Life By Lindsey Rae

Today we had a baptism for three of the kids in our primary class. Jerrod gave a talk, I sang 2 songs and then I gave a talk...so it was a little bit of a Lindsey and Jerrod show. haha.
It was actually a really good baptism and I really felt the spirit there. It was also a very big baptism...enough people that they had it in the chapel, so it kind of felt a little bit like church. (We figured that meant we were done our duty for speaking in church for awhile!) We also drove the missionaries and then took them out for supper after.
Jerrod spoke on baptism and I talked about the Holy Ghost and told the kids about one experience that I can remember when I listened to the Holy Ghost when I was younger; their age or a little older: I used to like to walk around the farm and down to the dug-out to see if there was anything interesting. One night I noticed a bunch of little flowers that were growing by the water that I hadn't seen before, so the next day I was going to go there to look around again and pick some. I was going to ride my bike, but, when I went to go, I had a feeling that I shouldn't...that I should walk instead. So, I listened to that feeling and decided to walk.
When I got to the dug-out, I saw that there were some baby ducks. As I went to look at them, the mother duck jumped out at me and started to chase me away. She kept chasing me as I ran, all the way back to the barn, almost to my house. That was a pretty far distance for her to keep going after me. It was one determined duck! After, I realized that if I would have taken my bike, I wouldn't have been able to get away fast enough. I would have set it down and then panicked and had to leave it when I was trying to get away from the duck. Also, I wouldn't have been able to ride very easily over the bumpy ground and the hay that was growing. So, later, I felt that the spirit had told me to walk instead. That probably saved me from getting attacked by an angry duck! 'Cause that duck wasn't going to give up!
Anyway, that was an experience I had when I was smaller, but I told the kids that when they get older and have to start making big decisions about things like moving, college or getting married and all that difficult stuff, then they will appreciate even more that they made the choice to to the right things when they were younger so they can have the guidance they need when they really have things to stress about. haha. I really hope that all our kids stay good. It would be disappointing to see one of them go astray.



I kept looking behind me and something like this was what I saw! (except only one angry duck.) It's actually more terrifying than it may appear.

Today the temperature got up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, which was supposed to be close to record highs. I knew it was hot, but it wasn't until I read the temperature in Celsius that I realized just how hot....That's 40 degrees!
The rest of the week is supposed to be close to the same 36, 38, 39. Pretty warm out there.

Last week, I had a special day where I was able to meet up with one of my friends that I knew from living in Osaka. My friend Wakana and her husband are living in the US right now, while he goes to grad school in Indiana and so they came for an overnight trip to Nashville and also brought her parents, who were visting from Japan.
We went to a coffee shop in the hotel they were staying at and were able to sit and chat for about 2 and a half hours. It was so fun to be able to see someone from Japan here in Nashville. We hadn't seen each other for about 5 years, so it was a nice little reunion and so nice to be able to talk about so many different things that have happened in life since we last met.

It amazes me sometimes how small the world really is and how you can unexpectedly end up meeting people from so far away, so close to home.

(First picture: Wakana and I at the live house in Osaka, 2002. Second Picture: Wakana and I in Nashville, 2007.)

It is around 3:30 am and I am awake...so I was making a little snack. I burnt my toast. Again. And I'm not even sure how. I was trying to watch it to make sure it wouldn't burn. Not too long ago I actually burnt 6 pieces...not at once, but in a row...like with 6 different tries. I blame it on that new toaster oven. It's hard to get used to because it takes so long to heat up and then with in seconds it gets so hot it just burns.
Now I am worried that the smoke alarm is going to go off and wake up Jerrod and maybe even the upstairs neighbors.

Anyhow, once again, I have reaffirmed my thought that I hate cooking...I shouldn't be cooking....If you can call making toast cooking.

And, if it can get this disastrous with a toaster, imagine what I could do if I tried to really make something?! Yes, it could get much scarier. So for all the people who ask who cooks at our house or when I'm going to start learning to cook so I can cook at our house.....just be glad that it's Jerrod who does the cooking at our house. Don't question...just understand it's for the best.

(But I promise I really can make a few things, which sometimes I do! I'm not totally useless around here!)

Thursday night was the long awaited Nashville Zoo benefit auction. As I wrote in a previous post, I had heard about it a couple of months ago and we really had wanted to go to get a Meerkat painting.
There was quite a few different paintings there by a variety of animal "artists." I had only seen Elephant paintings previously and would like to get one of those someday. Those are actually really neat, because they elephants have a really distinct style and their paintings actually look like something, since they teach them to use a paintbrush.
Most of the paintings were animal footprints on paper. But there were some different styles too. They had one where they put paint on a horses whiskers and he put his whisker prints on paper and another where a cow had made tail prints on paper. I kind of wanted a cow painting too.

Anyhow, our goal was to get a Meerkat painting and there were 3 for sale. It was a silent auction. We bid on all of them. Jerrod wanted to get all of them, but there was a girl who was wanting 2 of them and she sniped them by sitting beside them in her wheelchair until the end of the auction. She kept watching us and was very irritated when we came over and bid them up. Fortunately for her, we had won our painting a little earlier and so we let the last two go...we thought the one we got was the best anyway. But, that other girl was lucky to have won hers because I get pretty competitive with auctions, so I might have kept on bidding just because I want to win! Jerrod wants to go back next year and possibly get another painting and build a collection. It's for a good cause, I guess. And, it's very original art!

