Moving Day

About a month ago we moved. With our little family set to expand in the fall, we decided we needed a slightly larger place to live. We were fortunate to find a two-bedroom apartment only a short distance away from our former one-bedroom dwellings. Even better, it is on the ground floor.

It has been quite a few years since I have moved anywhere. Although I thought I had the perfect moving plan worked out in my mind and although we hired professional movers, I was not prepared for how fatiguing the whole process turned out to be. But I have learned a few things which I plan to incorporate into our next moving plan—whenever that will be—preferably a few years off.

1) Tell everyone you know beforehand that you are moving and when. Also tell them that during the two weeks surrounding the move it will be difficult to answer emails or return phone calls. I only told those closest to me that I was moving and I never bothered to tell them when. The weeks surrounding our move happened to be very busy ones for me at church. But I knew I had to focus on the move and continually felt guilty that I was not answering questions posed in emails or left in voice messages. If I had told everyone in advance that I would be essentially unreachable for two weeks and advised them to contact someone else in my virtual absence I could have saved myself some stress. Those waiting for my answers probably would have felt less stressed also.

2) Pack a suitcase as though you are going on a weekend trip. This is something I learned from Colter. He packed one small suitcase of clothes and toiletries that he knew he would need the weekend of our move. He moved that suitcase himself in his car; so he knew exactly where it was when we got to the new residence. As a result, he had a supply of clean clothes ready to go for several days as well as all of his shaving and shower necessities. I, on the other hand, assumed we would be able to unpack everything much faster than what was truly possible. When Sunday morning came, I spent a frantic time tearing open boxes in vain to find a pair of shoes to wear to church. I finally settled for a pair of shoes with 3 inch heels that had been unpacked already. At six months pregnant, wearing 3 inch heels for three hours, two of them on my feet most of the time, was uncomfortable. (The next day we unpacked the pair of 1 ½ inch heels I had been searching for the day previous.)


3) Know that you will lose things during the move. Even though the two apartments were around the corner from each other; even though we went back and forth between the two apartments several times after the initial move to do a final sweep of the old apartment, we still managed to lose one fluted glass, our lemonade stirring stick, and a bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner. How they managed to disappear is a mystery; but they are definitely gone. I can only imagine that in a bigger move, more items will mysteriously disappear en route to their new destination.

Our new apartment is still slowly taking shape. We are having to be creative with how we store items. We still have to buy and assemble baby furniture. But in all we are grateful that we were able to find this place and look forward to welcoming our little baby home here come autumn.

Recessional

Written by Rudyard Kipling for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Quoted by Ezra Taft Benson in “Beware of Pride”.

God of our fathers, known of old—
Lord of our far-flung battle line—
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies—
The Captains and the Kings depart—
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away—
On dune and headland sinks the fire—
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe—
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.

Welcome to 2011

We hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Christmas came and went too soon, but chaperoning the multi-stake youth dance let New Year’s Eve linger on and on. It was fun, and we were thankful we weren’t on the cleanup crew.

If you haven’t already, be sure to take some time soon to think about the person you want to be this time next year. It’s wonderful the way self-development comes to the front of our minds this time each year, though it’s worthy of more of our attention than we usually give it.

Don’t worry about the holiday cookies, candies, chocolates, baking, meals, and snacking. They’ll be gone before you know it, as will the pounds they probably brought.

The 1000th Note: Completely Not Interesting

I was hoping that the 1000th note I clipped in Evernote would be something interesting I could share, and… yeah. It isn’t. Our washer has decided hot means cold and cold means hot (seems like there’s a Katy Perry joke around here somewhere). Maintenance came by on Tuesday to check it out, and yes, the switch the controls which pipe it takes water from needs replaced. They left a note tucked inside our door to let us know they’d been here, and rather than keep track of the piece of paper, I dropped it in the ScanSnap, stashed it in Evernote for safekeeping, and yep… that was number 1,000.

But I don’t want to leave you with nothing interesting to read. How about the current Manvotional over at Art of Manliness: “Habit” by Charles Carroll Everett, written in 1861.

Worth Every Penny

Earlier this year, I committed myself to donating $100 to a cancer-related charity. As of yesterday, I still hadn’t gotten around to it. (I mean, there’s still almost three months left to do it…)

We stopped at Safeway on our way home last night to grab a few items. The predominant color in our store right now is pink. Pink ribbons. Pink balloons. Pink signs. Pink shirts on the checkers. They’re in the middle of one of their periodic fundraising partnerships, this time with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. We quickly collected our $20.78 in groceries and checked out. Our checker, Tammy, asked us if we’d “like to donate a dollar for breast cancer research”. She sounded very enthused. I have no idea how many times she had asked that question over the last two weeks, or how many people had said, “Sure.”

I said, “Actually, I’d like to donate a hundred dollars.” I looked at the little keypad that was asking me the same question. It had buttons for $1, $3, and $5. I tapped “Other…”. I punched in a one followed by four carefully-counted zeros and pressed enter. A few seconds later, Tammy snapped back to reality. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “You were serious! I thought you were joking…” Her voice trailed off for a second as she punched a few buttons on her console.

