Trusted Advisors

Isn't she lovely?

I wanted to start this post off with a clever little text phrase to show how clued-in I am, specifically this: IMHO. But then I realized I'm not sure if it means "In my HUMBLE opinion" or "In my HONEST opinion". I guess either one works, right? (Although, I tend to be more honest than humble.) Anyway...

IMHO, the most sound and relevant advice comes from our living prophets. But, occasionally, I also take advice from John Bytheway, my friend Stephanie, and even, drum roll please, my mother. Here's what I've taken to heart:

• Living prophets: Most recently, I'm taking advice from Elder Christofferson. In April, he counseled us "willingly to accept and even seek correction." Wow. Just accepting it is hard enough for me. Seeking it has been pretty much unheard of in my life. But I am taking his advice. Here's the link to his excellent talk.
• John Bytheway: Yep, I take advice from him too. And he says it's important to persevere. (I know lots of other great people have said this as well, but when he says it, it's also funny.) So we've been trying to help our children learn to persevere and do hard things. We rode our bikes to Daniel's baseball game yesterday, which was hard work for Daniel. He complained some and got tired, but we kept encouraging him and he felt so good when he did it. Great advice.
• My friend Stephanie: One of her best qualities is honesty. And when I told her one reason I don't like asking other people for favors is because then I will need to do a favor in return (see, I was honest too), she said, "Okay. You need to work on that." Not a bossy rebuke or judgment, just a simple statement of fact. (This ties in nicely with Elder Christofferson's talk about chastening and correction.) And she's right. I should work on that. Serving others and being served is a pretty essential thing.
• My mom (see photo): Yes, mom, I do sometimes take your advice. Much more often now than as a teenager. One of my mother's axioms is "Talk till it's better." I think we've all come to love and appreciate this (or at least tolerate it) in my mom. She will talk about something till the cows come home, the fat lady is singing, she's blue in the face, and all avenues have been explored. But she will NEVER go to bed or go away until whatever it is has been resolved. I had that experience recently also. When someone dear to me was upset with me, I took my mom's advice and stayed until things were worked out. It wasn't easy. But mom was right--that was the best way to do it.

Thank goodness for trusted advisors. Since I now know I'm supposed to seek correction, anyone else have something to tell me?

Houdini and the Water Bill

I could also title this post, "How to have a stressful vacation." While our spring break trip was good in many ways, it was not relaxing. Worrisome things were happening back at the homestead. I had asked my very kind and generous neighbor to care for our cat while we were away. I hated to ask her this favor, but I was out of options. We left on a Tuesday evening and I told my neighbor we would just make sure Mako (the cat) was inside with plenty of food before we left, which he was, and that way she wouldn't need to do anything for him until Wednesday morning.

See the photo above? That's what he was doing when we left. Several eyewitnesses saw him calmly bathing himself right before we closed the door and departed. All was well.

That night, right before I got into bed, I found a text from my neighbor saying that she had seen that Mako was on the front porch that evening, so she came over and took him inside. She had to carry him because he wouldn't go in. I read her text around 1:30am her time, so I couldn't call her to say, "That can't be Mako! He was inside when we left." There is another cat in the neighborhood that looks like him, so all night I had nightmares of this other cat hurting Mako (who is missing some key defensive weapons--front claws*) or WORSE, hurting my house--carpet, furniture, etc. Eric and I laughed about it, but still worried. A lot.

The next morning we texted back and forth and she sent me a photo labeled, "This is the cat I'm taking care of." It was definitely Mako. Whew! Felt better. But it's a mystery how he got out. Again...eyewitnesses. One of them pretty reliable.

Oh...and Mako also left cat waste products in the dining room for my neighbor to clean up. Three times. So thoughtful of him. Eric is hoping he has a short life span.

Two days later, another text from my neighbor. She had discovered our water was on outside in the backyard, along with the river it had created, and wanted to warn me that the water bill might be scary. It was, in fact, most frightening. $250!!! And we don't even know who to yell at. Of course, both the boys assure us it was not them. Naturally.

Those hidden costs of vacation can really get you.

*Just FYI, we did not de-claw Mako, he came to us that way. Though, I think Eric is considering yanking out the back claws now as well.