A couple of nights ago, I was out in the garage working on a mosaic table. While I was breaking glass with a hammer on the floor (Jerrod's favorite thing to see. haha) I happened to have my head up for a moment an saw a furry tail in the air. My first thought was that it was a neighbors cat come to annoy me again, and in the moment I would have gone to try and get it away, I realized that it was actually a skunk! As I was sitting in my garage, a skunk walked right in and sat down almost beside me. I panicked! But, silently, thank goodness, because the usual kind of loud panic I usually have when I see a bug or something would have not worked out well in this situation.
I ran into the house to tell Jerrod about it and he said to just stay inside and that it would go away. But, I said, I don't think that is a good idea, because he might wander further in and decide to hide somewhere and then when won't know where he is and when we need to close the door later, we have no way of knowing if he is locked in!

So, Jerrod said to go watch him. So, I had to go watch him. I went out and stood in the driveway, behind the car and tried to keep my eye on him to see where he would go next...hoping it would be out. But, he wasn't in any hurry to leave. He made himself quite comfortable curled up in a little ball in a corner. It was in this moment that I realized that I had never before thought of how to deal with an intruding skunk. Because, trying to make him leave could be disastrous. So, I was more annoyed then anything because of the fact that he interrupted me while I was hard at work making a mess with glass.

After a little bit he finally did waddle away. I was pretty glad about that. I have seen skunks around in the flower beds and stuff before, but they have never actually tried to come inside. He better not come back though. Not that he would really care what I think and I'm pretty sure he would win if we ever got in an argument about it.

Below is a picture of the table I am working on. I get stained glass scraps and broken glass and break them with a hammer to shape them closer to how I want them. I also put silver leaf on the backs of a lot to add a metallic shine and to lighten up the color. That takes a long time. Then. I arrange them, kind of like putting a puzzle together and glue them down and then after that, do the grout. It's got a way to go until it will match the previous one I made, which is below this.
These are a few pictures of a coffee table I did last year. Unfortunately, the pictures really don't show what it truly looks like because it's almost impossible to capture the look of stained glass and mirror in a photo. It looks much better in real life...but this is a little bit of an idea.


And a few other things I made with my broken glass....The first thing I tried was this mirror covered box. I got a wooden box, painted it and covered it with broken mirror. The mirror was all free because I ended up getting a ton of it from some people on craigslist who gave me some old broken ones for free! This was an experiment to see if I would like doing mosaics.

These "Love" letters were done on letter forms with mirrors and black grout.

I found this big pot and plant stand at my appartment...someone didn't want them, so I claimed them for free! I painted the stand with textured paint and then did the rest in mosaics with the matching pot.


This globe was another Craigslist find. It was a regular globe, I got for $4. I sealed it and then got tiny pieces of glass and covered each country with a different color.
I really liked it the best before it was finished, but now wish I had not done the ocean area with mirror. It reflects too much and takes away from the colors of the stained glass. I don't like the white grout either, so I might try staining that. It has become a very heavy globe. That's a lot of glass on there!

I heard about this video on TV and had to go find it on youtube. I never knew I could be so easily entertained. It's so funny.

Jerrod directed me to this website one day when he said I was "badgering" him. This is my new favorite website.

www.badgerbadgerbadger.com

Make sure you watch all the way to the end. Haha.
My only wish is that I had found it first so I could have sent him to view it.

I was just thinking about Cocoa...but I shouldn't...because it makes me sad everytime I do because I don't have her anymore. I miss that cow! Not that I would really have any place to put her...but I would almost be willing move and get a place for her to live! I can hardly wait until I can get back on a farm and get some cattle again.
Although, I would still rather have just Cocoa, because she was my favorite.

This past Saturday night we were able to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Concert in Nashville. Jerrod and I went and took Jerrod's friend from work and two other people we know who are voice instructors who Jerrod does computer work for. We had dinner first and then walked downtown to the Gaylord Entertainment Center, where they had the concert. This was the first time the Choir has been to Nashville in over 30 years, so at church, they were really encouraging everyone to go and to tell our friends from outside of church about it too and bring them. I was initially disappointed when I heard that they would do the performance here. There are so many great places in Nashville that would house this type of performance so much better...places that are truly designed for the arts, but the Gaylord is the Nashville Predetors home and other sports and then used for concerts for the big, loud, pop/country type artists. So, I wished that they were going to be somewhere fit for classical type music. I guess maybe either the other places were booked too far in advance or maybe they just wanted to get the biggest place possible so that there would be enough room for as many as could make it.

Anyway, back to the choir. It was really, really good. The only time I could remember hearing them in person, at least in recent years, was about 6 years ago when I went to General Conference with some of my high school friends in Salt Lake. I remember I was blown away by how truly good it was to hear them live. This time was no exception (other than the fact that the sound could have been fuller in a different venue...but enough of that). They started off with the National Anthem. (No not mine...but thoese Americans) and really, it moved me and brought tears to my eyes to be able to hear that sung so well, so close to independence day and feel the spirit tell me that we trully are blessed to be living where we are right now.

They did some really cool pieces; folk songs from other lands that were just so right on. Everyone loved it. I loved the classical peices they did: works by Mozart, Verdi, Rochmoniof. And of course loved it when they sang a couple of arrangememts I had sung before in my own choir, so I knew all the parts; that was fun.
It made me want to just get up and sing...want to be a part of a good group again. Not that I have ever been in a group that good, but I have had some good choir friends and it's just a good feeling to make good music. I miss that and would like to get involved again, but it's difficult to do that when you are not in school.

Anyway, to end, it was a great concert. I think there was a sense of peace and warmness among everyone who attended. I think that the spirit was strong. Witnessing that all this beautiful music, even if it wasn't religous music, it was good and righteous and it testified of the Lord.