Wednesday, May 27, 2015

I am in an English class. Do not ask why - just laugh and move on. I will say I am happy about it only because the last class I was in was math....and, well, um..... yep! I'm glad I'm in english now. So, we had to write an "I Believe This" paper. Here is mine. My teacher suggested that I post it somewhere - on facebook - Yeah - NO! But I thought this might be a safe place to put it since I only have my fellow family members as followers. So, read, enjoy. 



Rebecca DeWitt                                                                                                          DeWitt 1
Sister Black
English 106
13 May 2015
                                                            Jigsaw Junkie
            What makes people believe deeply in something? Is it the way parents raised us? Can it be a discovery of our own findings? Could a belief come to fruition from trials that cause us to see, understand, and then possess this conviction? I’m sure we find our own beliefs through many different avenues. My belief in the power of puzzles is totally parent-taught.
            Call me a jigsaw puzzle-freak. Seriously, I cannot stop doing them, and I’m okay with this.  I am addicted, and I don’t think I will, or even want, to deny myself this “fix.” To you outside of my world, with little knowledge of the draw of an addiction, I can only yell the words, “Yes, I am a puzzle freak!” This is my belief.
            Growing up we always had a jigsaw puzzle set up in our home. It would usually take over our dining room table forcing us to use our wooden folding TV trays.  Our TV trays were well worth the money we used to purchase them at our local FedMart (an equivalent to WalMart). My mother, the lover of puzzles, would regularly bring home new ones that contained the snow-capped mountain puzzles with a flowering field in the foreground. Or a cityscape, where lined-up brick houses had dogs in the grass and cars parked on the streets in front of their well-kept homes. There, on the table our puzzle would lie, teasing us with the sense that we could find just one more piece before bedtime – or better yet, to try and finish the blue house with the little white shutters. The different color shaped pieces, which lay outside of the completed square or rectangle edging, all beckoned us to;  “Come, touch me, pick me up, and find my rightful home.” My father, the puzzle-avoider, usually found other things to do.                                                                                     For birthday gifts, I would ask for puzzles. As my age grew in years, so did my desire for larger, more difficult puzzles. On my 12th birthday, I was given 2 beautiful puzzles – one with a completely black cat with its green eyes staring straight at me and just a few of the whiskers reflecting the camera flash. The second, was just the opposite - a snow-white cat with blue eyes; no whiskers detected, but its pink nose a standout from the fluffy cotton ball of a cat. Difficult was a mild adjective for these two puzzles. I worked on them for weeks.
            Each individual piece of a puzzle is so peculiar. Each must find where it fits in ‘its’ complex world. The  ‘innies’ and ‘outies’ of their individual shapes, and the different colors, all yell at me and give me clues, each trying to tell me where it is to be  placed in the arena of the confining barrier of the edges.
            I’ve learned over the years that our brains use both sides in solving puzzles; the right side – for creativity and intuitiveness, and the left side for logic and sequence. Crossword puzzles are included too! Participating in puzzles of all kinds not only sharpens our memory but makes us more alert and increases our concentration among other benefits. As a bonus, doing mind games can help slow the onset of Alzheimer’s.

            So my belief is this, puzzles are a necessity of life. They are an escape of the daily grind. The mundane things that I have to do every day seem to lose their distaste because I know I have my “fix” coming. My puzzles need me, and I need them.  

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Today I visited the second sister that I VT.  I walked again today, just like yesterday.  I didn't find anything interesting to photograph.  And the total distance today was, 0.06 miles.  Yep, 2 houses down and across the street.  So, since that was so boring I thought I'd share a few pictures with you - We went to Florida for Christmas and got to spend time with Celynda, Brian and family!


 Little Joslyn......
                And I do NOT know what Allan was doing in this photo......
 The guys activities while on the beach
                                                                        The girls activities.....





Super cute couple!

Allan and Shannon 

Lukas and Brookie trying to do the same....
 Okay, this was so funny.  There were these squirrels that would come down from the tree and grab food right out of your hand but you had to lay super still for them to come. Luke, Brook and Roxy were all laying there and Celynda came and put baby Joslyn there just for the picture!  It was too funny.  If you look close you can see the squirrel coming down but never came too close with all the kids together. Eventually, all of the kids, even Shannon and Allan, had a piece of food taken from them by the squirrels.


