The Ward Party and The Latest on My Article

Last night we held our "Country Fair" party for our ward. We were in charge of it again, but this time DramaMama delegated a lot of the responsibilities to the different auxiliaries, and it was much easier.

Toward the end of setup before the party began, we had a minor trauma... we were about to fill the two 5 gallon jugs with ice water, when the water in the building turned off. A few phone calls, and some scrambling later, and once again the water came on and we were able to finish in plenty of time. The Bishop was outside working with the water shut-off, while on the cell phone to the Elder's Quorum President in the kitchen. Bishop fiddled with it until it came on.

Once we got going, the party pretty much ran itself. There was little maintenance needed other than keeping the food stocked. DrummerBoy and some of his friends provided the music for the evening, and they sounded fantastic. By the end of the night after having set up and taken down about 20 tables, and a hundred or so chairs, I felt like an old man. As part of the fair, we had displays for crafts, quilts, art, etc. I set up several of my drawings, a couple photos I took years ago, and the sheet music to 3 songs I wrote.

At one point, I stopped the Bishop and thanked him for helping get the water back on. As we were parting, he stopped me. "Brother Hanks, I got a call from Salt Lake."

"Uh-oh," I said, not knowing for sure where he was going with this.

He continued and told me that the call came from the editing department of the Ensign. He said the conversation went something like this:

"Do you know a Brother Hanks?"

"Yes I do."

"We just wanted to verify that he was in your ward, because we are preparing to publish his article in an upcoming issue."

...

Bishop said that it should be within 2 or 3 issues. When I received the original notification that they wanted to use my article, they said that there would need to be an editing process where they would edit my article, and sent it back to me for my revisions, etc until we came to an agreement of the final text. It does need an editing pass or two. Of all the things I have ever submitted, this one had the least polishing done to it. All in all it is pretty sound, but after re-reading it, I saw a few things I would change.

So there we are... it won't be long and I will finally be able to say that I have been published.


[UPDATE]
I received an email yesterday (12/3/08) with the edited copy, and a note stating that my article is slated for publication in the August 2009 issue.

I am going through the copy and doing some editing myself. I have until mid-January to get the revised version back to them.

The Military Honor Night

Last night was the evening that DramaMama planned to honor servicemen from the past and present. This was inspired by a man from our ward (Brother Vincent) getting notice that he is going to be deployed to Afganistan. He will be leaving this Tuesday.

We have been gathering photos and stories from members of our ward, and I took 2 days and put together a video that showed the pictures and told their stories.

The night came off extremely well. DramaMama was stressed out of her mind worrying that it would be a failure, but as usual, she pulled off an amazing evening.

We had the old pictures set out on a table, and one of the men (Brother Boushley) brought some memorabilia from his days on a submarine. We had posters from the different branches of the military. My favorite had an aircraft carrier on it with the words "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of anyone that threatens it."

We had the Boy Scouts do a flag ceremony and the Pledge of Allegiance. Then a young girl, whose father served in the Navy, sang The Star Spangled Banner. Then we had the dinner which consisted of fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad, and rolls. After dinner, we had another musical number by three young girls. They sang God Bless the USA. Then we had a man from the ward who had served in the British armed forces speak about patriotism. THen we showed the video.

The video started out with a sign reading "The Brimhall Ward honors those who have served and are serving in the armed services."

Following that, we had this quote from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."


Then we went through the photos. The ending was rather poignant. Erica chose 3 songs: He's a Hero, Where Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly, and American Soldier by Toby Keith. At the end, we had all of the pictures that Brother Vincent had given us. One of which was of him kneeling at a grave with his head bowed. It was a touching image. He also supplied a poster of a kneeling soldier with a message and a scripture. I made a transition between his picture and the poster. With the words of American Soldier over this, it was hard to hold back the emotion.

After the poster, the music faded out, and another sign appeared:

"Please join with us in a moment of silence to honor those who fought bravely and gave their lives to ensure our freedom." After that it ended with "Thank you from the members of the Brimhall Ward."

Once the lights came up, we could see that several people were wiping tears. Everyone stood up and applauded. Not for the video, but for those present who were in it. It was all very touching. Many people came up to me later, with looks on their faces that I had never seen before. They were truly grateful to be honored like that. They thanked me over and over for doing the video. Many people asked for a copy. I discovered that I made a couple errors, so I need to patch it up, then I will make copies for everyone. I will try to put up a link to it once we get it fixed up a bit. After it was over, several people in attendance let us know that they also had served. We didn't know. So after we get them in, fluff up some of the stories, add more pictures, etc.

