Embarrassing Loss

I am vigilant about taking "the pill." Right before I got married, I forgot to bring my birth control with me shopping. When I realized my mistake, I was frazzled. I sped to meet my kind dad in a random parking lot, so he could give me my prescription. As you can see, birth control is no joke to me.

I have an alarm set on my phone and it goes off daily. In case you're wondering, I do adjust the time I take my pill with day-light savings for added security. Even my kids are aware of my "medicine." Just yesterday, I heard James say it was time for my "birth control." I didn't know he was familiar with that phrase. Some of my friends casually say, "oh, I just take the pill when I get ready for bed and the time varies every night." If you can live like that, more power to you! 

Right before Christmas, I was frantically packing presents and an overnight bag to go to my parent's house. There was a lot to do. I took my pill that morning (at 11:30am to be precise), but later couldn't find it anywhere. My little container of pills should be in one of two places: a basket on our kitchen table, or a specified pocket in the diaper bag. I searched and cleaned and prayed. Nothing. I had Andrew look. No luck. I checked everywhere... the trunk of my car, the piano, shoes, the dryer, you name it. I don't typically lose things and this was frustrating for me. Eventually, I decided to get a new prescription. 

Fast forward about 2 weeks (I had nearly forgotten about the said missing pills) and I got a phone call from an unknown number. Luckily, I answered. It was a librarian. "We found some medication in one of the books you returned. I think it's birth control. Is it missing?" Talk about humiliating and random! What were my pills doing for 2 weeks? I know books go into quarantine when you return them, but it's only for a couple of days... And how could my pills possibly have ended up in one of my books!?

I was thrilled knowing that a month of my birth control pills didn't go to waste... I can push off my annual OBGYN appointment one more month which is a big win. I was less thrilled about going to retrieve my pills at the library. I went while James was in preschool, so I didn't have to explain myself and answer endless questions. I think I can confidently say Izzy was oblivious to what went on.

When I walked into the library, a nice man dashed ahead of me to hold the door open for me. I had seen him get out of a fancy, extremely expensive car in the parking lot. (I wanna say a Porsche, but it was way out of my league, so who knows?) It turns out that we both needed to talk to a librarian and I was now first, since he so graciously opened the door. He was definitely within earshot when the librarian, Ms. Valerie asked, "What can I help you with?" I shyly said: "I'm here to pick up something from the lost and found." When she asked me what, I froze. I didn't want to admit with this man right next to me that I desperately needed my birth control pills. Fortunately, I eventually said: "Someone called and said I left some medication and it should be labeled with my name." 

Ms. Valerie returned with a sly grin on her face and my pills in her hand. I've never fled the library so quickly. Of all the librarians it could have been, why did it have to be her!? I know Ms. Valerie the best. She is the "wee-read" story-time teacher and we were faithful attendees pre-covid. Will our next encounter be awkward? Of course. Will she ever forget? Doubtful.

Backup about a year or so and I was juggling mom life with 2 young kids. We were at story-time and I was flustered passing out fruit snacks and trying to prevent tears. On our way into the library, we returned some books. We were finally somewhat situated and semi quiet next to friends awaiting the start of story-time. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, UNTIL... A librarian came into the room holding up one of the books I'd just returned. She came over to me and said I left my bookmark inside the book. She noticed that it had some personal passwords and information on it, so she didn't just want to throw it away. I was mortified. You better believe I made a special folder labeled passwords later that day. I also now have a dedicated book mark, so that will never happen again. Although, who am I to say? Apparently birth control pills make a great bookmark.

The library is an integral part of my life, but now it has become an intimate part of my life. Birth control pills, passwords, and who knows what else can be found there? Next time something goes missing, I know where I'll look first. And I hope it's something less awkward than birth control..

Bring on 2021!

Looking back over my resolutions for 2020 is insightful. There were some fails, but also some successes. No, I didn't start kneeling for my prayers. Oops. But, I killed my reading goal to finish 30 books. I read 56. Big surprise here--I didn't floss all 365 days last year. I did read the second volume of Saints though. I meant to earn credits to renew my teaching license, but that didn't happen either. I did write birthday cards to Andrew's family (ages 8 and up) and I'm going to give myself a big pat on the back for that one. It was a lot.... 40 cards if I counted correctly. In addition, I also wrote birthday postcards to the primary children (and teachers) in our ward. Please note that this year I did not make a goal relating to cards. I'm the one who suggested the primary birthday postcards and this year I happily suggested boxed cereal.

Resolutions are all about change and becoming better though, not being perfect. I definitely wasn't perfect in completing all of my goals. I can confidently say that I am a better person though which is why I want to give this goal-setting thing another whirl. Here they are, broken down into categories for your convenience:

Spiritual:
1. Listen to a Come Follow Me Podcast each week.
2. Read the Doctrine and Covenants.
3. Make scripture study a priority. Read my scriptures BEFORE allowing myself to read a leisurely book.
4. Read the book "Saints" volume 3. (It's expected to come out this year, but there isn't a release date yet.)
5. Use a hard copy of my scriptures instead of my phone, so I'm less distracted during my study. 

Personal:
1. Surround myself with positive, uplifting friends and people.
2. Worry less about what others think. 
This is hard for me. I delete so many "Marco Polo's" because I stress far too much that I said the wrong thing and I don't ever want to upset anyone. Even writing a book review on Goodreads worries me because I don't want to hurt the feelings of the person who recommended the book.
3. Blog at least twice a month.

Physical:
1.Run Strawberry Days (or another 5k) and get a PR.
2. Figure out my hurt knee, so it doesn't hold me back.

Educational:
1. Earn points towards renewing my teaching license. Sub or take a class. 
(Repeat goal from last year...) I will definitely be doing this though. If my professors in college taught me one thing, it was to never let my license lapse. Knowing that I have a teaching license helps provide peace of mind. Who knows if I'll ever need to start working.
2. Read 55 books and rate them.
Rate them and not care about others judgements. 
3. Read the second book in the Mistborn series By: Brandon Sanderson. (This is for you, Andrew!)

I don't know if I've ever seen Andrew as happy as when I was reading "Mistborn." He has been wanting me to read this book for ages and loved discussing it (and looking over my shoulder as I was reading it). Fantasy isn't my favorite. I actually thought it was well-written and that the characters were really interesting. It did have more magic info than I ever wanted to know though.

Joint:
1. Do family scripture study and prayer each morning.
2. Use Mint regularly.
3. Buy a new house?
4. Go on a vacation to somewhere other than WA or to see family.
5. See a play at Tuacahn. 
For Christmas in 2019, I got Andrew tickets to go see "The Count of Monte Cristo." We were scheduled to go in July and it was cancelled. We rescheduled for September and it was cancelled again (understandably). Hopefully Andrew will finally be able to use his gift!
6. Read a book together.
7. Get a treadmill. 
Andrew says this isn't a resolution which is true and made me laugh. I'm leaving it on here though because I want it to happen.
8. Work on family history together once a month.

James:
These are adorable.
1. Learn how to draw an airplane.
2. Learn how to write my name.
3. Learn how to ride a bike without training wheels.

We are going to print out our goals this year and put them in a place we see regularly, so we forget less of them. Here's to 2021! Bring it on!