Typing up my conference notes for Saturday...

There were some portions of the conference that I was just too fuzzy to get anything out of, especially in the evening, and then my dad had me help wash the cars, so I missed the second half of the afternoon session.

Sat. Morning: (I was in Salt Lake for this one. Had to get up early. My dad tweaked a protested on the way in - asked him if he wore deodorant. What he got back was "You'll go to hell, you smart-aleck man!")

Pres. Monson: Elder Neil Lynsen Andersen is the newest Apostle... "The longest walk you'll ever take — I know from experience!"

Elder Hales: provident living, addictions can never be satisfied.

Sister Lippert (1st counselor, Primary Pres.): They are not only watching the media, they are watching us! Reverence is rooted in love, so is the teaching of it. Reverence invites revelation

Elder ??? (2nd counselor, Young Men): D&C 38 - Virtue... be students of the life and time of Christ.

Elder Packer (1st quorum of the 70): How we receive revelation is something each person learns for himself.

Elder Christofferson: We need strong Christians... who can make things happen by their faith. Covenants produce the faith necessary to endure. Divine covenants make strong Christians.

Pres. Eyring: He knows from experience how to heal and help us. D&C 121

Sat. Afternoon:

Elder Ballard: Build testimonies on a solid foundation of obedience, faith, and the witness of the spirit. ... You can't Google a testimony.

Elder Cook: (Unique Doctrines of the Restoration) The Savior has made it clear that we are not to judge each other.

Elder Pearson, Q70: (Faith)
Do your children know that you know? ... If we desire more faith, we must be more obedient. ... Is my own net faith positive or negative? ... The 6 destructive D's: Doubt, discouragement, distraction, (lack of ) Dilligence, Disobedience, Disbelief.

Priesthood session:

Pres. Packer: (Advice to youth) [was fuzzy]

Bishop Edgley: Priesthood quorums helping one another.

Elder Costa: Lead out! Serve!

Pres. Uchtdorf: (Focus) The crew lost sight of what was most important. ... Nehemiah refused to allow distractions to keep him from the work that the Lord wanted him to do (6:3) ... "A mind to work"

Pres. Eyring: Change your path, and help others to change theirs.

Pres. Monson: quote from Pres. Harold B. Lee: The Priesthood is the Lord's troops against the forces of evil.

Study (the scriptures) dilligently, pray fervently, live righteously.

Well, finally got my project almost finished...

Right now, I'm running Devel::NYTProf over it so I can see if I can speed it up any. (It does take a while - 50 minutes+ per distribution made.)

Then it's time to write the tests for Perl::Dist::WiX and I'll be done, pretty much!

My new bishop (The prevoius bishop got released and he just got called 3 weeks ago) wants to see me tomorrow night... I wonder what about? Right now, I'm teaching elders quorum once a month at church - maybe he figures I have more time than that and I'm getting a different calling?

Well, my journal is about to get baptized... (it's having it's 8th birthday today...)

Found an interesting site - it's called readthescriptures.com and it sends you an e-mail each day with the number of verses from the Bible, Book of Mormon, etcetera, required to read each book in a period of time that you select.  It can also send the Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society/Priesthood lessons weekly.  I know I'm taking advantage of it!

As for the move, well, my computer has been set up, and I've had Internet access for a week now.  I just had to get caught up on my e-mail and do other stuff first.  (had to hack into one of my old programs, for instance.)

Watched part of the Rally for the Republic last night - was nice.  Didn't watch Ron Paul's speech, however... my family doesn't always agree with my politics - no reason to rub their faces in it.  Will have to check YouTube later, and make a post about politics later, too.

Got a few other things to watch, mow the yard, scan some pictures in for Grandma, and all the usual stuff.

Well, one more computer job done. Last one should be finished up tomorrow.

RIP President Hinckley... He will be missed.

I heard about this on my friends list just as my family heard about it on TV! I was surprised, I figured it'd be another year or two before I heard about this happening!

Happy birthday, lfinder! I hope the current issues that naraht1 mentioned are solved to your family's benefit! (Trying to be vague, OK?)

On another note, I mentioned that my grandfather died almost a week ago. My father was the only one here who got to go to the funeral, because they set it too soon for everybody else to get there. (We had two choices. The Red Cross would pay for one "commercial-plane" ticket to Utah, or we'd get first priority on the Space-A flight that leaves Saturday at 1pm to Seattle and then have to pay for our own tickets to get to Utah... and even then, I'd have to go commercial all the way, or stay home, because I don't have a military ID.  The problem is, the rest of the family set the funeral for Saturday at noon, so the second option would have gotten us there too late by about 6 hours!)  So Dad left Friday morning and is currently in Utah, and will be for another week.  It's a little bit stressful here, but it's not bad.  The first few days preparing for Dad to go felt like we were ruinning around headless, especially Friday morning.

Saturday, I went to go to the Family History library here (I volunteer there) - found out that their Internet connection is down, so they're leaving the library closed, because it's be useless to open - and the person who has to open the library for me forgot to tell me, because she didn't expect that I'd be well enough to show up!  (Not her fault, really. She was thinking based on "US hospital" experiences... The Japanese don't tend to release you from the hospital until you've been well for a few days and champing at the bit.  US hospitals tend to kick you out fast, and you're still a little bit "off" and need a few days rest at home when you leave.  I don't know which I like least!)

Sunday was fun.  I ended up getting to Sacrament meeting late because my ride forgot to pick me up! I volunteered in the nursery for the third hour (We need volunteers desperately there... the nursery had 18 kids that day out of a membership of 236 in our branch, because the branch's coverage area is most of the junior officers and senior enlisted family housing on Kadena Air Base, so we are strongly Primary-age children heavy. My mom got released as the Primary secretary week before last (while I was in the hospital) - I think we have about 100 Primary-age kids (3-11) with it being about 60 "Junior Primary" (3-6) to 40 "Senior Primary" (7-11) and 15-20 Young Men and Woung Women (12-18) in that 236. 51 families, by the way. It's a "different" branch!)  My younger sister got called as the Young Women's class president at the same time (they have a combined class for the 6 Young Women) - she just called the branch president with her requested counselors and secretary tonight.

Monday I got some books at the library on Foster, and today, I went to Kadena and did some book-trading before the doctor's appointment.  I'll see the doctor again in two weeks.  Blood work numbers are doing good to great. He wants me to go down to 30mg prednisone tomorrow and 20mg in one week - we'll see how that goes.  I could use a decrease in appetite (I'm ravenously hungry half the time right now...) and in the sweats that seem to be happening... (I should ask about them! I didn't think about it.)

Well, I've got my room sorted out - just gotta bring everything UP to it now! I'll probably do that while my family is going to a beach this afternoon... (I don't really feel like going. I'm still a little beat up from the flare earlier this week.)

