each day an adventure in alaska: know your religion.....

todays walk took me back to kincaid park, another loop i always enjoy. a butt workout for sure! a loop around little campbell lake (otherwise known as beer can lake). these are pictures from the days 3+ mile walk with the dogs.

ate dinner with a few friends i know well and some other people i know less well. was relaying a tale of a person at work who tells you way more information than you want to know. i had mentioned to a co-worker during report that this person is strange and annoying. i really don't work with her, just see her coming and going. she's the type though that when you ask a polite, "how are you" she gives you the intimate details of her life. the other day she said she had to speak to me. turns out the reason wasn't medical at all. her ex-husband has converted to mormonism, found a mormon to marry and wants to take her to court to make mormonism the religion thier kids are raised in. yes, i was raised mormon, left in my early 20's so technically i've been out longer than i was in at this point.

so as i said i was relaying this at dinner and how concerned this woman is about her being forced by a judge possibly to accept this mormonism for her kids. i'm really not sure how the courts work on these things, nor have i ever been divorced or had kids. my only expertise is having been raised mormon. now i didn't leave without doing a great deal of research and by this i mean i read all the mormon books, the bible and history. i didn't go to anti mormon sites for my information when i was leaving the church. you are taught to not trust any of those sites. i left because i didn't believe what the church taught, i didn't like the culture of it, i didn't like the patriarchy of it, found the history and teachings flawed. it wasn't just one thing is what i'm saying, it was many things. the church believes itself to be the one and only true church on this earth and if you believe that...well i am going to hold you to a high standard.

apparently, the girl sitting next to me at dinner that i was less familiar with, is mormon. (she later said she hadn't been to church for a year or two). she stated that the only difference between mormonism and other mainstream christian religions is that mormons have the book of mormon. really, that is the only difference? i'm always amazed that people believe things without really having any clue what it is they believe...and then defend them. it's shocking really how clueless people can be. so i started to ramble off a list of major differences between the mormon religion and other mainstream christian churches. i'm not judging them for thier beliefs in this listing, just stating the facts. informing the clueless who are defending something and looking truely ignorant in my view.

this picture above was just to show how steep and deep a few of these hills are, doesn't do it justice.

anyway..a few differences are:
a. the godhead, mormons believe it is three seperate entities, others believe it's 3 entities, united as one being.
b. mormons believe in a pre-existence or pre-life
c. mormons believe they can babtize those who have died
d. mormons believe in sealing dead people together in marriage after they are dead
e. mormons believe that man may one day become gods and have thier own kingdoms
f. mormons believe that man will have multiple wives in the next life
g. mormons believe in continued revelations from god, to anyone
well, that is a start, i rattled off several of these. no matter how mainstream mormons wish to make themselves appear there are some very unique beliefs that only they believe.

if this co-workers kids embrace mormonism she will not be able to see her kids get married. i really had no advice. that is the bitch of divorce, you lose control over how your kids are raised half of thier lives at least. i suspect the judge will not get too involved but instead say something like on your week, the kids can go to your church, on his week they can go to his. it may be that since they were already probably baptized in a christian church that they will forgo being rebaptized mormon and have to make that decision on thier own when they reach adulthood. there isn't any magic thing i can tell her that will influence the judge. it's not an illegal religion, i just don't happen to believe it's doctrine.

was up cleaning up poop a few times last night. she seems to prefer to poop in this office at this point. she didn't even attempt to get me to take her out last night. i was just in bed watching a movie and heard the clickity clack of nails in here. brat! the amounts are decresing and the blood is gone really. she's on day 2 of bland diet. can't not feed her as she is hungry. she is still her active self. when to get worried and take further action? am a being a terrible dog mom taking a conservative approach. in december i was worried about rio, took her in and she had unnecessary surgery. i'd prefer to avoid that. no vomit, eating still, less blood. will keep monitoring for now...and going through a few rolls of paper towels and losing sleep.

was worried there would be a gift in the car as i left them in the car for a few hours while i did my hospital wide competencies. always a waste of time, though i am sure that doing it in this way will save the hosptial huge bucks. it was the first time they did it this way. not sure why they opted to do it during nurses week. at least give us a gift or something. anyway, no poop and no poop when i got home from dinner...i say there is hope. i would think if she had even a partial obstruction she would be feeling worse by now. hoping for the best for my pup. do love my dogs and would hate to have her be uncomfortable because of me.

hard to tell, but some of the trees out there had actual leaves almost!

for dinner we went to kobe, like a benehana's...they cook the food at your group table. i was a bit late as i had to run the dogs home, feed them and then head over.

all these trees remind me of the movie i watched last night. it's one i have had for several years and i really love it. "speak". about rape and how it impacts the victim. she has an art class and it was determined that for her semester she would just do trees, she'd been raped under a tree and had focused on the tree during her rape.

this is beer can lake. there is an older guy on the dock with his dog. i see him out there every summer. we generally chat for a bit. he fishes with the dog. didn't chat with him today as there was a trooper out there chatting with him. think he may have been asking about fishing licenses. not sure.