Deep Thoughts

I have been corresponding with a claims officer about the damages incurred during our move. It has been a little frustrating because the man I have been dealing with has been giving me different information than what I initially received and so I've scanned some documents and offered to scan more in an effort to get the correct amount for our claim. This has been incredibly irritating, especially because there is always a delay of several days in the reply. On Friday I decided that I would email this man again to confirm that he received my scanned documents, and truthfully I was feeling a bit snippish. I put in his name to search my gmail, instead of scanning through old mail. Along with the move correspondence several other emails were displayed. These were from CPT Dykema in Germany and they were from last summer. One was a casualty notification for a CPL with the same last name as my claims officer, the other two following were details regarding his memorial service. This gave me pause. This last name is fairly uncommon, my claims officer and this soldier could be brothers, cousins, a father and son, or have no relation at all. But... I have no way of knowing and it made me think of how much of a difference it would make in how I responded in my email. The thing is, everyone is going through something at some point and we just never know. I have now recommitted myself to kindness (I have to say that I have a tendency to be kind, but isn't it tempting to be ornery?).

In other news, our ward was split today, I know others were sad, I was thrilled. I am used to small, tight wards and lots of responsibility, I have felt a little adrift here. Now we just need to figure out if this is the house that we are going to stay in for the next few years or if we are going to try to find something a little closer to town.