VERY pretty song, in both versions - I'll send them to people once I'm back online if they're wanted.

Mom has to speak in church tomorrow, so I'm helping her find material.

Gotta run...

From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights...

Last time I tried to type this entry, the router died, and since I was doing X-windows forwarding, I lost what I had typed!

At any rate, I'll start with Saturday - as much of it as I can remember by this time!

That day, I had to be at my church office for about 4 hours. I got warned earlier in the week that another branch (the one my dad's a clerk for) would be sharing the office with me for 8 months while they were moved out of their building (a third branch was having their building renovated, so they moved to the building my dad's branch was meeting in, while my dad's branch moved to the building my office is in... and I got 5 days warning to get my office picked up and the shelf space split. Saturday was the first day I could get anyone to take me down there.)

Sunday I had to get up early because I had an early Church meeting - 7am! Good thing that meeting is only once a month. It isn't easy waking up just before 5! I went home and took a nap before heading back to help set up for the regular services at 2:00 (I get there at 12:30). Fast and testimony meeting was great, as usual! Or should I say even BETTER than usual??? We had sloppy joes afterwards.

Monday... what did we do Monday? Oh, yeah, laundry! Had 4 laundry loads to do (Sunday, Monday [I usually do 1 load a day, a white load every 3-4 days, and a towel load every 4-6 days], and two sleeping bags from my sister's girls camp!) plus a white load to dry and Saturday's to fold. Took from about noon until 9pm... (sometimes the dryer doesn't get the load dry in 80 minutes - it's just too humid here!)

Tuesday was BUSY! Mom and I had lots of errands to run, plus I had church work to do. I think we got out the door at 8am and didn't get back until 3pm. We went for breakfast, stopped and get the forms signed to get my family's official passports renewed, got visitor's passes for the Japanese kids that are visiting Friday, Monday, and Tuesday (Mom gets paid a little to show Japanese kids visiting from mainland Japan what American life is like - a "culture teaching" program, they call it. [Previous link in Japanese only - Babelfish translation here]) went to the thrift store, did my church work (most of it - I forgot one thing. Did do most of the cleaning up of my side of the office that I didn't do Saturday.), had lunch out [to go this time], picked up dry cleaning, paid the car insurance on one of the cars for 3 more months, and went home and did 3 loads of laundry [color, towel, and white]. Other than a little shopping, computer work, and the Japanese kids on Friday, neither Mom or I should have to get out of the house much until Sunday!

Wednesday, I ended up helping a friend copy her stuff to another computer, so I got a free lunch (well, free for me, at least!) at the Italian restauraunt on base... and then dinner was also free - because it was the Officer's Club membership night (a free all-you-can-eat meal - not that I have the stomach capacity, or the intestinal "processing rate" capacity, to dare to eat too much! Well, technically not free, the membership fee is $16 a month - but you try taking 5 people out to "all-you-can" eat on $16 and see how far you get!) Only one load today - we're all caught up on laundry for the rest of the week!

I'm scheduled to fix somebody's computer Saturday at 10 - and I've got to contact someone else (my sister's seminary teacher) to see when I can get together with her and buy a sound card for her computer so I can install it and get paid!

Right now, I just started up mprime - so I'm back on the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search! Mom and my sister just woke up to go to seminary, and then after she gets back, it'll be time for my walk.

I'd thank my God above to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away...

Well, the obligatory September 11th entry. *grin*

Where was I 5 years ago? Well, when I heard, (which was within 10 minutes of the first plane crashing - it was just before 8am Central Daylight - I know. I ended up skipping that 8am class!) I was at the computer lab in Pershing at the University of Missouri-Columbia when I got an e-mail message telling me to check the CNN website. I ended up staying up there for the next 30 minutes, and then heading back to my room after the news websites got so clogged I couldn't get through to them consistently anymore. (Yeah, I'm geeky. I heard by e-mail!) My other class got cancelled (IIRC, all of the classes after 11am got cancelled) I remember calling my family and watching TV a lot that day. The one thing I worry about is a similar attack happening and another "Operation Yellow Ribbon" happening while I'm crossing the Pacific - but I have the start of an emergency plan in that case - YVR is close enough to my friend in Seattle (who has a passport) and an aunt and uncle in the Seattle suburbs that I call and tell them, as well as calling my family, and we consult from there.

No, I wasn't geeky enough to post in my journal that day. Didn't for almost a week afterwards. Wish I had - just for feelings documentation. Oh, well. But I DO mention it in the next entry I did (Sept. 17th, 5:54pm, friends-only):

First - the attacks on Tuesday - I KNOW I get emotional when something like this happens in movies - real life is much worse. I ended up being stuck to the TV for about 3 days, and it drug me down real bad. By Friday, I just wanted to leave the TV off.

And last night (the Sept. 11th here)?

Well, my sister's school did their Patriot Day presentation. She's in the choir, and they sang some good songs! Started with the Junior ROTC color guard presenting the colors (our flag on the left, the Hinomaru on the right - IIRC, that's correct flag protocol for the US, since I'm on a US base), and then the choirs sung Kimagayo and the Star-Spangled Banner. They also did songs called "We Are America" and "They Dared to Dream", and the show choir did "Flanders Fields" - that song was GREAT. One part sings the poem in double time (I think the tenors) while the basses do an "ooh" part and the ladies sing the poem slowly - creates an ethereal effect that works very well for that song.

There was also a speaker (one of the base chaplains) who ended up serving at Arlington National Cemetery when they dedicated the monument there a year later.

Then we had a moment of silence and a medley of the 5 military service songs. During that medley, the people who served (or are serving) in that service were asked to stand up when their song was played, and a number of members of my (Church) branch stood up for the Marine Hymn (because they're serving currently, of course! Most of my branch is single Marines.) We even had somebody stand up for "Semper Paratus" (the Coast Guard song) - which surprised me a little. Of course, we had the most people stand up for the Air Force song (it is an AF base, after all!)

A side note - I noticed 4 church members in the choir (none from my branch, but 4 of the kids from the family branches, including my sister) out of the 61 kids there - that fits with what I understand the proportion of LDS in the US military to be (8% - we're 4% of the US population.) - and since one of them was the son of my branch president, my branch ended up going there for their Family Home Evening, which was quite nice. Ended up going to have an ice cream with them afterwards, which was fun.

One of my friends from the singles branch was supposed to bring a laptop for me to the concert - they forgot it. Hopefully I'll get it Wednesday!

This week has just been busy. (and no, I got up two hours ago. I've been getting up in the middle of the night lately... I may go back down for another few hours in just a bit.)

My brother officially ends his mission in the next 5 hours! Dad is up there right now, and they plan to go visiting different places up there for the next few days. They'll be back down here Monday.

