Sophie's Story

One of the things that I like about our house is that I have my own bathroom. I think part of the reason why we have a good marriage is because we don't have to share a bathroom, but that's another column for another day. What I don't like about my bathroom is that it is dark. Not like living in a cave dark, but darker than I would like. It's always been that way. Part of the reason why it is darker is because it is painted a medium brown. If the room had a window it would be all right, but it doesn't. The floor is a brick coloured tile. The bathroom is lit by a fluorescent light over the counter and a small indoor flood light that shines in the shower/tub. I thought that the fluorescent light was too small and that's why it seemed dark. Someday I would have an electrician come in and put in different lighting. As time went on the fluorescent bulbs kept getting dimmer and dimmer. It would take a long time for the bulbs to light. I know that cold can affect them ...

The news from the sports world has not been good the past few weeks. Most of the stories are tales of athletes and coaches misbehaving. I know that the majority of professional athletes and coaches work hard and maintain high standards of conduct. The handful that don't seem to get a lot of press. As an antidote to some of the recent bad news coming out of the sports world, I'd like to share with you something I found on Yahoo! Sports this week. The American Heritage School's girls cross country team was disqualified in a Florida state meet that occurred earlier this month. The reason was an unintentional mix up of the timing chips that the runners are required to wear on their shoes. These chips are to ensure that the runners are running the correct course and crossing all checkpoints and the finish line. Each runner has a matching right and left shoe chip. Two of the runners mixed up one chip so they were wearing the correct chip in one shoe and the wrong chip in another....

It's that time of year again. Time for all of us to think of the things for which we are grateful. There doesn't seem to be much of it this year. Fear mongering politicians are trying to scare us into voting for them. Prices on everything (except maybe gas) are going up and unemployment is still widespread. The leaders of this country seem unable to agree on anything except that they want to thwart anyone who isn't on their side. President Thomas Monson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints once said, "While there are many things wrong in the world, there are also many things right." (I hope I quoted this correctly, I have been unable to find the original quote) In this spirit I would like to share a Thanksgiving story with you. It comes from the talk 'The Divine Gift of Gratitude' delivered at the October 2010 General Conference. This is my retelling of that story. There was a family who lived on a farm in Canada. The children of the family w...

Has everyone heard that Kim Kardashian has filed for divorce? I thought so. Unless you have been living under a rock or have been in a coma for the past few weeks there is no way you could escape such shocking news. I'm tired of hearing about it. I started getting tired of it late last summer when she got married. There were all kinds of speculations about her dress. (or was it dresses, I remember something about her having three different dresses.) There was an article about the guests having a dress code. Everyone had to wear black or white. (Are you serious?) Then there were the wedding pictures on the front of what seemed to be most of the magazines I saw. I don't remember seeing any of them that showed the bride and the groom. There was an article or two about that. By September, I saw a magazine with a picture of her on the front and some headline indicating that the marriage was in trouble. I shook my head. Then,in October,came the big shock. Kim had filed for divorce. T...

It had been a hard week. I'd spent part of it quarreling with a family member. It started as a difference of opinion and had blossomed into a full fledged quarrel. I felt like my point of view was being discounted and tried to explain how I might see things differently. My explanation was met with an angry tirade and I answered with some equally angry words. After I calmed down I apologized,but it was too late. Apology not accepted. Ever. At this point the best thing to do was to leave the situation alone. There was nothing I could say that would mend this. Time would either heal it or not. A few weeks after this I was on Facebook when a message from Kim popped up. She was online and wanted to chat. I inwardly groaned. Chatting with Kim would take at least a half an hour,I didn't want to be on the computer that long. I told her to hang on a minute, finished what I was typing and then started to chat. Kim and I go back quite a ways. I met her the summer after I graduated f...

Andy Rooney died this past week at the age of 92. I had a feeling that this was coming. About a month ago he did his last commentary on 60 Minutes. Maybe he knew what was coming and decided he wanted to be able to write his last commentary knowing it was his last. We'll never know. I remember Andy Rooney from a long time ago. My mother watched 60 Minutes every week. Since there was only one TV in the house, we all watched with her. I didn't care much about the featured stories back then, but I would watch them because there would be Andy Rooney. Every Sunday night he would do his commentary. Most of the time he would be sitting in his cluttered office. There would be a typewriter on one of the desks. Most of the flat surfaces would be covered with papers or books. He commented on everyday topics. Things that people could relate to. He also used plain language,straight and to the point. As I got older I started to pay more attention to the rest of the show. I began to like it in...

I've always been a bit envious of people who journal. I've kept a journal on and off for many years, but never for an extended period of time. I would find myself myself looking back at what I wrote and being dissatisfied with it. I would take the pages, rip them up and throw them away. One of my tenth grade English class requirements was to keep a journal. We had to write in it every week for 20 minutes while the teacher walked around and watched us write. Then we would need to turn them in for the teacher to read. I didn't know what to write. I was uncomfortable writing anything remotely personal since it was going to be read by someone else. I wasn't good at making up fiction and just flat out had writers block. I must have written enough to satisfy the teacher since I passed the class. (With a good grade as I recall) I was looking through one of the many catalogs I get when something caught my eye. It was a Q&A a Day journal. It is a journal that has 365 questio...