Detroit Zoo

June, Jarrod, Sarah and I visited the Detroit Zoo on Wednesday. This zoo is so spread out. It is very clean with volunteers everywhere. We walked so but we didn't even see all the exhibits. We were at the great ape exhibit inside a viewing structure right up against the area where the apes roamed outside when a great ape sauntered by - probably 2 feet away seperated only by glass. The lady next to us jumped and spun around. We all laughed. I'll bet the ape thought, "Watch the humans jump when I walk by.(snark, snark)"
There's a place called Dinotopia where you can ride a simulation of what the dinosaure saw (like you were the dinosaur). I got motion sickness (so did June), but that was the only thing that went wrong. We all took great pics, saw some interesting animals and laughed a lot.

Holocaust Museum

Today June, Jarrod, Sarah and I went to the holocaust museum in Farmington Hills. It was a very interesting place, but truly sad. The history of the jewish peoples was there, then it went into the holocaust. It went into how it started, how the peoples were taken to the concentration camps, how some were put to death, some were put into labor camps, some were experimented on. There was a room where news reels showed the reality of what the allied troops found when they freed the people in the camps. The emaciation and sores on these poor human beings was appalling. The next room had pillers with stories of victims. It had their pictures on them and how they came to be in the camps. It told how many of their families survived.
This experience proved to me how truly blessed I am. And my family. My parents would have been taken to the camps had we been Jews, or even Jehovah's Witness, gypsys or another group the Nazi's decided were decadent.

Odd Jobs 2

If you're ready to be bored again, here we go.
The next job I had was at a V.A. hospital as a nursing assistant. The ward I was assigned to was a geriatric psychiatric ward. Oh, boy. There was never a dull moment. Between a patient threatening me with a butter knife to seeing a man's teeth go down a nurse's blouse - well, it was certainly a growing experience.
We moved to Utah for Bruce to go to school, so I became the bread-winner. I found a job as a sign painter. I learned how to make letters and numbers from scratch, paint huge picture windows in car dealerships and paint signs on a roof high over the city of Provo. I NEVER want to do that again.
I have taught several self-defense classes for women, some were for one class some for 4 weeks.
I had a job working as a cashier at K-Mart, transferred to loss prevention then promoted to loss prevention manager.
Next I achieved my B.A. in communications with the hope of law school, but that didn't happen. I wanted to write, but that didn't happen, either.
I got a job as a cashier at a CVS, promoted to shift supervisor, promoted to assistant manager.
I left CVS and went to Walgreen's as an assistant manager. I transferred to the district office as a scheduler for pharmacists. I quit that because my supervisors were horrible women.
Last, I worked as manager of apparel in Dunham's.
I have since retired.
Whew! I'm tired.
My most important job throughout my list of jobs was being a mother, grandother and wife. I still have that job and will never retire from that. Being LDS, I know those jobs are eternal.

Odd jobs

I have had some strange jobs in my life. Most of my jobs were ordinary, but a few were remarkable.
I started to make money when I was 12. I cat-sat 6 adult cats across the street when the humans went away for a week or so. Beautiful cats!
I also started to baby-sit. The pay when I first started was .25 an hour. One time the people I had babysat for gave me $5.00 for sitting from 7:00 to 1:00 a.m. My Dad made me give the $5.00 back. Hmmmmm. He said it was too much money and I needed to give it back.
When I was 15 I had a job babysitting from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, Monday through Friday. It was great. The kids were 11 and 12 years old. The house had central air and there was a pool in the backyard. I think I made $40.00 a week. I was RICH!
My next job was as a nurses aid in a nursing home. A truly horrible job. A woman pooped in my hand once. The best thing was that I met my husband there. He was a tall gorgeous orderly.
I worked in a nursing home for a short while again, then sold Tupperware.
The worst job I have ever held came next. It was a small factory where chickens were hung on hooks and traveled on a rack around several tables where the workers sliced off the meat and put it in trays. I got the leg part. It was cold in there, it was wet in there. The people I worked with were not the kind you would find in church. As a matter of fact, there was a little fat man who was a supervisor who smelled worse than the dead chicken. Everything he ate turned into a noxious gas that he would let loose at will. NASTY!! I ended up with a severe case of bronchitis from there.
Next I took in two children to tend. Not a good thing. Their mother was unreliable. There were days I had the children from 7 in the morning to 10 at night. The 3 year old was not potty-trained and refused all attempts to become so. After I quit watching the children, their mother died. I felt horrible for those children. I pray they found a family who would love them.
I will continue this litany another day.

Testamony

When I was little, my family lived in a big house in Detroit. It had a breakfast room and a formal dining room. We used the breakfast room except for special occasions or when company came over. In this breakfast room there were two corner cabinets. In one of them there was a plate with the Salt Lake Temple on it. My dad worked afternoons, so we didn't get to eat with him very often. However, when he was there he asked me this question: "Where are you going to get married?" I would point to the Salt Lake Temple and say, "In the temple, Daddy." He would smile and continue eating.
When I got married, I married in the Battle Creek Ward building. Bruce was not a member of the church. We had two children by the time we were ready to go to the Washington D.C. Temple. The people in the Battle Creek Ward knew we had little money, so they threw a "Temple shower" for us. I was lent a b eautiful dress for our daughter and was given cash and food for the trip. I was more grateful than I could express.
We drove with our two small children and stayed in an inexpensive hotel. We entered the temple and our children were taken to a nursery to wait until time to be sealed to us for all time and eternity.
I remember bits and pieces of my first temple experience, but the one thing I will never forget is when temple workers brought our children to us in the sealing room. My almost 3 year old son with his beautiful blond hair was dressed in a white jumpsuit. He had on white socks. He walked next to the elderly lady and held her hand reverently.
My baby girl was dressed in the incredible dress we got at the shower. It was long and draped over the worker's arm. She was handed to me. I have never felt so incredibly happy.
Here was my family. And we were kneeling before an alter in the temple of God. We were sealed for all time and eternity.

cross stitching

I just found a site that has really easy to download embroidery patterns for free. It's

http://cross-stitchers-club.com/?code_avantage=tleqzx.

Plus, if you click on this link, you'll automatically receive a gift when you subscribe. I use this site all the time; there are hundreds of all different types of patterns, and there are new patterns added everyday. It's really worth a look.

Cross-stitching relaxes me. I love to create art with thread then give them away. Hopefully when the people I love see the project they will remember how much I love them.

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