Mom has a talk in church on Sunday and so does my younger sister. I've got to help Mom out with hers - they know how shy my youngest sister is, they just asked her to read a scripture and bear her testimony.

Monday I was out with the missionaries - they asked my youngest brother for a ride, and since he didn't know how to get to their place. I ended up getting sunburned (Dad commented "It must have been like "Quick! He's outside! Color him up! He's too pale!") but not too badly.

Speaking of that youngest brother - he's been having a lot of back pain - enough to have to borrow MY pain pills! He has a prescription of 800mg Motrin (the same stuff as in Advil) but it hasn't been working for him the past few days. He gets in to see the doctor in about 4 hours. He says he now appreciates how much pain Mom and I have to go through!

I've been working on a Perl project - it's a unique idea, and might not go anywhere, but even if it doesn't, I'll have the framework code for it to use in other projects!

That and the usual Church stuff... It's looking like I may be doing some of the auditing for the district this time (they wanted me to do it last time, but I went in to the hospital for the March/April hospitalization before they got the paperwork and had to stay in too long.)

I'm doing fine healthwise, other than a case of the runs-like at the moment. [i.e. when I DO need to go, it acts like a case of the runs, but I don't have the NEED to go like I actually have that] I ate some chips and peppery cheese sauce last night, and I need to be careful just HOW much of that I eat.

( Quiz... )

Well, I didn't end up going off to the States after all.

Dad checked with Japanese immigration Friday morning and there's supposedly a way I can stay here for a year between having to leave the country, rather than the current 3 months... so we're doing that later today.

Would you believe one of yesterday's church lessons was on journals? Yup. It was a good one, too!

Here's a few of the best quotes from the lesson:

Some may say [journal keeping] is a great deal of trouble. But we should not call anything trouble which brings to pass good. I consider that portion of my life which has been spent in keeping journals and writing history to have been very profitably spent. (Journal of Wilford Woodruff, February 12, 1862.)

If there was no other motive in view [except] to have the privilege of reading over our journals and for our children to read, it would pay for the time spent in writing it. (Journal of Wilford Woodruff, September 6, 1856.)

Ended up paying a little bit last night for the potluck dinner we had after church - chili and cornbread does not settle well on my stomach. My belly sounded like a pot of boiling water!

(lyrics [multilanguage English/Polish/German/Russian])

Not feeling well today... just "off", basically. Maybe I'll be better later. I can feel gas moving through the GI tract, and it hurts when it does! Needed a narcotic (a Vicodin) for the first time in about a month. Went down to 10mg pred Tuesday - may need to go back up to 15, I haven't talked with the doc yet. Will do that tomorrow if the pain doesn't go away.

Went with the branch president to church Tuesday night to get stuff done I needed him for - finally! (We've been meaning to get together for 3 weeks now!) Got it all done.

Sunday was a LONG day. Had a meeting at 7am with the other clerks and branch presidencies in the district, so I had to get up at 5:30 to get ready. Then had branch council at 12:30, church at 2, all the usual stuff.

Went to the Place of Gut Poking [otherwise known as Chubu Hospital - thanks for the idea, phinnia!] to see the doctor on Monday. Was doing all right gut-wise then (which is why I'm down to 10 on the pred) but was so tired we (meaning the doctor and I) figure I'm badly anemic, so I'm taking two high-dose iron pills a day now instead of one. (by "high-dose", I mean the 325mg FeSO4 pills that give you 65mg of iron [360% of the RDA] per pill) I've also got to do blood work in two weeks. Gained one kilogram, also. (I'm now up to 55.20 kg on their scale - clothed, but without shoes. That converts to 121 pounds.) Could stand to be more fit, but I've got to live with what I can do, not what I'd like to be able to do!

The Wikipedia Crohn's Disease article has been much improved lately... I like it! (warning - some of the pictures in the article are not exactly stuff you want to show to kids!)

One of these minutes when I'm more comfy, I've got to go to the library and trade some books!

(I'm disappointed that this song only got 15th at the Eurovision Song Contest, but then, I LIKE country! [This was Germany's entry to the contest])

Mom's making waffles this morning! Yesterday was my usual long Sunday. My brother graduated from seminary and my sister got the award for memorizing all 25 of the seminary mastery scriptures this year. Now I just got to get with him today and get his paperwork done!

(Meme) Your Life: The Soundtrack (from lady_alatar) - and since I like a lot of songs that are really IN soundtracks, I'm putting the applicable movies in for the 13 I know about.
( Soundtrack Meme... )
( Lyrics to No No Never ... )

Since I've been typing in this entry for the past few days...

Friday: Had to run around this morning. Pay Mom's car insurance and phone bills, as well as more medicine. Went out for lunch afterwards. Just a normal day.

Saturday: Wanted to get to the church in order to get some stuff done, so I tried to go with my brother to the seminary graduation social at 4pm. We never got there. The front passenger (left) side tire went flat and we had to pull over just southwest of the Goya intersection (where Gate 2 Street [Highway 20] and Route 330 meet - about a kilometer outside of the base) on the way there. My brother and his friends were able to change the tire, but the spare looked just a little iffy (was looking a little underinflated), so we headed directly home.

Sunday morning: Got up early, got my bath, and now I'm getting this finished... Just found out about the new lds.org beta site... The image on the front page is a little big, but other than that, looks great!

Thursday night: (I've been down [and staying home] the past few days - the house has just bneen too hot!) Darn it, I was hoping Katherine would win!

borntopersevere pointed this one out to me, I think...:

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 90% Conservative, 10% Liberal

Social Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Ethics: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

I had 5 comments at general conference on how thin I was... Yeah, I know. I need feeding up. My pants do NOT fit me anymore. I actually have a waist size smaller than my leg length. (my pants pre-"February 2006 hospitalization" were 30 waist and 30 length, down from 34 and 30 pre-"January 2005 hospitalization". Can you tell I've been in the hospital too much these past few years?)

I went to the rebroadcast of both Sunday sessions - but my endurance failed me - I fell asleep during the second session.

I liked President Hinckley's comments at the end of the Sunday morning session, however:

I now face the sunset of my life. We are all totally in the hands of the Lord. As many of you know, I recently underwent major surgery. It is the first time in my 95 years that I have been a patient in a hospital. I do not recommend it to anyone. My doctors say that I stil lhave some residual problems.

I totally agree with him! I don't recommend it to anyone, either! And he was only in for a week or so, as far as I understand!

I also liked Elder Richard G. Scott's talk in the afternoon session about full-time missionary work, especially when he said:

Exciting fields of labor the world over allow the inspiration of the Lord to call young men and women and devoted couples to challenging assignments conditioned to each personal need and capacity. I rejoice in the opportunity to participate in this captivating effort that potently blesses so many around the globe. ...

