Weather

I've been taking a religion course online called "Teachings of the Living Prophets." The assignment I'm working on right now consists of writing a biography for each member of the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency. It's interesting for me to learn about each of these men and realize that I have something in common with all of them. I'm really enjoying that I can connect myself personally with each of them. When I was reading through information about Elder Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve I found this quote and realized that this was exactly what I needed to hear today.

He said: "I had built a barn at our home in Lindon, Utah. I wanted to paint it, but because I traveled a lot for the seminaries I was seldom home on a Saturday. When the first free Saturday did come so I could paint, it rained. I declared my independence from the weather that day and painted the barn in the rain. I decided that I was not going to let the weather dictate what I was going to do that day or any day. I took the philosophy, let it rain, I got here first. I used to tell the missionaries in the New England States Mission that if they had nothing more than the weather to which to attach their dispositions, they were a yo-yo, going up and down all the time. I have been a lot happier since I declared my independence from the weather."

Isn't that amazing? That's exactly what I need to do, but then I looked at weather.com today. It's hard to keep a positive attitude with a ten-day forecast like this... in June! They don't have this problem in Utah very often... or at least me thinking that makes me feel better.

Forecast for Lake Stevens, WA

10-Day Forecast Day Forecast

High /Low (°F) Precip. %

Today Jun 03 Rain 55°/48° 90 %

Wed Jun 04 Showers 58°/46° 40 %

Thu Jun 05 Few Showers 59°/49° 30 %

Fri Jun 06 Showers 55°/49° 40 %

Sat Jun 07 Showers 56°/49° 50 %

Sun Jun 08 Mostly Cloudy 56°/48° 20 %

Mon Jun 09 Few Showers 60°/50° 30 %

Tue Jun 10 Few Showers 61°/49° 30 %

Wed Jun 11 Showers 59°/48° 30 %

Thu Jun 12 Showers 62°/51° 60 %

What's with all of the different words for rain anyway? They say rain, showers, and few showers on some days trying to get our hopes up that it might be nice for at least a little while. Of course they throw in one day that's supposedly going to be mostly cloudy but it still has a 20% chance of precipitation so it's quite possible we'll have rain that day too. Really I don't mind the rain most of the time but this is getting ridiculous. I just want to be able to go out and enjoy the sunshine. The saddest thing to me is when Preston goes over to the door or the window and cries because he wants to go play in the grass. Too bad it's freezing cold and not to mention SOAKING WET outside! My poor baby, deprived from a decent summer his first year of life. :(

At least one good thing is coming out of this my Cala Lily suddenly came back to life and sprouted (is that the word?) a new flower! See I'm being positive. :)I thought for sure it was a goner, wouldn't you if you saw this?

So I guess what Elder Packer is trying to tell us is that the good and the bad can live in harmony, if we choose to do so, just like my Cala Lily.

I guess I just need to try harder to be as simple as a plant.