It was rather sobering making the video, and seeing all of the people who served, some of whom died. We heard some neat stories. Brother Boushley told us that his sub had the distinction of firing the first guided missle launched from a sub. Another one was of a linguist who listened in on Russian conversations in Cuba, who accidentally pushed a wrong button and shutdown a major operation. It went clear back up to the Joint Chiefs. One man served in Patton's 3rd Army, another served as a personal aide to the Joint Chief of Staff of the Army.

My favorite of the stories though was of a group of 6 brothers that all served in World War 2. Before each of them left, their father laid his hands on their head and gave them a father's blessing. All 6 of the brothers returned home unharmed. I will admit that when DramaMama told me that one over the phone that it choked me up good.

It was a fantastic evening, and DramaMama did herself proud. Today at church, several people mentioned it. Good job honey.

AWWWW GEEEZZ!!!

Tagged again!


Okay here goes:

The rules:Post the rules before giving the facts. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag (hopefully) six people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

Here are my meaningless random acts of drivel:

1) When I was 7, it was time to go to Primary, (a church class for kids, that at that time was held on Wednesday evenings), and I didn't want to go. I defiantly told my mom that I would rather live in a pig pen than go to Primary. Guess where I spent Primary? In the closest thing we had to a pig pen. In our dog run that was conveniently decorated with poop at one end. I went to Primary after that.

2) I have always been a good speller. In high school, I took a 400 word spelling test and only missed three words. One word had a hypen, one was a capilization, and the other I simply left out a couple of letters.

3) I have always loved writing. I recall one of my earliest works in first grade. I described clouds as thick as peanut butter. Throughout the years, I wrote several goofy stories. I was in college before I really started taking it seriously. I took a couple of writing courses, which dramatically improved my writing skills. I also took a correspondence course from the Institute for Childrens Literature. I am currently querying my first novel "Black, White, and Shades of Gray". I also just submitted an article to "The Ensign" which is a church magazine. The article was about my Bible that I posted about a few months back.

4) I have also always enjoyed music. Either playing it or listening to it. Over the years I have played several different instruments. My first of course being piano. I took up trumpet in Jr. High, then added bass guitar in 9th grade. Later when I was 17 or 18, I started tinkering with guitar, and eventually took on classical guitar. The trumpet is now in the hands of some under-privileged kid in Tahiti, my ex-wifes brother hawked my bass amp at a pawn shop, the bass which never was used much after that, eventually found it's way to Deseret Industries. I still have my piano, keyboard and classical guitar, though none of them get nearly the attention they used to. I have also written several songs.

5) I spent most of my childhood with people calling me by my older brother's names. Even my grandma did it. Except in her case, I got all of them: "Keithy, Kenny, Mikey, DAVY!" One day I told my mom that I wanted to trade names with my brother Mike. I got called that frequently enough, that it would have made sense. She didn't go for it though. At least they had sense enough not to call my by my sister's names!

6) I don't drink, I dont smoke, what do I do?

7) I have my own side business where I sell lots of varied things on the internet. I program the websites in PHP, and even built my own shopping cart system. I have been a programmer since 1988 using a variety of languages. I started with BASIC, used Pascal in college, actually worked at a job using C, then took up Foxpro with version 1, which eventually was bought out by Microsoft. I currently use Visual Foxpro on pretty much a daily basis. On the web I use PHP, Javascript, MySQL, HTML. I have written some rather sophisticated online systems for clients at work.

8) I met my wife when I was 36. We each had a son, then together we had the Bear. Hers, Mine, and Ours. We live in Mesa, AZ, where we just broke the record for the most consecutive days of over 110 degree weather. It's hot! Dang Hot! Frickin' Hot! They finally fixed the AC at work though, so that makes working much more pleasant.


I'M NOT TAGGING ANYONE, SO THERE!

Blubbering Over Ham and Cheese - The Novel

Have you ever opened the fridge, pulled open the drawer that holds that ham and cheese, then become overcome with emotion? It just happened to me.

No, I wasn't euphoric over the fact that I was going to have a nice sandwich, and no, there wasn't a thousand dollar bill poking out of the cheese.

It had to do with my son, and our time together after work yesterday. I came home, and wrangled up some grub which consisted of DramaMama's fabulous Russian Shepherd's Pot Pie* and a couple ham and cheese sandwiches.

This morning very early, I drove my son to the airport for him to return to his home in Utah. This concluded his once a year-30 day visit. These visits seem to last a wink, and it always seems so unfair when he has to go back. We were both a bit misty when he was leaving.