I am constantly amazed at how the Holy Ghost matches the characteristics and needs of each missionary and couple to the widely varying circumstances of missionary service throughout the world. I have observed how some of the strongest, most capable elders and sisters are called to the United States and Canada to keep the roots of the Church strong there. I have seen how missionaries who return from unusual assignments, such as adapting to the native culture of a Pacific Island, Mongolia, or the highlands of Guatemala or otherwise serving with minimal personal contact with the mission president, develop previously unknown personal capacities extremely well.

I'm proud to have a brother who is currently serving in mainland Japan, and one who is preparing to serve (he's getting his medical and dental work done).

I'll have to watch the Saturday sessions later, but at least I can - and I just figured out how to hook up Dad's laptop to the TV to do it! I also went to lunch at Burger King in between sessions - missed the first afternoon talk - I'll have to watch that one, too! (The lunch ended up biting back a bit...)

And last but not least, here's a comic that Mom and I got a kick out of when we saw it last week:

The problems with both Yahoo and LJ just went away! I don't know what happened, and I wish I did - Mom had been complaining about her mail since a few days after I went in, so it's been almost a month!

I didn't know I had 44 userpics now! (30 + 14) I've grabbed 4 (3 LDS and 1 Crohns one) and and am trying to figure out subjects for others. I have enough medical and LDS icons now, I think... I could use a few for my "computer", "politics" (I happen to be republican/libertarian), "books" (a few about reading?), and "vacation" (a few about travel?) entries. And yes, I just paid for another 2 months. It was too nice being able to voice-post my hospital entries.

I didn't end up getting to priesthood session - my brother didn't get back from his dentist appointment until 15 minutes before (our chapel takes 25 minutes to get to - and that's once he had changed into church clothes), and he also now has pinkeye! I HAVE to get to the Sunday morning session, however... I need to meet with my new branch president at 8am. (Yeah, I'm up early. Got lots of things to do. Want to type up the "last hospital entry", eat (or drink a nutritional drink type, I'm still deciding), get set up so I can eat or drink at church if I want, find my church bag, etc... all before 7:30 am!)

My flight schedule for my flight back to the States:

UA 9707 OKA-KIX 11:25am to 1:15pm April 16th (my tickets say 11:30, for whatever reason.)
(The flight is a codeshare - it's actually NH [All Nippon Airways] 1734)
UA 886 KIX-SFO 3:25pm to 9:03am April 16th
(yes, back in time. -17 hour change plus the date line. Gets lunch and breakfast.)
UA 789 SFO-SEA 10:15am to 12:16pm April 16th

Oh, by the way, happy birthday, varrin!

( Wikipedia Meme )

( Popularity meme )

Today has been a boring pay, pretty much. Just staying at home and doing stuff. Tomorrow is the "to-do day"... because I have to download a new version of my church's membership/financial software ("Member and Leader Services" is what it's called) and I have to do it AT THE CHURCH, and NOT UNTIL MONDAY THEIR TIME (Tuesday my time). So I told the district and one of the other clerks that I'd be the "guinea pig" and come in Tuesday and check things out (there had been problems with the last upgrade and I had to bounce to EVERY OTHER unit in the district to fix their computers!)

The list of things to do for Tuesday is set up, too. It's long, and some of them may have to be put off until Wednesday, but they ARE happening!

As for yesterday... yes, I DID get to Church! Finally, I was healthy enough! Was busy with clerk work for half the time, but the concert was great. At one point he asked for all the 13 and 14 year old girls in the audience to stand up (about 8 were there, including my sister) and he introduced a Christmas poem he wrote with the comment that that would have been the most likely age for Mary to be at Jesus' birth. Now THAT was a thought!

My last dose of Prilosec was Sunday morning (I'm taking myself off of it for now, since I have to pay for it myself... it's not covered by insurance, and I'd like to be on as few pills as possible, so I'll see if that is helping any) and I go off the antibiotics on Saturday!

Mom made some VERY good homemade bread today, too.

Well, today's been hectic:

First, I got out of the hospital, of course! Right after breakfast, they did the usual temp/blood pressure/pulse check, and then brought in my perscriptions for the next 5 days and told me that I'd be getting the bill in 30 minutes. [It was 255,332¥ by the way. ($2200 and change at current ¥116 to $1 rate)] When I got the bill, I asked them where to go to make arrangements for my insurance to pay. At first they misunderstood what I meant and had me signing a payment plan for 40000¥ every 2 weeks. They also didn't understand that I needed an ENGLISH translation of the bill (which I've been able to get from them before) for the insurance people. After Mom got there and we carried my stuff to the car, we ran into someone we knew who had helped us out before, and she got us the translation and the stuff straightened out. We'll be sending it out Thursday, because we're going back for a follow-up appointment that day, so I'll be adding that to the insurance paperwork as well as my previous doctor visit in January that hadn't gotten sent out yet.

After we got out, we went to a 100 yen store and got some stuff for Mom for church, and then went to Popeye's on Kadena to get a chicken lunch. (My sister gets good enough grades that AAFES gives her a great coupon book. One of the coupons in it is for a 3 piece chicken meal [with side and biscuit] for free [usually $5] at Popeye's or Church's, whichever your base happens to have - but she doesn't like their chicken, so we got to use it!)

After that, we headed home, unpacked, I typed up the last entry, e-mailed my brother, took a bath, and started cleaning my bags and my room (after emptying the bags, my room NEEDED cleaned, especially since it wasn't too clean when I left it last week!). I've gotten some of the rest I needed, too, and I helped my sister with her homework (she's behind because she sprained her ankle a week and a half ago and has been sick herself.)

As for what's on the list for tomorrow:

• Mom wants to go to the gift shop - a new shipment is coming in...
• We need to go to the exchange and get laundry soap and an ink cartridge for our printer.
• I want to go to the library and do some book trading.
• I've got a bunch of "clerk work" to do at church after a week and a half without stopping by the office (I had good intentions, I just haven't been healthy enough to do them!)
• I want to finally write about the second half of the Korea trip!
• One of the other branches called me and asked if I could fix their computer - right before I went in. I need to call and apologize and arrange an appointment with them to get their computer fixed.

Well, this entry is mostly good news!

First, decadesdarkness was finally able to be processed about a week ago. :) So it's now up on LJ. Check it out. I like it! That's why the last entry.

Second, Mom and my youngest sister will be going with me to Korea this time, and so are two of their friends - so I'll be staying for two days - I'll actually be able to GO PLACES instead of just rushing from the airport to my hotel and back without being able to do much!

( Flight Schedule... )

Third, my youngest brother is now the seminary class president... hey, doing good!

( A little more details... )

Fourth, I had one bout last week (I caught a bug, and the Crohns decided to be friendly and kick in just as it was going away), but otherwise, I've been pretty healthy.

