Sophie's Story

   I was talking to Bishop Nealy at a baptism recently. We were discussing prayer and the fact that I dislike praying out loud in front of people. On those times when I am asked to offer a prayer out loud I tend to insert one or two smart-alec type things. I do this partly because I mean it, but also in hopes that I won't be asked again. It hasn't worked.   Bishop Nealy then introduced me to the principle of "stale cheese". He described prayer as a sandwich. You start with "Our Father" and end with "in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Amen". This is the bread. In between the bread is any thing you want to add. If you want a good sandwich you must use fresh ingredients. The same is true for prayer. You would never add stale cheese to your sandwich, You should not use stale statements in your prayer. He asked his daughter to give an example of stale cheese in a prayer. Her example was the phrase "Thank you for this day." What makes th

   The Small Town Toastmasters had a White Elephant party last night. It was a fund raiser for the club. There were several things that the club needed as a whole and no one was anxious to raise the dues. Another club had used it as a fundraiser and it worked well for them.   Each member was supposed to bring a white elephant item to sell. A white elephant is, by definition, something that you want to get rid of. To me that means that you are trying to get rid of junk. I couldn't think of anything I really wanted to get rid of so instead I knitted two washcloths and bought a handmade bar of soap. It was not exactly a white elephant item, but I wanted it to be useful.    We decided that we would have a potluck. We set a date. Everyone got busy finding their items.    Last night they were all on display with nice descriptions of each item. There was a faux fur apron, a mug and coaster set and a set of books. There was a jar of dilly beans, a glass fish and a bowl of ceramic fru

   There is a pattern in my knitting book for a scarf. It is a single coloured scarf with a textured pattern in it. After the pattern is a list of variations and one of them caught my eye. It's a sample scarf. You start with a stitch pattern and change it up every three inches or so.   I started practicing various stitch patterns and found that I really liked the look. The only problem is that I don't need any more scarves. Then I had an idea. I have four step daughters. I could knit them each a scarf. I would make the scarf in their favourite colour and vary the stitch patterns. None of the scarves would look alike. The Scarf Project was born.   The first thing to do was to ask what each step daughter's favourite colour is. I knew a couple of them already. Carrie likes red and I knew a good red would set off her blonde- light brown hair and big brown eyes. Carmen likes purple. It suits her and her exotic dark beauty. I asked Denise what colour she liked. It turn out t

   If you've been watching any football in the United States the past few months, you have probably noticed the "No More" public service announcements that have run during the commercial breaks. These announcements feature NFL players and other well known people saying things like "No More Violence", "No More Excuses", "No More Bystanding".    These ads are being broadcast partly in the wake of the domestic abuse scandals involving high profile NFL players. While I applaud their attempt to take a  stand on this subject, I'm not impressed. It's a good show, but it is also lip service only. It's real easy to ask various players to participate in  this public service campaign. It's real easy for Roger Goodell to stand up at a press conference and say that they (NFL) needs to do a better job at handling these cases.    I'm not buying it.    I realized  this this morning when I watched a little of NFL AM. The cast of the

   I've never really followed fashion. It's sort of silly for me to do so because in order to be fashionable, one needs to be very thin, tall, and curvy in the right places. The short and stout need not apply.    Every once in awhile I see a fashion trend that I would like to wear. This year it is boots. I see women wearing jeans and leggings tucked into all kinds of boots. There's riding boots, motorcycle boots and western boots. Some of them are short ankle boots, some are long and cover the knees and some are in between. There are boots with spike heels, wedge heels and low heels. I would look wistfully at all the boots and wish that I could have a pair to wear.    I've had boots before. When I was in third grade I had a pair of reddish brown boots. I liked to wear them with a pair of green gauchos that I had. For those of you who don't know gauchos are a wide legged pant that is just below the knee in length. I though I was really cool when I had my boots an

  I dressed carefully on Saturday. I chose brown pants, a green turtleneck and the closest thing I had to a gold sweater. I added gold earrings and a gold barrette just in case. The instructions were very clear. The Herd was to wear gold today. Even though I was many miles away from the Fargodome, I had to support my Bison. I am a good alumna.   This game was very important, not because a 30 plus game winning streak would be broken. It was important because the Dakota Marker was at stake.   For those of you who don't know, the Dakota Marker is the prize that the winner of the South Dakota State University- North Dakota State University game receives. It is a replica of the monuments that once marked the border between North and South Dakota. It started when NDSU and SDSU both lost their instate rivals due to a move in division for both schools. The Marker has S.D. on one side, N.D. on the other side  and 190M which is the distance between Fargo and Brookings. The Marker has r