Let me tell you a tale of a terrible force,
Of my late night run-in with Demon Charlie, the Horse,
And the terror that coursed through my every leg vein,
In excruciating, thundering, terrible pain.
I was lying in bed, with dreams gently brewing,
Not minding what anything around me was doing,
I’d just kissed my wife, and wished her good night,
When came the most horrible, God-awful fright.
My leg seized a-sudden with dreadful death grip,
And paralysis set from my toe to my hip,
A knotting and twisting in the back of my calf,
I couldn’t move, but that wasn’t the half.
I let out a yelp, so my wife came awake,
She asked me, “What’s wrong? What sense can you make?”
I replied through gritting and clenched teeth and jaw,
“It’s the Demon Horse Charlie, and he’s killing me. AAAAAHHHHHH!”
When the answer came, “Stretch it out, stand on it, hurry!”
“But I can’t! Chuck Dog’s got me with all of his fury!”
To guard you against this great demon’s attack,
I’ll describe how you’d notice him and send him back,
He comes from a hell where they take pride in the fact,
They can torture man’s muscles with no sense of tact,
His long jet-black mane runs the length of his height,
And his blackness is camouflage in the night,
He’s most likely to sneak when you’ve worked or run hard,
And your muscles are weary and you’ve let down your guard,
He sneaks up the cover and up through your jammies,
And seizes your calf, or your thigh, or your hammies.
I warn you, beware Demon Charlie and pray,
That you don’t end up as I did, the end of that day,
Crippled and crumpled, the Charlie Horse debtor,
But, ten minutes later you’ll prob’ly be all better.
“Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had ‘never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.
‘This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.
Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened….Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, ’summer is nigh.’ Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat.”
- Elder Neal A. Maxwell
“Meeting the Challenges of Today” (given at Brigham Young University on October 10, 1978)
At 6:30pm for the past two months Jim has been giving me injections. The injections weren’t horrible and I got used to them after the first few but the last few that he gave stung and I was counting down until I didn’t have to have them anymore. It was a glorious day when I didn’t have to be poked anymore. Now I am down to just the prenatal vitamin too!
We went to our first doctor’s appointment away from the science center which went well. The doctor did another ultrasound to see for herself how the twinners were doing. They are growing right on track and look great. It took a while to measure one of them because she (Jim thinks it was Holly being so active) was moving around so much. Jim thinks JD is the more relaxed and chill baby. We shall see. We don’t have to do any prenatal testing, which we figured, but will go in for routine ultrasounds monthly to make sure they’re still doing good. The one thing that caught us by surprise was when the doctor said she recommended her patients who are having more than one to quit working at 24 weeks. We will see about that! I will just have to take it easy and ask for help more often. If all else fails I can use the electric wheelchair at work and give tours that way! The ultrasound pics from the Science Center were much better so sorry if you feel you are looking at blur. We did see the little heartbeats, which was exciting! They measure at 32 mm or almost 1.5 in. I get asked a lot at work how I am feeling and it is nice to say that I have only had two mornings of sickness! Lucky I know, the doctor even thought that was pretty amazing. I have to eat about every hour and a half otherwise I do start feeling queasy. I need to figure out something to bring to church with me too because 3 hours is just way to long! I have had to wake up a few times in the middle of the night to eat too.
The Hop-Twins are in full effect… yes you read correctly, we are having twins.