And last, but not least, I ended up finding this in mamaslyth's journal...: Reply to this post, and I'll tell you one reason why I like you. Then put this in your own journal, and spread the love.

... Marching as an army into battle they did go.
They believed that Christ the Lord their Guardian would be,
They had learned they should live righteously...

(This entry was written Saturday night...)

Priesthood session notes... (read these - haven't watched Saturday afternoon yet. Using SDP to download it so I can watch it Monday or Tuesday [make it Wednesday ot Thursday...])

( The notes... )

These are my notes (basically my favorite things) from Saturday morning session of General Conference... I had to watch it at home because of transportation issues - a good thing, too, because I started cramping up in the middle of Sis. Tanner's talk, and had to lay down for 4 hours and eventually take a Vicodin. I didn't feel well enough in time to head in to see Priesthood session with my Dad and my brother, I'll have to read that one tonight. (I ended up finishing up the morning session instead.)

Sis. Tanner's talk is one I'm going to ask my sister if she wants to watch it tonight when she gets back from babysitting (I have a stronger opinion about taking the opportunity to watch General Conference than the rest of my family, unfortunately. I try to watch as many sessions as my health will let me at the time, and nowadays I can catch most of the rest later at home because they put it on the Internet!)

( My notes... )

Last (Wednesday? Thursday?) Just set my LJ Timezone per the announcement in http://www.livejournal.com/community/lj_dev/697741.html?style=mine (you set it right after the zip code at the Edit Info page. Mine has been set to Asia/Tokyo now [you set by location])

Last Friday: Made a blueberry crisp for my family - let's see how they like it! (They do)

Monday night: I also scheduled a family home evening for the single adult branch at my place - only one other person showed up!

Today: Finally got the insurance information sent out for most of my pharmacy bills from the past year - It looks like Mom will be able to go on my next Korea trip with me (which is in less than 2 weeks), as well as paying off my hospital bill (which still has ¥150,150 to be paid on it). We'll get the trip set up Monday, I think. Reason why not tomorrow is just below...

Tomorrow and Sunday: General Conference! Hurrah! (It's actually a rebroadcast, so people here don't have to be awake at ungodly hours, but it's still General Conference!)

( OK-Cupid dating test... )

Well, things are looking up. After that Friday, the only thing I think could be a side effect is some diarrhea on Sunday (no fun, to be sure, but not so bad, all things considered.) And I took two iron pills again last night (from Friday night until Sunday night, I took only one iron pill with the Reglan, just to make sure it wasn't "one is perfect, two makes me nauseous" as opposed to "one makes me nauseous, two makes me throw up" without it)

That, and I actually went out to eat without throwing up! The last 4 or 5 times I went out (practically every time since I got back) I've thrown up. One time, I didn't even get out of the Officer's Club (it was their membership night, so Mom, my sister and I were eating there for free.) before I had to hit the bathroom.

And, I'm catching up on the Church work, too.

So, things are on the up and up. I'm happy about that.
( Political note... )

I'm checking out Free Talk Live, too. Looks interesting so far.

I've been accumulating this entry for a week... I've just been too tired to finish... so don't be worried about the mixed-up order.

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Well, they now have the Schools area up on LJ - here's mine:

Schools:
Pierce College - Lakewood, WA (1986-1989)
Spanaway Lake High School - Spanaway, WA (1990-1991)
University of Alaska - Anchorage, AK (1992-1993)
University of Missouri - Columbia, MO (2000-2002)
[Manage Schools]

And yes, that IS correct - see random entries 8 and 9 below.

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Last Sunday was LONG - I was at church from 12:30 until 9pm. How? Well, I had the branch presidency meeting from 12:30 to 1:45, then church from 2 to 4:20, then a dinner afterwards, (it was a salad, so I couldn't eat much) then entered the donations for the week at around 5:30, then there was a meeting at 6:00 of all branch presidencies and clerks to show us the new check-scanning system [that way, donations don't have to be mailed to our bank in the States anymore - no more 6 week lead time], then had a real dinner (chili), then actually scanned the checks I had ready to mail (that way, I figure out how to use it while I had the people in from Salt Lake to correct me!), then had to have our financial records audited - it was almost 9:00 before I left the church building! At least that's not the schedule I have most weeks!

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Here's something interesting...

Thankfully, the one time you find my real name on that search, it refers to somebody else (I have NEVER lived in Ohio)... I like SOME semblance of privacy!

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List the top people on your LJ friends list you'd like to meet in person, and a reason why. The list doesn't have to be in any particular order or have any particular number of people, because it will of course depend on the size of your f-list..

( The list... )

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20 Random things? (I'm sorry, I'm not doing the variant where you tag the number of people that it took minutes - I'd be taggng half of LJ! I took a break in the middle for a day.)

( The list... )

Some people have asked why I won't watch R-rated movies... well, it happens to be for religious reasons. For more details, here are a few things that the leaders of my church (see left, and see the "more user info" link as to WHAT church I go to) have said on the subject...
( Quotes... )

Happy (belated) birthday, octoberust and meganmerie!

I'm still getting better. Only my feet are puffy now, and even that is starting to go away. Only minus is I get woke up 3 times a night to hit the bathroom, and just as often during the day (not diarrhea, that is thankfuly gone). I'm eating now. Being VERY careful about what I eat, but I am eating. Have a little pain, but not that much. Tylenol level, rather than narcotic level pain, at the worst. I'm a little slow walking, too.

It turns out the acid reducer I take (Takepron is how they romanize the name) is the same stuff as stateside Prevacid. It's just a different name for it.

Went to the doctor yesterday, he's keeping me on the same stuff for now. I go back down to 30mg prednisone on the 12th (I'm currently on 40mg after the problems I had last Thursday trying to eat the first time). The problem is, those Elental packs cost like a value meal at Burger King each - and while they taste decent to me, they don't taste THAT good! I see him in 2 weeks, and I'm going to ask him to cut me down on that, as we can't afford ANOTHER $100/week (well, ¥10500/week) in perscriptions. I'm on 3 per day right now. The pharmacy didn't have enough packs, or any of the flavors, so I had to go back to get the rest today.

Got to sacrament meeting Sunday and that was it - I was not up to my usual 2 1/2 hours of church, much less the branch presidency meeting before, or counting the tithing and the other clerk stuff afterwards. Tuesday night, I had to do the financial audit - wasn't too bad. One or two things to fix, mainly from disorganization (I'm waiting for file folders to be shipped in to help me get organized)

Oh, I finally ordered a book I've been wanting for a year now, as well as 6 months of paid time here.

Hopefully everybody has a happy Valentine's Day!

I'm going to a "progressive dinner" tonight put on my my branch - that should be fun!

Felt like a one-armed wallpaper hanger - I had phone calls, lunch, laundry to unload and a program that was wanting done all at once. Whew! I'm going to have to re-write the program again from the previous version - the Word file crashed on me again... too many edits. I know what to do about that - it's just a hassle!

