Sunday morning I attended Welfare Meeting. Between Welfare and Sacrament Meeting, I was standing in the hall and a man, all dressed in white, came running in with a small 4-year old boy in tow.

He came up to me and said, "Is this the place where they have church for children?"

I told him we did have a meeting for children and he replied, "Good, then I will leave him here. What time do you finish so I can come and pick him up?"

I said--in total shock--"We finish at noon."

He replied that he would return at noon and leaned over to the boy and say "Give me a kiss mija." The boy gave him a kiss and he left with me standing there in charge of a strange 4-year old boy I knew nothing about.

I took his hand and told him to stay with me, asked his name (Damon) and introduced him to the Primary President, Sister Faller.

We went to Sacrament meeting together and, being the good grandma that I am, I had candy in my purse to entertain him. Sister McFall asked him if he had any breakfast and he told her he had a muffin. She gave him an energy bar, which he saved for later.

He was very obedient and behaved during the meeting, though he was bored. I kept thinking, "I hope I haven't just adopted a 4 year old boy." His teacher, Sister Mickelson, was sitting behind me and told me she would be sure he got to all the right places.

I asked him who brought him, "Was it your grandpa?"
"No."
"Was it your Dad?"
"No."
"Who was it?"
"Never mind" and he shut his eyes.
"Where do you live?"
"Far away"
"What is your Mother's name?"
"Never mind" and he shut his eyes again.

Oh, my, I think I may have just adopted a 4-year old boy.

During the meeting he noticed he was not wearing any socks and then checked to see if he was wearing underpants--he was, trauma averted.

After Primary started I walked out into the hall and saw the man who brought him pacing back and forth as if he was looking for Damon. I stopped him and introduced myself. He was quite embarrassed that he had not even found out my name when he dropped off the boy and wanted the check and be sure he was okay. His name was Rick and he was Damon's uncle. He gave me a little personal information about Damon's family which I won't put here, but it was an interesting story.

Man, was I relieved.

We walked to the Primary door and looked in through the window and saw Damon up in the front of the room with Sister Faller. They were singing the Hello song to him. Rick was ecstatic and thanked me and said he would be back at noon to pick up Damon and then this..."If he has a good time, I will bring him every week."

I'm thinking..."and who are you going to leave him with?" but I didn't say that.

After the meetings, I went to the classroom for the 4-year old children and found Damon just finishing a picture that said, "I want to hold the Priesthood." He was so excited and couldn't wait to show his uncle the picture. I guess the uncle will find out very quickly what he is learning at the place were they have church for children.

So, Rick picked up Damon--Damon jumped up and down with excitement because he had so much fun--Rick said, "see you next week"--I realized the sign on my forhead that said "sucker" was flashing--all in all it was a great day.

Tamales homemade by Jackie Harrison. I'm in the holiday spirit now.

You remember Papa's Grow Sticks? Of course you do, how could you forget something so important to me? Well, we finally found a lumber source in Springerville, Arizona. They custom cut them for us and every stick is from a forest conservation project so we are not not only made in the USA, we are green.

This is Charlie, he is loading 700 pieces of lumber into the pickup we rented for the trip.

That's a lot of lumber. We are going to be very busy.

See how neatly it is stacked.

Whoa, it looks a little crooked. Watch out Tarzan...

Do you think that pickup can hold a load like this?

Tarzan looks a little worried.

Those straps are ingenious. We thought we were going to have to unbundle it to get it in the truck.

Going doeoeoeown...See Charlie standing up to be sure it goes in the bed of the truck?

Tarzan is guiding it along...

Notice the wheel well...

Whoa, that is one heavy load. Not much space left in the wheel well.

Tarzan and Charlie are checking out the weight on the pickup...

We made it home but about 30 minutes into the drive home, we did have to stop and redistribute the weight of the lumber, see in the last picture how it is over to the left a bit? That made things real scary and having had another scary experience with weight shifting, we decided it was worth the effort to break down the bunch and redistribute the weight.

School has started and I am now in full swing with 200 students--yes I said two hundred. That means I have 200 papers to grade every week besides working full time, being Relief Society President and making Grow Sticks every day.

Blogging must wait. See ya now and then.

My friend and I have been laughing at our stupid behavior when visiting with different doctors and the stupid behavior of doctor’s offices and insurance companies and we are wondering if there are others who have stories to tell.

If you have an interesting story, please email it to me…grandberry at gmail dot com.

So, I went to the dermatologist to have a full body skin exam. There are a few things I’m concerned about that could be melanomas. There I am totally naked in the doctor’s office (except that silly little paper thing they give you) and he is doing the exam.

Me: I have had this bump on my arm that won’t go away and it has changed colors. I've had it for four months.
Doctor: That’s normal, probably a bug bite
WHAT I DON’T SAY BUT WANT TO: Are you crazy, a bug bit that lasts four months? That can’t be normal.

Me: I have these bumps on my scalp and my hair dresser tells me they look like moles (I find one and tell him where to look, he doesn’t touch it or part my hair to get a better look or anything. And my hair is clean--very clean and shiny)
Doctor: Yup, they are moles, that’s normal
WHAT I DON’T SAY BUT WANT TO: What do you mean they are normal, I have done the research and Google tells me that moles on the scalp can be precursors to melanoma. You need to look closely and be sure none of them are putting my life in danger.

I point out a few more things and then, he proceeds to check me out front and back, as I stand in the room wearing nothing but a smile and that silly paper thing they give you, and then...

Doctor: You have good skin, nothing unusual.
WHAT I DON’T SAY BUT WANT TO: The bumps and things I pointed out may all be normal, but not very sexy.
Me: Okay, thanks doctor
Doctor: I’ll see you in six months
Me: (total silence)

The doctor doesn’t even notice my silence and rushes off to earn his next $500 for a 10 minute exam.

Then I am sitting in my car—fuming—and I remember the wart on my stomach. I have a wart on my stomach the size of a tic tac, and he didn’t even notice that? I was going to have him freeze that right off, but he got me so frustrated that I didn’t even mention it and now, here I am with a very unsexy wart on my stomach…did I mention it is the size of a tic tac…and I am going to have to do the freeze job myself.

So, to recap, bump on my arm—no diagnosis (doctor visit of no value), moles on my scalp, diagnosed by my hair dresser (doctor visit of no value), wart on my stomach, unnoticed by doctor (doctor visit of no value).

And insurance paid for that…

For your information, the American Medical Association says that if you have moles on your scalp you should have pictures taken of them so you can compare and see if they change color or shape.

So, if you have a doctor story, I need it. I am collecting doctor stories. Not sure what I am going to do with them. In case I decide to publish them please include permission to use the story and if you want your name included with the story or not. Again, send them to grandberry at gmail dot com.

I don’t want the name of the doctor or insurance company, but if you have a doctor story or doctor experience or an insurance story of some kind. I am interested. Positive and negative stories are accepted.

Image from http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=1163