would not focus unless I stood over him.  And some days it was all too much and I'd curl up on the couch and sleep half the day away.  Then one day while I watched my daughter swimming, I broke down and new I needed to ask a friend for help.  So I called my friend and from that point on, I had help.  Things got done, people came to help and there was less stress.  My one neighbor commented on our last day in the house, I knew you were doing a ton of work, but I never realized just how much you had done on your own.  My friend and those that helped us made a huge impression on them. 

But the point is that I needed to ask for the help.  I read a scripture recently, and it reminded me of this.  The Lord pretty much said in the scripture, " If you are not receiving the answer, then you are not asking me."  The Lord expects us to ask in prayer for the help we need.  He knows what help we need, but he still wants us to ask.  My friend when I called her said, " I had hoped you would call me, I was waiting for you to ask for help."  And so I've learned to ask for the help I need whether it be from the Lord or from friends and family.  It is a humbling experience, but it is a blessing.  I have also learned though to offer help, when not asked.  Why?  Because I know there are a lot of people out there who have not learned yet to ask for help.  I have one new friend who I go to the temple with and I've told her, if you need help, ask for it.  Don't do everything on your own.  You are not expected to carry your trials on your own.  Ask for help.  I don't live close enough to her to help as much as I would like, but I do try to help others as much as possible.

This is Draper Temple.  The views from the outside are breath taking.  The beauty within is wonderful.  The spirit within the temple is so wonderful, I never want to leave.  I try to go each week at least once, and have made a new goal of going twice a week.  Life becomes so much more simple when you go to the Lord.  Each time I leave I want to sing the song "High on a Mountain top."
Have a wonderful weekend.
G.G.  PS.  I'm working on chapter two of my book.  Hope to have it typed out sometime soon.

So many books, so little time to read!

Ah fall, don't you love to see all the colors of the leaves.  I love the yellow leaves of the tree outside my apartment, especially when the sun is shining through them. 
I found two good books for you.  The first is "So Many Books, So Little time. A year of Passionate reading." By Sara Nelson.  It is a book about a woman's quest to read a book a week for a year.  How she chooses the books she reads and how this relates to her life.  She is an insomniac.  So she does most of her reading past midnight. On some days I wish I had this, just so I could read more of the books I take from the library.  I'm either renewing them or bringing them back not quiet finished with a note to myself to go back and renew it soon.  My daughter saw the front cover of this book and said, Mom it looks just like you.  Here is a woman surrounded by books with really short curly kind of blondish red hair.  I think I may just have to buy a copy of this book.  Even though I'm trying really hard to not buy anything that is not necessary.  Perhaps this is necessary.
The other book is a book to read in October.  In fact I've started thinking since reading "So Many Books, So little time."  about a year of reading for me.  But reading books that go with the season.  October could be my spooky book month.  Any ways this book was just kind of cute and easy to read. It's "Singled Out"  By Trisha Ashley.( Sorry I couldn't find a link to this book) Perhaps I liked it because the main character is an author of horror stories.  So you get these moments where she leave the world and is in her own story world.  Or perhaps it was because I'm close to the age she is and understand that mind set she is in.  It was just a very funny little romance novel.  It had a lot of Ocotberish ( think I made this word up.) things in it.  Her dressing up like a vampire, writing horror stories and pretending to be a ghost.  Any way's if you are looking for an escape that doesn't make you think to much this is a good book to read. 
The book I've just started goes quiet well with the holiday season, perhaps I choose it because it looked like it would deal with Christmas.  I have to keep thinking of this book a month or every other week idea.  But I'm not an insomniac and have so much else to do.  I don't think I could keep up the pace. 
Hope you have a great weekend. 
Sorry no President Obama letter this week.  Can't think of much to complain about.  Wonder if that is a good thing or a bad thing. 
I'm thankful for the Temple.  I went yesterday after not going for 6 years.  It was such a blessing.  I look forward to going every week now. 
G.G.

Dear President Obama : Health insurance in the US is awful!