Mom headed up to Seattle to try for the Space-A flight - let's see if she makes it!

(Yes, it's [almost] the same song - this is the original version - and Rod Stewart has a better voice for it. I like the first verse in the Enterprise version better, however.)

Doctor's appointment went well Tuesday... I've got a little bit of the cold that's going around this family. No trouble with the Crohn's. If that keeps up, I'll be off prednisone March 13th (currently I'm on 30mg, then I'll go to 20mg next week, then I'll go down 5mg a week) and by that time, I'll be working on the move. Next appointment is March 1st.

Just got back from a walk down to the shoppette and to Burger King - Dad gave me money for lunch, but I really prefer breakfasts at Burger King over lunch there.

Last night, Dad told us he gave the people in Okinawa his 60 days notice, and told Atsugi that he wants to start there at that point. Eventually, we'll be moving into TLF here - if that time schedule stays on track, it'll be right around Easter time, and then flying to Atsugi to live in TLF there, then off base to wait for on-base housing to open up. [TLF is the "Temporary Living Facility" on base... basically barracks/hotel rooms for families waiting for housing for a few weeks.]

Started categorizing my entries in the memories section... I'm also cleaning up the tags in my MP3 collection (no track 00's or 0 years, making sure they all have titles and artists, etc...)

Here's the rest of that paragraph that was supposed to be in yesterday's entry: (italics is original)
Sunday was a great day - it was fast and testimony meeting. I got up and bore my testimony pretty quick - there was only one real pause in the whole meeting. I mentioned my hospital visit and how it got me back in "spiritual shape" and bore testimony of the power of the scriptures in our lives and about how the Holy Ghost will guide us. Was a very good day.

One of these super-long entries... so I'll break it up.

[Tuesday] Well, last few days have been hectic - with the bill-paying and everything.

I like this quote: "The New York Times annually sums up this resistance to reality when it runs a story wondering with violent crime at an all-time low why so many people are in prison" (John Ashcroft)

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Today [Friday] wasn't the best of days - I may have had a little too much blueberry crisp last night, and I forgot to take my morning meds until noon, so I've been in low-level pain (1 of 10) all day. Tylenol and lots of relaxation does a good job of covering it up, but it is finally left at 9:30pm! Hurrah! I just let brother #3 (maybe I should use first initials...), Ro----, make dinner tonight - hot dogs and french fries, instead of the tuna casserole I was planning to make. I'll make it tomorrow - maybe they'll leave me enough for after my fast is over. [I'll be fasting for lunch and dinner on Saturday, since my morning meds require me to eat, instead of breakfast and lunch on Sunday]

I'll finally be off the antibiotics, too... maybe things will get back to normal!

Everybody liked the blueberry crisp last night, just as they liked the quesadillas I made Monday night! I figure I'm getting to be a fair-to-middling cook. Boxes make things easy, but I had to throw away the box for the crisp and make the topping from scratch (I have a very good "educational cookbook" to help - if you don't know how to cook well, I recommend getting it) and it still turned out nicely. (the box had bugs in it - they happen here really easy. I've had to throw away 3 boxes of different things this week. That's one way to go through food, although not the way I prefer!

I'm compiling my own "personal cookbook" on the computer of recipies I've tried and liked. It's just not really much fun cooking in any depth for one person, so I didn't do much but from boxes (and in the microwave 70% of the time at that) while I was in Missouri. Here, cooking for my family, is a lot funner! I take pride in cooking different things for the family - either from scratch or from boxes and cans.

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Speaking of boxes and cans, we're going to have to eat our food stocks down, because we're most likely going to be moving soon! It is now "public" that we're likely to be moving to mainland Japan soon (probably in 3 months or so) and it'd probably be a good idea to cut down on what we bring with! We have a lot of dessert boxes I can use (if I used 2 a week, I think we have 3 moinths worth of cakes, pie crusts, (and we have cans of filling for the pie crusts), muffins, and cheesecakes!) plus a lot of canned veggies. Other stuff we will need to buy more before the trip, and the freezer stuff has been reduced (with Mom being gone a lot, I use it and I'm not replacing very much of it) to where we're buying frozen veggies and meats every so often.

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I haven't really studied the State of the Union address yet, but I want to soon... one of these minutes when I have free time.

Hopefully Mom will be back Tuesday afternoon - she had a colonoscopy almost 24 hours ago [her Thursday morning, my Friday o-dark-thirty] - so I'll call her tomorrow and find out what's up. If everything went well, she's going to try and get on the plane at Seattle Sunday night her time.

The chart is working really well - I'm trying to remember the quote... "performance measured is performance improved"... :)

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In another moment... I was on hold for 30 minutes plus Wednesday calling LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake - and I'm paying (but getting reimbursed by my branch) 5 cents per minute for the call! Grrr... but at least I got the answer to the problem finally! I had a speakerphone and a long phone cord, so I just put the phone down, set it on speaker, and started folding clothes! Good way to "double-bill" my personal time allotment!

(I had to call them with a computer question about one of the programs they write (and I therefore use) as part of being a clerk. Got their e-mail address now, so I shouldn't have to call so much in the future.)

Saw The Incredibles last afternoon - I liked it a lot... VERY good movie. Highly recommended. (second site) I like the line that Elastigirl says to her daughter - "You have more power than you realize...". (Violet reminds me of myself (only without the long hair *giggles*) when I was that age - I'm a lot better than I used to be.)

Did the shopping yesterday afternoon before the movie - we rushed through the commissary. Dad does not like to shop, believe me. Missed about 6 things I wanted to get. Oh, well, the meals I was planning to use that stuff for will have to wait until later on in the week when I can get back there again.

I've made up a chart for myself - I've got personal habits that need improving, (exercising 4x/week, having better meals, prayer and scripture study, and teeth) and while I got started after the hospital visit, I figured it was time to make a chart, so I've done that this morning. Strike while the iron is hot and I have all that energy from being on prednisone - I'll be off it in a month and a half or so! Prednisone has the pain-killing effect of codiene and the boost in energy of 500mg caffiene or so, but without the gut-killing effect for me. [A lot of people say it depresses them instead - I don't have that problem.] Makes me feel like 102% instead of my usual even-in-perfect-health 98%. I have to remember to still watch myself. That and it's hard to sleep more than 5 hours a night now where I'd normally want 8 to 9.

To do today:

1. Make cinnamon rolls. (It'll be fun)
2. Get changed for Church - I've got everything printed out I need to.
3. Make a lunch to bring.
4. Go to church - do all the usual stuff (presidency meeting before, then services, then clerk work afterwards...)
5. The rest of the stuff on the chart.

