When I was a elementary school teacher one of my favorite things to do was have the children gather around me and we would have story time.  One of my favorite stories is about a boy named Alexander and the terrible day he has.

The Worst Day

Author
Judith Viorst

Publication date
June 1972

Alexander wakes to hair full of gum

trips on his skateboard,

and drops a sweater in a sink full of water.

At breakfast, his brothers are having a far better day — having found prizes in their breakfast cereal — which makes Alexander feel worse.  No prize in Alexander's cereal

School offers him no respite from his horrible day: he gets reprimanded by a teacher

he gets demoted to third best friend, and at lunch,

finds himself dessertless. Could the day get worse?

After school, the dentist discovers a cavity,

the elevator door closes on his foot

and at the shoe store, he has to buy plain white shoes (while both brothers get shoes with stripes!).

Later, he gets lima beans for dinner

and there's kissing on TV — Alexander can't wait for this day to end.

Later Alexander finds out that we all have "Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days!' ......even in Australia.

Sometimes we all have bad days., even in Australia, and since we can't escape them we might as well muddle through them and maybe even try (at some point) to laugh about them.

If you click on this link and then the story time teller link, you can listen to the book for yourself and let me know what you think.

Terrible No Good Very Bad Day

 

    Well, it was a  "Terrible, Horrible, no good, very bad WEEK!" for us at our home.

      On Tuesday, there was a wind storm, rain, and even hail and snow.  Yes is really is May here in Utah.  Anyway, I was in the family room and I could smell something burning.  I ran into the kitchen and there was smoke and a toxic smell pouring from the dishwasher.  I couldn't breathe and I could hardly open my eyes because of the toxic smells.  I opened the dishwasher and flames were coming from the bottom.  The dishwasher was not even on, the flames were not from the heating element, but from what I would later learn is the celluloid, which I'm told is the brains of the operation. {Can you tell I'm not mechanical?}  I quickly doused the flames and the dogs and I ran outside to get away from the fumes.  The power began surging, the lights went on and off and we discovered that the oven and microwave no longer worked.  There is power to them but the motors were burned out.  As the day and later days went on we kept discovering more things that were destroyed.   The power continued to ark and to this day we have no:

heating or air conditioning, the pond pump quit but I think we have it restored until we can get it checked, the Jacuzzi is ruined, 3 televisions were destroyed, my computer and hard drive with all my pictures, etc.  one fridge, one freezer, many lights, ipod speakers, radios, clocks, etc., etc., etc.,  Well, not to whine but the heating guys can't come until Thursday, it is a holiday weekend so no one wants to come and do repairs.  We finally paid overtime to get an electrician to come and make sure the house wasn't going to burn down.  He "greased" the power lines that come into the house and said that should keep anymore power surges from occurring.  Oh, the joy of living in a house that was built in the 1940's. 

     Oh well, my husband has been promising me a new kitchen for a very long time.  I guess the TIME is here NOW!  As soon as we can get the insurance adjuster to give us a check we can start replacing the wiring and electronics.  It is hard to believe how dependent upon electrical devices we have become.  As we went to bed last night we thought of the pioneers and how grateful they would have been to sleep in our bed and enjoy the few electrical lights, etc. that we still have.  My heart goes out to those who are suffering from the earthquakes through out the world.  My heart goes out to those people suffering from the tornados in Oklahoma.  Our insurance rep. said there were 1,500 claims in Oklahoma alone last week.  As the book states, we all have "Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Days or Weeks," at some point in our lives.  Yes, even in AUSTRALIA!

So, I am going to choose to look upon the positive.  One of my favorite quotes is from our late prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, "Things will be okay!"

  "It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is.  It all works out.  Don't worry, I say that to myself every morning.  It will all work out.  If you do your best, it will all work out.  Put your trust in God and move forward with faith and confidence in the future.  The Lord will not forsake us.  He will not forsake us,...if we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessing, He will hear our prayers."  (Gordon B. Hinckley, Church News, 10/04/97)

 

 

Here's to a better week for all of us and yes, even in Australia!

Comments

[marci]

Oh Pam. I am so so sorry to hear about your terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I have never even heard of things like that happening!! I hope things start looking better soon. And I love the Pres. Hinckley quote. It will all work out. And someday you will look back on this, and you won't believe how strong you were!