Month: November 2019

Tonight Abe was reading scriptures with the girls while I was doing my online writing class. They happened to be on the BOM scripture about how the Lamanites’ skin turned “fair” (historically the word was “white”) when they became righteous. Lydia, alarmed, said “Should I tell Mom we read this? She’d be so mad!” Abe said she could come tell me. Gleeful at the thought of what kind of scene would ensue, she giggled and said, “I’m going to tell Mom!” That’s my girl.

Abe went on to say that this scripture was wrong but that there were other valuable passages in their reading that he liked. He re-read a verse about calling on God when you’re scared and told the girls they could find value in that one instead. At the end, he asked the girls why he reads scriptures with them. Mary responded, “So we can take away the good things!” That made Abe happy–and honestly, me too.

I am SO proud that Lydia immediately recognized that this passage was racist. It is such a relief to know she is applying critical thinking to scripture. That is something I never did when I was younger, and I am so, so proud of them for developing these mental habits.

The other notable thing about today was that we did a Trader Joe’s Thanksgiving for dinner. I tried out all of their short-cut Thanksgiving foods and had a whole Thanksgiving dinner on the table in one hour. It was so yummy, and we loved it all (except the stuffing, which was just mush.)

Today was a super fun Saturday. Early in the day, Clarissa was posing adorably on the counter so I took several pictures, and am just posting my favorite. I love her!

In the afternoon, we all drove to Anthony’s antique shop because they were displaying wonderful art from our beloved friend Paige Anderson and also because Lily wanted to see what they would give her for an antique vase and our secretary cabinet.  Lily was so sweet. She wanted to use the money to buy my a road bike so I wouldn’t have to borrow my friend’s bike when I go bike-riding with him.

Here is are some of Paige’s beautiful pieces:

Anthony’s Fine Arts and Antique shop was a major discovery for us. It is an awesome two story old building with giant columns in the front. It is a very majestic building on the outside and on the inside it is packed to the gills with beautiful art and cool antiques. Unfortunately, the antique market is in decline so there was very little that we could get (if anything) for our items, but browsing the shop and seeing Paige’s art was a wonderful experience.

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After that we went up Emigration Canyon and went to Ruth’s diner. There is such a cool story behind the diner.  Ruth was at one point a cabaret dancer and then she flipped burgers across the street from an establishment of ill-repute and kept an eye on all the local gossip.  She then opened a restaurant and when the building was demolished, she moved her restaurant up the canyon. She was a high-spirited woman who knew how to take care of her self and cared very little for the law. She died at age 94 in the 80’s, but her restaurant lives on and is now the second oldest restaurant in Salt Lake. Here is the full history of her restaurant. I thought the food was a bit rich, but I think that is to be expected for a diner. All in all it was very very delicious.

Back at home, Lily read to Ammon and Clarissa before we put the kids to bed.

Lydia and Mary were invited to perform in a music recital being put on by Jill Freestone. Jill teaches music, but doesn’t have a lot of students so she wanted to invite others to perform with her students to make it a bigger event. It was so nice to be invited!

Clarissa promptly started misbehaving, so I spent the evening chasing her around the music store, outside from shop to shop in the strip mall, and all around the side-walk. It was exhausting, but I also admit that I feel sad when I think about not having a baby to chase anymore. She is just so adorable.

Also, a quick note on the Freestones. They have become such cherished friends. Lily and Jill have a wonderful friendship. I love chatting with Kenny whenever I see him, and their daughters have been so wonderful to our children. They let Ammon sit with them at church, and he behaves for them!

Emma (who is now on a mission), Katie and Eliza dote on our kids. They love them, babysit them, invite them to be in plays and art classes, walk home with them and in every way, just befriend them. The are such beautiful people, and again, such cherished friends.

I woke up early today and did a hiit workout on my bike. I love that bike so much. But after the hiit work out at 5:30 am, I hardly moved for the rest of the day. And now it’s almost bed time and I won’t even close the activity loop on my watch. That is pathetic.