Tomorrow:

1. Pay bills in morning.
...

( Blood Meme )

Okay. The hospital stay. Finally.

( L-O-N-G entry... )

That's it for now... I'll update more on the past few days in the next post I can do.

[17 Jan] Well, Dad picked up the mail yesterday, so I finally got the Christmas cards. Thanks, lynsey, strryeyedgrrl, kansaschica, and one other I can't figure out right now (from Minnesota, could it be puffpastry?)

( Quiz )

[27 Jan] Well, it was time for another hospital visit, it seems. (mentioned it earlier)

Last year I went to the hospital on January 21st and stayed in for 3 days (Wednesday through Saturday) and this year I went in on January 20th and stayed in for 3 days again (this time Thursday through Sunday) I hope going to the hospital in January doesn't become a habit.

It takes me a week to write the "hospital" entries... I know what I want to say, but I'm still not writing it yet. Can't type like I'd like right now... this keyboard is too loud for 11:30 at night. What I might do is handwrite it, and then type it out tomorrow while Dad's at work.

I'm caught up on chores, so that should make it easier to do now. Problem is, the kids are out of school tomorrow (end of semester was today) so they'll want on. Oh, well. I'll try.

To do tomorrow:

1. Call Salt Lake about a problem with the computer at Church. (do before gets too late central time - probably before 10am my time)
2. Write journal entry about hospital visit.
3. Do laundry. (didn't do today, so I'll have to do two loads of colors, and probably one of whites. I've got to plan on one load of colors every day except Sunday, and a load of whites every 4 days.)
4. Eat - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What to cook?
5. Call Mom in Oregon - Plan which bills to pay this next two weeks with Mom (who won't be getting back until 8 Feb, at least - more on why in next entry)
6. Do shopping (in evening with Dad? try to talk brother #2 into it in the morning?) (need someone with ID to go with. Also need money.) Remember to pick up shampoo and telephone cord at exchange.

I read about this song in the Wikipedia entry linked to above. Hey, I like it! It's interesting!

At any rate, cleaning has been cracked. :) What's left is the computer area, dishes, a little bit in my room, and Dad's bed. (I'm not done washing his bedding yet. That's the room I lived in while he was gone rather than sharing my own with brother #3 - why not? Nobody else is here!) I can get that done before 10:30!

Forgot to mention I went to a baptism last Saturday! Went VERY well... this was a lady I was surprised to hear was NOT a member of the Church yet (she'd been going for 3 years), and she finally took the plunge!

Well, the doctor's appointment Tuesday had it's pluses and minuses. He wants to see me in a week (rather than my usual 3 or 4) - he also increased my Pentasa - I now have to take it 4 times a day (so I'm up to 18 pills again) and if the pain and diarrhea doesn't clear up in a week, I'll be going on Flagyl or Cipro to see if there's an infection to clear up. But maybe I'm finally getting better - we will have to see.

Today (Thursday) I did the grocery shopping (forgot the Easy Mac and the waffles YET AGAIN!), mailed off two Christmas packages (one at the US post office on base for my grandparents, one at a Japanese post office for my brother), and paid October's phone bill (We just got November's 3 days ago - it's gone down because everybody was home. December's will go up again! We get them the 21st of the next month, and they're overdue 30 days after that. I've just been sick.)

Monday's Singles Branch Family Home Evening was fun, especially since we had it at my place! I gave out directions in the bulletin 2 Sundays ago, and 11 people showed up - not bad for the first time, and me not being one of the "branch presidency", who everybody knows where lives. Well, technically I am, being the clerk. At any rate, I had 2 pie plates of apple crisp ready for dessert, opening and closing music prepared, and somebody else was bringing the lesson and drinks (I had been too sick the 4 days before to prepare the lesson like I planned AND get the place fit for company!)

This has been an inspirational song for me lately - I want to see the movie it's used in and read the book that the movie was based on. They both look good!

( The inspirational song... )

Well, I'm better now... most of the way, anyway. I can sit up for an hour without cramping, and the cramps aren't nearly as bad as they were when they do happen. I hope to be completely up and about tomorrow, which is good, because the house needs cleaned before the branch comes over for FHE! I'll be doing the "gatorade and Ensure" thing until tomorrow afternoon, however, just to make sure those cramps STAY away!

(song I was listening to - WILL open in new window, and link requires Flash to work, IIRC)

Happy birthday, mamaslyth, gummybearqueen, and kansaschica!
(Yes, mamaslyth, I know I'm late... but I started writing this entry 3-4 days ago...)

Hmmm... noticed this on Wikipedia's home page today (3 days ago, I think):

Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

...that up to 70 percent of the small intestine can be surgically removed as a treatment for Crohn's disease before short bowel syndrome becomes a factor?</p>

Didn't know that (I thought the line was at 40-50%...) Nice to know.

At any rate, Dad and brother #2 are on the plane to head where Mom is - all I've got is brother #3 and my sister. (brother #1 is in Sendai, and will be for more than a year) Should be relaxing after the hectic day and a half I've had getting them set up to go. (I think I hear their plane taking off right now [13:55] - but then, it could be a fighter, too. I haven't learned how to tell yet.)

THIS Sunday I fell asleep after church waiting for my branch president to get done with his interviews... but I got most of the work done. We have district conference on Saturday and Sunday, we're cooking cookies for the missionaries and other people on Saturday also, and Monday, the singles branch is having their family home evening here (I mentioned it to Mom, she's all right with it!) So I'll have a busy weekend, but I'll have a few days to get caught up first, and not as many people to make the "regular household chores" bigger, either!

LAST Sunday - I still have to get to, but since I need to get this entry done before I'm late on the OTHER 2 birthdays, I'll wait on the entry describing it.

One funny thing happened last Wednesday I've been forgetting to mention: I called a friend at the other end of the base (sone church business, some friendly conversation), and I heard a plane taking off through her phone, and about 15 seconds later, heard it "in the air" and SHE heard it through the phone. We both got a kick out of that - she hadn't had that happen to her, either!

( 3-part quiz )

Well, Thanksgiving went well. Had fun with the singles branch. Met a family I remember from Washington state (I lived there from when I was 12-16 - 1986-1991) here on island. Small world, isn't it? (everybody nods yes)

Rest of the family had invited a friend over (on about 4 days notice), but since I was already committed (and I was well enough), I went to the singles activity.

Have one other piece of news. My brother will be going back out on a mission. He'll be going back out to a different part of Japan. I had to find a one-way plane ticket for him to Sendai on the 30th (the day before I leave...) last night. 2 plane tickets this pay period would be OUCH for this family - but he had money saved up for this one, so it isn't too bad... [it's actually more expensive than my Korea ticket, and he's going domestic and one-way!] We'll be paying for both tickets tomorrow. Bought a suit for him today that was on sale (it was a left-at-the-dry-cleaners suit) that looked nice. Got one for my youngest brother, too, as well as some ties.