I recently made a change in my "happy pill" medication, and the transition has been a little scary and unpleasant. As I came down from the one that was only sort of working, it soon became evident why I wasn't feeling good. I had an unbelievable amount of pent up stress and and emotion that the medication basically had put a lid on and sealed it tight. As the effects of the not-so-happy happy pills wore off, I began feeling what I can only describe as rage. For those familiar with the Harry Potter movies, think of the moving picture wanted poster of Sirius Black. When he looks forward and screams... That's what I felt like. I wanted to scream, hit, break, cuss, yell, throw, and basically explode. To DramaMama, it was both scary and comical.

I released some of that by acting on it in a relatively harmless way. We were both in our room and I was telling her how I was feeling. There was an empty box on the floor, and I used it as an outlet. First I punched it, and put my hand through it, then I punched and punched, then ripped it to pieces. That's where DramaMama thought it was comical, watching me rip up a box. She got a raspberry for that one. I am happy to report that none of this aggression was taken out on anyone or anything but that poor hapless box. I have been a bit grouchy through this though.

I am still waiting for the new meds to take hold. In the meantime, I have been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride of emotions. That rampage happened before church. I was still pretty hot through the main service. We go through a 3 hour block which consists of 3 meetings. That day I was to teach a lesson during the 3rd meeting, and I was nowhere near the right frame of mind or spiritual deportment to do so.

The second meeting was Sunday School, and I just couldn't go in there. I sat on the couch in the lobby. I brought along something to "center" me, which was my MP3 player. I don't bring things like that to church... this was a one-shot deal, because I knew I had to get a grip before my lesson. I put on my New Age genre songs, reviewed my lesson, and soon came down from the rage. I felt like there was a ceiling inside my head blocking the spirit, and I prayed and asked for help. Between the music David Lanz and Suzanne Ciani, and reviewing the material of my lesson, the spirit was finally able to break through. The result was a release of pent up emotion. I was sitting there, and half the ward walked by and said hello. I was doing my best to hold it all in so I wasn't bawling in the lobby.

My lesson was for Priesthood Meeting, and one of the people that came and talked to me was the Elder's Quorum President. He asked about my upcoming lesson, and I said I was ready. He could tell there was something wrong, and asked if I was alright to which I replied I wasn't.

That of course made it even harder to hold in. He had his little baby boy there with him, so I took him and held him for a few minutes, and made faces and stuff to make him laugh which was also to help me cheer up. The EQP offered to take the lesson for me, but I was determined to do it myself, and not wimp out on it. I turned him down.

By the time the third meeting was to begin, I had managed to center myself, and headed off to the opening exercises. (A prayer, announcements and a hymn). Then I did my lesson which was on integrity. We talked about a lot of the little things in life that eat away at our integrity. I used examples of Peter, who told those who wanted to kill him "We should obey God rather than men." We talked of Daniel who rather than pray to a thing, defied the king's edict and openly prayed to God. We talked of Shadrac, Meshac and Abednego, who similarly refused to worship an idol, and told the king in no uncertain terms that they would not do it. They were tossed into a furnace that had been stoked to seven times its normal temperature, and it was so hot that those stoking the fire died. Both Daniel and the those three men were saved by divine providence. The Lord shut the mouths of the lions, and personally stood with Shadrac, Meshac and Abednego in the fiery furnace from which they were delivered without harm. The lesson was one of the best I have ever given, because there was a lot of participation from the group.

I am still up and down and am really looking forward to the newer meds getting properly built up. I have noticed a difference in how my head feels though. Before it always felt like my head was full of cotton, and I just couldn't deal with stuff because I always felt like nothing else could fit in my head. Now that has diminished, and I find myself getting into things that have been dormant for a long long time. I started playing the piano again, I have done more writing, I find it easier to do stuff like take out the trash, laundry, dishes, etc. I feel that there is a ways to go still, and possibly an increase in the dosage, but on the whole I think the trend is good.

Believe it or not, I see the rage/meltdown yo-yo thing as a positive. What I feel like, is that instead of helping me deal with these things, the old meds were merely masking their effects, and I was not releasing anything. With that out of my system, it finally unlocked the cage and let out a "Freddy Kruger breaks the Hoover Dam" kind of thing.

I took the day off from work yesterday to spend the last day with James before he had to leave. We played games, went to see a movie, and just spent time together which was very nice.

DramaMama and the other two boys are visiting DramaMama's parents in New Mexico for a couple days, so now I am home alone again. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I was intending to do a little writing this evening on my book, but it appears I have spent that time writing this post... oh well. I did at least upload the stuff I wrote at lunch today.



* What the...??? Her creation was described as a combination of Chicken Kiev, Shepherd's Pie and Chicken Pot Pie... I gave it the name above