She picked up the phone and activated the PA system. I had forgotten this part. I ducked my head, slightly embarrassed, as she announced to the store, “Thank you for the $100 donation to breast cancer research on checkstand three.”  The girl on five looked up from her work and shouted over to her, “What? Are you serious?” Tammy barely had time to get a quick “Totally!” over her shoulder before her phone started ringing. “That would be the store manager.” The side of the conversation that we heard was, “Yeah… uh-huh… in your face!” I’d love to know what the other end of the conversation was.

I don’t expect there to be any problem with taking the charitable deduction for it. It was at Safeway, sure, but it was for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I’ve got the receipt, and it’s clearly marked. But even if I can’t, I made a couple people’s night. It was worth it. After all, I saved $3.31 by using my Safeway Club Card.

Chivalry in the MTC

I went through the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Preston, England. There were 48 missionaries in our entire class – 42 Elders and 6 Sisters. Most would be serving their missions in England, but a couple were European missionaries who were serving in Europe and needed no foreign-language training.

At the MTC, I served as the district leader of the Aaron District. (The other three districts were Ammon, Omni, and Himner.) The president of the MTC told us that as district leaders, we could give rules and regulations to our districts in addition to the MTC’s rules. I don’t know what the other district leaders did, but I only asked one thing more of the Elders in my district: I didn’t want any of the Sisters to have to wait in line at the cafeteria because of us.

There were a couple questions about what this meant, but they quickly agreed to this. For example, we couldn’t require any of the other districts to let the Sisters go ahead of them (we lined up for lunch and dinner by district), but we could let our Sisters line up at the front of our district. We could offer to let the Sisters from other districts go ahead of us. Maybe they’d take us up on the offer, maybe they wouldn’t. Maybe Elders in the other districts would follow our example, maybe they wouldn’t. All we could do was set the example.

During the second week, they made me proud. There were eight of us in line, idly chatting while we were waiting for our food. The Elder at the front of the line interrupted his conversation to say, “Elders, Sisters”. Without further prodding or complaint, eight Elders picked up their trays and took two steps back. The two Sisters who had just walked into the cafeteria smiled and thanked us (they were finally starting to accept our deference) and went past. This happened as the first counselor in the MTC presidency was walking by. He stopped short and did a double-take. Convinced he really had seen what he thought, he said, “Elders, I am impressed. I’m very impressed!” I’ll always remember that.

When you know what’s right, stand for it. Someone else may just agree and stand with you.

Trust In Others

A couple weeks ago, I was invited at the last minute to attend a Warriors game. I’d be taking off right after work and carpooling up to Oakland with a couple coworkers. I got dropped off back at work just after 11pm so I could grab my stuff and go home.

When I got inside, I saw the red voicemail light was lit on my office phone. Curiosity got the better of me – my work line is rarely used at all, let alone somebody leaving me a message. It was a message from one of the cafeteria staff letting me know that I’d left my debit card there and they had it; I could stop by and pick it up before they closed at 7, or I could pick it up on Monday.

Walking out to the car, I wondered what poor soul they had meant to leave the message for. I hadn’t been to the cafeteria that day, and when I do go, I never pay with a debit card. Besides, my debit card is right here in my–

Oh.

No, it’s not.

…

Hrmm. Well.

Apparently, when I stopped at the ATM (which is right next to the cafeteria) to get cash before heading up to the game, I managed to walk away from the loudly-beeping ATM and leave my ATM/debit card in it. Someone must have found it and turned it over to the cafeteria staff to hold until I could pick it up.

Oops.

Walking across the parking lot, I considered just calling the bank and reporting the card as lost. They’d send me a new one, and I wouldn’t have to go face the cafeteria staff and admit that I had ignored the loud beeping noise. (How did McCoy put it? “If I jumped every time a machine beeped at me…”) It would limit the downside to the damage that could be caused by whoever had my card in their possession. It’s what you’re supposed to do when you leave your card someplace. It’s right there in the cardholder agreement…

That weekend was General Conference, so I managed to forget about the missing card until I got back to work on Monday. I claimed my card, checked the account online just to make sure no one had used the card over the weekend, and all was well in the world. I just didn’t realize how well until later.

When we got home that night, there was a letter on the door. In our excited anticipation of Conference, we had apparently forgotten to pay the rent. We now had three days to pay them with a cashier’s check (not a personal check) or they’d start the eviction process.

Big oops.

The main problem this presented was how to get the amount of rent from our primary checking account to the local checking account. Our primary bank doesn’t have a local branch, and the accounts at our local bank didn’t have enough for rent. (I’ve since remedied the latter problem.) I made a large cash withdrawal from the primary checking account (they have a generous daily ATM limit), deposited it at our local bank, and had them issue a cashier’s check. (The nearest branch is open until 7pm – handy.) I walked into the rental office first thing Tuesday morning and fulfilled my obligations to them. (They don’t put a black mark on your file until you’re a week late with the rent, they just don’t accept a personal check once you’re three days late.) All was well in the world.

Driving in to work, I realized how blessed I was. First we had the money readily available to cover rent – that was never the problem. We had simply neglected the physical task of writing out the check and dropping it off on the first of the month. My heart goes out to those who struggle to make ends meet each month. But second, and more important, the only reason we were able to drop off the cashier’s check in time was because I hadn’t reported the ATM card as being lost. The replacement wouldn’t have arrived in time. Had I been cynical about the safety of my lost card, I would have put myself in quite a bind. But because I listened when a still, small voice said everything would be okay, the Lord was able to bless us – and everything was okay.