We'll be cooking yet another Thanksgiving tonight and tomorrow - cooking 2 Thanksgivings in 3 days are not for mere mortals... At least this one we're sharing with a family that's a friend of ours. Their older daughter just got married (to somebody who has Crohn's, imagine that!) last weekend, and they got back from the wedding Thanksgiving night, so we're having a second Thanksgiving on Saturday. (this was the reason I committed myself to being somewhere else on Thursday in the first place!

Didn't get much sleep last night... was off-schedule from being sick Thursday. Conked out from 11am to 4pm, and I'm tired now (9pm). Should get back on schedule tomorrow (as much of one as I have).

Well, I'm finally done with "version 0.9" of that project for my Dad - it's ready for him to look at. I'm sure he'll find stuff to add and correct. Maybe I'll be able to catch up on things in the next few days!

Downloaded the video of "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride on my sister's recommendation - talk about a song (and a video) to make ANYBODY cry! (music plays with the previous link so you can see what I mean)

Got a turkey to cook today (If Mom doesn't get back from her Remicade treatment by 2:10) - Mom and my younger sister will be taking it tonight to a joint Relief Society/Young Women's meeting of both their branch and the Japanese ward that goes to that building - they're showing them what a (U.S.) Thanksgiving dinner is like.

Speaking of Thanksgiving dinners - our family will do theirs the Saturday afterwards because we're doing it with friends that will still be jet-lagged from getting back from the States on Thanksgiving day - which frees me up for the Singles Branch Thanksgiving dinner that Thursday at 3pm. Yeah, I'll be going - I missed their halloween party, I was just too wiped out!

Mom went to my doctor Monday - she's going to use the doctor on base to get her prescriptions because it'll be easier with the number and amount of prescriptions she has to get. (I cost $280+/month! My mom could easily go above $400/month - and we'd have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed by her insurance.) He'll see her again after her next surgery - she's got an appointment set up for February. As for me, I see him next Tuesday!

Well, Mom should be getting home in a week. Yes! (lots of smiles)

Trying out wxMusic - I like the simple look of it - and I've tried 5 or 6 different music programs! It's too buggy to use yet, however. (going back to WMP9 for now. I hate their visualizations!)

Cleaning up all my old 30-tab LJ bookmarks again... so don't be surprised at comments on old entries! :) (p.s. it's crashing on some of them!)

Doctor's appointment today... went well. We decided to decrease my meds - I'm now taking 2 Imuran and 9 Pentasa a day (instead of 3 and 12) :) (other than one episode - I've had no pain in 8 weeks!)

Church on Sunday was good, as usual... I'm caught up on almost everything!

That's everything for now... Who IS Malvolio, anyway?!?

(This entry covers about 3 weeks - I'm putting breaks between sections. There's no particular order to this entry. I'm also reading entries I bookmarked that I wanted to read or respond to but didn't have the time earlier. being_homeless, this means you, you write so much! [you write well, I'm not complaining!])

For my birthday (the 12th, by the way...) I did get a few things - one of my Mom's friends from church brought over a cake and some coupons for (free) movies, pizza slices, and a movie rental. My aunt is getting me The Teeth of the Tiger, and Mom will be getting me another book (I've given her a few ideas - mainly the two newest Honorverse books from David Weber that I haven't got a copy of yet...)

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Good news! Mom is now out of the hospital - she didn't require more surgery right now (*they were talking that way for a bit*), but she will need another one in 4 months or so to remove her temporary ileostomy. She will have to stay in the States until they set her medications, so she may be gone for another month. Dad and my sister will be back in 1- 1 1/2 weeks or so (my sister can't afford to miss very much school, she'll be taking HS Japanese 2 - in 8th grade! If she gets it done here, that's one less HS graduation requirement to do!)

So right now, she's staying with her brothers and sister in Oregon (my uncles and aunt) while they do that.

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The night before my parents left, (the 10th) Elder Boyd K. Packer came to talk to Church members in Okinawa. He was planning to speak to English-speakers [the Okinawa Japan Military District] on the 11th, but we had a typhoon heading for us that would arrive the afternoon of the 11th (it turned away instead - the typhoon was a worry for the medevac flight also) and he didn't want to get stuck here. So they rescheduled us with 6 hours notice to meet with half of the Japanese speaking members (the Ginowan Japan stake - the Naha Japan Stake heard him 2 hours earlier at a different place) in order to hear him speak the evening of the 10th (8pm, if I recall correctly). It was a great talk. The pauses to allow for the Japanese translator were the only problem. It was kinda fun hearing "We Thank Thee, O God For A Prophet" sung in English and Japanese at the same time. He was here during the Battle of Okinawa (60 years ago, WW2) and mentioned some of his experiences here back then and coming back here.

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My youngest little brother started school today (the 30th) so now I have the time to do this! It has been hectic - I'm hoping it'll be less so.

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I had to speak in church on the 15th - I wish I had told them "not right now, too much going on, can you ask me again in a few weeks?" I did all right for not starting to prepare my talk until the night before... spoke for 8 minutes (they were wanting 20, but they understand what's going on right now) Was VERY stressed out - so had had 3 hours sleep that night - I slept through the rest of church. Not good!

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Japanese hospitals - they're fun! *sarcasm* I had visits on the 9th and the 23rd. My Dad took me to the first one, and he really got worried because 1) my blood sugar was high and 2) The blood signals for inflammation (C-Reactive Protein and White Blood Cell count) was high. The 23rd I had a friend from church take me, and I found out that it must have been a blip in the blood sugar. The inflammation levels were because of a urinary tract infection - I ended up finding about it the night of the 9th when it hit - not the Crohn's. Good thing!

I have been VERY lucky other than that, health-wise... just one puzzle - for the first week they were gone, I had very little appetite. Now, I have a large appetite and am very lethargic. (12+ hours a day sleep, feel run down, etc...)

That and the medications cost, too. 10,020¥/week! (about US$94 at current [107¥/US$] conversion rates!)

Next visit is September 14th.

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Happy Birthday, lyssrose and niecystrips!

Wish I had better news, but I don't... We got called about 7pm (3-6am Sunday for everybody in the States) by the hospital telling us Mom was going into emergency surgery within the hour. Send extra prayers up, OK? Our family needs them right now.

Church was good today. I should mention I'm the branch clerk (they called and sustained me two weeks ago, but we're delaying setting me apart until Mom can be there - which looks like it'll be ANOTHER week! We had two people speak on the pioneers in our branch ("Pioneer Day" [July 24th] is the day that celebrates when the first group of Latter-Day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley - they actually arrived on the 22nd.)

Only problem with posting more often will be having the privacy to post. Right now Dad's at the hospital with Mom. I'll let everybody know when I can.