On the other hand, I have had a lot of great Marco Polo interactions with friends, I took Clarissa to Qualtrics, I read to Clarissa, I wrote for my faith transition book, I facilitated a play date for Lydia with a girl from her school, and I cleaned the house (a couple of times).

Abe and his team are killing it at work. They might get close to tripling their quota this quarter. He so deserves this, and I am sooooo happy for him.

Here are some darling pictures Emily took of my kids while they played at her house. She told me that Ammon wandered into her house and declared his love for her. “I love you, Emily!” I melted upon receiving that report.

We are buying a new house! We decided this over a week ago. I will have to type the story when I back blog for that day. For now, here is the link to our new home. 

I have spent waaaaay too much time ever since online looking at online design thinking about how I will finish the basement.

But today I took the kids to the library. Of course Ammon asked for a picture of himself and Clarissa by the statue:

On Sunday the Miners had a birthday party. Clarissa, Ammon, and Mary were all included and they were all so thrilled. Clarissa blew out her candles as soon as they were lit, so she blew hers out three times in the course of her “Happy Birthday” song. Ammon was practically jumping out of his chair for joy the whole time and grinned at everyone constantly. And Mary was so sweet and shy. She was thrilled on the inside.

In the morning we went to Center Point church. It was at 11:15 am and we were still late. But the kids call that one “the fun church.” I worked out before that on the bike and almost passed out, so I was really tired at the “fun” church. But it’s close, convenient, and the sermon was fine. So we’ll probably keep it in the rounds.

This entry is obviously not chronological. After the Miners we went to Larry Perkins’ house–our old G Street Avenues house!! He and Gayle showed us the addition, which is stunning. Gayle watched the kids while Larry showed us around. He has priceless objects everywhere, so that was a little harrowing. Thankfully the older girls could just sit at a counter and color. Here are their pictures. Also, check out the marble counter they are on. Have you ever seen marble like that before??? The whole counter looked like waves. We almost couldn’t believe it.:

I woke up early this morning to go to breakfast with Randy Blosil, my friend from the ward.  We were both so exhausted, but we still loved conversing. The ideas that he is most passionate are that Jesus is a God of Yes, and we should say yes in our own lives to the requests of others and also that God has infinite respect for our sacred right to make our own choices.

At home, Lily and I ran errands together and took Lydia to and from her harp rehearsal for the upcoming recital. Our errands consisted of Costco and Trader Joe’s.

At home we did a lot of cleaning and housework together while the kids played with friends.  I cleaned the minivan, Lily made soup and chili, and we both worked on cleaning the house.

I was soooooo tired. I stopped cleaning at two various junctures and each stop resulted in a mini-nap.  The bright spot throughout my day was how much I enjoyed my time with my sweet wife. We are really in love right now, and I just loved having so much time with her.  The regular hugs and loving comments between each other certainly brightened things for me while we were slogging away.

I was literally crawling at the end of the day as I finished working on the upstairs, but then something truly special happened, a moment that just lifted the whole day up and made it special.

The girls, Lydia and Mary, just started randomly singing a song about being able to fly. I think they had forgotten what it was or where they heard it. It was “I Can Fly” from the Brave soundtrack, and we last heard it only a handful of times on our New Mexico trip almost a month ago. It took me some time to figure out what song they were singing, but once I identified it, I thought, “what the heck!” and I bought it on itunes and cranked it up on our stereo and initiated a family dance party.  It was so fun and special. We all had such a blast, and for about 20 minutes, I felt like I was ten years old, and not three hundred years old like I felt the rest of the day. Thank You God for moments like these 🙂

Here are some pictures and a video of the dance party:

Everyone was in a super good mood after the dance party. Here is a video that Mary made with Lydia before they went to bed.

 

 

 

Friday was the first day I felt sort-of normal since getting sick, and it’s the first time in a while I put in what felt like a sort-of normal effort at work because I was in office and I had decent energy.

It was a fun day, because I continue to get lots and lots of good news. We will be way over our quota this quarter and that is a lot of fun.

At home, Lily and I enjoyed having a semi-normal evening together and we watched the first episode of Jack Ryan which was fun.