This is one of our family Christmas photos. We are still working on a Family Newsletter but we are now aiming for Valentine's Day.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Today I went walking - wait, what? You went where? doing what?  Yep.  I had a Visiting Teaching appointment and I knew it wasn't that far, so I decided to walk.  I took my phone for 'just in case'.
And guess what I found......yes, I can see that is NOT a natural heart - but what they heck!  A heart, in the gutter, as I walk to my VT lady!  What a fun surprise. And the walk was a little bit more than I had thought....1.7 miles.  But I need to start sometime to get back into walking or riding my bike.  I have a trip planned for NY soon and since we can't afford a car rental (the hotel 'parking' fee is $50 night!!!), we will be doing a LOT of walking to the sites. We seemed to have gotten a pretty centrally located hotel and the furthest thing from us will be the Statue of Liberty, so we might splurge on a taxi for that outing. Other sites we want to see......Mood Fabrics.....yep! the famed material store of Project Runway!  And I'll only have $100 for a 30 minute shopping spree! (ha ha). Also, Central Park, Manhattan Temple, Empire State Building, Trump Tower, Times Square, Kleinfeld wedding dress shop! And we are about 4 blocks from the Theater District....not that we can afford a show, but maybe they have rehearsals you can sit in on!  So, today was the beginning of a walking regimine to get me ready for walking in the cold and icy NY sidewalks!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

I'm a pinterester....?  is that what I'd be called?  I'm not sure. Maybe if I break it down into categories I do understand, I can figure it out.   If I live in Arizona, I'm an Arizonian.  Does that makes me a pinterestian.  I live in the city of Mesa and we are called Mesans.  So, maybe I'm a pinterestan.  If my lineage comes from Israel...I'd be a Israelite....right?  So, could I be called a pinterestite?  Or an pinterestaholic....um, pinterestess.....pinterestologer?

I'm confused with what I am, so I'll just say I LOVE PINTEREST!  

Today instead of pinning -.......um, okay.  I think I already did some 'looking' this morning and possibly some 'pinning' - but after I did that, I decided to finish a project from my 'Crafts To Do' board that I had started a while back.


  Open this link for the original pin.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/92042386105708827/

As you can see I wanted a blue umbrella.  My color preference.  I used water color pencils!  Have you ever used them?  They are really amazing.  Water color pencils rock!

Anyway, this was my 'wasted time' project for today.  At least when hubby asks what I did all day, I'll have something to show him!   I'm not in love with it, but it was fun and I'll be doing more!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

I can't believe it's been January that I've posted!  It's not that my life has been 'unbusy' - just the opposite!  And I noticed in my last post it said "Washington - part 1".  Well, I can't seem to find the part two pictures and videos I will put on someday, but for today you get a few picture recaps of the Mesa High School's wonderful play; Hello, Dolly.  Really an outstanding play put on by the kids and drama faculty!














Friday, January 24, 2014

Washington DC Trip - part 1

I'll try to make this brief, but sadly, it might not be.  For Shannon and Allan's Christmas gift, we decided to go somewhere instead of buying them things that were not needed.....games/clothes/etc.!  So on New Years Eve, we took a 1am flight to Washington DC, getting in there at 7am.  Crazy?  Yep.  

Arlington Cemetery.  This was a pretty impressive wax guy.  
Funny picture of the scout uniforms in 1922- See Allan, scouts even had flag duty back then!
It was really amazing to see all of the headstones.

It was SOOO cold!!!  I'm not joking!
One of the days we were here was so cold that they high was 22 degrees!!!!!
I took this picture as they were changing the guards and the other folks - all 5 of them, did not appreciate the little camera sound.

So guess what we Arizonans did when we saw ice on the ground -.....yep!...  Walk on it and break it!





After renting our car, went straight to the Cemetery and then that evening, although exhausted, we went to a play at the Kennedy Arts Center called; Shear Madness.  It has been running 24 years!!!  It was cute and we all enjoyed ourselves.  Kind of an interactive play where they ask the audience to participate with questions that they ask.  

After the play we drove to the Lincoln Memorial.  





And of course stepping out of the Lincoln Memorial we viewed the Washington Monument, which we found out the next day, that it was closed due to renovations from a small earthquake.  Hmm.....earthquake?  Should I be nervous.  Our hotel room is up pretty high.


And Allan found something funny to do.  Oops, he went the wrong way the first time.....he had to do it again of course!!!
See his gloves?  Those are texting gloves.....one of his pre-Christmas gifts.....to get him excited about the upcoming trip.
On Thursday, we got to go to the Washington DC Temple and do baptisms!  And the unique part is that they actually take you into THE temple and down a few hallways where there are some gorgeous paintings.  They explained that the kids, or those with just a baptism recommend, are interviewed and found worthy to be IN the temple and so they take them a new route that lets the kids see the beauty of the temple.  We were there with another family from Michigan.  It was nice.  When we first arrived you could not even see the spires. It was so foggy - really neat.  By the time we came out.....well, you can see for yourself....simply beautiful!






Tossing his hat




this is just a 'tease' picture for my next blog.