I am thrilled to have recently become a homeowner for the first time in my life. OK, so it's just a mobile home, but it's all mine. That counts for something, even if I do still have to pay space rent. Now to save up enough to get a little piece of land of my own to park it on!

Having recently passed my half decade mark, I am excited to find out what life is like as an actual antique. I figure I now have the patina of age that makes antique hunters so excited to find undervalued items in their attics. My provenance is known, and i've had relatively few former "owners" and few repairs. Can't say I'm in mint condition, but then I didn't have any teeth or hair when I was born, so I'd have to say my current state is an improvement. As a genuine antique, my market value now should go up quite a bit! LOL

I was just on the BBW online dating site (that's Big, Beautiful Woman), and I must say that it is nice to see profiles of men who like a woman with generous curves...now if I could just get that in someone who believes in the gospel as I do, it would be about as happy as I could get, this side of heaven. Unfortunately, too many men in the church seem to look at a woman who is overweight by today's standards and judge her as being someone who doesn't follow the Word of Wisdon. 'Taint necessarily so, folks. And big women usually love deeply and generously, too. Just sayin'.

If you are reading this, and have read any of my other posts, you may have guessed that I haven't figured out how to categorize these things. I'm up on my soapbox today. I had a meeting with my son's school this week, and it makes me very sad. He has some learning difficulties that aren't obvious from the outside (dyslexia being one of them), and when I discussed his impressions with him in preparation for this meeting, he told me that he understands almost nothing of what is going on around him in school. Most of his learning seems to be taking place in the one-to-one instruction that goes on here at home, where I explain things in ways that are designed to help him understand in the ways he learns best.

When I brought this up at the meeting, the 5 other members of the team planning for his school experience, WERE PERFECTLY OK with the fact that all he is getting out of school is the ability to sit near other children during class, and play with them on the playground and interact with them in the cafeteria at lunch. The fact that most of his day is largely incomprehensible to him doesn't really phase them. I have explained to them that one of the reasons he is several years behind in reading and math, is that he cannot understand the material the way it is presented him at school, but they are not prepared to do anything substantially different for him. They send him to a resource room, where the material is presented over and over, and more slowly, using the same methods he didn't understand in the first place, so repetition of the explanation doesn't help. I have been a classroom teacher (high school and college), so I mean no disrespect to the profession by saying this, but What ever happened to the kind of creative teaching that looked for ways to reach each kid, and tried everything until something worked?

OK, down from my soapbox for now.

got back from visiting my daughter, who is 21 and has just been recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I am so sad for her. She wanted children so badly, and now she will never be able to have children of her own. Right now she has to just concentrate on surviving. I wish I could be with her longer, but I just don't have the means to move there. I was only able to visit her because of the Christian charity of a family friend who provided the plane tickets.

I will not be where I can have access to the internet for about 2 weeks. If you send a message or a flirt, be patient. I'll be back.

I went, I sang, I danced, I had a great time! I also got to go to the temple while I was there, which was really great, because I hadn't been able to get transportation and babysitting both lined up at the same time for about a year. As a first major outing since becoming single again 11 years ago, it was a good start.

Yay! It's a go! I'll be attending a regional Singles' Conference this weekend. (first one I've gone to in over fifteen years). Wish me luck!

Still excited about going to the local Singles' conference this weekend, but not so excited about having to call everyone on the ward singles' list to see if I can get a ride. But, I'm willing to work hard if that's what it takes to get there.

Moving kind of stiff and slow today, after participating in our ward's Pioneer Day service project at the park, but it was worth it to be able to be around church friends and do something meaningful for the community at the same time.