Spilled Cereal and A Person's Worth

The other day, my daughter dumped out half a box of cocoa puffs all over the floor, table, and highchair. She was sitting in the high chair, picking up and eating pieces of cereal from around her legs and on the table as I swept the cereal on the floor into a dust pan and put it in the garbage. A few times, she went to grab a cocoa puff to eat it, but would drop it on the floor. She'd look down at the one single cocoa puff, among all the others on the floor, and point, saying "UH-OH!" I was just thinking, there's like hundreds of these on the floor, and about a hundred up within her reach...why is she worried about dropping ONE?! That one cocoa puff would attract a full 20 seconds of her attention before she'd move on.
As I continued working, I suddenly thought of some parallels between this experience and the way Christ sees His children. There are so many of us; yet if one falls astray, He has so much care and concern for the one that He'll "leave the ninety and nine" to rescue the one. There are tons of us who have fallen astray, and tons who are on the path Christ has laid out for us. So it may seem insignificant if just ONE person falls from the right path. But it is not insignificant. Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father love us individually and unconditionally. They care about the ONE and want what's best for the ONE. Each one.
I was sitting on the floor with the dirty cocoa puffs and my daughter was sitting in her high chair, with all the clean cocoa puffs. I had to look upward to see her. I imagined the table legs around me to be pillars, and the cocoa puffs, fallen people. With so many, I'd think one little cocoa puff falling would go practically unnoticed. And really, a piece of cereal isn't a big deal, but I'm glad my little girl was so interested in it that it gave me a little spiritual reminder. It just seems kind of amazing, that with all the people that are, were, and will be, in this world and others, ONE person can have the love, care, concern, and attention of our Savior and Heavenly Father.

Back in Utah

We got back last night. I feels really really weird. I swear, we were just packing up the car to LEAVE Utah. Now we're back and we've UNPACKED the car. Husband and Daughter and I are all kinda weirded out. Daughter doesn't quite know what to think of everyone around. We're in a bit of a funk. This summer was so much fun. We loved being in Louisville, and being on our own for the summer. It's good to be back and see family and friends, but it is supremely weird, too. I can't imagine how missionaries or anyone who's been gone for a lot longer feel when they come back home. Husband said this feels weird, but coming home from his mission was 10 times weirder. Some things are exactly the same, some things have changed. This whole internship thing seems like a surreal dream sometimes. I guess it'll take some time to get used to things and put things into perspective.

Summer Treats

Fruity popsicles are usually just too sugary for me. I recently bought one of those popsicle-maker containers, and filled them with juice. Soooooooo much better than the factory-made sugary ones!!!! A lot more nutritious, too. I'm surprised some company hasn't come up with it yet. Maybe one has...I don't know. Husband filled one of the little cups up with pickle juice. I tasted it, and it tasted....exactly like pickles. Just not really the flavor I want in something that is to be eaten frozen, ya know? Husband said it was a bit too strong, and that he'd have to dilute it next time. I plan on putting yogurt in those containers next, similar to putting Gogurts in the freezer, which I really like.

Happy Birthday! I love you!

We went to Toy Story 3 tonight for Husband's birthday. It was good; we liked it. We never go to any regular movie theaters--only dollar movies sometimes. (And we do Redbox sometimes, as well as renting movies [free!] from the library.) So this was special.

Lost and Found: Thanksgiving

I wrote this a while ago, and when I was done it just disappeared. I thought the computer just lost it. Turns out, I somehow published this as a comment to my very first post. So, anyway, here it is:

Thanksgiving...Thanksgiving. I'm very grateful for family and friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so many other things, particularly my good husband and our little girl. But I've tried to specifically come up with things that aren't so obvious when it comes to gratitude.
One thing that's been on my mind is humor. I appreciate when, at appropriate times, someone takes something dull or frustrating and turns it into something we can smile and laugh about. I sometimes watch late-night news shows. I get so nervous and fed up with the people and politics of this world. It's nice to hear a humorous spin on things and to just laugh at the very things that stress me out sometimes.
There is something bigger than all the crummy things we are bombarded with all the time. As a little girl in my Primary class reminded me today, life is good.
There are good people and good things all around. A lot of times the good stuff is quieter and more subdued than the bad stuff. Many times we need to slow our lives down and intentionally look around ourselves to see the good stuff. But it is there and will ultimately be the source of everything happy and joyous.
Be thankful. Life is good.

November 29, 2009 8:30 PM

The Ears

Today, I woke up after a good night's sleep, happy, since Husband is still on his break from school. (Also happy because yesterday Husband took and passed a very hard actuary exam. Yay!) Anyway, so I sat up in bed and reached for my hearing aid box, as I do each morning. I anticipated an immediate boost in hearing. I put my left aid in-sound! I put my right aid in-nothing. I took it out, cleaned it, changed the battery, fiddled around with the controls, and-nothing. There was no annoying whistle, no static or weird sound indicating that something could be wrong, just nothing. As far as amplifying sound, it worked about as well as a foam ear plug. It was perfectly normal the day before...I had no idea what was wrong. I started to panic a little. I don't do well without a hearing aid, especially my right one. Life as I know it is quite different without one. I called a hearing aid place that I've been to before. The earliest they could get me in was in a week. Ugh.... I called another place and was able to get a same-day appointment for an hour later.

So I went to the place, where they looked at the hearing aid, tested it, etc. and concluded that they didn't know what was wrong and could not fix it on-site. They have to send it out for 1-2 weeks for repair. :( However, they did have a hearing aid that I can loan during that time. I gladly took that, and proceeded to get it programmed to match my hearing.

That means that they hook the thing to a computer, put it in my ear and ask me how it sounds, and adjust it according to my answer. I absolutely hate this process. I've done it multiple times before. This time, I didn't get it quite so fine-tuned because it's only a temporary thing. But, in a way, this process feels like I'm trying to re-construct the workings of the ear. After I tell them what the sound coming through the hearing aid is like, they make little adjustments. My side of the "conversation" often sounds something like this:

"That's too loud...........a little too soft.......volume's good, but it sounds like I'm hearing through a can.............better, but still sounds tinny...............kind of hollow now...well, not really hollow, I don't know how to describe it.................that's too loud.............now it sounds like the hearing aid's about to whistle any second............uh, still sounds weird, but I guess all hearing aids sound weird........"

We're trying to make it so that the sounds that come through the hearing aid sound as "normal" as possible, but it's impossible to make it as good as natural hearing.

In addition to my personal experiences, I studied the anatomy and workings of the ear in college. Even my professors were baffled at the intricacy and complexity of something most people don't even think about. When you are listening to something, there is so much that goes on in your ear that makes it possible for you to hear it. (Not only hear it, but discriminate it as well. The ear can detect subtle differences of tones, inflections of the voice, and all the things that make you able to recognize someone's voice; know where sound is coming from and how far; detect anger, excitement, boredom, or sarcasm in one's voice.) We don't even have to do anything for it to work. It just does, and it's something many people take for granted. I am so grateful for the hearing that I do have, and for hearing aids which improve my hearing, and consequently many parts of my life. But even I take it for granted sometimes. I complain about my hearing aids, and its inconveniences, but I depend on them tremendously. And when the hearing aid fails to work, I panic, and am desperate to get it working again as soon as possible.

The ear, and every part of the human body, is so complex and wonderful. There is a God, and He made our bodies and put life into them. This experience today just brought back the wonder that I felt in my classes as I was trying to learn about and understand how the ear and hearing works.