My interview Thanks Dani!

My sweet friend Dani, has a kind of a tag going on right now. She was interviewed by someone and she offered to send interview questions to any of her friends that wanted to do the same.

So here are the questions that she sent me. Answered to the best of my ability.

1. if you had to live in a state other than Washington, where would you like to live and why???

This is hard. The only other State I've ever lived in was Utah. Plus when my daughter Heidi and her family lived there we visited them a few times, and enjoyed it.

The thing is I don't want anyone to think I would want to live there because I'm a Mormon.

That's actually one of the drawbacks for me.

The other thing is that Utah is Republican central.

I'm afraid that they wouldn't have very good programs to benefit Shawn like they do here in Washington. Sometimes it's good to live in a slightly liberal State.

Oh shut up, Donald.


2. It's time to let your light shine, what talent do you have that you have been hiding under a proverbial "bushel"???is it a talent you enjoy, or do you just see it as work???

I wouldn't say I've hidden it under a bushel, as much as I've just lost a bit of interest.

And that would be sewing.

Sewing used to be one of my favorite activities, and now it's become somewhat chore like.

The thing is though, that I still love to design and come up with ideas for really darling things to make.

For myself as well as my grandaughters.

I actually enjoy it once I get into it. I guess I just mostly don't like the DRUDGERY of cutting it all out.


3. i know you enjoy dining out... what is your favorite restaurant, where is it located, and what is your favorite dish???

This one is kinda hard as well .

I just don't like most food anymore. Especially meat, which I used to love.

I still really like dining out in theory.

It's just that by the time I order and get my food, it doesn't look, smell, or taste good to me.
Sometimes (more often than I care to admit to) I go home and throw it all up.

Hey you wanted honesty, I give you honesty.


4. if you had one (and only one) non material wish/prayer, what would it be???

Now you didn't say that it couldn't be a wish for something impossible.

Did you?

Alright,
I would wish for every single child that was born, to go to loving, capable, attentive parents, who not only had the resources to take care of all of their children, and by this I don't mean they have to be wealthy, but to have at least the bare minimum of material substances, it would take to raise a child in a happy well adjusted way to adulthood. I feel that if this dream could be realized, that crime would mostly disappear. The gangs would no longer exist, Terrorists would become nothing more than a scary story and the world could finally know Peace.

Sadly I do realize how impossible this is.

But I can always hope.


5. what is the nicest thing a non family member has ever done for you??? have you, since, ever done the same for another???

Hmm, Oh I know!
Years and years ago, I knew this wonderful woman named Eva Gubler. She was around my mom's age. She is one of the kindest and most Christ like people I have ever known.

Well, at the time I had my five children and they were still all quite young. One of them, I think it was either Heidi or Courtney, I do remember it was one of my daughters,.well she was really sick and it was obvious that she needed more than just over the counter medicine.

It was a time when we were down to one car. We had made some dumb financial mistakes and suffice it to say that for several months that year we were not prospering.

Eva called me to see if she could come visit me, (visiting teaching for those readers who are LDS) we got around to talking about my sick daughter. She was running a fever and I knew she had to see a doctor. The problem was, that even though we had fairly good insurance, we had not met any of our deductible yet for the year.

Eva told me to make an appt. for her right away, while she was there. She told me that she would drive me to the doctor's. I was so embarrassed because I didn't want to admit that I had no money to pay for a doctor visit and certainly not enough to pay for medicine either.

I started to cry and she dragged the truth out of me.

She gave me a great big hug, and told me that, that was the one thing I was not to worry about. She told me that she had her own private little savings account that with her husband's blessing she had set up for herself.

She told me that she would pay for everything no matter how much it was.

I don't think I can possibly state enough the overwhelming relief and love I felt at that moment.

I told her I would pay her back as soon as I possibly could.

She told me that she never wanted to hear another word about being paid back. She told me that someone had done something similar for her when she was a young mother herself.

All that person had told her was "I don't want you to pay me back. I just hope that someday you can do the same for someone else." Well I was her someone else. I also inadvertently found out that she had done basically the same thing for other someone elses.

I have never forgotten that act of love and I never will.

And I have been able to carry on her love.

I wrote about this in a previous post so I will keep this as short as possible.

One day a few months ago, I raced to City Hall to pay my water bill before they closed for the weekend.

I had forgotten all about it.

I got there in time, much to my relief. The woman who had been in front of me got up to the teller. She was really sad and obviously stressed to the max. It came out that she was quite over due and her water was set to be shut off that day if she didn't at least pay the minimum due right then.

She had sixty dollars in cash and that was all. She still needed I think around 29 dollars or so.

I could see that the teller hated to have to be the bad guy but she had to tell the lady that her water would be turned off. And when that happened she would have to pay another fee to have it turned back on, and that would be on top of the amount she already owed.

I wanted to step forward and offer to pay it for her, but I didn't want to embarrass her that we others in line could hear what was going on.
I waited for her to leave, she was in tears.

I stepped up to the teller and asked her as quietly as I could if I could pay the amount that was left.

She smiled and told me that yes I certainly could. She was so excited to not have to send orders to turn off the lady's water. It felt so good to know that I could help someone who was in such a desperate situation. The teller wanted to know my name so she could give it to the lady when she called to tell her the good news. I told her no. I said "just tell her it's someone who has been there before.

Someone who knows how scary it is to be in that sort of situation.

I just felt so happy that day knowing what a difference I had made in someone else's life.

Well Dani, this completes my interview. Thanks for the lovely questions, I have enjoyed answering them all. If anyone wants me to send them questions for their own interview, send me an e-mail and I'll try to get them to you soon.

A Slight Correction: In question #3, I hope I didn't give the impression that I make myself throw up. Trust me I am not bulimic by any stretch of the imagination. I try really hard not to puke. It's just that I can't stop thinking about what I ate. And from there it escalates to my stomach feeling shakier and shakier and try as I might sometimes there is nothing I can do. It just comes up in spite of everything.

Trust me. This is NO fun!