OK. I saw this guy in a superhero costume this morning on Fox News. He dresses up like a superhero and volunteers to help out foodbanks. And you know, he brought a few of his friends with him. It looked kinda geeky, but then they posted “WorldSuperheroRegistry.com“ It’s a legitimate site where people can become actively involved in their community to do something good.
When I looked at the site during the initial broadcast it only had 13,000 visitors since the day it was launched. It’s now doubled.
Doing something good in your neighborhood? Why not register yourself as a superhero?
Do you ever run into those people who admire you for how you deal with your life? Then you see them in theirs and just think MAN! How do they do it?
My cousin Stephanie is one of those people. She’s amazing. I’ve been blessed to know a lot of amazing folks. Today I get to tell you a very small bit about her.
Stephanie’s a stay-at-home/working mom, tourguide, publicist, complimenter, editor, wife, groupie, and more, who had the idea of getting her blog readers to contribute one recipie each. She would then compile them into a book.
Now if I were working on this I would be cutting and pasting, making a cool looking cover and calling it a day. Stephanie’s cover is plain. She’s pregnant. Her husband’s job was in jeaporday while she was writing this ,and she just didn’t spend the time on the cover. Instead you’ll find within these pages how much time she spent where it matters: inside the cover.
Stephanie took each submission, cleaned them up, categorized them, and bound them together. She also spent time giving a brief biography of each contributing author. They were as fun to read as the recipes are to try.
I can’t introduce it with justice, but I can use this blog to share it. You can download this ‘holiday treat’ here. It’s ok to try… you didn’t really commit to that diet until January 1st.
Ok this is geeky and it’s also the wrong gender. But I joined the Mormon Mommy Blog list in the hopes that word can get out about the Book of Mormon Podcast. No, this isn’t a gender crisis.
I’d advise that you ladies who watch my blog because I’m so ridiculously good looking join as well. It’s got a clever logo, and a good network behind it.
I haven’t yet put together all of my thoughts for the holiday season. I will tell you that among all the religions of the world this tradition is curiously different. Although other religions may attach a similar significance to their holidays, there is no other holiday reminding us of hope and love anywhere else but in Christianity.
The kids got the presents I made them today. Rainey’s been using his chalk-board more than the others. The marshmallow blow guns have been fun. I got Chrissy a few stocking stuffers, but I can share her present with everyone.
If you’d like to watch the high-def version click here. Then click on “Watch in High Quality”
Ok, I subscribe to geeky newsletters online. Somehow the Lawton Constitution misses the stuff I care about–go figure.
I came across a summary for a rather humerous article. Did you know that Octopuses prefer HDTV? Well, neither did anyone else until Renata Pronk did a bit of research.
From our youth we’re taught to hold still while someone is saying the prayer. We were at your typical LDS ward Christmas party with some friends this month and a funny thing happened. You know the deal, the gym that’s normally a point of contention is decked up for the The party was essentially over and the cleaning crew had begun making its way around the room. We had several half-full cups of water. All of the other dishes could go easily into the trash can, but putting these cups of water in a flimsy plastic bag would cause someone to have a bit of a mess when taking it out.
So I came up with a solution. I took all of the half-drunk cups and emptied them back into the pitchers on the table. The guy cleaning up thanked us for being so courteous, and just as he was finishing someone stepped up to the microphone.
Our friend’s youngest stepped up to the table while someone said the prayer. He was thirsty from running around the gym and poured himself a drink using the water in the pitcher. We knew what he was doing, but we all had to be reverent during the prayer. We couldn’t correct him.
He sucked down half the glass he had poured. The prayer ended, and we all started laughing. Then his mother told him. “You’ve been drinking backwashed water. We wanted to tell you, but we had to be reverent during the prayer. I guess that’s what happens when you’re not reverent.”
For over a year now I’ve been hosting the Book of Mormon podcast on Roeckerfam.com. I’ve also used my blog to give out helpful internet tips. Well, I got an internet tip from a most unlikely source the other day. I’ve been a fan of the blog of Simply B. I noticed that she was promoting her blog with a little image. Nothing big, just a button.
Underneath there was the code to put this on a blog. I’ve seen the code boxes before and wanted to make one, but never found the code for it. So I used CTRL+U while looking on her blog and found the tag that created the code box.
It was simple to add the BOM Podcast code to this, and now that I’ve done it I figured I’d let you know. Please post a link to the podcast on your browser.
On Sunday I taught the Deacons. Now there’s an age group that really demands faith. I wonder if I’m ever getting through to them. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels that way. I brought up one of my favourite characters in the scriptures and learned something new about him.
Job is a great book. I described at 40 chapters of misery and 2 chapters of information. It’s not an entirely accurate description, but it works for me. So I’m teaching about how Job lost everything, his seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses (ref). Deacons tend to be a bit squeamish when saying she asses. All of it was taken from him.
After he lost his livestock we’re told that he lost his family in a tragic accident. Here’s how one of his servants tells the story:
Thy asons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee (ref).
That’s everything that happens to him in chapter 1. In Chapter 2 Job is stricken with painful boils. As the chapters continue we find that his friends ridicule him and his belief in God. What a story! This man was reduced from having everything to having nothing. His story is often used to help people feel better in bad times. “At least you’re not as bad off as Job…”
This argument was even used in a revelation given to Joseph Smith Thou art notyetasJob; thy afriends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job (ref).
I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating again. At the end of the book of Job he receives twice as much as he had before. Mathematically that means that he went from
X = Job’s wealth
to
2X = Job’s wealth.
We’ve seen on the news that there is no compromise for integrity, and that our financial system is a swiss cheese of values. It’s starting to flood into the lives of the people I care about and whose blogs I read. Here’s what I learned while teaching the deacons. Job’s key to success is found in 42:10:
And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he aprayed for his bfriends: also the Lord gave Jobtwiceas much as he had before.