Dear President Obama,
For 14 years my husband had a good job, and we had good health insurance.  Thankfully I had my two children during this time.  We paid only our co-pays and the insurance covered the rest.  Now in the past two years our health insurance has been sketchy at best.  First my husbands company started going under and the health insurance through the company was the first to go, unknown to us.  It wasn't until we received a letter in the mail that we had no insurance!  What a scare to find out that you haven't had insurance for over two months and no one said anything.  Then due to the loss of my husbands job, and the loss of my job we had no health insurance.  We put our children on the state medicaid, and tried to pay for our own health care.  It is really hard to understand what you are getting for a policy.  There is so much legal stuff it is hard to know whats covered and what is not.  We went for flu shots and ended up paying more going to the doctors office than if we went to walmart.  With the state health insurance for the kids you are treated like a second class citizen.  What an awful experience. My daughter got sick on a Sunday when our doctors office was closed.  We took her to a priority care office and they said in front of my child " Oh you have state health insurance we can't see you here.  That type of insurance means you are too poor to be able to afford us."  They would not even let us pay by credit card.  The next office said something similar, but accepted our credit card as payment.  My poor sick daughter was in tears.  We both now are employed, in a different state and my husband makes a good wage, but there is no health insurance through his company.  AND WHY IS THAT?? BECAUSE OF OBAMA CARE!  Yes his new company was going to get health insurance for their employees but because you had to pass OBAMA CARE they decided to wait and not get health care until they knew exactly what your health care program would make them get.  So we are paying for insurance for our whole family, waiting to see what OBAMA CARE will make companies do.  My health care right now is scary to me.  I don't really know what is covered and to afford it my deductible is $7000.00.  I figure one day in the hospital is $7000.00 and then the rest will be paid.  But here is a question where does the $411.00 I pay every month for health insurance go, if I'm not going to the doctors because I'm scared not only will I have to pay the health insurance company but I'll also have to pay the doctor everything too?  Where is all this money going?  I would rather have a plan like my cat has.  I pay the Veterinarian $20.00 a month and she goes and gets a physical and shots with no other charge.  I would like to pay my Doctor a monthly fee and get all  my shots and tests done.  Then have some other insurance for a major hospital issue.  I'd like to get rid of insurance companies and just pay the doctor or the hospital.  I think the insurance companies are getting rich off of all the people who have no clue.  Yet I don't want to have no insurance and have some horrible thing happen and totally lose everything I have.  Isn't there anything you can do?  There has got to be a better way! 
Your concerned citizen
G.G.
Today I'm thankful for friends.  I have a lot of good friends:)

I DREAM......

I dream of gardening again someday, this is the last of my garden, some hen's and chickens in a small bowl that sits in the window of my apartment. Sad fact of this is that it isn't even from "MY GARDEN" because the pot I made got stolden off my back porch before we left, and my neighbor had dug up my others a week before knowing i was moving and wanting part of my garden.  So these are actually one of my other neighbors hens and chickens.  I dream of owning a small cottage like house someday.  I dream of working either in a library or vets office someday.  I dream of going back east in the summers to visit family and friends.  I also dream of some day being a published writer.  Though I have to admit I'm not the best writer.  I have this story stuck in my head.  I've written a few chapters, but lately I've realized I need to change it a little.  But here is the first chapter.
                                                                "THE RECORD KEEPER"
                                                                           BY: G.G.

                                                                       Chapter 1.  ANNE

Death separates "The spirit and the body [Which] are the soul of man." (D&C 88:15) (Doors of death Ensign May 1992 Elder Russell M. Nelson)

     I died today.  It was one of those freak car accidents.  The light turned green, I proceeded into the intersection and BANG! Someone running the red light slammed right into the driver side of my car.  That was it, I felt no pain, a part of me just slipped from my body.  I'm not the religious type  I've been to church, and I've heard people talk about your "spirit", but I never thought of it as a physical entity.  I stood there as a spirit next to my car, looking in at my disfigured body.  People rushed to the scene, called the police, and stared also at my body crunched up in my little car.  They did not see the spirit me, did not realize that a part of me was still there alive in some spirit way.  I wondered where is the light that you are supposed to follow?  you always hear stories of people following a light, and yet in some respects I was still stuck with my body.
     The ambulance came and they got my body out of the car and put it in one of those black plastic bags and onto a stretcher.  I felt compelled to follow it into the ambulance.  Still no one noticed I was there, or should I say my spirit was there, they all tried hard not to look at the bag that contained my body.  Next it was brought to the morgue.  There it was put in a vault to await verification from my family that it was in fact me.  I stood by my vault door, others were there by their doors too.  We could see each other, these other spirits and I, yet none of us talked, we waited.  I was not sure if I could talk, I did not know what this spirit part of me could do, and why I still existed.
     My parents came, my mother crying broke down and had to be carried out.  My father said it was me.  How awful for them.  I hadn't been the best of daughters.  I'm 35, unmarried, career driven.  Their constant question was always " When are you going to settle down, get married and have children like your cousin Lynne?"  They desperately wanted to have grandchildren to spoil.
     Time passed and then my funeral came, still no light to follow.  I wondered would I be standing at my grave for eternity? Iis that what really happened?  Should I have paid more attention the few times I had attended church?  Had I missed some important detail about what happens when you die?  My relatives filed in, they were dressed in black.  They all hugged and talked about me, and my life and their memories.  I wanted to shout, "I'm here, I'm here!"  And then a man appeared. He did not walk into the room, but seemed to appear in the light, in fact he glowed.  He noticed me, and moved towards me.  Smiling he said "I'm John, I'm here to guide you."
    I stared at him.
" You can talk. " He said.
"I'm Anne."
"I know, nice to meet you Anne."
" Where are you guiding me too?" I asked.
" You will see, but first look out into the room, do you see that lady in the light blue dress?"  He asked.
How could I miss her? It was my cousin Lynne.  Perfect homemaker Lynne.  The type of girl my parents wished I would be Lynne.
" Yes.  It is my cousin Lynne."  I said, rolling my eyes.
" She is very important to you now.  She is the record keeper.  Remember this."  John said.
" Lynne, perfect mother and record keeper, what do you mean by a record keeper?"  I asked a bit annoyed that not only would I be compared to Lynne all my life.  But now even dead she was to be important to me.
"I'll explain it later, now come follow me through the veil."
"What veil?" I asked looking around.
" The veil of death, you need to cross over to the spirit world, look for the light, follow me." John said as he moved towards a bright light.
"Why are you so bright?  What is that light there?  Why can't they see us?"  I asked as we walked into the bright light before us.
"  The living often can not see the dead.  I'm bright because I carry the light of Christ.  Come now we must go, you are late."  John said as he took hold of my hand and pulled me through the light.

