Sophie's Story

      Most of you who have read this column know that there are times when I have trouble finding something to write about. A lot of the time I have a few ideas but none of them can generate enough words to be a full blown column. That's where the random assorted stuff comes in. Today is going to be a few random thoughts not in any certain order.    In a few hours the workers are coming to install a new garage door. It will be a steel door unlike our current wood one and it will match some of the trim on our house. It's going to make things look so much better.  Once it is installed, the only things that will need to be done are to paint the front door and some of the trim around the windows. The house will look much better after that.    Anyone who owns a house knows that home improvements are never done. We need to reseal the driveway sometime soon. We would also like to paint inside. The downstairs family room first followed by my bathroom, the living and dining rooms, the k

     C and I usually have a date day or at least part of a date day once a week. It's a time where we spend time with each other doing something fun or maybe simply having lunch out. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving and neither of us felt like eating out, we decided to go out for a hot chocolate.   Right before we left C had an idea. We should get our hot chocolate and also share a peppermint shake from Chick-fil-A. He said the the combination of the hot chocolate and the cool peppermint shake would be really good. I thought it was overkill, but agreed to do it.    After dropping a loaf of bread off at a friend's house we went through the drive through to get the hot chocolate. When I have a choice I usually get dark chocolate. It's not quite as sweet and has lots of flavour. C always gets milk chocolate. Then we went to Chick-fil-A. C went inside and picked up our preordered shake. It was topped with whipped cream and a cherry. I asked C if he wanted to cherry. He said no s

     The turkey breast is in the crockpot. The dressing and cranberries are finished. C and I have sent Thanksgiving greetings to all those we know. The kitchen is mostly clean. C is listening to a football game and I have time to write.    As usual I'd like to write about the things for which I'm grateful. These are not in any particular order.     I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to be in a leadership position in Relief Society. I had some experiences that I would not have had and got to serve with two women that I didn't know well. I have learned a few things. I wish I could say that I developed some hidden leadership skills, but I can't. I spent a year and a half doing something that I have no talent and little ability to do. I only wish that there had been some joy in that journey. When I was a girl I took dance classes. I was much bigger than the other girls, totally uncoordinated and not as limber. I loved to dance though so my inabilities didn't b

     I did it again.       C and I decided that when we got home from Door County we would start actively looking for another cat so Willow wouldn't be alone. We thought another kitten would be a good idea.     Jenna, who works at my store, was/is working with rescue groups and other people to find homes for several litters of kittens that had been born on a farm several miles away. One of my techs knew I was looking for another kitten and put me in contact with Jenna.     I told Jenna we were looking for an orange male cat. however I cared more about having a cat with a friendly personality who is good with other animals. I also wanted a kitten close to Willow's age. She showed me a picture of  a cute orange and white kitten. She told me he was a sweet kitten who was starving for attention. That caught my ear. I asked for a chance to meet the him.     It took a couple of weeks, there were several things that got in the way. Eventually I got to meet him. He was a bit unkept and

     C and I went walking in the Big Mall this week. We walked though the entrance hallway and toward the rotunda near Barnes and Noble where they have performances of various types. It was blocked off because they were putting up two tall light filled Christmas trees.     I pulled out my phone to look at the date. I was right, it was early November. I'm sure a small wisp of steam escaped from my left ear.     Anyone who knows me at all knows that I have a special dislike for Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. I don't mind people putting up their Christmas lights early because these things are best done when the weather is good. Since good weather days can be sparse this time of year, I give those people a pass.     There are two reasons why I dislike the fact that Christmas has overtaken  the latter part of the year.    Reason one: I firmly believe that Thanksgiving is a holiday that should be celebrated. We can take one day out of the 365 days of the year to be gratef

        I've been slowly working though the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot. The book was on a list of medical subject books being read by a book club I'd heard of. Since I'm looking for way to crawl out of my comfort zone, I decided to check it out.    Henriette Lacks was an African American woman who was diagnosed with  cervical cancer in 1951. It was a very aggressive type cancer. The book describes the treatment for those cancers which by today's standards is pretty barbaric and hard to read. They used radium to literally burn the tumor away. During the treatment one of the doctors took a tissue sample of her tumour and the healthy tissue surrounding it although she had not given permission for him to do so. The cells were cultured in a lab and it was found that unlike the cells from other tissue cultures they not only did not die, but grew. Because of this,  the cells were grown for wide use among researchers who were looking for human