We considered it, but ultimately we just couldn't do it. It would have been with the U of U and we would have lived in the avenues maybe. But all our grandchildren are here on the east coast and we just didn't want to uproot ourselves.
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I think it is so cool that my sons are fathers and uncles and their children are first cousins. The card said something like"happy holidays from proud grandparent msmom and drdad." This year we managed to get the entire family in one picture, but that only happens every few years.
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While the rest of the nation is waiting to see "The Fighter" it is being specially offered at the Lowell cinema where our family attends the movies. There are no other posters up at the theater - only "The Fighter." It was playing on most screens every half hour, pretty well sold out every time. (We ended up seeing "Unstoppable.") It was filmed in Lowell and I
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Since the first time I told this story, quite a bit has changed. Second son is a husband and father now. His two year old son is missing his daddy this holiday season. He is on his fourth Air Force deployment. So the story is perhaps more poignant. The New York rellies are in much better health these days. And Flattop (who encouraged me to write this and save it) hasn't been seen on the boa
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If you are reading this for the first time - sharing news from my UU church in Chelmsford MA is my celebration of NOT being LDS! First Parishioners are in high holiday gear! Next Sunday is the pageant, “The Tailor of Gloucester.” The entire RE program is devoted to producing, directing, and performing this pageant. Youngest son (an RE graduate) and a team of middle school youth have b
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Fortunately they didn't work and she was able to stop at 7. A convert family in her ward had a family member post on this board. Eventually the whole family left, thanks in part to some really crazy testimony from this very person. Remember the benson cartoon of an African family standing outside a dwelling consistent with their locale? The bemused dad is holding a white baby with a bow stu
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n/t
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No, I didn't see it. I haven't been active in the cult since 1988 and I haven't really believed since 1985. Blinded? Absolutely. I had decided I wanted the church to be true and so I would do my best to make it true. But then, I didn't want to raise my children with guilt and fear and Joseph Smith's history really screamed "cult" to me. So we left before the water from his bapti
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excellent rant too! My sympathies to you and warmest wishes for your family over the holidays - I hope the joys of being together far outweigh the craziness.
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Aunt and I had decided we would only make turkey, green beans and mashed potatoes and keep the meal simple. But when I got there she had stuffing ingredients!!! And rutabagas because "Nana (her mother) always made turnips." "Even though no one ate them?" I asked. My mother said she would eat them. So somehow I peeled and chopped them ("Oh darling, my injured should
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I started them out in their cribs, but after the first middle of night nursing, I nursed them in my bed and we both fell asleep. Safety hazard I know, but they are all adults now and not too terribly neurotic so I guess it was ok! Still - what if you woke up to find you had suffocated your baby? I dunno, as a mom, if the baby so much as wiggled I did wake up, but I also know there are horror s
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We go down there several times a year - usually packed with family stuff, but we could get free for coffee or lunch some time - or come meet us in Boston any time. mksnow@comcast.net
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I am glad to hear the female cousin is at least in school anyway. Maybe she will see through the BS when she has a BS. Returning to college as a wee mommy morgbot certainly opened my eyes to the reality around me and I was able to leave the cult. (And the college I went to was BYU!)
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I’m not saying my family is more fun than mormon families (no, wait, yes I am) – but my oldest son thinks we extend family closeness to an extended generational status that is at a level unusual in most families. Thanksgiving was at my aunt’s house near DC. A helluva drive for us MA folk (me and drdad, youngest son and my mom), but only three hours each of driving for oldest son and hi
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Sounds like she really put Grandma in her place. This may give her more pause for thought than anything else. I mean nursery?? That's just not that tough to get a substitute!
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I love their sundaes. We did even better time (just under 9 hours) on the homeword trip.
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I am driving from Boston to DC tomorrow. Lots of family good times at the journey's end. No snow forecasted here so that's a mercy! I'll pray for you guys in the blizzard if you pray for all of us on the New Jersey turnpike. (This time I am buying the tee shirt!)
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If you can avoid leaving the gate area - avoid it. Tough if your luggage was checked and has been released, you have to fetch it and then try to get it through security again. It is much safer closer to the gates. Apparently there are some evil doers who take advantage of just such situations to steal bags and other stuff from those who are stuck on the public side of security. Start aski
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Our OWL "textbook" is Changing Bodies Changing Lives. It is an excellent resource for any teenager.
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My First Parish involvement this week had nothing to do with Sunday church attendance. On Monday night the “Voices of Light” chorale, of which I am a member met in the sanctuary to rehearse some upcoming gigs. We were formed specifically to sing as a service project rather than to sing at services. Once a month we perform at a local nursing home or hospice or place that might actually
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We were seriously questioning our faith and he talked in confidence to our bishop (LOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO plop - that is me laughing my head off about ANYTHING you tell a mormon being "in confidence.") So shortly after the confidential discussion a member of some council of gossips or other says to drdad, all priesthoodly concerned, "Brother, can you tell me what is wrong? There i
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Alcoholism was more prevalent in the women. They were completely ok all day long. They got dinner on the table, cleaned it up and then hit the bottle until they passed out. They were sloppy drunks until sleep overtook them though. Best to just keep out of their way. (Better to make an intervention and convince them that they were hurting all of us and needed help, but no one ever did. One o
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I looked them up on anywho for a Chelmsford address. Maybe I should stop by and invite them to church with me!
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I hope you are still planning that book. It is a riveting story, beautifully told. (I know you have said that the writing was cathartic for you and that was enough, but I learned so much about adoption and also about myself as I related to all your posts a few years ago.) I wish I was a book agent or publisher who could offer you an advance. All I can say is I am an avid reader and I don't
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Thanks for your email. I thought I would say something here to top your post. I hope you and some brits get to meet!
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When was that? I keep my eye out for his son because I would love to walk up to a stranger to say, "Does your dad manage the groundskeeping at Brigham Young University?"
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Last month Drdad and I traveled to Utah from New England for the exmo conference. We arrived early on Friday, rented a car and drove down to Utah valley to revisit our early history. We took a walk at the BYU campus. We went over to the walkway kind of near where the health center used to be (maybe it is still there). Uh - the far side of campus near the pizza place. Wow - very much impr
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I remember sitting under the table clutching the phone talking to the woman down the street desperate to keep the conversation going so I wouldn't have to talk to my three children age 4 and under (I was 24). Then I pulled myself together and went back to school (At BYU actually, but it was out of the house.)
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I harbor a vision of saying just the perfect thing that will make a mormon stop and think, but I have no idea what that would be. There are 2 times when I am called upon for a quick speech in explanation of my beliefs. One is when a mormon, having discovered BYU on my resume, asks me what ward I am in. My short answer is "I'm not LDS." But I usually want them to know more so I add
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I loved it that you explained your turning down a "calling" was to have adequate time for your immediate family. BTW - how are THEY taking it? Extended family can cause you distant pain, but how are the people you live with holding up?
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