Well that is my first chapter.  What do you think?  I have to redo the second chapter before I share.
Since it is November thought I'd share something I'm thankful for.   I'm thankful that I feel well today, because I was pretty sick last night.  I'm thankful for my family.  I love them so much.
Have a great day.

I Know where the missing socks go....

Do you ever lose something, like say a sock when doing laundry and wonder where did it go?  Are you the type of person who hunts up and down, over and under and all through the house trying to find the missing barbie shoe your daughter lost?  Does it drive you crazy not knowing where the two sweat shirts your son had went?  Or did you lose something like your mothers lucky rabbits foot when you were little and still feel bad it never got found? 
If so then here is the book for you to read "There's No Place Like Here"  By Cecelia Ahern.  This book is about a woman obsessed with finding lost things, from lost socks to missing people.  In the beginning of the book she tells one other character in the story "what has to be worse than not finding what is lost, would be to be lost and never found".  Well in the book she becomes lost in the world of "Here" and the book is all about the world of  "Here"  where all the lost objects of our world go, and how one man is determined to find her.
I have to say when things go lost I don't really look to much for them.  If my keys are lost then yes, but if a sock or other item goes missing I'm not one to search the house to find it."( Of course at this point I have learned where my missing socks go they are either on the walk way between the house and the car or the walk way between the car and the laundry mat at our apartment complex.)  I guess my children have inherited that trait from me.  They lose a toy and it's gone, and they don't look for it.  My son has lost two sweat shirts and a pencil holder in the past few weeks and has not looked for them.  Oh he'll complain they are gone but will not put any effort into finding them.  His math teacher finally after 3 weeks gave him his pencil case back. 
So are you a frantic searcher of lost things or do you just simply go on without?

Dear President Obama: There are many part -time workers who want to work full time HELP!

Dear President Obama,
     Sorry I did not write last week, I worked crazy part time hours.  I get up at 3am two mornings a week and help unload a truck where I work and then I had one evening shift ( If you saw a photo of me you would say "You help unload a truck?"  At least everyone who knows me says that, but it gets me 10 hours more a week).  at a grand total of 24 hours.  The adjustment to the morning hours kept me from writing.  The sad thing is that I would like more like 30 to 35 hours a week.  I'm not even looking for 40 hours that's a retail workers dream, that only the stressed over worked managers get.  I have to say everyone is so excited about the hiring of people for the holidays by retail stores.  But if you work at one you know that this is to keep the regular crew under 40 hours a week.  Yes it may get busy, but with more people you can keep everyone at the same low hours.  Is there nothing you can do?  There are so many people out there who would like to work more, who would like to be able to support their families, and put money away for their children to go to college, or even for retirement.  That just is not happening.  When will you and the other political leaders see that for many the "RECESSION"  is not over and perhaps its really a "DEPRESSION!"
Well if you can figure out how to help all the part time workers who would really rather work full time it would be a great bonus to you.  In my opinion one of the reason employers are this way is so they don't have to pay for full time health care benifits.  Perhaps in my next letter to you I'll share with you my adventures in the world of health insurance.  I have to say at this point I'm happy to be insured but hope no one in my family gets sick, because I really don't know what my health care covers.  All the pages of legal jargon is just beyond me.  Hope you enjoy good health care with no worries, for most Americans that's just another dream in this supposedly "POST RECESSION" world.
Sincerely
G.G.