POSSESSIONS

When we moved to Ireland a year ago, we took very little with us. Mostly clothes, a few dishes, fewer books and possessions. Now that I have lived without most of my possessions for that long, I realize how really unimportant they really are. I think the biggest thing (of possessions) that I have missed here is my piano. In fact, I have missed my piano so much, that I wish I had a baby grand piano instead of my upright one. So see, I really haven't missed MY piano, just pianos in general. I have realized that the most important things are family and friends. I have the Gospel here, so I don't miss that, although I do miss being in a place where the gospel is stronger.
Realizing that I don't miss my possessions makes me wonder - when I go back home to visit - why do I have so much stuff? It makes me want to go through my closets and throw stuff out, which is probably what I will do when I get home. I have this disorder (for lack of a better word) that I think I must have inherited from my mother or my grandmother. I keep "stuff" around because I think I or someone else might need it. I get a lot of pleasure by being able to give someone something I don't need, that they do need.
I have a storage closet that I love! It used to actually be a sauna, but when we bought this house, we ripped it out. I loved the cedar boards on the walls and BEGGED my husband to keep them. He couldn't understand why I wanted to. He told me he would put "nice" sheetrock up and then I could paint it. I liked the cedar boards and for once could not win this argument with my husband. I don't know if I just got tired and gave up, or what, because I really did like those boards. And besides, you can hardly see the walls, because I put up 3 huge metal shelf units in there. I'm talking the heavy duty kind that will hold 300 pounds on each shelf. They have a white coating on them and I think they look nice, and there is 3 shelves on each unit. Originally I thought I would use it for food storage, with maybe one shelf for crafts. I think right now it is about 2/3 crafts and 1/3 food storage - because I have too much stuff. Then my "grandma/mom" side kicks in and says that I NEED all that "stuff" for when the "famine" comes. (A great saying of my mom's.) I know that my craft "stuff" is not food, but after the holocaust or natural disaster, I will still be able to make crafty stuff and my hovel will look so nicely decorated throughout whatever season we are having!

MORE AGNES :0)

Click on comic strip to make it bigger.

AGNES

Agnes is my favorite comic strip. I used to read the comics everyday while I ate breakfast, but then I decided to read my scriptures then instead. A worthy cause, and I have not regretted it, but I have really missed reading Agnes. Recently Amber posted an Agnes cartoon on her blog, and that reminded me that I can go online to read Agnes. Yay! So today I went there and when I saw this Agnes strip, it really cracked me up. If you will click on the strip, it will open bigger where you can read it:

FED UP

The people who live next door to me here in Ireland smoke. At least someone in their family does. It is a man and his wife and they have 2 small children and 2 teenage boys. I guess they don't allow smoking in their house, because they smoke between our houses (on their side of our 6 foot concrete block wall)and then they throw their cigarette butts into my yard. They land around my walkway where I walk to take the trashcan in and out of the backyard. They also land around my front door (this all depending on where they are when they are smoking). For a loooong time I picked them up and threw them away in my trashcan. But as fast as I picked them up, they threw more over. So now I have had it. I thought of several things I could do: 1)Pick them up and take them over to them and complain to them, 2)Complain to my landlord and let him go over, 3)Turn the other cheek and continue to just pick them up and throw them away, 4)Leave them on the ground. I have chosen not to do any of these things and instead have come up with a 5th option: Now I pick them up and throw them back over the fence. I know that is not nice of me. I know I should turn the other cheek. But too bad. I can't believe someone would think that they could just keep throwing stuff over the fence and it will magically disappear. Today I found some new things thrown over the fence. I'll tell you what it is and you tell me what it sounds like: An empty water bottle, a rather large (like 6-8") rubber band, a bottle of cleaner that said it was for "piercings". Should I have thrown those back over the fence too? I didn't. This time.

MY FAVORITE HALLOWEEN MOVIE

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

YO YO MA

I bought this CD last week and have been listening to it. There is just something about a cello that I love. I have another one of his CDS, but I really like this one. The other one of his that I have is his "Solo" CD. It has some good songs on it, but it also has some weird stuff. Delirious might like some of them, because there are a few Chinese songs that he does. I love instrumental music...sometimes words just get in the way.