Job praying for his friends was the magic cure to his problems. He needed to care more about others than he did about himself. I learned on Sunday that “caring” about others isn’t enough. We must go and DO something for others. Job’s health prevented him from going to his friends house and cleaning up their yard, re-shingling a roof, or helping them move (typical LDS service project stuff). I mean really, if the guy shows up covered in boils with a plate of cookies would you eat them?
Job was left with no other resource to help out his friends but prayer. Prayer is powerful. It’s worth a whole nother blog entry, but I’ll save that for another time. I wish I knew what my capacity was for serving others. I still don’t think I’ve reached it. I don’t think anyone of us have. The reason why I haven’t found mine yet is that I’m far too selfish. Now, I’ve got more reason to find out how much I can do for other people now than ever before. Though my resources are limited, my knees are still nimble. I plan on putting them to good use.
Charles Dickens contributed a great deal to English literature. This holiday sesson we often see variations on his famous “Christmas Carol.” It’s certainly a well written piece, with a message so profound that it’s warranted the attention of current and past prophets. Wikipedia credits Dickens with popularizing the idiom “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Later this idiom would lead to the phrase “I’ve had the last straw.” It illustrates the point at which something insignificant translates into something overwhelming.
Watching the news about the economy I’ve often wondered who’s mortgage was the “last straw” on the economy? Then again, someone’s mortgage payment didn’t just happen by choice. Which price hike at the pump, or on the cereal aisle encouraged the mortgage failure? Which employer had to cut which employee to have the spiral of death that is our economic situation? History tends not to pay much attention to individuals, but in this particular case I wish it would. I’d like to know who that guy is. Not so that we can place blame, but so we can see how complex systems are built upon smaller parts. It’s like the grains of Saharan sand that turn into hurricanes. How many grains of sand does it take?
We had a man in our branch in Germany named Tony Moreno. He started off inactive, and then recommitted himself to the gospel. He was an excellent example of duty to the Lord. Being in his late 30’s, divorced, with his two children living with their mom, he must have thought that a family and having an eternal companion was nearly impossible. He prayed, attended institute, paid tithing, went to the temple, and fasted.
Then this new sister showed up in our branch. She was as dedicated to her testimony as anyone could have been. She also didn’t take any of Tony’s crap, and let him know it. Soon enough he was smitten. So was she. They were married and the family of just Tony turned into a household of 6 with the addition of her children. Later Tony’s boys came to join the same home, making it a family of 8. Of course it didn’t stop there. Olga and Tony had at least one kid of their own. They are a great success story. They are on the list of unforgettable characters I have met in my life.
I wonder which night, which prayer, which session in the temple, which time he paid tithing made the difference. I don’t think anyone will know that. I wonder which prayer was enough to earn Chrissy as my companion. You’ll be happy to know that I think I’m in the hole on that one. She’s too good for me–and it’s not just because she has more than half her teeth.
I’ve got it in my mind to introduce my blog readers to some of the unforgettable characters of my life. There’s been too many to do it in one post, and as mentioned before, my posts are too long anyway. Tonight I’m going to introduce you to Staci Meacham. Stacie is a friend from Utah State University//the best school ever!!!//.
Staci plays rocks the piano. She’s the über-event-coordinator. She can pull off wearing a skirt and sneakers and make you think it’s the latest fashion. I once described her to someone in a rather complimentary fashion. When you walk away from talking with her, you want to be a better person.
Stacie smiles a lot, but her recent facebook status had me a bit concerned. She wrote: Staci wishes her new Damage Control shampoo & conditioner could fix all of her real life problems. At 2 am I managed to pull off a rather clever reply. I noticed she was still online. Eventually I got a hold of her on the phone, and she was truly having a bad day. After talking for a bit we got to the meat of the problem: She’d forgotten she was a daughter of God. We’ve all had those days. That’s why we’ve got friends to kick us in the butt. I was happy to do the butt-kicking.
Really I blog about nearly everything else, but what the Savior has done for me is so cool, I don’t think I could stop talking about it. There’s no good words or combination of words to express the joy I’ve felt here on this earth at knowing how much my Heavenly Father loves me.
I didn’t get to ask what all was going wrong. But I wondered how many straws it took to get this fantastic person so down about life. It happens to a lot of people around the holiday season. There’s a lot of pressure to do certain things, and be the someone people expect you to be. Combine all that with the yearly memories of Christmases past, and the unrealized visions of what this Christmas was “supposed” to be, it can be a rather depressing time of year.
For this ailment there is a solution. “The reason for the season” is the solution for this problem. 2008 years ago our Savior was born. The King came to earth. Hope arrived.
I’d like to take this post to remind everyone that you’re a son or daughter of God. If you know that it should be easy to stand tall and proud. He loves you. My love for Chrissy helps to hold my marriage together. God’s love for his children is deep enough to help anyone keep their lives together.
It didn’t take Staci long to realize that. She just had to hear the words. Even though I was the one saying the them, I needed that reminder as well. Thanks Stacie for giving me a reason to remember how cool it is to be here on the earth.
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OK. I saw this guy in a superhero costume this morning on Fox News. He dresses up like a superhero and volunteers to help out foodbanks. And you know, he brought a few of his friends with him. It looked kinda geeky, but then they posted “WorldSuperheroRegistry.com“ It’s a legitimate site where people can become actively involved in their community to do something good.
ntially over and the cleaning crew had begun making its way around the room. We had several half-full cups of water. All of the other dishes could go easily into the trash can, but putting these cups of water in a flimsy plastic bag would cause someone to have a bit of a mess when taking it out.
